Latest news with #Cordes
USA Today
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Choose your own adventure: A D.C. museum's journey through U.S. history
Choose your own adventure: A D.C. museum's journey through U.S. history The National Archives Museum will unveil a new, 10,000-square-foot exhibit as the country prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary. Show Caption Hide Caption National Archives Museum overhauled 20 years after last update National Archives Foundation project director walks through the vision of the new museum renovation that is set to open to the public in October. WASHINGTON – Want to see declassified records of UFO sightings? What about George Washington's annoted copy of the Constitution, or footage capturing the Wright Brothers' first test flight? Visitors to the nation's capital will soon be able to peruse these artifacts, along with more than 2 million other items, in an interactive, choose-your-own adventure journey through American history. The National Archives Museum is preparing to unveil a new, 10,000-square-foot permanent exhibit this fall, dubbed 'The American Story,' designed to give museumgoers a peek at the the archive's vast trove of more than 13 billion records. With the help of artificial intelligence systems, visitors will be able to pick and choose the content they most want to see from different parts of U.S. history, from the country's founding to the moon landing, said Franck Cordes, the capital campaign project director at the National Archives Foundation. More: Can you read cursive? It's a superpower the National Archives is looking for. "We can't show everything, so we felt that 2 million was a good start,' Cordes told USA TODAY during a media preview of the galleries on June 4. Soon, the barren walls and blue-taped squares on the floor of the galleries will feature interactive display cases and media stations, allowing visitors to explore some of the country's most prized relics. A new type of glass on some document cases will act as a transparent television screen, Cordes said. As visitors approach, they'll see the document inside, but as soon as they're above it, a touchable, moveable animation will play. One room in the exhibit, called the 'Spirit of Innovation,' will be designed to look like the surface of the moon. Another, 'Your Archives in Action,' will give visitors a chance to simulate research and see how the archives collection aided in the making of movies and books, like "Apollo 11" and "Killers of the Flower Moon." Several others will ask guests to put themselves in the shoes of historical figures and navigate historical scenarios based on the records. At the start of the exhibit, visitors will be asked to scan a QR Code and choose three topics that most interest them, from food to sailing. As they walk through the gallery, AI systems will choose documents related to their interests and add them to their virtual folder. If, for instance, you were at an interactive station related to the Louisiana Purchase and you selected food as an interest, you'd be delivered documents having to do with food and the Louisiana Purchase, Cordes said. The goal of the new permanent gallery is to connect people to the old, yellowed documents that aren't always "exciting visually for people," Cordes said. The new museum design opens the door for visitors to "do a deep dive into records and start making those connecting points to other records and unraveling the stories that are there." 'These records are the evidence of who we are as a nation,' Cordes said. 'Everybody has an entry point to that." The exhibit will open Thursday, Oct. 23. Admission is free.
CBS News
24-04-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Pittsburgh institutions weigh Trump administration's DEI orders
The Trump administration has ordered public schools, universities and private employers to get rid of diversity, equity and inclusion programs or lose federal funding or regulatory help. Will Pittsburgh institutions keep DEI programs or comply with orders? Only four percent of Carnegie Mellon University's student body is African American. As a result, the university has partnered with a non-profit organization called The PhD Project, which helps recruit minority candidates for post-graduate study and helps them get jobs afterwards. The Trump administration has ordered CMU and 44 other universities to get rid of The PhD Project or lose federal funding. From day one, the president has been on a mission to root out all forms of DEI, saying they are a form of reverse racism. Trump says he wants advancement based solely on merit. "We abolished 60 years of prejudice and hatred with the signing of one order," Trump said during a rally. "All approved by the U.S. Supreme Court. We're allowed to do it because we are now in a metric-based world." In addition to CMU, the University of Pittsburgh is a major medical research university receiving $700 million annually from the National Institutes of Health. Just this week, the NIH said it will cut all funding to universities that engage in DEI. "It's a difficult decision for universities," attorney Sam Cordes said. "Lots of universities, clearly the two in this town, get a lot of federal money." Pitt did not reply to a request for comment. And while CMU has signed a letter opposing federal interference, it's still weighing the federal DEI order. Harvard has received national attention for saying it will keep DEI and protect student speech. Cordes says universities are on the right side of the law. "It's a First Amendment issue," Cordes said. "Can I speak in favor of a certain position, and that position is finding diversity, equity and inclusion principles in my universities?" Trump's administration has also sent letters to the Departments of Education in all 50 states, demanding they get rid of all "illegal DEI programs" in their K-12 public schools or lose Title 1 funding, which provides reading programs for low-income students. The Pennsylvania Department of Education has sent a letter back saying it is in compliance with federal law, but the matter will not likely end there. "Diversity, equity and inclusion can't just be eliminated," Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers President Bill Hileman said. "It's part of the culture of our school district." States like Pennsylvania say it's not clear if the administration is demanding changes the elimination of things like Black studies. On Thursday, a federal judge in New Hampshire temporarily blocked the order, saying the federal letter "does not even define what a DEI program is." Hileman says teachers won't comply in any case. "We're going to continue to teach the contemporary truth about our society and our country and our world as well as our history," Hileman said. But the Trump administration has vowed not to relent. It intends to root out DEI in all of its forms.
CBC
16-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
Retiring Steve Cordes looks back at 40 years of helping London's youth
Social Sharing After almost four decades, a London-based organization that helps young people will have new leadership. Steve Cordes will be retiring from Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU) in August after 35 years as executive director, and a total of 41 years of overall service to the organization. Under his direction, YOU launched a number of different initiatives including the recently-opened Joan's Place. Cordes sat down with London Morning host Andrew Brown to reflect on the impact he's made. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. AB: Take me back. Do you remember your first day and what it was like? SC: Vividly. I just graduated from Western, so I was looking for work and the economy wasn't great. I walked into what felt like a gritty 1970's TV show. The place was pretty haphazard. It was in a not-for-profit incubator in the Dundas and Colborne area. I remember seeing three young people sitting there. And I remember all three had very different struggles on the go. Somebody had some sort of addiction. Somebody else had just become homeless because of a mental health diagnosis. And the third person was just somebody looking for work. It's kind of indicative of what you might see now. I remember thinking, you know what, this is a really special place. It was the way the staff interacted with people. And I saw employment counsellors coming out, and somebody looking so relieved to see this person that looked like a lifeline. And I thought, I really love this place. AB: Did you know that you were stepping into the thing that you would be doing professionally for the rest of your career? SC: No, I had no idea. Nobody at YOU stayed longer than two years at that point, and the more I got into it, the more I loved it. I left the organization for a short while to work somewhere else and my heart felt heavy. It made me deeply appreciate how much workplace culture matters, because I worked for a great organization outside of YOU, but they didn't have the same culture. They didn't have the same drive to focus on the clients that they were supporting. I never wrapped my head around the work itself. So when the job came up at YOU for the CEO, I jumped at it and then thought, I'm not going through that thing again. I'll just stay. AB: The kids you met more than 40 years ago on that first day - one kid had an addiction and another was becoming homeless. How common were those stories back then? SC: The homelessness wasn't so common for sure. I think at that point we were always seeing a pretty significantly needy clientele. I remember the stats we used to collect that time. We don't collect anymore, but 25 per cent of our clients had no high school education. That's significant if your last earned credit was in Grade 8, right? So literacy levels would have been very limited. But, there was a drive to get something and there was a sense of hope that if I work hard, if I get the right opportunity, I can land a job and build a career and build a future and so on. The difference now is that drive is still there, but that sense of hope is not there so much. AB: What happened to that sense of hope? SC: I think back then, if you're on public assistance, you had enough income support from what was welfare at the time, now Ontario Works, that you could pay rent and there was housing stock available. There were still rent-geared-to-income opportunities. There was co-op, there were affordable housing projects, but there was also affordable housing stock. I'd say not having housing stock available just slams people in terms of their hope. And I think it leads to mental health issues, much of the addictions issues that we see. So you start having to build that sense of hope. And I'd say that the organization for the past 35 years, 40 years, has dug deep into not expanding the clientele that we serve, but deeper into how can we support them in those other ways to get them in the position so that they are ready for employment, they are ready to go back to school and so on. Steve Cordes reflects on 4 decades with Youth Opportunities Unlimited 4 hours ago Duration 7:45 After 35 years at the helm of Youth Opportunities Unlimited, Steve Cordes will be retiring in August. Cordes joined London Morning host Andrew Brown to reflect on the work that's been done to help youth in London and what needs to continue. AB: Have you seen the young people change over the years? SC: I'd say yes. The biggest change is there's so many young people now who don't see themselves as a member of the community. So it's almost like a counterculture kind of thing, right? And that really wasn't evident, you know, 35, 40 years ago for sure. AB: So as you walk away, Steve, how are you feeling about the state of things in London and, and the situation for young people here? SC: I feel very good about the organization. It's in a great spot. With Joan's Place and the opportunities that are there with the hub that we've got at London Health Sciences Centre, the partnerships with other not-for-profits with healthcare and so on, there's a really robust and a really strong service model there. However, I say a concern for me is that beyond that there's a lot of unmet needs. There's not enough leadership in our community to really push for change. I think we need to be looking at things differently. I gotta brag about YOU, I've been doing it for 40 years and it's heartfelt, but it shouldn't be the exception that you walk into a place and you just say, 'OK, something's different about the culture here'. People that are walking in, it's low barrier, they have access, they're supported right through to the end of their levels of need. We have too many organizations, too many systems that are turning people away. We have an Ontario Works system that gives people $400 a month for their housing allowance knowing that that will get them absolutely nothing. AB: Do you think we'll get there, Steve?
CBC
16-04-2025
- General
- CBC
Steve Cordes reflects on 4 decades with Youth Opportunities Unlimited
After 35 years at the helm of Youth Opportunities Unlimited, Steve Cordes will be retiring in August. Cordes joined London Morning host Andrew Brown to reflect on the work that's been done to help youth in London and what needs to continue.
