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Chico State

’Cat Tales: Saving Lives and the Planet


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By Quinn Western, social media intern

The Value of Being a Living Donor

Dr. Nandi Crosby, wasn’t nervous in the months leading up to surgery. It wasn’t until she lay in a cap and gown on a gurney next to her brother in the same attire that she started to feel the jitters. Their mother cried.NandiCrosby

The professor of sociology and multicultural and gender studies was undergoing surgery to give her brother a kidney.

“I’m making jokes and my brother’s saying thank you 50 million times,” Crosby said.

Her brother learned as an adult that he had a genetic kidney disease—eventually both his kidneys would fail.

After a successful transplant, Crosby’s brother traveled and lived a normal life for two years, until he got sick of pneumonia and had to have the kidney removed.

Crosby, now on the committee that selects the speakers for TEDx Chicoperformed a spoken-word TED Talk in November 2013 about being a live organ donor.

“Most days I don’t even think about missing a piece of my body the size of my fist any more than I think of hair and nails trimmed away,” Crosby said in the talk.

Her message was clear. There are thousands of people waiting for organs, like her brother, who now takes medication and is on dialysis to supplement the absence of any kidney.

Some die waiting.

And now her brother’s son has been diagnosed with the same disease at 15 years old. He will also likely require a transplant, Crosby said in her speech.

“The real tragedy here is not just that my brother cannot save his own son’s life because he has no kidneys to give him, but that so many other daughters and sons will suffer because there is too little inspiration being spread about the splendor of becoming a living donor.”

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Sustainability Conference Applicable for All Students

This Way to Sustainability is the largest student-run sustainability conference in North America. This year’s event is being headed by student coordinators Jordyn EllorinSheridan Ex, and Avalon Brown with the assistance of more than 100 student volunteers.

The conference, which is being held March 6–8, will include keynote speakers from places including Oregon State and North Carolina State.

“It’s a regional conference now, which is awesome,” Ellorin, a freshman animal science major, said.

The theme this year is agriculture, chosen in response to surveys of last year’s attendees. Topics will include drought, soil management, sustainable cosmetics, and many more—more than 150 speakers are scheduled. There will also be workshops, the Greenie Awards, and a local lunch at University Farm, where Secretary of Food and Agriculture Karen Ross will speak.

“It covers all of the global issues we are facing today,” Ellorin said.

More than 9,000 people have registered so far, 700 of them students, she said. Online registration ends on Friday. Attendees can also register in person, provided there is space available. There are already more than 1,000 people signed up for breakfast at the University Farm next Saturday.

Ellorin stressed how valuable it is for students to attend. It’s not just applicable to agriculture or environmental students, it’s applicable to everyone, she said.

“It’s important for students to be aware about the global issues we have and how they can participate and make it better. [Things are] changing no matter what, we want to change it for the better.”

Click here to learn more and register for This Way to Sustainability.