TheTranscript – Page 31 – The Transcript

OWU professor is in love with Ohio’s landscape

By: Cassie Ingram, Transcript correspondent

During his senior year of college he decided to start painting landscapes. Little did he know where it would take him. Now an art professor at Ohio Wesleyan University, Frank Hobbs is pursuing his dream of painting beautiful landscapes.

“Nature has always been important in my life, but I didn’t start painting landscapes in earnest until my last year of college,” said Hobbs, associate professor of fine arts.

Already a fairly established landscape painter back in his hometown of Virginia, he fell even more in love with landscapes once he moved to Ohio in 2007.

After Hobbs gained a teaching position at OWU part-time assistant professor Nancy Murray drove Hobbs around the area and gave him an “enlightening discourse on the geology, biology and botany of the region,” Hobbs said.

“I could already see the places I’d want to return to and paint,” Hobbs said.

Starting in 2007, Hobbs has been producing landscape works of different areas in Ohio.

Gallery 22, sponsored by the Delaware Art’s Castle and located at 22 Winter Street next to the Strand Theatre, is hosting Hobbs and about 30 of his landscape paintings of Ohio. His technique is different from most painters, and is “very stylized,” according to some viewers of the show. His paintings are fuzzy, not quiet crystal clear, but you can tell what they are easily.

The show at Gallery 22 is only a small retrospective of work that he’s done since his arrival in 2007. The rest of the work has either been sold or located in various galleries that are representative of Hobbs.

Ray Wollschleger, a studio and pastel portrait artist in Delaware that has a studio in the back of Gallery 22, has seen all of Hobbs paintings in the Gallery and had a lot to say on the topic.

“He has a great sense of perspective, and it’s very appealing and well set up,” Wollschleger said.
“Most artist’s pallets and artworks are influenced by a time and place that they are doing their work in.”

“I wanted to give viewers a sense of the beauties and idiosyncrasies of the place they call home,” Hobbs said.

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Travel and learn in Mexico

By: Peter Hamblett, Transcript correspondent

A new travel-learning course to Mexico will be offered next spring to all beginning Spanish students enrolled in Spanish 111.

Travel-learning programs are generally offered in the upper level courses. The travel learning component of Spanish 111 offers younger students the opportunity to travel and hopes to spark interest in Spanish language study.

“The new travel learning program (to Mexico) has been developed to help heighten the retention rate for Spanish students, as well as develop an interest in Spanish for returning and incoming students,” said Juan Armando Rojas, department chair of Modern Foreign Languages.

The capabilities statement from the travel learning program brochure says there will be multiple days of intense walking as well as some relaxing days. One day will include climbing temples at Aztec and Mayan archeological zones.

“These programs offer a lot to Ohio Wesleyan,” said Spanish professor Charles Vedder.

The University covers a substantial portion of the total costs of travel, lodging, meals and on-site transportation. The student is responsible for the remaining portion ($1,600 in this case), along with any additional charges.

“I look forward to trying a new travel-learning course each year,” said freshman Amy Peters, a student who traveled to Ecuador over spring break.

The travel learning program offers multiple trips each year that span 10 days. Students get the opportunity to explore and interact with different cultures, as well as apply what they have learned in the classroom.

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Culture Fest a success

By: Houston Smith, Transcript correspondent

Long food lines, diverse performances and a speech by Ohio Wesleyan President Rock Jones characterized Culture Fest, which took place Sunday, March 29 in the Benes Rooms as part of Horizons International.

Horizons International is a student-run organization formed exclusively for foreign students. The organization sponsors performances and events like this to promote various cultures and traditions from around the world.

Jones attended the event and shared a metaphor about the culture at Ohio Wesleyan. He spoke about a tapestry of diversity, and how each individual thread is woven together to create something special.

“The ultimate beauty is the collection of the whole,” Jones said.

Hundreds of men and women crowded in the Benes Rooms for festivities and food. There was a variety of cuisine offered from all over the world. Members from each club served their culture’s respective foods to students, faculty and parents. Some clubs made their own food for the event while others purchased it from restaurants.

“It’s better than Smith,” said junior Luke Steffen.

Culture Fest represented many clubs at OWU and showcased the talent within each organization.

One performance featured men and women in white t-shirts stomping around in unity. Their style of dance was called “stepping,” where the body is used as an instrument to create intricate rhythms and sounds. This traditional dance started in African communities and spread to other cultures, according to the Step Afrika website.

White and yellow ribbons hung from the ceiling while students whirled around in purple, white, and salmon clothes. The choreography in many of the dances was rehearsed for months prior to the event.

The OWtsiders, a co-ed, a cappella group performed the song “Same Love” by Macklemore. Skilled voice changes and different pitches created a unique sound that drew cheers from the crowd.

Greeks dodge for a cause

By: Ashley Day, Transcript correspondent

Members of Delta Gamma get their game faces on. Photo courtesy of Spenser Hickey.

The five D’s of dodgeball — dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge — were displayed Friday at Branch Rickey Arena when Delta Zeta held a charity dodgeball tournament to raise money for the Starkey Hearing Foundation.

Seven teams competed for the championship title of DZ Dodgeball, all composed of members of various Ohio Wesleyan sororities and fraternities. Each team brought a different approach to the game, making the competition very intense, DZ philanthropy chair Elizabeth Prior, a junior, said.

Junior Lili Fikter, a Delta Zeta, flashes a smile for the camera. Photo courtesy of Facebook.

Delta Zeta has held six dodgeball tournaments, but the competition among the teams became too aggressive at the event in 2013, which caused DZ Dodgeball to be shut down. In place of dodgeball, their new philanthropy event was DZ Dance-Off. This was a dance competition held in Milligan Hub, which was judged by their seniors, DZ president junior Mary Peterson said.

“Our event was well-known on campus and the competition level was very high between many of the teams,” Peterson said. “Because our philanthropy events serve to raise money for our causes, we wanted to try something a little more light and carefree, so that the focus of the event was our philanthropy.”

Although DZ Dance-Off was a success, members of the chapter did not think it built as much hype as DZ Dodgeball did in the past. With this in mind, Peterson and Prior determined and fixed the main issues of the past events and made the decision to hold a DZ Dodgeball tournament again, Peterson said.

A new game of dodgeball begins. Photo courtesy of Spenser Hickey.

“Delta Zeta loves dodgeball,” Peterson said. “We just needed to make sure the focus of the event was kept on our philanthropy and not just the competition.”

In its first year back, DZ Dodgeball raised approximately $550 for the Starkey Hearing Foundation. Starkey is a nonprofit organization that funds cochlear implants for those who cannot afford it. Delta Zeta-National signed a pledge to raise $5 million in five years for the organization, Prior said.

Even though they took a year off, Peterson believes this year’s event was very successful. Many organizations were unable to attend, but they were still able to make the same amount as years prior, Peterson said.

“We hope that by next year, our event will be officially reestablished as one of the biggest, most exciting events on campus,” Peterson said.

SAGE and MFL houses might be razed this summer

By: Ben Miller and Nicole Barhorst

The Modern Foreign Language House (MFL) on Rowland Avenue. Photo courtesy of owu.edu.

Residents of the Modern Foreign Language House (MFL) and the Sexuality and Gender Equality House (SAGE) are preparing for the possibility that their houses will be razed over the summer.

This is the newest in a series of changes to the small living units (SLUs). While the House of Thought (HoT) house has been scheduled for demolition for some time, MFL and SAGE were not set to be replaced by a SLUplex until a later date.

Residential Life (ResLife) coordinator Levi Harrel said MFL and SAGE may be razed earlier than anticipated because of a forthcoming donation, though nothing is final.

“There is a possibility of a donation being made, and if that donation does present itself, then for the sake of efficiency building two SLUplexes at once would be the most ideal thing to do,” he said.

There will be four SLUplexes built on Rowland Avenue, and each will contain two SLUs divided by a wall, Harrel said. The two SLUplexes in the middle will be mirror images of each other and look more like traditional duplexes. The SLUplexes on the ends will also mirror one another..

Harrel said that though each SLUplex will have a mirror image, the windows, porches, siding and other features will be different.

“For architectural purposes they might look similar, but I think students will absolutely see them individually,” he said.

The MFL and SAGE furniture will be stored by the university at no cost to the residents, Harrel said.

Senior Lauren Rump, a SAGE resident, said ResLife met with MFL and SAGE residents to discuss the possibility of the construction this summer. Though some members of the SLU community are upset about all these changes, she said she is excited about the new houses.

SAGE house on Rowland Avenue. Photo courtesy of owu.edu.

“Although I love the charm and history of my house, I have not enjoyed having to deal with fleas, skunks under porches and things falling apart,” she said.

The displaced SLU residents will most likely be placed elsewhere on campus, and ResLife is working on determining where that will be. The housing selection process for rising sophomores, juniors and seniors has already occurred, which complicates the matter.

“I am mostly sad for seniors who now have less options for next year if the houses get torn down,” said Rump. “Because housing rounds are finishing up and senior housing has already been filled, seniors who might have had a single in their respective SLU and the joy of living in a house their senior year might have a living situation they find less than ideal for their senior year.”

Junior Elizabeth Raphael, a MFL resident, said she had hope for the future of the SLUs.

“I think the SLU community is a very strong one, and I would like to see that continue,” said Raphael.

Dating app under development

By: Sara Hollabaugh, Transcript correspondent

Popular iPhone applications come and go, but a senior at Ohio Wesleyan believes he can create a new dating application that will exceed users’ expectations.

Senior Mainza Moono said he knows his app is going to be great, although similar to Tinder and other popular dating apps. He said he hopes to solve their biggest problem: people making a lot of matches but not going on dates.

“I can only imagine how many heart matches women get,” said David Wygant, a Huffington Post contributor. “Men probably sit there, heart matching every woman on [Tinder], hoping one will get back to them. It’s so funny that the symbol for a match is a heart too. This app is far from making love connections. It’s all about look connections!”

Moono said he agreed with Wygant, which is why he is committed to making a successful application.

According to Moono, last summer he and his colleagues were using dating apps and would continuously discuss them together, which is how he got the idea to create a new app.

“One night we were sitting at dinner talking about applications,” he said. “We started talking about their problems and thought that if you combine a few of them, you can solve a lot of problems that each one individually has.”

Realizing that this could be something groundbreaking, Moono said he created a Google document to write about the problem qualitatively.

When he returned to Ohio Wesleyan for the fall semester, he took an entrepreneurship class, where students have to come up with a business idea of any sort. Moono said he and his group used the dating app idea as their project.

This semester, Moono is in an economics class that now allows him to add the quantitative side of the project.

Besides in his classes, Moono is working on the application with a fellow intern from Stanford and their friend, a software engineer, who will build the app. Moono said his current goals are to focus on the product and create something that users can appreciate.

“We have no money making strategy now…money will come later,” he said.

According to Moono, the app will be free—similar to Tinder—and will be targeted to millennials, which ranges from 18 to 35-years-old.

“I’ve found [the 18 to 35] age range to be the most fitting from data collected in my economics class because they are the ones who are downloading and using the current apps,” Moono said.

As for when the application will be ready, Moono said he hopes that it will be done by the end of the summer.

Moono said he has three months after graduation before he starts his job in San Francisco.

“I have a lot of time to dedicate to it,” he said.

There are a lot of things that Moono and his team have to figure out before their app is launched, such as if they will have to use their own money.

Moono has figured out one way to avoid major costs though, which is by having his software engineer as his friend and part of his team.

Another aspect that is in the works is where the app will be available because the app requires a network effect, “which is people knowing each other,” Moono said. He said he knows he has to start small, which will most likely be at a college.

“We don’t know where yet, but it’s going to be strictly in one place,” Moono said.

For now, Moono is collecting answers to a survey that he sent out to Ohio Wesleyan alumni, juniors and seniors and hopes to find the right information to make his application work.

“I would definitely say that people are getting more matches on Tinder than going on dates,” said Sara Hamilton, a junior interested to find out about the app. “The desire for personal contact has been practically eliminated, so a new application would have to be able to find a way to get past that crucial problem of modern day dating.”

Privacy regulations and determining whether or not they should make it a company are among the major questions that Moono and his team will research to make their application work exactly how they want it.

Professor on cutting edge of water filtration

By: Cassie Ingram, Transcript correspondent

Kristina Bogdanov, associate professor of fine arts. Photo courtesy of owu.edu

A professor at Ohio Wesleyan University makes dirty clay water almost clean enough to drink using clay filtration pots.

In 2009 the Fine Arts department hosted Peter Chartrand, the director of Potters for Peace organization (PFP), where he introduced the filtration pots to some of the professors and explained the organization’s intentions and goals.

Their goal as an organization is to create a simple and easy to use water purifier for developing nations.

After hearing about PFP Kristina Bogdanov, associate professor of Fine Arts, was encouraged to create these similar pots for her classes in hopes of developing them and making them even better. Although her first intentions were to make them to be sent across the world she was unable to, so she stuck to using them on campus.

“Thanks to the suggestion from Joan McLean, professor of politics and government, I began using the clay filters to filter waste water from the ceramics studio,” said Bogdanov. Her objectives are to keep harsh chemicals out of our tap and drinking water.

Student in the ceramics studios were instructed to use a certain wash bucket to wash out containers with glazes in them, brushes, sponges, and any tools that are dirty. After that, the dirty water gets poured into one of the clay pots. After a few days the water filters through the clay leaving clay residue and other chemicals in the bottom of the clay pot and clean water in the bucket underneath.

How do these clay pots work? When the clay is fired the partials create a chain like affect, making it very difficult for anything besides water to get through.

According to the PFP website, this alone cleans about 98 percent of the water, but that still leaves two percent of unclean water. So for that two percent they coat the pots with a silver lining. The silver penetrates the pours of the pots and bonds with the iron oxide in the clay.

This boost the effectiveness of the filter to 99.98 percent.

Currently, Bogdanov is working on a new design for the filter in hopes of making it portable. Her hope is to create them so they can be sent and used in other countries to make safe drinking water.

PFP stands to educate and get people to understand how big of a problem unsafe drinking water is in other countries, and now Ohio Wesleyan has the opportunity to be a part of this movement and help other countries.

Softball continues mental and physical preparation

By: Holly Krampitz, Transcript correspondent

After a challenging preseason and a successful Florida trip, the Ohio Wesleyan softball team starts their spring season with chemistry that could possibly make them more successful than in the past.

The softball team has been training all year long, a preseason filled with exercises designed to prepare them for the regular season.

“It got us in shape so we won’t be tired in the games, we got to prepare plays and learn more about the game,” freshman softball player Erin Ferguson said.

But preseason was not just about conditioning the players physically, it also helped the team mentally.

“Preseason is a lot of mental preparation right off the bat, it prepares us to push when there is only a little bit of fuel left,” sophomore Kayla Pelham said.

During spring break the team traveled to Florida where they played two games a day, coming out with a record of 7-3. The trip consisted of constant softball, but was a bonding experience for the players.

“We were constantly with each other so we bonded and had better chemistry,” Ferguson said. This was the first time the team got to play together in actual games and found that they work very well together.

“Florida is really where we became a family, playing with everyone was so natural,” Pelham said. The team improved from last year’s record in Florida which was 5-5.

Senior lefthander Sarah Flint throws the ball from the pitcher's mound. Photo courtesy of battlingbishops.com. — Senior lefthander Sarah Flint throws the ball from the pitcher’s mound. Photo courtesy of battlingbishops.com.

The team is hopeful that this season will go successfully. Their record is currently 8-6 and have games almost every week and practice every day.

“We lost some games that we shouldn’t have but we are learning and growing from our mistakes,” Ferguson said. Even with the losses, some players are confident that with the right attitude they can win.

“We have a lot of talent and are very close, so as long as we keep having fun we should be pretty successful,” Pelham said. Some players say that this season is different because of the connection the players have with one another.

“It is more like a family, and that makes us play better because we are so close,” Ferguson said. Another reason that this season is seemingly different from the past ones is because of the amount of flexibility the players have.

“From what I’ve heard, this team is really different because we have a lot of depth,” freshman Phoebe Bush said. “You can put the 18th man out on the field and they will do a really good job, so I feel like we are going to go a lot farther than previous seasons.”

With the addition of six new freshman to the team this year, the team has had to make adjustments. Although the time to get acclimated can sometimes be difficult, Bush and Ferguson said they were welcomed and treated equally.

“The upperclassman are there to help us whenever we need and since we are new to the program they really helped us learn,” Ferguson said. Along with Ferguson, Ashley Day and Kayla Richard are freshman starters this year.

Because of their family-like attitude, the team is always there to motivate each other. The softball coach, Cassie Cunningham, has been coaching for 15 years and puts a strong emphasis on remaining positive.

“Everything is a learning experience with our coach. She is a really positive person and wants us to learn from our mistakes,” Ferguson said. Ohio Wesleyan softball is a tight-knit group of girls who are dedicated to the sport.