/ GRADUATION GUIDE / THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2011 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
Wide range of options available for new graduates
BY CLAIRE MCINERNY
editor@kansan.com
As some seniors are preparing for jobs and planning their lives after school,some students are experiencing a different scenario the end of college manic.
Four yea degree late
Wiechman spent his two years in Saint Lucia doing community development. He helped a farmers' cooperative develop a grant proposal to get funding for a composting project from the United Nations and also taught reading and music at a school.
er. One opportunity that enables students to make that happen is through Teach for America. Teach For America is a program that allows recent college graduates to teach in public schools in low-income communities. The assignment lasts for two years.
a way to prolong having to find a job, but rather look at it as a way to find new opportunities and new ways for students to use their passions. She said a lot of politicians who now work in Congress were in the program and are now fighting for education rights.
--whatever the brain is developing in one's 20s, it could be interacting with developmental factors," Tim McQueeny, a doctoral student at the University of Cincinnati who led the study, said.
The Peace Corps was an attract
option for Wjechman because
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 2011
PAGE 6
Binge drinking kills your brain cells
BY MEG LOWRY
mlowry@kansan.com
The most severe injury, though, is one you cannot see or feel: the trauma inflicted on your brain.
Bruises, cuts, nausea and a throbbing headache are some of the physical pains caused by binge drinking.
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN
A study presented at the annual conference for the Research Society on Alcoholism last week reported that binge drinking greatly deteriorates gray and white matter in the brain.
in a row for men and four or more in a row for women.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse defines "binge drinking" as a pattern of excessive alcohol use that increases a person's blood alcohol content rapidly, and says more than half of Americans between 18 and 25 have engaged in the activity. Typically, binge drinking would be five or more drinks
aged in binge drinking. McQueney conducted high-resolution brain scans on weekend binge drinkers, which found significant erosion in the pre-frontal cortex and in the gray matter of the brain. The greater number of drinks consumed,
More than half of Americans between 18 and 25 years old have engaged in binge drinking.
the higher correlation to brain-matter thinning.
Typically, binge drinking is more than five drinks in a row for men and more than four for women.
"It doesn't matter what kind of drink," McQueeny said. "When the combined alcohol reaches the binge level we see the effects."
has on student permission.
"I'd say a good rule of thumb is if you need to study to take a test on Friday, you won't be doing yourself any favors going out on a Thursday," Nelson said.
Chris Nelson, a third-year law student from Kansas City, Mo., has witnessed first-hand the drinking culture on campus and the negative impact it has on student performances.
Binge drinking affects every single organ in the human body, but because
"Since the brain is developing in one's twenties, it could be interacting with developmental factors."
These effects include deterioration of the brain that control attention, planning, decision-making, thinking and transmitting messages.
TIM MCQUEENY leader of study, University of Cincinnati
alcohol is a depressant, it directly slows the functioning of the central nervous system.
According to Watkins Student Health Services, about twenty-five percent of college students say their drinking has nega-
lively impacted their academic performance. Students report missing classes, failing exams and falling behind in coursework as a result of their
drinking.
drinking. When a high-resolution brain scan of a healthy brain and a brain affected by binge drinking are placed side by side, the brain of the binge drinker appears to be filled with holes.
this effect.
to be nice to him. Any binge drinking, even rarely, has
this effect.
"So many people think of college as the only years they can really cut loose," Nelson said. "They don't grasp what their life could be like down the line."