TechNews | Tuesday, April 1, 2014

HT celebrates Women's History Month

Anoopa Sundararaj an & Utsav Gandhi
COPY EDITOR & CAMPUS EDITOR

‘ ' rv year. the month of March
is celebratet as \\"oinen\ History Month in
the United States, the United Kingdom and
Australia. whi e in Canada, it is observed in
October.

'lhis year, students commemorated
thethemeof c ‘biating Womenol(,.'haracter,
Courage and Commitment,‘ here at ll'l‘
throughout the month, 'lhc ()tlice ofCampus
Life, Spiritual life and Service learning as
well Diversity Initiatives all 'put up multiple
events throughout the month for the camptis
community to come together and celebrate
as well as honor the successes of women in
various fields.

'l‘ogether, the ill community
was able to learn about and appreciate

the contributions of women everywhere
in everything they do, personally and
professionally. From events that were
targeted at women, like the HPV Awareness
Week, to events that recognized women‘s
accomplishments, like the “1 Am Malala" Book
Club and tl African Student Organizations
Cultural \‘1 ght. as well as events that were
staged by women, like the international
\\'omen's l ' panel, the Alumnae Panel and
the motivational speaker Tricia Downing. llT
offered an assortment ofevents for students to
participate in and educate theinselv s.

At the panel events, it was e ecially
interest ig to observe the similari es and
differences in the views of female alumnae
and female students who currently attend
llT, Needless to say, it was the common goals
and ideologies of all the women that kept
every event true to this year‘s theme. Between
students, a 16-year-old Nobel Peace Prize

non‘iinee, and a number of inspiringy women
from a wide range of career backgrounds,
innumerable experiences were shared and
countless ideas adapted. 'lhe panelists at the
women alumna panel were Allison Bagby
(Mli, EMCT ‘09). Raniana Bhargava (MS.
SOC ‘71), Perri lrmer (ARCH ’81). Mariam
Kittaneh HE ‘03, t\l.B,A, ’13) and Dawn
Schuette t ARCH CRP ’92, MS CRP ’93). 'lhey
all spoke about their C
successtul student at ll'l‘, how it prepared them

riences of being a
for their prof inal careers, and how they
c itinue to scale successes in their chosen
careers.
On Monday evening, the HT
0 lice of Spiritual life and Service Learning
also brouUht Kent alumna Reverend Brenda
ell to campus. the Director of
the Center for Faith—Based and Nei iborhood
Partnerships at the , Department of
Education, Rev, (iirtoirMitcht-ll brings more

than 30
of liducation from her work as a teacher, legal

perience to the Department

counsel and minister. Rev (Iiirtonelvlitchell
spoke about the intersection ofwomen, faith,
and education and how it related to this
month's Book Club selection, “I Am Malala.”

A maior part of the credit for the
smooth succ: s ot‘this year's Women‘s History
Month goes to the various departments at
UT that coll;- ‘ated in order to present the
student body with such a fantastic range
of opportunities for learning, sharing and
networking. Credit also goes to ”is diverse
community of men and women who attended
all of the events, w iout whom the events
would not ha ' thieved their success. If you
are interested in finding out more about the
events that took lace on campus this March in
1‘s History Month. check out
vices page on sampus Life‘s

honor t ‘\‘\"om
the Women’s 5
website. wwwiit.edu/studentVlife.

 

Re-lmagination Challenge sparks new ideas, creativity for solutions

Utsav Gandhi
CAMPUS EDITOR

Working directly with the support
of school administration to inspire creativity
among students to implement change from
the bottom-up, the Student Government Asso-
ciation partnered with MonkeyBars and spon-
sored by Google, O’Reilly Books, IIT Institute
of Design, and HT to organize a 24 hour Hack-
athon style competition, the “Re-Imagination
Challenge.”

Some of the ideas encouraged while
going into the competition were reducing the
fire alarms in MSV, the issue of puddles on
campus, et cetera. The judges included cam-
pus admin and faculty (the Dean of Students,
Katie Stetz, as well as the SGA Presidential
candidates, 'Olurotimi and Akinade, were part

“as well. The three main categories were “Pre-

built”, “From Scratch” and “Peer Choice.”
Sub—categories under Pre-built and
From Scratch included long term and short
term (can be implemented within three to five
years and within one to years, respectively).

The Pre-built criteria was for anything that
already has a mock—up, prototype, some code,
whereas from scratch was for new ideas that
hadn’t been pursued before this eyent.

Judging criteria and guidelines fea-
sibility (based on if the proposed plan can be
done within chosen time—frame and is realis—
tic given budget and resources, as determined
by judges), efficacy (does this idea realistically
solve a problem in an efficient/creative man-
ner?), impact (is this idea large impact and
does it benefit the student body for the future
in a visible/solid/tangible way?), team strength

(does the team in question have the mindset
of implementing and solving this problem in
real-time?), as well as response to Q&A (de-
fending your idea and providing thoughtful
answers to questions posed, regardless of how
challenging the question.) The winning teams
were working on projects related to the class
registration system, school spirit and increased
attendance to campus events/engagement as
well as a video production initiative to spread
news and awareness about school events. A
more detailed follow up article will be pub-
lished in the next few weeks.

 

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