Category: News

By Transcript Staff, Katie Wiskofske and Nicole Barhorst
Transcript Correspondents

Every year, the Small Living Units hold their version of rush: “SLUsh.” SLUsh is a series of events held at each of the SLUs for students interested becoming part of the community to learn more about the individual houses, their missions and members.

This is the first part of a series of profiles on the SLUs so the campus can get to know them better house by house.

House of Thought

Many students may walk by the House of Thought (HoT) on Rowland Avenue and not know what the mission of this SLU is.

The HoT mission is to encourage and enable critical thinking on campus and examine issues in the world. According to Ohio Wesleyan’s website, HoT “inculcates inspired inquiry and action.”

HoT, located on the corner of Rowland Avenue and Liberty Street, is one of the smallest SLUs on campus, with 10 current members. Currently the house has five seniors members, all of which must be replaced by the end of the year.

Senior Erinn Colmenares, a second year member of the house, said she likes living in HoT because she gets to live with the “closest people” she has on the OWU campus.

“There’s nothing to beat that,” she said.

She said she first became interested in HoT after attending a free write project by one of the previous house members.

“I was just inherently interested in a collection of students that had critical thinking at a top of a pile,” Colmenares said.

Senior Natasha Francyzk, a second year member and moderator of the house, said she just had to join the house because of the community it represented.

“I joined the house because I could do nothing else,” she said. “HoT is, was, and forever will represent my family.”

Junior Alex D’Amore-Braver, a second year member of the house, said he became interested in living in Hot as a freshman. He said he preferred HoT to living in the dorms.

“(I like the) communal feeling of a SLU, in which you know and hangout with everyone you live with,” he said. “We have more open space to call our own, which to me creates a more homey feel. Also, we have our own kitchen, and I love to cook.”

Junior Maxwell MacKenzie, a first year member of the house, said he likes the community feel of the house.

“The 10 members really get along,” he said. “They’ll always help me out.”

D’Amore-Braver said he was also interested in the house because of the members.

“It was a community of people who were intelligent and engaged, but also knew how to have a good time,” he said.

“I really liked how they pursued academic issues all the time, engaging in long and dynamic discussion about issues within and outside of their major. The house has always had members with a wide variety of interests both academic and non, and therefore tackles every issue from multiple perspectives.”

Franczyk said the atmosphere in the house has been a special thing to see this year.

“The house has grown very close this year,” she said. “House of Thought, like all SLUs, has periods of greater and lesser closeness. My freshman year, the house was very close, and it is very close again this year. It has been inspiring to watch my housemates strive to ‘be better’ this year, per our house motto.
We all try to take care of one another, in a way that I love.”

House projects HoT has put on include Connect the Dots, a musical concert, “Res Nova” the literary magazine and Socrates Café.

Socrates Café is a discussion-based event where a question is asked and answered with several perspectives. A professor and a student take a major position on the question posed and a small debate takes place with one rebuttal to each side. The discussion is then opened up to others perspectives from the rest of the gathered students.

Socrates Café was Colmenares’ house project this semester, and she said the event is important because it broadens the idea of a debate.

“The point of this is to promote the notion that students can find an engaging discussion without the necessary experience in argumentative environments or formal debating,” she said.

“It is also meant to challenge the belief in there only being ‘two sides’ to a question in which one is correct and the other is differentially wrong by showing a multitude of possible (and) probable answers or replies.”

D’Amore-Braver and MacKenzie worked together for their house project this year. They compiled a cookbook full of recipes from students and faculty. The cookbooks were then sold to benefit Local Matters, a local food charity.

The only thing Colmenares would change about HoT is she would like to “add insulation to the walls.”

“Please interview if you like having yelling matches, wolfing down sarcasm and thinking in plus outside the box,” she said.

D’Amore-Braver said the thing he would like to change is the fact the house theme is too general.

“Critical thinking applies to the themes of all the other SLUs and most projects that you could do!” he said. “I feel that sometimes this can cause a lack of unity and sometimes even apathy in our doings.”

MacKenzie said he would change the house projects so that they would be more open, “allowing us to help different groups on campus, and not so focused on SLU life.”
Franczyk said HoT has many opportunities for new members.

“The house offers new members a supportive, dynamic environment in which to grow and learn. We provide a safe place to think critically all day, every day,” she said. “House of Thought is a place where your ideas and beliefs will be challenged constantly, not antagonistically, but so that we might all grow intellectually.”

The Women’s House

This year, the Women’s House (WoHo) is looking to continue its legacy of a supportive, loving environment for people of all sexes and walks of life by attracting new members through SLUsh events.

WoHo was established at Ohio Wesleyan as SLU in the 1980s, and is one of three SLUs located on Rowland Avenue, right next to the Modern Foreign Languages House (MFL) and the empty lot where the Creative Arts Houses (CAH) used to be.

It is the mission of the house’s members to “encourage diversity while creating a community framework through which successful programming can occur; provide a resource for women on campus; provide a safe place for women on campus; and fight oppression and the restriction of freedoms, with special consideration towards women and members of the (LGBTIQA) community,” according to the Ohio Wesleyan website.

Junior Jenna Culina, a second year member of the house, said she became a member of the house because of its members as well as its mission.

“(Deciding to join WoHo was) a spur of the moment decision that was more so spawned by my love for the people that were living in the house,” she said.

Senior Leah Shaeffer, a third year member of the house, said she joined the house to grow as a person and a feminist.

“I joined the house because I was looking for a way to branch out, make new friends, and become more involved with and educated about social justice issues,” she said. “It worked.”

Senior Alex Crump, a third year member of the house, said she joined WoHo mainly because of the house’s mission.

“I joined because the mission of the house really spoke to me, I really felt I would fit there,” Crump said.

Senior Paige Ruppel, a third year member and the moderator of the house, said she had similar reasons for joining WoHo.

“I joined the women’s house because feminism, women’s rights and equality for all are issues that have implications for me politically and personally,” Ruppel said.

“Being moderator the past two years has been a wonderful experience and has helped me grow a lot personally and as a feminist. I have been able to incorporate feminist values into my leadership style, and more greatly influence the community within the house.”

Sophomore Kyle Simon, a first year WoHo member, said he joined the house because he wanted to live in an environment where he wouldn’t be judged for his sexuality and where he would be encouraged to be more involved in service and activism.

The Women’s House provides a voice for feminists and members of the LGBTIQA community at OWU. The members of the house put on events revolving around these issues every semester as a requirement for living there.

While there are some projects that are consistently put on by the house, such as Love Your Body Day and Take Back the Night, but members also organize unique projects from semester to semester. House projects from this semester include “Anatomy of Hate,” slam poet Theresa Davis and SlutWalk.

Ruppel said she has watched the house improve over the past two years as moderator.

“I am very proud of the ways in which we have grown as a community and the improvements in some of our programming,” she said.

WoHo members also participate in activities to strengthen relationships within the house, such as a retreat and brunches.

Simon said these events are beneficial to the dynamic of the house.

“(The events help us become) more emotionally attached to one another,” he said.

“(It was) surprising to see how many of us had intersecting lives, not in a physical way, but in how we experienced life individually. Even though all of us are uniquely different people, we come together and share in a passion that brings all of us together.”

Culina said some of her favorite memories of living with this “all-inclusive group” have been of sitting in the common room talking with her roommates, whether they are a “having a heart-to-heart discussion or simply being idiots.”

Crump said she also likes the variety of conversation in the house is her favorite part of living there.

“The ability for me to come in the common room and have a really serious conversation about feminism or a relevant issue one day, and to come in the next and be laughing so hard I’m crying about something stupid (is my favorite part),” she said.

Shaeffer said the community aspect of the house is her favorite part of living there.

“There is almost always someone to hang out with, and who will listen to you, be excited for you or sympathize with you,” she said.

“My favorite times have been when we have all been hanging out together and being really silly, like during SLU wars or our murder mystery party.”
The WoHo has eight seniors currently living in the house, meaning all those positions in the house must be filled by the end of this year’s SLUsh and interview process.

Simon said prospective members of WoHo should be able to balance involvement in the OWU community with having a great time.

Culina said the WoHo is a place not just for women but also for anyone interested in “the blossoming of knowledge and intelligence.”

“We strive to build bridges and not create drawbridges (some may cross while others have to wait for their turn), as our society is so apt to do,” Culina said.

Crump said new members have many opportunities in the house, both personally and within the mission of the house.

“I think the house can offer new members a place to grow and to find their place in feminism,” she said.

Shaeffer said new members would have a strong community at the WoHo.

“Not only is WoHo a way to make new friends and contacts, become more educated about and involved with social justice issues like feminism, LGBTIQA issues, body image and more, but it also offers you a support system,” she said. “Your housemates will always be there for you.”

Sophomore Meredith Harrison, a first year member of the house, said the WoHo has a lot to offer new members, especially in the area of personal growth.
“The Women’s House offers a safe environment for people regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation and expression, racial and ethnic identity, and social class,” she said.

“As a new member this semester, I have become tremendously involved in clubs, organizations, and programming, and I owe that living in this house. I have a better understanding of who I am and what I believe in. I don’t think I would have figured that out this semester if I were living in a dorm.”

By Sadie Slager
Transcript Reporter

A late-night evacuation on Halloween was among the most recent incidents in string of unplanned fire alarms in Ohio Wesleyan’s residence halls.

These alarms, particularly in Smith Hall, are attributed to substances other than smoke setting off the alert system. There have been no legitimate fires in Smith this year, but multiple alarms have been caused by fire extinguishers being removed from hallways and the contents being sprayed throughout the building.

Sergeant Chris Mickens of Ohio Wesleyan’s Department of Public Safety explained the dangers of removing fire extinguishers as a prank.

He said if the pin is removed from an extinguisher and the foam is sprayed, the alarm system for a whole building can go off, forcing all residents to evacuate until the coast is clear.

“People may think the substance that comes from fire extinguishers is smoke because of what it looks like, so it can cause a panic,” Mickens said.

In the early hours of Nov. 1, powder from a fire extinguisher was found in the Smith East elevator. The extinguisher, half empty, was found in the hallway of the building’s fifth floor. While the alarms in individual rooms can be set off by common aerosol substances, Mickens said this incident was caused by the extinguisher’s foam activating a full-building alarm or someone pulling the alarm after seeing extinguisher foam in the air.

“With the detectors in Smith rooms, hairspray or deodorant can activate the alarm, but it won’t activate the full building alarm system,” he said. “When a certain amount of particles of dust or bugs block a certain part of the smoke detector in a room, it can be set off as well. However, if a substance is in the hallway, like a sprayed fire extinguisher, the whole building alarm can go off.”

Mickens said it is very difficult to find out who has removed extinguishers without hearing from someone who witnessed the incident. He said it is dangerous to remove extinguishers because they are there for a purpose and are a part of the larger fire safety system.

“Throughout my time here, we’ve only know about 10 percent of who removed the fire extinguishers, and it’s usually by luck if we can find this out,” Mickens said.

With it being such a small campus students are sometimes hesitant to report other students for such actions, Mickens said.

Mickens said the only two fires on campus this year were at Sigma Chi and Delta Tau Delta, and both were caused by a discarded cigarette.

While he can’t recall an alarm being pulled as a prank this year, Mickens said this has sometimes been an issue during his 13 years at WU. He said that for about a third of his time here, Smith, Bashford Hall and some fraternities have had frequent instances where fire alarms were pulled when there was not a fire. Some alarms could have been accidentally bumped, because some old pull stations were easily set off. Pull stations now have glass covers so they aren’t as easily set off.

Mickens said that pulling a fire alarm as a prank could lead to a charge of criminal activity as well as fines for a residence hall.

“In an event when we find out that someone is pulling alarms as a joke, they would be charged and send through the student conduct board or could be charged by the City of Delaware,” he said. “The only way an individual can be charged, however, is if we find out who pulled the alarm.”

Mickens said there may be traces of ink on a person’s hand if they intentionally set off a fire alarm, and this is a good indicator or who has pulled it.

Charges can come from Delaware’s fire department in the event of too many false fire alarms from a residence hall, Mickens said.

“With excessive false alarms, the fire department does have the ability to assess a fee to the university,” he said.

These charges, however, would be paid for by the university and not by individual students unless it was known who caused the false alarm and if they did it with malicious intent.

“The fee assessed by the fire department does not go into the same category as community damages, and students would not pay for it,” Mickens said.

Fire Inspector Charlie Cooperider said recent fire alarms have been caused by funny business as well as students having problems with microwaves.

“We are seeing a lot more students with microwave ovens in the rooms,” Cooperider said. “Also it seems that the students are easily distracted with other things like homework, Facebook and friends and they get sidetracked and forget they put something in the oven. We also still have the ones that think it is funny to pull a fire alarm so they can laugh at their friends as they are standing out in the weather.”

Cooperider, who works with the Risk Reduction Division of the City of Delaware Ohio, said there are different ways the fire department deals with false alarms.

“We do have a city ordinance that allows us to charge for alarm malfunctions,” he said. “If a fire alarm is activated due to overcooked popcorn, steam from a hot shower, or even someone pulling a pull station just for kicks, those alarms would be false alarms and not alarm malfunctions.”

In the case of alarm malfunctions, Cooperider said fees can be charged to the residence which houses the faulty alarms.

“If we determine the alarm keeps going off due to a malfunction, after the third time we can charge a $50 fine,” he said. “And that fine will escalate each time the alarm malfunctions until the alarm is fixed.”

If an alarm does its job correctly, he said, no one will be fined.

Cooperider said the fire department is thinking of limiting the number of microwave ovens in dorm rooms or not allowing them in order to eliminate some issues with fire alarms. Another way to deal with this, he said, is to cite student for “inciting panic due to carelessness.”

By Liza Bennett
Transcript Reporter

Three new hydration stations have been added on campus as one of the many sustainability efforts that various members of the Ohio Wesleyan community have done to increase sustainability on campus.

The new hydration stations will be placed throughout campus in Edwards Gym, Schimmel/Conrades Science Center and the second floor of Beeghly Library. The stations should be up and running within the next few weeks.

The initiative was funded through the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs.

Junior Erika Kazi said that after the first hydration station was such a success, they knew they needed to place more stations throughout campus.

“We discussed locations and allocated funds to B&G to pay for the hydration stations,” Kazi said. “Since it was desired by many people, it was a simple process, we all wanted these on campus.”

Senior Melissa Guziak, president of the Environment and Wildlife Club, said they were extremely excited to get more hydration stations placed throughout campus.

“The interest of E&W and WCSA, along with motivated individuals is what makes these projects possible,” Guziak said.

The Environment and Wildlife club has been engaging in multiple initiatives, like the hydration stations, to help increase environmental awareness on OWU’s campus. According to Kazi, these initiatives include composting in the student food court of the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center.

“We are also working on revamping the recycling program and are working with local businesses in a ‘green’ survey,” Kazi said. “We are always looking for ways to make this campus more sustainable. Simple things like switching light bulbs, to even bigger things like the hydration stations, we’ve got a lot of plans in action.”

Guziak said the E&W club was also merging with the Tree House to provide even more sustainability programs to students and members of the OWU community.

“Other sustainability projects going on right now include the Bishop Bike Movement, Veggie Meal, No Throw Away Week and a showing of ‘TAPPED’ the documentary,” Guziak said.

“Next semester E&W is going to be working on the community garden, further promoting the Bishop Bike Program, working on a ‘Lights Out’ campaign in the science center and creating a ‘Green Room’ program, to inspire students to make changes in their dorm rooms to live more sustainably.”

Sean Kinghorn, energy conservation and sustainability coordinator, said they are looking at ways to incorporate renewable energy on campus, and they are looking to use student’s input to help them continue their efforts.

“We’re continuing to focus on energy efficiency and conservation and waste reduction. Anyone interested in being involved or has ideas should feel free to contact me,” Kinghorn said.

The Environment and Wildlife Club meets Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. in Welch Hall.

By Heather Kuch
Sports Editor

“Talk to the Hand” is the Ohio Wesleyan American Sign Language (ASL) Club which gives students the opportunity to learn a new skill in a variety of creative ways.

The club meets weekly to learn ASL, to gain an understanding for the deaf culture and to improve their signing abilities.

According to the ASL webpage, “ASL is a complete, complex language that employs signs made by moving the hands combined with facial expressions and postures of the body. It is the primary language of many North Americans who are deaf and is one of several communication options used by people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.”

Junior Thomas Liwosz, the president of Talk to the Hand, said the club uses different techniques to help members learn sign language and to expand on the topics they know.
“At club we learn sets of signs and practice them,” Liwosz said.

“For example, we may pick the topic food or countries and the vocab will focus on that for the week. There is usually a game or activity that helps us learn and practice. We also may just practice conversation skill through story telling.”

Junior Stephanie Toole, treasurer of Talk to the Hand, agreed with Liwosz and said the club tries to cover a variety of areas of interest when they study ASL.

“We learn about different topics at each meeting, ranging from the alphabet and numbers (near the beginning of the semester), to classes and majors, as well as holiday-themed signs, like Halloween, for instance,” Toole said.

The club plans a variety of events throughout the year for members and OWU students. Liwosz said they have worked to share and improve their sign language skills though the use different art forms.

“So far this year we have attended a event at OSU to watch the performance of a deaf poet, and we learned to sign ‘Call Me Maybe’ to perform at Culture Fest,” Liwosz said. “We plan on learning another song this year, and there are other possible events, but nothing has been decided yet.”

Toole said the club does volunteer work in addition to hosting events to educate the campus community about the ASL.

“In the past, we have attended a basketball game at a deaf school, which we are hoping to do again this year,” Toole said. “We also participate in CultureFest each year to teach the OWU community more about deaf culture.”

Toole said the club has helped her to better understand the deaf community and to improve her signing abilities.

“I joined Talk to the Hand because speech and hearing is my sorority’s (Delta Zeta) philanthropy, so I was very interested in learning more about the deaf and hearing impaired and sign language,” Toole said.

“I have gained more knowledge about sign language and communicating with the deaf and hearing impaired since I joined, and I have also been able to meet some wonderful people through being a member of the club.”

Sophomore Megan Keppler agreed with Toole and said she joined the club because she has an interest in studying ASL.

“I joined the ASL club because I love learning new languages and knew that ASL could be quite interesting and useful,” Keppler said.

“What I am getting out of it is that I get to learn about a whole ‘nother culture that most people don’t think about and I can meet new people who I wouldn’t have otherwise.”

Liwosz said he joined the club because of his prior interest in ASL. He agreed with Toole about the club improving his signing abilities and said the club has taught him other skills as well.

“My interest in Talk to the Hand started because my mother taught me some signs and I took a course on sign language during my senior year of high school,” Liwosz said. “I have gained some leadership skills from ASL.”

He said the opporunity to take on a leadership role started two years ago.

“At the end of my freshman year, I was elected public relations officer and last year I was elected as ASL president. ASL has also helped me become a better teacher because I have been planning the meeting lessons, and sign language is being used more and more in education.”

Liwosz said the club has helped him to find new ways in which he can use sign language, which come in handy in his daily life.

“When I am struggling with studying for an exam, I sign my notes to myself and it always sticks better when I do that,” Liwosz said.

“Needless to say, when I am at a party with music blaring, it is easier to sign to my friends than to yell things at them they will never hear.”

The club meets on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in the Welch TV lounge. Liwosz said all students are welcome to come regardless of their experience with sign language and attending meetings is not a requirement of membership.

“The important thing to remember is members can join at anytime and are always welcome,” Liwosz said.

“Even if they know no or little sign language or are advanced, everyone is welcome. We usually have between 5-10 members at a meeting, but there are a large number of students who follow club event and do not come to meetings because of other commitments.”

By Margaret Bagnell
and Spenser Hickey
Transcript Reporter and Correspondent

Last Friday, juniors Martin Clark and Tim O’Keeffe were elected the next president and vice president of the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs.They defeated two other candidate pairs: juniors Ariel Koiman and Anthony Fisher, and junior Andrew Paik and sophomore Memme Onwudiwe.

Clark and O’Keeffe will be joined on the executive committee by their two sophomore running mates, Maria Urbina and Lauren Holler, who were elected secretary and treasurer.
Urbina ran unopposed, while Holler defeated juniors Peter Reveles and Saar Rajpuria.

Clark said the decision to reach out and meet with campus organizations benefitted his campaign.

“(Meeting with organizations) put us in a good position to win,” Clark said.

He also attributed their success to their social media and word of mouth campaigns, as well as getting the freshman class involved.

Paik said while the result wasn’t what he’d hoped for, he wasn’t surprised by who won the election.

“Martin and Tim were the front runners from the start,” Paik said. “They had a very large base of supporters, and coupled with the support they’d get from Maria and Lauren’s supporters, we had (our) work cut out for us.”

Although Fisher said he was surprised by the outcome, he has confidence in Clark and O’Keeffe’s abilities.

“The students voted on who they felt will do the best job and work for them,” said Fisher. “I know Martin and Tim will do a good job.”

Paik, Fisher and Koiman said they thought the new system started by Clark and O’Keeffe—combining their campaign with those of secretary and treasurer—should not continue.
Paik said he was unaware of Urbina and Holler’s plans to run with Clark and O’Keeffe until they started campaigning, but if he’d known beforehand he’d have created a joint campaign of his own.

Paik said running against a joint campaign without having one was a “competitive disadvantage.”

Koiman said having the joint campaign was “an uphill battle” to compete against and “shut out” Rajpuria and Reveles, who weren’t endorsed.

Both Paik and Fisher said future joint campaigns would also hinder diversity among the WCSA executive committee.

Fisher said regular divided campaigns were beneficial to the campus because it allows for greater diversity.

“(Divided campaigns allow) more people from other social circles of campus a chance to be a part of WCSA,” he said.

Clark said he is not sure if the joint campaigns will continue. He said he, O’Keeffe, Urbina and Holler were already “very close” before they decided to run together.
“It was only natural that we decided to do this together,” he said.

WCSA candidates spent weeks campaigning their platforms to the student body and held a forum debate in the atrium of the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center on Nov. 7.
The debates were overseen by the current WCSA president and vice president, seniors Anthony McGuire and Carly Hallal.

Candidates were asked about what improvements could be made on campus and what changes could be implemented quickly. Clark and O’Keeffe claimed they wanted to be more active in the government and reach out to students to make a positive change in the university.

O’Keeffe ran for the position of vice president with a campaign strategy that reflected how OWU is a proactive community and Holler said she has already thought of ways to help club spending.

“I want to see the accountability for these clubs and make sure they do meet the guidelines by and checking up on the groups,” Holler said.

Junior Elise Pitcairn challenged the candidates once the forum opened up to the students.

“How are you all involved on campus already, and how do you plan to get more involved?” questioned Pitcairn.

The candidates were given the opportunity to respond by listing their accomplishments and involvement in other clubs.

SophomorePhilippe Chauveau also questioned the candidates during the debate.

“The majority of the students don’t know what the WCSA positions are running for and there is not very much publicity for the students to understand what you’re all about,” said Chauveau.

With the debates over, and the outcome of the election determined, students can expect to see the student government take a more active role in the community.
However, McGuire said only 24.9 percent of students voted in the election.

This number is a decrease in voter participation.

In 2011 25.3 percent voted, while 52.5 percent voted in 2010, the first year of online voting.

This drop came despite increased campaigning by all candidates, particularly via social networking and the candidate debate.

McGuire said the low number of voters was unexpected.

“I got the feeling that this campaign season was more passionate and fierce than last year’s or the year before,” McGuire said.

He said the drop may have been caused by internet problems; users of Google Chrome in particular reportedly had difficulty voting on their J/CX accounts.

The new WCSA governing body already said it has plans in motion to help the OWU community change for the better.

“We have already started to brainstorm on how to get things done properly in office. This semester I’d like to see a lot of changes made especially with housekeeping and the food on campus. Those are the two main issues we would like to make improvements on for the students.

We’re also going to start going to clubs bimonthly for their meetings and make ourselves more well known in the OWU community, especially to the many clubs on campus,” said O’Keeffe.

By Chrissy Wesney
Transcript Correspondent

The weather was nice, the music was loud and the soccer balls were flying as students and faculty played soccer for CARE.

The second annual Ohio Wesleyan University Soccer for Food competition took place on Nov. 10 and 11 at the practice field across from the Meek Aquatic and Recreation Center.

The competition raised money for CARE, a humanitarian aid group in East Africa. The organization is for famine relief that also helps with medical supplies, families and orphanages.

Senior Sarah Johnston said she got the inspiration for this event after she studied abroad in Tanzania for wildlife conservation two years ago.

“I want over for the animals, but I think I fell in love with the people more than the animals,” Johnston said.

Johnston said that she would play soccer every day with the children while in Tanzania and was inspired by how happy they war.

“I learned Swahili, but the only words that I can remember are the soccer terms,” Johnston said. “It was kind of like soccer became the universal language that we didn’t have to understand each other, per se, to play together.”

After she came back, she discussed with friends what they could do to help the children in Africa.

“(The kids) wouldn’t be playing with shoes; they wouldn’t have eaten that day. Just worst case scenario, typical stuff you see on commercials. But you never really know until you see it, and you’re so affected by it,” Johnston said.

Johnston said the whole point of the competition was that she didn’t want to “beg people for money, or show pictures of dying, starving children, but to recreate when (she) got to out and play soccer.”

Senior Magdalena Jacobo said she decided to participate in the event this year because she heard about the competition last year, but was unable to attend.

“I think it’s a good event because besides different organizations coming together for a cause, there is a fellowship among the participants even if the matches become sort of competitive,” Jacobo said.

This year, 11 teams participated in the competition, which is less than the 16 teams that participated in last year’s event.

“We have a few less teams this year because of sports tournaments, and fraternity and sorority events,” Johnston said. “That’s unfortunate, but we still have a great amount.”

Last year, the competition raised around $1500, and Johnston said that this year’s goal is to get just over that amount.

Johnston said one thing that is amazing about this year’s competition is the prizes for the champions.

“Last year, we had a prize for the champion, but it was just shirts because we didn’t have any additional funding,” Johnston said. “But this year we’re having medals and Amato’s donated $100 in gift cards, bringing other people to donate as well.”

Johnston thanked the volunteers who helped her run the event.

“It’s really cool that we get faculty members to participate and students from (different clubs),” Johnston said.