Occasional Word - Lock Haven University

Occasional Word
Value of the Arts
Winter 15/16 Edition
By: Dr. Whitling
Do you have an
idea for an article?
Email me at
[email protected]
and we can try to
work to get it into
the next issue!
Inside this issue:
Tales From Germany
Michaela Gawrys
Value of the Arts Ctd.
Dr. Whitling
2
Conference Craziness in Chicago
Rachael Metzinger
Changes to Admissions Team
Shelby Helwig
3
Changes to Admissions Team Ctd.
Shelby Helwig
Becoming Mr. Honors
Roni Morisson
4
Farewell
Andrew Johnson
5
Finding Meaning in Halloween
Kara Frantz
6
You’ve Got A Friend in the GHP!
Abby Frisch
7
Visual and Performing Arts Flyer
8
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in The Occasional Word do
not necessarily reflect those of the
LHU Global Honors Program or
those of Lock Haven University.
Greetings! I hope this edition of the Occasional Word, our Global Honors
Program newsletter, finds you healthy and happy in 2016. I continue to be
amazed at how fast the years fly by and I am sure your winter break was not
as long as you would have liked it to be.
Fall 2015 was a busy semester for activities in the GHP. The spring 2016
schedule of events proves to be just as eventful. Mark your calendars now
for the 11th Annual Awards Banquet and senior recognition on Saturday,
April 23rd. Details will follow in mid-March. In the meantime, freshmen, you
can ask the upper-classmen about the wonderful food, champagne chicken
from Dutch Haven, YUM!
I would like to take this opportunity to provide further commentary on a
topic that was the theme of Dr. Joan Whitman-Hoff’s “Last Lecture” on the
value of the arts. Dr. Hoff shared several images she has photographed over
the years and discussed the empowering and healing nature that these images possess and how the process of taking the images has provided her
with a sense of purpose, well-being, and innate direction to take in her life. I
too cannot echo enough these sentiments regarding the importance of the
arts in my life.
Some of you know of my involvement with the Lock Haven Community
Chorus and local church choir. My passion for singing started at an early age
and I have been part of a choir since the sixth grade. Some of my best high
school memories are from choir rehearsals with Mr. Fran Nesta, the numerous concerts performed, and the excursions to other Pennsylvania towns to
participate in various choral festivals with students across the state. In college, singing with my church folk group was an outlet from my academics as
a chemistry major. I even received a paid gig as cantor (song leader) for the
Sunday evening masses. However, in graduate school, outside of the occasional wedding singer invitation, my involvement with music was put on the
backburner for a variety of reasons. Looking back, I can see where this resulted in a change in my overall demeanor, personality, and yes, even direction to take when I hit rough spots in the process of obtaining my doctoral
degree.
Upon arriving in Lock Haven to begin my career as a chemistry professor,
joining my two choirs was one of the
first things on my agenda. Even if
I’ve had a long work day and feel too
tired to go to practice for community
chorus at 7:30 pm on Monday nights
in Performance Center (yes, you too
are welcome to join), once I arrive
and start singing, I begin to feel upbeat.
Continued on Page 2
Tales from Germany
By: Michaela Gawrys
What is it like to be back in Germany? I’m not
exactly sure how to describe it. I love this country, but it
is much different this time. Last time I came here I could
not understand anyone or anything and now I don’t
even have to worry about headaches. The people that
were strangers before are now friends asking me to
come visit if I have the time. I feel like I belong. Another
difference is that half of my friends are back in their respective countries living their own lives. It is weird to
me that I am unable to just call them up and say, “Hey!
I’m in the area, let’s get together!”
When I left my exchange year in 2014 and came
back to the United States life at home had not changed.
It was as if the year had never happened. That is how it
is for most exchange students. It is then their choice as
to whether or not they go back to their normal lives or
they make their life different. I chose to change the direction my life was going, therefore, I am back in Germany and my “exchange life” continues. Therein lies the
problem: it is no longer an exchange. During exchange I
told many people that it was as if I had two lives, my
German life and my American life. Now that I am back I
just have a life, and for me it is weird to think that one
life, my life, can stretch itself so far apart.
I could ramble on about this for pages and pages, but I am not so sure that would be a good idea. So,
why did I come back? I came back to Germany because
it changed my life, as I mentioned before. In my opinion
there are many more opportunities for me here simply
because this is the country that helped me choose my
major and the direction of my life. The connections that
I have here are almost endless! The other reason is that
the world is my passion. I have the travel bug and therefore the need to immerse myself in unknown cultures.
Though Germany is not a new culture to me, it is different from the one I grew up in and I simply wanted to
experience something slightly familiar before I jumped
on a plane to South America or Asia.
In what way is it different here? The people
here keep to themselves. That is why Germans are stereotyped as rude or cold. They have their own lives and
do not tend to think or worry about the lives of people
they do not know. Food is a topic I could talk about for
hours. I love German food, but I must say I am craving a
good steak right about now. Not only do they not sell a
lot of steak, but they also do not know how to cook one
properly. Even though it is all slightly different, it is comforting and interesting to know that we are all just people. That is the most important thing anyone could ever
learn from an exchange or study abroad experience.
Value of the Arts Continued
By the time I leave, I am energized for the rest of the
week. At the completion of each concert, it is a rewarding feeling to see the hard work and dedication
pay off.
watching last spring’s dance concert and seeing several GHP students perform. If you are looking to expand
your horizons even further and travel abroad, Philip
Huber’s Art Seminar to London/Paris is great way to
earn Global Honors with Distinction while visiting
some of the world’s most renowned art museums.
Therefore, I encourage each of you to consider
keeping an open mind when it comes to learning
about, appreciating, and participating in the arts. Most
Best wishes for a successful semester and I look
of us won’t be the next Madonna or even make the
forward to working with you in the GHP. Feel free to
cut for “America’s Got Talent,” but we can allow the
stop by one of my offices for an occasional jam session
arts to be part of our lives. There are a myriad of cul- or just to say hello.
tural events available in our local community. I have
Kind regards,
included a list of those available through LHU in this
Dr. “Jackie” Whitling
edition of the OW (See page 8). I know that I enjoyed
Director, GHP
Page 2
Conference Craziness in Chicago
Winter 15/16
By: Rachael Metzinger
One of the many great things about the Global
Honors Program (not biased at all), is that every single
student has the opportunity to submit proposals for two
conferences every single year. There is a North East Regional Honors Conference (NRHC), and a National Collegiate Honors Council Conference (NCHC). You’re able to
propose anything of your interest including research
you’ve done, papers you’ve written, or any simply information you want to share with others. These conferences are an incredibly unique experience and they get
you networking around the country before you even
graduate.
up a minor, do an internship or research with a profesI had the opportunity to attend the NCHC confer- sor, and go abroad. Students are fixated with the concept of a four year graduation, and forget to really expeence this November, and the best part about it was that
rience anything and everything besides graduating with a
it was in Chicago. I am not a frequent traveler, in fact I
killer GPA. I explained to other Universities how the LHU
have never really been anywhere, but I can cross the
GHP uses FDG’s to acclimate the freshmen and basically
windy city off my list. I rode a plane, ate great food, did
orient them to everything about University life while givsome exploring, met some cool people, and of course
ing them an incredible support system. Not as easy to
presented my project to honors programs across the
explain as you might think.
country. The conference theme was “Make No Little
This conference was one of the best experiences
Plans”, and I submitted an ideas exchange entitled “A
College Student’s Guide to Making No Little Plans”. Basi- of my young adult life, no joke. It’s an opportunity that
cally, I sat at my very own table, handed out flyers, par- should not be passed up. Not only did I meet students
from other Universities around the country, but I also
ticipated in small group discussion, and gave away free
stuff from admissions to ensure people would remember met the professors from those Universities. It’s a great
way to get your name out there and be inspired by what
Lock Haven University. My ideas exchange focused on
the fact that college students really don’t take advantage other Honors Program students are accomplishing. Next
year, the conference is being held in Seattle, and I’m alof their free resources. This is the time to change your
ready motivated by my experience this year to submit a
major, take
proposal for Fall 2016.
Changes to Admissions Team
By: Shelby Helwig
First off, I want to say welcome to a new semester! Good luck and I look forward to seeing you
around campus and the house. I am looking forward to
beginning a semester filled with some of my most challenging classes and some of the most exciting honors
events! Admissions Team, or A-Team, is going to be
entering a new semester as well in which we will be
solidifying some recently made changes. If you weren’t
on A-Team last semester, you probably didn’t know
that A-Team went through changes this past semester.
In order to understand why these changes needed to
take place, I want to give a brief history of how A-Team
operated in the past.
In the years before I began attending LHU,
2012 and before, Admissions Team used to run an
Open House Honors Luncheon at every University
Open House. This allowed for the GHP to funnel many
students from the Open House into a separate room to
hear about the GHP and conduct interviews to begin
their application! Due to space limitations, in 2012,
Admissions Team had to discontinue the Open House
Luncheons. Removing the luncheon required my predecessor, Shelli Bond, to think of other ways to recruit
students to the Honors Program. She created an event
that was similar to the Open House Luncheon, but occurs only once a semester.
Continued on the following page.
Page 3
In this luncheon, we invite students with stellar SAT
scores to visit campus and learn about the GHP. This
event is the most successful recruiting event for the
Global Honors Program and provides a laid-back atmosphere for high school seniors to meet our current students, learn about the program, and conduct
interviews.
While the amount of commitment decreased for the University Open Houses, new challenges arose for A-Team in the past three years. ATeam used to be a committee that any student was
allowed to join. At its highest point, A-Team had
over forty students on the committee. When all ATeamers attended an Open House, we had forty students behind a single table at an Open House which
was certainly more students than necessary. In order
to improve the experience for A-Teamers and allow
for A-Teamers to get the most out of the experience,
we decreased the number of people on Admissions
Team to between 15 and 20 students. Although this
is a change I really dreaded making, I believe it was
the best change that could have been made for ATeam. We had a great first semester and recruited
more students than we have in the last two years. I
will be looking for a few more students to join ATeam in the spring semester, so if you are interested, please send me an email or just talk to me in person. Again, have a great semester!
Becoming Mr. Honors
By. Roni Morrison
What better way to make memories than
dressing like a guy, right? It’s not every girl’s dream to
strut her stuff in a masculine way, but it was mine.
Ever since spirit week my sophomore year in high
school when I participated in “switcheroo” day, I
found dressing like the other gender to be hilarious.
That is why I chose to do the Mr. and Ms. Honors pageant. I enjoy following the stereotypical actions of a
guy and making the audience laugh. Pretending to flirt
with girls, and walking with my pants sagging low was
just part, of what I thought, to be the typical guy image. My favorite part of the pageant by far was my
ending remarks about why I thought I should be
named Mr. Honors. I jumped off stage and walked
around the audience winking at random girls and
flirting with my friends and ended up stroking Dr.
Whitling’s hair. The funniest part is I had no idea that
she was the Honors Program Director, and the audience found it hilarious.
Overall, from this pageant I learned to not be
afraid of anything, especially expressing yourself in a
new and hilarious way. When I initially told my friends
Page 4
what I was doing, they all thought I was crazy and
weird. But it is just my general personality to make
people laugh and enjoy themselves. My advice for you
all would be to ignore the judgment and just do the
things that you want to because you don’t want to live
your life with regrets.
Farewell
Winter 15/16 Edition
By: Andrew Johnson
What’s up! The time has come for me to write
a farewell article for the Occasional Word. I can still
remember writing my introduction article my sophomore year where I let everyone know, in writing, just
how weird I can be. Now I’m a distinguished senior
(see also: old, washed up) and I’ve got a little bit more
wisdom than I had when I wrote that first article. If it’s
cool by you, I want to give you the single most important piece of advice I can give you not just for college, but for life in general. I understand your skepticism: the guy who collects Nintendo action figures and
plays Pokemon is trying to give you life advice. However, take it how you may, because it hasn’t steered me
wrong yet.
things that you are able to achieve by being you are so
much more important. This is hard to hear as a motivated Honors student, but I want you to look at life in
a bigger frame than you may be letting yourself.
What are you going to remember about your
college experience? If someone asked me that question, I would tell them about the Honors events I
attended with my FDG like Egg Hunt, FDG Wars, and
the Honors Banquet. I’d tell them about eating dinner
at Bentley and the one time I ate watermelon gazpacho (disgusting) as my friends watched on in horror.
I’d let them know how I looked forward to eating at
Denny’s every Sunday (also disgusting) with my roommates and playing Grand Theft Auto afterwards.
Have fun.
Please, don’t take this as an excuse to ignore
There it is. Good game, everyone! I learned a studying. PLEASE study. You are smart and amazing
lot in college! Have fun! Aren’t you proud, mom?
and deserve the best. But so much learning happens
It sounds too simple and not nearly intellectu- outside of your textbook. Expand your horizons by
making time for fun. Be the smile that lifts up the peoal enough to be good life advice, but it’s the truth. If
I’ve learned one thing in college, and about myself as a ple around you, and I can guarantee you that your tuition price tag will be the one shopping spree you never
person in this position, it is that life has a way of
regret.
knocking you down. You might be stressed about an
exam coming up, or be spreading yourself too thin. In
those moments, the most important thing to remember is to make time to laugh. That may be a little bit
too Chicken Soup for the College Soul for you, but it is
my personal philosophy that the measure of how we
live our lives is in:
1. How much you smile
2. How much you can make others smile
Think of the most inspirational person in your
life. What is it about that person that keeps you going?
Do they inspire you by stressing you out? Or does that
person give you a push by lifting you up? I’m assuming
you have people in your life who lift you up, and that’s
why you are so successful. That is, unless you are me
in middle school. Not even my parents want to keep
pictures of me in my emo phase.
The point I’m trying to make is that you can lift
yourself and others up by making sure you make time
for fun and laughter. Life is so much more than a GPA
or an exam score. Who you are as a person and the
Page 5
Finding Meaning in Halloween
By: Kara Frantz
Most people love Halloween. They pick out
their costumes months in advance and gush about
how excited they are to show it off. I have never
been one of those people, that is, until this year. In
an attempt to get into the Halloween spirit, I scrolled
through countless pages on Pinterest trying to come
up with the mythical “perfect costume.” After what
felt like an eternity I happened upon a picture of Deb
from the movie Napoleon Dynamite and I immediately got excited. Napoleon Dynamite was a favorite
movie of mine many years ago, so seeing this picture
brought back a lot of good memories.
Once I saw that picture I couldn’t help but
start thinking of how I could recreate Deb’s unique
look. I rummaged through my closet looking for a
place to start and came up empty-handed. Of
course, the only year I get excited about a Halloween
costume, I can’t find a way to make it. Must be
some sort of poetic justice, right? After allowing myself to throw a bit of a pity party, I quickly realized
that this was simply a way for me to get more people involved in my holiday ensemble. I frantically
called my mom asking if she had a pink polo shirt or
an old fanny pack that I could borrow. It was a nogo on the shirt but she was more than happy to loan
me her fanny pack. Then I moved on to my brother,
and wouldn’t you know it, he had a pink dress shirt
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for me to wear. It wasn’t a polo, but it would suffice.
Now, for anyone who has seen Napoleon Dynamite,
you know that in order for me to do Deb justice I
had to have key chains somewhere on my outfit.
This was tricky because I had no idea how to make
them and I didn’t know if I could find anyone that
had some on such sort notice. The stars must have
aligned in the week prior to the GHP Halloween party because a couple days later in one of my classes I
noticed that my friend had these very key chains on
her backpack and was willing to let me borrow them.
My outfit was coming together and I was starting to
see how fun putting together a Halloween costume
could be. My roommate even let me borrow one of
her scrunchies so that I could mimic Deb’s hairstyle.
Even though the Halloween party itself was
a ton of fun, I think what made this Halloween extra
special for me is the fact that so many people went
out of their way to help me have a great experience
making my costume come to life. The point of this
article is not for you to decide if I pulled off Deb’s
look or not; instead, what I want you to take away
from this is to recognize the people in your life who
go that extra mile in order to help you create a special moment that you will treasure forever. I am incredibly thankful for those people in my life, and I
hope you are too.
Winter 15/16 Edition
From left to right: Colby Heintzelman as Buzz Lightyear, Kara Frantz as Bo Peep, Andrew Johnson as Andy, Shelby Helwig as
Wheezy, Aaron Lagana as Mr. Potato Head, Kirby Donnelly as Rex, Abby Frisch as Jessie and Tom Bates as Woody.
You’ve Got A Friend in the GHP!
By: Abby Frisch
Lock Haven’s 2015 Golf Cart Parade was one
to remember! Students flocked to the REC to create
elaborate golf cart designs and themes that were
influenced by each club’s interpretation of Hollywood! The Special Events Committee for Honors was
determined to stand out during the event! The decision process of how to decorate the cart came
weeks in advance and our top choices for the cart
were Toy Story and Jurassic Park—two classic movies! I was extremely excited that SEC picked Toy Story as our golf cart theme because it allowed all the
members to take on the personas of the “toys” from
the movie!
As our imaginations wandered for the next
few meetings, we as a group decided that the base
of the cart would be Andy’s remote controlled RC
car! All of the “toys” would be able to walk around
the cart and Andrew (Andy) Johnson would be our
famous Andy as we walked! The idea was perfect!
Countless hours went into creating exact details for
the car and the costumes, but all the time spent paid
off when looking at our final product right before
take-off! Our cart was a showstopper and so many
people were impressed by how original and “on
point” it was!
Lock Haven’s 2015 Golf Cart parade was one
that exceeded all of my expectations! I can’t imagine the difficulty that the judges had in determining
the winners, but SEC was lucky enough to have won
a cash prize for the club! GO SEC!
If you have the opportunity to be a part of
creating a cart, you have to do it! It is an experience
that will bring groups together and allow for immense creativity to come to life! You won’t want to
miss it!
Page 7
Lock Haven University Visual and Performing Arts Department
Cultural Events - Spring 2016
Sloan 321—7:30 pm
February 8
Art Exhibit Opening
Visiting artist– Tamara English
Contact: Seth Wollam
Contact: Ramona Broomer
February 28Matinee only-2:00 pm
March 30
Art Exhibit Opening
Juried Student Show
Painting
Sloan Fine Arts Gallery
February 25
Opening Reception 2/8/16
Navy Band
6 :00–8:00 pm
East Campus Gym –7:00 pm
On display Jan. 25– Feb. 19
Contact: Seth Wollam
Contact: Jason Bronner
February 22
Painting
On Display March 28-Apr. 22
Open for free public viewing
Contact: Jason Bronner
March 3
University Band in Concert
April 7, 8, 9, 14 & 16
Price Auditorium—7:30
Mainstage Theatre Production
Contact: Seth Wollman
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
Art Exhibit Opening
Visiting artist– Logan Marconi
6:00—8:00 pm
8:00 am to 9:00 pm
Open for free public viewing
8:00 am to 9:00 pm
Sloan Fine Arts Gallery
Sloan Auditorium—7:30
March 18 & 19
Contact: Ramona Broomer
April 9 Matinee at 2:00 pm
Sloan Fine Arts Gallery
Mainstage Theatre Production
Opening Reception 2/22/16
“A Student Cabaret”
6:00 –8:00 pm
Sloan Auditorium—7:30 pm
H.S. Students $3
On display Feb. 22-Mar. 25
Contact: Ramona Broomer
Senior citizens $3
Open for free public viewing
Cost:
w/LHU ID: Free
Adults $5
8:00 am to 9:00 pm
H.S. Students $3
Contact: Jason Bronner
Senior citizens $3
February 24 –28
Countdown Theatre Production
Techies: “The Musical!”
March 20
Cost:
Adults $5
April 17
University Band
Annual President’s Concert
Community Chorus &
Price Auditorium—3:00 pm
Orchestra Masterworks Concert
Contact: Seth Wollam
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church—3:00 pm
All events are free unless otherwise noted. *For ticketed events, please call or visit the
Sloan Fine Arts Building Box Office:570-484-3983; Hours: 12:30pm -3:30pm.
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