Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 165, NO. 39 | Monday October 20, 2008
InDEX
2 · News Digest
4 · Opinion
7 · Lifestyle
10 · Sudoku
12 · Classifieds
16 · Sports
Teen Dream: ‘High School
Musical 3’ dances its way to
theaters. PAGE 7
Cloud 69: USC trounces
Washington State in Pullman,
69-0. PAGE 16
By shweta saraswat
Daily Trojan
While their classmates are hit-ting
the beach and shopping at malls
on Fridays, a group of USC students
drives to Compton to spend the af-ternoon
building friendships with
pregnant teenagers.
The students are members of
Youth Exploring Passion, a two-year-old,
student-run mentoring program
that is part of the Women’s Student
Assembly. The program focuses on
guiding young mothers expectant
teenagers through their education
and career planning, and helping the
mothers figure out what they want
to do with their lives after they give
birth.
“There is really a lot of need for
motivation among pregnant teen-age
girls in Compton,” said Lani
Mednick, one of the YEP directors
and a senior majoring in philosophy
and communication. “They don’t get
a lot of attention... and that’s what we
want to give them.”
Two years after its founding,
YEP operates through its nearly 20
members, each of whom maintains
a relationship with a student from
USC students give young mothers a boost
Teenage mothers at a Compton
school get career advice and
mentoring from YEP program.
| see mothers, page 3 |
Joshua Sy | Daily Trojan
Reaching out · A group of USC students spends Fridays mentoring young pregnant women and new
mothers. The students work to guide their mentees through various aspects of life and career planning.
By laura nelson
Daily Trojan
During a month dedicated to
breast cancer education, student
health awareness groups around
campus are gearing up to spend
the week among their peers, rais-ing
funds and awareness about
breast cancer.
When speaking to a student
community, club leaders said,
spreading knowledge is the first
priority.
“It’s not as
much about
the money
as it is about
the aware-ness
and the
education,”
said Mallory
Sussman, president of USC’s Pink
Ribbon Club. “Our goal is to call
the campus’ attention to breast
cancer and to inspire young wom-en
start self-exams early.”
The Pink Ribbon Club has part-nered
with the Women’s Student
Assembly to host a breast can-cer
awareness fair tomorrow at
Tommy Trojan. LUNA Bar, Benefit
Cosmetics, Norris Cancer Center
and Susan G. Komen for the Cure
will also be present.
“We hope to give a voice to
members of the USC communi-ty
who have in some way been af-fected
by breast cancer, be they
victims, survivors or support-ers,”
Kristen Priddy, president of
Women’s Student Assembly, wrote
in an e-mail. “It is also our aim to
educate women on early detection
methods.”
At the fair, the Pink Ribbon
Club will distribute pink wrist-bands
and T-shirts to students
who answer trivia questions,
Sussman said. The club will also
promote the “I Am Aware” cam-paign,
which encourages campus
student groups to wear pink to-morrow.
All proceeds will go to
the Pink Ribbon Club foundation.
“Early detection leads to a bet-ter
prognosis,” Sussman said.
“Self-exams are one of the most
important things a woman can
do, and we want to teach girls how
to do it correctly.”
Another cancer awareness
group, Colleges Against Cancer,
will be tabling on Trousdale start-ing
today. They will be selling
T-shirts, cookies and pink ribbons
to promote their two main causes,
Race for the Cure and Beautiful
Lengths, the latter of which pro-vides
wigs for chemotherapy pa-tients.
Last year, USC raised $112,000
for Race for the Cure and donated
For student health groups, a special call to arms
Student groups around campus
promote awareness this week,
tabling and raising money.
| see cancer, page 2 |
Nathaniel Gonzalez | Daily Trojan
At the ready · Members of Colleges Against Cancer cut pink ribbons and baked cookies on Sunday
afternoon to sell on Trousdale this week. Proceeds from the sales will go to the American Cancer Society.
By dan doperalski
Daily Trojan
With the arrival of the 2008
California voter registration dead-line
Monday, the VoteSCount regis-tration
campaign draws to a close
having registered thousands of stu-dents,
but appearing to fall short of
its 6,000-student goal.
The Undergraduate Student
Government, one of several spon-sors
of the drive, reported the cam-paign
had registered 4,772 students.
With only one day to go, members of
USG said their registration numbers
could reach 5,000, but that meeting
the goal is improbable.
Still, USG considers the regis-tration
drive, which kicked off in
August, a resounding success.
“I think it has been really success-ful,
and we could not have done it
without every single group helping
us out,” said Samantha Foley, USG
director of Campus Affairs.
At deadline,
VoteSCount
takes a bow
The voter drive has registered
at least 4,000 students, but
expects to fall short of its goal.
Students
campaign in
Las Vegas
Dozens of Sen. Barack Obama
supporters traveled to Nevada
to canvass, persuade voters.
| see vote, page 3 |
15
Days Until
Election
COUNTDOWN
By catherine lyons
Daily Trojan
LAS VEGAS — Just five miles
from the Las Vegas Strip and a
world away from the glitz and
glamour of the towering casinos
and resorts, five USC students
drive into a desolate, run-down
neighborhood to canvass for Sen.
Barack Obama.
Bret VandenBos, president of
Students for Barack Obama, hands
out the information sheets to each
of the five students while collect-ing
the filled-out sheets from the
previous round of canvassing at a
nearby apartment complex. Each
group covers eight different turfs
in one day.
“Oh my god all of my people are
Republicans,” said Julia Lipton, a
sophomore majoring in business
administration, staring at the
badly painted ranch-style hous-es
littered with trash and beat-up
cars. “I’m going to get yelled at.”
After a few moments of hes-itation,
the students set off to
make their rounds, the strong sun
| see campaign, page 6 |
First in a
series on
women’s
health