Author: Kathleen Weber
Student Involvement Fair
Students advertising their clubs, organizations and sororities to individuals who show interest or were passing by in Ham-wil Atrium on Friday afternoon.
The Central Ohio Symphony’s 40th Anniversary
The Central Ohio Symphony performed in Gray Chapel in front of a packed house for their holiday concert. Under Music Director Jaime Morales-Matos, the symphony brought seasonal spirit as they played “Welcome Home”, “Nutcracker”, “Christmas Festival” and many more. The symphony is currently in their 40th Anniversary season, and will perform next during the new year, in March and April.
Therapy Dogs Relieve Stressed Students
Therapy dogs filled the Hamilton Williams Campus Center atrium at noon on Wednesday, Dec. 5. As students were stopping by to get lunch they were greeted by many fuzzy friends. With finals approaching, overwhelmed students were able to relax for a few minutes.
From China to OWU: An adaptation to American culture
As one of the over 150 international students at Ohio Wesleyan, Sixin “Echo” Wang came to the United States to learn from a different culture than their own.
Coming from her home in Shenzhen, China, Wang is in her sophomore year studying early childhood education. By immersing herself as a student in a foreign culture, she has experienced social difficulties, including communication barriers and the feeling of being left out.
“Being involved in society and making friends is hard,” she said. “Different cultural backgrounds make us different, so sometimes [I] feel isolated.”
When Wang first came to OWU, she would visit Hamilton-Williams Campus Center and see fellow students hanging out or a variety of club activities, but her broken English left her hesitant. She would walk away frustrated and wanting to join them, but not knowing how to take the leap.
“No matter what, international student[s] should be bold and go out outside [their] comfort zone,” she said. “Everything will be fine.”
Despite her feelings and challenges, her post-graduation plans aren’t in the United States, but back in China. Wang came to learn a better educational system for China’s future, and with this insight, she says she wants to fix the country’s teaching of younger generations.
Wang said being an international student has given her great opportunities to obtain different perspectives and knowledge, but those feelings of loneliness and isolation are not unusual.
Volleyball Team “Drafts” Serena Scillia as a New Member
Ohio Wesleyan’s volleyball team has partnered with an organization called Team Impact. Team Impact drafts children who fight chronic illnesses to join college athletic teams. Serena Scillia fights cystic fibrosis but that doesn’t stop her from her passion, playing volleyball. Welcome to the team, Serena.
Out With the Old and in with the New: First Thoughts
By Kit Weber, Photo Editor
The beginning of a new semester can be rough, but it can be even more rough with a new food service provider.
AVI Foodsystems joined the campus community in May and has brought more hours and no declining point system. Students at Ohio Wesleyan now have anytime dining, which means food at the Smith Hall cafeteria all day, any day and the Marketplace in the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center is open from morning to evening.
But with change comes confusion.
Burnt coffee, pink meat, mislabeled food and more have left some students reconsidering their dining expectations.
Coffee is a staple of the college student diet. But Sunday morning left a friend saying one of the coffee choices was so watery that it looked like tea, while another friend said it was so burnt that no creamer could change its color.
Undercooked food has left some hanging too. My roommate had once cut into the chicken with a pink center and ultimately refused to eat it. When I scooped up some unusually hard rice, I had to stop too.
If you chose the smallest meal plan, there is no dining dollars unless you put money out-of-pocket on your card. This means no Merrick, T-store, or the Science Café without using personal money.
Even though anytime dining at Smith and the Marketplace are unlimited swipes, it does not always mean they are my first food choice.
This change is new and will naturally have some obstacles until things settle. I think some issues have easy solutions, such as simply adding more dining dollars to each meal plan, including the lowest. Even on the medium plan, I do not see myself having enough dining dollars to get me through the semester.
When it comes to the food, attention and communication would both help. Talk with students and figure out what dishes could be improved or added. Students wanted the T-Store to remain on the residential side of campus instead of moving to Hamilton-Williams, and it stuck.
Better communication between employees and students will improve the new system together and expectations can be achieved.