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FROM THE EDITORIAL STAFF

Thanks for reading our December issue!

With the end of the semester around the corner, December is a stressfull month filled with endless finals, papers and trips to the library. In this issue the MRC would like to make this stressful time for our students a little bit easier by providing some of our best final survial tips. Hear from our very own bearcats on page 8 and find out what they do to make it through the tiring hours of studying.

If our tips aren’t enough to get you through December, let us remind you that December also means the holiday season is upon us. In addition to the various events being held on campus the MRC will also be hosting events of our own such as Global Fiesta, and Home Away from Home (details found on page 4) to bring the holiday spirit from all cultures to Binghamton University’s campus. Lastly, with December must come goodbyes as our Fall Semester comes to a close. The MRC will host its last Student Leader Meeting, and Culture at Chenango event. We thank you for supporting our organization this semester and look forward to continuing to provide you cultural events, news and more next semester!

As always, please feel free to send your thoughts, opinions and content suggestions to mrc@binghamton.edu.

Happy Reading,Culture Connects Editorial Team

About Culture ConnectsCulture Connects is a newsletter designed to provide the campus with up-to-date information about cultural events, programs and opportunities available to the Binghamton University Community.

If you would like to receive an electronic copy of the newsletter every month, please email the Culture Connects Team with subject “subscribe” to mrc@binghamton.edu.

Meet the Culture Connects Team

Samantha Gillette Graduate Marketing Intern

Jonathan Alvizuri Undergradute Marketing Intern

Ye “Mary” Bai Undergradute Marketing Intern

Gabrielle Cruz Undergraduate Marketing Intern

Nicole Ochonma Undergraduate Marketing Intern

Tanyah Barnes, M.EdODEI Diversity Fellow and Advising Editor

For questions, comments, advertising or submitting content, contact the team at mrc@binghamton.edu

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MRC Upcoming Events

MRC would like you to save the date for the following upcoming events:

MRC Student Leaders MeetingTuesday, November 3rd, 7:00-8:00pm, Tuesday, December 1st, 7:00-8:00pm,All meetings in UU 111

MRC Internship Info SessionWednesday, November 11th, 5:00pm-6:30pm, UUW 324Thursday, November 12th,5:00pm-6:30pm, UUW 325

Culture at ChenangoTuesday, November 17th, 11:30am-2:30pmChenango Room

MRC 7th Annual Global FiestaWednesday, December 9th, 5-7pm,Mandela Room

Home Away from Home Party Wednesday, January 6th, 6-8pm, Mohawk Great Room

#MRCMonday & Diversity TalkShowstarting October 5th

MRC NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Subscribe to the MRC Events Calender at mrc.binghamton.edu to stay up-to-date on all MRC Events throughout the year!

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MRC NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Celebrate Holidays with the MRC!

Global FiestaThe holidays are just around the corner, and the MRC plans to celebrate accordingly with our annual Global Fiesta! Join us on December 9th from 5PM-7PM in the Mandela Room for a holiday celebration unlike any other. Our celebration will bring together holiday festivities from a variety of different cultures and backgrounds and will allow all attendees to experience each one. Special performances, activities, and menu options will make this years event one you do not want to miss. Come join us as we share holiday traditions with one another, and bring together our diverse campus community.

Home Away From HomeFinding it hard to commute home this holiday season? Have no fear, the MRC will be your home away from home. On January 6th from 6-8pm in the Mohawk Great Room we will be hosting A Home Away From Home Party to celebrate the holiday season with those students and faculty staying in the Binghamton area this season. It will be a wonderful opportunity to meet, gather and enjoy company with others who are around the University at this time. Dinner will be provided to all attendees, and we can promise you it will feel just like home. Hope to see you there!

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As the Holidays approach and the smell of eggnog delves into the noses of Americans everywhere, it is easy to get caught up in the season of giving. American households spend hundreds of dollars annually in preparation for the upcoming holidays. This spending trend is perhaps no better represented than by the mobs of people camping outside retailers on this year’s Black Friday. While the economic stimulus from such mass consumption is quite impactful in the short run, the level at which the average person is spending around the holidays could lead to undesirable consequences.

Consumerism, the belief that it is good for people to spend a lot of money on goods and services, seems to sprout up often at around this time of year. Last year alone, Americans spent over $50 billion in retailers on Black Friday alone, with individual spending rounding out to $380.95. This total shoots up to nearly $617 billion for the months of November and December. Is there something about the Christmas shopping season that makes us gun for our wallets? Not necessarily, the thing is households are spending every other month of the year as well. The World Bank

has the level at which we spend money on consumption, as opposed to saving or investing, at nearly 69% of a household’s total income. It is readily apparent that the United States houses a consumption culture. While, it is great that we are not afraid to help fund our business sectors it is important to remember that moderation is essential for a healthy lifestyle and for living within one’s means. The latter is where we are going wrong.

I am not saying you should stop indulging or splurging on those that you care about. I only wish to remind people that they should know their limits and to reevaluate their priorities. Is shelling out that extra half a paycheck on a curved 4k Ultra HD LED TV really going to bring joy into your life? Or are you better off opting for a cheaper option and saving your money for a few nights out with family, friends and significant others? You were probably going to wind up binge watching Netflix on your laptop anyway. Sure this may seem like an extreme example, but see how it relates to this template. The next time you consider what big ticket item you will be bringing home, ask yourself these 3 questions: What am I really buying? Are there any alternatives to buying this? What am I giving up by buying this? Now look back at the TV example:

1. What am I really buying?

a. An ultra high picture quality TV

b. An incentive to spend more time watching TV

c. The social gratification of owning a modern piece of tech-nology

2. Are there any alternatives to buying this?

a. A cheaper TV with a nearly unperceivable difference in picture quality

b. Higher quality and healthier groceries to live a longer life

c. Spending the money to spend time with loved ones

3. What am I giving up by buying this?

HOLIDAY CONSUMERISM

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a. Half a paycheck over your intended budget

b. Hours of labor in order to spend more of your limited free time watching TV

c. The money you could have gained by investing in a savings account or in stocks instead.

Living within your means can be a hard thing to do because it can be hard to measure what your “means” really is. A cheap $100 purchase of a clearance item will not mean much when you still have plenty of money left over from your summer job. Yet, you are always giving more than just the money you are handing over. You are giving up the time and energy you spent to earn that money and dedicating future time and effort to enjoy what you just bought. Filling your home with apparel, appliances and posh furniture is great if you can do it, but is it worth it? We are told that we need these things to be happy, therefore we need money, and so we need a job to get money. In the end we wind up spending countless hours of our lives working a job and we forget to take the time to just live life.

By Jonathan Alvizuri, MRC InternSource: http://www.statisticbrain.com/black-friday-yearly-spending/ and

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.CON.PETC.ZS

HOLIDAY CONSUMERISM

Culture Chat with Binghamton University Students

As the Holidays approach, we can’t help but become filled with excitement when daydreaming about the family time, traditions, and delicious meals that lie ahead of us. Every year people from all walks of life head back to their families and friends to celebrate and partake in different holiday festivities. At Binghamton University, we are lucky to have a diverse student body filled with students from all over the World. Here are several students from Binghamton University who celebrate different and similar Holidays all in unique ways.

Meet Alexandra Spiridoula Lambadarios:Me: Where are you/your family from? Alexandra: I was born in the U.S. but my parents and all my ancestors were born in Greece. Being first generation, however, had me growing up with all native Greek traditions, especially around the holidays.Me: What Holiday do you celebrate?Alexandra: We celebrate Christmas on the same day Catholics do. Some Greeks who follow the old calendar, though, celebrate it in early January. It’s an old school tradition that my family phased out.Me: What are some of your favorite traditions?Alexandra: There isn’t much that we do different on Christmas. One big thing is that we go to church every Christmas Eve, typically at night. And then the rest of holiday prep is centered on baking, where seasonal Greek cookies are consistently pumped out of the kitchen. It’s the only time of year we really eat these desserts (baklava, kourambiedes, melomakarena).Me: What is your favorite meal that you and your family eat on this day, and explain what it is?Alexandra: There isn’t a traditional meal Greeks make, but my family Christmas dinners are usually centered around pig or lamb meat, and then spanakopita (spinach pie), tiropita (cheese pie), or any other traditional greek pie. The rest of the dishes are standard, food that’s cooked

CULTURE CHATS: HOLIDAY EDITION

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year round. The most exciting part is, of course, the dessert.

Meet Cali Chazan: Me: Where are you/your family from?Cali: I am originally from Honduras, but my family and I moved to the United States when I was about 10 years old.Me: What Holiday do you celebrate?Calli: My family and I like many other families celebrate Christmas

but, we do it in a different way than people do in the United States.Me: What are some of your favorite traditions?Calli: In Honduras, Christmas Eve fireworks are a huge event, all over the country at night the sky is completely lit up, and it is absolutely beautiful!Me: What is your favorite meal that you and your family eat on this day, and explain what it is?Calli: You can’t have a Honduran Christmas without Tamales! Tamales are wrapped in a banana leaf and are filled with meat, my family usually uses pork or chicken but you can put beef in there as well.

Meet Juliana Miller: Me: Where are you/your family from?Juliana: My family is from the Ukraine but we practice JudaismMe: What Holiday do you celebrate?Juliana: We celebrate Hanukkah with Ukrainian flareMe: What are some of your favorite traditions?Juliana: Our family celebrates Hanukkah a little different than it is usually done. I come from an extremely large family and it has become difficult for us to celebrate all 8 nights together, so what my family does is celebrate each of the 8 nights separately and then on the last day we all get together and have a huge potluck dinner partyMe: What is your favorite meal that you and your family eat on this day, and explain what it is?Juliana: Kasha varnishkes is one of my favorite meals that we eat, we also have Latkes and Lox.

by Gabrielle Cruz, MRC Intern

CULTURE CHATS: HOLIDAY EDITION

Interested in advertising in the MRC Culture Connects Newsletter?Increase your business among Binghamton University students, faculty and staff. The MRC is home for more than 100 cultural student organizations on campus. With more than 1,700 students subscribed to our Monthly Newsletter, consider us a great marketing tool for reaching the university community. Binghamton University’s student of color and International student populations are increasing. Make your business more visible among students.

For more information, please contact the Culture Connects Newsletter Team at mrc@binghamton.edu or 607-777-4472.

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Ugh…Finals.

That dreadful week when your whole semester finally gets put into perspective. Your brain boils down like crazy and for some reason, 2+2 just doesn’t equal four anymore! Simple math becomes hard as a rock and chemistry literally just needs to take a backseat.

So. What do you do in times like this?

I decided to ask around the beautiful green campus of Binghamton University first to find out what our fellow peers would do when their life is turmoil during Finals week. No shame in this game.

Welcome to the segment of, “What would a Bearcat do?”

Kayla Mesmain, a transfer sophomore majoring in Biology, had some tips to give out: “Well, as a fresh bearcat, I would definitely try to study as much as I can. God only knows how crazy Binghamton can get.”

Seems pretty legit. Binghamton can get crazy.

The next bearcat to participate in this segment was Steven Mangra, a Junior majoring in Politics, Philosophy, and Law, commonly known here as PPL. He states, “I think group studying would be beneficial for me. Reviewing information with other people always seems to work out.” I couldn’t agree more.

The final bearcat to complete this mini segment was student, Jissel Ledesma. As a senior in the School of Management, majoring in accounting, Jissel quickly came across as the perfect fit to answer this question. She had already survived countless finals here at Binghamton, and has probably made some incredible discoveries on how to exactly survive finals week. So I asked her the question:

“Jissel, what would you do during Finals Week?”“Honestly, outside of studying of course, I would make sure to get some rest and find time to eat. You’ll need that energy when that final exam rolls around.”

And as simple as that answer was, that is as simple as it gets. Finals week is something every college student has to go through whether they like it or not. It’s not always about pulling an all-nighter or cramming your brain with information until your head hurts. It is more so about making sure you stay healthy and vibrant in time for your finals. Although all of your

finals are indeed crammed into just one week, surviving it is not as hard as it sounds.

Unless you’re an engineering major. Now, that might take a little bit more work.

According to an article published by TIME Magazine this year, Finals week should be the time to silence all of your social media accounts. As much as we would like to get in on the action that others are getting themselves involved in, social media (during Finals) only leads to distractions, and worse, possible bad grades on your exam. Now who would want that? Silencing your accounts can help you retain focus as well as keeping your eye on the prize. Which in this case, is your review sheet. Now, of course, it is not entirely bad for you to check in for 10 minutes or so on Facebook. Just make sure those 10 minutes don’t turn into you watching endless videos, or worse, online shopping!

Another tip that would be great to practice during Finals week is experimenting with different ways of studying. Now, I know all of us have a certain way they would like to study or are used to, but there is

FINALS SURVIVAL GUIDE

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FINALS SURVIVAL GUIDEnothing wrong with practicing another way. It could possibly be group studying, mentioned by Steven Mangra, where you and some of the students in your class get together and study, or you could also practice switching subjects after an hour of studying. Research shows that switching subjects helps your brain store that fresh knowledge you just gained longer. With this, you do not even have to split your time equally. You would just alternate between subjects, studying what you believe to be important at that time.

Oh, food. What a lovely subject. It’s also pretty lovely during Finals Week. Jissel Ledesma mentioned this in her interview and it turns out to be one of the most important things you should remember during this week. I know many of us forget, especially here in Binghamton, to eat because of all the work that is put on us. But forgetting to eat during Finals week is a different story. Skipping a meal can definitely drain your energy, making you more tired than you already would be. It is also important to remember that not every food choice during finals week is good. Fast food is easy to indulge in, so thinking green (yes, this is a pun) is best during finals week! Eating foods like carrots, walnuts, bananas, and even chocolate (it’s something in the cocoa) has been proven to retain one’s focus and help fill one’s stomach up. What you drink is also pretty important. That H2O, otherwise known as water, will definitely be your friend during Finals Week as it helps you stay hydrated and balance your memory and focus. Drinking caffeine is also beneficial, but try to drink one cup in the morning. Green tea is another good substitute, and is great to drink at night if you are thinking about staying up.

Focus is something that can be hard for all of us to retain. It has been mentioned plenty of times already, so why not give out some examples on how to not only find it, but keep it? One thing that can help, even though it may seem miniscule, is putting your phone on Do Not Disturb. With all those bells and rings, it’s no wonder why most of us are glued to our phone screens! Turning the sound off can eliminate distractions and help you keep focus. Another important thing to do during this week is GETTING SOME SLEEP. Some people even say that sleeping triumphs over actual studying. It keeps your immune system on check, and avoids you from pulling those all-nighters that aren’t as beneficial as you may think they are. One last thing to mention would be to reward yourself. Heck, Finals Week is already a challenge within itself, so why not appreciate the goals we achieve during the week?

Finals Week is something that everyone is definitely capable of surviving. We are all equiped with the necessary materials, so why not put them to practice? Whether it be biology you’re studying for, or that 15-page essay you have to turn in, using these tips during finals will make life seem much easier.

by Nicole Ochonma, MRC Intern

Finals got you stressed? Check Out De-Stress December!

It’s that time of year again--De-Stress December has officially begun, which means plenty of opportunities for fun, food, and relaxation during your last few weeks of the semester.

De-Stress December will run from Tuesday, December 1st - Tuesday, December 22nd. Please refer to this page for a complete list of upcoming events. Good luck to all students with the remainder of the semester and final exams!

More info at http://binghamton.edu/dean-of-students/programs-services/stress-free-spring.html!

DE-STRESS DECEMBER

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CULTURAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

It’s not to late to donate to the fall annual clothing drive.

Drop Box Locations: P.U.L.S.E. Office (UUB007),B.S.U. Office (UUW317), EOP Tutorial Center, L.A.S.U. Lounge (UUW310), J.U.M.P., Nation Office (UUW326), Delaware Hall (Newing), Lehman Hall (Hinman)

BUJA: Kouhaku is a traditional Japanese talent competition held on

New Year’s eve, in which opposing teams of women and men

(RED and WHITE) compete to one up each other on stage.

Show support for your favorite performers at this year’s

Kouhaku on December 5 in UU Undergrounds from 5-7pm. And best

of all, IT’S FREE!

The Lambda Alpha Upsilon Fraternity is very excited to have gained recognition at SUNY Binghamton, and are even more thrilled to be apart of the campus community next semester. Come to their informational meeting on December 7th.

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CULTURAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

SA: Participate in this years Project Santa, and make sure that every Binghamton

child has something off their wish list this holiday season. All you

have to do is email projectsanta@binghamton.org with “I want to be a

sponsor” as the subject.

P.U.L.S.E-Attend the 5th annual Leadership Conference and practice articulating your skills, experience, knowledge, and overall worth in today’s competitive job market is to create a personal brand that helps you stand out in the crowd.

Binghamton Men's Club Volleyball & BAMS are hosting the first annual Charity Volleyball tournament at Binghamton University on December 6th. The Charity will include 18 teams representing 18 different countries.

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Contact UsLocation: Library South G 549

Phone: (607) 777-4472 Fax: (607)777-2373

Email: mrc@binghamton.edu

StaffNicole Sirju-Johnson - Director

njohnson@binghamton.edu Mengchen Huang - MRC Assistant Director

mhuang@binghamton.eduTanyah Barnes - ODEI Diversity Fellow

tbarnes@binghamton.eduMichele Hayes - Secretary mahayes@binghamton.edu

Connect with the Multicultural Resource Center!

facebook.com/MRCBinghamton

@mrcbu

@BinghamtonMRC

Binghamton MRC

@BinghamtonMRC

mrc.binghamton.edu