Wednesday, November 13, 2013 VOLUME 32 / NUMBER 12 www.uicnews.uic.edu facebook.com/uicnews twitter.com/uicnews NEWS UIC youtube.com/uicmedia For the community of the University of Illinois at Chicago Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin Photo: Lance Long Rachel Harsley, Marco Maggioni and Victor Mateevitsi, all UIC graduate students in computer science, are among this year’s “Fifty for the Future,” chosen by the Illinois Technology Foundation for their innovative use of technology. Harsley is creating learning apps; Maggioni’s research focuses on quick solutions to complex problems; Mateevitsi developed a suit that helps users sense their surroundings. Read more on page 6. Technology’s faces of the future INSIDE: Profile / Quotable 2 | Campus News 4 | Calendar 8 | Student Voice 9 | Police / People 10 | Sports 12 Sheela Raja combines psychology Pay your dues, follow your From briefs to court, Student Soccer on top, headed to Horizon with dentistry dreams, says actor Kal Penn Legal Services can help tournament More on page 2 More on page 3 More on page 5 More on page 12 2 UIC NEWS I www.uicnews.uic.edu I NOVEMBER 13, 2013 profile Send profile ideas to Gary Wisby, [email protected] Sheela Raja blends psychology, dentistry to help patients By Gary Wisby When the news media are doing a story on stress or anxiety, they seek out psy- chologist and College of Dentistry professor Sheela Raja. It keeps her busy. In a recent two-month span, Raja: • gave an invited talk for Schweitzer Foundation Health- care fellows on the importance of trauma-informed care in a health setting • spoke with a freelance reporter from England who was working on an in-depth piece on post-traumatic stress dis- order — in particular, the role of multiple deployments on mental health and suicide • was interviewed by a reporter for a local parenting maga- zine on the role of mindfulness, exercise and posture in stress management • did segments for CBS on back-to-school anxiety, one providing tips for parents on the weekend before school started — “We can’t expect our kids to focus when they have to walk through a war zone to get to school” — and one ad- dressing students’ fears that they won’t have friends, won’t fit in or won’t be able to keep up with homework • appeared on the CBS Chicago evening news advising how to help kids cope with school closings and talking about the Chicago Public Schools “safe passage” program • talked on CNN about the Ariel Castro rape/kidnapping case and the psychological impact on his victims • spoke on CBS Chicago about how daylight saving time can affect our moods and ways to stay healthy with the shorter Photo: Joshua Clark daylight hours. Sheela Raja is an assistant professor of pediatric dentistry and clinical psychologist. “When I got into this position, I realized that most health Raja is an assistant professor of pediatric dentistry, which care providers don’t receive much training on how to successfully engage traumatized patients,” she says. wouldn’t seem to have much to do with anxiety or PTSD. “I actually teach broadly in the dental school as a whole,” she explained. getting evidence-based psychology out there, and I know a and Ph.D. at UIC. She did post-doc work at the National “I teach students how to take a good health history, how lot of people get their information through media and blog Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Boston. to work with anxious or depressed patients, how to deal with posts. And I enjoy doing it.” She wrote a book, Overcoming Trauma and PTSD, pub- acute and chronic pain (from a behavioral standpoint) and She has a small private practice that focuses on stress lished last December. how to talk with patients about bad news or adverse events. management. “It’s for the public and therapists who want to use it in “When I got into this position, I realized that most health As for her own stress, Raja said, “I have a great support conjunction with their clients,” she said. care providers don’t receive much training on how to success- system — a very supportive family and several very close Raja lives in Oak Park with her husband, Nur, a retire- fully engage traumatized patients. friends. ment planner, and their two daughters, ages 10 and 7. “There is lots of evidence that traumatized patients — sur- “I’m working on setting limits on my work time. That’s “I really think I have an amazing job here at UIC,” she vivors of domestic violence, sexual abuse, combat — tend to a challenge to all of us, as access to iPhones, iPads and all of said. use medical care a lot, but they underutilize preventive care.” our technology keeps us connected to work 24/7. It’s impor- “Being a clinical psychologist and teaching health psy- Raja blogs every few months for Huffington Post on such tant to set boundaries.” chology opens up so many amazing opportunities — to be diverse topics as the Newtown school shootings, helicopter She added, “Being involved with my children is a great involved in research, teaching and service. parents, the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse case and the ques- way to manage stress. Children are always in the moment.” “It’s also great to be able to take my educational efforts tion, “Can women have it all?” Raja, who grew up in Villa Park, earned her bachelor’s to a broader audience through media and print.” “I post whenever I have time,” she said. “I’m committed to degree at the Urbana-Champaign campus and her master’s [email protected] quotable “I realized at a very early age how important “We [undocumented youth] started realizing that “There are no quick fixes. There are no easy ways education is and I am proud to have a college degree.” the more public we were about our status, the more to do these things. But with patience, perseverance militant our actions, the more we could put pressure and good people working on a daily basis and on Curtis Granderson, UIC graduate and New York Yankee on people.” the same page … we were able to have a season centerfielder who donated funds for a new baseball stadium like last year.” on campus, Nov. 8 Parade.com Lulú Martinez, UIC student and immigration reform activist, named a 2013 Chicagoan of the Year, December Howard Moore, head men’s basketball coach, on Chicago magazine prospects for this year’s season, Nov. 7 Chicago Tribune NOVEMBER 13, 2013 I UIC NEWS I www.uicnews.uic.edu 3 Pay your dues and follow your dreams, actor tells students sentations of diversity in the with five people, got fat and got robbed at media,” he said. gunpoint. “There are not a lot of “Then I went back to LA.” characters who necessarily Actually, during his three-or-so years at look like me. It gave me a lot the White House, he focused on outreach more motivation.” to youth, the arts community and the Asian His first major movie American and Pacific Islander community. role was in “National Lam- “I was working in a very official capac- poon’s Van Wilder,” where ity,” Penn said, recalling a phone conference he played a character named where, for the first time, “I made a decision Taj Mahal — which, Penn on behalf of the president of the United said, he initially found so States.” offensive he had to be talked Which led to another piece of advice: “If into auditioning. you’re meeting your boss, dress appropri- But that role led to “Har- ately and shave,” Penn said. old and Kumar,” which led Apparently, like many other White to the critically acclaimed House staffers, Penn adopted a casual ap- “The Namesake,” directed by pearance for work. No one seemed to care; Mira Nair and based on the when he passed Obama in the hallway, the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri. president just nodded hello. “The director’s 13-year- Then Penn met with the president for a old son was a big ‘Harold personal briefing. and Kumar’ fan,” Penn said. “He looked at me and said, ‘Hey, look This illustrated his first who decided to shave today,’” Penn recalled, Photo: Joshua Clark piece of advice: sometimes still embarrassed. Actor and former White House adviser Kal Penn speaks to students Friday during the Student Activities Board-sponsored Fall you have to work at some- Three little-known facts Penn also men- Lecture at the UIC Forum. “Try to enjoy doing the things you don’t necessarily want to do,” he says. thing “less than ideal” to get tioned: to something better. • He’s never read any Harry Potter books. By Sonya Booth that Common wasn’t picked. “Try to enjoy doing the things you don’t • His biggest inspiration is his grandpar- “I was asked to talk about civic engagement necessarily want to do,” he said. ents, who marched with Mahatma Gandhi. It was not Kumar Patel, stoner hero of the and politics in general, but that’s a little heavy Penn became a supporter and volunteer • He loves playing Kumar, who is “way R-rated scatalogical “Harold and Kumar” for Friday night,” Penn said, then went on to early in Barack Obama’s first presidential cooler than I will ever be. I wouldn’t mind comedies, who appeared before a student talk about those topics anyway, interspersed campaign, returning as co-chair of Obama’s doing Harold and Kumar when we’re 60.” audience at the UIC Forum Friday evening.