Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/229590
"Fixing Michigan Schools" proposal earns students first place Two undergraduate students received first place in the Students Reinventing Michigan competition for their proposal "Fixing Michigan Schools: Providing Michigan's Student a Better Education Using Programs That Work." Benjamin Harris' and Trent Wolf's proposal encourages lawmakers to approve funding for educational programs including early childhood development, improved teaching methods at the high school level and vocational training. They received a prize of $10,000 and an invitation to discuss their proposal with state legislators. • Students Trent Wolf, left, and Benjamin Harris had the opportunity to testify in Lansing before the joint House and Senate Education Committees and share their award-winning proposal. A survivor's story Holocaust survivor Vera Meisels shared poems and stories inspired by her childhood experiences during World War II as part of the Dr. Harold Abel Endowed Lecture Series last April. Her reading selections included the story "The Piano" from her book "Threshold of Pain," as well as the poems "Firefly," "Hiding Place" and "Snow" from her book "Terezín's Firefly." At the age of eight, Meisels was sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Terezín. The Nazis established Theresienstadt as an elaborate scheme to demonstrate that they were treating prisoners humanely. While she was a prisoner at Terezín, Meisels was a cast member of the play "The Fireflies." CMU theater professor Lauren McConnell, who is co-chair of the Abel Lecture Series, developed an adaptation of "The Fireflies" that CMU University Theatre performed last season. Meisels served as the narrator in each performance. • Vera Meisels CHSBS offers new certificate programs in Cultural and Global Studies CMU students can earn certificates in seven areas of study through the new Cultural and Global Studies program housed within the CHSBS School of Public Service and Global Citizenship. The curriculum draws from disciplines across the university to give students the knowledge, understanding, intercultural sensitivity and analytical tools to perform effectively in a global community. The certificate programs range from 16 to 18 credit hours and complement a variety of CMU majors and minors. Certificates include: African and African Diaspora Studies, American Indian Studies, Cultural Competency, East Asian Studies, European Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies, and Middle East and Islamic Studies. • Under Discussion | Winter 2014 15