Category: News

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.”

Local elections could swing the balance of power in Turkey after more than a decade of one party rule, according an Ohio Wesleyan University professor and native of Turkey.

Alper Yalcinkaya, an assistant professor of sociology and anthropology, spoke about the situation in Turkey as the fifth installment of this year’s Great Decisions lecture series on March 21.

“What we are seeing currently is the biggest cultural and political crisis in recent Turkish history,” he said.  “The situation is so unstable that whatever happens there will impact the entire region.”

The influence of different religious thought used to be the main conflict for Turkey, which was founded on secularism.

However, the new challenges Turkey is currently facing are rapidly growing and, according to Yalcinkaya, stem from battling political parties and their influence.  He elaborated on this conflict, which he called the break up.

According to Yalcinkaya, this break up between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Gulen movement brought bloody conflicts marring the opposing ideologies.

Since its creation in 2001, the AKP has held a majority of parliamentary seats. The popular vote for AKP has increased every year under the promise of stability, unity and tolerance.

Under AKP rule, Yalcinkaya explained, the “new Turkey,” emphasized the nation’s economical boom.

“Construction became the engine of Turkish growth,” Yalcinkaya said.

“If you went to Turkey within the last 10 years, the whole country would look like a construction site.  Housing projects boomed and skyscrapers became wide spread.”

Aggressive religious lawmaking, however, and censoring practices such as banning websites and controlling the majority of news reporting, created an opposition led by Fetullah Gulen, who is considered as the face of moderate Islam. As a result, his influence has grown with powerful support and financial backing.

“These upcoming local elections, particularly in Istanbul will be very telling,” Yalcinkaya said. “If AKP finds themselves losing support and votes, we can expect change. But if votes increase or remain steady we can expect a tighter regime.”

Dennis Laich, an earlier Great Decisions speaker, asked if the developments in Turkey could affect its foreign policy.

“Turkey is right across the Black Sea from Crimea, gets almost 60 percent of its gas from Russia,” Laich said. “I wonder which way Turkey goes over the next 12 months.”

Any prediction, Yalcinkaya said, will have to wait on the results of the elections. “However, I believe that ultimately they will follow NATO’s lead in Crimea.”

While the Early Childhood Center is a fundamental resource for the education department, many members of the Ohio Wesleyan University community are unaware of the day-to-day dealings of the brown brick building they pass everyday en route to the academic side of campus.

The Early Childhood Center strives to utilize unique, hands-on teaching methods in an attempt to capture children’s attention. 110 children between the ages of three and five attend the center on a part-time basis throughout the week.

Director and teacher at the center, Kellie Hall, said much of how the children learn is through hands-on activities that give them a chance to immerse themselves in the curriculum rather than just hearing about it.

“Unique to our school is our curriculum,” Hall said. “We utilize an emergent curriculum which means we pay close attention to the interests of the children and what is happening in the world around them.  We plan activities based on these observations, while also taking into account the state learning standards for early childhood.”

The center also offers, on average, a 10:3 student to teacher ratio in each class. This ratio is higher than the average classroom because of the OWU students who work at the center.

OWU students are able to work in the Early Childhood Center as student teachers, field study students, legacy education administrative interns, work-study students, psychology students, drama students, health and human kinetic students, Tree House volunteers, in StAP positions and completing community service for education classes.

Senior Tim O’Keefe works for the Center, and said he believes it is a crucial resource not only to students of the center, but students of OWU’s education department as well.

“The Early Childhood Center does a lot of emergence teaching with its students,” O’Keefe said. “If children start to express interests in a certain topic, then the teachers will integrate that topic into the classroom. For instance if children are discussing cars during snack time or during guided exploration, then teachers will incorporate cars as well as more lessons on transportation into their lessons. This style allows for the children of the center to be more engaged in lessons as well as show that the teachers of the center adapt to what their students are interested in.”

Current sophomore and Delaware resident Alanna Spalsbury attended the center as a child, and said she remembers “loving” her time there, and described her experience as being very “hands-on.”

“I remember having show and tell (one boy even brought his pet goat) and the teachers were always very compassionate and actively engaged with us,” she said. “Also I know we were active outside daily with there being a track in the backyard and many sensory areas like a sand box and seed station.”

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.”

Women’s Week Preview
By Sara Jane Sheehan
Transcript Reporter

Women’s Week, an annual series of programs started in the 1980s, has begun again this year and will soon make history.

Friday night’s program will be a performance of “Butterfly Confessions” – the first time it has been read without the direct involvement of its author Yetta Young.

“Butterfly Confessions” is a series of monologues on the experiences of women of color and raising awareness about violence against women and the effects of HIV/AIDS.

It is being performed in conjunction with “The Vagina Monologues,” a similar set of readings that has been held on campus for several years.

The Women’s House (WoHo), House of Peace and Justice, House of Black Culture and Citizens of the World House have all collaborated in planning the week.

For WoHo, led by junior moderator Meredith Harrison, the main focus has been on Thursday’s Take Back the Night.

At Take Back the Night, an annual event, students share experiences with sexual violence and march afterward.

“The event has become so well attended that we have been breaking fire code in Bishop Cafe, where the event has been held for a long time,” Harrison said.

“Moving Take Back the Night to Benes (Room) B allows greater attendance at the event.”

Harrison also said that Women’s Week is collaborating with Green Week by giving points to Green Week teams who attend events.

Junior Lauren Rump, a WoHo resident, said she is excited for all of the events that are offered this week.

“I hope the week brings continued awareness to a variety of women’s issues that women are dealing with at our campus, nationally and globally,” Rump said.

“I hope the week can also serve as a way for people to come together to celebrate, heal, empower and act.”

Harrison said she hopes this week will bring OWU’s attention to women’s issues that people do not necessarily think about.

“Women of color, global women, women in poverty, queer women and many other women are often left out of the conversation when it comes to women’s issues,” Harrison said.

“I hope people attend all the events, but especially the events that discuss some of the intersecting identities.”

 

Green Week Preview
By Megan Dill
Transcript Reporter

Beginning in this week’s issue, I will be writing a weekly column about world affairs. It will consist of simple breakdowns of complex current events to help Ohio Wesleyan students and other readers get an idea of what’s going on outside the OWU community. Here are two of the world’s most important happenings from this week.

The Issue: Crimea

For those who don’t know, there have been some issues in the Ukraine.

It started with protests against the Ukrainian government after it turned away from the western European Union and moved towards the eastern Russia. The Ukrainian public was very displeased with that decision and took to the streets in protest.

Russian President Vladimir Putin did not look too kindly on these protests, and the Russians moved into Crimea, which is a historically significant area to both the Russians and Ukrainians. According to the British newspaper The Independent, Crimea is “strategically important as a base for the Russian navy,” and currently has a 60 percent Russian population.

On March 16, there was a vote in Crimea about seceding from the Ukraine and joining Russia, which passed with 93 percent of the vote in favor of joining Russia.

The United States has been under fire for not getting involved, but Vice President Joe Biden is currently in Poland to offer some military and economic aid to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

According to the New York Times, “…Biden’s trip is designed to send a visible message to Russia, reinforcing the sanctions the United States and the European Union announced…”

The Issue: MH 370

On March 8, a Malaysia Airlines jet heading from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China with 239 passengers and crew simply vanished from radar. Ten days later, there is still no sign of the missing aircraft.

There has been an abundance of rumors and theories for what caused the disappearance, from pilot suicide to the plane being shot down. According to CNN, Malaysia’s Prime Minister said “somebody deliberately steered the plane off course.”

Most of the passengers are from China, but there are also passengers from New Zealand, Iran, the United States and Indonesia. According to ABC News, Malaysia is overseeing the search, while Australian officials are coordinating efforts in the southern Indian Ocean.

The BBC said Malaysian officials have searched the homes of the two pilots, but they are also investigating passengers, engineers and other ground staff.

This disappearance is an obvious mystery to the families and friends of the passengers and crew aboard the plane, and not one that will be solved anytime soon.

Illustration by Noah Manskar

NCAA All-American honors are rare at any division level and in any sport. Two Bishops, senior Cara DeAngelis and junior Matt Hunter achieved these honors at the NCAA D-III indoor track and field championships on March 14 and 15 at Nebraska Wesleyan University. DeAngelis came in second place in the 3000-meter run with a time of 9:39.17 which broke the school record she recently set. Hunter came in sixth place in the heptathlon, scoring a combined 5028 points in the seven events. Here are some of their thoughts on the honor, their goals and the rest of the season.

The Transcript: What does it mean to you to be representing Ohio Wesleyan as an All-American athlete?

Cara DeAngelis: It means a lot to represent OWU as an All-American athlete. We are more of an outdoor-based program and so typically we do not have a lot of athletes to represent OWU at the indoor national meet. It was an honor to be able to do so.

In addition, OWU has never had someone on the women’s team place as high as second place at an indoor national meet, which makes it even more special to be the first to do so (at least I think that’s the case).

Plus, this was the first year they ran the 3k (3,000-meter race) at the national meet. When I left nationals, I wanted people from other schools to know Ohio Wesleyan’s name.

T: What goals did you set on the way to this honor? Was being an All-American one of those goals?

Matt Hunter: When I came to OWU as a freshman, I set a goal to be an All-American. I had other goals along the way, but I was always focused on this one goal. And it feels great after working for two and a half years towards one goal to finally achieve it.

T: How have Head Coach Kris Boey and the OWU track staff helped you develop?

CD: All the coaches have helped me a lot, but Matt Wackerly is my main coach. He plans all of my workouts and modifies them when I need to change things up. I trust him completely to help me achieve my goals.

Honestly though, it’s not just the coaches that have helped me develop. My parents have played a huge part as to who I am as a runner today. The Tom (Josefowicz), the trainer, and Dr. (Jason) Diehl here helped keep me in one piece during cross-country and continue to help me do so.

My boyfriend, Nathan Kafity, has helped me immensely with staying positive. As a distance runner, the race is pretty much 80 percent mental, and so even though I have a coach to get me physically fit, none of that matters much if I am not there mentally, so he has helped me a ton.

My teammates also have been very supportive of my goals and we help each other stay motivated and get through the rough days.

T: How do you plan on transitioning successfully to outdoor season?

MH: The transition to the outdoor season has already begun. Indoor nationals was over on Saturday, and on Sunday I started to get my body ready for the decathlon. The key for me is to be consistent with my training, and to be patient as we move towards the outdoor national meet.

How much more competitive is the National Championship meet than, say, the NCAC Championship meet?

CD: Exponentially more competitive. Nationals is Conference on steroids — a lot of steroids. The national level is the best athletes from (Division) III from all over the country, whereas conference was just from a small selection of schools belonging to the NCAC.

T: Were you expecting to have the best 60-meter time at the NCAA championships?

MH: The Monday before the meet I pulled my groin, and wasn’t sure if I was even going to be able to compete. The whole week all I did was rehab and didn’t even try to run until the day before. I knew that if I had been totally healthy then I was undoubtedly the fastest in the field, but to be honest I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be able to finish the race. With all that stress, finishing in first place—and with a new personal record—was a huge thrill.

I bet most of my teammates could guess that over the last two and a half years my goal was to be an All-American, and I bet that most of them could guess what my goal is going forward. That being said, I am a firm believer that you should have big goals, and keep them to yourself. If you want to know, you’re just going to have to wait and see what I do!

T: Being a senior, how happy are you to have had such a great final indoor season?

CD: I’m not happy. Just kidding. Of course I’m happy! Indoor Nationals was really just a bonus I wasn’t expecting to get since we focus on outdoor track. My training for indoor is not nearly as tough as what I will be doing for outdoor training. The focus now is staying healthy for outdoor nationals, especially since we are hosting it. I want nothing more than to be able to represent OWU on my own track.

See the full story on the OWU track and field team’s indoor NCAA Championship performance on Page 8.