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Summer internships still available thanks to grant

With the school year winding down, many Ohio Wesleyan students are looking for summer internships.

In August of 2014, OWU career services received The Great Lakes Career Ready Internship Grant for summer internships of $133,333 from the Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation. This grant was used to help students with financial needs.

“We’re excited and appreciative for this grant and the potential it creates for our students,” said Director of Career Services Leslie J. Melton in a press release when the grant was announced.

Now that money is available to more students looking to gain experience over the break. This is in large part thanks to the additional donations of two OWU alumni.

“Up until mid-March we were really limited in the number of students who could benefit from the dollars,” said internship coordinator Jill Walters. “We were able to change that a little bit so that the money could be available to more students.”

Walters said that this has recently created a buzz about internships.

“Now we’ve been sending all kinds of emails and trying to get folks interested because the group of eligible students is a lot larger,” Walters said.

The number of quality applications turned in by students seeking internships has grown since then according to Walters.

Even students who have already accepted unpaid internships can seek help from career services to change it to a paid one.

“We were able to reach out to those employers and say ‘hey there would you be interested in partnering, the student is eligible for grant dollars, we would love to pay their salary while their participating in an unpaid internship with you,’” Walters explained.

This was another thing career services were unable to initially do when the grant money was first received.

Internships made available by career services range from locations in Ohio, all the way to Texas, with many others in between. Students can work in fields that include: music, journalism, zoology, psychology, politics and government, business and fitness.

“It’s a really nice mix, something that was really important to our office,” Walters said.

$1 million donation to math and computer science departments for endowed chair

The Ohio Wesleyan Department of Mathematics and Computer Science has received a $1 million donation from the

Beatrice K. McDowell. Photo courtesy of legacy.com.

estate of the only female from the class of 1940 with a math degree.

Beatrice K. McDowell of Akron, Ohio, died Sept. 25, 2011, according to the Connect2OWU press release.

OWU president Rock Jones said because of legal problems with the estate, the donation wasn’t available to the university until now, four years after her death.

“The provision to [McDowell’s] last will and testament was made 15 years ago,” Jones said.

The donation will establish an endowed chair position within the math/CS department, Jones said. However, Jones said endowed chair positions have no power or authority.

“It’s essentially just an honor to receive the title of endowed chair,” said Jones. “They possess no power or authority. In the future, I’d like to make it so that these chairs have more power, however, right now, this is how it is.”

Jones explained that endowed chair positions are selected by the Faculty Personnel Committee (FPC), and by the Provost each spring.

Mark Schwartz, chair of the math/CS department, and professor of math at OWU, said there are plenty of things the money can be put toward.

The money, which Jones said will be 5 percent each year out of the $1 million, could be allocated to a number of different programs.

“We have several new programs, such as the travel learning course which goes to Alaska to study climate modeling, and this money will guarantee its future,” Schwartz said.

Some of the other programs the money will likely go toward, Schwartz said, include the Summer Science Research Program (SSRP), which is put on by the National Science Foundation.

OWU Provost Chuck Stinemetz said endowed chair positions are selected each spring, but declined to comment on whether or not this meant that this particular endowed chair position will be chosen this spring, as well.

Strand Theatre features “The Missing Picture”

Clay figures typically do not come to mind when the word documentary is mentioned.

The Missing Picture, nominated for the best foreign language film at the 2014 Academy Awards, was shown at the Strand Theater April 21-22 as a part of the 2015 Community Film Series.

The series is sponsored by the Ohio Wesleyan English department. Professors Lynette Carpenter and Martin Hipsky make the decision of which films will be screened each year.

The documentary – which uses clay figures to fill in for missing or destroyed footage – focuses on the horrible conditions Cambodians faced at work camps under the rule of the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979. A total of one third of the population died under the dictatorship.

“I was looking for an East Asian film and this one I thought would be particularly useful for students to study because it’s so experimental,” Carpenter said.

Still from the film. Photo courtesy of mubi.com.

Students are not the only ones to go to the screenings. Many residents of Delaware have also attended.

“Honestly I wish more people would come because they’re great films,” said junior Joe Pileski. “They’re not things (films) that really get advertised in the normal cinema cycle.”

The Missing Picture was directed by Rithy Panh who suffered through Khmer Rouge rule with his family. Panh was able to escape to Thailand and today is considered one of Cambodia’s most talented directors.

“It was very interesting… animation superimposed on real images,” said junior Emily Webb.

Panh and his crew who helped work on the film created hundreds of little clay figures and then proceeded to move them to different, recreated sets that resembled Cambodia’s rice fields, work camps and cities.

“It also illustrates the difference perhaps between our assumptions about film making and what it’s actually intended to do and how other cultures see film making,” Carpenter said.

The final film of the 2015 Community Film Series, Sex, Lies and Videotape, directed by Steven Soderbergh, will be shown April 28-29.

On Agent Orange and war veterans

Dr. Thomas Wolber

From 1961 to 1971, vast areas of Vietnam were sprayed with Agent Orange herbicides. The purpose of the defoliants was to destroy the food sources of the Vietcong and to deprive them of canopy cover. Up to 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to the toxin. The effects are still virulent today, resulting on tens of thousands of annual premature deaths and severe birth defects, even in second and third generations.

The Vietnamese are not the only ones suffering from the consequences of this toxic legacy. Some 2.6 million Americans served in the war, and many of them also became disabled after being exposed to Agent Orange. The Department of Veterans Affairs recognizes some fifty chronic diseases linked to Agent Orange, including Hodgkin’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, leukemia, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, and several cancers.

It took an epic battle with the VA, but today most Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange (except sailors) qualify for help and treatment, at least in theory. But the waiting lists can be long, and many have died without ever being seen, examined, and treated. However, there is still no help for their descendants although Agent Orange is expected to cause continued health problems for veterans and their children for at least five to seven generations.

The list of possible birth defects is long and includes things like congenital heart disease, clubfoot, cleft lip or palate, his dysplasia, and numerous diseases that most of us have never even heard of. The VA provides compensation for many severe birth defects among children of female veterans who served in Vietnam, but there are no equivalent benefits for the descendants of male veterans, who constitute the vast majority.

Anyone who believes that the Agent Orange issue is not something that affects the Delaware or Columbus community is mistaken. We have hundreds of veterans of foreign wars in our midst. One of them is Joe DiGenova, a Vietnam War veteran and the longest-serving City Council member in Delaware’s history. He is very concerned about the transgenerational effects of Agent Orange and has urged Ohio politicians such as Andrew Brenner and Pat Tiberi to support legislation that would extent help for victims of Agent Orange to children and grandchildren of male war veterans.

An article in the Columbus Dispatch last year (5/12/14) profiled John E. Pistick, 71, who lost his left arm due to soft-tissue sarcoma, a rare type of cancer that has been found in Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange. Two of his three children developed brain tumors during childhood. They are adults now, but because of their inability to live independently they still reside with their parents.

The brave men and women of the armed forces deserve our admiration and gratitude. Society owes them the best care available. They and their children should not have to worry about whether or not to receive medical help. The Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act of 2013 merits bipartisan support. It is a broad piece of legislation – perhaps too broad because it also includes assistance to Vietnamese nationals and environmental remediation. If it does not pass, then perhaps a more narrowly defined law that specifically addresses the needs of the American descendants of Vietnam War veterans needs to be introduced.

Dr. Thomas Wolber is an associate professor of German at Ohio Wesleyan. He teaches all levels of German language, literature and civilization. In addition to those subjects, he specializes in comparative literature and environmental studies.

Well-known improv group visits campus for Slice of Life

By: Holly Krampitz, Transcript correspondent

If one were to enter Stuyvesant Hall on April 19 he or she would probably hear German accents, adults acting like dinosaurs and lots of laughter.

Campus Activities Magazine’s entertainers of the year, Mission Improvable, performed at Ohio Wesleyan on Sunday as a part of Slice of College Life for prospective students.

Mission Improvable is an improv group that has been traveling all around the world for the past 15 years. These comedians act as agents and incorporate the audience as co-agents for their “missions.” There are four main agents who travel around that switch out every few years.

Mission Improvable was brought to OWU along with mentalist Chris Carter, for the Slice of College Life events. Both acts were recommended by the Student Involvement Office, according to Laurie Patton, senior associate director of admission and events coordinator for the Office of Admission.

“It seemed to me that students really enjoyed the performances,” Patton said. “The acts were professional, entertaining, funny, and engaging.” Students on campus helped agents identify unspecified objects, act out an unwritten Shakespearian play and make up scenes for the agents to act out.

Prospective student Katie Paull attended the show and said it was the highlight of her weekend. “I couldn’t stop laughing during the show,” she said. Students were encouraged to actively participate in the show and a few even got a chance to be on stage with the performers.

The actors in Mission Improvable seemed to have a lot of energy and are very conformable being on stage. One of the agents, Sherman Edwards, joked that his biggest fear is having his pants fall down.

“It’s better to be confident and wrong than shy and right,” Edwards said. Edwards originally wanted to be a doctor and even took pre-med classes. He eventually realized he just wanted to wear a lab coat and decided his real passion was in comedy. Another agent, Matt Garard, always knew he wanted to be an actor.

“Odds are we won’t see our name in lights, but just the fact that we get to do what we love for a living is very cool for me,” Garard said. The actors in Mission Improvable chose improv because they like how spontaneous it is and that anything can happen.

“It is never the same twice,” Garard said. “You never know what is going to happen, which is kind of a thrill for me.”

New interactive whiteboard system available to students

Information Services (InfoSys) has bought a new innovative system which turns any wall into an interactive whiteboard.

This new system works with Mac or PC, and hooks up to almost any projector or HDTV, up to about 100 inches diameter.

OWU instructional technologist David Soliday said, “Interactive presentations promote more engaged learning. Using an interactive system, the instructor’s hands are on the display, rather than a computer or tablet. It also empowers collaboration, as students can come up and interact with the display in response to prompts or questions, or as part of group collaboration.”

Along with the interactive system is a pen that is used as a computer cursor to annotate and draw on the screen, which will be projected on the wall. These units cost about $149 each and can be used by professors and faculty on campus by contacting InfoSys.

These systems can be useful in the classroom to invigorate lessons, presentations or meetings.

According to the technologies website, “your drawings, gestures and highlights will all appear on the live image in real time. IS-01 is even compatible with a wide variety of software programs, meaning you’ll be able to control what’s on screen, just as if you were at the computer.”

Soliday said, the IPEVO IS-01 is more beneficial than Smart Board systems because, “the IPEVO IS-01 costs $149, whereas Smart Board systems can cost ten times that much. It’s also portable, so a department could have a unit that floats among the faculty. In fact, the Media Center is planning to purchase a couple to make available for borrowing.”

The education department is planning on purchasing a device for permanent installation in room 208.

“I am excited that this technology will be available for the university. It’s important that we keep up with the new systems that will improve the learning experience in the classrooms,” junior Mira Singhal said,

Soliday said he saw the IPEVO IS-01 being demonstrated at the Ohio Educational Technology Conference in February and was impressed by the concept and price. From there sales representatives offered to send a demo unit.

“IPEVO is a young company but they have a compelling product at a great price.” Soliday said. “These systems, and other IPEVO products, are gaining traction in primary schools, and I’m sure colleges will find the IS-01 appealing for its versatility and its price.”

Active Minds aims to break stigma, hosts speak out about mental health

By offering a space for students to discuss personal experiences and difficulties with mental health, Active Minds is attempting to shift the negative light away from disorders such as depression and anxiety.

Thursday, April 24, Ohio Wesleyan’s Active Minds chapter hosted their second speak out. Despite the seemingly minimal turn out to Bishop Café—only a handful of students outside of the club were present— club president junior Alyssa Lucas still felt optimistic about the event.

Lucas said she would rather have a small and welcoming audience that will be enthusiastic rather than a large and possibly unresponsive one. The club’s first speak out was in 2014. Lucas said it had much higher attendance, “It was a huge success last year, we actually had to cut it short because so many people were sharing their stories. It was really great though, so we decided to do it again.”

Five members of Active Minds pose in the Milligan Hub at one of their events earlier this semester. Photo courtesy of Facebook.

Compared to other related events on campus, such as Anthology of Survival, the speak outs are designed with little restriction. Attendees are invited to share any sort of story that they find so “pertinent” as Lucas described. Speakers are not required to submit a pre-written story beforehand, and are free to share spontaneously.

“We want people to be able to stand up and say whatever they want to,” Lucas said. “Whether it be their story, or someone else’s story that has affected them, it is a pretty open place to talk.”

Active Minds vice president junior Abby Hanson said speak outs can also be an opportunity for people to learn more about their own mental health. Hanson said that sometimes people recognize their own problems in the remarks that speakers make and realize that they may need to seek assistance. In order to help attendees, two members from Counseling Services were present at the event.

Despite a small audience, the speak out lasted over an hour. At first only members from Active Minds shared their stories, but as the room seemed to grow more comfortable, other students spoke as well. A range of issues were discussed such as suicide and self-harm, difficulty with medication, acceptance of diagnoses and hope for the future.

Sorority bats a thousand — almost

By: Abigale Lyon, Transcript correspondent

Kappa Alpha Theta raised over $900 at their seventh annual spring philanthropy event, KATs and BATs, on Sunday, April 19, in support of the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA).

CASA is a network of 951 community-based programs that recruit, train and support citizen-volunteers in order to help the abused and neglected children in courtrooms and communities to the best of their abilities, according to CASA’s website.

CASA helps abused and neglected children get through the legal system. The kids that benefit from CASA often do not have a stable adult figure in their lives. So giving them one person that will work with them consistently is really beneficial for them, Theta’s service and philanthropy director, sophomore Emma Beale said.

Within the U.S., each day 1,900 children become victims of abuse or neglect, and four of them will die, according to CASA’s website.

“CASA has the power to save lives. Not directly, like pulling a kid out of a burning building, but still powerfully, saving them from abuse and neglect which can be life threatening,” Beale said.

CASA also directly impacts the lives of children who need it the most. It provides them with a guaranteed support system no matter where they go or what foster family they’re put with, junior Mira Singhal said.

“To me, it means that theses kids will have someone to motivate them to be better and reach higher heights, no matter their previous circumstances,” Singhal said. “It builds trust for these kids who are vulnerable and allows them to be themselves.”

“My favorite thing about CASA is the incredible impact that one volunteer has on a child’s life,” freshmen Dominique Garrett said. “To me, CASA means a child will be gaining their childhood back again.”

As the service and philanthropy director of Theta, Beale’s main job is putting on successful philanthropy events each semester that help raise money and awareness for CASA, yet she does not stop at just this.

“I hope to be a good resource to my sisters for finding opportunities for service and to always be on the look out for service opportunities to share with the house,” Beale said.

Reading is good for you, kids!

I love reading. I love reading books, magazines, newspapers, online articles. Anything that has words printed on it, I’ll read it. And I’ve always been like this. My parents told me that when I was about three, they came in to read me a story before bed. Instead of welcoming their presence, they said, I told them they could go away and I could read it myself. And since then, I haven’t been able to stop.

I remember as a kid staying up way past my bedtime to read a book. I would hear my parents coming up the stairs and I would run to turn my light off. Once I heard their door close, I would turn it back on and continue my adventure. Sometimes, I got caught and heard the exasperation in their voices. “Emily, turn off your light and go to bed.” I like to think that they were secretly happy that I was up reading.

And even as a junior in college, I stay up way too late finishing books. It always goes like this, “Ok, only one more chapter, then I’ll go to bed.” The chapter finishes. “Well, that wasn’t a good ending point, one more.” Then, “That chapter was incredibly short, one more.” That would go on until I had 20 or so pages left in the book, and then I would have to finish it. And then I would wake up about three hours later for class and hate myself. But I never learn my lesson.

Growing up, I always carried a book on me. I took one to the dentist’s office, doctor’s appointments and even to sleepovers, you know, just in case we had some free time. And today, I keep one in my purse at all times.

However, one thing I never understood was when kids would proudly say, “I don’t read. I hate it.” I understand if it’s not your favorite thing to do in the world. Hey, I don’t like sports. But bragging about not reading a book for school isn’t cool. I knew people in high school who didn’t read any of the assigned books for class. Yeah, they got by alright thanks to Sparknotes, but I always thought it was ridiculous that they bragged about it. It was like they were proud of not reading. That always hurt my heart. Reading has been one of the only things that has kept me sane in my life; it’s a form of escapism.

When Greg Moore, an Ohio Wesleyan journalism alumnus, came, he told some of us that one of the habits of extremely successful people he has met is that they all read a book a week. Now, I’m not talking about Anna Karenina length a week. It could be anything. If fiction isn’t your style, that’s cool. There are so many genres of books it makes my mind boggle. Whatever you’re interested in, there is probably a book about it. Trust me, I know. I’ve read books about the creation of The Clash’s album, London Calling all the way to books about true crime throughout history.

Now that we are all at that points in our lives, I hope that telling someone you don’t read isn’t a sense of pride like in high school. And I’m not saying reading needs to be your favorite thing in the entire world, like it is mine. I’m just saying you should pick up a book every once in a while. It might surprise you how much you actually enjoy it.

House of Peace and Justice hosts a musical bash

The House of Peace and Justice (P&J) hosted a night with live music from three bands last Friday.

WV White, Tom Ghoulie and Spaceman Spiff performed. Juniors Mark Chalmers and Sam Carpenter and senior Harris Schaeffer make up Tom Ghoulie.

“The goal was to have a good time and just jam like we normally do,” Carpenter said. “We just wanted to sound as good as possible and create a positive vibe for the crowd.”

The band also posted on the event Facebook page stating “The music is of the gnarliest degree, combining the beach bum house tones with a little bit of rock and roll and psychedelic surf.”

The Spaceman Spiff band members are sophomores James Ormerod, Jake Simpson, Evan Snapp and Kevin Rossi. They describe their music as “channeling the energy of the universe into our music, [projecting] a funk-your-face-off kind of style into the open ears of today’s youth.”

WV White features Tyler Travis, an OWU alum, and Alfie Cicone, John C. Fisher and Tayler Beck. Their music is described as “Midwestern existentialism and sonic surrealism. Suburban ennui turned up all the way. Flora and fauna undisturbed.”

During the concert, the scene was set with low lighting, a laid-back crowd and projected videos on the ceiling of various random scenes. The concert was also intended to be a food drive for the Delaware Country Food Pantry. Students were asked to either donate non-perishable food items or donate food points.