Stony Brook University’s Center for Prevention and Outreach (CPO) has partnered with LiveOnNY to successfully encourage students, faculty and staff to register as organ donors.

The Center for Prevention and Outreach peer educators hosted tabling events to encourage the campus community to register as organ donors.

Peer educators from CPO along with students from Fraternity and Sorority Life outreached to the campus community on October 7, also known as LiveOnNY’s Donor Enrollment Day. The campaigns included virtual and in-person events aimed toward debunking myths surrounding organ donations as well as encouraging the community to register as donors. Outreach tents were put up on the SAC Plaza where passing students could engage with peer educators and learn about the importance of registering to become an organ donor. Social media campaigns along with trivia events through Zoom allowed remote engagement for students who were not on campus.

Currently, the state of New York is ranked last in the percentage of the population registered as organ donors. This has become a critical issue as more than 10,000 New Yorkers are waiting for an organ transplant. However, this concern affects communities of color at higher rates due to health and social disparities. In efforts to combat these inequities and contribute to the global health community, Stony Brook University has been continually partnering with LiveOnNY.

With the help of all the students and staff involved, CPO was able to engage with more than 500 students passing by the outreach tents as well as to successfully register over 167 students on the day of the event. Students were able to take informational booklets provided by LiveOnNY to share with their friends and family. Additionally, social media posts reached audiences of more than 2,000 people, further educating the community on organ donations.

Read the full story: https://news.stonybrook.edu/homespotlight/center-for-prevention-and-outreach-successfully-hosts-donor-registration-day/

Earlier this year, 30 middle school students and their supervisors joined the Stony Brook Women in Computer Science (WICS) club online for an introduction to coding.

Regina Wong leading students through a coding tutorial. 

For the third year in a row, WICS  hosted an Hour of Coding event for local schools. In the past, they’ve hosted in-person visits to campus, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, the group pivoted to online instruction.

“WICS didn’t want to take away an opportunity for students to learn about computer science and develop new skills that will help them in the future,” said Regina Wong, WICS treasurer. They reached out to the Stony Brook University Community Relations office, which connected them with two local schools from underserved communities – the Milton L. Olive Middle School in Wyandanch and the J. Taylor Finley Middle School in Huntington.

The students were taught about a Python module, Turtle, which they utilized to create various graphics by controlling a digital “turtle.” Python Turtle is a popular tool for introducing young students to coding because it allows them to see what happens on the screen as they experiment with their code when running the program.

The club leaders patiently helped each individual student be successful with their project. “It always amazes me to see these students going beyond expectations and taking what they learned to the next level,” said  Zhang. In the end, students were creating beautiful and intricate designs with the tools they had learned. They were shown how to save their codes as well so that they could continue practicing with them at home.

This virtual lab experience was coordinated through the Community Relations office and the Long Island Latinos Teachers Association (LILTA) as a part of an outreach program to encourage and inspire grade school students.

Read the full story: https://news.stonybrook.edu/homespotlight/sbus-women-in-computer-science-hosts-virtual-hour-of-code-event/

On a cold winter’s night, a “hoo-h’HOO-hoo-hoo” rings out from an area of pitch pines behind one of the dorms at the Stony Brook Southampton campus. A pair of great horned owls were having quite the discussion.

A male great horned owl at the Stony Brook Southampton campus. 

Great horned owls nest much earlier than other birds in our area. Females will typically start sitting on eggs by early February, and they will hatch 30 to 37 days later. Great horned owls do not build nests of their own. Rather, they use nests that were previously built by other animals such as red-tailed hawks, crows, and squirrels.

By early spring the eggs have hatched, and the owlets grow quickly. At approximately six weeks of age (sometimes much sooner especially if the nest is not large enough to contain them), they will begin to explore the area around the nest. Hopping from branch to branch, they are often referred to as “branchers.” During this time, it is very common for them to fall from the tree and end up on the ground.

Marisa Jeffers, director of student life at the Southampton campus, had also been hearing the “hoo-h’HOO-hoo-hoo” by the dorms and she was confident that the calls were consistently coming from a particular pine tree on the edge of the main lawn.

I stopped by the tree daily to inspect for any owl activity and one particular morning as I approached, I was greeted with several loud owl alarm calls and clicks.  When I walked around to the backside of the tree, there sat a great horned owlet.

I called the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center in Hampton Bays for some assistance in re-nesting the owlet. They put me in touch with Joe Rocco from The Broken Antler, who they had been working with to re-nest great horned owls, 15 owls this year alone.

A re-nesting plan was quickly put into motion.  Within 15 minutes, Joe secured a makeshift nest to the tree and lined the bottom with leaves and pine needles. Once the new nest was constructed, I was raised in the boom with the little owlet and carefully placed it in the new nest.

Two weeks later, Joe informed me that he has another owlet, but unfortunately, this one’s parents are nowhere to be found. He says it is about the same age as the university’s owlet and asks if he can place it in our nest.  I agreed and we added it to the nest.

Mom and dad adopted the orphan and over the next couple of weeks, both owlets appeared to be doing good and growing at an amazing rate.

At roughly week seven, the owlets are fully feathered and capable of short flights. Due to the proximity to the road, the nest was spotted by some passerby photographers. The added daily “paparazzi” activity around the nest caused the owlets to depart the area much sooner than I would have liked, but when the “kids” leave the nest, we are never really ready for it.

By Christopher Paparo, Marine Sciences Center Manager, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences

Read the full story: https://news.stonybrook.edu/university/great-horned-owls-descend-on-stony-brook-southampton/