Two years later, I’ve come to the realization that graduating in four years at this university is nearly impossible. I find myself experiencing a quarter-life crisis as I struggle to graduate “on time” by taking five classes a semester, a class every J-Term and even one this summer. How did this happen? Am I alone? Would I benefit more by graduating in four years?

Major(s)

Changing or adding majors adds more time to your tenure at St. Thomas. I entered college with an undeclared major, but I was leaning toward business.

It wasn’t until my sophomore year that I began contemplating the idea of a second major, and it wasn’t until the following year that I went through with it. I am now double majoring in marketing and due to my love for writing, communication and journalism, adding on a whopping 44 more credits.

Needless to say, this addition created panic mode.

But I’m not alone. According to MSNBC’s Personal Finance section, 50 percent of students will change their major at least once. Senior Brianna Donohue faced this situation at St. Thomas and will have to stay an extra year due to the change.

“I initially started out as a music business major, but then I began dreading going to my piano lessons. My passion for music was replaced by my curiosity for philosophy,” Donohue explained.

Donohue has now switched her major to philosophy and said that she “couldn’t be happier.”

Sure, it can take longer to graduate by changing a major or adding a second, but it’s definitely something to consider if your happiness is at stake.

Core Requirements

Becoming a well-rounded individual, enhancing creativity and pursuing moral and ethical development are all perks of the St. Thomas liberal arts education, but you also have to take an extra seventeen classes that don’t count toward your major. That’s equivalent to two years of being a full-time student.

These core requirements are the primary reason that it’s taking me longer than expected to graduate, and though I like that these classes make me a more well-rounded person, I think they are excessive.

Freshman Becky Soung, a biology major, said that St. Thomas’ core curriculum causes her stress.

“I’m taking art history, sociology, theology…all these classes that have very little to do with biology,” Soung said. “ I know it’s making me well-rounded, but 68 credits [seventeen classes] is borderline ridiculous.”

Soung plans to graduate in four years but understands that it’s not guaranteed.

Credits from High School

Unlike my brother and sister, I wasn’t an AP scholar in high school, and I came to St. Thomas with only four credits from an upper-level Spanish class.

On the other hand, my siblings combined to take 15 college-level classes in high school. My brother received a degree in biomedical engineering in four years–a major that’s notorious for taking over four years to complete. My brother even had time to take a semester off to work.

My sister is also on her way to earning her degree in four years, finishing her senior year as a physiology and Spanish double major. Both of my siblings were able to graduate “on time” with the help of pre-college credits.

To this day, I regret not taking high school more seriously. Had I taken a few more college-level courses, a four-year degree would’ve been much more plausible.

According to College Results Online, 56.6 percent of St. Thomas students graduate in four years (taken from data between 2002-2009). The duration you need to graduate is by no means a black and white issue.

If picking up another major brings forth a sense of security or happiness, I say go for it. If staying an extra year engenders a financial burden, weigh your options and choose what makes the most sense for your situation.

The answer is contingent on what’s important to you. One thing is for certain though: graduating in more than four years isn’t necessarily a result of laziness or stupidity.

Geena Maharaj can be reached at maha8007@stthomas.edu.

“I’m not hoping to turn things around here and parlay that into another job,” Caruso said in a 2008 interview with the Star Tribune. “If they’ll have me, I’ll stay here as long as I can, and they’ll have to pry my cold, dead body out of this chair with a crowbar.”

Fast forward four years, and there’s no longer any question about whether or not St. Thomas will “have” Caruso. After orchestrating the best four-year turnaround among all 640 NCAA football programs and winning the Liberty Mutual Division III coach of the year award two consecutive years, Caruso has cemented his place as one of the elite coaches in Division III. But what’s left to prove?

Last year Caruso was in a similar position. The Tommies finished the regular season undefeated for the first time ever, and Caruso had just won his first coach of the year award, spawning rumors that he would soon depart for a Division I head coaching job.

Though nobody could have blamed Caruso for being on a D-I college’s radar last year, the time was not right. Caruso had promised his first recruiting class at St. Thomas “a better tomorrow,” and he delivered on that promise by leading the team to its best season in school history this year, eventually losing in the national semifinals.

Although the 20-0 semifinal loss to Wisconsin-Whitewater proved that the job is not finished at St. Thomas, Caruso’s stock has never been higher. I was recently approached by an Augsburg fan at a St. Thomas basketball game who asked me my thoughts on Caruso. Before I could even answer, the man cut me off and said, “Caruso should have been hired by the (expletive) Gophers. He’s the most popular coach in Minnesota.”

How could I disagree? Caruso is a young (36), energetic and media-friendly guy who fans are drawn to because of his confidence and Italian charm. Though he hasn’t won a national title, his success definitely warrants a Division I coaching position, should he want it. Caruso should not be afraid to seize the opportunity.

In his 16-year coaching career, Caruso has been a part of four impressive rebuilding projects. After spending his first six years as a coordinator at North Dakota State, where he helped a Bison team that went 6-4 the previous year make two NCAA playoff trips and reach the national semifinals in a four-year span, Caruso became the offensive coordinator at Division II South Dakota for two seasons.

At South Dakota, he took over a program that had won 10 combined games the previous three years and helped the Coyotes post back-to-back 9-2 records and win the North Central Conference championship.

In 2006 he inherited just 24 players as head coach of a Macalester program that was coming off a 2-25 stretch from 2003-2005. Caruso doubled the roster size, taking the Scots to a 2-7 record in 2006 and a 4-5 mark in 2007. In his first year at Macalester, the Scots produced their two highest single-game total yardage outputs in the program’s 119-year history.

I understand that Caruso has a young family (three children under age seven) and that he doesn’t want to uproot them. I get that he likes it here and that he’s proven he can get the types of recruits it takes to be dominant year after year. At St. Thomas, Caruso is a big fish in a small pond. I may want to see him swim with fish his own size, but history doesn’t agree.

After looking at past Division III coach of the year winners and other coaches who have had major success at this level, the records show that many of the “big fish,” like St. John’s coach John Gagliardi, Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Lance Leipold and Mount Union’s Larry Kehres, stay in their respective ponds for a long time.

If Caruso decides he wants to be a career Division III coach, St. Thomas football will become synonymous with success, and Caruso will be forever mentioned in the same breath as the Gagliardis, Leipolds and Kehreses. But at his age, with Frank Sinatra-like moxie, it’s hard to imagine Caruso not wanting more. But is more a national title, or a D-1 job?

Most D-3 coaches don’t become D-1 head coaches right away. Caruso may have to start off as a coordinator, but I think if a brave athletic director took a chance on Caruso, his track record proves that he’ll succeed.

With my own graduation approaching in May, I thank Caruso for revitalizing the football program during my tenure at St. Thomas. Some of my best times in college happened on Saturday afternoons, and I will never forget watching the Tommies crush St. John’s 63-7 at home. The memories Caruso and his team created over the last four years are why I won’t be mad if his “cold, dead body” isn’t pried from his office chair. He deserves a chance to prove himself at the next level, and I hope the St. Thomas community supports him no matter what.

Ryan Shaver can be reached at shav7005@stthomas.edu

A majority of Minnesota undergraduates already work between 20 and 30 hours per week on average. They say it’s essential to pay for tuition and other expenses, which have skyrocketed in the last decade.

Some college officials worry that work is competing for too much of students’ time.

But for many students, there’s a lot more to university life than studying.

Kelly Gregg, a 21-year old sociology major at the University of Minnesota, can rattle off various on- and off-campus jobs.

“I work here at the visual perception lab. I also pick up some babysitting hours,” she said. “I also work with the ITV department (and) the audio visual department on campus; I’m a technician.”

Gregg, of River Falls, Wis., estimates she works 15 to 20 hours a week. She expects to work even more during her winter break, which lasts until the middle of the month.

Her tuition bill is covered through scholarships and money her parents saved for her college education. But everything else that goes along with the college experience is Gregg’s responsibility.

“As far rent and general living expenses, food, most of that I pay for through the work I do,” she said.

Gregg said if she didn’t work, she wouldn’t be able to go to college.

The same goes for Bianca Jones. The 20-year old University of St. Thomas communications and journalism student works more than 30 hours a week. That’s on top of being a full-time student.

“There are days where I just dread having to wake up and go to class because I know the day ahead and I know I won’t be getting home until 11 o’clock,” said Jones of Roseville, Minn.

Jones has two jobs — one with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in downtown St. Paul, and one at a coffee shop near the St. Thomas campus.

Jones pays for her tuition and expenses through a mix of scholarships, loans and money she earns at her jobs.

She said her work, especially in the public affairs office at the Corps of Engineers, is good experience. But Jones admits working 30 hours a week while going to school has a downside.

“It definitely does affect my studies,” she said. “The biggest regret of all of this is that I wish I didn’t have to work so much that it affected my grades.”

In a review of 2008 federal data, the Minnesota Office of Higher Education found that 84 percent of students attending college in Minnesota worked compared to 79 percent of students nationwide. On average, Minnesota students worked 28 hours a week.

Shannah Mulvihill, director of university relations at the Minnesota State University Student Association, said nearly half of students at Minnesota’s seven state-run universities who responded to an association survey last year work 20 hours a week or more while going to school.

Mulvihill said she was surprised at how many students said that work affected their studies.

“Nearly half of the students who responded to the survey said that the number of hours that they worked is negatively impacting their academic success,” she said.

Mulvihilll says students are in a tough spot. They can work fewer hours, but be saddled with more student loans when they graduate. Their other option is to work more and take fewer classes, which means taking longer to get a degree.

Leslie Mercer, associate vice chancellor for research and planning at the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, said a 2005 survey of MnSCU students showed 62 percent said work limits the time they study.

“They report that they don’t have as much time to read and to study as we would probably like them to,” she said.

In a perfect world, Mercer said, students would concentrate on earning their degrees, while working no more than 10 to 12 hours at an on-campus job.

“Once you get beyond that I think it gets more problematic,” she said.

However, Mercer said most students need to work more than 10 to 12 hours a week.

She said MnSCU is trying to accommodate students’ busy schedules by offering more night, weekend and online courses.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney’s whisker-thin Iowa caucus victory was underwhelming in scope and anti-climactic in its finality. But it moves him closer to the Republican presidential nomination chiefly because of who finished fourth and fifth.

The former Massachusetts governor will gladly tout his win over Rick Santorum, who could have reversed the results with one more carload of supporters. More important to Romney, however, was the thumping suffered by former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

GOP strategists had seen them as having the best backgrounds to sustain a long-term threat to Romney, who remains unable to push his support beyond one-quarter of Republican voters. Now it’s unclear whether Perry and Gingrich can maintain viable campaigns.

Romney’s closest competitors in Iowa were Santorum, practically an afterthought as little as two weeks ago, and libertarian-leaning Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

Santorum now must show whether he can build on his remarkable Iowa sprint to become the long-sought conservative alternative to Romney. It won’t be easy.

Santorum, 53, badly lost his 2006 bid for a third Senate term from Pennsylvania. He has modest fundraising and ground-game operations, and he’s largely unknown beyond circles that closely follow politics.

Paul, 76, is seen more as a libertarian crusader than a potential president. He recently said he doesn’t envision himself as president.

“Romney did what he had to do, but not much more,” said GOP strategist Terry Holt.

On the upside, Romney can argue that he not only won Iowa, but he beat expectations. He said from the start that Iowa was a bad political fit for him, and he focused his early campaign efforts on New Hampshire. He made a big Iowa push at the end, when it was clear that no rival had consolidated the anti-Romney vote.

He now heads to the friendly turf of New Hampshire, where he owns a home. The state’s primary is next Tuesday.

But it’s also easy to paint Romney’s Iowa finish as unimpressive. He drew one-fourth of the vote. That’s precisely the lackluster level he has pulled month after month, in poll after poll of Republicans.

It’s also the same percentage Romney got when he finished a deeply disappointing second in the 2008 Iowa caucus. Campaign veterans say Romney must find a way to excite more conservatives if he is to beat President Barack Obama in November.

“If Romney was unable to move the needle even an inch from four years ago,” despite heavy spending on his behalf, “it is hard to argue he has brought new people in or expanded the base of support,” said former Obama campaign and White House aide Jen Psaki.

Some Republican consultants, however, see the glass as half full for Romney.

“Romney is in the driver’s seat in New Hampshire,” said Terry Nelson, who advised Tim Pawlenty before he left the presidential race. “Iowa produced no serious candidate to derail him.”

Nelson said it “will be very hard” for Santorum to raise the money and build the organization he will need to compete in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and beyond.

Democrats were less impressed. Matt Bennett of the group Third Way called it a mixed bag for Romney. Santorum and Paul, he said, are “the two demonstrably least-electable candidates in this field since Donald Trump fired himself.”

But Romney’s inability to build a big plurality is a problem, Bennett said. “Challengers to incumbent presidents cannot get merely polite applause or grudging support from their own base if they hope to win general elections,” he said.

Nonetheless, Romney is poised to do something no Republican has done in recent times: follow a contested Iowa caucus victory with a primary win in New Hampshire. New Hampshire voters have shown contrarian streaks before. But a Romney loss there would rank as a huge upset.

Even if he carries New Hampshire, Romney won’t be home free. His Mormonism could hurt him in South Carolina, whose primary is Jan. 21. But with Perry and Gingrich wounded, it’s unclear who can take full advantage.

Romney might be able to endure a poor finish in South Carolina and move on strongly to Florida, which votes on Jan. 31. It’s a sprawling, diverse and expensive state for candidates. Romney has proven to be the best fundraiser, organizer and strategist thus far.

Democrats were hoping for a slow and difficult start for Romney. They want to see him battered, and bled of money, for as long as possible before the summer nominating conventions.

Iowa’s results leave both parties with plenty of disappointments.

But Manning also apparently understood that if any connection to WikiLeaks was revealed, he might be seen as a traitor, “like Nidal Hasan,” the Army major accused of killing 13 soldiers preparing for deployment at Fort Hood, Texas.

Both portraits will be on display during a military hearing starting Friday at this locked-down Army base between Baltimore and Washington. The hearing, which could run for days, will determine whether Manning will be court-martialed on charges that could bring life imprisonment. Prosecutors say they won’t seek the maximum penalty of death for the most serious charge of aiding the enemy.

The basis for the 22 counts that Manning faces are transcripts of online chats the Army intelligence analyst purportedly initiated in May 2010 with confidant-turned-government-informant Adrian Lamo.

The chats also foreshadowed the divergent public perceptions of the 23-year-old Crescent, Okla., native: Is he a freedom-of-information idealist who rightfully exposed abuses of power? Or a soldier who betrayed his country and comrades-in-arms?

The chat logs, which the military says are authentic, were first published by Wired.com, which got them from Lamo. In them, a writer using the screen name “bradass87″ reveals much more than his reasons for divulging classified files to WikiLeaks, an anti-secrecy website. He discusses his disdain for feeble computer security at his post in Baghdad, his wrenching breakup with a boyfriend in Boston and his struggles as a “super-intelligent, awkwardly effeminate” homosexual trying to survive his conservative upbringing, a broken family, British schooling and military service in the era of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“I’m a mess,” bradass87 confided to Lamo. “I’m in the desert, with a bunch of hyper-masculine trigger happy ignorant rednecks as neighbors. And the only safe place I seem to have is this satellite internet connection.”

Manning’s civilian defense attorney, David Coombs, aims to present evidence of Manning’s mental and emotional distress to highlight failings in the military chain of command. Prosecutors contend such testimony is irrelevant to the investigation.

The material Manning is suspected of leaking includes hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables, Iraq and Afghanistan war logs and a 2007 video clip of a laughing U.S. helicopter crew gunning down 11 men later found to include a Reuters news photographer and his driver. The Pentagon concluded the troops acted appropriately, having mistaken the camera equipment for weapons.

Coombs contends the leaked material didn’t hurt national security and caused little damage to U.S. interests abroad, despite U.S. government claims that it endangered lives and security. Manning supporters say the leaks exposed war crimes and triggered pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East.

Daniel Ellsberg, who revealed the secret U.S. expansion of the Vietnam War by leaking the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago, says Manning is “unreservedly a hero.”

“I think that Bradley Manning, if he is found to be the source of this, will deserve our thanks and our admiration,” Ellsberg said.

Others say Manning’s alleged crimes amount to selling out his fellow soldiers, and that he should be punished as a traitor.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said in August 2010 that execution would be an appropriate punishment for what he regarded as treason.

In a more temperate statement last week to The Associated Press, Rogers said he trusts in the military judicial process. Nevertheless, he said: “Leaking classified information and compromising U.S. national security is always an extremely serious offense. The ramifications of leaking classified material can be deadly for our men and woman on the front lines.”

Manning’s arrest in May 2010 made global headlines and his case has engendered strong sympathy in Europe. In Britain, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has largely been based for the past 18 months, many view WikiLeaks favorably for having exposed the gruesome reality of the deeply unpopular war in Iraq.

But it was the conditions of Manning’s eight months in pretrial confinement at a Marine Corps base near Washington that caused his support base to swell. The Quantico brig commander, citing safety and security concerns, kept Manning confined 23 hours a day in a single-bed cell. For several days in March, he was forced to sleep naked. Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union objected, the United Nations’ torture investigator began an inquiry and chief State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley resigned after calling the confinement conditions “ridiculous” and “stupid.”

British opposition lawmaker Ann Clwyd asked the British government to intervene in Manning’s case, saying that “his treatment is cruel and unnecessary and we should be saying so.”

Coombs says the conditions at Quantico were illegal; President Barack Obama has defended them as appropriate.

Manning was transferred in April to a medium-security facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Jeff Paterson of the Bradley Manning Support Network called that a victory for Manning supporters.

“That really did motivate people that, whether they appreciated Bradley’s alleged actions or not, they realized that his treatment was wrong, and people spoke out,” he said.

Paterson said about 5,000 donors worldwide have given about $400,000. The funds are to cover Coombs’ estimated fee of $120,000, plus costs for any appeals and expenses linked to demonstrations on Manning’s behalf, he said.

Criticism of Manning’s treatment hasn’t gone away. Last month, 54 members of the European parliament signed an open letter to the U.S. government raising concerns about his pretrial confinement. United Nations chief torture investigator Juan Mendez is preparing to release a report on Manning.

While Europeans are divided on WikiLeaks’ confrontational tactics, the view that Manning was motivated by a crisis of conscience holds sway with many international observers.

“We are indebted to him,” Swiss human rights investigator Dick Marty said in September. If Manning is guilty as charged, he said, then he “acted as a whistleblower and should be treated as such.”

Lamo, whose fame as a former outlaw computer hacker may have prompted Manning to contact him, said he doesn’t regret turning him in. He said his actions may have prevented Manning from leaking more classified information.

In the chat logs, bradass87 told Lamo he hoped his leaks would provoke “worldwide discussion, debates and reforms.” He said he didn’t know how people would see him — as “‘hacker,’ ‘cracker,’ ‘hacktivist,’ ‘leaker’ or what. I’m just me, really.”

But he rejected Lamo’s suggestion he might be labeled a spy: “Spies don’t post things up for the world to see.”

Associated Press writer Raphael Satter in London contributed to this story.

For the most part, sports writers and broadcasters let their biases dictate their picks, and the analysts on networks like ESPN usually make fearless predictions with no accountability. Most sports publications offer these predictions to entertain those sports fans who are too impatient to wait for the actual game, but most of these predictions are almost always either wrong or have the home team winning, no matter how unlikely (see Minnesota Vikings predictions).

With that being said, here are two possible scenarios for the St. Thomas versus Wisconsin-Whitewater semifinal playoff game.

Why St. Thomas will win- Wisconsin-Whitewater’s running back Levell Coppage has been unstoppable this season. He’s rushed for 1,919 yards and already has 10 touchdowns in the playoffs. Those statistics are enough to strike fear in even the most hardened of defensive coordinators. However, Coppage hasn’t faced a defense as tough as the Tommies.

Led by senior Tony Danna’s 68 tackles (17 for a loss), the Tommies have held opponents to less than 48 yards rushing a game and have only allowed six rushing touchdowns all year. The chances are high that Coppage breaks a few good runs, but even if he rushes for more than 100 yards and a pair of touchdowns, the Tommies’ offensive attack is too good to keep off the scoreboard.

Seniors Fritz Waldvogel and Colin Tobin have carried the team in the playoffs, and the Tommies’ offensive line has been dominant. If senior quarterback Dakota Tracy can take care of the ball and make some things happen with his feet, the Tommies will be able to stretch the field the way they’ve done all year. St. Thomas coach Glenn Caruso has an extensive playbook and will find ways to get Waldvogel and Tobin in the end zone. It’s going to be a high-scoring affair, but the Tommies will upset the two-time defending national champions 42-35.

Why Whitewater will win- The St. Thomas football program has taken the next step. Nothing proves this more than the way the Tommies routed their three playoff opponents. St. Thomas has won by 46, 28 and 35 points but have made all kinds of mistakes in the process. Tobin and Tracy have each fumbled twice in the playoffs, and Tracy has thrown an interception. Whitewater has not lost a fumble in six games.

St. Thomas has committed 11 more penalties than its opponents in the playoffs and has played sloppy on special teams giving up a return touchdown and dropping a kick return that led to a safety. The Tommies have made up for their mistakes with skill and size, but they won’t be able to out-muscle the Warhawks. Whitewater’s offensive line averages 6 feet 3 inches tall and 292 pounds.

Don’t expect the Tommies to clean up the sloppy play this week.The last time they had a long bus ride, they came out flat and gave up 30 points to Concordia-Moorhead. Cobber’s quarterback Michael Dunham put up 329 passing yards against the Tommies. Imagine what the Warhawks’ Gagliardi finalist Matt Blanchard will do. The Tommies are better than they’ve ever been but not good enough to take down the champs. Whitewater wins 31-27.

What do you think the score will be? Leave your predictions below. The person with the closest score will win a TommieMedia “swag bag.”

Alex Keil and Ryan Shaver contributed to this report.

Parking prices at St. Thomas are not popular among students. The cost of parking varies depending on if you are a commuter or a resident. For a commuter pass, a student pays $250 a year. Residents have an even higher price to pay than commuters. Upperclassmen pay $450 a semester, and freshmen pay $1,080 for the year.

I don’t like paying hundreds of dollars for a parking permit each year, but I just accepted it and assumed St. Thomas’ prices reflected the parking prices of other universities.

A few weeks ago, I read a post on Facebook from my friend, who attends the regional campus of Indiana University, about how ridiculous the parking permit prices were at her school: only $24 a semester.

St. Thomas students would be thrilled to pay only $48 a year for a parking permit.

Students at most other local universities are luckier than St. Thomas students when it comes to parking permit prices. Only one university out of six schools had higher prices.

I think St. Thomas’ prices need to be lowered.

The University of Minnesota’s parking permits cost more than at St. Thomas. U of M students have to pay $65.50 a month to park in the lots. The price increases to $97.25 a month, if a students prefers ramp parking. U of M garage parking is the highest with $127.25 per month.

However, the other five schools: St. Catherine University, Hamline University, Bethel University, Macalester College and Concordia University-St. Paul, have significantly lower parking permit prices.

St. Catherine University offers its commuter students parking permits for only $90 a year, and resident students are only required to pay $190 a year for a permit.

Hamline University’s students, both commuters and residents, only have to pay $150 for a parking permit for the school year. Bethel University offers its year long parking permit for $150 as well.

The students at Macalester College and Concordia University-St. Paul do not have to worry about any of these parking issues. Their permits are absolutely free.

I do not think there is any reason for St. Thomas to charge as much as they do for the permits. I agree that the university should require permits, because it would be impossible for any commuters or residents to find parking if permits weren’t required, but I think the price is too high. If other universities are able to charge lower prices, then St. Thomas should be able to do the same.

Editor’s note: Public Safety Parking Services was contacted multiple times for comment but did not return calls by deadline.

Olivia Detweiler can be reached at detw5520@stthomas.edu

Here are tips for eating healthy in a fast-paced lifestyle.

1. Get the most out of snacking

Pack quick handy snacks such as fruits, granola bars, trail mix, carrot or celery sticks for when you need to satisfy your hunger throughout the day.

2. Look for healthy alternatives

Always look for the most nutritional alternatives available.

Having the late-night study munchies? Trade in the chips, candy, soda and ice cream for brain foods such as trail mix, fruits, water and yogurt

Substitute high fat dressings such as ranch and honey mustard for vinaigrette.

3. Think variety

Try to eat a variety of different foods among the five major food groups along with eating a variety of different foods within each food group.

For example, eating fruit is a great source of vitamins, and eating a variety of different fruits is important to get the optimal intake of vitamins.

4. Think moderation

It is OK to crave high-calorie items at times. The key to making it fit into healthy eating is moderation. Rather than banning high-calorie foods all together, try reducing the intake. It is OK to splurge once in awhile as long as your diet is made up of mostly vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.

5. Know your food

Always read food labels. Low-Fat and fat-free does not necessarily mean low-calorie. Often times, these foods are high in calories from sugar and other refined carbohydrates.

A healthy diet will help improve concentration and mental alertness. So step back from your busy lives and find those healthy options.

Anna Tu can be reached at tu978399@stthomas.edu

According to the Kansas City Star newspaper, in 2001, reality shows accounted for 20 percent of TV’s prime-time schedule. Today these shows make up more than 40 percent of TV programming. Reality TV has turned into an obsession in pop culture with each new show trying to be more outrageous and over-the-top than the next.

Take Jersey Shore for example. Entertainment Weekly reported that the cast members got paid a whopping $100,000 per episode in season five to party and get drunk. This phenomenon has taken eight nobodies and turned them into multimillion dollar “celebrities.”

CNN reported Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi was recently paid $32,000 for her visit to Rutgers University and gave students the insightful advice to “study hard, but party harder.”

I invest my time into what I would like to think is a slightly more sophisticated reality show empire: the Kardashians. While this family is not getting drunk on camera, their lives are nowhere near my reality. They are constantly jet setting around the world and going to lavish events, not to mention the fact that they get their hair and makeup professionally done every day.

E! reported that “Kim’s Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event” became its most watched event ever, drawing in 10.5 million viewers and making the couple an estimated $17 million.

Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries filed for divorce 72 days later. Personally, I felt taken advantage of. They filmed their wedding and shared their “love” with the world, but it seems like a giant publicity stunt.

At the end of the day, we really only have ourselves to blame for feeding into this reality show culture. If we didn’t watch the shows, these people would have no careers. I’m not advocating avoiding reality shows all together; I just think people need to get out and live their own lives instead of watching someone else live theirs.

Jessica Barton can be reached at bart2049@stthomas.edu

This is a tough time for a lot of Americans – especially young people. You’ve come of age at a time of profound change. The world has gotten more connected, but it’s also gotten more competitive. And for decades, too many of our institutions – from Washington to Wall Street – failed to adapt, culminating in the worst financial crisis and recession since the Great Depression.

For the last three years, we’ve worked to stabilize the economy, and we’ve made some progress. But we still have a long way to go. And now, as you’re getting ready to head out into the world, many of you are watching your friends and classmates struggle to find work. You’re wondering what’s in store for your future, and I know that can be scary.

The truth is, the economic problems we face today didn’t happen overnight, and they won’t be solved overnight. But the fact that you’re investing in your education right now tells me that you believe in the future of America. You want to be a part of it. And you know that there are steps we can take right now to put Americans back to work and give our economy a boost.

The problem is, there are some in Washington who just don’t share that sense of urgency. That’s why it’s been so disappointing to see Republicans in Congress block jobs bills from going forward – bills that independent economists say could create millions of jobs though the kinds of proposals supported by Democrats and Republicans in the past.

Now, the best way to attack our economic challenges and put hundreds of thousands of people back to work is through bold action in Congress. That’s why I’m going to keep demanding that Members of Congress to vote on common-sense, paid-for jobs proposals. And I hope you’ll send them a message to do the right thing for your future, and the future of our country.

But we can’t wait for Congress to do its job. So where they won’t act, I will. That’s why, I’ve announced a new policy that will help families whose home values have fallen refinance their mortgages and save thousands of dollars. We made it easier for veterans to get jobs putting their skills to work in hospitals and community health centers.

And at the University of Colorado at Denver, I announced steps we’re taking to make college more affordable and to make it even easier for students like you to get out of debt faster.

Michelle and I know what it feels like to leave school with a mountain of debt. We didn’t come from wealthy families. By the time we both graduated from law school, we had about $120,000 worth of debt between us. And even though we were lucky enough to land good jobs with steady incomes, it still took us almost 10 years to finally pay it all off. It wasn’t easy.

Living with that much debt forces you to make some tough choices. And when a big chunk of every paycheck goes towards student loans, it isn’t just painful for you – it’s painful to our economy and harmful to our recovery.

That’s why we’re making changes that will give about 1.6 million students the ability to cap their loan payments at 10 percent of their income starting next year. We’re also going to take steps to help you consolidate your loans so that instead of making multiple payments to multiple lenders every month, you only have to make one payment a month at a better interest rate. And we want to start giving students a simple fact sheet called “Know Before You Owe” so you can have all the information you need to make your own decision about paying for college. That’s something Michelle and I wish we had.

These changes will make a real difference for millions of Americans. We’ll help more young people figure out how to afford college. We’ll put more money in your pocket after you graduate. We’ll make it easier to buy a house or save for retirement. And we’ll give our economy a boost at a time when it desperately needs it.

That’s not just important for our country right now – it’s important for our future. Michelle and I are where we are today because our college education gave us a chance. Our parents and their generation worked and sacrificed to hand down the dream of opportunity to us.

Now it’s our turn. That dream of opportunity is what I want for my daughters, and for all of you. And even in these tough times, we are going to make that dream real once again.

In the weeks ahead, I’m going to keep doing everything in my power to make a difference for the American people – including young people like you. Because here in America, when we find a problem, we fix it. When we face a challenge, we meet it. We don’t wait. And I hope you’ll join me.