Calhoun creates opportunity, success

Skylar Calhoun insists he is no different from anyone else, although those that know him beg to differ. Calhoun was homeless at 16, but he has overcome peer pressure and lack of family support to inspire and impact the students of the University of Oklahoma.
"It's very tough for homeless teens. It's traditional that you have a support system of your family and your parents, and when you're not given that, it's really tough," said Calhoun.
Calhoun did receive support from Bridges in Norman, Oklahoma, a nonprofit organization that provides housing for homeless high school students at an affordable cost. Debra Krittenbrink, executive director of Bridges, says 80% of the teens housed at Bridges go on to pursue a higher education. According to a survey conducted by public schools in Cleveland County, 357 children were identified as homeless in the past year. However, these students can be tough to find because most are embarrassed by their homeless status, says Krittenbrink. Calhoun agrees.
"It's nerve wracking to think that someone could think less of me because I was homeless," said Calhoun.
At OU though, no one thinks less of Calhoun--he is held in high regard.
"I've been constantly impressed with Skylar, constantly impressed," said Darci Lambeth, Calhoun's adviser for the President's Community Scholars (PCS). PCS is a freshmen organization dedicated to engaging students with a passion for community service. From studying civil engineering to serving as a student worker at Cate Center to becoming involved within the Leadership Development and Volunteerism office on campus, Calhoun has earned the respect and admiration of his peers and his superiors. At the last PCS meeting, Calhoun was even voted "Most Inspiring" by his fellow scholars.

Watch below as Calhoun goes about his daily life as a student, a student leader and a student worker.

VIDEO: Kendall Burchard Runs: 2:07 

Judging Journalism

By Kendall Burchard

            

              Data journalist Brian Boyer discussed the importance of journalism furthering democracy with students from the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication on April 14, 2014.

            “What struck me about journalism was that it was about looking at democracy in ways that could help people, and help our democracy better,” said Boyer. University of Oklahoma students will be looking to make their state democracy better as elections approach in the fall, with various state and national offices up for grabs. For university students, the hot issue in each race revolves around higher education funding. Over the past few months, the media has actively covered the education funding controversies in the state, from OU President David L. Boren’s February 2016 article detailing budget cuts in the state to Governor Mary Fallin’s proposed tax cuts that would in turn cut education funding. Although university students often pursue media coverage of news events to accompany studies, the public as a whole still struggles to see the role journalism plays within society. 

            In September 2013, Gallup released a poll indicating that general trust for the mass media had increased from 2012. According to Gallup, Americans have consistently expressed distrust of the mass media since 2007, with only 44% of people expressing “a great deal or fair amount of trust and confidence” in the media. Gallup blames a perceived liberal bias within the media for the previous decline of trust in media, while Jay Rossen of PressThink cites a general distrust of institutions as a whole and stories simply becoming “’too big to tell’”. With the growing complexity of the world, journalists are no longer able to tell the “story” of a particular event or idea to the satisfaction of their complicated, multi-faceted audience, according to Rossen.    

            John Schmeltzer, the Engleman/Livermore Professor in Community Journalism at Gaylord College, claims journalism still to be a major connecting factor within society.

“Journalism provides a means to go and knit society together. Without journalism, you don’t have democracy,” said Schmeltzer, “Journalism’s role is to go and help the people, or to provide a voice to the voiceless.”

“The essentials of journalism are still really important, storytelling, protecting the voiceless, etcetera. Those are going to be essentials forever. It’s getting to the idea of how do we go and get that message out that’s still going to be a struggle,” said Schmeltzer.  

            Boyer will continue to work for NPR’s visual team, developing programs, covering stories and developing new ways to share and categorize information for easy access. To find out more about Brian Boyer, follow him on Twitter @brianboyer, or visit his website, hackerjournalist.net.

 Boyer discusses his goals in generating traffic to specific news stories that make society better. VIDEO: Kendall Burchard runs :24

 

Tinker tinkers with social media issues

By Kendall Burchard

              The Tinker Tour, a nation-wide initiative to educate America’s youth about First Amendment rights, visited the University of Oklahoma on April 10, 2014. Mary Beth Tinker, namesake of the landmark Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District that gave students Free Speech within schools, spearheaded the movement with her friend, attorney Mike Hiestand.

              First Amendment protections have been a controversial topic on OU’s campus recently.

On April 8, Brother Jed Smock, founder and president of Campus Ministry USA, preached his inflammatory sermons to passersby while the students from the Constitutional Studies Student Association filled out bingo cards featuring Smock’s known catch phrases. On April 7, The Atlantic released an article questioning whether social media prohibited students from the full Free Speech protections offered by the First Amendment.

In the article, Tinker offered her thoughts to The Atlantic about possible threats to student’s First Amendment rights due to the advent of social media.

Tinker deferred to Hiestand, an attorney for the Student Press Law Center, when asked about First Amendment protections pertaining to the Internet.

“There’s a fear factor that goes into it,” said Hiestand, “One of the things we’re saying is, let’s put together a course for administrators, like a social media 101, so you can tell them about what is a Twitter, and what is a tweet, everything that they have no clue about but they are just scared of.”

“If we can merge the rights that Mary Beth’s case gave with some of these new speech tools and kind of get administrators on board with that, and officials on board with that, some pretty amazing stuff could happen,” said Hiestand.    

            Tinker began standing up for her beliefs as a child, after learning from the examples of her politically active parents. Tinker said her parent’s fight against racial inequality inspired her to hold fast to her beliefs. 

            “My dad really hadn’t thought we should wear the arm bands anyway because it was ‘against the rules’,” said Tinker, “But I said, ‘But Dad! Look at how you stood up and spoke up!’ and then I think he understood.”  

Students came to the lecture not only for the extra credit offered by their professors, but also out of appreciation and curiosity for Tinker’s story. Junior Brandon Tomlin was impressed by Tinker’s audacity as a young girl.

“I don’t know what I was doing when I was 14, but I know I wasn’t fighting for my freedom of speech,” said Tomlin, “to see someone who’s that passionate, and who knows her rights and is willing to fight for her rights is really inspiring to me.”

Graduate assistant Rashmi Thapaliya was excited to see history come alive. However, she disagreed with Tinker about the Internet contributing to a decline of Free Speech protections.

“I think [the Internet] is helping, I think. It’s a good form for the students,” said Thapaliya.

After Tinker’s brief stay in Oklahoma concludes on April 11, she will continue the Tinker Tour by visiting various college and high school campuses from Kansas in April to Washington in May. Tinker will also deliver her first Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) talk in Brazil in April, and will be beginning her world tour in May.

Graduate assistant Rashmi Thapaliya discusses her opinion of the lecture and what she believes to be the most important civil rights and liberties as a citizen of Nepal.
VIDEO: Kendall Burchard Runs :25

The Extra Mile Personified

For finishing the Pumpkin Holler Hunnerd, Ferraro was awarded a belt buckle, the custom trophy for all finishers of ultra marathons. Ferraro added to his collection of buckles at the Prairie Spirit Trail race in Ottawa, Kansas after finishing another ultra in March 2014. PHOTO: Kendall Burchard

By Kendall Burchard

For junior Nathan Ferraro, avid runner, Navy veteran, and architectural engineering major, going the “extra mile” is only the beginning in his pursuit of excellence.

“It was a 103 mile course, but then they gave you an optional 1 mile stretch that’s up this giant hill,” said Ferraro, describing the finish line feeling at his first completed ultra marathon.

“’This one mile isn’t going to stop us from finishing or not finishing this race,’ so we went and did it,” said Ferraro.

An ultra marathon is a 100 mile race run in under 30 hours in an extreme test of endurance and strength. The first time Ferraro attempted to run an ultra, he collapsed at the 71 mile marker after running for 17 hours straight.

“Most people will never know what it’s like to not be able to stand anymore,” said Ferraro, “knowing how I felt there, that really puts the rest of the world in perspective.”

After a second failed ultra, finishing a race became a “chip on his shoulder”.  In October 2013, Ferraro finally crossed the finish line of the Pumpkin Holler Hunnerd in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

But while Ferraro’s was experiencing success in the marathon world, his bigger test came in the classroom. After Ferraro’s enlistment ended in December 2011, Ferraro enrolled at Pennsylvania State University, and studied there until May 2013 when he transferred to the University of Oklahoma. 

Originally from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Ferraro struggled to find motivation in the classroom early in life.

“When I was in high school, I wasn’t bad, but school was not very important, like we didn’t need AP English to join the military, and I always had it in the back of my mind that I was joining the military. So I graduated with a 2.5? Not very good. I was not a good student in not a good school,” said Ferraro.

His idea of what was important changed when he joined the Navy at 18.

Besides the physical and psychological challenges associated with the military, personal challenges also plagued Ferraro. Married at 18, Ferraro was divorced at 21 after military life became too difficult for the young couple.

“Military’s hard on relationships, especially when you’re both really young,” said Ferraro, “I thought I was at the bottom. I’m 21, I’m divorced, I’m working a job I don’t particularly enjoy.”

 Ferraro sought out a challenge to cope.

“I figured I could feel sorry for myself, drink like everybody, or I could do something, build some self-worth, make myself feel better, accomplish something. So I decided I was going to train for a marathon,” said Ferraro. Within 10 months of the divorce, Ferraro had completed his first IronMan competition, and had turned his sights on his next test—the completion of an ultra marathon.

            Ferraro’s running and studying have done more than provide a new challenge for the go-getter—they have also served as an inspiration to his family. Ferraro’s younger sister, Natalie, a senior airmen in the Air Force, has started taking classes at a junior college and is preparing to run her first marathon in May.

            According to Ferraro, Ferraro’s mother, Betty, cries on the phone each time Ferraro calls home to update his family on running and school. After being selected by university administrators as a member of PE-ET, the prestigious top 10 senior honor society, Ferraro’s call home was particularly emotional.

“I told my mom I was a top 10 senior at the university. I don’t know if that’s actually accurate, but, man, she cried so bad,” said Ferraro, “I don’t try to make her cry, but she always does.”

Susie Broach, an advisor for OU’s Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts and Ferraro’s “second mom”, agreed with Ferraro.

“I'm not sure that he fully understood completely the extent of what he had achieved until he had sat through the entire awards ceremony. Towards the end, he leaned over towards me and whispered, ‘If my mom were here, she would be crying her eyes out she would be so proud.’ His parents should be very proud of their son. I am,” said Broach.

             Ferraro plans to spend an extra year at OU after graduating in May 2015 to complete his master’s degree, and then plans to pursue a doctorate in engineering. Ferraro hopes to design and build his own home after completing his education, and looks forward to one day rejoining the Navy as an officer.

Ferraro runs daily at the Huston Huffman Fitness Center. Here, Ferraro discusses his thought process while running as he progresses through his post-race workout during his recovery from the Prairie Spirit Trail ultra.

VIDEO: Kendall Burchard, runtime :53

The downfall of drones

CIA Director John Brennan speaks with OU President David Boren on February 26
PHOTO: Kendall Burchard 

By Kendall Burchard

 In his first public speaking engagement since becoming CIA director, John Brennan skillfully tip-toed around questions involving the CIA's speculated drone program in an informal discussion at the University of Oklahoma on February 26, 2014. Although charming, Brennan held fast to his speaking points and remained collected through tough audience questions.

“For the sake of argument, let’s say that the CIA has a drone program,” said Brennan to OU President David Boren, forcing a laugh from the skeptical audience. But not everyone was laughing. Yemen American student Saba Bingabr, a chemical bioscience sophomore, is no stranger to the dangers of drones. Bingabr moved to the U.S. a few years ago, and still travels back to Yemen each summer to visit her mother and family.

“Sometimes, when I go to Yemen and I hear airplanes in the air and I just freeze for a moment and I think, ‘Oh, my god, is it a drone, am I going to die?’” said Bingabr.

 Bingabr isn't the only one worried. The first reported targeted drone strike happened in early 2002, however, public opposition to drone programs did not manifest themselves until 2012. The American Civil Liberties Union stated their concern that an increase of the United States’ drone program would contribute to the creation of a surveillance society in the U.S. in December 2012. In December 2013, CBS released an announcement from the Federal Aviation Administration unveiling plans for the development of six testing sites for unmanned drones within the U.S.

 Expansion of the drone program has caused national protests. The late Ibrahim Mothana, Yemeni activist and New York Times opinion columnist, expressed his concerns in a June 2012 about the drone program contributing to an increase in al-Qaeda membership. Bingabr agreed.

“So I understand, yeah, we’ll kill the terrorists. So what? You killed two, three, terrorists, but in the end, you enrage thousands of people. When people become angry, they don’t have an outlet, they don’t have a future,” said Bingabr, “it’s just so easy for al-Qaeda.”

“Inadvertently, America creates terrorists,” said Bingabr.            

 According to Brennan, the benefits of drone technology outweigh the cost of soldiers on the ground due to the limited collateral damage. Drone strikes are only authorized if it is with “near certainty” a target has been located, and no force is to be taken unless there is a “continuing imminent threat to U.S. lives,” said Brennan.

“Presidents ask the CIA to do tough things. After 9/11, the CIA was asked to do some very tough things. But what we try to do is do what we have to do, make sure it is done lawfully, make sure it is done to the best of our ability,” said Brennan.

 Although the true implications and extent of unmanned drones is yet to be known, some information will at some time become declassified to the public.

“If John Brennan knows he’s going to answer to history someday, or David Boren knows he’s going to answer to history someday, there’s a better opportunity to do it the right way,” said Boren.

  Listen as Saba Bingabr expands on what it’s like to live in Yemen in the age of drones.

  AUDIO: Kendall Burchard, run time :37