As business majors graduate in swarms, companies begin to question the diversity of the degree. | Chelsea Massey, staff photographer

During the 2008-2009 school year, business majors dominated the American academic community with the largest number of degrees granted to undergraduate students. However, quantity does not always guarantee quality.

Business degrees, often considered vocational in the 1800s, represent more than 20 percent of U.S. undergraduate degrees, nearly doubling the next most common majors, history and social science.

The whopping 348,000 bachelor’s degrees awarded to business graduates during the 2008-2009 school year promise an average starting salary of $52,972. However, according to The Wall Street Journal, faculty members, school administrators and corporate recruiters are questioning the validity and value of the business degree.

One ongoing concern is that business degrees lack variety in courses throughout the major, focusing only on the technical side of business and taking for granted the critical thinking and problem-solving skills degrees such as communications and psychology offer students, some companies may prefer these skills when looking for a more diverse selection of talents.

However, according to international business junior Ericka Brunner, studying business is not only about learning how to survive in the business world: It is also about networking and building relationships with peers who can potentially become future business partners.

“But networking is not the key role with my major,” Brunner said. “I would say it helps you get going once you graduate, but my business would never survive if I wasn’t learning how to study clients, accounting and finance.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, companies often look for an assortment of candidates with broader academic backgrounds, who can provide innovative ideas from multiple disciplines rather than solely focusing on the nuts and bolts of finance and accounting.

Though recruiters have lately been seeking well-rounded candidates to ensure diverse pools in the workforce, the question arises of whether or not schools are doing enough to prepare graduates for employment.

Many schools across the country now require business students to take non-business-related courses, while some schools are even discussing the possibility of integrating liberal arts courses into the business curriculum to eliminate a lack of variety in their programs.

That being said, a study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers has shown students with business degrees have a 45 percent chance of securing a job offer after graduation.

In addition to offering jobs during tough economic times, many recruiters are also offering thriving careers once these jobs are secured. This is quite contrary to liberal arts majors, of whom less than 30 percent will be able to obtain jobs after graduation.

According to tourism-turned-business major Jennifer Damian, because the SDSU business program is open and less strict with its curriculum, she has a broader area to choose from when looking for jobs after graduation. This will hopefully give her the opportunity to choose from a variety of companies.

“Not having a specific niche allows you to spread your wings into the business world,” Damian said. “I have no limitations as to where I want to take my business.”

North Park’s Food Currency Trade nurtures future growers. | Alyssa Zickenberg, staff writer

On a sunny Thursday afternoon, the Art Produce Garden in North Park is full of vibrant colors, laughing children and smiling community members enjoying the monthly Food Currency Trade.

The Food Currency Trade was created about a year ago to connect like-minded individuals who want to share and trade homegrown fruits and vegetables with others in the community. It has become a social network, bringing neighbors together for an open system of bartering and trading fruits and vegetables.

Each month, local gardens host the Food Currency Trade where locals mingle and trade produce with one another. Food is the currency in this market. No store-bought food or money is used. The idea is to bring carrots and trade them for tomatoes or to exchange extra eggs for honey and strawberries. The trade is open to everyone and aims to provide people in the community with access to local, fresh and organic produce.

“The benefit of doing this is you could buy things from the store or from the farmers market, but it is expensive,” trade creator Daniel Geb said. “If you’re trading homegrown food, you’re trading very organic food and it’s not expensive.”

The Art Produce Garden hosts the trade the third Thursday of every month. The quaint garden is located on University Avenue, nestled among buildings and the busy city bustle. New trade attendees quickly realize the event is more than just grabbing produce. In the garden, some traders plant new seeds while children excitedly learn how to harvest. The Food Currency Trade is about fostering culture and education within the community.

“It’s really great to see these children getting so excited about harvesting things like a carrot,” San Diego State student and garden regular Erica Cunningham said.

In addition to trading, this event offers attendees a platform to learn and exchange ideas. Children and newcomers can learn about the value of healthy food and the process of cultivation in a more hands-on way. Cunningham recalls one of her best memories was teaching children how to make hummus from beets just pulled from a garden bed at one of the trades.

“The first day I put my hands in the soil it was just like … ahh. It’s been just over a year now and it’s been life changing,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham has been visiting the Art Produce Garden for about a year and participates in the food trade with what she plants there. She and other members at the food trade encourage others to get involved and experience the benefits of homegrown produce.

The Fairmount Aqua Farm, the Vera House Community Garden and the Mission Hills Nursery also host the Food Currency Trade once a month for groups in the area. Upcoming events and more information can be found on the organization’s website at foodcurrencytrade.com.

Katie Foster, staff photographer

Chocolate, cookies and other delicious treats can be bought at any grocery or convenience store. However, savoring treats that are truly unique requires more of an expert touch.

Luckily, sugar fiends can choose from a variety of custom-made treat manufacturers to suit their sweet fancies, many of which can be delivered straight to their front doors.

For those tired of eating plain chocolate, Chocomize offers chocoholics the option of creating bars to satisfy their taste buds.

The company’s slogan, “Chocolate exactly the way you want it. No matter how unusual,” exemplifies its aim to create new and exciting chocolate combinations. It was, after all, the first company in the U.S. to produce custom chocolate bars.

Chocomize only uses premium Belgian chocolate. However, customers can choose which chocolate base (dark, milk or white) they would like to start with. They can also choose from more than 100 additional ingredients and toppings. Customers have the option of adding up to five ingredients to each bar, including different types of nuts, seeds, fruits, herbs, spices, candy and even potato chips or coffee beans.

The cost of a chocolate bar starts at $4.25, increasing in accordance to how many bars are purchased and the types of ingredients chosen.

Chocomize was founded in 2009 by three Columbia University entrepreneurs. They geared the company toward social consciousness, donating a portion of proceeds to charity. Now, every time a customer buys a chocolate bar, they are given the opportunity to select their treats along with a charity they’d like to see their purchase benefit.

Cookie lovers, the search is complete. Thanks to The Cravory, formerly known as 410 Degrees, cookie heaven does exist. With more than 950 creations available, this San Diego company aims to give consumers, “the ultimate cookie experience with a perfectly baked surface and a soft cookie that melts in your mouth.”

Much like Chocomize, The Cravory was founded by three young entrepreneurs who began their business because they were, simply put, “passionate about food and absolutely addicted to cookies.”

The Cravory’s cookies are anything but ordinary, turning the already-appreciated flavors of popular food and drinks into mouthwatering cookies.

The Cravory’s signature cookies include red velvet, lemon cherry basil and pancakes and bacon, costing $24 per dozen.

Customers can also create their own cookies by choosing from more than 60 mix-ins and handmade dough options. Custom cookie batches cost $27 per dozen with a minimum order of two dozen cookies.

Sweet lovers craving something cool may want to taste eCremery Ice cream & Gelato.

In 2004, Becky App and Abby Jordan founded eCremery in Omaha, Neb: Three years later, they launched a website, ecremey.com, to give customers the option of customizing and creating their own ice cream and gelato.

According to eCremerie’s website, App and Jordan founded the company “out of a pure love for ice cream and the power of a personalized gift.”

Once a base is chosen, eCremerie’s ice cream and gelato are created with fresh milk, cream and sugar. Then flavors are chosen and infused with the base mix before being placed in a freezer. After adding optional mix-ins the final step is to freeze the product once more before it is packaged in dry ice for shipment. Once created, customers have the option of naming their ice cream.

The minimum amount that can be ordered is a half gallon for $49 plus shipping. A full gallon costs $89 plus shipping. Mix-in flavors cost $5 while additional flavors cost $10 each.

Ordinary treats may be fine and dandy, but customizing adds a personal touch, offering sweet lovers the opportunity to turn decadent goodies into works of art. However, unlike a Monet, these creations can be eaten once they’re completed.

Jenni Prisk, pictured above, was one of several speakers at SDSU’s TEDx conference last Sunday, inspiring students with “Ideas Worth Spreading.” | Paige Nelson, staff photographer

Two TEDx events recently took place at UC San Diego and San Diego State. On April 29, a diverse collection of expert scientists, artists, writers and engineers arrived at UCSD for TEDx Del Mar to address the event’s theme, “Envisioning Transhumanity.” Various speakers gathered at the KPBS Public Broadcasting building last Sunday to answer the ever-important question, “What have you discovered?”

TED is a nonprofit organization that began as a four-day conference in 1984. Its mission was to discuss “Ideas Worth Spreading,” with the TED acronym standing for technology, entertainment and design. Twice a year, TED conferences are held in Long Beach, Palm Springs and once a year in Edinburgh, Scotland as a way to bring together the world’s most fascinating people. Events have included speakers such as Bill Gates, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Virgin Group Ltd. chairman Sir Richard Branson and anthropologist Jane Goodall. Since 2006, TED Talks have been posted daily at TED.com as a way to spread ideas throughout the world.

The “x” in the name signifies these programs were independently organized, allowing TED events to occur worldwide on a community level. Since the establishment of the TEDx program, more than 3,000 events have been organized around the world in the spirit of the TED format.

The several lectures at TEDx Del Mar featured insightful discussions about technology’s current and potential capacity to improve human life. The word “transhuman,” first used by evolutionary biologist and writer Aldous Huxley’s brother, Julian Huxley, refers to the integration of humanity with technology to enhance mental and physical capacities and improve quality of life exponentially.

Among the speakers in attendance was InterAxon CEO Ariel Garten, representing a company that specializes in thought-controlled computing. At the forefront of neuroscience and electronics, Garten and her colleagues have been developing BCIs, or brain-computer interfaces, that would give people the ability to actively engage the physical world with their brains alone. The Zeo Sleep Manager is one example of a BCI already in production. This is an alarm clock that allows users to track and manage their sleep quantity and quality. The human brain runs on electrical energy that can be read by outside devices.

Topics addressed by the various speakers included the use of reproductive science for pregnant mothers to counter genetic predispositions to disease, devices that enhance or augment the five senses and the chemical oxytocin’s ability to increase trust between monogamous lovers. In addition, resource technologies that could address the rapidly increasing human population and microscopic machines that repair cells to slow the effects of aging were also discussed.

While the prospect of such technology sounds like implausible and quixotic science fiction to most, technological advancement is actually accelerating at an astonishing rate. The contrast between the brick-sized cell phones of the ‘90s and the tiny GPS-equipped touchscreen phones of today offers an idea of how inconceivable our world may be in another 20 years.

Hosted by business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi, TEDxSDSU covered a different range of topics with no constricting central theme other than what discoveries life may have presented to each speaker. Those in attendance included a variety of musicians, SDSU students and alumni, business directors, writers and activists.

Film and international security and conflict resolution junior Nadir Bouhmouch spoke about the oppressive regime that currently reigns in his home country of Morocco. His documentary, “My Makhzen and Me,” publicizes the corruption long silenced by the Makhzens and draconian censorship. According to Bouhmouch, the Internet worked as an important force during the Arab Spring revolutions by strengthening civil resistance in the face of repression.

“Never have citizen journalists had such an impact until the Arab Spring,” Bouhmouch said. “This film uses many clips uploaded online by average citizens who wanted to show the world things that the mainstream media wouldn’t.”

Avid golfer and SDSU student Jeremy Poincenot inspired the audience to overcome life’s obstacles with his own story. As a 19-year-old sophomore, Poincenot became legally blind because of a rare genetic disease called Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy. Devastated at first, Poincenot soon learned rather than dwelling on what he lost, he should look forward to the unlimited possibilities of his future. Shortly thereafter, he overcame his hopelessness and went on to win the International Blind Golf Association’s World Championships in Britain, with his dad as his guide.

Ending his speech, Poincenot said, “I’m here with you tonight, telling you my story to empower you. What have you discovered? And how will you face the obstacles in your life?”

Other segments included words from social activist Mikel Samaniego, biographical author Bryna Kranzler, radio host Grant Barrett and graduating Managing Editor at The Daily Aztec Beth Elderkin. Various performances included SDSU a capella group “Sunset Clefs,” musician Tolan Shaw, comedian Becky Robinson and singer Sydney Yien.

A truly insightful series of conferences, these TEDx events stirred up a plethora of important issues and profound ideas. For more information on the TEDx program and upcoming events, visit ted.com/tedx.

Nasatir Hall and Storm Hall are to be reconstructed and renovated by January 2015 | Peter Kluch, senior staff photographer

The school year is reaching its end for San Diego State students, however this season also marks a new beginning for Storm and Nasatir Hall, both of which will be reconstructed and renovated.