NCAA Basketball, UMBC,
Higher Education
"People now know the University of
Maryland, Baltimore County, as the ultimate Cinderella, an overnight social
media sensation, the team that magically emerged as the first No. 16 seed to
defeat a No. 1 seed in the history of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. But
our story is far less fairy tale than it is classic American dream. Our magic
comes from questioning expectations, putting in the hard work, and staying
focused.
The nation saw the results on
the court Friday night. My colleagues, students, alumni, and their families
came to the game knowing the team would give the game their all. Our men’s
basketball team embodies our definition of grit. We knew the players were
bringing both passion and preparation to the game. We knew that they would
listen to the guidance of head coach Ryan Odom, support one another, give their
individual best, and get tougher and tougher as the game went on.
Nevertheless, like the rest of the world,
we were stunned—not only by the outcome but by their execution to the end.
Everybody thought it couldn’t be done because it hadn’t been done. And then we
did it."
Science, Space
"Stephen Hawking
submitted his final scientific paper just a week and a half before he died, and
it lays the theoretical groundwork for discovering a parallel universe.
Hawking, who died
Wednesday at 76, was coauthor to a mathematical paper that seeks proof of the
"multiverse" theory, which posits the existence of many universes
other than our own.
The paper, called
"A Smooth Exit from Eternal Inflation," had its latest revisions
approved March 4, 10 days before Hawking's death.
According to the Sunday Times newspaper, the
paper is due to be published by an unnamed "leading journal" after a
review is complete."
War, Syria, Social Media
"Najem, who resides in rebel-held eastern
Ghouta, a suburban area in southwestern Syria that
surrounds the city of Damascus, has been documenting the Syrian Civil War through his Twitter
account since December 7, 2017. The teen posts photos, videos, and
messages that capture what it’s like to be one of the many children and
teenagers forced to fight to survive in the middle of the war.
The Vietnam War took a turn when the news began
broadcasting images of coffins covered with American flags returning home; a
change in public opinion put pressure on the American government to end the
war. Muhammad Najem’s documentation of war on social media isn’t just a cry for
help, but also a vivid portrait of how war can damage lives and societies. By
watching Najem’s digital diary, followers must more vividly confront the
hardships the Syrian people are facing. Najem’s personal perspective gives the
madness of war a human face. Hopefully, this brave teen’s use of social media
will compel other leaders to act in the face of this atrocity."
Community Development
"In 2015, roughly 5 million American youth (about 1 in every 8
individuals between the ages of 16 and 24) were disconnected, neither working
nor enrolled in school. Rural counties suffer from a relatively high
disconnection rate — a staggering 20.3 percent — but there is hope. In
communities rife with high rates of child poverty and stagnant local economies,
local organizations like Mississippi Action for Community Education (MACE) work
to guide opportunity youth along pathways to economic security while teaching
them responsibility, discipline, and other skills necessary to succeed.
Karen Jacobson, executive director of
the Randolph County Housing Authority, matches disconnected youth in Appalachia
with opportunities for vocational advancement. This is often done by matching
youths with jobs serving other vulnerable populations, especially senior
citizens in need of personal home care. “We’re now placing 15 to 20 percent of
our cohorts each year in the health care field,” Jacobson said.
Mable Starks, president
and CEO of MACE in Greenville, Mississippi, agreed that integrating opportunity
youth into the social fabric of their hometowns is key. She works to improve
education fulfillment and employment opportunities for disconnected youth
through the MACE program, established by community leaders in 1967 to uplift
rural development in the Mississippi Delta. This includes YouthBuild, which
trains students in construction through building housing for low-income
families. “A hundred percent of our students who come into YouthBuild are
active voters,” Starks said. “It takes a community to build a community.”"
Neonatal Care, Maternal Health
"In Great Britain, midwives deliver half of all babies, including Kate Middleton’s first two children, Prince George and Princess
Charlotte. In Sweden, Norway and France, midwives oversee most expectant and
new mothers, enabling obstetricians to concentrate on high-risk births. In
Canada and New Zealand, midwives are so highly valued that they’re brought in
to manage complex cases that need special attention.
All of those countries
have much lower rates of maternal and infant mortality than the U.S. Here, severe maternal complications have more than
doubled in the past 20 years. Shortages of maternity care have reached critical
levels: Nearly half of U.S. counties don’t have a single practicing
obstetrician-gynecologist, and in rural areas, the number of hospitals offering
obstetric services has fallen more than 16 percent since 2004.
Nevertheless, thanks in part to opposition from doctors and hospitals, midwives
are far less prevalent in the U.S. than in other affluent countries, attending
around 10 percent of births, and the extent to which they can legally
participate in patient care varies widely from one state to the next.
Now a groundbreaking study, the first systematic look at what
midwives can and can’t do in the states where they practice, offers new
evidence that empowering them could significantly boost maternal and infant
health. The five-year effort by researchers in Canada and the U.S., published
Wednesday, found that states that have done the most to integrate
midwives into their health care systems, including Washington, New Mexico and
Oregon, have some of the best outcomes for mothers and babies. Conversely,
states with some of the most restrictive midwife laws and practices — including
Alabama, Ohio and Mississippi — tend to do significantly worse on key
indicators of maternal and neonatal well-being."
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