You have got to hand it to those Tibetans… they are a resilient bunch.

Tibetans have been tortured, starved, browbeaten for more than 60 years and more than 1 million of them have died at the hands of the Communist Chinese. But it seems nothing can snuff out their spirit & their love of the Buddhadharma. Ki Ki! So So!

Here’s an amazing picture of one of the largest Buddhist schools in the world – Serthar Buddhist Institute – located in China’s Larung Gar Valley. The closest large city is over 400 miles away and requires a 15 hour drive.

These tiny box houses built around a monastery are home to over 40,000 monks, nuns and students of religion. Its become quite a tourist attraction recently.

You can check out more pictures of the village here.

Today it seems like everybody’s tweeting…

Especially teens, who often put a lot of their feelings out on social media.

New research suggests that Twitter could literally be a lifesaver. Tweets can be monitored to identify people at risk of  committing suicide. 

“The value of Twitter is that it is real time, and because it’s real time, we have an opportunity to be taking action instead of looking at suicide data, suicide rates and saying ‘What are we going to do?’” – Michael Barnes, Brigham Young University

The team from Brigham Young University searched for tweets that contained words and phrases identified as red flags. Their research showed that states with the highest suicide rates also had the highest number of suicide related tweets. 

Monitoring tweets to save lives sounds good… or does it?

Some might suggest it is yet another example of someone snooping and intruding into your personal business.

Should Twitter be used to monitor and prevent suicide? Where do we draw the line between expressing feelings and posing a serious threat online?

Let us know what you think…

October 7^th meeting agenda!

Date/Time: October 7^th, 2013 – 12-12:50pm at Sondheim 108

Agenda

·     Becoming an Official member

§ Email Catherine at cwofford@sigmaalphalambda.org if you have any questions.

§ Go on http://salhonors.org/

·     Attending Meetings

o  Meetings are bi-weekly. We will send out emails to remind you so include your email on sign in sheet.

o  Add us on myUMBC.

o  Add us on Facebook.

o  Point System reminder - come to events and meetings and earn a point.

o  AT THIS POINT, PASS OUT A SIGN IN SHEET WITH NAME, EMAIL ADDRESS, YEAR, AND MEMBER (OR NOT).

·     Planned events for the year

o  Thanks for coming out to the food bank

- For people who couldn’t make it, was it because of the day? What other day is best for you?

�  If you have forms please give us now or by the end of the meeting.

�  Social Event Alert - UMBC SAL Game Night! Games and refreshments. There will be giveaways! October 17^th from 7:30 - 9:30 event location pending. - Flier will be uploaded on FB and myUMBC page so check there and tell your friends about it. Everyone is invited! Even non members

·     Volunteering Opportunities

o  Volunteering Forms. Will be uploaded on the FB page and the myUMBC page.

§ Be Great: Graduate

·     Program providing consistent support from volunteers in helping students develop academic, emotion, and social skills needed to achieve academic success.

·     Working with children  from Baltimore City.

·     Volunteering is available all year rounds for people who are free during after school hours and on evening weekly. 

·     AT least one hour weekly - and commit to working with an individual youth.  

·     Go to http://www.bgcmetrobaltimore.org and contact Matthew Justus - the Director of the community outreach.  

§ Soccer Without Borders - Baltimore

·     SWB seeks volunteers to serve as Academic coaches for middle school student athletes.

·     Need volunteer that are free after school on weekdays.

·     Skills – people who are good with working with people and can help students with homework.

·     Go to http://www.soccerwithoutborders.org/baltimore and contact Kate McGrain, the volunteer coordinator. 

Meeting Minutes 10/7/13

General:

·         Introduced e-board members (Present: Aaron, Brenden, Mo, Kevin)

·         If you want to be an official member, email Catherine Wofford at cwofford@salhonors.org

·         Meetings are biweekly

·         Discussed point system – may need to revise point system in the case for people who already volunteer several hours a week. 1 point per event or per organization?

·         For t-shirts, talk with Mo

Events:

·         Food Bank last week was a success

·         We aim to have 1 volunteer event and 1 social event every month.

·         Asked the member present whether Saturday is a good day for volunteering events, Saturday is generally the best

·         For non-campus volunteer events: Fill out form the volunteer form, give it to an e-board member.

·         Social Event:

o   SAL Game Night!!

§  Location: TBA (Possibly at Lower flat Tuesday, Harbor Multipurpose room?)

§  Time: 7:30-9:30pm, October 17^th

·         Volunteer Event: (volunteering opportunities for individuals)

o   Be Great: Graduate

§  Tutoring kids in Baltimore City, must be available all-year round during weekly evenings

o   Soccer w/o Borders

§  Academic tutoring, must be free weekly evenings

·         We will  mention any group or on-campus volunteering events 

The Maryland General Assembly approved funding this year to establish a “Center for Excellence on Early Intervention for Serious Mental Illness” to identify young people with psychosis or at risk for the specific symptom that makes violence more likely. The program aims to get them into immediate treatment.

Psychology Associate Professor Jason Schiffman is a member of the new center’s staff and is quoted in a USA Today/The Pew Charitable Trusts article. He describes how early treatment for people with psychosis can be pivotal.

“There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that the sooner a person with psychosis gets into treatment, the better the outcome for that person’s well-being, for that person’s chances of living and working in the community, for them living the life they want to live,” Schiffman said.

He also provides insight on how certain symptoms present in childhood can put a person at high risk to develop psychosis later in life.

“The person may say that the passage of time feels faster or slower than usual,” Schiffman said. “Familiar surroundings can seem strange, confusing or unreal. They might say they’ve heard things others can’t hear like people whispering or talking. They might say they mistake shadows for people or noises for voices. They might report seeing things on TV or reading in the newspaper that they think has special meaning to them. They often pick up hidden threats or putdowns in what people say or do. Some say they sometimes use words in unusual ways.”

You can read the full article here.