Drexel kids get jobs too. (www.Drexel.edu)

Let’s show Drexel a little brotherly love. As the big university next door, Penn could benefit from casting a friendly eye towards it neighbor to the east.

While tensions between the two schools have sometimes been strained , life beyond Hill field can serve an instructive model for improving similar programs at Penn.

For starters, Drexel has learned to serve its niche as a career-focused school extremely well. The university operates an extremely successful job placement program that would make OCR-weary Whartonites salivate. Drexel’s co-operative education program gives students the chance to alternate classroom time with practical experience in the workplace. Upon graduation, students can walk out with a degree in hand and up to eighteen months of career experience under their belts. The program is supported by longstanding ties with businesses and structured campus advising resources. Drexel’s Steinbright Career Development Center assigns advisors to students to help them find paid internships that fit their academic and career goals.

These resources are similar to the ones offered by Penn’s own Career Services — but more integrated and driven by the academic curriculum. Drexel students can craft their own educational internships — ranging from teaching biomedical techniques in Kosovo to exploring fashion design. Drexel’s career development site even has a brilliant device that lets students exchange and locate housing for their internship experiences — a networking device that Penn students could benefit from. In addition, the co-op program streamlines the job search process and makes it much easier for Drexel students to receive academic credit for work — a second tip Penn could pick up on. The co-op program offers students a selection of 5,000 internships with over 1,500 organizations around the world. Some of the top employers that have partnered with Drexel’s co-operative program include Lockheed Martin, GlaxoSmithKline, and the National Security Agency.

So while some Penn undergrads bemoan the summer internship search, Drexel students are already sorting out their options. Of course, Penn shouldn’t let the vocational focus eclipse the importance of academics and research. Likewise, we shouldn’t discount the importance of getting a better picture of life after graduation — or the financial benefits of that experience. According to Drexel, six months of undergraduate internship can yield an average of $14,005 and median starting salaries of $ 42,000. Not bad for the price of tuition.

As a research institution, Penn shouldn’t change its focus on academics. Yet it can definitely incorporate new methods to improve the connections between work and study in undergraduate life.

One dose of the vaccine Gardasil, developed by Merck & Co., is displayed Friday, Feb. 2, 2007, in Austin, Texas. Gov. Rick Perry ordered that schoolgirls in Texas must be immunized with the vaccine to help prevent the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer. It would make Texas the first state to require the shots. (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)

Just on time for Valentine’s Day, politicians in one of the most unlikely corners of America have linked medical science with good policymaking to combat the spread of sexually transmitted.

Last Friday, Republican Texas governor Rick Perry issued an executive order that would require vaccinations for sixth graders against HPV , the virus responsible for cervical cancer. Parents can also choose to opt out of the vaccinations for their kids—an option that has helped to quell the ire of some conservative groups.
Sounds great, right? Drug companies and state government have finally teamed up to advance the public interest and fight cervical cancer (not to mention genital warts) with free public vaccinations.

Yet some watchdog groups have noted that the new measure might be linked to collusion between Merck — the drug company that markets the vaccine — and political interest groups. According to the Associated Press, Merck has ties with Governor Perry and has financially supported Women in Government , an organization of female legislators. Arguably, Merck is making these moves not simply to protect the public interest but to line their own wallets. The HPV vaccine just happens to cost $120 a pop.

Conservative groups also claim that vaccinations, by removing risks, would simply encourage promiscuity . But with many other STD’s out there that have yet to be treated — AIDS, for one — this particular consequence seems to be unlikely.
In fact, these new measures promise to raise popular awareness of a rarely highlighted women’s health issue — cervical cancer. Once the number one cause of female death in America, cervical cancer still takes the lives of approximately 4,000 women each year and infects thousands more.
If the goal of a drug company happens to intersect with the public interest, then the ends trump the means. The move in Texas sends a positive signal to other states like Michigan and Colorado that have been twiddling their thumbs over the issue of public vaccinations.

At Penn, Women’s Health offers an array of treatments and services that aid in prevention and early detection of cervical cancer — including Pap tests and exams. It’s just an echo of things in Texas, but it does help to break taboos on sexual health and encourage early diagnoses — which often can yield results just a step away from full prevention.

Although Penn sits squarely in the heart of University City, it manages to boast an increasingly cosmopolitan campus. Stroll down Locust Walk any given day and you’ll hear conversations in Korean, Portuguese, or Dutch.
Embracing global diversity has even become the dogma of official policy. President Amy Guttmann has advocated the goal of “engaging globally” in the Penn Compact . And in fact, more than 8.5% of the Class of 2010 hails from outside the borders of the United States.

And while the university prides itself in its internationalism, overseas admissions is still skewed toward the wealthier end of the spectrum. The situation is partly due to admissions policies that focus on channeling rich international kids who can boost Penn’s diversity stats while boosting university coffers.

But here’s the big whammy: Admission for students outside of the U.S., Canada, or Mexico is not need-blind . As a result, exceptionally bright candidates might sometimes lose out to exceptionally wealthy ones in the admissions game.
Remember when you applied to Penn? On that application, you had to check a box if you wanted to be considered for financial aid. And if you weren’t from the U.S., Canada, or Mexico, checking that box hurt your chances of admission.

In fact, of all our Ivy peers, Harvard is the only university to offer need-blind admissions to overseas students. This means that everyone has equal access to the financial aid pot — and applying for aid won’t compromise the success of your application.
Why does this matter if I’m part of the 92.5% of the student body that doesn’t hail from
overseas? Ostensibly, it seems like Penn should focus on getting aid to Americans (Canadians and Mexicans included) first. Yet why shoot someone down before they even have a chance to prove their merit? If a candidate applies, her admissions application should be solely judged on her qualifications. Likewise, her financial aid application should be judged separately based on whether she merits aid — and the student and her family can decide from there.Admissions is admissions. Financial aid is financial aid.

This measure would boost the caliber of the students who do apply, are admitted, and accept offers of admission to Penn. Moreover, everyone could benefit from a wider range of viewpoints — in classes and around campus. I’d like to hear the voices of both blacks and Afrikaners from South Africans — or the voices of both mulattoes and whites from Brazil. In creating a diverse campus, Penn shouldn’t settle for recruiting an elite potpourri of students from abroad but aim to create a representative sample of the world.

Grannies en route to the slammer in October 2005. (grandmothersforpeace.org)

Civil disobedience isn’t just for the young–it’s also for the young at heart.

Last June, eleven angry grannies were taken into custody by Philadelphia police after the women asked army recruiters to let them enlist in the Iraq War in place of the soldiers. When asked to leave, the women refused and were charged with trespassing.

And just last month, the grannies appeared in court and got those charges repealed–to the delight of geriatric comrades and encouraging anti-war onlookers who bore hand painted banners shouting “Let my grannies go!” and shirts with “We will not be silent” splashed across the front.

All eleven women are part of the Philadelphia chapter of the Grandmothers for Peace Brigade , an organization first launched by New York grannies on behalf of children and grandchildren serving in the Iraq War.

After storming army recruiting offices in Philadelphia, these women knew the consequences they might face. In fact, three of the eleven had already been jailed in 2004 after protesting the Iraq War in front of the Philadelphia federal courthouse.

In particular, Lillian Willoughby — the 91 year-old matriarch of the bunch — has been jailed multiple times for translating her Quaker ideals into peaceful activism. And neither her wheelchair nor her age has stopped her. Willoughby has been instrumental in bringing a spirit of protest to the City of Brotherly Love — ever since 1957 while speaking out against American nuclear might.

Not only have these grannies challenged the age barriers in military service. They’ve also suggested the implicit inequality in a military draft that spares mothers and daughters but takes fathers and sons. And often, it’s the duty of those who stay behind to protest.

At Penn, it’s good to know that we’ve joined the rest of the nation in the push for peace. On campus, faculty and student mobilization against the war has been visually prominent with the memorial markers formerly strewn over College Green. And perhaps, like Lillian Willoughby, who began her activist career half a century ago, we can later become grannies (or grandpas) who rise to the challenge even after our youths.

Forget Live 8 or the Kimmel Center . What this city needs is a little street music. To start off, let’s give subway musicians a chance to lighten up Philadelphia’s subterranean Netherworld.

Over the summer, I was taking the Paris metro back to my ramshackle hostel in Montmartre when a guy walked on the train with a sideways xylophone strung across his shoulder. He began to sing. Pacing up and down the corridors, he warbled French melodies in a rich tenor.

Back in Philly, a distinctive eau de sewer assaults my nose whenever I step into a SEPTA station. My friend swears she found a used syringe on her seat once.

Musicians who try to lighten up these depths have faced stringent opposition. Local jazz legend Byard Lancaster, for example, has been arrested by SEPTA police for playing the sax on subway platforms.

According to SEPTA spokesperson Gary Fairfax, performers are not permitted in the paid passenger areas–including platforms. Musicians may play outside of these areas if they do not impede passengers and if no amplifiers are used.

Buskers–or talented street artists looking to make a buck or two–should instead be encouraged to perform on subway platforms. Cities like New York or London have a competitive application process in place for these musicians. Some artists even have pretty fancy gigs’selling their own CDs and posing for photos. A competitive licensing process could ensure that listeners only hear the cream of the busking crop.

Live music can make a city like Philadelphia sexier, trendier, and more youthful. It could launch a more vibrant outdoor jazz scene, draw tourist revenues, boost pedestrian morale, perhaps launch a few musical careers .

And since I’m a Penn kid, I must say that our great founder, Benjamin Franklin, would approve. Franklin had a lifelong passion for music . He even invented the glass armonica after admiring the sound of musical glasses.

In a city with deep musical roots, let’s put the arts back into public life.

Last month, one of my friends approached me with a phenomenal idea— spring break in the Amazon . Eight days of pure, malaria-infested bliss. He gushed poetically about swimming with pink dolphins, posing with anacondas, even contracting dysentery. Ecotourism Ecotourism—or tourism with an environmentally-conscious twist–sounded fantastic to my midterm-addled mind.

So before you snap up those $300 round trip tickets to Rome , consider the alternatives. Get ready to shed those Manolo’s for malaria medicine. According to the International Ecotourism Society , about 2.4 million U.S. tourists , fuel the ecotourism market, a growing industry that generates roughly $77 billion in national revenues.

Ecotourism is a beautiful thing because it’s the new wave of the conservationist movement. Kiss goodbye to the nature calendars from the Sierra Club and corrugated cardboard recycling drives. Now any environmentally-minded person have their cake and eat it, too—travel to somewhere fun without forgetting their sense of ethics.

It’s part of the movement to unlock the power of your dollar, to vote with your wallet, and to exercise beliefs in the way you live. Ecotourism involves the power of the individual—the idea of change made on a collective level, one tourist at a time. Anyone can do it. Al Gore’s not the only one who can save the environment. By supporting local economies and proving the financial value of natural beauty, ecotourism can aid conservation efforts.

On campus, Penn’s own Alternate Spring Break offers splendid alternatives to any typical spring break plans—from working to maintain ecosystems in the Everglades to restoring marine life to the Chesapeake Bay. Sadly, my parents weren’t too keen on shipping their only daughter south of the Equator to mingle with monkeys, machetes, and malaria. Luckily enough, I was able to get a spot on a trip to Chesapeake Bay this March. Think wild ponies and wind-swept beaches à la Misty of Chincoteague . I mean, what girl can possibly resist wild pony watching cruises?

For everyone who’s looking for a bit of adventure—and possibly a little world-saving in the bargain. Think green. Think ecotourism.

In the latest volley in America’s crusade for public health, consumers are targeting the transfat menace. Just last December, Philadelphia councilman Juan Ramos introduced a bill to eliminate artificial transfat from area restaurants. This measure follows a similar step by New York City . If Ramos’ bill passes, both the New York pizza and the Philly cheese steak could soon be transfat free.

Transfats , are liquid oils that have been hardened into solid fats, according to the FDA, In The New England Journal of Medicine, Harvard researchers linked 50,000 heart attack deaths to American transfat consumption each year. Under the innocent guise of baked and fried goods, the transfat menace is lurking everywhere.

Just take a peek in the pantry. Oreo cookies, JIP peanut butter, Crisco cooking oil. You know you’ve hit the transfat mother load when partially hydrogenated soybean oil crops up in the ingredients list. While the ban mostly affects restaurants of the unsavory fast food variety, it will do us the added service of making consumers more cognizant of transfat in their shopping carts .

In 7th grade, I went on a fieldtrip to the local hospital. A cardiologist showed us an artery filled with hardened lumps of cholesterol. It looked like a mashed macaroni noodle. I was horrified. Given the choice, I would never want that gunk swimming around in my arteries, and I wager that most consumers would agree with me.

In fact, commercial alternatives are already in use. Wendy’s, soon to be followed by other fast food chains like Kentucky Fried Chicken, have already switched to transfat free cooking without much fuss. The transfat ban will simply give an extra prod to ensure these measures become a change across the board.

To New Yorkers, I say, bravo. To my fellow Philadelphians, I say hurry up already and pass that bill.