Author: TheTranscript

OWU football tackles Spanish turf

By Evan Walsh, Chief Copy Editor

Ohio Wesleyan football is looking for a big win 
. in Spain. Thirty team members, led by coaches and staff, will make the trip to Barcelona next month,where they will spend two weeks practicing, playing and traveling.

Barcelona is home to the Badalona Dracs who are part of the first division of Liga Nacional de FĂștbol Americano (LNFA). They happen to be the reigning champions of the LNFA, so OWU can expect to face the league’s best.

Coach Tom Watts is optimistic that this will improve the program, and promote the sport abroad. Watts hopes, most importantly, that it will provide students with a unique learning experience.

Mason Tomblin, a senior linebacker, has never been out of the country.

“I choose to go on this trip because I have never been out of the USA. And to play football there too would be a once in a lifetime deal,” Tomblin said.

Tomblin is not alone. Ryan Rhodes, who is currently taking Spanish classes here is looking forward to a new culture in a new place.

“I have never been to Europe before and have always been interested with how non-americans play football,” Rhodes said.

According to NCAA rules, colleges and universities are allowed to travel internationally once every four years. Four years ago, OWU visited Italy.

The university is not paying for the trip, instead, those attending will have to pay their way there. The cost covers airfare, meals, American Football Worldwide helped to organize and make arrangements for the stay.

An itinerary has already been made. The team arrives on the sixteenth and leaves on the twenty-fourth.

A practice is scheduled for the friday of that week and be followed up with an exhibition game against the Dracs on Monday.
The non-football activities are extensive. They include guided tours of Barcelona and Girona, a small but historic city two hours north.

OWU men’s lacrosse ready for postseason

By Aleksei Pavloff, Sports Editor

The Ohio Wesleyan University men’s lacrosse team is facing the end of the spring season and as the NCAC championship draws near, the team is prepared.

“We’re in the conference playoffs next week and we have to take it one game at a time,” said junior goalie Alexander Pacilio.

The OWU lacrosse team currently has the second best record in the conference with only one loss to Denison University this past Sunday,12-8. The Bishops are 9-5 overall this season and received votes in for national ranking, according to ncaa.com. The tough schedule this season is something that is good for the team as a whole, Pacilio said.

“It’s a challenge but have to play these teams since iron sharpens iron,” Pacilio said.

Sophomore defensive starter Jake Worrell said, “We’ve played a lot of tough teams and been really close to beating them. It’s kind of disappointing to not get over the hump yet but it …  motivates myself and my teammates.”

Two teams that were the most demanding was Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and Salsbury, Pacilio said. Both teams are currently in the top 5 rankings, according to ncaa.com. The Bishops lost to RIT 12-11, which was the start for freshman Joey Sichenzia. They also lost to Salisbury 10-6 but there are good things to come out of those games.

“Playing RIT the first game was an exciting experience,” said Worrell. “I know that if we got a shot at either of those teams we could pull a victory. We are a different team now and have gone through so much and we have learned so much and I would love to play either team again.”

The team’s expectations before the season started was to win the NCAC championship, said Worrell. He said he believes that they will see Denison in the championship game.

“Getting another chance to beat Denison is great,” Worrell said. He added that the team has struggled in the past against them but they are committed to correcting past mistakes and executing on their goals. The last scheduled game against the rival was a shootout which Denison came back from a six point deficit.

The post season is fast approaching and Worrell said he thinks that the team has the ability to win big.

“Winning the NCAC is very achievable,” Worrell said. “We have to finish up strong in the regular season first and beat Wooster to secure the second spot and then win our first round game.”

The Bishops have one more game against Wooster April 22. The team has tallied over 190 goals and average about 42.9 shots on opponents goal. The team also is strong in faceoffs winning 206 while losing 137.

Wooster is the Bishop’s last regular season opponent. The last time these two teams met, OWU won 22-6. But the team needs to stay on track, according to Pacilio.  

“We have a lot of close games with a bunch of teams in our conference, but we believe if we play OWU lacrosse, it doesn’t matter how other teams play because we dictate our destiny,” Worrell said.

Hollywood diversifies

By Madison Williams, Transcript Correspondent

It’s mighty morphin’ time.

Reminiscent of a classic action movie, Power Rangers embraces the nostalgia of the stereotypical superhero plot, while also breaking down walls and destroying barriers.

Originating from a television series started in 1993, the new Power Rangers reboot released this March, features a racially diverse cast, including a character on the Autism spectrum and another who is questioning her sexuality.

The reboot has gained widespread attention for its prominent inclusivity, and attention to diversity. Its representation of minorities in mainstream media is an essential yet often ignored notion.

“We stuck to the original concept of having a very diversi ed cast. I don’t think a lot of movies take that kind of risk of having a maybe gay character as a super-hero and an autistic kid as a superhero,” said Power Rangers creator Haim Saban in an interview with CNN.

In the Power Rangers movie, the rangers are not de ned by their differences such as being on the autism spectrum and questioning one’s sexuality. Instead, they exist as multi-dimensional superheroes, capable of being strong yet vulnerable, in a sense human and relatable.

“Movies like Power Rangers are so important for representing queer people and neurodiversity,” said freshman Brandon Meyer, who is also a member of the Pride Club. “As long as the representation is done well and is good representation, it will actually be noticed by a large portion of people.”

Seeing inclusion in the mainstream media puts forth an idea that it is acceptable to differ from what is deemed traditionally, socially, and culturally acceptable in our society.

This message is one that can and should be reflected in all aspects of our culture, and used to inform the public in how they should positively contribute to acceptance and inclusion.

On a campus that is “committed to providing a supportive and richly diverse culture on our campus,” according to Ohio Weslyean’s website, it is imperative that the school continues to learn and grow from the messages of inclusivity depicted in mainstream media, and movies like Power Rangers.

“Diversity, to me, means having many different types of people. We have made strides there. The key is inclusion so that not only are all included but all are represented. That, though, is harder to achieve,” said Professor Bob Gitter, a Joseph A. Meek professor of economics.

Improv troupe will perform last show for year

By Orion Wright, Transcript Correspondent

When you take your seat at a Babbling Bishops show, the lights are down and the curtains drawn but the crowd is already laughing.

“They’re really funny,” sophomore Jack Bouman said. Before the Babblers cracks a joke, the audience is already giggling from memories of past performances and the anticipation of the gags to come, according to Bouman.

The Babblers are nearing the end of their performance season as the semester draws to a close. They have a practice every week and shows throughout the semester. They are currently approaching their nal performance of the academic year, and for multiple senior Babblers, their last performance at Ohio Wesleyan.

“[Improv is] an unscripted play . . . you have to put yourself in a situation without any prompting. The best way to describe it is adult make believe,” senior Babbling Bishop Hayden Knisley said.

The Babblers agree that everyone does improv for different reasons. Dane Poppe, another senior member of the troupe, finds improv to be a valuable tool for emotional release. “You . . . bring everything in with you. What you’re going through becomes part of your improv,” Poppe said. “It’s good for my mental health.”

Knisley agrees. “I put a lot of myself into what I do. [Improv] lets you exaggerate and personify your emotions,” Knisley said. For him, fully embracing one aspect or emotion can help to understand what it means and how to deal with it.

Personal therapy isn’t the only reason to do improv comedy, however. “I just want to make people laugh,” Knisely said.

But what is improv really, besides adult make-believe? “In improv, the art comes from the conglomeration of your ideas and everyone else’s, in a big mess,” Poppe said. “I enjoy the chance to make art on the spot and . . . make new things with other performers.” In other words, the opportunity for collaboration in performance is what sets improv apart.

Every Babbler has their own favorite memory of a performance – a sketch they pulled off that rises above the rank and file for them. Poppe recalled a scene-within-a-scene, described by Knisely as “very inventive,” in which they played merchants in a mall peddling ant farms.

“All of the other scenes took place in the ant farms. Whenever we thought there might be a lull in the scene, we would just shake the ant farms and they would have an earthquake.”

The Babblers hope to shake things up at their nal per- formance of the semester on Thursday, April 20 at 9:15 p.m. in Milligan Hub There will also be food trucks and a magician in the Stuy pa.rking lot from 7:30-9:00 p.m.

Letter to the Editor: Debunking myths about prison inmates

By Diana Muzina, Letter to the Editor

When someone says the word ‘prison,’ we immediately have associations and assumptions about what it is like based on media portrayals and pervasive stereotypes. We see prison as being this place where bad people are sent, and that they deserve to be there. This is not always the case.

As a part of our Sociology & Anthropology Senior Seminar this semester, myself and the other 19 departmental majors, have a joint class with 20 inmates of Ohio Reformatory for Women (ORW) in Marysville, Ohio.

Every Wednesday at 4:50 p.m., we depart campus and make the 25-minute drive to the institution with our two professors, Mary Howard and John Durst.

“It forces us out of our OWU safety bubble, literally, and encourages interaction with views we otherwise don’t hear on a liberal campus,” junior Kelsey Morrison said.

This course has been in the works for a long time, and was first conceptualized by Howard in 1987 when she was the director of Women Studies.

“Bill Louthan, who was provost at the time, supported the idea but as it turned out, the prison system was forced by public outcry to close down all rehabilitation programming,” Howard, professor of Sociology/Anthropology, said.

“Through recent tours with SOAN Senior Project classes, we noticed the return of multiple skills training projects and the addition of Inside/Outside college level courses held within the prison,” Howard said. “We did not design our course as any kind of mission for the prisoners. If there was any intent in a joint class of 20 OWU students with 20 ORW students, it was to learn from each other.”

The women in our course are a select group of individuals from the institution who have proved themselves as open to learning in a self-help program developed for those who have passed through many other personal developmental hoops.

Many women in the course have commented to myself and other students that not everyone in the prison is happy and that many do not choose to seek self-improvement programing.

Upon arrival, belongings were stowed away in the vans, cellphones were left in our bags, and with our state IDs in hand, and maybe a pen and paper, we made our way to the metal detectors. IDs were traded for visitors passes after our identities were checked against the volunteer registry. We signed in and had our hands stamped.

Many times we waited up to 20 minutes for everyone to go through security, including other volunteer groups and another class of students from Ohio State, until nally we were sent, five at a time, through a large metal door into a small room.

After one door shut, another opened to let us out onto the prison grounds. Five by five, we regrouped and headed across the yard to class. Right in the middle of the yard along our way was a track which encircled a new softball field. It didn’t look like a prison; it looked like a college campus.

Holi brings colorful celebration

By Gabe Linderman, Transcript Correspondent

Colored powder stained the grass in front of Welch Lawn Saturday afternoon, following a celebration of Holi, the Indian festival of colors.

SANGAM, Ohio Wesleyan University’s student run south Asian club, hosted the celebration that included catered Indian food, color powder and water balloons.

Throughout the hours long celebration, as Bollywood music blasted in the background, students from all across campus came to enjoy in the festivities. Bags of color powder lay in the warm spring sun, ready for students to toss, students filled water balloons outside of Thomson Hall and organizers kept a small table well stocked with Indian cuisine. Some students came and went, only enjoying the festivities in passing, while others stayed for hours on end laughing with one another.

“My friends dragged me out here but it was totally worth it,” junior Corrine Race, said, color covering every part of her hair and face.

Holi, an ancient Hindu holiday, is a celebration of the arrival of spring. It traditionally signifies the triumph of good over evil and the end of winter. Holi acts as a time to celebrate culture and community. Celebrated widely in India and Nepal, Holi celebrations have recently spread far and wide, even becoming common place in the United States, according to the Independent.

SANGAM has been on campus consistently for seven years and it’s been hosting a Holi celebration since its founding, said Annapuna Pakrasi, the president of SANGAM. The club also hosts an annual celebration of Diwali, the Hindu celebration of light, Pakrasi said.

After WCSA only approved 50% of the requested supplemental budget for the event, Pakrasi and the rest of SANGAM decided to find recipes themselves and ask Chartwells to cater the event. To raise the necessary funds, SANGAM went door to door asking for donations of food points.

Their efforts paid off and the event entertained more than 50 students. Dancing to music, students tossed colors at each other, smearing streaks of red, purple, green and yellow across each other’s faces. The smell of fresh samosas filled the air as water balloons flew every which way.

The event even drew a handful of interested Delaware residents, curious about the excitement.

Passersby had to duck and dodge away from eager, giggling participants loaded with color powder in one hand and water balloons in the other.

“It’s fun to come out here and celebrate and just act kind of like a little kid during such a stressful time of the year,” said senior Brenda Gonzalez.

Football team spreads joy to second graders throughout the Delaware community

By Juwaun Tye, Transcript Correspondent

Second graders are influenced, inspired, and jump up and down in joy as a result of the OWU football team every Friday.

The Ohio Wesleyan football team puts smiles on kid’s faces every week, not on the field, but in the classroom. The team donates time to the Delaware community weekly, by going to James Conger Elementary School to read, play board games and play at recess with the second graders.

The program, called “2nd & 7,” started when Head Coach Tom Watts began coaching at Ohio Wesleyan, six years ago. Ulysses Hall, an OWU football coach, and director of “2nd & 7,” knows the value of community service and encourages all the football players to volunteer at least once.

“Everytime we volunteer, it’s like a celebration for the kids, and I want every single one of our players to see it for themselves,” Hall said.

On average 10-16 football players volunteer every week to go to the elementary school.

“We go every friday for eight weeks straight, and [have] had about 40 different players go. The kids look up to us, so it’s great for them to see us coming to their school every week. The goal is to positively affect their lives,” Hall said.

“The players affect the students lives by simply being there, Hall said.

When the kids see the players giving up their time to volunteer, the kids have something to strive for.

Darius Randolph, an OWU freshman football player said “The biggest impact of all is when the kids see that we’re there for them. When the kids see us with our helmets off, they get a better feel that we are real caring human beings.”

The players who volunteer are greatly impacted by the students that they read to and enjoy recess with.

“Not only is the experience great for the kids, the experience is great for us as well. We’re role models to these kids. We really see how much these kids look up to us,” Randolph said.

Hall said, “It’s important to us because we quickly realize that we were once them. We were once the same kid going through the transition of life, so it’s relatable. It makes us appreciate them more.”

The second graders scream with excitement when the football players read to them.

Teachers sit back and observe as the kids interact with the players. The teachers get a chance to learn a lot from the experience as well, and they see how much the football players impact their students.

“The kids are always excited. They were disappointed over spring break when they didn’t see [the football players] for a few weeks. One of my students was extremely disappointed [that] he might miss their last visit,” said Heather Kuhn, a second grade teacher.

Network provides internships for student athletes

By Megan Parker, Transcript Correspondent

A new opportunity has arisen for Ohio Wesleyan student athletes who are looking for internships.

Athlete Network is a website dedicated to helping student athletes make career connections. It includes information about internships, graduate programs and other networking outlets.

“Athletes are at their best when they are in a competitive environment that propels that spirit,” said Chris Smith, founder and CEO of Athlete Network, on the website. “We feel we are able to positively impact athletes’ quality of life in three key areas: careers, networking and content.”

OWU freshman Tyler Mansfield, who is on the swim team and track and field team, began working as an intern for Athlete Network this spring.

“I have a series of tasks to complete every month, anywhere from four to five tasks, and basically it’s just getting the word out about the website … I’ve had meetings with Rock Jones and the athletic director, just so we can try and get the whole campus involved with it because it’s a really good networking site,” Mans eld said. Internships are becoming increasingly important, and only 38.6 percent of students who graduated college in 2014 were hired without having prior internship experience, according toU.S. News & World Report.

Students who use Athlete Network to find internships receive a direct response from the companies to which they applied 84 percent of the time, according to Athlete Network.

“It’s definitely helpful for nding connections in the field that you want to do, because companies have profiles on there and they have recruiters that you can contact. So, if someone wanted to get a summer internship for Enterprise, they could do that through the site,” Mansfield said. “Being on the site lets them know that you’re serious about a job offer.”

In order to work as an on-campus intern for Athlete Network, like Mansfield, a student can sign up for the site and apply from there. Benefits of the on-campus internship include college credit hours, personal introductions to potential employers and incentives like clothing and gift cards, according to Athlete Network.

Beyond helping with internships, Athlete Network offers content including advice on dieting and working out, athletes’ personal stories about their sports and opinion pieces about sports and school. The site also connects student athletes with similar interests and those who go to the same school.

Alumnus reaches out to Ohio Wesleyan with new app

By Megan Parker, Transcript Correspondent

An Ohio Wesleyan alumnus developed a smartphone app to promote a nationwide initiative to aid sexual assault victims on college campuses, which in turn has led to major change at OWU.

Jack Zandi is the creator the Reach Out—College Edition app, which provides victims of sexual misconduct with information on how to report the incident, where to get medical care and more.

“Right around [the time of my college graduation], the issue of sexual misconduct on college campuses started to gain traction in terms of media attention, and the topic was becoming increasingly contentious,” Zandi said. “And so it started coming up in our conversations. We identi ed a need

for students to have all this crucial, hard-to-find, often difficult-to-understand information in an easy, intuitive and accessible format.”

The app is supported on campus by Dwayne Todd, vice president of student engagement, and has been supplemented by the work of Josh Lisko, residential life coordinator.

“I work with [Zandi] on the content of the app, making sure that what we have in there is the best information for our stu- dents,” Lisko said. “I’m constantly moni- toring the app to make sure that if there’s things that are meeting our student’s needs, we’re adding those, and if there are things that aren’t meeting our students needs we’re removing those.”

While the app is still relatively new to OWU, it has sparked a series of initiatives against sexual assault on campus. A new program called Sexual Aggression Free Environment OWU (SAFE OWU) is in the works, and will include a variety of programs to help raise awareness and help victims.

“I think it’s going to be a culture change a few years down the line,” Lisko said. “That’s really what we’re going for, is building a culture of love and respect here at OWU.”

Although Reach Out is only the beginning of these programs, it has already provided a basis for contact information and support systems that are free to access and guarantee anonymity, according the app’s FAQ page.

The app explains that it provides sexual misconduct survivors with a “unique feature [that] will guide a user step-by-step from getting help, to preserving evidence, to getting medical care, to understanding all the reporting options and then finally to healing,” according to the app’s instructions.

“Our company has many goals,” Zandi said. “But to put it simply, we want to help campuses and organizations [create] environments that are safe for everyone, and not just the privileged few.”

The university already has procedures in place for reporting and investigating sexual misconduct, most of which takes place on campus, according to the OWU student handbook. However, the app expands victims’ options by including links to off campus support, legal resources, hotlines and other independent aids.

The app is available to 2,488 colleges across the country and has information specific to each campus, according to Zandi. The app is free to download, is available on any iPhone or Android device and does not require any personal information to use.

Viral poem read by alumna author

By Liz Hardaway, Arts & Entertainment Editor

Following the shooting at ‘Pulse’ night-club in Orlando, Florida, people turned to art and poetry as a way to heal. Ohio Wesleyan alumnus Maggie Smith was part of that healing process. Her poem, ‘Good Bones’ was a viral hit.

Smith ‘99 came to the Bayley room on April 5, and read samples of some of her poems. Smith is most known for her poem ‘Good Bones,’ which generated viral fame throughout social media after the shooting at Pulse nightclub this past summer.

“‘Good Bones’ was heartbreaking and poignant because it voiced the grief that many of us felt in 2016,” said sophomore Em Sutliff. “For me, it expressed how I was scared, confused, angry and yet, somehow hopeful for my community de- spite everything that had happened.”

Public Radio International named ‘Good Bones’ its of cial poem of 2016, citing that the poem had been shared and read an estimated one million times.

“Life is short and the world is at least half terrible, and for every kind of strang- er, there is one who would break you, though I keep this from my children,” writes Smith.

Smith gets most of her inspiration for her poems from her children when she’s with them in the car or on their way to school.

“If it has taught me anything, we don’t know the impact that our work can have when we sit down to write,” said Smith in her talk. “We have no idea who we might reach or at what capacity or how many people.”

Smith will become an Ohio Wesleyan faculty member next fall to replace David Caplan while he is on sabbatical. Smith plans to teach introduction to poetry and courses in literature.

Smith ended her talk on a positive note, challenging listeners in the room to not say anything negative for a week.

Smith has written three books: Good Bones, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poi- son and Lamp of the Body. She has also the author of three prize-winning chap- books. A part of “Good Bones” was read aloud on the April 9 episode of the CBS show “Madame Secretary.”