TechNews STUDENTNEWSPAPER OF ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SINCE 1 92 8 McCormick Tribune Campus Center Room 221 3201 South State Street Chicago, Illinois 60616 E-mail: editor@technewsiit.com Website: http://www.technewsiit.com STAFF Editor-in-Chief Kori Bowns Opinion Editor Austin Gonzalez IT Manager Kristal Copeland Copy Editors Kristal Copeland Kayleigh Stevens Anoopa Sundararajan Annie Zorn Layout Editors Sijia Wu )(iaoyu Zhang Annie Zorn Distribution Manager Khaleela Zaman Financial Advisor Vickie Tolbert Faculty Advisor Gregory Pulliam MISSION STATEMENT Our mission is to promote student discussion and bolster the IIT community by providing a newspaper that is highly accessible, a stalwart of journalistic integrity, and a student forum. TechNewsisadedicated to the beliefthatastrong campus newspaper is essential to a strong campus community. GENERAL INFORMATION TechNews is written, managed, and edited by the students of, and funded in part by, Illinois Institute of Technology. The material herein does not necessarily reflectthe opinions of Illinois Institute of Technology or the editors, staff, and advisor of TechNews.Therewill be no censorship ofTechNews publication by the faculty or staff of IIT. Sole authority and responsibility for publication and adherencetothevaluesset forthinthis policyrests with the TechNews staff. This paper seeks to bring together the various segments of the Illinois Tech communityand strives through balanceand content to achieve a position of respect and excellence. TechNews strives for professionalism with due respect to the intellectual values ofthe university and its community.Allmaterialsubmitted becomes the property of TechNews, and is subject to any editorial decisions deemed necessary. SUBMISSIONS TechNews is published on the Tuesday of each week of the academic year. Deadline for all submissions and announcements is 11:59 pm. on the Friday prior to publication. 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Contact the Business Manager at business@ technewsiit.com for more information. LOCAL 8' NATIONAL ADVERTISERS To place an ad, contact us via email at business@technewsiit.com. AUSTIN GONZALEZ opinion@technewsiit.com | Tuesday, November 24th, 2015 Building Psychological Hardiness Cara Karter TECHN EWS WRITER As final exams and the holidays are approaching, psychological hardiness, or the ability to deal with unexpected change, becomes more apparent in our everyday lives. On Saturday, November 7, the Leadership Academy (LA) hosted a seminar entitled “Building Psychological Hardiness," which was facilitated by Rodney Vallejo, Program Manager for the LA and doctoral student in IIT’s Industrial/Organizational Psychology program. If you attended the seminar on this topic, you have likely already considered some strategies to help you adapt to challenging situations, but if you missed it, it’s not too late to learnl campus@technewsiit.com Take some time to reflect before that next family dinner or big exam and think about how you personally deal with challenging situations. If you are like me, perhaps you get emotional or anxious; I think it is important that you don’t judge your emotional response too harshly Emotions can be a healthy starting point for relieving stress, but you can and should learn to work through your emotional response and identify productive paths to address the situation itself Psychological hardiness is different for everyone, but there are some common strategies you can use to help you develop yours. These are generally known as “The 3 Cs of Hardiness? ' The first is challenge; individuals that exhibit strong psychological hardiness perceive problems as challenges rather than threats. This simple change in perception encourages the use of resources to overcome the circumstance rather than trying to avoid it. The second is control; while it is impossible to control every situation, it is possible to adjust your own reactions and attitudes towards challenging situations. By focusing on what can be controlled, you will feel empowered to make the best out of the situation you are in Finally, the third is commitment; hardiness is exhibited in individuals who persevere in spite of obstacles or failures. This holiday and finals season, don’t just strive to get through itichallenge yours elf to use “The 3 Cs of Hardiness" to overcome adversity and thrive in the midst of obstacles. Illinois Tech Robotics to_host FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff Kori Bowns EDITOR-IN-CHIEF For over a decade, Illinois Tech Robotics (ITR), an IIT student organization, has been supporting science, technology, engineering, and math education through many partnerships with FIRST Robotics. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an international organization that hosts a variety of levels of robotics events and competitions for students in elementary school through high school, allowing them to be exposed to science, engineering, business, and teamwork experiences before entering college. One branch of FIRST competitions is the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), the highest level of competition offered, in which thousands of high schools across the world compete. The competition is unique in that a new challenge is presented each year to students. The yearly challenge is unveiled at the same time to all participants, and from that moment, teams have only six weeks to construct a robot that can compete in the challenge. After those six weeks are concluded, the work that teams can do on their robot is very limited. Following this build period, seven weeks of competition events are offered at venues across the world, including one nearby at the UIC Pavilion Illinois Tech Robotics students assist FIRST in planning their competition season by hosting one of hundreds of kickoff events in early January, where teams come together to watch a live broadcast detailing the year’s challenge as well as pick up a kit of parts they can use to construct their robot. This year’s Chicago kickoff, one of two events in Illinois, will be hosted by ITR and will take place on Saturday, January 9 in Hermann Hall. Student members of ITR are entirely responsible for planning the event, which will have high school teams traveling from all over Illinois to visit HT. Students from Illinois Tech Robotics are coordinating with local engineers and team mentors to construct a playing field for teams to look at and will also be hosting various workshops on fundraising, public relations, and mentorship. ITR students are also recruiting volunteers to help ensure the success ofthe event. Volunteers willbe assisting teams with checking in, navigating workshops, and inventoryng the kits they receive. Students who are interested in volunteering for the event can contact Tiflini Tobiasson at ttobiass@hawkiit.edu. Adverfise In TechNews Photos by Kari Bowns COHTMT bUSIHZSS€T£0WIZWSIILCOWI DSCOWII’ZOI OLOI COIITYOLCTS IIOW OLVOLIIOLbIZ 1° 0T SPYIIIQ ZOIQ