Campus Currents

The Spring Arts & Ideas Series has added several new exciting events to its lineup!

The first event for the spring takes place tomorrow!

Being Queer and Muslim in the Trump Era
January 30, 2018, 4:30 p.m.
Heineman Ecumenical Center

Faisal Alam is a queer-identified Muslim activist, speaker, and writer of Pakistani descent as well as the founder of Al-Fatiha, an international organization for LGBTIQ Muslims and allies. Using his own life experience, and by exploring the complex history of the Islamic world, Faisal sheds light onto the lives of an often invisible community: queer Muslims. His work highlights many challenges facing sexual minorities within the Muslim world and the escalating Islamophobia in the United States.

Rewarding Disobedience: A Talk by Ethan Zuckerman
February 7, 2018, 4:30 p.m.
McCarthy Center Forum

As Director of the Center for Civic Media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ethan Zuckerman helped create the Disobedience Award, a $250,000 cash prize awarded to a person or group who has made a positive difference through ethical disobedience. New ideas are often uncomfortable ideas, and the Disobedience Award rewards rebels, free thinkers, innovators, and disrupters for breaking established rules, speaking truth to power, and envisioning the unimaginable.

Please join us as we continue to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and kick off Black History Month!

First Friday!
February 2, 2018
2:30 p.m.
Center for Inclusive Excellence
Join The Center of Inclusive Excellence for First Fridays featuring President Cevallos. Come and get to know the President of FSU! All are welcomed and encouraged to attend. Light refreshments will be served!

Project Resilience
February 9, 2018
8:00 p.m.
Dwight Performing Arts Center

The Center for Inclusive Excellence and FSU students’ sophomore Keenor Anum-Sowah and first-year Carlos Barbosa invite you to Project Resilience! Join us as we celebrate Black History Month for a multi-talent showcase of Black Empowerment. Performances by spoken word artists, dancers, singers and more! Show your support and solidarity to the students impacted by the recent hate crimes.


Challenging Your Bias Workshop Series
February 5, 2018, February 12, 2018, & February 21, 2018
1:30 p.m.
Center for Inclusive Excellence

A three-part series that showcases how to understand your own biases and challenge these biases, then understand how even the most adept individuals commit microinequities and microaggressions without even knowing it. In the final part of this workshop, learn how to overcome these microinequities and transform them into microaffirmations, becoming an active ally by standing up for discrimination in a safe way when you see it occurring. Presenter Lisa Harrison will facilitate workshops. As a Latinx genderqueer person, Lisa has not only professional experience with delivering diversity training but also shares personal experiences of how diversity has impacted her life.

For questions about any of the events listed, please contact Chon’tel Washington at cwashington@framingham.edu. All are welcomed and encouraged to attend all events!

By Publications Intern Allison Wharton

Framingham State University and the Christa McAuliffe Center for Integrated Science Learning hosted a Skype session with astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) on January 20th in the Forum.

According to moderator Tess Caswell, an engineer who has worked in Mission Control, the ISS is roughly the size of a football field and the room inside where the Q&A took place is the main hub for experiments.

The session consisted of a question and answer with three astronauts: Joe Acaba, Scott Tingle and Norishige Kanai. Students took turns asking them different questions about their daily life on the ISS.

One student asked how the astronauts stay in touch with family, to which Acaba joked, “I have the best phone. I can call them but they can’t call me.”

When asked about what he pictures for the future of space expeditions, Norishige said, “I dream about space agriculture” and creating an overall habitable place. Tingle added that he wanted to see “better human integrational interface” so there would be minimal training for future astronauts.

In order to combat home sicknesses, Norishige said he was able to bring some Japanese snacks onboard and was able to share them with his fellow astronauts. 

Tingle discussed his medical training at an emergency room and while he is not a doctor, he is trained to handle multiple medical emergencies. He also raved about the wonders gravity has done for his back, “It has never felt better!” he said.

When asked what his first thoughts were when looking down at Earth for the first time, Acaba couldn’t believe it, “I always knew our planet was fragile but seeing it made it real. It made me want to work harder to protect it.”

When asked what qualities NASA was looking for in future astronauts, Acaba said there is no particular thing one should be doing. Instead, he said, “Study what you love, be the best you can and be a nice person.”

Junior Ashley Flanzbaum said the Skype call “was an interesting way to see their daily lives.”

Junior Kelsy Roger said, “It is definitely something you don’t see every day.”

Sophomore Peter Zachary said, “It is astounding that we have the technology to be able to communicate with people in space.”

Prior to the Q&A, Acaba announced that he and fellow astronaut Ricky Arnold will be working with the Challenger Center to record Christa McAuliffe’s original lesson plan that she would have used in space.  McAuliffe ’70 was the first teacher in space and tragically died in Space Challenger after a malfunction shortly after takeoff. 

On Wednesday, January 31, at 7 p.m. in the McCarthy Center Forum a program entitled “Bias and Bystanders” will take place. It is a bystander intervention training for bias-related incidents and is open for all faculty, staff, and students.

Snow date: February 1, 2018, 7 p.m., Forum.

February 5, 2018, at 1:30 p.m.
Heineman Ecumenical Center

Join us for the first Midday Performance of the semester: L'Histoire du Soldat by Igor Stravinsky, performed by the Nashoba Valley Chamber Ensemble. This 1918 work for clarinet, violin, double-bass bassoon, trombone, cornet, and percussion tells the story of a soldier who trades his fiddle to the devil in exchange for riches. The Nashoba Valley Chamber Ensemble is made up of musicians who perform throughout the New England area.

Wednesday Employer Showcase Series, McCarthy Campus Center Lobby, 9:00AM – 5:45PM:

Employers showcase their organization every Wednesday in the McCarthy Center lobby by the Welcome Desk. Their goal is to network with FSU students and recruit students for full time or internship opportunities. Stop by their table in order to learn about new internships and job opportunities!

1/31/18

Noon—3:00 p.m.: J. Jill

2/7/18

9:00 a.m.- Noon: Sherwin Williams
Noon – 3:00 p.m.: U.S. Army & ACV ENVIRO

2/14/18

9:00 a.m.—noon: Sigma, Inc.
noon – 3:00 p.m.: People Ready & Nordstrom
3:00 p.m.—6:00 p.m.: Walden St. School

2/21/18

noon—3:00 p.m.: Mini Miracles

2/28/18

9:00 a.m.— noon: Mutual of Omaha
noon-2:45 p.m.: First Help Financial & St. John’s Prep
3:00 p.m.—6:00 p.m.: St. John’s Prep

3/7/18

9:00 a.m.—noon: Care.com
noon—3:00 p.m.: Walker

4/4/18

3:00 p.m.—6:00 p.m.: The Bridge of Central Mass.

The Washington Center -Thursday, February 8

Info Table 9:00 a.m.– 5:00 p.m. MC Lobby

Info Session 1:00 p.m.– 2:00 p.m. MC 1839 Room

Test out your career path with an internship in Washington, D.C.

Curiosity Unleashed STEM Career Event

Wednesday, February 21,  4:30 p.m.- 6:00 p.m., MC Forum

STEM Panel—Employers will speak about the work they do  and the types of employment opportunities in their particular STEM fields.   

Speed Networking—Students will meet diverse employers to discuss their STEM career interests.

Resume Critique—Employers will do a quick resume critique of

students’ resumes to help them understand how to best highlight their skills and experience in the highly competitive STEM job market.

The Math Works Career Day

Thursday, February 22

Time:  1:30 p.m.—2:30 p.m. (Info. Session)  MC Alumni Room

            2:30 p.m.—2:30 p.m. (General Discussion) MC 514

Hear about the many opportunities at Math Works. All majors welcome! Please call the career services and employer relations office to find out more information!

Call the CSER office at 508-626-4625.

Avidia Bank Site Tour & Polished Professional Networking Event

Tuesday, March 20, 12:00 p.m.- 2:00 p.m.,

Avidia Bank, 270 Cochituate Rd., Framingham

Hear about the many opportunities in the banking industry beyond “teller” jobs, like Financial Technology jobs, Electronic Services, Marketing, Human Resources and more. Open to all majors. Preregistration required. Registration and transportation available on a first come, first serve basis. Contact the CSER Office at 205-626-4625.

Spring Job and Internship Fair

Wednesday, March 28,  4:30 p.m.– 6:00 p.m., MC Forum

Come to this great networking event! Full-time and Internship positions available.  Over 55 employers from the business, human services, non-profit, and STEM field’s will be featured. Bring your resume. Dress professionally. Log onto your RamTrack  account to view full list of organizations.

SAVE THE DATE: MERC Education Fair

Thursday, April 19,  9:30 a.m.- 3:30 p.m., at B.U.

Come to the largest education fair in New England -  Over 100 school systems and agencies attend!  Save the date for this annual recruiting event that brings together teaching candidates and school systems across the country for networking and job opportunities in public/private schools.

Register at: www.merccareerfair.com.

-Professor Patricia Horvath’s book, All the Difference, was recently the featured book on New York City’s Books on the Subway Twitter feed. https://twitter.com/BooksSubway/status/955869609487298560?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

-English Professor Emeritus Dr. Alan Feldman served as the Guest Editor of Common Threads 2018, a publication of Mass Poetry. The volume, Born to be Lonely: Massachusetts Poets on Connection and Disconnection, is available as a free PDF and as a $10 hardcopy through Harvard Book Store and features a guide to reading and discussing the poems, videos of the poems being read (by the poets themselves when possible), a list of poets who are available to help facilitate a discussion group, and corresponding outreach to libraries, senior centers, book clubs, and more, to facilitate hundreds of poetry discussion groups throughout the state in an effort to broaden the audience for poetry.