I N D I A N A D A I LY S T U D E N T | M O N D AY, J U LY 1 3 , 2 0 1 5 | I D S N E W S . C O M
IDS ‘If you can move, you can dance’ For almost 40 years, Windfall Dancers Inc. has taught the art of dance to persons young and old across Bloomington. Jordin Perkins jordperk@indiana.edu
On the wall in their dance studio, a 38-yearold poster shows the original members of Windfall Dancers grinning at the camera after their first concert. Though they didn’t belong to any dance company and did not own a studio, they, along with a few other dancers, came together and performed for the first time in Bloomington. Debbie Knapp, Liz Monnier, Cindy Brian and Jackie Pullano, who are four of the original dancers, decided it would be the first of many performances. One year later, Windfall Dancers, under the direction of Knapp, became incorporated as a nonprofit dance organization. Their mission was to cultivate a thriving dance community in Bloomington, according to their website. SEE WINDFALL , PAGE 7
JORDIN PERKINS | IDS
Brynn Parkinson, left, and Khrissy Batts, right, strike a pose in front of the class during the hip-hop dance class at Windfall Dancers Inc. The class teaches basic movements and gives dancers the opportunity to change these movements to fit their own style.
Former IU swimmer wins gold medal From IDS reports
In the moments after victory, former IU swimmer Lindsay Vrooman did not visibly celebrate. She did not show much emotion at all. The former All-American grabbed the ledge to catch her breath with nothing more than a partial smile on her face after winning the gold medal in the 800-meter freestyle at the World University games in Gwangju, South Korea. Despite hovering around third
place for the first two minutes, Vrooman took the lead at the 200-meter mark and never gave it back to finish with a time of 8:26.67. She defeated Italy’s Martina Caramignoli by less than two seconds. Vrooman’s time puts her in the top-10 in the world this year for the 800-meter. The gold medal in the 800 was not all she accomplished, though. Vrooman also won silver medals in the 400-meter freestyle with a time of 4:07.28 and the 1,500-me-
ter freestyle with 16:13.85. A seven-time Big Ten champion for IU, Vrooman’s three medal-winning times were all personal bests for her. Vrooman was not the lone medalist for current or former IU swimmers. Freshman Lilly King won two medals herself, one of which was a silver medal in the 100-meter breaststroke. The other came as a part of the U.S. 400-meter medley relay team that earned a bronze medal. She swam the breaststroke leg of the relay. King
also placed eighth in the 50-meter freestyle. IU Coach Ray Looze was the head coach for the U.S. swimming team. Also, junior Anze Tavcar swam for Slovenia and recent graduate Justine Reiss competed for France. The U.S. brought home 33 total medals at the World University Games, 15 of which were gold. This breaks the previous U.S. best of 27 total medals set in 2007. Brody Miller
Google sponsors School of Education research By Lindsay Moore liramoor@indiana.edu | @_lindsaymoore
Local Muslims come together for Ramadan By Annie Garau agarau@indiana.edu | @agarau6
The young women around the table were as different as can be. Their families came from Somalia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Chad and the Caribbean. They wore different styles of clothing and spoke different languages. Some of them were loud and giggly, some happily kept to themselves. When the topic of conversation turned to Zayn Malik, the former member of One Direction, several girls gushed over the singer while others said they just didn’t understand what all the hype was about. The one thing the girls did have in common, the thing bringing them together around the dinner table on a warm summer night, was their faith. They were all Muslims celebrating Ramadan. In Islam, Ramadan is the holy month during which the Muslim holy book, the Quran, was revealed to the prophet Muhammad. To commemorate this, Muslims around the world abstain from eating and drinking during the daylight hours. “The core activity in Ramadan is fasting,” said Abdul Karim Baram, the chair of the religious outreach committee at the Islamic Center of Bloomington. “There are also other activities besides fasting. Some of it’s educational, some of it’s social.” The educational aspects of the holy month, which began June 17 this year, include additional readings of the Quran and praying more than the regular five times a day. “During Ramadan you have a bigger sense of community, and
people encourage each other to read more and pray more,” Aisha Masri, a 20-year-old member of the mosque and recent IU graduate, said. “It’s like when you’re going to the gym by yourself and it sucks versus when you have a coach to push you.” Ramadan is also a time to be charitable. Muslims are encouraged to give to a cause they care about. A group of young women from ICOB are doing 10 good deeds for each of the 10 final days of Ramadan. Kalsouma Idriss, another young member of the congregation, said fasting helps put their charity into perspective. “If you go to the store during Ramadan, you want to eat every single thing you see,” she said. “But at the end of the night, you take seven or eight bites and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so full.’ That little amount of food fills you up, so when I’m able to give it to someone else who couldn’t eat all day, I imagine it will fill them up to.” The celebratory activities begin as soon as the sun sets each evening. More than 100 Muslims gather at the ICOB and break their daylong fast by eating dates and drinking water. After this tiny bit of sustenance, they pray some more. Then, around 9:30, they fill their plates with delicious food from around the world. “In most of the Muslim world, the congregations don’t assemble to eat so everybody eats at home,” Baram said. “Because of the low number of Muslims in this community here, everyone feels like they are one family, and they do assemble for eating meals together.” Baram explained diversity is
SCOTT TENEFRANCIA | IDS
Hasan Ahmad serves food to other men after nightfall while celebrating Ramadan on Friday at the Islamic Center of Bloomington. Dozens of men and women arrive at the ICOB every night to break their daylong fast.
a key principle of Islam. Muslims believe all of humanity was created from one family and they should embrace and help each other. At the ICOB alone, 50 different nationalities are represented. “When you have people from so many different countries lined up shoulder to shoulder praying, it kind of washes away the arrogance and racism and ethnocentrism that is so present in the world today,” said Hermayat Shahrani, a member of the congregation who is originally from Afghanistan. “Fasting together during Ramadan helps to further strengthen that community.” Though the Quran does teach the importance of diversity, the type of acceptance found at ICOB cannot always be seen in all Muslim communities. One young woman remembered the divisions that were created within the Islamic community in the Indiana city where she
used to live. The Africans had their own mosque and the Pakistanis had theirs. More and more divisions were created until there were four separate mosques in the city. At the ICOB, they don’t differentiate between Sunni or Shia Muslims. Everyone is simply Muslim. This union is necessary, the girls explained as they finished their meal and prepared for the last prayer of the evening, for a group of people who are so wide ly misrepresented in America. “Being a part of a religion that is so misunderstood makes you so much more open minded,” Fatima Yusuf Ahmed, a 14-yearold member, said. “People outside the mosque don’t really get it. They don’t understand why we’re being religious when it’s so much easier to not be and just do whatever you want. They don’t understand that it feels so much better to have faith.”
Now that Lincoln Logs and tinker toys are a thing of the past, researchers are looking into what sparks the interest of a new generation of STEM leaders. Two School of Education researchers have received a $150,000 sponsorship from Google for their ongoing research on what triggers early interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, according to an IU press release. Associate professor of science education Adam Maltese and associate professor of learning sciences Kylie Peppler will be building on their previous research on what makes kids interested in STEM and what factors lead them to continue in the field. Maltese and Peppler’s initial research involved interviewing three different survey groups: adults working in STEM professions, a national representation of adults and student participants in the Google Science Fair. After interviewing the STEM adult group, they found that STEM interest was introduced at a young age. “I still think that everyday there are people born who have this interest and have this desire to do that [tinkering] with things,” Maltese said. “So our question is, what is that thing they’re doing now?” With the technological advances of household items like toothbrushes, razors and alarm clocks, the opportunity to rebuild through trial and error is limited. Research on what triggers STEM interest is motivated by the Maker Movement, which promotes a DIY style to technology. This was the inspiration for the White House’s Educate to Innovate initiative in 2009. The initiative promotes STEM interest early on, especially in underrepresented groups like women and minorities. The White House SEE GOOGLE, PAGE 7