Maya Rawal

There’s a standard saying about college — out of studying, socializing and sleeping, you choose two. In reality, our responsibilities are much more nuanced and we often neglect to completely fulfill certain aspects of our lives.

While none of us really need to learn how to build a fire or hut anymore, mirror neurons are still important in the modern world. As college students in an environment that will shape our lifelong opinions and beliefs, we should use these neurons to expand our knowledge of other people, times and places.

We have a responsibility to take control of our futures, and that means voting for what we believe in. To vote, or not to vote, that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to vote with ignorance or not to vote at all. This isn’t quite the dilemma that Hamlet had in mind, but as of this past Tuesday, it seems slightly more relevant.

“What’s your name?” “Where are you from?” These two questions are nearly ubiquitous when we meet a new person.

This fuels a constant, underlying thread of competition in our interactions. If a peer says he has two midterms this week and got four hours of sleep last night, another will counter in a show of supposed empathy that she has two papers due tomorrow, pulled an all-nighter last night and is in the midst of Hell Week for an upcoming show.

We have the rest of our lives to focus on our chosen field of work. Take advantage of Penn’s opportunities now.

I found myself relying on my friends majoring in international relations and political science — and various friends’ Facebook statuses — to learn about major world news. I was unaware of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 and the unfolding events of the Israel-Palestine conflict for hours or sometimes days after the fact.

Internet trends pop up all the time. There is an important line to draw between those that stop short of catalyzing a larger, more impactful movement — like changing one’s profile picture — and those that do.

The Daily Pennsylvanian talked to the founders of Osmosis and ProfessorWord, two Philadelphia-based winners of a recent GSE competition, about their companies’ origins and future goals.

Philadelphia-based education innovations Osmosis and ProfessorWord both won awards at the 2014 Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition on May 14.