College Students

Fox 5 DC (video): Dr. Lawrence Cheskin is interviewed about Mason research linking student dietary choices to potential health problems

eander6 — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 15:46:58 +0000

Fox 5 DC (video): Dr. Lawrence Cheskin is interviewed about Mason research linking student dietary choices to potential health problems eander6 Thu, 10/06/2022 - 11:46

In This Story

Lawrence J. Cheskin, MD

Study: Health risks stem from college student's meals. Cheskin starts at the 35-second mark.

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College of Health and Human Services

College of Health and Human Services Department of Nutrition and Food Studies

DOIL's second annual BLAST Off Week highlights resources, progress

Tama Moni — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 17:55:15 +0000

DOIL's second annual BLAST Off Week highlights resources, progress Tama Moni Mon, 10/03/2022 - 13:55

Each day of the second annual BLAST Off Week, hosted by the College of Engineering and Computing’s Office of Diversity, Outreach, and Inclusive Learning (CEC DOIL), focused on a different theme: Belonging, Leadership, Access, Success, and Trailblazing. The week’s events featured resources available to CEC students.

DOIL Diversity Associate Mercadi Crawford notes one change from last year: “’T’ last year stood for ‘transformation,’ and so that was us just starting the office; that was us trying to figure out what we wanted CEDRIC to look like [and] what we wanted BLAST Off events to look like. This year, we did ‘trailblazing,’ because we couldn’t have done any of that [transformation] without a certain amount of people that helped us. We wanted to make sure that they received the award.”

CEDRIC, the Computing and Engineering Diversity Resource Information Center, has a new location on the second floor of the Nguyen building, Office ENGR 2800, and was the location of the inaugural Trailblazers Awards ceremony.

Chris Carr, Associate Dean for Diversity, Outreach, and Inclusive learning serves food to students at the Career Prep Simulation Lab. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services/��ӽ紫ý

Crawford adds the awardees were “people who were with us when we only had one staff member when it was only Dr. Carr [CEC’s Associate Dean for Diversity, Outreach, and Inclusive Learning & Chief Diversity Officer] trying to do events and do things for all the students here in the building.” Even now, after the addition of Crawford and Christi Wilcox to DOIL, Crawford says, “These [awardees] are still people that we reach out to: we had faculty...willing to help us get our curriculum together; we had staff...willing to help us get our spaces...and reach out to our students. We thought that it was very important for them to be recognized because they could see our vision back when we couldn't see it. They really did set the trail for what we are going to become.”

For CEC students at large, BLAST Off Week culminated in Thursday’s career preparation event, which featured professional hair and makeup services, free professional clothing, and resume and application workshops. This year’s BLAST Off Week events took place from September 19 to September 23. There was a noticeably bigger crowd this year, which Crawford attributes not only to reduced Covid-19—related fears but also to the participation of partner sponsor CACI and to greater marketing efforts prior to the event.

“We were just excited about how many students were excited about it,” says Crawford.

BLAST Off week’s events were as follows:

BELONGING
At an ice cream social on Monday, hosted by DOIL in partnership with Undergraduate Student Services, students could chat with representatives from student and university organizations, who promoted their mission, values, and resources at tables on the lawn.

LEADERSHIP
On Tuesday, students learned how to navigate their academic journey and transition to the workplace at a CACI Leadership Panel in the Johnson Center.

ACCESS
Resource fairs on Wednesday for students and staff highlighted where students could find support when applying to fellowships, graduate schools, research funding, and chances to study abroad.

SUCCESS
Thursday featured career prep resources, including barbers, professional makeup artists, and a professional attire closet in addition to career workshops on building resumes, creating professional correspondences, establishing a professional profile, and applying for jobs.

TRAILBLAZING
Eight people and two corporate partners of DOIL received Trailblazers Awards, which recognize those who have demonstrated excellence in maintaining a socially conscious STEM environment. Award recipients include Assistant Professor of Statistics Jonathan Auerbach, PhD Candidate in Information Technology Dominique Calder, undergraduate software engineering student Natnael Haile, Information Technology Specialist Larry Jackson, Associate Professor and Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering Leigh McCue, Director of Teaching Excellence with the Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning E. Shelly Reid, CEC Operations Manager Joyce Rose, Executive Director of Mason’s Institute for Digital InnovAtion Kamaljeet Sanghera, Bechtel, and CACI.

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Blast Off Week

College Students

Diversity and Inclusive Learning

Career Services

Mason Engineers Week poster winners announced

Rena Malai — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 13:26:00 +0000

Mason Engineers Week poster winners announced Rena Malai Thu, 03/10/2022 - 08:26

Congratulations go to the winners of the Engineers Week poster competition at ��ӽ紫ý, in the undergraduate and graduate categories.

The poster competition was one of several activities for students to participate in during the week of events, which occurred February 22 to February 25. This year’s theme Reimagining the Possible celebrated the five senses: taste, smell, sound, touch, and sight.

Undergraduate Winners

First place: Mahati Malladi and team

Poster name: A Decision Support Tool to Evaluate Navy Future Vertical Lift Manpower

Second place: Aditya Pulipaka and team

Poster name: The Effect of 3D Printing Process Parameters on Surface Mechanics of FDM Printed Peek

Third Place: Nicholas A. Denton

Poster name: Mini Wave Tank Project

Graduate Winners

First place: Shirin Movaghgharnezhad and team

Poster name: Ultrasensitive and Broadband Flexible Photodetectors based on Three-dimensional Porous Graphene

Second place: Randy Jamil Pugh and team

Poster name: Dynamic Postural Stability Among Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease Following Performance-Based Overground Locomotor Training

Third place: Ruizhi Cheng

Poster name: Reality Check of Metaverse: A First Look at Commercial Social Platforms

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National Engineers Week

College of Engineering and Computing

College Students

New Study Finds that College Freshmen Exceed Many U.S. Dietary Guidelines, Increasing Risk of Chronic Health Conditions

John Brandon Cantrell — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 15:31:52 +0000

New Study Finds that College Freshmen Exceed Many U.S. Dietary Guidelines, Increasing Risk of Chronic Health Conditions John Brandon C… Wed, 02/09/2022 - 10:31

Mason: Health Starts Here study finds most college freshmen exceed U.S. dietary guidelines for added sugar, refined grains, sodium, and saturated fat.

Photo by Armin Rimoldi from Pexels

The “Freshman 15” is common among college students, when newfound independence and unrestricted access to dining halls make them more susceptible to poor nutritional intake. Poor nutrition in college students is correlated with an increased risk of a variety of chronic health conditions.

Mason: Health Starts Here (HSH), a longitudinal cohort study, finds that most college freshmen exceed U.S. dietary guidelines for added sugar, refined grains, sodium, and saturated fat, which are all nutrients that should be limited. Physical activity, race/ethnicity, and living on campus contributed to the excess intake of these nutrients.

Why don’t college freshmen meet the US dietary guidelines for added sugar, refined grains, sodium, and saturated fat? is published in the Journal of American College Health.

The data analysis in the study was conducted by Ziaul Rana, a former postdoctoral research fellow at Mason and current researcher at the New York Academy of Sciences; Erika Kennedy, Master of Public Health student; Lilian De Jonge, associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies; Lawrence Cheskin, chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies; Cara Frankenfeld, associate professor at the University of Puget Sound; and Jaclyn Bertoldo from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“There’s very little published information on young adult college students’ diets,” said Cheskin. “While it is known that college students suffer from poorer nutrition on average, less is known about the food source contributors to nutrients recommended for limited consumption and personal characteristics associated with meeting dietary guidelines.” This study has filled in some of those gaps.

One-third of participants met added sugar guidelines and only 4% met daily refined grains requirements. Fewer than half met saturated fat guidelines, and slightly over half met recommended sodium guidelines. Recommendations for each nutrient came from Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which is released by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services. Most sugar intake was from fruits, soda, and sweetened water. Pizza and rice were the most popular source of refined grains and sodium with pizza hitting the trifecta and also coming in at the top of the saturated fat category.

Funded by Mason’s Institute of BioHealth Innovation, HSH is a first-of-its-kind transdisciplinary student cohort study to understand and improve the health and well-being of university students. It follows a broad sample of young adults, specifically Mason students, over time to capture the diversity of their experiences in college and how it affects their health and well-being. The added sugar, refined grains, sodium, and saturated fat study was done using the 2019-20 HSH cohort using a food frequency questionnaire that reflected the past month’s food with portion size designed to assess food and dietary intakes.

In order to determine whether this study can be used to generalize across other college-aged students, the team compared it with similar age and education data from the 2015-16 and 2017-18 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a representative sample collected by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Most participants in the HSH study resided in urban areas and had mid-level socio-economic status. Thus, the results may not be generalizable to students living in rural areas or those with a lower level of income,” says Cheskin.

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Mason Nation masks up to fight COVID-19

John Hollis — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 19:29:56 +0000

Mason Nation masks up to fight COVID-19 John Hollis Mon, 09/13/2021 - 15:29

The Patriot helped encourage the use of masks to fight the spread of COVID-19. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications

Some ��ӽ紫ý students got an unexpected visit from the Patriot last week to remind them of the university’s mask policy.

The Patriot visited students in common areas of Horizon, Innovation, Planetary and Enterprise halls on the Fairfax Campus, offering masks to those who were without and giving Mason swag as a “thank you” to those who were in compliance with the mask policy.

Mason Nation is being asked help reduce the spread of the coronavirus by wearing masks indoors, unless actively eating or drinking, and outdoors when physical distancing is not possible. Unvaccinated members of the community are expected to wear masks at all times while on campus.

“Masks continue to be a very effective way to control the spread of COVID, especially in indoor environments,” said Julie Zobel, Mason’s associate vice president for safety, emergency, and enterprise risk management. “It’s important for all members of the Mason community to wear a mask when indoors with very few exceptions.”

The use of masks is just one element in Mason’s efforts to slow the spread the virus. Others include mandatory vaccinations for all students, faculty and staff unless granted an exemption, testing, physical distancing and completing the Mason COVID Health Check each day. Mason’s strategy is detailed in the COVID Safety Plan.

“Although most of our campus community is vaccinated, masks coupled with vaccine help to prevent the spread of COVID,” said David Farris, Mason’s executive director of safety and emergency management. “However, they only work if we are diligent about wearing masks whenever and wherever we are able to, on or off campus, particularly when we are around others—whether they are vaccinated or not.”

Farris also urged Mason Nation to consider their behavior while off campus, as that can also impact the spread of COVID among the Mason community.

“We need everyone’s assistance to keep the Mason Nation safe, and this responsibility does not end at the borders of our campuses,” he said.

COVID vaccines are available at the Fenwick A Wing (formerly the MIX) on the Fairfax Campus.

Zobel also noted that masks will provide additional help in keeping community members healthy as flu season is now upon us. Mason will offer flu shots at its Fairfax and SciTech Campuses in October by appointment; sign up links will be shared soon.

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Campus News

College Students

coronavirus; COVID-19; Editorial

Clinical Lab Manager: CHHS study on sexually transmitted infections cited. Dr. Lisa Lindley comments.

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 18:12:05 +0000

Clinical Lab Manager: CHHS study on sexually transmitted infections cited. Dr. Lisa Lindley comments. Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 01/07/2021 - 13:12

Many College Students Are Not Tested for STIs despite High Rates, Self-Tests Offer Promise

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