Tuesday]anualy26th,2016 | TechNeWS

opinion@technewsiit.com

AUSTIN GONZALEZ

3

Partnership between Career Se_rvices_, start-up
company prov1des students paid prOJects

Austin Gonzalez
OPINION EDITOR

On the last day of 2015, IIT’s
Career Services sent out an announcement
for “an exciting initiative at Illinois Institute
of Technology" The initiative is for special,
shorteterm paid projects with companies to
become available for students While initially
I was interested in the work being done by
Career Services, I’ve learned more about the
exact arrangement and I think there is cause
for concern

Career Services is working with
starteup Parker Dewey so students “will
have the opportunity to work on projects
with some of Chicago’s leading companies,
emerging visionaries, and exciting nonprofit
organizations" At the information meeting, I

had a chance to talk with Jeffery Moss and his
vision for “career launchers’ ' Moss has worked
with and supported several educational
institutions Parker Dewey is his selfefunded
project for unemployed and underemployed
recent graduates In his own words, the big
picture is “it’s an opportunity to get experience,
make money" Jefi’ery’s passion is clearly
genuinel

When asking students they didn’t
seem entirely convincedl

“It’s a good opportunity for work
which is why I’m interested The point is to get
a job, but at least this will let me use my skills
to get money," said Cory Winieckil “Network
building for contacts is what this is good for
Jobs4Hawks doesn’t work This could be better
than finding parttime jobs," said Agrim
Sethi. “It really seems like higher level spams

It sounded like whatever letter you get in the
mail that say we have so many jobs available in
your area," said Reno Waswill

The grand vision of Parker Dewey
hasn’t seemed to inspire its audience I think
it’s a really easy change from something that
many are highly skeptical of to one that would
provide an excellent opportunity for students
looking for employment

The pitch from Parker Dewey is that
through these projects you get the chance to
interface with companies and make contacts
Through this hard work, they may love you so
much that they will call you back when they
have an opening

My problem with this is that the
pitch does not adequately reflect the reality
of the situation Students will be selling
themselves as independent contractors to

corporation looking to temporarily boost
resources during crunch time Satisfying the
shorteterm needs of a company does not lead
to longeterm employment

If instead Parker Dewey arranged
with the companies such that each adequately
executed project was guaranteed an interview
on site, I would see an amazing connection
between industry and new labor Top
companies apply tests to new applicants to
gauge their abilities; if these projects are used
as such then I think we have a match made in
heaven

Until then, from where I stand there
is a disconnect between the stated vision of
Parker Dewey, which I believe is genuine, and
the process that is supposed to make it a reality

An Exoticist Theory on the LGBT Movement

Jerry Sha
TECHNEWS WRITER
The emergence of the LGBT

movement has been a pretty big deal
domestically, and to a lesser extent abroadl
Now that the legal and political battles about
its morality, implications, and ultimately
legality have been mostly concluded, save for
a few republican state governors who seem
to have missed the Supreme Court memo, I’d
like to float a theory on why the movement
emerged in our time: the emergence happened
because we as a culture got bored

To understand the basis of the
argument requires a short detour to social
Darwinism, a subject with many negative
connotations but at least a few logically
sound working assumptions Let us, in a little
thought experiment, assign to each unique
human civilization a value which measures
the security, activity, and energy to enact and
embrace change in order to better themselves,
let’s name this value societal impetus

Certain cultures seem to have
inherentlylow impetus, and are relatively stable
but stagnant Examples include the indigenous
North and South American cultures, especially
the Maya and Incas who despite receiving
stimulus and competition from neighboring
cultures remained relatively stagnant in their
own identity and did little more than to paint
the region in their own image through military
triumphs Examples of survian low impetus
cultures include China and India Though
ancient China was technologically advanced
and militarily powerful, and though it was
aware of the existence of neighboring cultures

and even the existence of Europe and maybe
the Americas, it never sought to project its
power and assimilate these neighbors for
political or economic gain Even when it was
conquered in the 1800s by now technologically
superior western forces, the Chinese tried their
best to cling to traditional values as opposed
to embracing the new and seemingly more
powerful western ones

High impetus cultures accordingly
lead much more vibrant histories Rome
would be the first prime example As a nation
which fueled its entire political and economic
structure upon the conquest, subjugation,
and integration of new peoples, the Roman
empire promised its soldiers and politicians
wealth and land, acquired both from military
conquest, and in the process of assimilating
conquered people, generated more soldiers
and politicians, feeding into itself to create one
of the largest empires in history More recently,
and of greater note are European powers,
who are geographically close packed and
fiercely competitive In the crucible of western
Europe, every country seemed willing to do
anything, even to forsake and redefine their
own identity, in order to get an edge on their
neighbors, and through military and economic
success reafiirm themselves as the superior
culturel Naturally, this was the birthplace of
colonialism, nationalism, and imperialism,
three factors integral to cultural impetus as we
have defined it

Western society is, as mentioned,
decidedly high impetus The desire to expand
our influence and alter the ideals of others in
our image is as undoubtably ingrained in the

modern American as the need for military
triumph was ingrained in the ancient Roman
Of course this impulse manifests itself in a less
extreme way today, but it is still undeniable

A powerful example of America’s
fascination with the exotic is the “turban trick’I
During the Jim Crow era of racial oppression,
a few clever African Americans discovered
that by learning an accent and putting on a
turban, they could immediately escape the
brunt of racist oppression even in the heart of
the deep southl By simply appearing foreign,
their identity to the white male went from a
stagnant, thoroughly oppressed and inferior
class to an exotic, mysterious, and thoroughly
exciting foreign dignitary, and this garnered
them seemingly unthinkable respect, given
their attitude towards the prior class

It is also prudent to note that as a
consumer in this nation travel has always been
a fixationl Exotic goods and imports have been
the driving force behind the era of colonial
expansion, and that applies for all Western
countries Though no longer imperialist in
the strict sense, America retains a vague
but undeniable fascination with the foreign,
projected in our interest in tourism, our high
consumption of foreign goods and services,
our fascination with the exploration of nature
on earth and space beyond, and of course our
incessant meddling in foreign politics

There is just one problem: we’ve run
out of new cultures to meet

Every time this nation encountered
something new it was at the forefront of the
American existencel From the initial contact
with the Indians, children were scared with

tales of Indian raiders, while men traded furs
for guns and wine to make their livelihoods
Cue the transition to frontierism, and soon
after the Monroe Doctrine was established
both to keep Europe out, but also to keep the
frontier of Central and South America within
American grasps

When we got bored of the
Caribbean and traveling back to tour Europe,
intercontinental air travel made accessible the
ports of Asia When our economic machine
thirsted for the lubricant of new markets,
Africa, South America, and the Middle East
became resource economies to feed our
consumerisml

Our economic machine is pretty
much sated now, having expanded to every
corner of the globe, but the cultural fascination
and desire for the exotic is not Maybe,
just maybe, when America looked inwards
towards its domestic issues, it saw in the LGBT
movement not only a group of oppressed
people, but also a people never before publicly
recognized and discussed

America more than any other
country owes its success to frontierism, and
members of the LGBT community are the new
cultural frontier Unfortunately, America has
historically sought out new frontiers for only
one purpose, to amuse, enrich, and advance its
own interests, often at the frontiers expense,
and to eventually incorporate a small degree
of that frontier we find agreeable into our own
culture It is simply yet to be determined how
this latest exotic new wave will break against
the shoals of American progress

campus@technewsiit.com I a; I; i i : iE.

Illinois Tech Robotics Hosts FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff

Kori Bowns
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

For over a decade, Illinois Tech
Robotics (ITR) has been supporting the
endeavors of youth Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Math (STEM) education
through many partnerships with FIRST
Robotics FIRST (For Inspiration and
Recognition of Science and Technology) On
January 9, 2016, ITR’s students returned to
campus early to put on the Chicagoland FIRST
Robotics Competition kickoff event

The FIRST Robotics Competition
was founded in 1992 and is an international
high school robotics competition where
teams of students and mentors work during

a sixeweek build season period to build
robots weighing up to 150 pounds that play
in a competitive challenge that changes every
year These competitions culminate in a world
championship held in St Louis, but they begin
with local kickoff events held simultaneously
around the world in early January each year
At kickoff events, teams from the
local area come together and watch a live
broadcast that reveals the challenge for which
teams will have to build their robots As the live
broadcast concludes, teams of students receive
the set of rules for their challenge as well as a
kit of parts that contains components that they
will find useful when building their robot
Many kickoff events also hold workshops that
allow teams to meet, exchange ideas, or learn

Adverhse in

new skills that will help their team succeed

The Chicagoland kickoff hosted
by Illinois Tech Robotics in Hermann Hall
welcomed more than 300 students as well as
their mentors, parents, and supporters Illinois
Tech Provost and Senior Vice President of
Academic Affairs Frances Bronet opened
the event with a speech to the students in
attendance After the broadcast concluded,
students from Illinois Tech Robotics helped
teams receive and inventory their kit of
parts, review rules for the competition, lean
programming techniques, and discover
effective fundraising ideas

The event was possible thanks to
months of preparation on behalf of Illinois
Tech Robotics members as well as the help

bUSIMSS@TZCl/\Yi WSIITCOWJ

of dozens of volunteers on the day of the
event The Chicagoland kickoff is just the
first of many volunteer events that Illinois
Tech Robotics will be involved with this
semester, including working as key volunteers
at the Midwest Regional FIRST Robotics
Competition at University of Illinois at
Chicago, and volunteering at the FIRST World
Championship event

Those interested in volunteering
their time with FIRST or otherwise getting
involved with Illinois Tech Robotics can
contact the organization at roboticsiit@gmaill
com, join the organization on Hakaink, of
join weekly meetings held Friday evenings at
7pm in their robotics lab in 3424 S State Street