Backpacking parents who homeschool their kids
(CNN) —
Backpacking tends to be associated with young people with few responsibilities.
But more and more parents have been opting to take their children off on extended trips around the world in the past few years.
In fact, a recent travel trends report by American Express Travel found that 76% of those parents surveyed planned to travel more with their family in 2022.
For those traveling with kids for long periods of time, this often means pulling them out of traditional school and homeschooling while on the move.
However, trying to provide a high-quality education to their youngsters while living a backpacker lifestyle, along with working remotely in some cases, is certainly no easy feat.
Here, parents who’ve chosen to go backpacking with their children discuss the joys and challenges of homeschooling while living out of suitcases.
Cornell to Welcome Krystyn Van Vliet As Vice President for Research and Innovation
On Feb. 1, 2023, Cornell will welcome Krystyn Van Vliet as the next Vice President for Research and Innovation.
Van Vliet, who currently serves as the associate provost and associate vice president for research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will take over the role onceProf. Emmanuel Giannelis, materials science and engineering completes his five-year term..
“It is exciting that someone of the caliber of Van Vliet has agreed to take on the role. She is an accomplished researcher in her own right and an experienced administrator. We are fortunate to have her lead the Research Division,” Giannelis wrote in a statement to The Sun.
Florida universities, students at forefront of new era of space exploration
As NASA pursues its next moonshot, the agency is also partnering with academia to help address technology gaps to solve an array of space travel challenges, ranging from growing food to creating lunar landing pads. And in addition to projects with most of Florida’s research universities, NASA also has active agreements with universities through its Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs, which provide early-stage funding for research and development. Florida colleges also participate in NASA’s Technology Transfer (T2U) program, which gives students an opportunity to work with NASA’s portfolio of licenses to create startup companies.
Student’s candle business experiences growth through Summer Founders Program
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Last fall, Kelsey Lauer’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ENTI) class was challenged to make $500 in profit by the end of the semester. Lauer ended up surpassing that goal when she launched her unique candle business, Clove and Sprig.
“All my friends and family members use candles, and I love candles myself,” said Lauer, a junior studying public relations and advertising. “So, as a consumer, I saw the pain points — most of the candles sold at places like Target and Walmart burn too fast, they don’t fill up a room with a unique scent, and they often tunnel right through the center. Thirty-six hours was the longest burn time I found — my candles have 82 hours of burn time, which gives a solution to someone who doesn’t have that much disposable income to buy a candle every single week.”
China shuts world’s largest electronics market as Shenzhen imposes more lockdowns
Hong Kong (CNN Business)China’s southern city of Shenzhen on Monday shut down the world’s largest electronics market and suspended public transport nearby as authorities enforced neighborhood-wide lockdowns in response to a small number of Covid cases.
Huaqiangbei, a busy shopping area home to thousands of stalls selling computer components, mobile phone parts and microchips, is among three neighborhoods placed under a mandatory four-day lockdown in Futian district, according the district government.
Residents in those neighborhoods are forbidden to leave their homes except for Covid testing, which they are required to undergo daily until Thursday.
All businesses in the affected areas are shut down through Thursday, except for supermarkets, pharmacies and hospitals. Restaurant dining is also suspended, with only takeaways allowed.
China is one of the last places in the world still enforcing stringent zero-Covid measures, which rely on sweeping digital surveillance, mass testing, extensive quarantines and snap lockdowns.
Skidmore college student raises $2.5M for Japanese comics app startup
Dylan Telano, a senior at Skidmore College, has raised $2.5 million to continue developing a platform for Japanese comics that he started in high school.
The seed round of funding for VoyceMe was led by Torch Capital, with contributions by M13 Ventures, River Park Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and Red Sea Ventures.
A labor of love: Gimme! Coffee becomes a co-op
ITHACA, N.Y.—Gimme! Coffee, the iconic Ithaca-founded coffee company, is now owned by its employees. On Monday, July 25, Gimme announced its transition from a traditional company to a co-op model, giving its employees the opportunity to buy in, shape the businesses’ future, and share in the profit.
It’s a major development at a time when nationally and locally, sustained momentum has been behind a push to improve working conditions and organize labor. Gimme’s transition into a co-op stands in stark relief against recent events at Ithaca locations of the world’s largest coffee shop chain, Starbucks.
Unionized staffs of local Starbucks locations have begun to butt against their corporate employers, and accusations of union busting have sounded off from Starbucks’ Collegetown location after the company abruptly closed the store.
Time Out Reveals Edinburgh as the World’s Best City to Visit Right Now
Edinburgh is the world’s best city to visit right now, according to the fifth annual Time Out Index released today. The city ranked highly across the board, topping the global chart as the most beautiful and the most walkable city in the world. Edinburgh is also much loved as a great place for a stroll through nature and has heaps of new exciting things to do.
Every year, through the Time Out Index, Time Out – the global media and hospitality business that helps people explore and experience the best of the city – surveys thousands of city-dwellers around the world about life in their hometown right now. Using their responses, Time Out compiles its annual ranking of the world’s best cities, in order to point people in the direction of the places which locals are raving about. Last year, the list focused on how cities have pulled together through the pandemic, in particular when it comes to community spirit and resilience. This year, after a prolonged period of limited travel, people are itching to get back out there. So for the 2022 ranking, Time Out has added extra weight to the things that make cities great places to visit as well as to live.
The top cities this year are places that excel at going out, including eating and drinking; art, culture and museums; and nightlife. They are places that locals rate highly for fun and for beauty and aren’t boring, overly expensive or overrated – according to the people who know them best. To make for an even more enjoyable break, the top picks also score well for practical stuff like walkability, good public transport and safety, as well as sustainability.
Cramer: Tech CEOs tell me they’re sick of spoiled Silicon Valley employees
CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Thursday said that he expects a “tech exodus” from California in the future, with one of the drivers being tech leaders’ dissatisfaction with their employees.
Cramer, who has spent the week in San Francisco, said he’s hearing that “many of the CEOs out here have had it with younger workers who’re telling them what to do and when and where they want to work.”
“They’re tired of the San Francisco workforce, which they think is full of spoiled nitwits who are there one day and gone the next,” Cramer added. He did not name these executives whom he said he talked to off-air.
The “Mad Money” host said that such frustration could end up benefiting other parts of the country, with tech firms “moving to areas of the country where they can hire talented people for way less money — people who will have more loyalty to the business and accountability to the CEO, if only because they’ll have fewer options to jump ship.”
Outlander star Sam Heughan says ‘Edinburgh opened up the world to me as a teenager’
He’s become hot property thanks to his role as Jamie Fraser in the phenomenally popular Outlander series – but Sam Heughan has said moving to Edinburgh as a teenager shaped him into the person he is today.
In a new interview with Square Mile, a men’s luxury lifestyle magazine for London, the Balmaclellan-born star was asked if he could think of a moment or experience that influenced who he is as a person today.
‘How could I sit at my desk as Ukrainian children die?’: small-town newspaperman heads to war
Lee Zion is preparing to head to Ukraine this summer.
“I have gotten all my shots. I have started putting personal possessions into storage, giving other things away. I’ve adopted out two cats,” he said. “And minor things – I’m trying to learn the language. I can at least communicate some basic needs. Like ‘me want cookie,’” he said.
For four years, Zion has worked seven days a week at a small-town Minnesota newspaper. But now, disgusted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he plans to fly to Europe and help the Ukrainians in any way he can.
First, though, he has to find a new boss for the Lafayette Nicollet Ledger.
It’s not an easy role for whoever takes it on: Zion works more than 80 hours a week, he told the Guardian, as “owner, editor, reporter, photographer, layout guy and the person who takes all the garbage to the recycling center”.
Cornell plans new $100M computer science building on Hoy Field
ITHACA, N.Y.—It’s been in the works for a couple of years, and the plans are finally making their big debut. In a release Wednesday morning, Cornell’s revealed its newest Computer and Information Science (CIS) academic building to the public.
The new building, unnamed but intended for use by the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, would be built on what is currently the site of Hoy Field. A new baseball diamond is under construction in the town of Ithaca near East Hill Plaza.
Elon Musk’s next massive payday looms
New York (CNN Business)Does the richest person on the planet need another massive pay package? That’s the decision facing the Tesla board of directors.
CEO Elon Musk doesn’t receive any cash salary or bonus. He’s paid only with stock options. But he has just about exhausted the options available from the compensation package he got from Tesla in 2018, a package that turned out to be the most lucrative package of stock options issued by any company, according to Courtney Yu, director of research at executive compensation firm Equilar.
The 93.9 million options Musk has received so far from that package were worth $86.8 billion as of Friday’s close, after taking into account the exercise price.
2022 Best & Brightest Business Major: Isabelle Haberstock, Cornell University (Nolan School of Hotel Administration)
Nolan School of Hotel Administration, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University
Fun fact about yourself: I applied to every college except Cornell as a neuroscience major.
Hometown: Skaneateles, NY
High School: The Hotchkiss School
Major: Hotel Administration
Minor: Real Estate
Favorite Business Course: Advanced Business Modeling
Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles During College:
Awards: Dean’s List
Activities:
Teaching Assistant – Advanced Business Modeling, Quantitative Analysis, Business Computing
Hotel Leadership Development Program Member
Cornell Women’s Club, Member
Lacrosse, Team Member
Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority Member, House Manager (2020-2021)
The Hotchkiss School, Class Officer and Fundraiser
Where have you interned during your college career?
Joe’s Seafood Prime Steak & Stone Crab, Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants FOH Management Intern, Washington, DC
Bank of America Sales and Trading Summer Analyst, Remote
This Portland chef is opening The Sports Bra — a pub that will only show women’s sports
‘It’s not a sports bar for women; it’s a bar for women’s sports,’ Jenny Nguyen says
Jenny Nguyen was only joking when she said she’d never be able watch women’s sports in their full glory at a bar unless she opened one herself.
A month later, that dream is going to be a reality when she opens the doors to The Sports Bra in Portland, Ore., which will exclusively show women’s sporting events.
So far, fans from around the world are cheering on the venue, as it gives people a space to celebrate female athletes.
Nguyen spoke with As It Happens guest host Gillian Findlay about the bar. Here is part of their conversation.
A sports bar that only plays women’s sports — where did that idea come from?
It was the NCAA women’s basketball finals…. The biggest game of the year really.
A dozen of us rolled into this sports bar and we thought for sure it would be on at least one TV, and it wasn’t. So we pushed some tables together, we flagged down the server and she’s like, “Oh, no problem. I can change the channel.” And so she was able to change the smaller TV in the corner of the bar.
Karina Popovich — Making STEM Colorful and Accessible
Most Cornellians spend their days in classes, exploring campus with friends and working on assignments. But Karina Popovich ’23 has something else to add to that list. A start-up founder of Inertia and Makers For Change, Popovich spends time writing $100,000 grant proposals and planning Instagramable pop-ups around New York City.
“What we try to do is create a new experience with STEM,” Popovich said. “There is not enough awareness about what STEM could look like in the non-traditional spectrum.”
Popovich is in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and has a strong passion for STEM, specifically 3D-printing. She uses her entrepreneurial skills to expand accessibility and interest in STEM for people who may not have the opportunity to explore the field on their own.
Student Workers Call for Higher Wages at Student-Organized Town Hall
Nine students gathered on Friday, March 25 for a town hall supporting student workers.
Part of a campaign to raise minimum wage to $15 per hour for student workers, the People’s Organizing Collective Cornell hoped the meeting would give space to air grievances and connect with peers. After handing out 150 quarter cards and canvassing from Ives Hall to Hollister Hall, the turnout reflected students’ hectic schedules and a need for more solidarity.
“Being a student worker, you’re always busy, you’re always tired, your schedule is always packed,” POCC Member José Pérez-Zetune ’24 said.
The Russians were hunting us down: the war on journalism in Mariupol
by Mstyslav Chernov, Associated Press in Mariupol
The Russians were hunting us down. They had a list of names, including ours, and they were closing in.
We had been documenting the siege of Mariupol by Russian troops for more than two weeks and were the only international journalists left in the city. We were reporting inside the hospital when gunmen began stalking the corridors. Surgeons gave us white scrubs to wear as camouflage.
Suddenly at dawn, a dozen soldiers burst in: “Where are the journalists, for fuck’s sake?”
I looked at their armbands, blue for Ukraine, and tried to calculate the odds that they were Russians in disguise. I stepped forward to identify myself. “We’re here to get you out,” they said.
