From April 9-13, the White Privilege Conference, a touring social movement which originated at the University of Colorado, descended on Seattle. The conference could best be described as overwhelming.

With a set schedule each day, I found myself trying to keep up with the various workshops and keynote speeches without any time in between to process triggering information. There were interesting booths from organizations all over the country, but there was little to no free time to visit all of them.

Even days after the conference, I still found myself trying to work through thought-provoking subjects and deal with the emotional overload from hearing personal stories. The one thing that kept me grounded throughout this experience was the time spent in the People of Color Caucus.

Oddly enough, I was nervous when they first announced that they were going to divide us into groups based on race. These feelings stemmed from not quite understanding why they were doing this and also from being separated from the two people from UWB I had become most familiar with. The three groups were Biracial/Mixed Race, People of Color (POC) and White People.

I was full of uncertainty as I entered the POC room. After being handed a candle I went to go find a seat. As the room filled they had to remove the dividing wall to provide more space, and with that I gravitated towards the outside. Once everyone was seated, words of welcome were spoken as we all held our lit, battery-powered candles in the air and centered ourselves in the space. It was in that moment I was finally able to exhale.

I’ve become desensitized about being the minority in various environments. Being in a setting where I am the only person of color—or one of a few—is something that is normal for me. While I’ve longed for some sort of community with my brothers and sisters I was unaware of how to form something like that, and I was beginning to doubt it was even possible.

It wasn’t until this experience that I truly realized the importance and the immeasurable feeling of joy that comes with being surrounded by people who look like you, have shared similar struggles to yours and who have the knowledge from past experiences about how to navigate this world.

While I won’t discuss the stories shared because they were private moments that individuals were brave enough to reveal, I will say that the words were delivered with such conviction, pain and vulnerability that they brought me to tears. Not tears of sorrow or anger but tears of relatedness.

There was a Caucus all three days of the conference. On the last day I was heartbroken because I didn’t think I would have another opportunity to be a part of a group like this again. My fears vanished when an individual that lived in Seattle volunteered to collect the information of those who would like to form a Seattle People of Color group, and has since connected us all via email.

I found the registration fee of the conference to be out of my price range, and I was only able to attend thanks to a scholarship offered by UWB. Those that volunteer at the event are given a partial scholarship that does not completely cover the price of registration, which unfortunately limits accessibility to those that cannot afford it.

Next year’s White Privilege Conference will be held in Madison, Wisconsin. The cost of plane tickets and lodging will most likely prevent me from attending. If you are able to go, whether that be through scholarships or you can afford the trip then I highly encourage you to take advantage of that opportunity.

To stay updated on future conferences, like White Privilege Conference on Facebook.

By Aspasea McKenna
Staff Writer

A line spanned out of Mobius Hall as students, faculty and staff gathered to celebrate a night of live entertainment, food and educational booths at the annual Intercultural Night.

The event consisted of performances by a jazz singer, a Caribbean steel drummer, a Bollywood dancing duo, a group of Taiko drummers and more. The smell of authentic food filled the room as plates were served with Filipino empanadas and lumpia, tempura shrimp rolls, hummus and an assortment of food and desserts representing countries from around the world.

With diversity and inclusivity as core values on our campus, UWB is one of the most diverse public university in the state of Washington.

On this premise, Natalie Kay Lang, a former Admissions and International Student Advisor, recognized that the diversity on our campus needed to be acknowledged beyond just numbers and statistics, so she started Intercultural Night.

The event also offered a space for students to connect on the basis of ethnic difference and learn about the various cultures that make up our campus community.

“It’s a really good way to experience all the different aspects of our culture made up by their cultures,” Megan Hawkins said.

Another student, Will Hanson, said: “I’ve never seen this before. I’ve never tried about half the food and I also think it’s a good time to just talk and get to know people.”

Natalie Kay Lang passed away in 2007, but the event has lived on each year with the help of various organizations on campus. This year’s organizers included the Office of Student Life, Diversity Programmers, Campus Events Board, Cascadia Activities Board and International Student Facilitators.

“We strive and hope that community members will become more culturally aware about the diverse cultures present in our community,” Diversity Programmer Chelsea Lubong said.

Sergei Barna, a Ph.D. candidate at UW Seattle who taught in the Business program at UW Bothell, was arrested for commercial sexual abuse of a minor on March 12.

According to records from the Superior Court of Washington for King County, which can be found here, Barna responded to an ad on a “popular website’s Casual Encounters section.” Unbeknown to Barna, the ad was posted by an undercover cop pretending to be a 15-year-old girl. After two days of conversation, Barna allegedly agreed to pay the fictitious girl $150 for “oral and regular sex,” in addition to paying a driver $20 to drop the girl off at his University District apartment.

A little before 8 p.m. on March 12, Barna approached a car that he believed the girl was in and paid the driver $20. Backup was called and Barna was arrested. He was found to be carrying $150 and an Amazon Kindle Fire. He had been using the Kindle to communicate with the girl.

Barna, a Ukranian citizen in the U.S. on a student visa, was considered a flight risk by the prosecution. The charge is a felony and may result in up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, as well as deportation in this particular case.

While the legal system views a defendant as innocent until proven guilty, UW Bothell spokesperson Laura Mansfield told the website Social Capital Review that Barna was “removed from [the UW Bothell] campus immediately” due to a “potential concern about student safety.”

Barna actually continued to teach for almost a month after his March 12 arrest (though he did miss the day after the arrest, reportedly telling students he had a flat tire). He was officially replaced by Roderick Carmichael on April 16, according to an email obtained by The Husky Herald. The email—from Philip J. Palm, Assistant Director of the School of Business—made no mention of why Barna was replaced.

Barna’s overall score on RateMyProfessors.com is 3.2 out of 5. He is listed as “Barna Sergei.” Reviewers referred to him as “unapproachable,” “awkward,” “arrogant” and “tough,” though he was awarded a chili pepper symbolizing “hotness.”

The Husky Herald contacted Barna for this story but received no response. At this point we cannot verify the result of a recent April 16 trial date, but we will be posting updates as soon as we get them, so log on to huskyherald.com to follow the case. If you have information to share, privately or publicly, write in to us.

Should Barna have been placed on administrative leave before being proven guilty? Should the university have informed the student body about this? Was the way the police conducted their arrest ethical? Write in and we’ll publish your thoughts.

From The Kaleidoscope of Gender to Feminist Ryan Gosling, Assistant Professor Janelle Silva’s bookshelf has everything you need to put women’s lives in context. The books are neatly arranged and divided into sections, with Critical Education/Schooling and Critical Studies/Urban Studies up top and Feminist Theory down below.

“I tell my students, ‘Come to my office, look at my books. Maybe you’ll want to talk to me about something,’” Silva said.

Complementing this library of girl power are articles of Californian and Mexican pride: a “CA grown” license plate, wood carvings, serapes spread out over file cabinets. The multicultural kicker? A Dave Matthews Band calendar.

In just her second year at UWB, she has already become a favorite of students thanks to her conversational teaching style and enthusiasm for the material.

Is it alright if we go a little past five o’clock? Do you have to catch a bus or anything?

No, I’m from California—I drive.

So California was always home? You got your bachelor’s and your Ph.D. at UC-Santa Cruz.

California was always home. I was born and raised in southern California, in a small town called Moorpark. It’s in Ventura County, which is right outside of Los Angeles. It’s not in the Valley, which is what everyone says—that you’re a “Valley girl.” Moorpark is very much one of those throwback towns where people don’t lock their doors, their cars. You could keep a bike out in front of your yard for a week and your neighbor will knock and say, “You know your bike’s out there?”

When I grew up in southern California, my entire family was in a hundred mile radius of each other. My sister went to UCLA, and that was always my dream: to be like my bigger sister.

How much older?

She’s four years older. I went to visit her one time, and we got there when class change period happened. It’s not like at Bothell—at Bothell you don’t really get the effect of when class changes. We were in Ackerman Student Union, and the classes changed and there was just a mob of people. I looked at my parents in fear and was like, “I am not coming here. There are far too many people.”

My dad’s deal was that you could apply to any public school in California and he would foot the bill. I applied to all these different UC’s, and I of course picked the farthest one I could at the time, which was Santa Cruz. It was a small college with small classes. It allowed me to get out of southern California, but I was still able to have the beach, and then I had the redwoods and could meet different people. It was a way for me to leave my safety net for ten years.

So was your affinity for small colleges with small classes what appealed to you about UW Bothell?

Definitely. At Santa Cruz it was really easy. My first year as an undergrad I became a research assistant in a social psychology lab, which is unheard of at bigger schools. At bigger schools you don’t know your faculty. Even in a class of 150 at Santa Cruz, you could still get to know who the faculty member was. Being at Bothell, I like the fact that students want to engage with faculty. They want to know what you’re doing. There’s a uniqueness in classes being taught, which I absolutely love. I like the idea of it being in a smaller town, but the big city is really close, so students can engage.

I know better than to ask a woman her age, but it’s clear that you’re pretty young for an Assistant Professor. Was teaching something you always had in mind? If so, do you feel like you’re moving along at a pretty good pace right now?

When I got into my graduate program that is the one thing everyone said to me: “You want to be a professor.” No one says, “You want to go be applied.” Being a first-generation student, I didn’t know what a professor was. I knew I really liked school and I was good at it. Around my fourth year of graduate school, we were allowed to teach a class in the summer. I remember right before I walked into my class—and they were three-hour classes—thinking, “I better like this, or else I don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.” After I left, it was the biggest high I’d ever had. Instantly I knew I loved to teach.

No one ever feels prepared. Every year you’re always nervous. I walk in nervous every single quarter. You’re always wondering, “Did they get that? Was this engaging? Was this class really boring today? Should I switch it up for next time?” I love it. I think being young I’m able to connect with the students in a different way. It also disadvantages me, because they read me as young. But I don’t think it’s necessarily hurt. I definitely feel like I have so much more to learn, but I feel like my classes are going well and the students are great.

I will say that your RateMyProfessors.com scores are off the charts.

That is the one thing faculty never look at [laughs].

Okay, I was gonna ask you if you were aware of this. [Reading scores] We have 4.7, 4.6, 4.8—all out of 5. I’ve never seen numbers like this before.

There’s a terror when you come at the beginning of every quarter and they’re like, “Your evaluations are now in your mailbox!” You start to read them and it makes you feel good. It makes me know that, even when you all just decided not to talk that one day and I knew none of you read, you still enjoyed my class. And you still want me to be a professor. I think that’s nice to know.

Your classes are conversational. Surely every once in a while you think, “What a dumb comment.” How as an instructor do you deal with someone who’s totally off the mark, or just flat out wrong?

When I hear those comments, I usually tell them, “This is what I’m hearing you say. How might we think it about in another way? What might Earl Babbi say about this? What might the Communist Manifesto say about this?” A lot of the comments will happen particularly around feminism ideas. I’ll come back with, “That’s your experience, but how might you think that a third-wave feminist might view this issue now?” The last thing you want to do is call a student out. The whole class will turn on you, even if they don’t like that one student.

You teach a classed called Women’s Lives in Context. If I sign up for that class, what can I expect?

The one thing you can expect from the beginning is that you will probably be one of five men, in a class of 45. I never want that class to be all women—I love when men are in there. Men are very honest, more so than women will be sometimes.

What we’re really talking about is what it means to be a woman in today’s society. A woman of color. A woman living in poverty. A woman who is a first-generation college student. A woman who is transgender and is experiencing that. A woman who is in prison and has a child and is trying to mother.

What are the psychological effects of all of these processes? We spend a lot of time talking about objectification of women. How do magazines and mainstream media make it that women think they have to look a particular way? How does that make women in turn feel about their body? What are women doing in order to empower themselves?

I spend a lot of time showing images of super thin models, or women’s bodies completely chopped off in different ways to sexualize them. Then showing these campaigns of young women on Tumblr who are taking pictures of themselves in bathing suits and saying, “This is what I look like. I’m 19 and I’m 170 pounds and I have stretch marks, but I think I’m beautiful.” And then those things going viral. I try to always leave it so they feel like there is a sense of hope.

The class is usually divided into thirds. One-third are hardcore feminists. Another third hate that word, think it’s disgusting, want nothing to do with it. The middle don’t know what they’re doing. Whenever I tell them, “Think about your own experiences,” it allows them to see: “Wow, my mother really is a feminist,” or, “I’m with a really sexist partner right now and I don’t like it.” Education to me isn’t about learning something new for the test and then throwing it out, it’s “How does this relate to your life or what you want your life to look like?” That to me is powerful.

I take it you consider yourself a feminist.

Absolutely.

What does that mean?

What it means to me is that rights are something that all people should have, and all women should have. Women should have the ability to move through spaces where they don’t feel there are bars set in front of them. But when they are aware of these bars, that they should move to help other women who are below them, or with them. They should also think about their role as women in teaching other women what it means to be a woman.

Feminism is not a bad word. It’s not “the f-word.” When I first taught this class here last year, I had a student ask me, “Is this like a bra-burning class?” I said, “Absolutely not.” When I asked the class to tell me what a feminist looks like, it was the stereotypical “doesn’t shave,” “hates men,” “is a lesbian,” “is really outspoken,” “hates anything that has to do with misogyny.” There’s a lot of women who don’t fit that bill, but they’re still feminist. So I want them to rethink what it means to be a feminist.

Men can be feminists. Children can be feminists. From the littlest thing such as gender-neutral language. I have a now soon-to-be-eight-year-old cousin who always used to say “guys.”

Like, “You guys”?

Yes. One of the first readings my students do is an article from Bitch magazine about not using the word “guys.” I always tell them, “We’re not all guys, we’re ladies.” I correct my parents all the time. My dad always says, “What do you guys want for dinner?” I’m like, “You have two daughters and a wife, we’re ladies.”

Then, bigger things like being aware of the anti-abortion campaigns going on. Even if you are pro-life, what does that mean for other women who, when they are raped, can’t get an abortion in certain states? For me, feminism covers everything. It’s thinking about the world in terms of needing to have equality. Equality that you may benefit from, and when you do benefit from it you need to also think about the people who don’t.

Last night on CNN, Erin Burnett was talking about Taylor Swift accusing Tina Fey of being sexist, because Fey joked about Swift being obsessed with all the guys she wrote songs about. When Erin Burnett was wrapping up the show she said something to the effect of, “Women should stop helping women just because they’re women, because that in itself is pretty sexist.” I’m guessing you don’t agree with that.

I don’t. Women should help other women. I see it as my mission to help other women succeed. I see it as my mission to also help first-generation students succeed. I see it as my mission to also help Latino students succeed. I didn’t get to this place just by luck or just by chance. I’m not an anomaly, which is what I hate for people to think. There were so many women and men and family members and communities along the way that helped me get here, and I have to do the same. You have to pay it forward. When we don’t support each other, that’s when it becomes a problem. Because then why would men support us?

Your research focuses on the role of media and school in constructing social identity. You say that much of your teaching is about “understanding how power and social structures shape a person’s lived experiences.” How much control do we really have over our own destiny in this country?

That’s a question that I get all of the time in my research. The thing I learned as a social psychologist is that you need to know where you came from. One of my first assignments in almost every class is to write a social history. “Tell me who you are. What was your family like? What’s your neighborhood like? Why did you come here? What are you majoring in? What do you want to get out of it?”

I think there are times when people are dealt a particular location in life, but I don’t necessarily feel it’s their destiny. I think that you have to understand how social structures work in order to even play in this game that is society. You have to understand that there are hierarchies, that you are going to be low on the totem pole for whatever reason it is: because of your gender, your sexuality, your race—every single ism that there is. But you have to learn how those structures work if you’re going to make any sort of access to it. Figure it out, and be savvy.

That’s what I try to tell my students: Be savvy. Learn it. The worst thing I think you can do is think, “I can change the world!” Someone one day is going to tell you, “No, you’re not, and here’s why.” And it’s a rude awakening, especially when you’re 16 and you learn that. Or when you’re 18 and you go to college and you start to realize, “I’m really different from everyone else.” Everyone else is pulling up in a BMW and you’re taking public transportation. You have to be aware of what’s going on if you’re going to make any sort of change.

One thing students tell me is that class can be a little depressing. I tell them, “Yeah, it’s hard, but it should be making you angry.” It should make you angry to learn about these structures, and to learn about power and privilege, and that because of how or where you grew up, or what decade you were born, you are not granted certain things. The thing that I hate most is being passive, just letting it happen to you and saying, “I can’t make a change.” I’ve had students say that to me, and I’m like, “If you’re in college and you’re a woman, if you’re a student of color, if you’re working class, if you’re middle class, someone made a change for you to get here. Someone did something to get you into this position.”

Why do we need multicultural education in schools?

Little kids need to know we’re not all the same. The thing that I always find interesting is that little kids are always like, “I’m American.” They don’t really know what that means except that there’s an American flag, and on Fourth of July there’s fireworks. I have a little cousin. We told him we were going to take him to a Mexican Independence Day celebration. He said, “Why am I going? I’m American.” We said, “No, you’re not!” We asked, “Who are the Mexicans in your family?” He listed off anyone who didn’t have pale skin, which was me, my sister and my father. I had this whole conversation with him about what it means to be Mexican-American. I said “You’re Chicano!” He said, “What’s a Chicano?” We had a whole discussion.

We think that if you’re going to have pride in your ethnicity, that means you’re going to discriminate against each other. I don’t necessarily feel that. I feel that being proud of who you are and where you came from is just understanding that you have roots. Know who you are. Whenever my students come into my office, they’re like, “There’s two things we notice about you: You’re Mexican and you’re from California.” It’s who I am, it’s important for people to know that.

To me, you need to know who you are, where you came from, and that not everyone is the same, so you don’t have those moments where you get to school and you’re like, “Why do we have Black History Month?” It’s important for people to know about diversity because you don’t want it to just be, “This is the only time we talk about black people. This is the only time we talk about women. This is the only time we talk about Latinos.” You also don’t want it to be, “Okay, we’re going to bus you in, that should solve the problem.” It never does. And then expect you to come out and work in an environment together, and vote on laws that have huge effects on people. As a psychologist, we know that it’s not going to work.

Even when we bus for diversity, you’re still going to have groups of kids that say, “I’m just going to hang out at this table,” and “I’m going to join these groups,” and “I know based on my race that I belong in this sport.” It seldom resolves any dialogue. The worst thing we do is not talk to each other. And then you all come to college—for the special few who get in—and we say, “Okay, now learn how to work together.” Then we blow your minds away when we tell you that the world isn’t the same for everyone. Little kids need to learn, and I think little kids want to learn. When you’re six or seven, you already are prejudiced. You discriminate. You already know your gender, your race and ethnicity—you can identify all these things.

It seems there are two simple observations. First, a lot of people in America grow up not really knowing or going to school with people of other races or ethnicities. Second, we know that so much prejudice is developed at a young age. If those two things are true, then without multicultural education, will the institutional racism that this prejudice inspires and supports ever end?

It will never end. It just continues, and the sad thing is we all start to play into it and we don’t realize that we’re players. Little kids can learn it, and they can be inspired and want change. You tell them this and they think it’s a new concept, and you’re like, “This has been happening for a long time.” When they hear that, they’re not upset and angry, but they’re just like, “We should figure out a way to fix it.” As simplistic as their ideas are, like “We should make friendship bands for everyone.”

When I worked with first graders, one of their solutions for reducing prejudice and discrimination was that, once a week, a family should invite all the other families over. Which meant 25 first graders at someone’s house. We know feasibly that wouldn’t work [laughs]. But a lot of them say, “We should learn from each other or else won’t get along.”

What is your current research about?

Because I like to work with people and groups of people, it takes a long time to develop. I’m still working with my dissertation, which looked at how young kids can learn about issues of diversity and prejudice and discrimination to feel empowered and to become engaged citizens. Right now I’m working with the Office of Community-Based Learning and Research on developing community partnerships. They’re doing great work looking at how older students—junior high and high school students—who are coming up with issues in the community that they want to change. How can we bring that to elementary school students? How can we engage them in community change? So that they feel it’s not just the school saying, “We’re going to have a food drive. Everyone bring in canned food.” But they’re coming up with ideas for how they can be involved with community change.

One of the ideas I told them was from an elementary school that I worked with. After learning about the painter Henri Rousseau, the kids were reading poetry by Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet who wrote about deforestation in Chile and the effects on the natives. The art project of the week was to draw and write a poem. The kids said, “No, we don’t want to do that.” The teacher said, “What do you want to do?” “We want to paint a mural outside.” The teacher let them go and paint a mural, she didn’t even ask for permission. They wanted to paint about what was going on in their environment and their neighborhoods with the migrant farm workers. They wrote poems about the plight of the migrant farm workers, who were their parents, and their friends, and their aunts and uncles.

That to me was proof that little kids can produce change. I don’t want to say they’re an “untapped resource,” but they are voices we seldom here from, because we like to talk for them rather than let them talk for themselves.

I’m a white male. I could say, “I’m doing alright. What incentive do I have to fight this system when I’m benefiting from it so much?” How do you motivate me to help out?

With that, it’s understanding that it may not affect you, but it may affect your friend.

If that person is your friend, though.

Yeah, maybe they’re not socializing.

Or for example I grew up in southern Indiana. There were only white people in my school. That person never could’ve been my friend.

Even in schools that are all-white, where kids grow up in all-white environments, there has to be a space where they allow them to understand that the world is not the same everywhere. Even if they’re like, “Well, it doesn’t affect me”—which is the easiest way to not engage in social change, even as an adult. When the election happened, I had a lot of students say, “I don’t care, it doesn’t affect me. I know my vote doesn’t count for anything.” That was so fascinating to hear. I remember when my father became an American citizen, and that was such a huge thing. The idea of not voting is baffling to me.

With little kids, even if they don’t experience that, we have to think of ways that they can learn about it in a non-stereotyped environment. That’s something that is still evolving. It can’t just be a week or an assembly. What a lot of schools like to do is “International Week.” Each group gets a day and it culminates in a big food fest. It doesn’t work. We need to come up with more creative ways. I think the way you do that is by talking to little kids, and listening to them. When six-year-old you says, “I don’t care, I’m fine,” I’d say, “Why? Well, what about this?” If you ask enough questions, they’re going to keep giving you answers, because children love questions. Figure out where they’re at.

I do have to admit, I didn’t vote. Though I was very engaged in the election, read about it every day.

Everyone’s going to have that moment when they forget to vote. It’s another thing that kills me when students don’t even register.

Yeah, I didn’t register.

It’s such a right! My father couldn’t vote. He was in the Vietnam War. The idea that if you fought in a war for a country that isn’t your own you got automatic citizenship didn’t happen back then. So the fact that he had to apply, I’m just like, “How could you not vote?” I’m still upset that I don’t get the little sticker, because we vote by mail.

The day of the inauguration I was home sick, so I got to watch it. My little cousin was texting me. She’s in second grade. She said, “What’re you doing? We’re watching Twilight.” I’m like, “Why don’t you watch the inauguration?” “What’s the inauguration?” I’m the annoying cousin: “You need to understand, the president! What this means for our country!” I’m sure she was like, “Okay, Janelle. That’s great. I’m gonna go eat a burger.”

Well, in my defense, I moved so I had to re-register to vote. She has no excuse.

She has no excuse! You know, I am that annoying cousin. My little cousins were playing with those magnetic alphabets that parents get for their kids to spell words on the fridge. They were playing with them and one of them said, “I’m not going to spell with the pink ones.” I’m like, “Why aren’t going to spell with the pink ones?” Everyone’s looking at me like, “Don’t! Just let them do what they do!” But I’m like, “I have to ask!”

He said, “Because those are for girls.” I’m like, “Why are they for girls?” “Because they’re pink.” “What else is for girls?” “Cats are for girls.” I had a boy cat at the time, and I was like, “Why are all cats girls?” He said, “Because they are.” “What are dogs?” “Dogs are all boys.” “Well, why? What’s wrong with pink? Pink’s a nice color.” “No, that’s girly.” His little brother took one of them and he’s like, “I’m a boy, and I like pink.” And he proceeded to write all his words with pink. If I could just have those moments, I’m happy.

Janelle Silva is an Assistant Professor in IAS. She has a B.A. in Psychology and History of Art & Visual Culture, and a PhD. in Social Psychology and Feminist Studies, both from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research examines how to facilitate children’s interest in social justice and social change with attention to issues of diversity, equity and injustice.

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Interview & visuals by Quinn Russell Brown, Editor-in-Chief.

By Melina Tovar
Staff Writer

The Whidbey GeoDome Project began with a man who sought out a way to generate new ideas through a new world perspective.

According to Rick Ingrasci M.D., M.P.H., the project director of the Whidbey GeoDome Project, every person has a purpose and meaning that interconnects us to a greater existence. By understanding Earth’s story we will begin to find ours, in hope of advancing humanity’s ecosystematic awareness and consciousness.

Put on by UWB’s Consciousness Club, April 10-11, the GeoDome made its first college appearance by sharing its discoveries with the UW Bothell and Cascadia students.

Faculty and students came to the North Creek Event Center to experience the guided tour of the universe. Straight from the Pacific Science Center, approximately 25 students at a time caved into this massive black dome.

The GeoDome Team projected the entire outline of our known universe using the latest data of NASA. The projection began with Earth and expanded out to unimaginable dimensions, creating a little speck of our solar system in the night sky.

This experience was made to create a learning environment that focuses on creating better lives for ourselves, starting with our planet Earth.

In the words of Rick Ingrasci, “If you want to create a better culture, throw a better party!”

The universe is always expanding at accelerated rates and so is our understanding of it. Grasping the basic fundamentals of planet culture has introduced us to a different approach to problem solving and world views.

Being introduced to the story of Earth, Ingrasci and team hope that through this journey people will be inspired to help create healthier lives for everyone and discover more about their own.

Through this experience, humans are given the chance to travel through the greatest unknown, exploring their place and the answers to the most existential universal questions:

“What is the meaning of life?”

“Who am I?”

“What is my purpose?”

Ingrasci further explains the hope for people to feel provoked to think bigger and apply those principles of nature and life with what they love to do.

“If you live life well, it is a service to something greater,” Ingrasci explains.

Creating this infinite love of life enables people to better understand our part in the universe and the patterns of our natural living systems.

The target audience is everyone, but especially the young people of today; to carry on the transition of a more holistic and different way of thinking. Taking into consideration that we are all interconnected; a part of a community, a planet, a galaxy and an entire universe and have the capacity to make change.

For more information visit the Whidbey Geodome Project website at www.whidbeygeodome.org

By Micah Silke
Staff Writer

April 17, 2013 — Just before four o’clock, students gathered on the balcony of the North Creek event center and looked down at the glistening bodies sprinting back and forth in a scrimmage on the basketball court. They looked past the sports fields toward the yellow willows and budding dogwoods of the watershed and beyond, as far as the horizon, where a cheerful spring sun made its descent.

But instead of soaking in those rare rays of Bothell springtime shine, these students were polishing their résumés for future employers.

“I want to see what I need to add to my résumé. Not necessarily anything big, but all the small things: learn this skill or… whatever is going improve my résumé and help me find a job or get an internship” said Zhongtion Ye, a business student from UWB who had brought his résumé.

On résumé review night, the career center invites more than a dozen business professionals from local businesses to do just that—to review student résumés for free.

Representatives came from the CIA, Amazon, Boeing, Public Utility District, and many more.

James Timmorman, a Junior CSE undergraduate at UWB had his résumé reviewed by an advisor from Cascadia. “It went well,” Timmorman said. “We bounced ideas back and forth.”

And for anyone who wasn’t able to make it, “Put the most relevant stuff first,” Timmorman said.

Other tips for achieving résumé greatness were: Be sure to customize every résumé to a specific job description. Before you submit it, review the job posting’s qualifications statement to ensure each keyword is located somewhere in your résumé. When reading résumés, some employers will scan résumés for keywords, immediately discarding those résumés that lack them. Choose a plain font—sans serif is sometimes preferred; Arial is commonly suggested as a simple, straightforward font. Just imagine that someone is looking at hundreds of these—if you don’t want yours to end up in the waste bin, don’t make it hurt. Lastly, use specific, numeric quantifications. For instance: increased online readership of the Husky Herald by 300 percent.

In addition to the résumé review service was food. What started as fruit platters and veggies with dip gradually evolved into a fully catered event with pizza and sandwiches, and waiters making rounds to fill up drinks.

“The food’s fantastic,” said Paul Wisdom, a CSE undergraduate.

“But the coffee’s like ten degrees,” added Elliot Shanks, a friend of Wisdom’s.

That’s no reason to despair. There was still plenty to do.

“I’m going for another round. I want to see what it is like to talk to a CIA agent,” Timmorman said.

For more information on upcoming events hosted by the career center, visit their website at http://www.uwb.edu/careers, and get your résumé ready for next weeks carreer fair.

By Melina Tovar
Staff Writer

Dr. Kristy Leissle, known by many in the UWB community as Dr. Chocolate, brought a variety of flavor from all over the world by holding a Chocolate Festival at the North Creek Event Center on Wednesday, March 13th.

Students who dedicated their Winter Quarter to the class “Chocolate: A Global Inquiry” prepared mentally and tastefully for the presentation of a chocolate of their choice.

It was mentioned among many students that single-origin chocolates, made from cocoa bean processes created all in the same place, are far more appreciated than the chocolates we’ve known.

The stands were organized by country, dark chocolate percentage or status as single-origin chocolate. Each stand consisted of a banner, an advertisement and samples for the audience to devour.

Hopping from table to table, each student explained the various components that go into the process of developing a great-tasting flavor.

Freshman Celina Iuliano displayed the Kokoleka Hawaiian chocolate, which is a single origin that provides the best flavor when melted, rather than chewed, in your mouth.

“I have really learned to be more aware of my senses and to really taste quality,” said Iuliano.

Leissle educates her students on the history, nutrition, social and economical structures of chocolate. She strongly emphasizes that chocolate should not be defined by the blended recipe of the Hershey’s brand we have all grown up on.

“The taste is so much more rich and authentic,” explained Lizzy Chandler, who presented about 65 percent dark chocolate from Madagascar. “The hot climate is the soul to the cocoa bean. The fruitful environment of Madagascar creates a great exotic kick!”

SirStephen Jackson presented the “Butter Taste of Sinfulness” chocolate of Hawaii.

“The taste is  strongly affected by the weather conditions it goes under during the process of the cocoa too,” he said.

Each student was required to visit at least one chocolate shop in the area to inspire their project. Most chose either the Chocolate Man of Bothell or Chocopolis of Seattle for their divine chocolate selection.

Their grades will be based upon their advertisement, chocolate presentation and ability to provide the audience with knowledgeable facts and experience.

By Aspasea McKenna
Staff Writer

Could you imagine a UWB free of irritating lines? Perhaps a time when you would no longer have to suffer through another footlong Subway sandwich or stomach another overpriced M.O.M.’s lunch?

In February of 2014, an urban-style retail shopping center called The Village at Beardslee Crossing will turn this dream into a reality. Opening next door to the UWB Beardslee building (UWBB), this project will include 450 apartments, 50,000 sq. ft. of commercial and retail space and a Gateway Plaza park area. The shopping center is operated by the Bothell development company West Ridge Land.

Here is what you can expect to find: a restaurant and microbrewery, a distillery, a coffee shop, a bakery, sandwiches, frozen yogurt, Mexican food and possibly a small market and drugstore.

In addition to satisfying all of your imaginable cravings, The Village at Beardslee Crossing will have outdoor fireplaces and covered areas, providing an atmosphere conducive to studying. Discounts will be offered for students who present their UW ID.

Apartments will be equipped with top-notch amenities, such as electronic door access, secure parking and flat-screen TVs in the lobby that give you updated bus schedules and notify you when you have a package waiting.

Located at the cross-section of the UWB campus, the biomedical business zone, the floodplain restoration and downtown Bothell, The Village at Beardslee Crossing will be the center point of all that Bothell has to offer. Providing customers a central location to grab a bite to eat, run errands, study and even a place to call home, the project’s motto is “Eat, shop, live.”

Still, Steve Cox, the President of West Ridge Land, explained that it’s much more than that.

“This project needed to have a vision that was more than just dollars and cents,” he said. “Our goal is to reaffirm, reinforce and build on the community.”

Passionate about Bothell‘s history, the local developers decided to build off of the surrounding community by integrating four key elements unique to Bothell into the fabric of the project: education, industry, forestry and environment.

“So much of Bothell’s story has not been told,” Cox said.

Using a multifaceted approach in the design of the project, the developers selected four prominent Bothell individuals to educate visitors on Bothell’s history, including George Brackett (1842-1927), Andrew Beckstrom (1852-not recorded), William R. Ross (1859-1901) and Charles Beardslee (1865-not recorded). The buildings will take on their names while revealing a story about each man’s significance and contribution to Bothell’s history. At the same time, they will highlight the progression of industry from homesteading, logging and millwork to the current biomedical zone. A focus on the natural environment is also an integral part of this project.

The Gateway Plaza park space, located at the north end of the site, will serve as an interactive and engaging environment. The vision is to incorporate the surrounding wildlife, including salmon and blue heron, into the design of the park space to teach visitors about the local habitat.

“I want neighbors to bring their five-year-old and walk through and go up and touch a caste-bronze life-size sculpture of fish,” Cox said. “I want them to be able to feel.”

With the environment in mind, natural elements found on-site will be integrated into the landscape. During excavation, the developers uncovered a number of glacial erratics thought to have been deposited from the last ice age.

“It deserves to stay here,” Cox said.

A large sequoia tree that had been planted during the late 1940’s was also saved during construction and will be repurposed into furniture, including park benches and tables and chairs for the restaurants.

The unique focus and interactive approach of this project has generated a conversation among the local community. It has inspired other businesses to take part in the changing nature of development and integrate the natural environment into their own construction projects. It has also sparked the interest of local artisans to get involved in the design process.

“We want to tell a story,” Cox said, “to create a place where people will want to be and lift the rest of the city right along with us.”

The trailer for “The Place Beyond the Pines” features a motorbiking bank robber and an ambitious young police officer. The two seem destined to become entangled in an action-packed game of cat and mouse.

But what you think you’ll see isn’t quite what you get. Writer-director Derek Cianfrance, who gave mainstream movies a dismal dose of the avant-garde with “Blue Valentine” (2010), takes another alternative storytelling route in “The Place Beyond the Pines,” this time offering an oddly paced crime thriller that focuses more on the consequences of the crime than the thrill of it.

Ryan Gosling stars as the bad boy trying to do good, Bradley Cooper as the good boy trying to climb a career ladder. Their paths cross and they clash. Time passes. Enter their children, two sons, and wonder if the apple falls far from the tree. But before it knows where to fall, the apple has to find out where the tree is, or was.

The story informally breaks into three chapters, each one focusing primarily on a character or set of characters. Part one is Gosling, part two Cooper, part three their sons. While credit goes to Cianfrance for making some unorthodox storytelling decisions, this structure doesn’t really suit the content. To be specific, it can’t hold all the content. Unlike the fragmented narratives of a filmmaker like Wong Kar Wai—in which listless characters float around, and the viewer floats around with them—each chapter in “The Place Beyond the Pines” overflows with plot.

Example: In just 45 minutes, Bradley Cooper becomes a hero, takes on corruption in the police department, becomes a hero again, tries to find a way into politics, and struggles to relate to his wife, father and young son. At what feels like the midpoint of this storyline, the movie transitions to the third chapter with an abrupt “15 years later” title card, which was so out of nowhere that I actually laughed.

Another downside of this three-chapter structure is that it’s hard to care about a character if you don’t get to hang around them for very long. Just as I was really starting to get invested in Gosling’s character, the focus shifted to Cooper. The movie is constantly running away from you, like a little kid showing you his toys (all of which are badass action figures). “Here’s a character, do you like him? Either way, here’s another character—let’s talk about him now. Okay moving on, here’s two more.” It appears Cianfrance’s primary goal with this extensive narrative is to explore themes (fatherhood, sonship, forgiveness, regret), hoping to make the viewer think rather than feel.

Personally, I didn’t do much thinking or feeling during “The Place Beyond the Pines,” but it was still a good watch simply because of how cool it was. In addition to beautiful images and sounds, it’s got a couple exciting chase scenes and a handful of idiosyncratic, well-acted characters. And who knows, maybe it’ll get to your heart: I will admit that I went to the bathroom and missed a bicycling scene during which my friend, Matt Libby (Junior – Society, Ethics & Human Behavior), claims he cried.