My Summer in Spain

By Eletha Flores

Not only did working on the stroke rehabilitation project motivate me to become interested in the health sciences, just living in Spain has opened my eyes to health-promoting ways of life that make up a norm. It has also made me think a lot about the health of American people in comparison.

The first major shock that hit me when I got to Spain was how many elderly people I saw walking around in the street. This sounds normal, but from my experience in the States, well for one thing, people don’t usually go walking around, but on the other hand, I don’t see a lot of active elderly people. I see a lot of people on motorized carts- here too, but less often- and from what I get from television and the news, I imagine a large percentage of elderly life is confined to elderly homes or inside the home in the US. There, I do not frequently see elderly people walking together enjoying the city as if they were no different than their younger fellow citizens. Looking around San Sebastian, however, I notice all kinds of people from all walks of life walking around, ice cream in hand, watching street performers, in the bars, on the beach. Everyone is just going and going. And then it struck me. People are actually healthy here- or at least way more healthy than Americans. It's as if obesity is practically nonexistent; I rarely even see very overweight people. The site of these people so active and lively was amazing to me. Of course, the culture is of life in the streets. This does not carry the connotation of a fast, hard, criminal, or impoverished life at all. Life in the streets here means this is how people are active. Granted, the set up of the city is planned such that cars are not necessary and public transportation is fairly decent. A lot better than the bus system serving Cambridge, MA, at least. You can wait for the Number 1 bus on 77 Mass Ave for 40 minutes only to see three go by at one time once you’ve stopped waiting and decided to walk to Harvard Square. But everyone is eating, drinking, having ice cream, but also walking it all off, standing in the bars and streets socializing more so than sitting; and swimming, surfing, climbing the nearby mountains, biking, running, dancing, and just pretty much just playing around. It’s awesome. The health here just astonishes me. Going to the supermarket, I can’t find a huge variety (they don’t even sell peanut butter or bananas- you’ll have to go to the market or smaller grocers) but they have lots of natural, fresh, and whole food options. I’ve never felt better on a day to day basis and I’ve never been so fit in my life. I actually lost 18 lbs in the past two months of eating more whole foods and walking around more than driving around. Of course, this is summer time so there’s more time to be active and pay more attention to health than during the year or more intense periods of work, but still.

It makes me look back at my "normal" life in the States and how difficult it is to block the barrage of marketing tactics to persuade us to make unhealthy choices in our everyday lives. What are we as a generation going to do about this state of affairs? Do we agree with it? Do we want to change it? Is it even a question of personal health and therefore personal responsibility, or is it a question of global health and thus everyone's responsibility to make change? Looking at this issue globally, you could link global climate change to the over production of livestock for food and its substantial contribution of methane to the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere (even more than transportation). I think American society as a whole needs more education in nutrition. I mean, I certainly don't remember learning how to make healthy food choices while living in the United States in school. They teach everyone the food pyramid but that has so little power in the face of billions of dollars in marketing for fast food options. Maybe the food pyramid would be practical in other countries where food isn't so heavily processed and then injected with chemicals in an attempt to recreate the taste it once had. None of the food drawn on the food pyramid isn't sealed in plastic with the title "Hungry-Man" or put in a paper bag with a large yellow "M" on the side which is what we see as food everyday. I call for more education, life-long nutritional education, and a crack down on the excessive marketing of junk foods. How would you approach this issue and in what ways would you change the current state of affairs in the States to combat this unhealthy consumption?

The Million Dollar Question: Where are you going to college?

By Grecia Gonzalez

I’m going to Harvard, but in all honesty I was never the weird five year old who ran around screaming that. In fact, I didn’t realize that Harvard was the place for me until I went to summer school there last year. And you know what? That’s totally normal. Despite the fact that you’ll run into dozens of classmates that will tell you that their life goal is to go to X College, the reality is that they may only be saying that to look cool or they really don’t know. And it’s okay to not know. What matters is eventually figuring it out, and there is a way to go about doing that.

You’ll find that college searching ironically requires an odd amount of soul searching. I’m not saying this to be clichéd; it’s mostly true. When you’re looking for a school it’s important that you understand what kind of person you are and what it is that you want out of college. Are you comfortable with lots of people or do you prefer a smaller, closer-knit community? Do you want a more practical hands-on education, or is your passion theory? Do you want to live far away from home or close by? All of these questions and more have different answers for different people, but they’re not impossible to answer. In fact, when you break down college in terms of simple questions, the actual decision isn’t hard.

When I started thinking about college my junior year (and this is kind of bad of me since it’s usually better to do this earlier) I had already started constructing an idea of what kind of college I wanted to attend. I wanted a college with a strong foundation and emphasis in theory and plenty of research opportunities. I wanted to explore life out of California (i.e., go to school on the East Coast), but I wasn’t opposed to staying if my options where better in my state. Needless to say, this gave me a ridiculously large selection of schools. So, how did I narrow it down?

Your pool of college applications should follow the policy of “Safe, Middle, Reach.” What that phrase means is that the schools you apply to should fall into the different categories of “safety” school, “middle” school, or “reach” school. You should apply to “safety schools,” or schools that you know will accept you given your past and current performance (and that might even accept you if you for some reason succumb to the terrible ailment of Senioritis – though I strongly urge against you contracting it). You should also apply to schools that are slightly more competitive but that would still be within your range of college attractiveness (e.g., grades and extracurricular activities). These “middle schools” are ones that you should expect to get into if you keep up good to excellent work, but definitely have more presence than your safety schools. Finally, you should apply to “reach schools,” or schools that technically might be beyond your level or what you perceive to be your level. These are schools like, but not exclusively, Ivies. Now, you might be afraid to apply to these schools because you might think that you don’t stand a chance, but don’t be so pessimistic. Remember, the worst a reach school can do is reject you. Don’t reject yourself before they do. They know who can cut it at their schools, so if they do accept you, don’t be afraid to go. They want you for a reason.

However, by far the most important piece of advice for applying to schools is this: apply only to schools that you would be happy to go to if they accepted you. You’ll find that if you do this after you construct your “Safe, Middle, Reach” list, you’ll easily be able to manage the applications for the coming year. Remember, it’s important to narrow down the list to a manageable number so that actually applying to them and keeping up with their paperwork and specific needs doesn’t leave you with any permanent trauma. No need to kill your desire for college before you even get there, right?

SCHOOL IS ALMOST HERE!!!!

By Shelbie Bruce

First and foremost I want to wish everyone the very best year ever!!! I also want to motivate everyone to start the year with a positive attitude and enthusiasm. Let’s start the year with goals that will keep us focused and have a good routine.

There are probably some that think that school is a drag and find every excuse in the book not to go to school, be lazy or show no interest. Believe me, I’ve been there and done that. What most of us don’t know is that, most of those excuses are based on peer pressure. Some of us may know it, but, we don’t want to accept it. Why? It’s not cool and we are afraid to loose friends right? I can assure you that a true friend will want you to succeed as much as you want the same for him/her. I’m here to tell you that we need to stand up for ourselves and not allow our peers to push us around much less, manipulate our future by deciding the number of zeros our pay checks should have when we get jobs.
Surround yourself with the type of friends who have your same goals in life, even if you get called names like geeks or nerds. After all, the geeks and the nerds will be the ones doing the hiring and firing so day.

I would like to close this blog with my friend Wilmer Valderrama’s motto and quote “SOMEONE IS GOING TO BE THE BEST AND GET THE JOB, WHY NOT YOU”.

God bless you all and work hard!!!!

PS. As promised here are some photos of Little Miss CEO. Hope you enjoy. Check my website, www.shelbiebruce.com, for more news.

From left to right; Mitchell Klebanoff(Executive Producer), John Bowab (Director), Shelbie Bruce, Martin Jones (Producer), Todd Senturia (Executive Producer/Creator. This is Shelbie' Dream Team.

Kevin Covais, Cyrina Fiallo, Kemp Lee, Shelbie Bruce, Sharon Pierre-Louis, Karolin Luna

Karolin Luna, Diego Serrano, Shelbie Bruce, Rudy Rodriguez.

Cote de Pable (NCIS) and Shelbie Bruce

Foundation News

24 Hour Charity Dance Marathon on October 9

Celebrity beauty guru and long-time stylist for the Hispanic Heritage Awards Erwin Gomez will host the Erwin Gomez Annual Dance Marathon to raised funds for the Hispanic Heritage Foundations leadership and educational youth programs on October 9 at the Renaissance M St. Hotel in Washington, DC. Gomez’ event will annually support charitable causes in the Washington Area.

“As an entrepreneur who has been blessed with success, I felt a strong sense of responsibility to help the organizations whose mission is to help those in need,” said Gomez who owns Erwin Gomez Salon in Georgetown. “That is why I created this signature event which will annually raise money for a different nonprofit. I’ve been working as a volunteer with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation for years and have witnessed their impact on Latino students and young professionals in the workforce. We look forward to helping them expand their programs to reach even more young people.”

The 300-person event will feature a 24-hour dance marathon filled with registered dancers required to raise a $500 minimum dollar amount after signing up for four, 12 and 24-hour shifts. The Hispanic Heritage Foundation and Erwin Gomez will be inviting a few of their celebrity friends to take part in the extravaganza which will also provide local and national companies with high-profile exposure to an energetic and influential audience dancing for an important cause during Hispanic Heritage Month. Dancers and sponsors will soon be able to register online. Visit: www.erwingomezsalon.com

The event is alcohol-free and fruit juices, water, healthy food will be served throughout the marathon, which is currently being sponsored by DC Modern Luxury, Marriott Hotels International and Paloma Blanca Creative Enterprises. All proceeds from the 2008 Erwin Gomez Annual Dance Marathon will benefit the Hispanic Heritage Foundation.

“We are grateful to our good friend Erwin for his support and indefatigable spirit,” said Antonio Tijerino, President and CEO of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. “He is not only raising money to fuel our educational, leadership and workforce programs for youth, but he is also raising awareness about the positive contributions our burgeoning community has made and will make to America.”

Visit: The Hispanic Heritage Foundation

Culture

By Keone Hon

Today I had an interesting discussion with a couple of the researchers in my workplace about culture. Several of them have small children (actually, pretty much all the people here are in their thirties, probably because the methodologies we focus on are fairly new) and are trying to figure out how to teach their children their culture and language when their families and others who share their culture are far away.

The matter got me thinking about my own upbringing, as well as about how I can pass on my family’s traditions, along with the knowledge I’ve gained over the years, to my own children.

My family background is multicultural My mom is Mexican, and my dad is Chinese. Since my mom doesn’t know Chinese, and my dad doesn’t know either Spanish or Chinese, you can probably guess which language I spoke growing up: English! It’s always been a great regret of mine that I didn’t learn Spanish growing up, because I have never been able to attain fluency. I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise, since there’s a big gap between high school Spanish and conversational fluency. But it’s always been disappointing, because our language is a big part of our culture. The way we say hello to each other, the way we tell stories, our intonation when we make a joke or tease each other—these are just a few examples of how our cultural essence is transmitted through Spanish; but confidence in the language is a prerequisite to any of this.

So a part of my life has always been trying to learn about my culture and its language. Fortunately, many of my hobbies coincide with opportunities to learn.

For instance, I’m interested in cooking. I’m not a good cook, per se, but I can (usually!) follow a recipe and I get really excited about cooking because it’s a lot of fun. I was one of those kids who enjoyed playing with his food and cooking is arguably just that. So it’s been a lot of fun learning my grandma’s special recipes for tamales, beans, and the like.

I also really enjoy listening to music. To my friends’ discomfort, I like singing along to whatever I’m listening to (the discomfort is because I’m not a good singer) and I’ve found that I’m often most productive when I’m singing along to an old favorite. That’s not to say that productivity is everything, but what I mean is that music makes me happy, energetic, and focused. So when a friend introduced me to some música Latina a couple of years ago, I got hooked. I like pretty much anything sung in Spanish; I guess there are some rap exceptions, but as a general rule of thumb Latin music is awesome in my book. Actually, as I write this I’m listening to some Hombres G, but I’m also a big fan of Sin Bandera, Alex Ubago, and a few others…

I think I’ve gone a bit off-topic, but in closing, I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to learn more about my culture, and optimistic that there will be many more. For instance, I’d like to live in Latin America sometime in the next few years; I’ve actually only been out of the country once (and it was Australia! and I was four!) and think that would be a much better way to learn than karaokeing Ricardo Arjona songs over my homework.

I’m also really grateful for the welcoming spirit of Latinos, who have embraced me as familia despite only being half-familia, like an awkward step-brother or something.

End of Summer

By Eletha Flores

In about three weeks I will return to campus for another semester of intensity and stress- the exact opposite of how you could describe life here in San Sebastian, Spain. I’m looking forward to being back with my friends and taking some interesting and more advanced classes as a junior, but what I would give to bring with my the easy-going attitude and focus on the quality of life that I’ve experienced for the last two months. I guess that’s not an uncommon feeling for students in general looking apprehensively at the last few weeks of summer and toward the start of classes. It happens. Work´s been fun, though. Like I said before, we’re developing a prototype for stroke rehabilitation. I’d never seriously considered being a doctor or health sciences even though (or maybe because) my dad had really encouraged us to study medicine. But now I’m a lot more in touch with the value that research and development engineering can have when it’s applied to improving personal health. Working in robotics is way awesome already so adding in the value of improving lives just makes it one of the best jobs ever, at least to me. But sometimes the debugging and frustration with getting your wireless communication between the device and your computer can really be a pain. Then again, the struggles make you learn more about the technology you’re dealing with. And when someone comes up to you later with the same problem and you’re able to explain it, it feels pretty good. Before getting to Spain, I knew next to nothing about Linux. Sure, there’s the Athena system at MIT, but I’ve been mostly a Windows fan. Getting a new laptop in the future? Try Linux. It’s hardcore. Or partition your hard drive and put both on it. Come on, I dare you.

The work day after June 28 shortened from 8 am to 5 pm with a break in the middle to 8 am to 2 pm for “el horario intensivo” so that employees can go out and take advantage of this two month season of sun. Most of the year is rainy and grey. So it turns out there’s a lot of time to do stuff here. Stuff like rock climbing, which I’ve gotten really into. I live with another MIT intern and he’s picked up surfing. There’s also been a lot of time to reflect on the current direction my life is taking: where I’m going, what my goals are, how is next semester going to play out, etc. I’m definitely going to keep up the healthier lifestyle as much as I can and continue to do rock climbing at school. But also, I’ve found myself in need of some ideas and ways to be creative. I’ve decided to surround myself with others who are generating ideas so we can bounce them off each other. I realized that academics are one thing, but how much value they have emotionally, spiritually, physically has got to be questioned. That’s why it good to have something you’re passionate about in your life. If you feel like you’ve also looked at public education in a sceptical way, look up TED talks online, particularly the talk about how public school systems are educating people out of creativity for a fresh perspective. A good friend of mine introduced me to this site that shows clips of people sharing their ideas with the world. Thanks, Aaron! I am definitely in favour of talking about deep stuff like this- it’s what matters in life. I’ll tell anyone who will listen that one day I’m going to be a motivational speaker even though I have no idea how that’s supposed to happen. Maybe it has already started. Right here as I’m speaking to you. I’m not exactly speaking, but it’s legit. That reminds me of something I read in a personal testimony once. I don’t remember what the topic was, all I remember is this one sentence: “My life turned around once I started believing in myself.” I know this may seem like a no-brainer, but do we really believe in ourselves? And how well does this belief hold on in the face of crappy circumstances and unexpected, usually urgent, issues that always come up in our lives? That’s a solid starting point if you’re uncertain about your future and how you’re supposed to survive and thrive through school, work, and life to get there.

Ted talks, how school kills creativity educating ourselves out of creativity

Surrounding yourself with good people

Stuff I'm gonna change for next semester, maybe mention the classes I'm gonna take

How do you pay for a college education? Easy. You don’t.

By Grecia Gonzalez

One of the things I find amazing about college is that for some reason there is some grand misconception that it is very expensive and beyond the means of your mid to low income person. I have to say this isn’t true. Money for college is up for grabs at virtually every level of government, private sector, and schools.

In terms of government aid, you automatically apply when you fill out your FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). Depending on your or family’s income, you receive government aid potentially in the thousands and your eventual school of choice is informed of the rest of the money that they should help you out in getting, either in terms of school grants (money you never have to return) or loans (money you eventually pay back, though usually with low interest and usually not until you graduate).

The private sector is also your friend. There are thousands of organizations that have money for students of all types of backgrounds and abilities and they’re just dying to give it away in the form of scholarships. An obvious example of this would be the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, but it isn’t the only one. Quite honestly there’s a scholarship for any person so long as they can apply. If you don’t believe me, go to FastWEB.com, a scholarship search engine that personalizes its vast catalog of scholarships just for you when you sign up (which I encourage you to do since it’s very effective, very attentive, and, most importantly, free).

Finally, contrary to popular belief, most schools are really great about giving you money if you demonstrate financial need or academic merit. When people first found out I was going to Harvard, the first thing out of their mouths after the obligatory, “Congratulations!” tended to be, “Wow. That must be expensive. How are you going to pay?” Half absolutely could not believe that Harvard was admitting me for free. How? Harvard, like most schools in the Ivy League, has established a huge financial aid initiative that makes getting an “Ivy education” not only affordable but sometimes even more convenient than most state schools. This isn’t to say state schools are expensive. In fact, they’re very affordable. Since they’re subsidized by their respective state governments, they usually only cost half of regular tuition to state residents and they usually throw in some state grants into your final financial aid packet.

Deciding not to further your education is a very serious decision that involves a lot of different factors, but one of them should never be money. If you really want to go to college, do it. Do your FAFSA, look up scholarships, and start deciding what kind of school fits you and your needs (i.e. private or public?). Also, never forget to seek out help if you need it. Rest assured there is bound to be a counselor at your school dying for you to ask about college and how you can get there.