Partial Day 2 Complete

Tonight I went to Life Sciences class and had a bit of a ball. For the first time in like a million years, I got all of the multiple choice answers correct. So now my grade will hopefully be over a 90 in there. For the past consecutive classes, I have definitely got one of our 4 questions wrong (which is kind of unfair considering they ask us about stuff that we can’t possibly know). Today we had a lecture on Stem Cell Research and the lecturer (who isn’t a teacher but rather a director of the chemical engineering in life sciences program, who came from Florida State) told us about the various misconceptions about it. To some it was more of a review of how the media and the government entangle facts to make them seem worse than they really are. At times I think they get it so twisted at times that they make beneficial and benevolent things about society sour. For example, the understanding of Human embryonic stem cells that are the ones that are usually discarded could help us understand the basics of life. Is it not amazing to think of how one cell can differentiate (a fancy word for change, think of “morph”/”transform”) into one of 30 (I believe) different cells in the body. Current understanding and lack of in depth research due to governmental involvement and twisted facts prevents us from being able to dive into this issue fastidiously. Rather we must go into it meticulously with the Government watchdogs starring down or backs and the media ready to devour any protocol that causes some negative information! Of course with time I know that this problem will soon change. Let’s just hope that it does so that we can understand the development of life before it all goes extinct! (Philosophy, think of slippery slope)

After class I attended the Intercultural Festival Volunteer Meeting and we discussed various events. One particular event that I will not be able to go to is the Social that is being held next week. I am supposed to table however, I will not be able to as I have class that night. This is an important class as we meet only once a week and anytime one misses class they will miss a ton of information.

Immediately thereafter, I went to the Umoja event that was held for the Women’s studies. If my understanding is correct, I listened to two advocates for indigenous women’s rights in Africa, ideally Kenya. I found it to be quite interesting that there 16 years of involvement have been successful. They shared stories of women being able to avoid malicious and heinous attacks by the men of their villages. They were able to run to help to avoid being attacked, raped, and even killed. The main purpose of the event was to raise our awareness of the issue and work to help to create a better environment for the indigenous people, ideally through the passing of international laws and a goal to get the US to sign this reproductive rights law that will enable them to have abortions (I am quite sure it is more detailed than that).

And that is what happened on this glorious day!