Lana Blitstein ’06 presented a lesson she learned in Associate Professor of Sociology Lauren Dundes’ class “Sociology of the Criminal Justice System” at a professional Sociology conference in October.

It all started when Blitstein, a bubbly sociology major from the Chicago area, took part in a class exercise where students are given a list of symptoms associated with drugs – but the drugs themselves were never named. Students asked to classify the drugs as legal, over-the-counter, or illegal, often got it wrong. Many classified nicotine as illegal and heroin as a prescription drug.

“By evaluating nameless drugs,” Dundes said, “we see that policies on how to punish drug use are based more on perception of harm than reality.”

Blitstein, who had kept in touch with her high school teacher in Lincolnshire, Ill., returned to the school to teach the lesson to his Sociology class.

The class enjoyed the exercise so much, the teacher asked her to present it to a joint conference of the Wisconsin Sociological Association, the Illinois Sociological Association, and the Wisconsin Political Science Association at Alverno College in Milwaukee.

“It’s nice to see students getting excited about learning,” Dundes said. “I like that she was able to learn something in class and turn around and teach it in the professional world.”

Blitstein says many of the teachers she spoke to told her they plan to incorporate the exercise in their curriculum.

“Everything I’ve learned at McDaniel, I was able to use in the real world,” Blitstein said of her whirlwind experience.