Holocaust Coalition Ensures Compassion

By SARAH GALZERANO & REBECCA KOLIMAGA

Staff Writer

The Cumberland County
Coalition for Holocaust and
Genocide Education has held public workshops here at Cumberland
County College. For over a decade
the coalition, which consists of
only volunteers, has been doing
these workshops to encourage
holocaust and genocide consciousness and provide resources to
teachers.

Teachers who attend
the workshops are awarded three
professional development hours.
Richard F. Flaim is the Founding
Chairperson of the coalition, and
Harry Furman, esq., who has
presented over 20 workshops, is
the current Chairperson. Furman
explains the coalitions goal is to
encourage people to act in a manner which will reflect their sense of
compassion for other people.

Harry Furman took part

caust and genocide in social

media. He presented People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) advertisements that
compared slaughterhouse animals
to victims of concentration camps,
Pro-Life campaigns that compared
the Holocaust to abortion, and
Presidential campaigns that compared Obama to Hitler.

The most recent workshop in February 2015 focused on
the contested power of the photographic image and the moving
picture. Furman showcased some
of the very first pictures of concentration camps and newsreels that
were shown in American theatres.
Furman made the point that you
dont see workshops about this
subject. The main points of this
workshop were that it was rare to
see an accurate representation of
camps early after the war ended
since Jews were never mentioned
and that seeing these real films and
photographs can change how you

think about the Holocaust.

We are all shaped by
our own personal histories. We
all deal with history, whether we
like it or not. says Furman. He
believes it would be beneficial for
Cumberland students to attend
these workshops because theyre
in an educational institution. The
purpose of their being here is not
just to learn a trade, its also to
think about the world in which
they live.

Furmans final remark
was Its more important to be
kind than to be clever. The next
workshop, in March, will be about
Humor and the Holocaust. Other events offered by the coalition
are the Dear Esther production
held each spring at CCC (open to
all county students), and outreach presentations with nationally known speakers. If you are
interested in attending, you can
contact the coalition at holocaustcoalition@gmail.com.

like liquor to an alcoholic.

I have known for a while
that using a fitness tracker both
positively (got me to a proper
your life. Theres a dark side to
gives you the opportunity to lie.
weight) and negatively (developing
dieting, and I believe that fitness

Recently, when you add
an eating disorder) affected me,
trackers can aid the developa food item that, say, is high in
but I was curious if these apps and
ment of eating disorders such as
fat, the app will remind you that
wristbands have ever sent anybody
Orthorexia Nervosa (trying to eat
you cant consume much more fat
else in a downwards spiral. I found
perfectly), Athletica Nervosa (befor the day. If you dont log your
ing addicted to exercise), Anorexia several women online who perlunch by noon, it sends you
sonally blogged about
a notification to do so. The
their experiences with
To people who have already sufsame goes for breakfast and
fitness trackers and
dinner. And if you dont log
fered from an eating disorder, fiteating disorders. I
anything at all for a number
also surveyed people
ness trackers are like liquor to an
of days, it starts nagging
on Facebook, male
alcoholic.
you. This app literally sends
and female, ages 13you into a guilt trip.
57.

Now, when you
In
my
results
I found that the oldNervosa (starvation), and Bulimia
have a fitness tracker wristband,
er
(24-57)
the
person, the less negNervosa (binging and purging).
such as a Fitbit or Jawbone,
atively
affected
(stress, self-shame)
While using fitness trackers, its
connected to an app that collects
they
are
by
the
fitness
tracker, and
easier than you think to develop
this data, its a little more realisthe
more
successful
they
are at
the first two without even noticing
tic. These bands can track steps
actually
becoming
healthier
and
it. If youre trying to eat nothing
walked, stairs climbed, distance,
feeling
good
about
themselves.
but healthy food, feel guilty when
and ultimately calories burned.
you eat unhealthy, go workout be- However, old and young (13But instead of you personally
20) alike, they did at some point
cause you ate a few extra calories,
inputting I ran for 40 minutes,
become obsessed with numbers.
experience anxiety when you see
the wristband knows exactly how
Also, the older the person, the less
a bad number, and spend hours
long you ran, at what speed, and
they check the analytics of their
inputting data, you may have a
calculates a more exact amount of
tracker (1-5 times daily), commild eating disorder. Your goal
calories burned. This way you cant
pared to an anonymous 13-yearwas to lose weight, not to develop
lie to make yourself feel better.
old who checks hers 15-20 times
a mental illness. To people who

If this sounds pleasing to
a day. What surprised me is that
have already suffered from an
you, you might need to reevaluate
eating disorder, fitness trackers are nearly everyone who took my sur-

vey felt motivated and aware when

using their fitness tracker, even if
they werent making progress.

While using a fitness
tracker, its important to remember that by turning calories into
numbers, you lose the nutritional
value along with some of your
sanity, and it is very time consuming. Calorie counting didnt start
with smartphones, but the arrival
of such apps has created a numbers-driven disease, according
to Dr. Kimberly Dennis, medical
director of Timberline Knolls residential treatment center for mood
disorders.

Its unfortunate that
theres very little that companies
like FitBit and MyFitnessPal can
do to keep their product from
falling into the hands of the young
and naive. At least MyFitnessPal features a disclaimer in their
community guidelines, and does
occasionally remind you to eat
more instead of less if you log an
incredibly low number of calories
for the day the app, provides you
with ways to safely meet your
goals. Not everyone will listen.
Eating disorders are no joke- dont
be fooled by fitness.

Do these smiling faces not want to

be here? According to the CDC,
one in five teenagers in the U.S.
seriously considers suicide annually.

Theres a variety of situations that can cause an adolescent
to become suicidal and if youre
dealing with somebody you know
and you also think its your fault,
its much more deeply rooted than
that. The AFSP states that suicidal
tendencies as well as depression
and most other mental illness are
hereditary. This doesnt mean if
you had a family member commit
suicide that youre going to die the

mental illness there seems to be

a stigma attached. He also says
that the first step is start with
the facts. I think if we can gain
a better understanding we have
a better chance to help others or
ourselves.

Millville High School
sets a solid example for what more
schools should offer in terms of
suicide prevention. Every year they
host programs to fit the needs of
struggling teenagers. These programs range from guest speakers
about suicide, self-worth, and
cyber-bullying, to Tolerance Day
and RESPECT Week- positive
activities about self-worth and
valuing both yourself and others.

There are many suicide
prevention and awareness organizations through media that
you can turn to (for yourself or a
loved one) such as the National
Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800273-TALK, the Youth Suicide
Prevention Program at yspp.org,
Active Minds Changing the
conversation about mental health
activeminds.org, the Yellow Ribbon suicide prevention program
at yellowribbon.org, and many
more. Suicide can be prevented,
and according to NAMI (the
National Alliance on Mental
Illness), the most effective suicide
prevention strategies is educating
people about how to identify and
effectively respond to the warning
signs of suicidal behavior.

in the creation of the first Holocaust curriculum in New Jersey,

aside Flaim. In 1976, Furman
pioneered the first high school
semester course on the Holocaust,
The Conscience of Man, which is
now taught by Terry Kuhnreich at
Vineland High School. Furman is
also a member of the N.J. Commission on Holocaust Education
and an adjunct professor at Rutgers University. Im still involved
in education, and I have been all
these years, said Furman.

When Furman begins
his workshop, he reminds us that
it is not a lecture. His workshops
are far from ordinary- often on
controversial subjects relating to
the Holocaust and genocide. As
he says, they are not a be all, end
all, hes just trying to open up
a topic. Furman observes that a
change in an audiences opinion

doesnt happen after one workshop; people need time to reflect

on such a stirring subject.

We really have to think
in terms of individuals. You take
one person at a time, and thats
how progress occurs slowly,
sometimes painfully slowly,
Furman said, part of the task of
an educator is to find out how to
move someone forward, even if its
one step, and thats a challenge.

For Furman, the most
shocking element of the Holocaust is that the death was caused
not by unintelligent, uneducated
people, but in fact were among the
most educated and brilliant professionals in German culture. They
believed very much that what they
were doing was the right thing to
do. He concludes, Education
by itself does not by itself ensure
compassion.

In December 2014,
Furman orated a workshop about
the misuse of terms such as Holo-

Healthy Meets Unhealthy

By SARAH GALZERANO
Staff Writer

In todays day and age,
when people want to diet they
tend to turn to fitness trackers
(wearable bands or online apps),
because technology is amazing!
Surely, fitness trackers have been
known to help people lose weight
and meet other fitness goals
mine helped me lose 50 pounds.
But are they as safe as we think
they are, or is something thats
supposed to be healthy actually
making us unhealthy?

MyFitnessPal is a commonly used fitness-tracking app
(among many), because its free
and available for various devices.
This app does just about everything you could think of: tracking
your weight loss, setting a weight
goal, setting a daily calorie goal,
setting nutritional (carbs, fat, protein) goals, calculating net calories,
and calculating possible future
weight based on daily intake. It
also calculates caloric expenditure.
However, if youre using the app
by itself, you have to input your
physical activity manually, which

National Issue of Adolescent Suicide

By: SARAH GALZERANO

Staff Writer

Its happening everywhere around you. You dont

personally know the victim, so
you shake it off. Talking about it
makes you uncomfortable.

Suicide is an international issue that people tend to
shy away from. Why when
raising awareness could only help
us? What do we really have to
help educate ourselves? But most
importantly, why should we care?

According to the
American Foundation for Suicide
Prevention (AFSP), from the
1980s to 2000, suicide rates in
our Nation were actually dropping, but over the last 12 years
they increased to 12.5 deaths per
100,000. In 2012 alone, 40,600
suicides were reported, making
suicide the tenth leading cause of
death in America. But what Id
like to focus on is the fact that,
according to the U.S. Center for
Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), suicide is the third-leading cause of death for our youth
ages 15 to 24. And according to
the National Mental Health Association, suicide is the second-leading cause of death amongst college
students.

That might not scare
you at all, figuring youre looking
around you and there are, well,
people. Is there anyone missing?
Could anyone go missing soon?

Some people are very good at hiding what they are going through
while others demonstrate typical
warning signs, says David Vorndran supervisor of guidance at
Millville High School.
same way, it just means that you
and your family should be particularly alert to psychiatric symptoms
and consider being evaluated.

As far as what can ultimately lead an adolescent to consider suicide, usually a significantly negative life change takes place
prior. This could be the death of a
close family member, parental divorce, substance abuse, moving to
a new community, or formation of
a new family. These events trigger

Website Makeover
By SARAH GALZERANO
Staff Writer

As some of you may
already know, a new Cumberland
County College website design is
underway by Digital Wave, an information architecture and website
development company. According
to Executive Director of Communications and Marketing, Keith
Wasserman, the Digital Wave
team began to work on the website in late November. Their first
step was to conduct a complete inventory of the information on the
curr ent website and reorganize it.
The new site is expected to go live
in June.

There have been two
student focus groups to display the
new school website. Digital Wave
representatives Brian Furry (Project Manager), Bruce Cronlund
(Technical Director), and Tony
Rose (User Experience Lead) were
present at the second group on
January 28. The communications
students from EN-241 and EN242 who attended this focus group
all seemed to be pleased with what
was to come. Many said how the
new layout and design expectations are a definite improvement
to how the school website looks
currently.

One of the major changes to the design is an easily accessible, separate homepage for the
community. This way community
members wont get lost scrolling
through student material when
they try to find upcoming events
at the Frank Guarancini Center.
Everything that would be essential
for current and incoming students
would be found on the homepage.

Another major improvement to the new student
homepage are large links to several
of CCCs partner schools. Many
students are still unaware of the
partnerships we hold with Wilmington University, Montclair State
University, Rowan University,

suicidal thoughts such self-doubt,

confusion, eating disorders, and
even insomnia. Most prevalent in
our age group are things brought
on by the greater pressures of
modern life like anxiety over
deadlines for school assignments,
stressors at work, feeling pressured
to succeed, fearing the future, and
competition for grades and college
admissions.

It can be hard to tell
when an individual becomes
depressed or suicidal, especially if
its not just a relapse. Some people
become depressed out of the blue.
Luckily, there are universal warn-

Fairleigh Dickenson University,

and Drexel University. The purpose of this concept of the design
is to encourage future students to
enroll at CCC and to continue to
a four-year or graduate degree.

Above these school
links would paint a vivid picture
that will incorporate four main
themes/reasons, although there are
many, on why to attend Cumberland (Close To Home, Affordability, University and Career Support,
Exceptional Opportunities). This
is another way to draw in future
students who may not consider
community college as an option.
Also, included on the home page
would be articles geared towards
student interests what is going
on around campus and news
about students, alumni, and professors.

Sophomore and Journalism major, Rebecca Kolimaga,
focus group attendee, shared, I
really like the new website designs
because its clear they designed it
with students in mind. The new
design is going to be professional,
eye-catching, and easy to use for
both students and community
members. Hopefully, the rest of
our students and the rest of our
community will agree.

With the easy part
(design) finished, the Digital
Wave team will build variations of
pages that will complete our new
website, consolidating them into
the chosen content management
system. The Public Relations
department will then begin populating the pages with re-written
text and photographs. Wasserman
says, There is an opportunity
now for college departments to
look at how theyre represented
on the website now and to revise
and tighten up that content. We
will also begin an aggressive photo
campaign to professionally capture
the activity and beauty of the
campus.

ing signs to help us find out when

someone is suicidal. These signs
are often changes in a persons
behavior and mood. Many suicide
prevention websites, such as afsp.
org, list in detail these warning
signs. Sometimes there are NO
warning signs, and not all people
who end their lives are necessarily
depressed. Some people are very
good at hiding what they are going through while others demonstrate typical warning signs,

says David Vorndran, supervisor

of Guidance at Millville High
School.

Self-harm plays a significant part in the issue of suicide.
There is no complete count of
suicide attempts kept in U.S. hospitals. However, the CDC gathers
date from U.S. hospitals each year
on injuries resulting from what are
known was self-harm. In 2013,
494,169 people visited a hospital for injuries due to self-harm
behavior, suggesting that approximately 12 people harm themselves
(not necessarily intending to take
their lives) for every reported
death by suicide. Its because of
these statistics that its a mystery
how many suicide attempts go
unreported.

To decrease suicide rates,
education is key. Okay, sure,
you may be perfectly happy, but
everybody needs to be aware of
the warning signs of suicide and
how to prevent it. By educating
everybody, individuals who are
depressed arent being singled out
and being made to feel even worse
about themselves. Also, they dont
always go looking for help, so why
not bring the help to them?

Vorndran believes that
educating people is important
but, We need to move it from a
taboo subject to one that can be
in everyday conversation. When
you look at illness, we are usually
very open to discussing the flu,
but when it comes to any type of

CCC Fencing Victory

By SARAH GALZERANO
Staff Writer

Competing is not
considered a club activity for the
colleges fencing team, but some
of the team members do represent
the school individually at tournaments. On Saturday, February, 21,
four of our fencing club members
competed in the St. Augustine
Prep Invitational tournament. This
tournament consisted of student
fencers from the Prep, students
from CCC, and three different
groups from Infinity Fencing
Alliance (Swedesboro). One of
our fencers, Michael McGill won
first place- winning a gold medal.
Another Cumberland fencer,
Gabriela Caudra, took third place.

Before tournaments
are held, Professor, and coach,
William Olivero has his competitors stretch and warm up. Before
a tournament starts, if his team
members arent practicing they are
observing the other fencers to get
an idea of all of the opponents
strengths and weaknesses.

Michael, 18, is a freshman at Cumberland, and is the
President of the Fencing Club.
Michael has only ever competed
in two tournaments both at
the Prep. In his first tournament,
which was three years ago, he took
third place. He was very proud to
have taken 1st place in this past
tournament. He says he usually
feels confident before competing, and afterwards is happy, but
exhausted from such a long day.

Gabriela, 18, is a Liberal
Arts major at Cumberland, and
has only been fencing since
September. She is the treasurer of
the fencing club. She is also one
of only two girls in the Fencing
Club. This past tournament,
where she took 3rd place, was
her very first time competitively

Photo Courtesy of William Olivero

CCC Fencing Team at the St. Augustine Prep Invitational Tournament after their
victory

fencing. When asked how she felt

before the competition, she said
I didnt want to wake up to go,
because I thought I wasnt going
to do that great. Afterwards, she
felt more aware of her full potential and motivated to go ahead
and compete and represent the
school.

Two other members
from Cumberlands fencing club
also competed in the tournament.
Brooke Ambert, 19, is a Social
Science major at Cumberland,
and she, like Gabriella, has only
been fencing since this past September. Brooke is the Secretary
of the Fencing Club. This past
tournament was her first, and she
placed into the top 8. Describing
Olivero, she said I think he is
a great fencing coach- all of his
advice applies and it really helped
me have advantages over others in
the competition. Anthony Chesebro, 18, is an engineering major
here, and he also began fencing in
September, with this tournament

being his first. He is the Vice President of the Club. He didnt win
any medals, but he stated that he
learned a lot from the competition
experience.

After this specific tournament, Olivero was very proud of
his club members that competed.
They all learned something just
by showing up. As theyre competing, they improve.

Olivero has been fencing for 57 years, and has been
teaching fencing at Cumberland
County College since it opened
in 1966. Currently, his fencing
club has seven active members- 16
total. If you would like to join the
Fencing Club, go to the Charles
Cunningham Recreational Center/
Gymnasium on campus at 2 pm
on Wednesdays, and lessons are
free for students.