February 16, 2016

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

Penn alum competes on Survivor

2014 College grad Cydney Gillon was a body builder, athlete at Penn RAY POMPONIO Contributing Reporter

Penn graduates are fit to shine in any arena, and reality TV is no exception. 2014 College graduate Cydney Gillon will be a contestant on the upcoming season of Survivor which premieres tomorrow. The Georgia native is no stranger to competition, as she has been a professional bodybuilder for over seven years. Those who knew Gillon at Penn will be tuning in on tomorrow night to cheer her on. “She’s a hard worker and a great person. I just want her to win,” Gillon’s close friend and 2014 College graduate Gabrielle Piper said. Eighteen contestants are competing for a $1 million prize. If Gillon is victorious, she will use the money to pay off her student debt and help her family with bills, according to her bio on the Survivor website. While at Penn, Gillon balanced a bodybuilding career with varsity track and field. Her fellow sprinters and hurdlers described her as having the strongest personality on the team with a quirky sense of humor. Yet Gillon’s commitment to fitness is no joke. Throughout her school years she often trained three times a day outside of her SEE SURVIVOR PAGE 2

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GOLD Penn Museum exhibit showcases life of King Midas AMINATA SY Staff Reporter

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has undertaken a project to dispel a myth. Sprawling through the right side of the museum for the next 10 months, visitors will be able to step back in time and explore the life and mystery of mythical ruler King Midas. With the world premiere exhibit opening of “The Golden Age of King Midas” on Feb. 13, the Penn Museum takes visitors on a journey to almost 3,000 years ago. In famous mythical stories, King Midas is known for his “golden touch” — the power to transform things into gold. But in history, King Midas was the powerful ruler of the kingdom of Phrygia, which now lies in modern Turkey.

Penn Museum has been excavating at the Phrygian capital of Gordion for roughly 65 years. However, it was in 2012 that the museum began its negotiations with Turkey to decide what stories it will highlight in its exhibition as well as preparing its space in the museum. A total of 124 objects were brought in from overseas, all coming from Turkey except for one. All together, the exhibit showcases over 220 objects. Kate Quinn, Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs at the Penn Museum, said that part of the challenge of putting the exhibit together was figuring out how to tell the stories of the ancient city of Gordion in a way that is accessible to visitors. Closely working with the exhibit’s curator Brian Rose, the museum’s staff talked to some visitors to find out how much they knew about Phrygia. Then they used a visitor’s survey analysis as a starting point for their storytelling of the history of ancient Turkey.

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the excavation project, Gursan-Salzmann has worked on the ground in Gordion for 20 years. "[The exhibit] really has introduced people to objects that have left Turkey for the first time,” Gursan-Salzmann said. Penn Museum will display the artifacts for 10 months and then return them to the seven different Turkish museums from which they were borrowed. Some items discovered in the tomb of King Midas’s father Gordios include bronze bowls of various sizes. Because their rarity draws visitors’ attention, these bowls command presence in the exhibit. The royal family as well as the affluent enjoyed feasts with foods such barbecue lamb and lentil stew, although most Phrygians ate bread. At its Pepper Mill Cafe, the museum is serving Turkish-inspired meals, such as chickpea fritters with curry and herbs. Also being served is a SEE MIDAS PAGE 6

‘Uber for tutors’ app, QuickHelp, connects undergrads to tutors

Enforced upon me, like many others, is the pressure to assimilate while still retaining a sense of identity.”

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“We knew that people recognize Midas,” the exbibit’s Interpretive Planning Manager Jessica Bicknell explained. “So part of the goal was to introduce this culture through something that people recognize.” Rose and his team flew to Turkey to choose from hundreds of artifacts for the exhibition. With these objects, Penn’s archeologists and anthropologists started the process of reconstructing the narrative of ancient Turkey from the perspective of the power, wealth and influence of the Phrygian kingdom of Midas. “This is the only exhibit in North America, I think, that gives you the history of ancient Turkey,” Rose said. “It is also the first one to unravel the secrets of King Midas: who he was, what he did and the kind of empire that he ruled.” Deputy Director of the Gordion Project Ayse Gursan-Salzmann, a Turkish native who received her Ph.D. in anthropology from Penn in 1992, also pointed to the exclusivity of the exhibition. As a leader in

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QuickHelp is a new app that links college students looking for academic help with graduate students. It was recently introduced at Penn.

It might now be quicker for you to find a tutor than to look up your question on Google. Quickhelp is an on-demand tutoring service that connects college students looking for help with

graduate students looking for an extra source of income — they charge, on average, $23 per hour. The application has been set up at many universities across the United States to provide students with quick, easy and cheap tutoring services. Recently, it was introduced at Penn. Students who join Quickhelp register with their schools when SEE TUTORS PAGE 2

Candidate for U.S. Senate Katie McGinty speaks at Penn She would be the first female senator from PA ERNEST MONAHAN Contributing Reporter

As election season sweeps across Penn’s campus, United States Senate candidate Katie McGinty reminded students that who they vote for in the

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presidential race isn’t the only decision they’ll make in November. On Monday, Penn Democrats, Penn for Hillary and the Student Sustainability Association at Penn welcomed McGinty to discuss the upcoming election. A win would guarantee Katie McGinty a spot in the history books as the first female Senator from Pennsylvania.

However, a seat in the senate wouldn’t be McGinty’s first time in office. In the 1990s, she became the first woman to run the White House Council on Environmental Quality under President Bill Clinton. McGinty has also served as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection under Gov. Ed Rendell, a position she

leveraged to advocate for clean and renewable energy. McGinty is now seeking a seat in the United States Senate after only a few months as Gov. Tom Wolf’s Chief of Staff. She said she believes her experience makes her uniquely qualified for office. SEE McGINTY PAGE 3

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