Perceptions of Personal Power and Organizationally-Mediated Empowerment Among Participants in Senior Central District Advisory Councils

The survey, conducted at District Advisory Council meetings in each of 10 neighborhood districts designated as Senior Centrals by the San Francisco Commission on the Aging, measured senior consumers\u27 perceptions of their organizationally-mediated and personal empowerment as participants in the Senior Central process. The survey also examined differences in organizationally-mediated empowerment and perceptions of power according to gender, age group, and whether or not English was a respondent\u27s primary language. The main findings indicated a statistically significant correlation between organizationally-mediated empowerment and perception of power in the Senior Central process. However, no statistically significant differences were noted according to gender, age group or whether or not English was the respondent\u27s primary language

Hunger

All of the poems in this collection are ones written during the author’s time as a graduate student at Brockport. The thesis itself is comprised of three sections- Shadow Stories, Sex and Other Destructions, and Back Roads --each of which is located in between single poems that serve as transitional pieces from one section to the other. The first section is a collection of poems that are intentionally disorienting and often dark; these poems also, more often than not, rely more on sound and images to experience relating to human sexuality that transcends that with which many people are familiar. A subject of discussion that has frequently come up in these conversations is the challenge of conceiving of oneself as a sexual being in a way that is unflinchingly authentic, despite and because of one\u27s experiences outside of the norm. These poems attempt to give a voice to this challenge, while neither simplifying the complexity of this process nor pretending to speak for all people who go through it. The I and she that appear in these poems encompass a broad-but by no means all-inclusive-spectrum of women who have, in a variety of ways, experienced prolonged exposure to the overlap between sex and pain. The opening poem within the second section, Locked and Listening, contains many of the elements that were present in the first section of the collection: I wrote this with a strong emphasis on sound and image, and readers will need to rely upon their intuition to develop any concrete relationship to and interpretation of these images. As the section continues, however, the poems become increasingly more concrete, bordering on a narrative-like quality that aims to make the tension between sex and destruction-and between connection and separation-more accessible to readers. The third and final section is in many ways the most intimate. Although it does contain poems that explore subjects such as addiction, loss, and murder, it does so in a way that exhibits greater tenderness than most of the poems in the previous two sections. There is a collection of character sketches offered in poems such as Tension, Subtle Shift, and Johnny Gone South ; a collection of poems that explore themes of drugs and addiction such as Cracked, Twelve Lies: Reader Response, Enchanted Hills, Indiana: August 25, 2014, and (once again) Johnny Gone South ; and many others that simply explore moments and experiences of tenderness in the midst of life\u27s struggles. The cumulative result is a collection of poems that carries readers from an origin of disorientation, fear, and confusion; through a period of depravity, pain, and perversion; before finally landing at a place of radical acceptance of things as they are-in other words, a quality of peace that is devoid of denial. I am-and therefore my poems are- completely uninterested in blind optimism, serenity that lacks depth, or cheeriness that avoids at all costs the discomfort caused by looking into shadows: what fascinates me is the quality of equanimity that has borne witness to cruelty without losing the ability for compassion. I am interested in the gifts that suffering brings us: the beauty within violence, the resilience that grows from despair, the love that has survived unspeakable events

Transparent Sketches: A Field Journal of Silence

This collection of memoir essays explores expressions and practices of silence. I combined experiential research, literature review, and introspective storytelling to invite the reader into their own exploration of silence and self-transcendence

The Marysville, Montana Geothermal Project

Drilling the first geothermal well in Montana presented many challenges, not only in securing materials and planning strategies for drilling the wildcat well but also in addressing the environmental, legal, and institutional issues raised by the request for permission to explore a resource which lacked legal definition. The Marysville Geothermal Project was to investigate a dry hot rock heat anomaly. The well was drilled to a total depth of 6790 feet and many fractured water bearing zones were encountered below 1800 feet