Author: Brady Mathews Roesch

According to the 2012 US Census, Delaware County has a Hispanic and Latino population of 4,167, and OWU’s VIVA organization is working to engage them.

Latino and Latin American Space for Enrichment and Research (LASER) was started in 2009 by Dr. Frederick Aldama, professor of English and Director of Latin American studies at Ohio State University.

This program matches high school students from the Columbus area with OSU students in the hopes of helping Latino and Latina students transition from high school and into college.

LASER has officially founded a chapter at Ohio Wesleyan this spring, with the help of VIVA, the Latin American club on campus.

During Aldama’s visit to OWU last year, VIVA decided to bring LASER closer to home and they have been working since the fall to get the program up and running.

Freshman Joycelyn Munoz is the only current mentor with a mentee in the program.

Seniors Hazel Barrera and Peter Reveles have been serving as ambassadors for the program this semester by reaching out to high school students, as well as keeping in touch with mentors.

“For a while now, I had been thinking about how to get ¡VIVA! Latinoamerica more involved in community service besides translating at Parent/Teacher Conferences at Woodward Elementary School and Willis Intermediate School,” Barrera said.

“When we heard about LASER at OSU from a speaker we brought in to present on Latinos in the media, we decided to take the opportunity to start a mentoring program for Latino students.”

Barrera said the students meet twice a week at OWU, “in order to get a sense of the college life.”

They work together for two hours during which the mentor helps the student with homework, FAFSA, college applications “and many other different needs that the student may have.”

According to Barrera, some of the challenges for this new program include trying to find transportation and a suitable time to meet with the administration at Hayes High School.

Additionally, she said finding mentees for the current mentors in the program has also turned out to be a challenge.

Freshman Micheal Mora Brenes will be the ambassador for the LASER/VIVA program next year and should be contacted if anyone is interested in being a part of the program.

“We (VIVA) hope to have more high school students interested, and have a bigger program by next fall,” Barrera said.

“While we look forward to a professional life after graduation in May, we wish to leave this as part of our legacy.”

For the past three months, Elliott Hall has been out of commission after a pipe burst and set off the sprinkler system, rendering the building unusable.

University President Rock Jones said they are expecting renovations to be completed by Aug. 2, “so that the faculty can return to the building prior to the beginning of the fall semester.”

The building is home to the history, politics and government, sociology and anthropology departments, along with the Office of Communications located in the basement.

After the Jan. 8 incident that flooded the building, all these offices were temporarily re-located to other parts of campus to allow for the hall’s renovation.

After an initial $1 million that was budgeted for the project, the university recently allocated an additional $1 million.

“This is being funded by an unrestricted bequest,” Jones said.

He also said the university is still negotiating the amount that will be covered by their insurance company.

According to Jones, the renovation money will support enhancement, including new furniture and technology, for all of the classrooms, new heating, ventilation and air conditioning for the entire building, leveling of floors in faculty offices that have become tilted due to settling of the foundations of this historic building, upgrade to LED lighting, and other general improvements to the building.

Mary Howard, professor of sociology and anthropology, was most heavily affected by the flooding because her office was located directly under the pipe that burst.

Her office, along with the rest of the sociology and anthropology department, was temporarily re-located to the Stewart Annex, next to the Ross Art Museum.

“I think I’ll miss Stewart and sharing the same space with my department colleagues,” she said. “I’ll miss the part-time faculty and retired faculty in Stewart. I think what everyone looks forward to in moving back is having students have easier access and privacy for discussions.”

Jones said the renovations are proceeding on schedule and that he does not foresee any more additional money being required in the next couple of months before Elliott is again opened up for use.

“I am grateful to the faculty and staff for their good spirit in the difficult circumstances that have resulted from the flood and necessary evacuation of Elliott Hall for this semester,” he said. “When faculty and staff return to this building in August and students return for the fall semester, they will find a building that is improved significantly.”

Spirit, body and mind were the three spheres of this year’s Health and Wellness Fair, the 14th one at Ohio Wesleyan.

There were a range of organizations, based around physical, mental and reproductive health.

From the university, representatives of the Counseling Center, Chartwells, Healthy Bishop Initiative, PHAT  and Active Minds all took part.

Four county organizations were present – health district officials, the AIDS Task Force, HelpLine crisis support, and Turning Point, which helps survivors of domestic violence.

Planned Parenthood, the American Red Cross and Central Ohio Mental Health were also represented.

In total, 18 different organizations from the Ohio Wesleyan and Delaware communities were present at the fair, which took place on April 2 in Hamilton Williams Campus Center.

Marsha Tilden, director of the Student Health Center, has been organizing this fair for several years now.

“(I want) Students to have a better understanding of health related resources that are available in Delaware County,” she said.

The CORE Center and the Foot and Ankle Center were two new additions to this year’s participating organizations.

Senior Natalie Duleba, who helped organize the fair, said planning for it began last September by sophomore Jennifer Luckett, who was the legacy intern for the Health Center at the time.

“(Luckett) contacted a lot of participants initially but I followed up and invited more,” Duleba said.

“I also went to a lot of places around Delaware asking for raffle donations and worked with Joann Reardon (Customer Service Coordinator with Housekeeping) to set up the atrium.”

Tilden said they do not have a budget assigned to organize the fair.

The health center normally donates to the raffle prizes, pays for the massage therapists and pays for students to have their cholesterol tested by the Delaware General Health District.

“Most of the organizations are service oriented, so they do not charge anything to be a part of the fair,” she said.

Senior Yushan Hayman has been working for Helpline in Delaware since October 2013.

“I am a Hotline specialist, which means that I provide customers with various resources for various situations as well as provide short term crisis intervention for callers in crisis,” he said.

Hayman said he believes “a wellness fair allows students to become more aware of the valuable resources that they have access to” and he hopes students who attended the fair will be able to use the resources when they need to.

Tilden said her main goals through the fair were to attract students and promote health based organizations.

Tilden said she also wanted to “provide an opportunity for students to learn more about their health as they are forming habits that will affect their well-being over a lifetime.”

Both Tilden and Duleba said they were happy with the fair.

“I’m extremely pleased with the feedback I’ve received,” Duleba said.

“People told me they liked the number of booths and the variety there.”

Nine different groups of dedicated Ohio Wesleyan students and staff spent their spring break this year, serving communities across the world from New Orleans to Nicaragua.

The mission week each spring is sponsored by the University Chaplain’s office. Their website states that what they mean by mission is: “A chance to engage with different cultures, to meet brothers and sisters from this country and around the world as equals, to get to know and learn from each other,”

“A chance to offer the work of our hands and to pause and reflect on the experiences of each day,” and “A chance to humble ourselves and realize that those we work with have as much to give as we do, to understand that our contribution will be smaller than we’d like.”

This year the teams visited places like El Paso, TX, Chicago, New Orleans, South Dakota, St Louis, Florida, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Haiti.

“Every year, the agencies and programs we select for our Spring Break Mission Teams, both international and domestic, report back to us, “Ohio Wesleyan students GET IT like no other college team in the country,” said University Chaplain Jon Powers.

Powers said the selection of service locations as well as team membership is a very “rigorous process.”

“Associate Chaplain Chad Johns and all his team leaders do an amazing job of this, year after year,” said Powers. “From reports I have been getting all week, this year’s teams have been among the best ever – superb student leadership, excellent faculty/staff advisors and exceptional team members.”

Senior Rachel Vinciguerra was on the New Orleans Mission Team this year that works with St. Bernard Project (SBP) every year. SBP is an organization co-founded by an OWU alum after Hurricane Katrina, and it focuses on rebuilding homes so that homeowners can move back in after the storm.

“I think this year was the 9th OWU mission team to go to New Orleans and there are still many houses that need to be rebuilt,” said Vinciguerra. “It’s really overwhelming to just drive around the city and realize how much is left to recover and restore after Katrina.”

The New Orleans team spent the week working on a house in the primary stages of rebuilding. Vinciguerra said they were doing demolition and mold remediation, and had a lot of fun doing it. They also got to meet the Perry’s, the family who will be moving in to the home once it is completed.

“I wouldn’t change a thing about our trip,” said Vinciguerra.

“Each mission team each year is unique and I think even though things didn’t always go as planned on our trip, we had a fantastic group that dealt really well with changing plans and obstacles.”

Powers said he encourages students interested in a mission trips to have a look at the website that explains everything about it. He also emphasized what they don’t mean by a mission: “we don’t mean colonialism, imperialism, aggressive Christian proselytization or a touristy vacation.”

“Ohio Wesleyan students, faculty, staff and alumni, have been serving the neighborhood, the nation, and the world since 1842,” said Powers. “It’s in our bones to merge the classroom and the community into a living, learning laboratory of life-changing servant leadership.”

Vinciguerra said, “This program has meant so much to me at OWU and I know that some of my most valuable lessons and experiences have come from these mission teams.

“They demand so much of you and really change the way you think about and see the world. I can’t think of a better way to have spent my spring break the past four years.”

Eight years ago, the International Student Ambassador Program (ISAP) was created to promote cross-cultural exchange and mutual growth by connecting Ohio Wesleyan University’s international students and global nomads to the Delaware Community.

Today, the program continues to grow at an exponential rate.

International students are recruited to visit local schools and give presentations on their respective countries and share aspects of their culture through music, dance or other means.

Senior Prabhjot Virk, head student coordinator for the program, said this year was very successful with four events and 17 OWU international student ambassadors, ranging from freshman to seniors.

“As a Global Nomad that went to an International boarding school I really understand and believe in the value of building cross-cultural relationships,” she said.

“The ISAP visits are a valuable experience for both the ambassadors and the children or members of the community we visit.”

The four events were held a different schools around the county including: Dempsey Middle School, Schultz Elementary School, Woodward Elementary School and Ohio Wesleyan’s Early Childhood Center.

Freshman Shaaref Shah said the program makes him feel “culturally diverse” and he wanted to be an ambassador so he could “portray Pakistan in a good light” in front of the OWU community.

Some of the ambassadors taught students how to dance to Bollywood music after their presentation.

Virk said one of the teachers from Dempsey Middle School emailed her the day after the event and thanking her for her presentation.

The email read, “My kids couldn’t stop talking about it and spent an hour after you left looking on the computers for photos of India and Pakistan.”

Seniors Priyanka Venkataraman and Krina Patel were ambassadors at the event held at Woodward Elementary School.

They arranged a coloring table and face painting for the children.

“It was really interesting to see how the children learned so much about the ambassadors cultures just by having conversations with the ambassadors while they were painting their faces,” Virk said.

Patel said she had a great time at Woodward.

“I loved being at Woodward and seeing the children so excited to participate in activities revolved around different countries,” she said.

“All of the kids had little passports that they would get stamped when visiting different countries, it was adorable.”

Virk said she believes the program has a lot of growth potential.

“My stamp on the ISAP program was to develop marketing material and make the community more aware of the program,” she said.

“We received a request from a nursing home this year, since all past ambassador visits have been to schools, I think that expanding the places we visit would lead to so much growth for the program.”

Additionally, Virk said being a part of the program has been a great experience for her.

“(It) has been very eye-opening and absolutely amazing,” she said.

“At every event we have had, you can actually see the children and ambassadors learning from each other. The Head Student Ambassador Coordinator position is an amazing opportunity for leadership, but, more importantly, it is an amazing experience to be able to facilitate cross-cultural exchange.”

Photo by Jane Suttmeier; illustration by Hannah Urano

“Battling” isn’t usually the first word that comes to mind when you hear the word “Bishop,”unless you go to Ohio Wesleyan.

In 1925, the term “Battling Bishop” was the winning nickname selected through a contest held by the Phi Delta Epsilon journalism fraternity. Prior to that, “Ohio Wesleyan University’s teams were simply known as “The Red and Black,” or sometimes as “The Methodists,” states the athletic department’s website.

Starting this year, the selection of the student (or students) who will wear the Bishop mascot costume is being streamlined into a more consistent process.

Nancy Bihl-Rutkowski, assistant director of student involvement, said that because there has been no formal procedure in the past, their office, in coordination with the athletics department, marketing and communications, alumni relations, admissions and the cheerleaders, have been working on revamping the mascot selection process.

“It has not been easy to find someone to wear the costume when it is needed,” Bihl-Rutkowski said. “Also, since it is constantly someone different in the costume, there is no consistency to the Bishop’s mannerisms.”

The new process will involve an application, interview and audition. One or more students will be chosen to portray the Bishop at sporting events, around the campus and at other community events.

Senior Kelsey Brewer, who has been working with the Student Involvement office in the revamp of the mascot program, said the representatives will also be working with the various offices that utilize the mascot.

“(They) will be responsible for boosting moral, showcasing OWU spirit, and acting the part of the Bishop as needed at various events,” she said. “The selection committee will choose candidates based on school spirit, enthusiasm, and ability to function and maneuver in the mascot costume.”

Bihl-Rutkowski said she likes the idea of having representatives because it makes the whole process “more fun!”

Brewer said some of the challenges in selecting the mascot include an uncertain level of interest in students wanting to be the mascot, as well as finding someone who meets the criteria to be the Bishop.

“There might be difficulty in finding an applicant who meets the qualifications we are looking for, such as recommended height requirements (per the manufacturer) of between 5’7” and 6’2”,” she said. “We also need someone who shows an outstanding level of school spirit, enthusiasm, and maneuverability in the costume.”

Brewer said she volunteered to be a part of the program because she believes that the mascot should be an official school position “to maintain standards and school spirit.”

Brewer said, “portraying the Bishop is an honor and a privilege; I believe the Bishop program should reflect that level of importance and pride.”

School spirit, an enthusiastic and outgoing personality, an ability to interact well with others, and an ability to pick up choreographed routines are three important qualities Brewer thinks the mascot should have.

Those interested in applying to be the mascot should email the Student Involvement Office at siostap@owu.edu.

The first appearance of the Bishop is scheduled for Day on the Jay, April 25.