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Show Campus News Friday, Dec. 2, 2011 Page 3 Union leader encourages students to think positively BY CATHERINE MEIDELL editor in chief Ted Jensen flicked his thumb, sending a coin spinning to the ground, and showed a group of students in the Alumni House that compatibilities are like two sides of a coin. He said no one knows exactly what the outcome of their lives will be, but no progression can be made if individuals consistently say no to opportunities that come their way. "You are at the sunrise of your life," said Jensen, the eighth district international vice president for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. "At the start of your life it's the worst of times ... you have to look at sunset as an opportunity and a beginning. What do you have to lose?" Jensen said students should consider their attitudes toward the future and he presented contrasting approaches they might use when dealing with difficult life situations. After gaining many life experiences while traveling down six career paths, Jensen said students should never walk away from opportunities for fear of failure. IBEW, where Jensen is employed, is currently the largest union in the U.S. with 725,000 workers, according to its official website. Though he said he enjoys his job, working for a union of electricians was not a part of his original plans. He first attended USU on a music scholarship for one semester and after transferring began studying political science. "None of my career choices had to do with me thinking about where I wanted to be," Jensen said. "I just kind of stumbled into them. Sometimes people ask me if I felt qualified when I took a job. I would say yes, but the answer is no. It's always an experiment." Craig Whyte, the Student Alumni Association adviser, invited Jensen to campus, and added to the advice Jensen gave students. "There is always going to be an obstacle," Whyte said. "But one day you are going to wake up and be presented with three or four of the best options you could have. You suddenly have to think, 'What is the best option for me?' At USU you are lucky. You have professors and advisers, and their only purpose is to help you succeed. They are there for you." Some students asked questions seeking advice for their own academic and career paths. A few students shared learned attitudes that have made them successful. "I think good actions lead to accomplishments," said Caleb Gorringe, a senior majoring in economics. "It's the root of the accomplishment." Jensen nodded after Gorringe's comment and used former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno as an example of a person who accomplished many things, but most will remember him for one action. Paterno was recently fired as head coach for failing to report sexual misconduct by the team's defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. One poor decision will affect the rest of Paterno's life, Jensen said, which is why choosing actions wisely will always be more important than tallying the most accomplishments. Another comparison Jensen made was between satisfaction and joy, asking students which feeling they would rather have. "If I was satisfied, then I did something good," Whyte said, "but I didn't do it to the best of my ability." Elements of joy come from unique daily experiences, Jensen said, not the daily grind. He said students must find time for themselves now — doing things they enjoy — or they will never find the time. Life is a series of patterns, he said, which must be broken occasionally to find joy. Ultimately, all the comparisons Jensen made were meant to remind students their lives are contingent upon the choices they make, but not every choice needs to be permanent, Jensen said. If one thing doesn't work out, there is still time to find more compatible fits. "What I'm asking you to do is keep yourselves open to possibilities," Jensen said, "Now, you don't have a clue where these possibilities will come from. But if you jump into one of those opportunities, it will unfold for you." - catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu.edu TED JENSEN, THE INTERNATIONAL vice president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, visited campus Wednesday. He spoke to students and faculty, urging them to remain optimistic about the future. DELAYNE LOCKE photo From Page 1 Nationally displayed quilt memorializes HIV, AIDS patients and their families all. Everyone is a person, and everyone ought to be treated that way." With anti-viral medication and proper protection, he said the passing of HIV from one person to another becomes unlikely. "And ou can't et it from kissin ," Robinson said, quick to clarify. To promote awareness and acceptance, as well as to serve as a memorial to those whose lives have been claimed by HIV or AIDS, pieces of the AIDS Memorial Quilt were on display in the TSC Ballroom this week. STUDENTS WORK ON A PAPER quilt at the USU Anthropology Museum, while learning about the upcoming AIDS Memorial Quilt, prior to its appearance in the TSC Ballroom.The museum hosted the event on Nov. I 9 to inform guests of World AIDS Day. KIMBERLY SHORTS photo The AIDS Memorial Quilt is a large, multipaneled patchwork quilt created by families and friends of deceased AIDS patients. The quilt is housed and cared for by The NAMES Project Foundation, headquartered in Atlanta. Sara Jordan, a graduate instructor in the English department, chaired the committee to bring the quilt to Logan. "I think sometimes students here feel somewhat disconnected," Jordan said. "But if you start digging a little bit you'll find there are not that many degrees of separation." She hypothesized that most students know someone who has been effected by HIV or AIDS. Jordan said her desire to create more acceptance and awareness came from her life experiences, and the dedication of a few USU students. "Last year at World AIDS Day I saw only one small student group ... carrying the weight of the AIDS epidemic," Jordan said. "How fair is that? I think to the rest of us it says we're off the hook, and that's not right." Jordan went to work with friends from USU and the Cache Valley community. The response, she said, was just what they needed. "We didn't really know what direction this was all going to take, whether it would be community based or campus based, and the university really came through for us," Jordan said. "Their support has been overwhelming." In order to display the quilt, many specifications had to be met. These included proper lighting, food and drink restrictions, and proper hanging and display methods. Volunteers assisting with the quilt were trained in how to handle the quilt with the utmost respect, she said. "There is always the memory that these are one of a kind," Jordan said. "These are individual lives we are talking about, so all these rules and polices are focused around respecting them." Kennedy Tripp, USU advocate officer of the campus gay-straight alliance LIFE (Love is for Everyone), was a student representative on the AIDS Memorial Quilt committee. Tripp said he was sure volunteers were properly trained to handle and monitor the quilt. Tripp said the quilt was "a very non-abrasive way for people to walk around and think about this and work through their feelings at their own pace and on their own time." As positive as it may be, Tripp said he still has concerns about local attitudes toward HIV and AIDS. "I think at Utah State we get a lot of support in word, not necessarily in action," Tripp said. "I think we are at a point at Utah State where things need to change." Tripp said his concerns include seemingly small student and faculty turnouts at important activities such as Kate Kendall's speech at USU and even the AIDS Memorial Quilt display. Awareness, prevention and acceptance still remain the goal of World AIDS Day according to event organizers. "While HIV is not the most common, it is definitely the scariest and most life-altering sexually transmitted disease," Tripp said. Testing, treatment and safe-sex practices are imperative to contain and stop the spread of HIV, Robinson said. Robinson, Tripp and Jordan all said sexually active students need to be tested for HIV, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases on a regular basis. The Student Health and Wellness Center offers HIV and AIDS tests for $22. Results are generally available within 24 hours. - ross.nelson@aggimail.usu.edu From Page 1 PTSD study attempting to find more efficient treatments for adolescents and that is when PTSD plays a role. She said the three symptoms PTSD patients commonly exhibit are avoidance, re-experiencing the event and hyper-arousal. Referencing the example of a car accident, Woidneck said people with PTSD will often completely avoid driving certain cars or on certain roads. PTSD patients might also experience nightmares and dreams that flash them back to their traumatic experience. When hyper-aroused, trauma victims will be on edge and always on the lookout for danger, she said. Twohig said exposure, avoidance, re-experiencing the event and hyper-arousal indicate an individual is experiencing PTSD, but only when such symptoms cause problems in the individual's life. What makes his and Woidneck's research different is that they treat PTSD victims as well as individuals experiencing one or more PTSD symptoms. "We're running a 10-week intervention for adolescents who are experiencing post-traumatic stress," Woidneck said, "so they don't necessarily have to meet full-blown criteria for PTSD." "With kids, we find that they can manifest symptoms in different ways, and the diagnosis doesn't always capture their struggles," she said. "A kid could be really struggling but not meet the full criteria for PTSD, because they don't have enough re-experiencing symptoms. "What our study is looking at is a treatment for posttraumatic stress generally, so if they have been exposed to a traumatic event, if they're experiencing some of these symptoms and it's interfering with their life in some way, then they qualify for the treatment." Woidneck and Twohig have been using a treatment method called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to treat these younger individuals. "In traditional cognitive behavioral therapy, there's an emphasis on changing cognitions in order to change behaviors," Woidneck said. "And in ACT, we're not trying to change cognitions. We're trying to make them less meaningful, so when the thought or the memory shows up, it doesn't have to push you around so much, and we do that through different discussion exercise and activities." Woidneck said they started seeing patients over the summer, adding that anyone can come in for an initial evaluation. From that point, patients undergo 10 one-hour therapy sessions each week and a follow-up assessment. Patients also receive a phone call after three months to see if the results have been maintained over time. Though it is an open-enrollment program, Woidneck said it is hard to reach the adolescent population. "I think some of the problems with the treatments for kids and adolescents with trauma histories is that there's a high dropout rate," she said. "They're hard. There's a lot of exposure to the trauma and asking them to relive the trauma — retell it over and over and over again, until it loses its power." It works," she added. We know it works, but you can see why lots of people would be hesitant to engage in that kind of treatment." Twohig said part of the reason there is so much focus on adolescents in the study is because there hasn't been much research done in the area, which is also why the two hope to find new treatment methods. He said PTSD research is not the only research being conducted by the department, currently. "We also have a clinic that treats adults and adolescents with all anxiety disorders, including PTSD," he said. "There is a fee for the services clinic, • • •Bring but we work on a sliding scale." Woidneck said even though it is too early to analyze data, there have already been reports of success from clients. Twohig and Woidneck encourage anybody interested in the study and treatment to contact them. Anyone with an adolescent child experiencing PTSD symptoms is encouraged to call. - ariwrees@ gmail.com is Ad Wit You or t e Specia .... |