Nichols College Pink Out

October, as everyone knows, is breast cancer awareness month. On October 28th Nichols had a “Pink Out.” The Center for Student Involvement sold awesome pink t-shirts for $5.00 that said, “Get your pink on.” Everyone who wished to participate gathered in front of Academy Hall. We took a group picture in the shape of the pink breast cancer ribbon.

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It was amazing to see all the people who came out to be in the picture and support the cause. When I was talking to my friends, they said there were more people this year than last year. The amount of people that showed up is what really made the event and the ribbon a little more remarkable than last year. The picture came out great as most of us had the same color pink on, which really made the ribbon look amazing. Hopefully next year we can get an even bigger turn out and make a larger ribbon.

Seeing this was breathtaking because most people have been affected by breast cancer in some way. Someone that is very close to me had breast cancer. Luckily it was found early, and she did everything in her power to stop the cancer. I believe it was this summer that she was clear and the doctors told her she was cancer free. It was such a relief to learn this. Some people may not have stories that end like that, but to see the support from everyone was inspiring. Almost everyone in the world is affected by some type of cancer or disease, whether you personally or a close loved one or friend. It is something to take seriously, but most often brings people together, just like at Nichols. Cancer has greatly affected my family, and I have sadly lost many to it. I took part in the Pink Out event to help the cause so one day loved ones will not lose the battle.

Hospitality Management Class Hosts Five 15-40 Connection Events

For those of you who are not aware of the 15-40 Connection, Nichols College will be hosting many events to raise awareness. The 15-40 Connection is empowering individuals with knowledge that will save and improve lives through early cancer detection. Cancer survival rates in teens and young adults (ages 15 to 40) have barely improved since 1975 in a large part because a delay in diagnosis allows time for cancer to progress to more advanced stages.

Bryant Richard’s Hospitality class will be conducting many events, such as a live survival panel to a dodge ball tournament, as their way for raising awareness about the 15-40 Connection. There will be five student-run events happening on campus. All of these events will be showcasing a different aspect of the 15-40 Connection. Make sure to stop in and participate in one or more!

 

Past Events

* November 9th – 2pm to 5pm: Dodge Delayed Diagnosis (Dodge Ball competition), Athletic Center

* November 12th – 3:30pm to 6pm: Health is Wealth Hoedown, Fels

Upcoming Events

*November 13th – 4pm to 7pm: The Hunt is on for Awareness (Scavenger Hunt); kickoff and debrief in Fels lounge

* November 18th – 7pm: Love the Skin You Are In, Daniels Auditorium

* November 19th – 7pm: Check yourself before you Wreck Yourself: Survivor Panel, Fels main lounge

My Favorite Speaker of the Year (so far)- Ben Simon

Ben Simon, who is the founder of Food Recovery Network, had a dream to become a great football player, and when that failed he decided to put his efforts into something else. Junior year of high school he joined a club called the social action club. One day he decided to start a protest at his high school because of the genocide in Darfur. The protest worked, and this was his first step to his development of becoming a leader. He said, “If my protest worked then shit, what else can I do?”

When he attended the University of Maryland he tried to start a website called mymaryland.net. He invested $80,000 in it, but the effort was a failure. However, this did not stop him from trying to start something else. When he was sitting in the dining hall one day he noticed that all the extra food from that day was just being thrown away. Witnessing this sparked an idea, and he decided to do something about it.

He developed a program to take the leftover food to local shelters and created a way to get the food from point A to point B. This was the start to The Food Recovery Network. He wanted to start these efforts at other colleges too so he called up his friend from Brown University and soon people started talking. Now Food Recovery Network is working in 100 different colleges around the US.

This was one of the most interesting events I have attended so far this year. He made it fun and very informative. Here at Nichols we are trying to start the Food Recovery Network, and I decided to join the group of students who will be a part of it. We will take food from the dining hall at the end of the day and bring it to a shelter, possibly in Webster. As a freshman, I wanted to join so I could be a part of the college’s efforts to help the local communities. I am excited to see the progress in the next three and a half years. This is an extremely important program because, on average, there is so much food that goes to waste and there are 1 in 6 Americans that are hungry. Now we can do something about it.

It was mandatory for freshman to attend because of our Learning to Lead class. Ben talked to us about how to become a good leader and some characteristics of being a good leader. He discussed that to be a good leader you have to fail and that failing is not a bad thing. He used his examples of failure to prove his point. He could not become a football player because he hurt his shoulder and if that did not happen there probably wouldn’t be a Food Recovery Network. When he tried to start up the website mymaryland.net he failed, but he said he would not trade that for the world. “Embrace failure, fail forward,” he said.

Produced by the Bison for the Nichols College Community