Leonardo DiCaprio, speaks on behalf of the earth to the UN to encourage countries to sign the Paris Agreement, because climate change is a world issue.

Leonardo DiCaprio asks the UN to ask themselves which side of history they will be on, the side that saved the planet or the side that did nothing to save it.

Last night, Leonardo DiCaprio, an ambassador of peace, spoke to the UN at the climate summit. In his speech he told the UN that he has been traveling the world looking at various places that have been affected by climate change. He said he has been to Beijing where the city is choked by industrial pollution, and India where floods are taking farmers’ crops, to name a few. DiCaprio said, “Climate change is happening faster than even the most pessimistic of scientists warned us decades ago.”

As a citizen of this planet he is thankful that there is now a foundation of a solution to stop climate change, such as the Paris Agreement. He insisted that the excuses need to go away, to start acting now, he said, “no more ten year studies. No more fossil fuel companies to manipulate and dictate the science and policies that affect our future.” He mentioned that he does not want to see shame in the children of the future, because people in this generation did noting to prevent this catastrophic event that is damaging the earth.

He said, ” It is upon you to do what great leaders have always done; to lead, inspire, and empower as president Lincoln did in his time.”

How our drinking water could help prevent suicide

In this article it is explained that lithium could be helpful to prevent suicides all around the United States. Because lithium is a natural ingredient found almost anywhere in the the Earth’s crust, and is what is typically prescribed to mentally ill people and is already found in water, scientists want to  know if it could potentially prevent suicides. The article explained that, three out of four studies found that lithium could be helpful for people that suffer from bipolar disease, and depression by adding it to the tap water.

These studies found that suicide could be prevented by adding a small doses of lithium  which would not be significantly noticed, and it would help people.

The author wants to know why it has not been done yet. There are people that might find this ethically wrong because they would need to consent to this process. They also argue that back in the day when they started adding  fluoride to our water, which made out teeth stronger by 25% of what they used to be, people threw a fit about it not being okay.  The author believes that this could be the case once again if this happens.

The article also says that there are many people that see no correlation between lithium being in water and preventing suicides.

(I think this is an interesting read, because I had no idea what lithium was used for and if it was dangerous or not. The article says that it is not dangerous if it is taken in small dosages. The article also is pretty much dealing with studies , science, facts and numbers which is what we are talking about in class. I might use this article to work for my news package story.

I think it might not be be a bad idea, but there needs to be more research done, because we don’t want anyone dying or getting sick because of this. If it is for the greatest good for people that suffer from mental illness, then I said do it, but just as long as we know more information about it.)

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/10/24/18010592/future-perfect-podcast-lithium-drinking-water-suicide

You might be polluting the oceans by just wearing and washing your clothes, experts say.

Did you know that most of the ocean’s pollution does not come from the typical straws and cups? and what if you were told you are actually hurting the planet by wearing clothes that are made out of “plastic”.

It is no secret that today, the everyday wear is made out of polyester, nylon, and synthetic fibers. Wearing clothes is not the issue, the problem is washing the clothes, because there is a thing called micro plastic pollution. Which means that tiny plastic fibers get released from the clothing being washed, into the already polluted oceans.

In 2016 Imogen Knapp, a marine scientist at the University of Plymouth co-directed a study that found exactly how many fibers are released from what types of clothing. Think about the amounts of clothes that are washed on the daily, and how much clothes each person has.

The study found that seven hundred thousand fibers get released in a single load of laundry from items made out of synthetic fibers, polyester and nylon. Knapp also conducted an experiment to see what items release the most amount of fibers, and found that acrylic fiber shed the most, followed by polyester.

So next time you buy and wash clothes, watch out for materials that might hurt the marine life and oceans.

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/9/19/17800654/clothes-plastic-pollution-polyester-washing-machine

Morningside College office of admissions makes it easy for students to find their home away from home and apply for free.

Morningside College is a small school located in Sioux city, IA. Many residents of Iowa come to this campus to receive their four-year education because of its size and opportunities. According to Steph Peter, director of admissions at Morningside says that, 50% of the population that make up campus is from Iowa, while 20% of the population comes from Nebraska, and the rest are international students, or out of the Midwest region.

Morningside College is different, because unlike other places, the process to apply is extremely easy, Peters said, “back in the day we had to fill out paper applications and send them in” she said that now students can do it online at their convenience.

Peters also shared that there is no cost for the application, which makes this application even more attractive to perspective students.

Peters reported that, nearly 4,000 students apply for admission to the college, but only about 2,500 students get accepted. This is due to the process that it takes to be admitted. According to the Morningside website, every student must meet a minimum of a 2.5 GPA, as well as have a score of 20 or above in their ACT.

Char Jorgensen, the MIS of admissions explained that part of the reason students do not go to Morningside is because they might not be able to afford it or it is too far from home or too close to home. Though Jorgensen is positive that our students are offered some of the best financial aid available.

Jorgensen is the person in charge of admitting students that meet the requirements. She is big into believing that students that come to visit must be treated like family, she says,” I think unlike other places, we truly care about students, they’re not just a number, they are family.” Though she has to make the tough decision where sometimes students don’t qualify with the minimum requirements to be accepted to the college.

Jorgensen shared that, what sets Morningside apart from other places is that professors have the ability to talk to students on a one on one base, because they are not just a number in a large lecture hall.

According to Peters, she has seen a lot of students go through the process of admissions. She said she is proud of the progress the college has made, and she says, “our location is big, we are still a very small community feel on campus, but our students have a lot of opportunities.”

Peters says, that the data that she shared is always available to students in the student handbook and online. This information on numbers is made available to give students the perspective of where people come from. It also tracks the numbers for the number of students that attend the college, the number for students that apply and students that are not admitted. Which helps students know what the demographic of students looks like once they get to campus.

She referred back to Colleen Knapp, the data base assistant, when asked how Morningside knows who is interested in the college. Knapp is the primary source of contact to students before they apply. Everything is like a chain reaction, first non-applicants that are interested in the college go through Knapp, then once they apply they go through Jorgensen and once they are admitted they are handed to a specific admissions counselor to help them with their journey.

This process makes it easier for students to know where their progress is, students are assigned a specific person to move along their easy process.The Data Base assistant at the admissions office, keeps track of all students that show some sort of interest to the college, whether they got interest through a college fair or through a coach.

Knapp is also the start of the process and she says many students don’t make it as far as applying because sometimes students are too far away from home or Morningside doesn’t offer the major they are interested in, she says, “If they want to be a carpenter, obviously probably won’t choose us.” Knapp says that everything that goes for handling transcripts and scores goes directly to Jorgensen after the student is admitted.

The process is free and easy for students that live close to home and far away, all they need to do is log on to the website and get their admission answer within a couple weeks.

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Did Taylor Swift really drive a spike in voter registration? The numbers say maybe.

Millennials and younger people are registering to vote after the possible correlation  to a post Taylor Swift made on instagram.

The article discusses how Swift has always kept her political views private, but this recently changed because she made an instagram post encouraging young people to register to vote in her home state of Tennessee.

Swift is endorsing the Democratic Party, and according to vote.org the registration ratings “spiked” after she made the post.  The article breaks down the demographic between ages and the numbers grew possibly because of this post. They cannot tell if it was correlated to the post or because usually in the month of October since it is the last month where voters can register.

This article got it’s information from the post Swift made and vote.org. Which are credible places to get information since they are the primary sources. I don’t exactly know much about politics, but I do believe that this post could have affected the decisions to push young people to register. Swift was a fallowing of 112 million followers on instagram, which is a lot of people to be influential to.

She is influential because she is famous, and this is relevant and makes more impact because it says something about how much she cares about the subject since she does not voice her political views online. There is only one interview which is to Kamari Guthrie that told buzzed she was relieved that post was made by Swift.

Why do students decide to come to Morningside and what makes them leave? Morningside is a place where a lot of local students tend to go to. It is a place where students tend to transfer to if they are from the tristate area and go somewhere else first.

Whitney Carnahan is a perfect example of someone that went to a big university, only to transfer to Morningside, after her second year of attending the University of Iowa. Carnahan, is from Sergeant Bluff, IA and has lived there her entire life. When asked about what exactly was wrong with going to Iowa, she explained that, “Iowa was just not the right feeling, I wanted to be somewhere that was closer to home, and I didn’t want to be a number in a large lecture hall; I like getting to know my professors.”. She said she was struggling to keep up with her classes because she didn’t feel like she could ask the professors or anyone for help to explain certain things. Not only was Iowa a big university, but it was also far away from home as she explained, “I couldn’t just pack my bags and go home on a random Sunday to go eat dinner at my parents.” She said. “It is kind of a hassle to have to drive five hours anytime I have to go home.” Carnahan said that after the end of her second year she decided it would be a much better idea to move back to Sioux City and try and attend Morningside. She stated, “my experience at Morningside was amazing, I made some friends and was offered a lot of money, more than I anticipated.” She said that the process to transfer was fairly easy, she also noted that she was paying much less to attend Morningside, than she did to go to UI. She graduated with a degree in Elementary Education and is currently a Masters student of education.

Not everyone has had a good experience with Morningside. Alysha Maxfield, a Sergeant Bluff native told the story about why she decided Morningside was not the right fit for her. Maxfield said that, she had many problems trying to get some of the college credits she took in high school to transfer over and count for her general classes. According to Maxfield, she had some general credits that should have been taken by the college to be counted towards her first-year classes. Instead she had to take other classes that were similar to the ones she had already taken. She shared, “I was not about to pay more money for those classes, because all they wanted was for me to have to take the same classes I had already taken, and pay for them.” Maxfield, said that after her first semester she was over Morningside, because it did not feel like home. She said that, because she was not involved in any extracurricular activities or sports, she felt like an outcast. “I had a lot of friends that loved it there, but they would all go hangout with the people in their sport and I would feel so awkward because I didn’t know those people.” Maxfield said, she was happy with her decision about leaving to attend Wayne State College through the College Center in South Sioux City, where she graduated with a Counseling degree. Carnahan and Maxfield both have different outlooks with their Mornignside experience, but there are students that are eager to find out what that might be like.

Juan Marquez is a football and track athlete that decided to go to Iowa Central in Fort Dodge, IA to get his associates in business. He shared that he wanted to continue his education and he knew that some of his friends were coming to Morningside after they graduated from IC. He fell short of graduation, because once football was over at IC he wanted to take a break. Marquez said, “I wanted to go to a four year college, and I was picked to be in the football team there, but decided to save some money and go to a community college first.” He was asked if he was going to go back to school, Marquez said, “yeah, I am. I have been talking to the coaches here and they offered me a spot in track. So, I might be there next semester.” He said he was excited to get back to it, because he wants to graduate. “Morningside is like really known to be really good at sports and at Iowa Central we weren’t good. I’m excited to see how good they are when I’m a student there.”

These people found that Morningside is full of opportunities, but it has some setbacks, Maxfield is an example of someone that felt like an “outcast” because she was not involved in sports. Carnahan found a home at Morningside, and Marquez is excited to start this new journey as a Mustang.

A Man of Faith and Compassion

Pastor Andy Nelson is the chaplain at Morningside College in Sioux City, IA. He has been doing this for a total of 2 years and transitioned from doing it part time to full time in the last year. He shared his passion for ministry on campus, he said growing up going to church was part of his life. He believes that in Christianity there is something important to say abut the world and how we treat each other. He enjoys talking to student, he helps students figure out what they might want to do in the future, as well as he talks to them about their families, current relationships whether they are good or bad, Nelson says, “my job is to listen”.

Pastor Nelson is an advocate for foster care as him and his wife have been licensed to do so since April, 2017. They currently have three biological children, and one foster child, Gavin, who is 16 months old and has been in Doctor Jessica Pleuss, his wife, and pastor Nelson’s care since he was two weeks old. Nelson shared that it is equal parts rewarding and frustrating, as it is hard to know how long the kids will be in their home. Nelson shared that, ” it’s hard to be compassionate” when talking about the families that let their kids get taken away. He noted that some of the reasons why kids get taken away from their families, such as mental illness, poverty, or a drug addiction. Most times the hope is to get the kids to their biological families, but sometimes that is not the case. According to Nelson, the state holds a trail to see if the parent of the child is deem of custody. Sometimes, in the process the state may terminate parental rights if the court agrees that things are not getting better for them. Foster families have the choice to adopt, host kids or both, Pastor Nelson said that him and his wife are doing both.

Pastor Nelson is compassionate for taking in foster kids, him and Dr. Pleuss are making a difference. Like he mentioned earlier in the interview, he believes Christianity has something important to say about the way we treat each other. Though it is frustrating, Nelson enjoys foster caring, as he mentioned it is rewarding.