Save Our Future

Description. The prevalence of child violence is alarmingly on the rise in Nigeria, every day our ears are plagued with news of horrible events threatening the survival of children, from child labor to molestation and even child marriage. On the 14th of April 2014, (276) girls were kidnapped from Chibok Secondary School, Borno State Nigeria and even more deleterious events happened after then. Events like this have shaped my perspective of things about the needs of Nigerian children in less privileged communities for structures and policies that would protect them and preserve the actualization of their potential. This oral presentation will showcase a selection of five poignant pieces from my anthology, “Save Our Future”, a child-centered poetry collection aimed at fighting the menace of child abuse and building capacity in the younger generation. This poetry collection is a creative piece that is orchestrated and designed in the persona and voices of the disposed children in northern Nigeria. The thematic preoccupation in this work includes- domestic violence, neglect, verbal abuse, forceful fusion, fear, pain, silence, hopelessness, and so on. This collection of eighty poems spans three categories, Tales of Pain, Clarion Call, and Letter to the Future, each category explores the beauty and liberty of free verse as it explores different subject matter on the menace of child hawking, child molestation, physical abuse, verbal abuse, and domestic violence. In this collection, I robed myself with the pain of some abused children; to boundlessly convey their story, grief, and bitterness through poetry, and performative writing. The poetic technique in the poems features a variety of sound, imagery, and figurative devices. The use of metaphor, simile, repetition, and personification pose as notable tools employed in the verifications of the collection. Significance This work among others is a scholarly and urgent artistic intervention towards the eradication of child violence in Nigeria. Thus, in giving voice to the voiceless and mirroring their pain, this work employs the use of oral poetry to project the pain of abused children and also to bring succor to them. This collection is designed to give life to words through soulful expression of pain, a clarion call for change, and consequently serve as a source of inspiration to children

Renovation and expansion of leadership for all genders: Building toward inclusive foundations

Some scholarship about leadership and gender has not defined gender or situated research questions within gender theory. Generally, scholarship has used a gender-binary, white, and Western-focused model of gender, assumed homogeneity among cisgender people, and excluded trans and gender-diverse people. Meanwhile, gender studies scholars have theorized gender as a social construction connected to power and to bodies, fluid, changing over time, and intersecting with other identities. This poster will survey foundational work in leadership studies that engages with contemporary gender theories and pose ideas for gender-inclusive explorations

Cuba\u27s Reintegration into the Inter-American System: The Treaty of Tlatelolco, the OAS, and the End of Latin America\u27s Cold War

This paper situates Cuba\u27s reintegration into the inter-American system through its journey becoming a signatory to the Treaty of Tlatelolco -- the first nuclear weapons-free zone treaty designated to a populated region. The paper first analyzes and historicizes contested definitions of terms such as Latin Americanism vis à vis Pan-Americanism, the inter-American system, and different understandings of when the Cold War in Latin America closed. The paper then places the policies of revolutionary Cuba within the context of Castro\u27s perception of the island as the vanguard of Latin Americanism. The paper concludes with how the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba\u27s ally, prompted Castro to renounce the island\u27s Cold War image and policies of revolutionary militarism in exchange for those of medical humanitarianism beginning in the 1990s. Castro\u27s renunciation of the island\u27s Cold War image was primarily facilitated through the island\u27s acceptance of the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which initiated the process of Cuba\u27s reintegration into Latin American affairs despite the United States’ unchanged foreign policy toward the island. Though the Latin American desire for nonproliferation emerged from the Cuban missile crisis, Castro understood the treaty as the Global South\u27s post-colonial contestation against the nuclear-powered Cold War hegemon, the United States, which partially drove his desire to join the Tlatelolco regime. This paper thus contributes to the established corpus of academic discussion on the end of the Cold War, Latin American-U.S. relations, nonproliferation history, and postcolonialism

A framework for metadata workflows

Designing metadata workflows is a core competency for cataloging and metadata practitioners. Unlike many other competencies, metadata workflow design lacks a conceptual framework, hindering understanding and skill development. This article presents a framework for metadata workflows that describes processes for adding, enhancing, and removing metadata from library systems. The framework describes standard and custom workflows, including original and copy cataloging, withdrawals, system migrations, metadata creation, and record enhancement. A better understanding of metadata workflows facilitates the implementation of automation and batch processing and can inform staff training, professional development offerings, and library and information science curricula

February 20, 2025

The Breeze is the student newspaper of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia

The Call is Coming from Inside the House: Sexual Misconduct in U.S. Band Programs

The purpose of this study was to articulate the experiences of former band students as they relate to sexual misconduct among students and staff. Researchers and investigators have claimed that band professionals have recently prioritized performance level and musical accomplishment over the safety and well-being of students (Office of University Compliance and Integrity, 2014; Nadolny, 2018; Wells, 2022). Authors of recent studies related to sexual misconduct in U.S. Bands have suggested that educators in the band profession prefer to handle sexual misconduct “in-house” (Wells, 2022) and that teachers may be the least likely group to report educator sexual misconduct (Tate, 2020) in spite of federal laws that classify teachers as mandated reporters (Grant, Wilkerson et al., 2019). The researcher conducted a nationwide survey using snowball sampling to identify former band students who were active in U.S. band programs between 2008 and 2018. Follow-up interviews were scheduled using volunteers from the survey which the researcher used to examine the human impact of sexual misconduct on former band students and their potentially altered views on band culture as a result of sexual misconduct experiences. Through this phenomenological mixed-methods study the researcher explored the impacts on band students who have witnessed the mishandling of sexual misconduct and the extent to which participants consider their experiences with sexual misconduct in U.S. band programs to be common. Recommendations for further research conclude the document

Semaglutide Injection for Weight Reduction in Non-Diabetic Adults with Overweight and Obesity

Objective: Obesity is a significant national health concern. Adults with obesity have a decreased life expectancy and a decreased quality of life due to complications from cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and fatty liver disease. The current treatment options for overweight and obesity include behavior modification, bariatric surgery, and the limited options for pharmacologic therapy. Initiating and maintaining weight loss with diet and exercise is difficult and many adults need pharmacologic assistance in addition to lifestyle interventions. The glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists are a pharmacological option for obese and overweight adults. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether a commonly used GLP-1 agonist, once-weekly semaglutide, is effective for weight loss in non-diabetic obese or overweight adults in addition to lifestyle intervention and if these results can be extrapolated to patients in clinical practice. Methods: Studies were found in PubMed using search terms “semaglutide” and “obesity”. Several studies were excluded including meta-analyses, non-randomized controlled trials. Studies were also excluded if they included diabetic participants, used oral semaglutide, or compared semaglutide to another drug other than placebo. The final 3 studies (Wilding et al, Study 1; Rubino et al, Study 2; Garvey et al, Study 3) were chosen because they fit this review’s target population and study question. Results: Study 1 showed a -14.9% weight change in adults on semaglutide and lifestyle interventions compared to a -2.4% weight change in adults on placebo and lifestyle interventions with a difference of -12.4% (95% CI: -13.4 to -11.5; p\u3c0.001). 86.4% of the semaglutide group achieved ≥5% weight loss compared to the 31.5% in the placebo group. Study 2 showed that all adults who were on semaglutide for 20 weeks had a weight loss of -10.6%. When adults were randomly assigned to a placebo their weight change after 68 weeks was +6.9% compared to the - 7.9% change on adults who remained on semaglutide after 68 weeks. Study 3 showed that after 104 weeks, adults on semaglutide had a weight change of -15.2% compared to -2.6% in the placebo group. Conclusion: Semaglutide accompanied by lifestyle modifications is an effective tool against overweight and obesity and was significantly more effective than lifestyle interventions with placebo. However, lifelong treatment with semaglutide may be required to maintain the weight reduction and protection from weight-related comorbidities. Although this review showed the significant weight reduction of a two-year treatment with semaglutide, longer studies are needed to better assess the risks and benefits of lifelong treatment with semaglutide. Further studies with better monitoring of adherence to lifestyle interventions are needed to better assess semaglutide’s role as an adjunct to lifestyle interventions

Healing the Sacred: The Fight to Restore Onondaga Lake and Honor Indigenous Land

The Onondaga Nation is petitioning the Organization of American States (OAS) for land rights to Onondaga Lake, a notoriously polluted body of water in Central New York State. The Onondaga Nation is one of six nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois), and Onondaga Lake is the sacred site where Gayanashagowa, the Great Law of Peace, was established. As Keepers of the Central Fire, the Onondaga Nation bears the responsibility of maintaining unity and peace within the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. This article examines the history of the lake, its significance to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the consequences of its desecration through industrial pollution. By juxtaposing Haudenosaunee teachings with the European Christian Doctrine of Discovery, we reveal how clashing worldviews led to violence, land theft, and genocide against the Haudenosaunee and other Indigenous Nations. Specifically, we apply Steven T. Newcomb’s Domination Code to analyze the settler-colonial justification for resource extraction, which left behind ecological and social devastation. We argue that returning Onondaga Lake to the Onondaga Nation is a vital step toward restoring this sacred place, bringing long-overdue healing to its people, the surrounding communities, and the natural world. The protection and restoration of Onondaga Lake is not only essential for its future but for the well-being of all. The restoration of Indigenous sacred spaces is a catalyst for meaningful social and ecological change

Effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act Policies among Employees and Volunteers

This non-experimental quantitative study investigates the nexus between financial disclosure policies and job satisfaction among employees and volunteers within 331 medium to large NPOs with incomes exceeding USD 250,000 operating in arts and humanities non-profit organizations (NPOs). Based on the agency theory and stakeholders\u27 theory this study examines the correlation between Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX Act) policies and their collective impact on job satisfaction and staff retention. The findings reveal no statistically significant correlation between staff retention and the accountability index. Various factors, such as policy implementation duration, additional retention predictors, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, contribute to this lack of association. Future research recommendations advocate for longitudinal designs, expanded surveys encompassing latent variables, and controlling for confounding factors to comprehensively elucidate the relationship between NPO accountability and employee job satisfaction, thereby offering nuanced insights into ethical conduct, NPO financial performance, and external assessments. Keywords: Financial Disclosure Policies, Job Satisfaction, Arts and Humanities, Non-profit Organizations, Accountability Index