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Feeding Flashes
Our project focuses on food insecurity among Kent State students. Currently, there is insufficient funding, resources, and support to address this issue. Food pantries have been created on campus to help support students who experience food insecurity, one being the Campus Kitchen. The Campus Kitchen is a nonprofit student organization that is associated with the university. This organization provides a food pantry to students and prepares meals for off campus non profit community partners. This is a very important organization, however it does not receive any funding from the university, which makes upkeep more difficult. The facility that Campus Kitchen is housed in was donated by the university, but that is as far as university support has gone. With no funding, budget, or substantial support from the university, Campus Kitchen has no other option than to reach out to other organizations for support. The Women's Center also provides a food pantry for students, however, they are experiencing the same situation as the Campus Kitchen. With that being said, not enough students and staff know about these organizations or the problem of food insecurity itself. Without knowledge of this issue and the resources provided on campus, support is challenging to find. By increasing community support from on campus and off campus organizations, the pantries will be able to increase their supplies in order to better support food insecure students. Our main goal is to bring awareness to food insecurity in order to grow the preexisting entities that tackle this problem.
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Flash “Facelift” on KSU Mobile App
Kent State University students are experiencing difficulty finding their way around the large campus. This can be especially true for the sizable groups of incoming freshman coming to Kent for the first time. The KSU Mobile App is, in part, designed to help diminish this aggravation with travel, however, with an ever-changing culture of technology, the app has now proven to be more frustrating than helpful to the average user. Using the hard work that has already been put into the making of the KSU Mobile app, we would like to make improvements to both the bus tracking and the parking map system. With busing, we hope to improve the live feed of bus movement and make it easier for the average user to understand which bus is traveling to which destination. In regards to the parking system, our hope is to distinctly label the parking lots, helping to improve the understanding of parking eligibility by all students, faculty, and visitors. By doing this, we believe the KSU Mobile app can continue to be a very useful, effective tool for all of Kent State. The app can evolve with this demanding, technological era.
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Out of State, Out of Mind
Out-of-state students make up a vast majority of Kent State's student population. Why would we not want to better help them become accustomed to our Kent State community? We are proposing that Kent State implement a program created specifically for helping these students. Helping them to answer all of their questions in one place; whether it be about transportation to airports or organizations and clubs that will help them to feel more connected. Allowing students to foster deeper relationships with not only other out-of-state students that share their similar experiences but with Kent State itself. If these students are able to feel more connected to Kent it will increase the likely-hood that they will keep coming back each year. One of the main goals of this program is to help students travel home to be more efficient and comfortable. Many of these students experience difficulties with getting rides to the airport. They are relying on friends or other in-state students that they know to give them a lift to the airport. This program can help implement a way that can make these trips more efficient for these students. Provide them with the stability of knowing that they do not have to worry about being able to get a ride to the airport on breaks or anytime they need to fly home. This project is directed towards ensuring that all students feel welcomed and comfortable at Kent State, flashes taking care of flashes.
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Lighting and Sustainability on Kent Campus
The current lighting situation is proving to be non-efficient and ineffective for our students because there is a lack of external light sources and a surplus of unnecessary light within dorm common areas. Our light program will help the college save money across the campus and buildings while increasing security and safety for our fellow Flashes. Students across campus feel unsafe because of a lack of external lighting on the outskirts of campus. However, the constant lighting in the dormitory hallways interrupts a student's REM cycle when they have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. Half lighting or red lighting will provide a softer ambiance for a less intrusive experience for our Flashes in the hallway, as well as saving the university money.
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More Efficient Meal Plans for Students on Kent State Campus
Our group has been noticing some issues regarding the meal plans and their structures at Kent State University's main campus. Recently, Kent State students haven't been satisfied with where their money is going towards when selecting a meal plan. An example of this would be most of the expenses going towards the dining halls over money available in declining balance. We plan to revise the structures of the currently available meal plans to meet the needs of students by allowing Kent State students to be able to decide how much and where their money will go to on and off campus among the many dining options. We will be working with other state universities and colleges who are also catered by Aramark to compare our meal plan structures with theirs and working with Aramark to make a meal plan that is both cost efficient and increases the retention rates of returning students back to Kent State University.
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Reduce Waste Programs in Local Schools to Address Food Waste and Environment
Currently over 40% of all food in the United States ends up in a landfill where it will sit and rot for years and contribute to vast amounts of unnecessary pollution. Food can be turned into a soil conditioner and benefit agriculture, environmental conditions, and overall health. We are public health students at Kent State University piloting reduce waste programs in our community. Ensuring a sustainable way to reduce waste cannot be done without education regarding food waste and insecurity. We will implement this program in partnership with Rubber City Reuse to use best practices in waste management and provide compost for the gardens in Kent. By the end of the school year we would like to reduce the waste coming out of Walls Elementary School by 10% while educating the students and public on environmental and nutrition best practices.
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S.A.T (Student Accessible Transportation)
Our idea is to work with Student Accessibility Services and the University to implement electric golf carts as transportation for students, staff and visitors who have a disability or are injured. The implementation of this idea would ensure that they are able to attend classes, meetings, and/or other important events that are crucial to academic success and in line with University goals in a timely manner. Without this program, students at Kent State who have a disability or are temporarily injured must find an alternative way to travel between classes and meetings. Those alternatives include: existing services through PARTA, rideshare services, and simply walking to classes. All of which are inefficient, inconvenient, and may even be an additional cost. They could even further injure students, visitors, or faculty members. This idea aims to improve student life and make our campus more accessible to a wider range of students. Going along with the University’s efforts to be more sustainable, these golf carts will be one hundred percent electric as to cut down on emissions from gas golf carts. Another benefit to the golf carts would be to create jobs for students who work while they go to school.
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Sexual Violence in ConflictThe historical interpretation of why sexual violence happens has come to prominence in the past ten years. The paper examines the literary work of historians and primary sources based in colonial and contemporary Congolese and Rwandan texts. Within these documents, books and memoirs, the paper identifies key words and experiences that correspond with the working hypothesis to show how sexual violence differed in the areas because of their contrasting experiences with colonization. My current working hypothesis argues earlier colonial control and post-colonial attitudes towards race and sexual violence influenced the mass violence seen in these conflicts and the varying characteristics of the acts. This topic is important because it shows in the future, we can identify stressors which will allow us to curtail and know how to handle populations with mass sexual trauma. Using these historical case studies reinforces the idea that sexual violence happens for a reason. |
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Healthy Students, Healthy Campus
Healthy students, healthy campus. That is the motto Kent State should live by. Kent State has a multitude of resources available for mental health, and is a well-ranked university for other health services provided to its students and faculty members. However, have we considered the effect diet has on the mental health of students and staff? Looking further into how healthier food options benefit students academically and mentally is the next step this campus needs to take in order to become a truly healthy campus. There is a lack of variety in the healthy food options that the dining halls and markets on campus have to offer. Providing a wider range of options for healthy meals and snacks around campus, incorporated into a meal plan that students already pay for, would increase the likelihood that students choose the healthier option. This will ensure students are eating a more balanced diet, and that all daily nutritional needs are met more regularly. This will, in turn, boost the moods and academic behaviors of students across campus.
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Ready Set Grow: Developing Farm to School Programs for Portage County
Ready Set Grow aims to produce healthier communities by educating children and their families about activities that promote healthy lifestyles and environments. Activities involve educating the community about developing best practices for growing sustainable gardens and reducing waste. In the fall of 2019, we implemented a garden club into Walls elementary, and it was a huge success. Our garden club included 44 1st-3rd grade students. We implemented the club held 9 meetings. We focused on the garden club because the health benefits of gardening are immense. Studies have shown that gardening improves mental and physical health, along with growing bonds amongst community members and improved environmental well being. Gardening allows for a wonderful foundation for students to live a happy and healthy life. We are continuing to garden this spring at Walls elementary and intend to expand into other schools in the community to further promote healthy lifestyles from a young age.
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