Technology

Wesleyan Forum for International Development! — Sat., Feb. 18

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The Wesleyan Forum for International Development

 Saturday, February 18, 2012    9:30 am – 5 pm

Check-in table at 41 Wyllys.

Attendance is free. No registration is required. Come and go as you please.

Free breakfast, Iguanas Ranas lunch and book for those who arrive by 10 am.

  Come engage in a dialogue about what works and what doesn’t in international development. Through lectures, panel discussions and workshops with student groups, you will hear from researchers, alumni and students about their successes and challenges in fields that include public health, education and technology.

For students who have interned, volunteered or worked internationally–or for those interested in doing so in the future–this Forum is a space for you to think critically about how to do so in a way that makes a positive impact. It will connect you to resources for getting involved, including opportunities for internships, fellowships and research. For the complete schedule with locations, click here. Speakers include:

Academics

– David Rice (Executive Director of the NYU Development Research Institute)

– Nafisa Halim (Assistant Professor at BU’s Center for Global Health & Development, researches women’s political empowerment, health and education)

– Rema Hanna (Assistant Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, researches how to improve the provision of services to the poor in developing countries)

– Jenny Ruducha (Research Scientist at BU’s Center for Global Health & Development, conducts impact evaluations of interventions in public health)

Alumni

– Amir Hasson ’98 (Founder of United Villages, a social enterprise that empowers the rural poor in India by providing products, services and information)

– Nathanael Goldberg ’97 (Policy director at Innovations for Poverty Action, which pioneered the use of randomized control trials to test the effectiveness of interventions in development)

– Connor Brannen ’10 (Policy analyst at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT)

– Liana Woskie ’10 (Global Health Corps fellow at Partners in Health)

Students

– Ali Chaudry ’12 (Founder of Possibilities Pakistan, which increases access to higher education by providing free college counseling to Pakistani secondary students)

– Tasmiha Khan ’12 (Founder of Brighter Dawns, which increases access to clean water and sanitation in Bangladesh)

– Kennedy Odede ’12, (Founder of Shining Hope for Communities, which combats gender inequality and extreme poverty by linking free schools for girls with social services in Kenya)

– Raghu Appasani ’12 (Founder of the MINDS Foundation, which raises awareness about mental illness and provides healthcare in India)

 For more information, visit the Forum’s Facebook page.

 This event is sponsored by the Wesleyan Student Assembly, the Department of Government, the Office of Academic Affairs, Wesleyan World Wednesdays and the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship.

 

WSA Information Technology Committee — Apps due 2/18

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Do you wish your professors knew how to use Moodle better?  Is the Wesleyan Mobile app just not good enough?  Does the Cisco sign-in system bother you?  The committee that helped get you faster Internet, upgraded computer kiosks in Usdan, and much more could use your help.  If you’re interested in innovation in everything from laundry to communications to academics, you should apply to join the WSA Information Technology Committee!

The Information Technology Committee (ITC) is a committee of students serving on the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA), but also meets frequently with Information Technology Services (ITS) administrators.  The committee works on several of its own projects in addition to advising ITS on various items affecting daily campus life.  We deal with issues like technology “in the classroom,” technology for student groups, and even the Internet connection you’re probably using to read this email.  To learn more, go to wsa.wesleyan.edu/tech.

There is no required level of technological prowess or knowledge for this position; all you need is an interest in improving the state of Wesleyan through these means.  Also, by serving as an ex-officio member, you will not serve on the WSA General Assembly, so you can keep your Sunday nights free!

To apply, send a one to two paragraph statement expressing your interest to sali@wesleyan.edu by Saturday, February 18th at 5PM.  After submitting your statement, you will be contacted about interview times.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions as well.  Hope to hear from you soon!

Best, Syed Ali ’13, Information Technology Coordinator, Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA)

Day of Uplugging Friday, 2/11-Sat., 2/12

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Our Dear Wesleyan Community,

Have you ever spaced out staring at your computer screen, feeling your eyes glaze over as you come back to reality to realize that fifteen minutes have gone by during which you have no idea what happened?

Have you ever been in the middle of an intense discussion with a friend when all of a sudden one of you gets a text message, abruptly stopping the conversation and leaving you both wondering what could have been?

Have you ever wanted some time alone to relax with your thoughts and a guitar but weren’t able to because of incessant facebook messages, facebook chats, facebook posts, calls, texts, emails, BBMs, and gchats that all claimed to be the most important thing in your life?

Well, we have and we think it’s about time we do something about it.  This coming weekend, from Friday night to Saturday night, February 11-12, we are encouraging the whole Wesleyan community (i.e. YOU!) to join us for a Day of Unplugging—to go electronics-free for 24 hours to reconnect with people on a human, face-to-face, no distractions level.

We will be tabling in Usdan all this week to give everyone an opportunity to sign a personal pledge to unplug with us. If you pledge and give a donation (however much you can) to Oddfellows Playhouse, you will receive a voucher for a very snazzy t-shirt (promise!) that is redeemable at the beginning of the opening ceremony, which will be held on the main floor of Usdan on Friday at 6 pm.

When you sign up, you will also receive a list of suggested activities that you can do sans electronics on the day itself, including meditating outside (it’s supposed to be relatively warm!), attending a jam session at Earth House at 4 pm on Saturday (no musical talent required), and cooking for the potluck dinner that will be hosted at Earth House at 6 pm on Saturday as an end to the Day of Unplugging.

Here is a link to a video we made to give you an idea of what some of your fellow Wes students think about unplugging:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MLPOptQt94

We hope you enjoy your stress-free day and we look forward to seeing you all!

Lots of love, Just Some Wesleyan Students

WesFiles Management System

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WesFiles is a centralized, web-based, document storage system that enables users to have easy network access to all wesfiles[1]their documents from anywhere. WesFiles replaces the old system of different storage locations for different types of documents, often requiring different front end programs and different usernames and passwords to gain access to files stored on different systems. There are many advantages to storing your documents in WesFiles

  • Easy network access to all your documents from anywhere.
  • Easy web access. You simply have to connect to https://wesfiles.wesleyan.edu and provide your credentials to access all your documents.
  • WesFiles system can also be mounted on your desktop so it appears as though it is another disk on your computer.
  • Ease of collaboration – you can set the access control for any document yourself; you can also share documents with anyone who doesn’t even have a Wesleyan email account.
  • You don’t have to worry about backing up your files because WesFiles is backed up for you on a regular basis.
  • WesFiles lends itself to extensions easily. For example, ITS has written a dropbox function that the faculty can set up in WesFiles.
  • WesFiles provides a document workflow engine that is very powerful.

More information is available on the WesFiles blog.

Check Wes e-mail & class blog daily!

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thumbnailca0j9pac1Make it a habit to check your Wesleyan e-mail on a daily basis, especially once you arrive on campus, but even now.  E-mail is a medium for official University communications through which you will receive important messages from offices, such as the Registrar, Student Accounts, and Financial Aid, from class deans and administrators (& the President too!), and from your faculty advisor and instructors.   As the Student Handbook states, “[T]he University’s primary means of communicating with students is through their Wesleyan e-mail accounts. Students are responsible for reading and responding to e-mail from University officials.” (P. 21) 

Also get in the habit of checking out this class blog on a daily basis.  It too will serve as an important source of information for you not only this summer, but also throughout your four years here.  Check out as well President Roth’s blog at http://roth.blogs.wesleyan.edu for his thoughts and insights about issues on campus, nationally, and around the world. 

Checking your e-mail and class blog on a daily basis is a good habit to acquire!