My Awesome Summer Vacation ... in Haiti

Social Work major Krystal Smith ('14) headed for Haiti when exams ended this spring. She spent the summer coordinating volunteer work groups, helping school children learn English, and spending time at a local orphanage. Read about the summer that changed this Park Scholar's life.

Caution: Your Child's First Job Could Be Hazardous to Her Health

The Atlantic has published an article about workplace safety among teens, using research conducted by Sociologist Michael Schulman.

An estimated 80 percent of teens are employed at some point during their high school years--but many of them are ill-equipped to deal with on-the-job hazards. Around 146,000 adolescents are injured in the workplace every year, according to federal data, with about 70 dying as a result. Even worse, a study in the current issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health argues that parents are unprepared to help their children stay safe.

"There's just a huge information gap in terms of parents knowing what's going on in the workplace right now," says co-author Michael Schulman, a North Carolina State University occupational-injury expert. "Parents are very active in helping kids find a job, but there's a big drop off in involvement after."

Read the full Atlantic article.

English Prof Named American Council on Education Fellow

Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education (ACE), has announced that Laura Severin, Professor of English at NC State University, is one of 50 Fellows at the American Council on Education for academic year 2011-12.

The ACE Fellows Program, established in 1965, is designed to strengthen institutional capacity and build leadership in American higher education by identifying and preparing promising senior faculty and administrators for responsible positions in college and university administration. Fifty Fellows, nominated by the presidents or chancellors of their institutions, were selected this year in a national competition.

Most previous Fellows have advanced into major positions in academic administration, according to ACE Fellows Program director Sharon McDade. Out of more than 1,700 participants in the program's first 46 years, more than 300 have become chief executive officers and more than 1,100 have become provosts, vice presidents, or deans.

Severin is a professor in the English department and a member of the Women's and Gender Studies faculty. She also serves as a co-PI on NC State's NSF ADVANCE project, designed to better recruit and retain women and faculty of color. All ACE Fellows work on a campus that isn't their own, receiving guidance and assignments from presidents and other senior leaders. Severin will spend part of the next year at Duke University, where her focus will be furthering interdisciplinary teaching and research. As a Fellow, she will attend three week-long retreats on higher education issues organized by ACE, read extensively in the field, and engage in other activities that will advance her knowledge about the challenges and opportunities confronting higher education.

Founded in 1918, ACE (www.acenet.edu) is the major coordinating body for all the nation's higher education institutions, representing more than 1,600 college and university presidents, and more than 200 related associations, nationwide. It provides leadership on key higher education issues and influences public policy through advocacy.

Psychology Dept Leads Global Progress in Emerging Field

A group of volunteers travels to a foreign country to provide aid. But as so often happens, unforeseen problems arise. Maybe the volunteers aren’t a good fit or their skill levels aren’t sufficient for the task at hand. Perhaps there’s a clash of cultural values between those helping and those being helped.

When such problems arise, they can greatly impede progress. Humanitarian Work Psychology (HWP) is an emerging area of industrial-organizational psychology specifically designed to address work-related issues in just such humanitarian arenas. NC State’s Department of Psychology is helping lead the global development of the field.

Associate Professor of Psychology Lori Foster Thompson (pictured at left) taught the world’s first HWP graduate courses last summer at the Universities of Bologna and Barcelona. Her students represented a true global community. “My students came from Peru, Brazil, Africa, Italy—all over the globe,” said Thompson in a call from Ireland, where she is conducting work this summer. “We discussed how to apply Work and Organizational Psychology to the humanitarian effort. We covered issues like women’s work opportunities in developing countries, micro-credit enterprises, online volunteerism, and sex slavery, in addition to other topics.”

Soon after the seminars concluded, Thompson headed to Melbourne, Australia, to attend the 27th International Congress of Applied Psychology, sponsored by the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP). There, a division of the IAAP voted unanimously to establish a four-year work group devoted to HWP, which Thompson will lead.

“I’m absolutely excited,” Thompson said. “People are ready to help and want to see our profession expand in this way. We’ve given talks about HWP around the world and we have witnessed a lot of enthusiasm from members of our field—both senior members and newer student members. We’re very encouraged by the reception this is getting.”

Thompson hopes the four-year effort she’s leading can be a workhorse for the Global Task Force for Humanitarian Work Psychology, formally established in 2009 at University College London. Thompson was one of about a dozen who attended that summit.

Her team’s task is to lay the groundwork for progress globally. “Our first challenge is to build a network with the most economically and geographically diverse members we can find,” Thompson said. “We want to hear from representatives of many different countries about how industrial-organizational psychology is best applied in aid situations.”

Alex Gloss is working with Thompson on the global task force, serving as coordinator for capacity-building. Gloss, who is currently studying in New Zealand, will join NC State’s industrial-organizational psychology doctoral program this fall. He’s finding there are still plenty of people who aren’t yet familiar with HWP.

“It’s industrial-organizational psychology with both a pro-social edge and a focus on the world of international development,” he said. “That includes areas you’d traditionally think of like humanitarian aid work and disaster relief and recovery efforts. HWP is also applied to more general non-government organizations and inter-governmental organizations that are involved in helping to improve the well-being of people around the world.”

“We have colleagues who have been doing this independently for decades,” Thompson added, “but we didn’t have a common name or language for it. Now that it’s becoming organized and strategic, we think it can become a more powerful force for good.”

Word is getting out that NC State University is a leader in the field. Applications and inquiries into HWP have increased in the past year. “I think our involvement has the potential to draw new members into industrial-organizational psychology who may not otherwise have pursued this field,” said Thompson. “I’m proud that NC State has been so supportive and encouraging of our work.”

By Christa Gala

CHASS Alum is Driving Force in Eugenics Victims' Compensation Effort

CHASS alumna Charmaine Fuller Cooper (MPA '07) has a tough job. As Executive Director of the N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, a newly-formed division of the state's Department of Administration, her role is to express the state’s formal apology to victims of the N.C. Eugenics Board. She is also charged with bringing together a diverse group of individuals and their families to agree upon a fair manner of compensation. The foundation works to provide justice for victims of the eugenics program that forcibly sterilized more than 7,600 people between 1929 and 1974.
Fuller Cooper's extraordinary skill and compassion were recently recognized in a DOA feature article, reprinted here with permission. As Rep. Larry Womble (D-Forsyth) said, "Not everybody can do this kind of work, but Charmaine has a proven track record and deserves the highest accolades. I’ve been involved with this issue for about 10 years now, and there was never any one person who I or victims could depend on. Her role is very important and pertinent to the successful resolution of this chapter in North Carolina history."

NYTimes References English Intern's Work

Summer internships can get students' work noticed in some high-powered places. Take senior English Major Sonny Ferares, who is interning with the Raleigh Public Record. An article she wrote about food trucks in Raleigh was referenced in a Sunday New York Times piece titled "Should Cities Drive Food Trucks Off the Streets?" Well done, Sonny!
Note: The Raleigh Public Record was founded by CHASS alum Charles Duncan Pardo ('05), who serves as editor. Read our feature story about Pardo in the CHASS newsblog.

Sandbagged: The Undoing of a Quarter Century of NC Coastal Conservation

Recent CHASS grad Gary Lazorick (MS, Technical Communication, '11)has been studying coastal erosion and the shifting sands of policies that have environmentalists and developers at odds. Read his article in Coastal Care.

Alum's Tea Party Research Featured in New York Times

John Coggin (Communication and Interdisciplinary Studies‘09) recently graduated from Harvard University with a Master of Theological Studies in Religion, Ethics, and Politics. While at Harvard, Coggin co-authored a paper that has become the subject of a New York Times piece, The Tea Party vs. The Freeloader.

The paper Coggin co-authored, “The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism,” was published this spring in Perspectives on Politics, the journal of the American Political Science Association. The paper looks at the origins and rise of the Tea Party and examines the bolstering of already-existing conservative networks in the wake of the 2008 presidential election, the influence of conservative media sources in movement building, and the ideological bonds that united citizens behind the Tea Party.

Read more about this remarkable former Park scholar on the Park Scholarships website.

Alum Touches Base with Saudi Arabian Youngsters

Daniel Caldwell (Sociology '04) refined swings, taught pitching mechanics and gave coaches instructions for 46 straight days this spring, often working all day in 120-degree heat as he taught baseball skills and coaching techniques in Saudi Arabia.

But Caldwell, 30, said he learned more than he taught during the six-week session. His experiences in Saudi Arabia were a catalyst for him to return to N.C. State and pursue a master's in public administration. He is unsure what he will do professionally, but he wants to contribute to society, and he thinks understanding public policy is a good starting place.

Read Tim Stevens' feature article in the News and Observer.

photo credit: Robert Willett, News and Observer.

Walt Wolfram Appears on History Channel's "Mouthing Off" Episode

Tune in to the History Channel at 10:00 pm, Tuesday, July 12, to hear Professor of English Walt Wolfram in the "Mouthing Off" episode of "How the States Got their Shapes." The episode looks at dialects across the country and answers such questions as why the southern accent didn't exist until after the Civil War, and whether one particularly strong accent could cause New York to break up and create a 51st state. Wolfram is a sociolinguist at NC State University, specializing in social and ethnic dialects of American English. He is the university's William C. Friday Distinguished University Professor.

Korn Bascombe: Born to Shine

Reprinted from the News and Observer's North Raleigh News.

When it comes to on-camera charisma and TV appeal, 5.9 million votes can't be wrong.

So when N.C. State University student Kornelius Bascombe (Criminology) lost an Oprah-sponsored television host talent search last year but gained 5.9 million votes for his efforts, he decided to keep trying.

"I got so close I could smell the television screen, but it wasn't close enough," Bascombe said. "So I kept putting myself out there."

It paid off. The 22-year-old Enloe High School grad was one of four aspiring television personalities nationwide picked by Time Warner Cable in the company's "Born to Shine" contest to host segments of a new talk show series airing later this summer.

The "Born to Shine" series will premiere in September on Time Warner Cable On Demand channels 199 and 1047.

Watch Korn's audition tape on YouTube.

N&O staff writer Chelsea Kellner talked with Bascombe before he flew off to Florida for his first assignment July 7.

Q: What was your strategy for the contest?

A: We did a whole week of nothing but planning - where we were going to shoot, what we would capture in the audition tape and what would bring my personality out to be picked as one of top winners. I went around Raleigh and talked to regular people. People who went to my high school, younger kids from elementary school, elderly people. ...I wanted to show that I could relate to everybody. It came across really well.

Q: How would you describe your on-camera presence?

A: I'm very energetic. I love life. I love smiling. I love to let people know that no matter what they're going through, they can find the good things and have a good time.

Q: What do you enjoy about being on TV?

A: I love being able to inform people. I like to entertain people. I love having fun. When people are having a bad day, I like being the person that they can turn the television to, to feel better. ... I like having that ability to relate to people and have them feel better about their day because I'm in their life.

Q: What's your life story?

A: I grew up in a single grandparent home. My dad was deported from the United States (to the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean) when I was 2 weeks old. I've only met him once, during my senior year of high school. My mom wasn't in my life just because she didn't have custody and was working in Charlotte.

In my senior year of high school, my grandma had a stroke, so I had to take care of my brothers and my sisters. ...Two weeks after my grandma had the stroke, our house caught on fire and burned to the ground. ...While that was going on, I was applying for college. ...(While I was at N.C. State), I put an emphasis on helping out the community. I joined a fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, to mentor younger students, letting them know that living a good life and getting an education is important.

Q: What's your advice to other Raleigh kids chasing the same TV dream?

A: You have to crawl before you walk. In every instance, there's going to be a time when you don't succeed. It's important to keep trying hard. When I did the Oprah competition, I didn't win ...but I kept trying. One guy I interviewed said, when I asked him how he measured success, that success is when you make your dream a reality. I thought that was amazing.

Q: What are your plans for the future?

A: The dream is to be on television, in front of the camera, whether it's "Entertainment Tonight" or "Access Hollywood" or hosting some show like "American Idol." I could definitely see myself as the next Ryan Seacrest or Larry King or Conan O'Brien, any of those crazy-cool guys. ...If I get a job in Raleigh that would be great, but I've been in Raleigh my whole life. I want maybe to move to L.A. or New York, markets where there's lots of opportunity. But if there comes a chance and Raleigh says, "Kornelius, you need to host something," oh I'm going to do it.

Coastal Healing

“The cure for anything is saltwater — sweat, tears, or the sea.”
—Isak Dinesen

From the moment she boarded the ferry for Bald Head Island, Sgt. Ruby Hendrickson could feel herself begin to relax. “I didn’t feel on guard,” says the reservist, who was recuperating from painful neck and shoulder injuries she suffered on her third deployment to Iraq.

Hendrickson never expected to vacation at a beach house where she could spend time with her daughter and new granddaughter and hunt for shells with her son-in-law, who is also recovering from serious combat injuries.

She heard about the opportunity while volunteering with the Soldiers and Family Support Center at Fort Bragg during weeks filled with doctor appointments and medical board paperwork.

“It was just the ticket I needed to get away,” Hendrickson says. “It was wonderful to stick my feet in the ocean.”


A Walk to Remember

Hendrickson’s vacation grew out of a walk on the beach months earlier. Keith Earnshaw, an NC State adjunct professor who teaches in the CHASS interdisciplinary studies program, has a home on Bald Head. He was exercising his dog when he began thinking about how the peaceful setting could benefit military families in North Carolina

“It seemed like it could be a good fit for families who have been through life-threatening situations to be able to take a break close to home,” says Earnshaw.

During spring and fall, Earnshaw saw many beach homes vacant. He decided to enlist people he knew to see if they’d be willing to donate time at their houses.

The result was Coastal Giving, a nonprofit that works with Fort Bragg’s Wounded Warrior program as well as the Children’s Miracle Network. The project takes donations solely for cleaning services before and after families visit, although military visitors have been known to leave the homes clean enough for a white glove inspection.


Peaceful Retreat

Hendrickson, a reservist since 1979, hopes other military families will take advantage of Coastal Giving. “After being in a combat zone, you have to ease back into the civilian world,” she says. “Soldiers in transition need time with their families for bonding.”

It’s good that the vacation was no trip to Disneyland, she adds. “A lot of people returning from combat have PTSD and they find it difficult to be around large crowds. The ocean is therapeutic.” On Bald Head, she and her family received plenty of smiles and helpful directions from local residents.

To learn more about Coastal Giving, contact Earnshaw at 919-818-1746 or earnshaw@mindspring.com.

by D'Lyn Ford. This story was first published in NC State's Bulletin.

Bigger Than Football: Study Shows Sports Can Help Communities Recover From Disaster

Research from NC State's Department of Communication shows that organized sports can be a powerful tool for helping to rebuild communities in the wake of disasters. The research focused specifically on the role of professional football in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

“Sports, and by extension sports media, can be a powerful force for good. It can bring people together. It can provide hope, even in the midst of great destruction,” says Dr. Ken Zagacki, co-author of a paper describing the research and a professor of communication at NC State. “But we have to be careful that we don’t use sports to gloss over real problems. We don’t want to ‘move on’ from tragedies like Katrina when real social problems remain.”

In late summer 2005, New Orleans and the Gulf Coast were facing unprecedented destruction stemming from Hurricane Katrina. The region was going through social and economic upheaval. And, in the days immediately following Katrina’s landfall, the Louisiana Superdome had been the backdrop for scenes of men, women and children struggling to get basic necessities.

In September 2006, the New Orleans Saints played their first home game in that same building, which had just been restored. Zagacki and Dr. Daniel Grano, lead author of the paper and an associate professor at University of North Carolina Charlotte, wanted to see what role that landmark game had in New Orleans’ recovery.

Louisiana is well known for its passionate football fans, and the Superdome had corresponding cultural importance in the state. As a result, the post-Katrina images of human suffering were particularly traumatic for the region. Those images also raised issues of racism, since the bulk of the citizens stranded there were poor and African American. “In short,” Zagacki says, “an important focal point for the community had become associated with despair, rather than pride.

“But the media coverage of the Saints’ homecoming, and the game itself, served as almost a purification ritual for the community. It really helped to reunite the community, giving them a common bond and helping them to move forward.

“However, the media coverage also exacerbated some of the social problems the region was struggling with – particularly concerning race and poverty.” For example, television broadcasts and public officials repeatedly associated images of African American evacuees with uncivilized conditions in the Superdome, spreading terrifying rumors that proved mostly untrue.

“The images were intended to highlight the contrast between ‘then’ and ‘now,’” Zagacki says, “to illustrate how far New Orleans had come in its recovery. But those same images might have also reinforced negative racial stereotypes.”

The Saints game did serve to help bring the New Orleans community together, giving it a shared sense of identity. However, the researchers say there is some concern that it may also have fostered a false sense of harmony, that forestalled public engagement on issues related to race and class.

“Sports, at any level, can be a powerful unifying force in the wake of a disaster,” Zagacki says. “We hope people can utilize that, without losing sight of the larger problems that often need to be dealt with during a community’s recovery.”

The paper, “Cleansing the Superdome: The Paradox of Purity and Post-Katrina Guilt,” is published in the summer issue of the Quarterly Journal of Speech.

NC State’s Department of Communication is part of the university’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

-Matt Shipman-

Note to editors: The study abstract follows.

“Cleansing the Superdome: The Paradox of Purity and Post-Katrina Guilt”

Authors: Daniel A. Grano, University of North Carolina Charlotte; Kenneth S. Zagacki, North Carolina State University

Published: May 2011, in Quarterly Journal of Speech

Abstract: The reopening of the New Orleans Superdome after Hurricane Katrina on Monday Night Football dramatized problematic rhetorical, visual, and spatial norms of purification rituals bound up in what Burke calls the paradox of purity. Hurricane Katrina was significant as a visually traumatic event in large part because it signified the ghetto as a rarely discussed remainder of American structural racism and pressed the filthiest visual and territorial residues of marginalized poverty into the national consciousness. In this essay, we argue that a visual paradox of purification – that purifying discourses must ‘‘be of the same symbolic substance’’ as the polluted images that goad them – complicated ritual attempts to both purge and commemorate Katrina evacuees. It is within the paradox of purity that visually grounded purification rituals like the Superdome reopening should be considered for their potential to invite or foreclose public engagement with race and class problems firmly entrenched in Americans’ perceptions of pollution and public territory.