This story was updated on Sept. 26, 2014.

Patricio Plazolles is the Program Officer for the Woltemade Center for Economics, Business and Entrepreneurship and spends his summers building businesses and other opportunities for disadvantaged communities in Peru.

The effort began in 2001 as part of Ohio Wesleyan’s Spring Break Mission Week program where a group of students travel abroad to do charity work in other countries every March. Plazolles would travel to areas surrounding Lima, Peru, with 10 students to learn about the culture and do work for the betterment of those communities.

“The students used their backgrounds to contribute to the communities,” Plazolles said. “We had an arts major with us who taught welding to some students there, others taught English in the evenings. Then the students themselves would learn to milk cows and just get to know the people there…The point was to understand the conditions of those people.”

With more funding, Plazolles and the Peru program built classrooms in a school outside of the second largest city in Peru, including a new kitchen with industrial appliances where cooking staff had previously used a tin shack with a hot plate to prepare meals. As if the transformation weren’t enough, Plazolles explained how jump starts like these in the community could lead to fundamental changes in people’s lives.

“They started a soup kitchen in the new facility and charged very little, as much as the people there could afford,” Plazolles said. “Then they bought a DVD player…then a TV…and now they have movie nights.”

For Plazolles, the point of starting these businesses is not turning a profit; money and materials he donates to schools and startups are just that, not loans. Enabling people to work for themselves without having to worry about paying anyone back for giving them that second chance is at the center of his philosophy.

“Why would I take back something I gave you after you’ve built this for yourself?” Plazolles said. “It is sustainable, they will alway have this, and they don’t have to pay any interest or things like that.”

The last Peru trip took place in 2004 before the program was cancelled, but Plazolles has continued to travel to Peru and do work every summer. Most recently, Plazolles started a bakery in a school for developmentally disabled people that allowed the school to provide occupational opportunities for the students. With more funding, Plazolles would like to open the program to students who are too old for the school, rather than them having to return to homes with few opportunities.

In 2011, Plazolles was awarded the  Peruvian Pride Award for Peruvians abroad who have made great contributions in the U.S. and Peru. The money Plazolles collects for the equipment and other charitable efforts comes from individual donations. OWU alumni and students have all contributed and Plazolles keeps notes of the students and where they are from to show people in Peru where their donations come from.

Donations made are used to buy equipment before turning it over to communities in Peru, they do the work from there themselves. Donations can be left in the urn in Plazolles’ office that he calls the “Tree of Wishes” and any amount — pennies or dollars — is welcome.

When asked about the Peru trip making a return to Mission Week, Associate Chaplain Chad Johns, who is in charge of the Mission Week program, responded in a statement echoed by Chaplain Jon Powers.

“My assumption is that the Peru team hit a lull in interest and then faded from student consciousness. As far as I know, there have been no recent attempts to revive the team.” Johns said. “However, since I’ve been here, we have had teams to El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti and Belize.”

With enough interest and a formal proposal, the trip could make a return, and OWU students could once again accompany Plazolles on one of these trips to make a difference in the Peruvian community.

By Ellin Youse and Jamell Brown-Smith
Editor-in-Chief and Transcript Reporter

Departments at Ohio Wesleyan University are using small, pilotless aircrafts, or drones, to cheaply produce content that would otherwise cost thousands of extra dollars.

Drone is a term that is often applied to robotic devices in general, but in OWU’s case, the drone is a small flying device and is controlled by a pilot on ground and used to record video and collect data or footage for athletics.

The OWU drones are DJI Phantoms, the most popular “quadcopter” model available. A quadcopter is a small, multirotator helicopter with four blades and can attach a small camera to record information from a bird’s eye view. At a starting price of $479.99 for the older model of the Phantom One, the unit is a more stable and sophisticated version of a remote-controlled helicopter.

While The Phantom does not possess many of the features that make drones the platform of choice for overhead imaging, like the ability to plot a course remotely and send the craft on its way without a need for pilot input, its durability, in-flight stability and relatively cheap price tag made it a solid choice for campus drones.

Aircraft on Campus

OWU’s geography-geology and athletics departments have each adopted a drone, and for very different reasons. At a starting price of $479.99 for the older model of the Phantom One, the unit is essentially a more stable and sophisticated version of the remote-controlled helicopters most are familiar with.

While The Phantom does not possess many of the features that make drones the platform of choice for overhead imaging, like the ability to plot a course remotely and send the craft on its way without a need for pilot input, its durability, in-flight stability and relatively cheap price tag have made it the platform of choice on campus.

For artistic or scientific purposes, drones are doing work that would have been reserved for planes and helicopters before modern technology became so widely available.

Geography/ Geology professor and Geographic Information Systems expert for the university, John Krygier, has been working with senior Christian Gehrke as a part of the Student Assistantship Program (StAP) to use this technology to produce extensive, up-to-date remote sensing data on local vegetation. A modified GoPro camera is helping the pair monitor the health of vegetation in the Delaware area.

“We had an issue in that everyone straps a GoPro to it (drone), but we wanted to work with more than visual light reactions,” Krygier said. “Infrared (IR) is useful for many things, in particular for getting information about vegetation. Healthy vegetation will appear red on our camera. Farmers will use this to see what parts of their fields are stressed or for detecting pest infestations.”

The IR sensor Krygier and Gehrke took some ingenuity to adapt to the GoPro, but the pair are making progress.

After a year of trial and error efforts, they are able to use the drone to take overhead images of an area and stitch them together into usable, geotagged maps of those regions.

Once the process has been streamlined, Krygier said he would like open up the platform and data produced for use by students and teachers.

While Krygier and Gehrke have made a lot of progress, their current work presents only a proof of concept. The pair hopes to upgrade to a more sophisticated drone capable of maintaining constant altitude or flying a predetermined path without the guesswork of their current system.

In the athletics department, the football team has been working with video producer Bill Reynolds to gather new perspectives for their videos.

“I used it to get overhead shots of the team and the scoreboard when they came out to start the game, just a different angle to shoot from,” Reynolds said. “I use a pole to get similar footage, the drone is just one more tool to that end.”

The Phantom that Reynolds uses is equipped with a gimbal that keeps the camera steadier while in flight, enabling smooth, continuous shots even while the drone is in motion. Reynolds and the athletic department are still formulating new ways to use images captured by the drone.

In another instance of drones making an appearance on Selby Field, the Ohio Machine men’s lacrosse team also used drones to record footage of games. President and general manager of the Machine, John Algie, said the team worked with the local company, Infinite Impact, to provide in-game drone services.

“This was a great partnership for us because it created really unique perspectives for our fans,” Algie said. “One of our most popular uses of the drone was for our ‘Infinite Impact Drone Fan Cam’ which panned over the crowd while simultaneously broadcasting the footage onto the Selby Stadium video board. Our fans really got excited for it. We were also able to incorporate some of the drone photography into promotional videos, which serves as a real attention-grabber.”

After his use with drones, Algie said he could understand why universities would be interested in using drones more frequently.

“Drone cams can be great for showcasing a product or service,” he said.

“I can see a university such as Ohio Wesleyan, which has such a beautiful campus, using drone photography to create really special admissions recruiting videos that showcase what it looks like to attend OWU.”

 

The Issue: ISIL

The situation in the Middle East has been worsening during this past week. On Wednesday, Sept. 10, President Barack Obama made a speech to the nation, stating his intention to go after ISIL by building an international coalition. The role of the U.S. military will escalate, and Obama will be sending 475 military advisers to Iraq, making the total about 1,700, according to CNN.

CNN also reports that Obama shifted $25 million in military aid to Iraqi forces, including “Kurdish fighters in the north combating the ISIS extremists. The aid could include ammunition, small arms and vehicles, as well as military education and training.”

During the speech, Obama said, “Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy.”

On Sunday, several Arab countries offered to carry out airstrikes against ISIL militants, the New York Times reports. According to Reuters, Australia said they would send troops, but Britain has yet to commit.

ISIL released a video of another beheading on Saturday. This time, the victim was British aid worker David Cawthorne Haines. According to the Washington Post, Haines was abducted in March 2013 near a refugee camp along the Turkish border in Syria. British Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain would support the United States, plus assist the Iraqi government and continue to aid the Kurdish regional government, the New York Times reports. However, they have not taken an active military role.

The Issue: Scotland

Many Scots will be heading to the polls on Thursday to vote on whether they want to be their own independent nation, or stick with their British identity. This vote has major implications in the United Kingdom, as the New York Times says, “…shaking the British government of Prime Minister David Cameron, undermining the electoral future of the British Labour Party and making it more likely that Britain will have a referendum on its own continued membership in the European Union.”

Polls as recent as Sunday are still extremely close, Reuters reports. “Out of four new polls, three showed those in favour of maintaining the union with a lead of 2 and 8 percentage points,” according to Reuters But other polls have shown that supporters of independence in the lead with 54 percent to the opposition’s 46 percent. An expected four million people will be voting on this referendum.

On Sunday, Reuters reported, Queen Elizabeth told a crowd she hoped Scots would “think very carefully about the future.”

Chartwells resumed services Tuesday after repairs

A Delaware sanitarian’s surprise inspection of Smith Hall’s cafeteria got a surprise of its own when a second floor pipe burst, leaking water through the ceiling.

“We really don’t have control over anything like that – nobody does, to be honest,” said Chartwells’ Dining Services Manager, Deanna Park. Due to the leak, they closed Smith for dinner on Monday, Sept. 8.

The Buildings and Grounds staff was repairing the pipe while the sanitarian was assessing Smith dining hall, according to Park. When they fixed it the sudden increase in water pressure burst the older pipe, placed above the cafeteria’s ice cream station. Three ceiling tiles were knocked out as water leaked through, pooling on the floor.

“The fitting was replaced this morning, the affected areas have been cleaned and the ceiling tiles have been replaced,” said Buildings and Grounds Director Peter Schantz on Sept. 9.

“The area was functional again before noon today.”

While Chartwells made the decision to close voluntarily, Delaware sanitarian Karie Sanders was still at the site and discussed the issue with them.

“We try to work closely with facilities when they’re going through moments where they need a little extra assistance to help get things back on the right path,” she said.

With Smith dining closed, Chartwells opened the Faculty Staff dining room in Hamilton-Williams Campus Center as an additional place to pick up food, and opened seating in Bishop Cafe.

While sophomore Robyn Madrishin was working and not affected by the change in options, she noted that the school seemed well prepared, saying there was extra food in Hamilton-Williams.

Park noted that they were able to cook food in part of Smith cafeteria and take it to Hamilton-Williams to help with the additional amount of students eating there.

With the repairs finished Sept. 9, Sanders returned to check the repairs to the pipe and how it was affecting service, and again on Sept. 11 to check progress on several code violations she found – five critical violations and nine standard violations.

“Critical means they are linked to or could be linked to causing foodborne illness, so in that case we get those corrected on the spot, which they were corrected on the spot,” Sanders said.

Sanders has been inspecting Smith Hall for seven and a half years; inspections are unannounced to Chartwells and generally occur every six months. Violations lead to return visits.

“We do corrective action as soon as possible…some of those were corrected before the sanitarian left,” said Park.

“Also we work in cooperation with Buildings and Grounds, they’re helping to get any parts needed, we’re making additional changes to that and we will be re-inspected and we fully anticipate everything to be corrected at that point.”

She emphasized, as did Sanders, that the inspection and pipe break were simultaneous but separate occurrences.

“We had the health inspection, which is normal, we receive one every six months, and we had this added crisis, if you will, that occurred totally coincidental,” said Park.

“They still would have been open (if the pipe hadn’t burst),” said Sanders; if the pipe had continued to leak they would have recommended that Smith close but the code violations did not require it to close.

She had seen similar code issues in the past, all of which were addressed. In the past year the only student complaints received by Delaware General Health District (DGHD) in regard to Smith dining involved improper hand washing.

“We work pretty closely with Ohio Wesleyan,” said Sanders.

“And when we run across those situations, there’s several ways that we can handle them,” said Stephanie DiGenaro, program manager of the Health District’s Food Protection and Public Safety Unit.

“There’s a lot of different ways that they can comply with food code,” she said.

Park said that Chartwells has responded to the violations, which include improper temperature control, surface cleanliness and equipment condition. The dining hall is also receiving assistance from Buildings and Grounds, who also helped clean up after the pipe break.

Chartwells workers are required continuously to check their cooking temperatures during their shift to ensure against undercooking food.

Chartwells also has independent, third party representatives  visit their locations to check the conditions in their dining facilities separately from the local health department.

“It was just really funny timing that the pipe burst while the health inspector was here,” said junior Leslie Alton, who staffs the front desk in Public Safety’s office.

The Issue: Ebola

Ebola is one of the most fatal diseases known to humankind, and it is the cause of one of the deadliest outbreaks in history in Africa. According to the World Health Organization, Ebola has a death rate of up to 90 percent, and is caused by human-to-human interaction, such as bodily fluids.

Currently, the death toll is 2,100 in several West African countries: Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Yahoo News. By some estimates, there are about 3,500 confirmed cases of the disease, with no cure. Approximately 240 health workers in the affected areas have been infected with the disease and several have died, the Washington Post reports. However, several Americans who were infected were flown back to the U.S. and given an experimental treatment.

The Washington Post reports there are now fears that Ebola will be spreading from “remote provinces” to the bigger cities in Africa. The Post also said, “Last week, the World Health Organization warned that the number of cases could hit 20,000 in West Africa.”

The Issue: Countering ISIL

After the recent videos of American journalists being beheaded by suspected members of ISIL, the United States has ramped up their strategy against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Vice President Joe Biden said in a speech, “We take care of those who are grieving, and when that’s finished, they should know, we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice. Because hell is where they will reside. Hell is where they will reside.”

And on Sunday, the United States launched a new series of airstrikes against Sunni fighters, which were aimed at ISIL militants. These recent attacks were made to stop militants from seizing and important dam on the Euphrates River and “prevent the possibility of floodwaters being unleashed toward the capital, Baghdad,” the New York Times reported.

President Barack Obama will be making a speech to the nation on Wednesday, which will be used to “make his case for launching a United States-led offensive against Sunni militants gaining ground in the Middle East,” the New York Times reported. President Obama has said this speech is “…not going to be an announcement about U.S. ground troops…this is not the equivalent of the Iraq war.”

The Associated Press said the head of the Arab League “urged its members…to confront Islamic State extremists ‘militarily and politically,’ issuing an apparent call to arms as President Barack Obama prepares to go to lawmakers and the American public with his own plan to stop the militants.”