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(04/19/14 12:10pm)
An iPhone case that charges your phone with solar panels, an app and website for keeping track of student meal points, and a barber shop to go in Campus Town were the three final business models competing in the third annual Mayo Business Plan Competition on Wednesday, April 9.
“This competition is a lot harder than you may think,” dean of the College’s School of Business William Keep said.
Keep said that 36 teams had signed up for the competition, but only 22 were able to even submit a business plan by the due date.
“It’s very exciting,” he added.
The three final student teams had one last chance to impress a panel of judges with a 30-minute presentation, as well as answers to the judge’s many questions. The judges for the competition were all alumni of the College with various business backgrounds.
“Students come out of school ... go to their job and are asked to make decisions and judgments under uncertainty, and that’s what this competition fosters,” judge and alumnus of the College Eric Szabo said.
The winning team, Solar Kicks, designed a prototype case that used a solar panel attached to an iPhone case with a hinge — working in conjunction with piezoelectric crystals, the case will charge a phone while sitting with a user on a table or while she goes for a jog.
Team members, senior finance major Gregory Fitzgerald, junior mechanical engineering major Luke Capritti, junior electrical engineering major Eric Blow and senior accountancy major Steven Leming, were awarded $16,500 toward their business. The second-place team, Barber by Touch, received $9,000 and the third-place team, TCNJBudget, was awarded $4,500.
“I want to thank Professor Mayo for coming to me three years ago and saying, ‘Hey, why don’t we do this?’” Keep said of the competition.
This year, the competition awarded a total of $30,000 to finalists, $10,000 more than previous years. Money for the competition is donated by Herbert Mayo, a finance professor at the College, and by Eric Szabo, an alumnus from the class of 1997.
TCNJBudget’s presentation opened with a video of students in the C-store guessing how many points they had and then looking at their actual balance upon receiving a receipt. Most of the students’ guesses were off by a considerable amount.
The app and website designed by the students would not only display how many remaining meals a student has with Get-It Points, but would also provide graphs showing where points are spent and on what items.
The team, consisting of senior accounting major Howard Telson, senior finance major Steven Schrum, senior accounting major Alexander Pacione and senior English major Chad Berman, explained that the website will also help to teach students personal finance.
“Those points will quickly turn into bills,” the team members explained.
Barber by Touch closed out the competition. The team walked in to the cool sounds of jazz, waving and winking to one another as they sauntered their way to the front of the room.
“We believe that when you look good, you feel good,” sophomore biomedical engineering major Peter Okoh said in the opening of the team’s presentation.
Barber by Touch, to be opened in one of the Campus Town rentable spaces, would offer males cuts, shaves, manicures and pedicures. What was unique about the team’s plans for the shop, however, was that it would also be a social outing. The shop would have televisions for sports, a billiards table, magazines and an open layout to promote good conversation.
Barber by Touch was a team of three students. Okoh was joined by sophomore finance major Ashwin Tatikola and sophomore economics major Karthik Sunkesula.
When the final presentation came to a close, the judges left the room to deliberate and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the three presentations.
“This was the toughest year by far,” Szabo said. “Every idea is viable.”
The final deciding factor — beyond the details of each plan — was the passion each team showed. The judges felt that Solar Kick showed the most enthusiasm and dedication to their product.
“You won’t mind if you fail,” Szabo said. “But you are going to try and succeed like hell.”
(04/19/14 11:45am)
• Google has been expanding into the sky, agreeing to buy Titan Aerospace, a small company specializing in the production of high-altitude drones. The drones are solar-powered and are expected to fly without stopping for several years. The drones will likely be used to bring Internet access to areas of the world without cell phone service or telephone wires, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Prosecuters are allegedly investigating Harbalife Ltd. The company is also currently in the midst of a civil investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. The commission looks into potential unfair or deceptive trade practices, according to the Wall Street Journal
• Sarah Palin, former Governor of Alaska and Vice Presidential Candidate in 2008, is coming back on TV. She won’t be participating in political debates or interviews, however. She is launching a new reality series on the Sportsman Channel called “Amazing America,” featuring interesting adventures and tales taking place in the great outdoors, as she refers to it, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Twitter currently has 974 registered accounts and while that’s a tremendous number of users, a new report shows that only 44 percent of those accounts have ever sent a tweet. The social media giant argued that one does not have to tweet to find twitter useful (they can just read others’ tweets), but Twitter’s ad revenue is largely driven by user participation via tweets, favorites and retweets, according to the Wall Street Journal.
(04/08/14 10:16pm)
• Late-night TV is changing forever. Last week, long-time late-night television host David Letterman, 66, announced he would be retiring next year. After a 30-year run, the television icon will likely be replaced by a younger comedian, as the station aims to take a larger chunk of the 18- to 49-year-old demographic. This particular demographic is the most coveted by advertisers.
• Americans’ tastes and spending habits are changing, and it is forcing consumer-product companies to reevaluate what used to be consistent growth patterns that correlated with economic conditions. Over the past several years, there has been a decline in the purchases of basic products such as laundry detergent, toothpaste, razors, soda and cereal. In response, companies like General Mills and Proctor & Gamble Co. are promoting a greater number of deals and coupons.
• There is good news for cancer patients, survivors and pharmaceutical companies. Two new drugs being developed by Pfizer and Eli Lilly showed promise in slowing the growth of breast cancer tumors by targeting proteins that are used by tumors to grow and spread within the body. The drug, in pill form, would stop tumor growth so other treatments could be used to eliminate the cancer.
• More small banks are selling themselves to larger institutions. The cause of the increase in sales is the rising costs banks incur to keep up with recent regulations. Small banks cannot afford to put out funds to hire the number of employees required to handle the additional work created by post-2008 regulations. With record-low interest rates already hitting banking profits, any added cost is damaging.
• Yahoo! is close to finishing a deal that would provide the company with four original 10-episode comedies. The shows would be streamed online, but many investors fear that Yahoo! isn’t ready to enter a market so already dominated by large players such as Amazon and Netflix.
(04/01/14 9:50pm)
As one walks up to the College’s library on a weeknight, the impressive five-story building glows warmly through its many windows and just slightly illuminates its red-brick exterior. Inside, the first floor hums with group projects, whispering study partners and the coffee makers in the café. The scene is straight out of Hollywood or a college brochure. Though something is missing from the classic tables and desks: books.
The library is home to just under 600,000 books, not including periodicals, according to the library’s website. Books in the collection, according to the site, have been “selected by faculty and subject specialist librarians to support course offerings of the College and to provide a broad representative collection of titles across many disciplines. This growing collection includes fiction, non-fiction, and children’s/youth books.”
On average, approximately 134 of these books are checked out each day, which translates to about only 0.02 percent of the library’s collection being checked out daily, according to 2012-2013 data on total library checkouts. The infrequency of books being checked out begs the question: What is the primary purpose of the College’s library for students?
Lifting up a large red book from a table in the library café, junior psychology major Dan Czarnowski laughed, explaining that it was coincidentally the first library book he has ever used.
“I technically haven’t even checked it out yet,” he said.
Most of the books that are checked out are for classes in some way, sophomore finance major and library assistant Scott Savage said.
“People check out a lot of books to use as research references,” Savage said. “There’s also a lot of fiction and children’s books checked out, but it’s mostly for class. From what I have seen there are not many people that check out books for pleasure reading.”
Students who do decide to use the library to find pleasure reading may have some trouble finding a good contemporary read, however.
“Currently in my backpack, I have plays by Tom Stoppard and Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses,’ sophomore chemistry major Dylan Nguyen said. “You can reliably find classics, but you may have trouble finding other contemporary books unless they are relevant to a specific course.”
In contrast to the relatively low number of checkouts, the library sees an average of 3,475 students every day, according to the library’s door count, done daily by library staff.
“I usually study in the biology building, but I like going to the library cafe at 7 a.m. right when it opens — it’s quiet in the early morning and there’s coffee,” sophomore biology major Kajal Shah said.
Students at the College find their way to the library to do homework and study when it becomes distracting to do work in their rooms or if they want to be around people.
“Normally when it’s too loud in my dorm, I’ll come to study,” freshman journalism major Beth Strumpf said.
Strumpf explained that she only checks out a book from the library about once a semester and feels that most students are underutilizing the resources available to them.
“(Students) can also check out markers, headphones, ethernet cables and a laptop that comes in a case with a charger and ethernet cable,” Savage said.
These items are in addition to media items such as DVDs and music.
These unconventional loans are even less frequent than book rentals. According to library checkout data, a total of 1,828 DVDs were rented in the 2012-2013 academic year, as well as 1,183 laptops, 1,943 Ethernet cables and 1,246 sets of headphones. This is compared to the 31,206 books checked out during the same academic year.
While many of the College’s books may stay put on their shelves, the library still plays an important role as a destination for studying, seeing friends and escaping from campus distractions.
(04/01/14 9:43pm)
• Regulators are demanding changes in the agriculture industry. The Obama administration called for regulatory agencies to increase limitations on methane emissions. The agriculture industry accounts for 36 percent of all methane released. In a separate movement, the FDA has asked for a reduction in the use of powerful antibiotics for farm animals. The movement’s purpose is to hinder the growth of dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria in livestock such as pigs and cattle.
• While revenue from box-office sales rose again this year, the number of tickets purchased is shrinking. The increase in sales is due solely to higher ticket prices. Theater owners, in collaboration with movie chains and studios, have an experimental plan to increase theater traffic with discounted tickets on a specific day of the week. The discount would be greater than the typical matinee discount and would be offered all day long.
• Though ticket prices are high, Paramount Picture’s “Noah” had no trouble pulling in viewers this past weekend. The dramatic retelling of the classis Genesis story grossed $44 million, beating out initial estimates. The film has received attention for its nonconventional take on the biblical tale. Due to certain liberties taken by director Darren Aronofsky, there has been continued discomfort within the religious community and lead to a lack of support from conservative groups.
• It’s been a week since Twitter pulled its less than successful music app from Apple’s App Store. Now, the social-media giant is bringing out a new music strategy. The company now plans to partner with music services such as SoundCloud and Beats Music to create a streaming element, while Twitter is also in talks with Billboard to create charts that report the most-talked-about tracks and artists on Twitter at the moment.
All information from the Wall Street Journal.
(03/25/14 10:26pm)
• The Federal Reserve’s first formal policy statement with the new Chair of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, brought assurance that interest rates will remain low for the coming year. Yellen’s comments were not without uncertainty, however. Disagreements among committee members led the market to believe rates will rise more aggressively than originally thought.
• The teenage thriller “Divergent,” a movie based on the book series of the same name, took the top slot at the box office this past weekend. The victory is another large move for Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., whose previous winners, including “Twilight” and “The Hunger Games,” attracted a similar audience.
• The results of the Fed’s most recent stress test are in, and they are positive. 29 out of the 30 banks that underwent the lengthy analysis passed. The stress test examines whether the large financial institutions have enough cash in reserve to withstand a large jolt or surprise to the economy and market. The necessity of the stress test came about following the financial meltdown of 2008.
• Apple and Comcast, technology and communications giants, are talking about teaming up to create a television streaming service. The service would use an Apple set-top box to allow users to stream both live and on-demand programs on special treatment Comcast cables. The special cables would give users the ability to bypass congestion on the web and increase viewing speeds.
• While the low prices of natural gas over the past several years have been hurting big oil and gas companies, chemical and plastic companies have been taking advantage of the cheap fuel and used the time to expand. The cheap and abundant fuel has created something of a manufacturing renaissance in the United States for petrochemical companies. Many manufacturers of plastics, rubber resins and metals have even moved plants from countries in South America and Asia to the United States.
(03/18/14 8:06pm)
•Amazon.com is raising the price of its two-day shipping membership, Amazon Prime, from $79 a year to $99 as a result of rising shipping costs. Members worried about getting their money’s worth should know that in addition to the fast shipping, instant video streaming and Kindle benefits, the e-commerce giant is also developing a music-streaming service for Prime members.
• While much of the country is still enduring a harsh winter filled with snow and record-low temperatures, the economy just might be ready to shake off some of its winter blues. Manufacturing output jumped 0.8 percent in February, which is the highest gain since August and beat out expectations of a 0.2 percent increase.
• Tesla Motors Inc. will be forced to stop selling its luxury electric vehicles in New Jersey on Tuesday, April 1. The state has decided it will not grant the auto company a license to directly sell vehicles to consumers without the use of a franchised dealer.
• This has been a week for initial public offerings. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the Chinese e-commerce giant filed for a U.S. IPO, which would be one of the largest in market history. GoDaddy Group Inc., famous for its risqué Super Bowl commercials, is also preparing for its IPO. Finally, King Digital Entertainment PLC, known for creating the “Candy Crush” game, is expected to be valued at around $7.6 billion in its IPO later this month.
All information from the Wall Street Journal.
(03/04/14 9:05pm)
• “12 Years a Slave” took home this year’s Oscar for Best Motion Picture. The historical, true story beat out “Gravity,” which had already received seven Oscars that evening, according to The Wall Street Journal.
• Mattel Inc., the world’s largest toymaker, has agreed to buy Mega Brands Inc. Mega Brands is the second largest producer of construction toys and snap-together blocks and Lego’s largest competitor in the toy market, according to Bloomberg.
• Sandwich chain Quiznos is making plans to file for bankruptcy. The primary causes of the chain’s financial difficulties are an extremely high level of debt and a poor relationship with franchise owners, according to The Wall Street Journal.
• There is a shift in beer drinkers’ preferences. According to an industry report, demand for craft beers rose 9.6 percent in 2013, while overall beer production declined 1.4 percent, according to CNBC.
• Apple, the largest tech company in the world, doesn’t have a Twitter. The company has created accounts for smaller areas of business such as iTunes and the App Store, but analysts suspect that Apple simply doesn’t have much to gain from an account and prefers to inform the public and investors the traditional way, according to CNBC.
• Abercrombie & Fitch has plans to lower clothing prices and cut production costs in attempts to combat quarterly losses. The complain says the changes come with teenagers and young adults spending less and the high level of competition in the teen-clothing market, according to The Wall Street Journal.
• Walt Disney Company will end funding and donations to the Boy Scouts of America starting this year. The company’s decision is due to the Scout’s policy that bans gay troop leaders, according to the Associated Press.
• Food labels will be receiving significant changes for the first time in two decades if a new Obama administration bill passes through Congress. The bill would change the font size of the calories portion and require more realistic serving sizes to be used, according to The Wall Street Journal.
(03/04/14 8:32pm)
While accepting her Oscar for best actress, Cate Blanchett proudly stated that, “those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films with women at the center are niche experiences. They are not. Audiences want to see them, and, in fact, they make money.”
This year’s Oscar-winning films were refreshing — filled with powerful women in many leading roles.
The film for which Blanchett earned her Oscar was “Blue Jasmine.” The film starred two sisters played by Blanchett and Sally Hawkins.
Disney’s “Frozen” won an Oscar for Best Animated Film. It featured another sister duo as its heroines with the leading male as simply a sidekick.
“Gravity” was a revolutionary film that took home a total of seven Oscars, including the Oscar for Best Director. For the majority of the film, there is only one character, Ryan Stone, the protagonist played by Sandra Bullock.
Two of Hollywood’s greats, Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep, paired up to take large roles in the drama “August: Osage County.” Other female powerhouses who received nominations or Oscars were Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence in “American Hustle.”While she didn’t have the lead, Lupita Nyong’o took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “12 Years a Slave.” The film was also the winner of Best Motion Picture.
This year’s Oscars represented a big night for women in the film industry, but Hollywood still has a long way to go before it can be considered a place of gender equality.
The New York Film Academy took a look at how women are portrayed in the top 500 films between the years of 2007 and 2012. The results are alarming.
According to their data, only 30.8 percent of speaking characters are women and only 10.7 percent of films have a balanced cast — meaning 50 percent of the cast is female.
Roughly a third of women are shown in sexually revealing attire or nude, according to the Academy. In contrast, only 10 percent of men in movies are shown in “sexy” attire or are partially nude.
The statistics do not get any better when it comes to children’s and family films. In fact, the ratio of men to women in family films hasn’t changed since 1946.
“From 2006 to 2009, not one female character was depicted in G-rated family films in the field of medical science, as a business leader, in law or politics. In these films, 80.5 percent of all working characters are male and 19.5 percent are female, which is a contrast to real world statistics, where women comprise 50 percent of the workforce,” according to a study done by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.
Women are underrepresented behind the scenes as well. In 2012, only 20 percent of editors, 15 percent of writers, 9 percent of directors and 2 percent of cinematographers were women, according to the New York Academy of Art.
Women purchase 50 percent of movie tickets every year. Each movie ticket is similar to a vote from a consumer. So while things are looking up for women in film, viewers should show support for quality films with strong female leads and balanced casts.
(02/26/14 1:08am)
• Facebook Inc. announced last week that it will pay $19 billion for a startup messaging company, WhatsApp. The deal will be the largest acquisition of a startup company in history, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Natural Gas prices are on the rise again in response to forecasts that there will be another polar vortex in March. Natural gas prices are up nearly 44 percent since the start of the year, according to CNBC.
• G Asset Management, a private investment management firm, offered to buy 51 percent of either Barnes & Noble or the Nook business. The firm offered to pay $22 per share for Barnes & Noble, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• With beef prices in America on the rise, consumption of Bison is expected to increase. The meat is much leaner than beef and popular with those on the Paleo diet, according to CNBC.
• Google Maps is getting updated. Now users can have better access to street views, have public transportation maps, make reservations and know what events are at their favorite venues all through Google Maps, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Under Armour, the popular athletic-wear company, received underserved criticism during the Sochi Olympics when it was thought that suits made for the Speed Skating team added drag to racers. It was later revealed that the suits had no impact on skaters’ performance, according to the New York Times.
• The second season of Netflix’s hit, “House of Cards,” was released on Valentine’s Day. The new season’s episodes were released all at once and led to fans everywhere beginning their Netflix binging, according to the New York Times.
• The Federal Reserve released transcripts from several emergency meetings that were held during the days before the markets crash in 2008. The transcripts were able to provide a clear timeline of the volatile year, according to the Wall Street Journal.
(02/25/14 6:00am)
An unusual site took place on Friday, Feb. 21, at Packer Hall — a classroom full of students dressed for practice were instead sitting, looking attentively at a Power Point presentation in the front of the room. The unusual rugby practice was being led by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) training manager, Colin Moran.
Moran oversees all of the coaches within the IRFU and is an expert in the mindset and strategies of a successful rugby team. Moran is currently visiting the east coast from Ireland and stopped by the College while on his way to a rugby seminar in Philadelphia.
“To be able to bring someone from another country — it is a great opportunity to hear from someone who really knows what they are doing,” said Deborah Simpson, the head of intramurals and club sports at the College.
After the presentation, the men’s and women’s rugby teams — which have been around for 16 and 15 years, respectively — were able to move down to the gymnasium and run drills designed by Moran. The players tested some of the offensive strategies Moran discussed in his presentation, under his guidance.
“He’s a professional,” Rani Shah said. “Rugby is not a common sport (in the U.S.) and he knows so many tips and tricks that we wouldn’t find here.”
Shah has been playing rugby for a year and a half and stressed the value of Moran’s skills and drills for her team.
“I can speak for hours on what benefits there are to playing rugby,” said Joe Maringola, the College’s rugby coach. “The most important one I see at the college level is learning to become accountable to your team. There are personal achievements — scoring a try or making a big hit — but by the second or third season someone plays, they start to understand all those little achievements serve to further the goals of the bigger program.”
In the gym, Moran called players to the center of the room to simulate possible defensive lineups an opposing team may use.
“Colin encourages players to make decisions for themselves, something I have been preaching for a long time,” Maringola said. “It allows for a more open, free-flowing and fun game.”
Moran explained that American rugby is technically sound and everyone is fit, but his goal while he is here is to provide a different way of looking at the game. The players were instructed to create space using new techniques, with Moran explaining players should aim to achieve the desired result instead of executing a technique properly.
“Sometimes, it’s about doing the right thing instead of doing it the right way,” Moran said.
The men’s rugby team’s first game is just two weeks away, and the team plans to use the lessons learned during Moran’s clinic during the upcoming season.
“We have to take what was shown to us and put it into play,” Nick Gardner said. “We can combine today’s lesson with what coach Maringola teaches us and watch everything come to fruition.”
(02/18/14 4:23pm)
• Americans are moving out of the United States in large numbers. In 2013, 3,000 people either terminated their citizenship or terminated their long-term residency. This is more than three times the number that moved in 2012, according to CNBC.
• Sony Corporation’s PlayStation 4 video game console took the lead as the most purchased console this year, stealing the top spot in retail sales from Microsoft Corp.’s XBox One, according to Bloomberg News.
• Americans are becoming increasingly attached to their pets. A study by the Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals showed that 68 percent of American households have a pet, and they will spend close to $700 a year paying for it, according to CNBC.
• As carmakers continue to brainstorm ideas for driverless cars, Americans remain worried. A Harris Poll revealed that nine in 10 Americans said they would not feel comfortable riding in a driverless car, according to CNBC.
• In a $45.2 billion sale, television giant Comcast Corp. is planning to purchase Time Warner Cable. The buyout will merge the two largest cable providers in the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Paula Dean, in an effort to restart her career, has formed a new company, called “Paula Deen Ventures.” The new company is said to be having talks with television networks and potential retail partners, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The housing numbers for January, a measure of home starts, was down from previous months. The decline is being blamed on the relentless cold that is disrupting and delaying construction projects, according to Bloomberg.
• Hotels across the country are looking to accommodate runners. More Americans are beginning to run marathons and are traveling across the country to do so, according to CNBC.
(02/11/14 6:42pm)
• A few protestors went to the extreme of smashing their iPhones when Apple removed the app, Blockchain, from the App Store. The app is the most popular digital currency wallet for users hoping to transfer the digital currency Bitcoin, according to the Financial Times.
• One of the fastest growing groups entering into entrepreneurship is Americans who are approaching retirement, but still looking to keep busy. 15 percent of all new businesses are started by entrepreneurs that are over the age of 60, according to The New York Times.
• Moody’s Investors Service, a prominent bond rating agency, ranked Puerto Rico’s bonds as junk. The agency cited the territories struggling economy and inability to borrow money as the reason for the change, according to the Financial Times.
• The generation of Americans born in the late 1980s and early 1990s, now being called millennials, are being more proactive about their careers and less likely to spend money on large material purchases. The generation is cautious after growing up in slow economic times, according to CNBC.
• A huge problem facing the 2014 Olympics will not be the sold-out hotels and large crowds, but a lack of spectators. Aside from crowd favorites such as team figure skating and biathlon, the mountain events have had large areas of empty seats, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The number of Americans who quit their job increased this past month. This data shows a growing level of confidence in workers since most chose to quit because they are moving to a new job or career and others are simply retiring, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Activist investor Karl Icahn has decided to quit his persistent campaign to convince Apple to increase its stock buy-back program. Icahn currently holds $3 billion of Apple stock, according to CNBC.
• Flappy Bird, the most downloaded mobile game on both the Apple’s App Store and Google’s online stores, was removed from all marketplaces on midnight this past Sunday. The game’s creator announced his decision on Twitter 22 hours before the game was removed, according to CNBC.
(02/05/14 12:57am)
Over winter break, I drove a couple of miles down the road to my local library. It’s a beautiful brick building, complete with a fireplace, comfy chairs and most importantly, a huge selection of books. Inside, I was greeted by the usual post of librarians. Despite being occasionally over -zealous about library rules, they mean well. We quickly chatted about school and they asked if I needed help finding anything. I smiled and wandered over to the biographies section.
Local libraries are still crucial to American towns. Even in the age of the Internet, libraries serve as a place for learning, socializing and serving the community. Unfortunately, funding for local libraries is continuously cut to make budgets and citizens often doubt their value in an age of computers.
There are a total of 119,987 libraries in the United States. Of those, 7.5 percent are public and the others are all considered school, academic, government, medical and other topic-specific libraries, according to statistics from the American Library Association.
Last year, 56 percent of Americans over the age of 16 used a library. 40 percent of individuals said they used the library for research, while 36 percent said they used the library to check out books. Interestingly, women are much more likely to check out a book from the library than men are, according to the Pew Research Center’s 2012 study on library usage.
I suppose I fall into that category. I check out almost every book I read for pleasure, and I am not the only one. Americans check out, on average, around eight books per capita and, as of last year, 171.07 million people in the United States have library cards. I have had my library card for almost 15 years, and I don’t plan to stop using it anytime soon.
In addition to books, libraries also allow cardholders to rent movies or music. While Redbox, Netflix and Spotify may be great deals, I guarantee your library is a better one.
In Wantage, N.J., my hometown, the library goes beyond the traditional function of checking out books. To the left of the main library is an open room that serves as a meeting place for several Boy Scout Troops, a few classes on the local wildlife, and coffeehouses organized by the high school.
Additionally, the library offers free computers and wireless Internet access to all cardholders. This allows low-income citizens to file for unemployment and do research to sign up for training or search for job openings. Over 62 percent of public libraries in the United States reported that they were the only source of free computer access in their community and 91 percent of public libraries are currently offering free Internet access, according to the ALA.
I strongly believe that libraries contribute a large amount of good to every community they are a part of. If we do nothing else, simply stop by and have a look around. There is no other place where we can both read books for free and feel like a part of our community.
(02/05/14 12:47am)
During the start of the spring semester at the College, students are not only getting used to a new set of classes, but also submitting last-minute internship applications and preparing for interviews. Seniors are getting ready to begin their first career.
On a résumé, students are told to present their academic successes, as well as practical experiences. When it comes to the interview, however, rarely do we know which is weighted more. The answer is that it is not only a balance, but it also depends on the employer and the particular position.
“Certainly they want to see a student that has that GPA standard that they are looking for, but also that you are balancing it with things you are doing on campus,” said Debra Klokis, employer relations specialist for the College.
She explained that within the School of Business, accounting firms tend to be the most particular when it comes to GPAs, followed by financial companies.
“Above that 3.0 mark is a good place to be — it’s a good goal to strive for,” she said. Grades are an area in which a student can differentiate themselves from a stack of applicants.
If a company is looking for a particular GPA, it will be specified in the qualifications portion of the job posting.
“A strong GPA shows discipline,” senior finance major Ryan Dolan said.
Dolan was recently offered a full-time position at PMT Food Consulting Inc. and has interned in the past. He attributes his success largely to his internships and business experience more than his academics.
“Employers want to see that you can communicate efficiently and think on your feet,” Dolan said. “A GPA can’t always reflect that.”
It’s important that students have topics to discuss during the interview that can illustrate skills such as leadership, teamwork and skills that are particular to their potential position. It adds to their overall impression.
“Experiences let you tell your own story when you get in the interview,” Klokis said. “You want to have things to draw on.”
Employers also like to hear about students’ courses and academic projects, even any group work they may have worked on.
“Employers really want to know about the skills you are bringing to an internship or a full-time position,” Klokis said.
When junior international business major James Goetschius was interviewing for his current position at the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce for the greater Philadelphia area, they were primarily focused on his comfort level with the language and his knowledge of current events.
“My GPA certainly helped, but they wanted to see more of what I knew about the business climate and country itself,” Goetschius said.
He explained that even his activities on campus that didn’t directly pertain to the position were useful while talking during the interview.
“Campus activities are fun to talk about during an interview,” he said.
Student organizations such as WTSR, the campus radio station, and club sports can demonstrate teamwork and leadership skills. Additionally, Goetschius said his study abroad trip was another way to make his résumé stand out.
One of the best ways students can help themselves land both internships and full-time positions is to network. By putting themselves in strategic positions, individuals can connect with various companies and even alumni of the College.
The College offers information sessions with companies hiring interns and employees, career fairs and networking nights organized by the School of Business. Students should look for opportunities to tell someone about themselves and learn more about a type of employer.
“In the real world, the smart people are those who go out and even if they fail, learn to adapt and improve,” Dolan said.
(02/05/14 12:41am)
• The results of the Obama administration’s analysis of the Keystone XL pipeline revealed that the pipeline will have little impact on global climate change. The study showed that the pipeline would not increase the amount of oil extracted from Canadian oil sands, according the Wall Street Journal.
• Under the new ownership of Hudson’s Bay Co., clothing store Saks is looking to increase the number of Off 5th outlet stores as well as climb into the area of higher luxury goods, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Oil drilling company Royal Dutch Shell is suspending its controversial drilling in Arctic waters off the Alaskan coastline. The company says the changes are due to cost cutting efforts and political uncertainty, according to the Financial Times.
• U.S. money hasn’t moved into European equities at such a rapid pace since the 1990s. Investors, in the wake of tumbling emerging markets, are finding similar risk-reward opportunities in Southern Europe, according to the Financial Times.
• Known for their action-packed video and presence in extreme sports, the camera company Go-Pro is hoping to branch into the world of media companies. Their strategy lies largely in a YouTube channel and potential deals with platforms similar to Apple TV, according to the New York Times.
• Amazon, in hopes of increasing its small profit levels, is debating a price increase for its Amazon Prime users. Prime users enjoy benefits such as free two-day shipping, video streaming and deals on Kindle books, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Google has agreed to sell its Motorola handset business to the Chinese technology company, Lenovo. The deal is expected to receive heavy criticism from the federal government because it involves the sale of telecommunications equipment to a company backed by the Chinese government, according to CNBC.
• Coca Cola’s Super Bowl commercial raised controversy among conservative viewers when they aired clips of “America the Beautiful” being sung in various world languages. The commercial ended with the tagline “America is beautiful,” according to CNBC.
(01/28/14 10:56pm)
• After years of rising used-car prices, the prices of used cars are expected to drop this year due to more families choosing to buy or lease new cars. The switch is largely driven by better economic times, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The price of natural gas has rallied since the start of the new year, making it the top performing commodity. The unusually cold weather has increased consumption of natural gas and lowering the level in reserves, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• While Americans are both looking for renewable energy and weary of large nuclear reactors, the nuclear power industry is now introducing small and medium sized reactors. The new reactors are smaller in size and designed with disasters like the Japan earthquake in mind, according to CNBC.
• Netflix is once again toying with the possibility of increasing the monthly fee for new members and varying prices for streaming on multiple screens simultaneously. The video streaming company had received intense backlash from costumers and shareholders the last time it attempted a price increase, according to Bloomberg News.
• Hamburg, Germany’s second largest city, is designing a plan to almost eliminate automobile traffic in the center of the city by increasing the amount of public transportation as well as biking and walking lanes. Similar plans are becoming popular in industrial cities working to go green, according to CNBC.
• Only 3 percent of the companies to have an initial public offering (IPO) between 1996 and 2013 had women CEOs. The statistics reflect the continued disproportion of female CEOs to male CEOs in the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Ratings for the popular A&E show, “Duck Dynasty,” have been sharply lower than the same time last year. The show about a family of duck call producers was surrounded with controversy when the patriarch, Phil Robertson, made public anti-gay comments, according to the New York Times.
• The chief operating officer of Facebook Inc., Sheryl Sandberg, became one of the youngest female billionaires in the world last week when the price of Facebook hit all-time highs. The 44-year-old owns about 12.3 million shares of the popular social networking site, according to Bloomberg News.
(01/21/14 5:40pm)
• Moody’s Investors Service upgraded Ireland’s bond rating to investment grade with a positive outlook for the future. The country’s bonds had been considered junk status since 2011, according to Bloomberg News.
• Super Bowl goers can now spend their week on a boat instead of a hotel. Norwegian Cruise Line’s newest vessel will sail into port for the week of the Super Bowl and provide guests with rooms, dining and entertainment, according to CNBC.
• Millions of holiday shoppers had their personal information stolen while they made purchases at the retail giant, Target. Investigations have now shown that Target had surprisingly little security software thus making it a major target for hackers, according to CNBC.
• Maryland has the highest percentage of millionaire households of all 50 states with 7.7 percent of households per capita being millionaires. Maryland is followed closely by New Jersey and Connecticut with 7.49 percent and 7.34 percent of households being millionaire households, respectively, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Google Inc. in it’s secretive Google[X] lab is developing contact lens for diabetics that would allow doctors and patients to measure glucose levels in tears and use the information to better regulate blood sugar levels. The lenses are still several years from potentially being on the market, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• It is estimated that over two thirds of those that have a sought to enroll in private health insurance programs through the new healthcare marketplace had already been covered by another healthcare provider before enrolling. The statistics have created concern about the size of the dent the marketplace is making in the number of uninsured Americans, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Congress’s new spending measure, signed into law on Friday by President Obama, bans the processing of horse meat. The controversial industry has been dormant since 2007, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Tourists’ new reason to go to Colorado is not the ski slopes, but recreational marijuana use. Non-Coloradans make up more than half of the $1 million in marijuana sales, according to the Wall Street Journal.
(12/03/13 11:40pm)
• Fast-food jobs — in the tough economy — are increasingly being filled by older workers instead of teenagers. Today, the average fast-food worker is 29 years old and more than 26 percent are parents raising children, according to the New York Times.
• Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., owned by Blackstone group LP, is planning to raise an estimated $2.4 billion in its initial public offering (IPO). This would be a larger IPO than any other hotel company, according to Bloomberg.
• Rhode Island became the first state to eliminate sales taxes on original and limited-edition art sold in the state. The tax change is an effort to promote old industrial towns that have reinvented themselves as art districts, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Millionaires are feeling more confident in the economy, but are much less confident in the stock market as prices continue to rise and create worries of a bubble, according to Spectrem Group’s Millionaire Investor Confidence Index and CNBC.
• Amazon.com is only four to five years away from potentially using small drones to deliver light packages in urban areas, according to the comapny’s Chief Executive Jeff Bezos. The company developed the drones as a way to cut delivery time, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The number of gun patents hit a 35-year record as gun companies such as Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. and Sturm Ruger & Co. create new products to continue the growth of already booming gun sales. Sales continue to rise despite increased regulations on gun purchases, according to Bloomberg.
• The Federal Trade Commission is planning to regulate how media outlets use “sponsored content,” which are advertisements that look and read like editorial content. The concern is that these advertisements are not being properly identified, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• U.S. manufacturing experienced its greatest growth in two-and-a-half years this past month, based on The Institute for Supply Management’s index of national factory activity. The increase was much greater than analysts had expected, according to Reuters.
(11/19/13 6:15pm)
• China’s thirst for dairy is increasing dramatically and so are imports of milk and dairy-based products such as cheese and yogurt. Consumption of dairy products in China is expected to rise 20 percent over the next four years, according to the Financial Times.
• Berkhire Hathaway Inc., the company of Warren Buffett, took a $3.7 billion stake in the world’s largest oil company, Exxon Mobile Corp. The oil giant is one of the most efficient discoverers of oil in the world and largely considered an undervalued stock by analysts, according to Bloomberg.
• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reported poor quarterly sales for the third straight quarter last week. The slow buying in the retail giant is an indication of trouble for the holiday season, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Jeff King, a professional caddy for pro golf tournaments, started a beef jerky company with his own recipe and a loyal customer base, which includes Tiger Woods. The successful startup is now distributing its jerky in retail stores, according to Bloomberg.
• Sixty percent of New Jersey businesses say they plan to hire in 2014, and 80 percent of businesses say that they feel optimistic about the economy in 2014, according to a survey by Provident Bank.
• Snapchat, the popular photo-messaging app, rejected a $3 billion cash acquisition offer from Facebook. The small company hopes to spend at least the next year gaining new users and a larger valuation, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Unmanned aircrafts, called drones, had been used primarily by the military. Now, however, Americans can expect commercial drones to be hitting the sky and being used for mapping, surveying agricultural fields and even studying marine mammals, according to Bloomberg.