Volume 124 Issue 58
kansan.com
Thursday, November 10, 2011
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FRIDAY NOVEMBER 11, 2011
PAGE 6
COMMUNITY
Strong Girls on campus
Program offers guidance to girls
CLAIRE MCINERNY
cmcinerny@kansan.com
Every Wednesday, fifth-grader Addie Thornsbury can't wait to leave her class at Broken Arrow Elementary School. Not because she doesn't like it there, but rather, she gets to come to campus and see her friends and mentors at Strong Girls.
Strong Girls, a program started by co-directors Dr. Mary Fry and Theresa Brown, helps improve positive thinking and physical activity in as many as 90 third-fourth- and fifth-grade girls.
Fry, an associate professor in
"If you think about all the things kids have to navigate through and deal with, it's overwhelming and it's amazing they can grow up to be productive citizens," Brown said. "The reason we target the age range we do is because we're trying to give them some tools before problems start happened."
the sport and exercise psychology department, along with Brown, a post doctoral student in the department, started the program as a research project. According to Fry, previous research shows that young girls do not have as much opportunity as boys to be physically active. The two wanted to give young girls that opportunity and see how it affects the rest of their lives.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
"Some of our recent findings have shown that kids in the program are more likely to define success based on their efforts and improvements, which is a great quality to have in life." Fry said.
To mark the progress of the girls, Fry and Brown have the participants write or draw in a journal at the end of each afternoon. Seeing how the girls interpret the lessons about self-esteem, positive thinking and the importance of exercising with words or pictures help Fry and Brown evaluate results.
The two also send surveys to the girls' parents and teachers to see if behavior outside of the Strong Girls' meetings is different. Since girls in the program come from only two elementary schools, teachers often report that the girls are getting along better in the classroom, according to Fry.
To facilitate this change with the young girls, Strong Girls has 50 student volunteers work with the girls in small groups. After going through a training process, the leaders lead physical activities and help set good examples for the younger girls.
Part of the reason Thornsbury looks forward to Strong Girls so much is because she loves spending time with her leaders. Not only does she have fun with them, but they give her opportunities she would not get otherwise such as new ways to exercise.
The elementary school girls benefit from the program, but the leaders benefit also. Kelsie Feagan, a junior from Omaha, said she also looks forward to Wednesdays.
"I want to be positive to everyone," Feagan said. "Not just these girls."
- Edited by Jayson Jenks
VETERANS DAY
Women in forces fill non-traditional roles
CLAIRE MCINERNY
cmcinerny@kansan.com
The image of a veteran can too easily be stereotyped as an older man in his 80s, holding a flag in a Veterans Day parade, proudly showing his medals from Vietnam or Korea or maybe even World War II. But for the generation currently at Kansas, the face of a war veteran is changing.
Take Katherine Robinson for example. Robinson, a non-traditional senior from Coburn, Va., enrolled at the University at 24 years old after serving in the Army for 14 months in Iraq.
Joining the military
Veterans Day, for Robinson, is exciting to celebrate because the memories of her service are not so far behind her.
Robinson describes herself as a girly girl. At first, she had a hard time adjusting to using only bar soap in the shower and no longer having privacy, but joining the Army was not about the lifestyle. It was about supporting her beliefs.
"I really wanted to serve," Robinson said. "I was really supportive of what we were doing over there and I felt like if I was going to vote for it, I needed to be a part of it."
Robinson left college to enlist, and once she was in the Army, she never looked back. She is an intelligence analyst for the Army, so deployment was the only way she could practice what she was trained to do.
The challenges of military life
After basic training, Robinson moved on to Advanced Individual Training, a 12-week session that trains soldiers for their specific jobs. During this training, she met her future husband, Jake.
Because this wasn't basic training and the soldiers had more free time, it wasn't a big deal for Robinson to date another soldier. However, the challenges of falling in love on a military base did make dating difficult.
The two couldn't hang out in each others rooms and they were often surrounded by the other soldiers, so it was hard to find time to spend with just each other. But despite the lack of privacy, the two didn't mind the situation.
"It felt normal," Robinson said. "Because I guess, at that point, I was so used to being with everyone all the time."
Being away from her husband for the first three years of their marriage presented Robinson with a personal challenge while she served in Iraq. Although Robinson spent only 14
months in Iraq, once she returned,
her husband immediately left to serve,
making the situation even harder.
Returning from war
While adapting to the drastic lifestyle of the Army and going so long without seeing her husband was difficult, it was also hard for Robinson to adjust back to civilian life. After 15-hour days and complete structure, Robinson struggled to throw herself into college life at the University.
"Here I was, 24 years old and I've had all this responsibility, and all of a sudden I was a student again," Robinson said. "School is a responsibility, but it's not the same as making a decision that will drastically change someone's life."
Jake, a senior from Oberlin, dealt with the same struggles. Being around college students who did not go through the same experience as Jake often bothered him.
"You just get frustrated when people complain about things you don't complain about," Jake said. "You were in a situation that is life or death and then you come back and someone's complaining about whether they can afford some shoes they want."
A veteran at Kansas
Although not everyone at the University can empathize with Robinson and Jake's past, the two said the veteran support at the University is strong. Jake is vice president of the Collegiate Veteran's Association (CVA), a group that organizes social events and advocates for students who served in the military. Jake said one project the group is currently working on is to get in-state tuition for veterans.
In addition to the work they do for veterans, Jake made CVA also provides him with a strong support system.
"It's good they have the same experiences as you," jake said. "We probably spend half our time talking about being in the military or our deployment."
Even though adjusting back to everyday life challenged Robinson, she said her experience in the military helped prepare her for it.
"It really helped me confidence-wise," Robinson said. "When I was in school before, I was really, really shy and really nervous about everything. I would have never joined something like CVA before. It really helped me not be afraid to take chances and to know I can be in leadership positions if I need to and it's not a big deal."
to "prove" they don't care reveal their bluff.
Edited by Sarah Champ
Kansas officials and coaches have said they have no interest in playing Missouri beyond this season, and many fans feel the same way. There's probably a lot of truth in that, too. Kansas certainly doesn't benefit financially from playing Missouri in basketball, where an annual game in Kansas City would mean a 50-50 split of ticket money. Kansas will make much more than that when they play Davidson there next month.
But in seven or eight years, when both schools are settled in their respective conferences, some business will try to sponsor a reunion in Kansas City of football, basketball, or both. It will be just enough time to cool off from the messy divorce, and both sides will realize hating someone else isn't quite the same.
Paterno, Spanier fired after Sandusky scandal
Edited by Mandy Matney
MCCLATCHY TRIBUNE
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The longest and one of the most distinguished coaching careers in college football history ended suddenly with the firing of Joe Paterno by Penn State's Board of Trustees on Wednesday night. Paterno, who offered his resignation in the morning but said he wanted to finish this season, was joined on the unemployment line by university president Graham Spanier.
The move was in response to the arrest on Saturday of Paterno's longtime former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky and the release of a grand jury report alleging he sexually abused at least eight young boys. Although neither Paterno nor Spanier has been charged with any criminal wrongdoing.
Speaking for the board, vicechairman John Surma said, "The past several days have been terrible, but the outrage we feel is nothing compared to the physical and psychological abuse that allegedly took place."
Paterno received an eyewitness report of one alleged sexual assault in 2002 and just passed it up the chain of comman-1. No one at Penn State pursued a criminal prosecution of Sandusky for that incident.
Surma was pressed repeatedly for an explanation of why Paterno, who is tied with Amos Alonzo Stagg for most games ever coached at 448, was not given a chance to coach the final home game against Nebraska on Saturday at Beaver Stadium. Instead, defensive coordinator Tom Bradley was appointed to replace Paterno on an
MATT ROURKE/AP PHOTO
interim basis.
"With the difficulties engulfing this university — and they are grave as you all have documented," Surma said, "it was necessary to make a change now."
Speaking at his house to students, Paterno said, "Right now, I'm not the football coach, and that's something I have to get used to?"
Perhaps fearing the worst, the 84-year-old Paterno, who has a record 409 wins, attempted to make an end run around the board of trustees in the hope of going out with a shred of dignity. In his statement, which was released through a Washington-area public relations firm as opposed to being approved by Penn State, Paterno expressed regret that he didn't do more to prevent Sandusky's alleged crimes.
Penn State football coach Joe Paterno arrives home yesterday in State College, Pa. Paterno and university president Graham Spanier were fired yesterday evening, brought down by their failure to do more about an allegation of child sex abuse against a former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, who is accused of molesting eight boys over 15 years.
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