good neighbor Rutgers helps off-campus students with new resources see OPINIONS, page 6
Autism Scientists address under-diagnosis of females with autism using new tools
Football Rutgers loses winnable game in Big Ten
see Science, page 8
opener against Nebraska
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MondAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2017
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‘Into the Light’ run collects $73K for suicide prevention foundation Brielle Diskin Staff Writer
Last Saturday evening marked the first “Into the Light” 5-kilometer run on Cook campus. According to the event page on Facebook, the 5-kilometer marathon ran from 5 to 8:30 p.m. and the money raised will be donated to the American Suicide Prevention Foundation (ASPF). Sophia Mazzini, one of the event organizers, said originally the goal was to raise $5,000. The event ended up raising upward of $73,000 and was attended by more than 1,000 members of the Rutgers community. “When I was a senior in high school, at the end of the year when I was getting ready to take all my exams, my dad passed away from suicide,” the Rutgers Business School sophomore said. Sophia Mazzini said that it was very hard for her family, but that she and her sister did not want to sit around and do nothing. “Somebody gave us the idea to do a 5k because our dad loved to work out. He went on runs every day at 4 a.m. ...” she said. Artemis Mazzini, a School of Arts and Sciences senior, said that this year they tried to go through the City of New Brunswick to organize the event by speaking to
Nearly 1,000 members of the Rutgers community attended Saturday’s first “Into the Light” 5-kilometer. The event took place on Cook campus and raised $73,000 in donations for suicide prevention. NICOLE LAGOS
bureau and county officials, but there were many unforeseen steps to be taken. “So we turned to Rutgers because we are both Rutgers students and we are passionate about the campus and we know a lot of
students on campus struggle with mental illness,” she said. Artemis Mazzini said that she always knew she wanted to pursue something involving communication and planning, which is what she is focusing on at Rutgers, and
that she found a way to apply it to this event. “Into the Light” is what is called a third party event and is connected with ASPF, but Sophia Mazzini said it is still their own event so they have a bit more freedom to
make their own decisions about the event, like incorporating live music or speakers. ASPF tried to do a run at Rutgers in the past but it was never done. Sophia Mazzini said that she and her sister were able to gain more community interest for their event due to their personal connection to mental illness, as well as their personal connection to the community itself. “The community is so great because ever yone is so connected. No matter how different you are there are so many people and ever yone comes from ever ywhere,” Sophia Mazzini said. “Also, we are close enough to home where people from home can support us and come to our event and be really involved.” Most of the people who attended the run were members of the greek life community, she said. The year that their father, Phil Mazzini, passed away, Artemis Mazzini was a new member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority. Her sisters gave her support and when planning began, they were a big help, Sophia Mazzini said. “Last year they helped us do a bagel breakfast at their house during finals week to raise money. Now See run on Page 4
True Islam Campaign comes to College Avenue Christina Gaudino Staff Writer
On Saturday, the Central Jersey chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community hosted its first “Coffee, Cake, and True Islam” event for Rutgers students at the Panera Bread on the College Avenue campus. The event is part of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s national True Islam campaign, which hosts “Coffee, Cake, and True Islam” events across the country. This event at Rutgers was hosted by Hena Tahir, a graduate student at Rutgers Newark, and Homaira Khandakar, the interfaith communication coordinator for the Central Jersey chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. “We started having these ‘Coffee, Cake, and True Islam’ meetings in different areas to raise awareness and promote the different points of Islam, and let people know what we’re all about,” Tahir said. In New Jersey, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has three chapters — central, south and north, with two representatives who run meetups from each chapter.
As an undergraduate student at the College of New Jersey (TCNJ), Tahir regularly hosted meetups with students, where they learned about each other’s religions. These meetups, as well as the ones hosted at Rutgers, are meant for female students, Khandakar said. The men of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community have hosted their own outreach events for several years. “We believe the ladies connect on a different level,” Khandakar said. “I totally believe that if anybody can bring peace in the world, it’s us. Our way of diplomacy is very different from the way men do politics or diplomacy because we actually do it from our heart.” The meetup is meant to be an informal, personal opportunity for students to come have a free cup of coffee or snack, interact with women of Islamic faith, become educated on their beliefs, ask questions and begin friendships, Khandakar said. “There’s so much going around about the beliefs of Islam, and we want to say, ‘this is not what we’re See campaign on Page 5
“Coffee, Cake and True Islam,” an event intended to teach young women about the nature of Islamic culture, was held at the newly opened Panera Bread on College Avenue on Saturday. The informal meetup was the first of many to take place at Rutgers. JEFFREY GOMEZ / ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR
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