This year ASDA will be running a Christmas card contest to determine Detroit Mercy’s most creative Christmas card!
The proceeds will be benefitting “Operation Good Cheer.” Operation Good Cheer is a volunteer-based Christmas gift-giving program for children in foster care in Michigan. Many of these children come from tough situations such as parental substance abuse, abondonment, and medical neglect. Sadly, some of these children are as young as a year old. Last year, Operation Good Cheer was able to grant the Christmas wishes of over 7,000 children and this year we hope to become a part of that.
The rules for the contest are below and explained in the attached flyer:
-Masks are REQUIRED for photos taken on campus
-No maximum # of entries per student
-Maximum of 5 students per photo
-ugly Chistmas sweater/photoshop editing must be school appropriate since these will be posted on Facebook and Instagram
-$2 entry fee per picture or $5 for entry fee PLUS 40 votes (seperate donations also welcome)
-$1 donation= 10 “likes”
Entries will be due by December 7th and voting will start after that.
Entry and donation directions are located within the attached flyer. Voting will be done similar to our COVID pets fundraiser on Facebook and Instagram.
1st place Winner: $50 gift card (or $10 per student in photo, up to winner)
2nd place Winner: $25 gift card (or $5 per student in photo, up to winner)
In partnership with Mercy Education Project, an after-school program was developed to include STEM learning activities for economically disadvantaged girls in grades 1 through 8 in southwest Detroit. This area is home to a diverse community of Latinos, African Americans, Middle Easterners, and Caucasians. The goal is to introduce dentistry as a potential career path and provide dental care services and oral hygiene instruction to the children. Participants will be exposed to dental education including simulation activities and primary care exposure.
Volunteers will create and facilitate youth STEM activities that will expose students to STEM concepts, learn by doing, and understand how things work. Project would involve UDM-Dental students to develop (research, find & execute) 6 STEM learning plans for a 30 minute STEM enrichment activity for children grades 2-8. Those students will need to identify the learning objectives for each STEM enrichment activity and submit one week in advance of their session. Two UDM students will lead/facilitate the enrichment learning activity via Zoom through Mercy Education Project.
Volunteers are needed to develop (research, find & execute) 20 minute STEM enrichment activities for one week, each volunteer will receive $200 per week worked.
· Go Move Challenge – a competition for faculty staff against Jesuit Universities for the month of February. Prizes! Trophies! Bragging Rights! A Healthier You!
· Intramural Schedule – a variety of one day tournaments and leagues including Esports with incentive for participation in multiple during Term 2
· Events – Safe in person fun on April 8 and more
· URec Adventure Series – watch for details in January on a variety of safe outings to explore and be active in and around Detroit
Please feel free to join us for Cultural Hour on the important topic of Anti-Abelism.
Advance Reading and registration attached.
Title: Anti-Ableism Workshop Speaker: Dessa Cosma Date: Monday, November 23, 2020 Time: 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm Location: Via Zoom Audience: All-Faculty, Staff and Students
True Inclusion is Revolutionary: Practicing Disability Justice Come learn & practice the principles of disability inclusion, exploring how they apply to you and your work. This social justice training will center the experiences of people with disabilities, but will also cover issues of race, class, gender and citizenship, particularly as they intersect with disability experience. We will discuss where the disability movement is right now and why, how each of us can help end ableism, and how to ensure the people in our sphere are getting the right messages about disability.
Session Objectives: This participatory workshop will involve some key exercises as well as
Reviewing definitions and terms around anti-ableism and disability
Contextualizing why disability is left out of the diversity, equity, and inclusion discussion
Discussing how can we change our behavior to be more inclusive
Understanding what might be the challenges and benefits to being more inclusive and accessible to students, faculty, and staff with disabilities
We know it is hard to believe with the recent beautiful weather, but the snow and ice aren’t far off! This is your annual reminder to purchase or find your ice scraper/snow brush and have it ready! Many Detroit Mercy Dental students are new to driving in winter weather and/or managing car maintenance in the winter. Please see attached for a general guide to winter driving developed by the Office of Student Services.
Do respect that the quitter is in charge. This is their lifestyle change and their challenge, not yours.
Do ask the person whether they want you to ask regularly how they’re doing. Ask how they’re feeling – not just whether they’ve stayed quit.
Do let the person know that it’s OK to talk to you whenever they need to hear encouraging words.
Do help the quitter get what they need, such as hard candy to suck on, straws to chew on, and fresh veggies cut up and kept in the refrigerator.
Do spend time doing things with the quitter to keep their mind off smoking – go to the movies, take a walk to get past a craving (what many call a “nicotine fit”), or take a bike ride together.
Do try to see it from the smoker’s point of view – a smoker’s habit may feel like an old friend that’s always been there when times were tough. It’s hard to give that up.
Do make your home smoke free, meaning that no one can smoke in any part of the house.
Do remove all lighters and ash trays from your home. Remove anything that reminds them of smoking
Do wash clothes that smell like smoke. Clean carpets and drapes. Use air fresheners to help get rid of the tobacco smells – and don’t forget the car, too.
Do help the quitter with a few chores, some child care, cooking – whatever will help lighten the stress of quitting.
Do celebrate along the way. Quitting smoking is a BIG DEAL!
Don’t doubt the smoker’s ability to quit. Your faith in them reminds them they can do it.
Don’t judge, nag, preach, tease, or scold. This may make the smoker feel worse about him or herself. You don’t want your loved one to turn to a cigarette to soothe hurt feelings.
Don’t take the quitter’s grumpiness personally during their nicotine withdrawal. Tell them that you understand the symptoms are real and remind them that they won’t last forever. The symptoms usually get better in about 2 weeks.
Don’t offer advice. Just ask how you can help with the plan or program they are using.
If your ex-smoker “slips”
Don’t assume that they will start back smoking like before. A “slip” (taking a puff or smoking a cigarette or 2) is pretty common when a person is quitting.
Do remind the quitter how long they went without a cigarette before the slip.
Do help the quitter remember all the reasons they wanted to quit, and help them forget about the slip as soon as possible.
Do continue to offer support and encouragement. Remind them they’re still a “quitter” – NOT a smoker.
Don’t scold, tease, nag, blame, or make the quitter feel guilty. Be sure the quitter knows that you care about them whether or not they smoke.
If your quitter relapses
Research shows that most people try to quit smoking several times before they succeed. (It’s called a relapse when smokers go back to smoking like they were before they tried to quit.) If a relapse happens, think of it as practice for the next time. Don’t give up your efforts to encourage and support your loved one. If the person you care about fails to quit or starts smoking again:
Do praise them for trying to quit, and for whatever length of time (days, weeks, or months) of not smoking.
Do remind your loved one that they didn’t fail – they are learning how to quit – and you’re going to be there for them the next time and as many times as it takes.
Do encourage them to try again. Don’t say, “If you try again…” Say, “When you try again…” Studies show that most people who don’t succeed in quitting are ready to try again in the near future.
Do encourage them to learn from the attempt. Things a person learns from a failed attempt to quit may help them quit for good next time. It takes time and skills to learn to be a non-smoker.
Do say, “It’s normal to not succeed the first few times you try to quit. Most people understand this, and know that they have to try to quit again. You didn’t smoke for (length of time) this time. Now you know you can do that much. You can get even further next time.”
If you are a smoker
Do smoke outside and always away from the quitter.
Do keep your cigarettes, lighters, and matches out of sight. They might be triggers for your loved one to smoke.
Don’t ever offer the quitter a smoke or any other form of tobacco, even as a joke!
Do join your loved one in their effort to quit. It’s better for your health and might be easier to do with someone else who is trying to quit, too.
Call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345 to find out what resources might be available to help someone quit and stay quit.
Remember, tobacco addiction is both mental and physical. For most people, the best way to quit will be some combination of medicine, a method to change personal habits, and emotional support.
My name is Kayla Mehlhaff and I am a graduate student in Speech Language Pathology at Washington State University working under the guidance of Dr. Amy Meredith. I am writing to invite your dental students to participate in my research study about the level of awareness among dental students of the risk of acquiring occupational related hearing loss and tinnitus.
Responses to this survey will help increase awareness for the risks for hearing impairments related to the dentistry.
Dental students’ participation and dental program in the survey is completely confidential. No personally identifiable or dental school affiliations will be associated with responses of this data. This study has been certified as exempt from the need for review by the Washington State University Institutional Review Board. Remember, this is completely voluntary. You can choose to be in this study or not. If you’d like to participate or have any questions about the study, please email me at kayla.roberson@wsu.edu or mereditha@wsu.edu
This stimulus is to be requested for programming needs, however please be mindful of the University’s COVID-19 event planning restrictions. This link will provide you with the “need to know,” https://udmercy.edu/coronavirus/event-resource-guide.php
The SGA funding available to student organizations and classes may currently NOT be used for any in-person events, giveaways, etc. Given the updated orders from the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services, any scheduled student gatherings should be cancelled at this time and none should be scheduled.
I would like to recognize the indigenous people of the beautiful ancestral land on which we are standing;. In Michigan we acknowledge the Anishinabee, Odawa (Ottawa), Botawanomi (Potawatomi), Peoria, Miami, the Ojibwe and all the others. It is important to understand the long-standing history that has brought us to reside on the land, and to seek to understand our place within that history.
The first American Indian Day was celebrated in May 1916 in New York. The event culminated an effort by Red Fox James, a member of the Blackfeet Nation who rode across the nation on horseback seeking approval from 24 state governments to have a day to honor American Indians. Join the National Museum of American History (Thursday, November 19, 2020, 11 – 11:30 AM)
for an online exploration into key social studies topics, featuring museum resources from the Smithsonian.
The month is a time to celebrate rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to acknowledge the important contributions of Native people. As the First Americans, Native Americans have helped shape the future of the United States through every turn of our history. National Native American Heritage Month is also an opportune time to educate the general public about tribes, to raise a general awareness about the unique challenges Native people have faced both historically and in the present, and the ways in which tribal citizens have worked to conquer these challenges. It is significant to note that Native Americans/Alaska Natives frequently contend with issues that prevent them from receiving quality medical care. These issues include cultural barriers, geographic isolation, inadequate sewage disposal, and low income.
We are pleased to present our virtual poster competition
Poster theme is “Our Land, Our Animals, Our People, We are One”
Submit one original piece poster
Include a brief written narrative about your inspiration
Artwork will be judged by IG vote, originality and portrayal of the heritage and culture of American Indians/Alaska Natives
Submit poster, narrative and contact information @detroitmercydental
IG poster judging session will be Wednesday, November 25, 2020. Awards will be announced on Instagram @detroitmercydental on Monday, November 30, 2020.
posters and other supplies available upon request
DEADLINE FOR POSTER SUBMISSIONS IS November 24, 2020.
