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

TechNews STAFF

Editor-in-Chief Anoopa Sundararajan

Assistant Editor Annie Zorn

IT Manager Kristal Copeland
David Sobel

Soren Spicknall
Alexandra Detweiler
Reno Waswil

Copy Editors

Layout Editors Sheree Emmanuel
Jennifer Coelho
Distribution Manager Reno Waswil
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.Therewillbe 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 ofthe 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. Articles, photos, and illustrations must be
submitted electronically to the TechNews website at
technewsiit.com.

EDITORIAL POLICY

The editors reserve the right to determine if
submitted material meets TechNews' policy and
standards. For more information about our editorial
standards, please email assteditor@technewsiit.com.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters to the editor may be submitted by anyone,
but are subject to review by the Editor-in-Chief.
All letters-to-the-editor become the property of
TechNews upon submission. TechNews does not
accept or publish anonymous letters or stories.

ADVERTISING

Legitimate paid advertisements, from within
or outside the IIT community, which serve to
produce income for the paper, are accommodated.
TechNews holds the right to deny any
advertisement unsuitable for publication. Media
Kits are available upon request. Ad space is limited
and is taken on a first-come, first-serve basis.
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.

 

 

campus@technewsiit.com

 

TechNews | Tuesday, November 15th, 2016

    

International Students Feature: Poland

Alexandra Detweiler
COPY EDITO R

This week, Weronika Halicka, a
sophomore studying chemical engineering,
was asked about the differences between her
home country, Poland, and life at Illinois
Tech. As has become a clear trend in this
section of TechNews, Halicka expressed that
she missed the food from her home country
more than anything else. “It’s just food, I
miss food the most," Halicka explained. “It’s
so much different. My parents are always
sending me packages with candies and stuff."
Her favorite dish, Halicka said, was pierogi; a
kind of dumpling stuffed with fillings such as
potato. Also, Halicka mentioned, “I think the
chocolate is different. I think in Europe we
got used to chocolate from Switzerland, that’s
the most common, and it just tastes different.
That’s why my parents are sending me so much
chocolate." Halicka also said that the portion
sizing in America is much different than in
Poland, and that a ‘large’ here is much larger
than you would find in her home country She
recounted a memory from her first trip to the
cinema in the United States, saying, “Usually
[when people in Poland] come and order a
large soda, it is maybe 075 liters. Here I got
two liters of soda, and I’m like ‘oh my godl
When am I going to drink it? It’s going to
take me a whole week to drink itl’” Halicka
also said that in Poland, people go out to eat

7

much less frequently, only going out on special
occasions like birthdays. Because of this, in
Poland, they don’t have breakfast places at all,
because breakfast is always eaten at home. A
fun fact, she added, “We don’t eat sandwiches
with two breads, just one bread on the bottom.
People laugh at me when I eat a sandwich here,
because I open it." In addition, she mentioned
that while coffee shops exist in Poland, people
do not use them to the extent that they do
here. “They think that ‘I have a coffee machine
at home, I’m just going to prepare it at home
and take it to go?"

The hardest part of the transition,
according to Halicka, was the language barrier.
Although she started learning English in
kindergarten, Halicka said that it was mostly
grammar and reading. “But when it comes to
talking, I was so scared to say something, ‘oh,
they’re going to laugh at me.’ It was terrible.
One sentence took me like five minutes. People
were like ‘oh, okay, nevermind, she doesn’t
speak English? Like, no, I do, I just need timel
I was so shy I am not a shy person, but I was
so scared to talk" Halicka spoke of two years
that she spent in Missouri, which she said was
a terrible experience because no one spoke
Polish. “Here it’s fine, I have friends who speak
Polish. They were born here, but it’s still nice to
talk in your language to someone."

Academically, Halicka explained

that Europe in general has a different education
system than in America. “First of all, we start
primary school when we’re seven, and that’s

 

why we finish high school when we’re 19."
Because of this, she remarked that people in
America always thought she was old for grade.
Also, Halicka said, there is a lot less flexibility
when choosing your classes in Poland. In her
words, “The school gives us a schedule and
that’s it. We have nothing to say" Additionally,
Halicka explained, “In high school, we don’t
have finals, we just have exams, tests, quizzes,
we don’t have one cumulative at the end of the
year. So that was new for me in university"

Holidays and celebrations also differ
in Poland. On the first of November, people in
Poland dedicate the day to visiting cemeteries
and remembering those in the family who
have died, and students typically get the day
off of school to do so. Halicka also thought that
Easter was a bigger deal in Poland, especially
the day after Easter, which is called ‘Wet
Monday’ On this day, Polish people make
a game out of chasing and pouring water on
others. “It was always so much fun to run away
from people," Halicka remembered.

On a positive note, Halicka
mentioned that “I think people here are more
open minded. Here, you can dye your hair
pink you go on the streets, no one will
care. In Poland, people will look at you like a
stranger. Especially the older generation will
ask why you look different than others. I like
it a lot. You can look how you want, you can do
what you want, and nobody’s going to point at

‘

you.

    

Photo by Alexandra Detweiler

Sonya Harper elected to Illinois General Assembly

Steven Milan Moreno
TECH NEWS WRITER

Incumbent State Representative
Sonya Harper was elected into her first
full term in the lower house of the Illinois
State Congress representing the 6th State
Congressional District. Most of the Mies
Campus of Illinois Tech is in the 6th District,
making Harper the campus’s representative in
the state government. Harper was appointed to
the seat in October 2015 after her predecessor,
Representative Esther Golar, passed away
while in ofiice. Rep. Harper has a long history
with the community of southern Chicago
and lives in Englewood neighborhood to the
southwest of campus. Prior to serving in office,
Harper had previously been a news reporter
and producer for a local television station and
continues to be a member of her local school
council despite her already busy schedule.
When asked about her first year in office,
Rep. Harper remarked that the experience
had been “a very eye opening and challenging
yet exciting and slightly overwhelming
experience." Harper also had remarked that
she had to "hit the ground running really
fast" since she had entered the state legislature
during a very important time in the state.

As many people know, the state of
Illinois has had a budget crisis for some time
now as the republican governor Bruce Rauner
has clashed with the democrat controlled state
legislature, which is led in the lower house by
House Speaker Michael Madigan and majority

leader Barbara Flynn Currie. Although the
two sides were finally able to agree to a short,
term solution which created a budget for the

    

Photo courtesy anllinm'S General Assembly

remainder of the year, there still is yet to be a
longeterm solution past next January Despite
this, Rep. Harper remains hopeful that an
agreement will be worked out in the end and
that the temporary fix was “just the beginning
of something greater that we can hold on [to]."
Representative Harper has remarked on her
good relationship with both Speaker Madigan
and Rep. Currie, whom she looks up to and

admires in politics.

In addition to representing the
people of the 6th district, Harper also serves
on multiple house committees including the
very important and influential environmental
and secondary education committees. She has
worked diligently within these committees to
create bills to support both the health and well,
being of students in the state, including one bill
recently submitted which requires lead testing
for all public schools in the state. Another
such bill Rep. Harper has been working to
pass is one which will require manufacturers
to mark bullets with serial numbers to help
better track their movement. This method of
bullet marking will serve as a great tool for
investigators in law enforcement to better
identify the culprits involved in violent crimes,
which are all too common in the south side of
Chicago.

With Harper’s landslide victory in
the election last week (she ran unopposed),
she plans to continue her work in the state
capitol and to continue the legacy of her
predecessor, who was loved and respected
both by her community and colleagues in the
capitol. With regards to the students, faculty,
and staff at Illinois Tech, Harper had this to
say: “My office is open, I am open. If you’re
looking for opportunities to volunteer or learn
more about state politics, just give me a call."
More information on Harper can be found at
this website: http://www.ilga.g0v/house/Rep.
asp?MemberID:2281