Halloween on Campus

Halloween! For dorm life in AP, this is a big deal. There were many hall activities and peer advisor group activities centered around this theme. On 4th floor Austin, there was a door decorating contest. The winner, who received a $25 gift card to BDubb’s, was Sarah who cut individual pieces of cardboard, wrapped them in foil, and built of transformer on her door. A popular group activity was pumpkin decorating. My roommate and I even decorated our room; we had a ghost, pumpkin lights and a talking doorbell that had glowing red eyes. APB also pulled out the stops for Halloween, getting students tickets to Halloween Haunt at King’s Island for only $3! They also sponsored Fright Night, coming up on Nov. 6th. A night full of scary movies, a free T-shirt is promised to those who stay through them all. To kick off the weekend, the Lamda Chi Fraternity sponsored a Pumpkin Fest, which included seed-spitting and pumpkin carving contests, a greased pumpkin toss tournament and a tug-of-war. However, the best part of Halloween for those of us in the dorms was Goodies for Goblins night. On Tuesday, all the little kids in Wilmington had the chance to come through the dorms and go trick-or-treating. We got to pass out (and eat) lots of candy and the kids were so cute in all their costumes! I can’t wait til next year!  

Peace Symposium!

Hey everybody! I’m sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. Last week was pretty busy; Wednesday was the Westheimer Peace Symposium! Personally, I think this event is one of the coolest things Wilmington College does. This year’s Symposium was entitled “From Resistance to Redemption: Rhythms of Hope”. The focus was about how we can work for peace through music. The first speaker was Holly Near at 10 am. She began the day by walking onstage, picking up the microphone and beginning a song. She performed acapella throughout her presentation; it was very impressive. Her message encouraged us as students to be social activists and work for peace. She said that our backgrounds should not divide us, but strengthen us. Her song “Planet Called Home” portrays the belief that if everybody does even a little part, then we can make a difference in the world. The second speaker was Amy Horowitz; her presentation was “Zehava Ben: Singing Across Irresolvable Geographies and Counter Constituencies”. She put forth the question “How can music be used to create peace in conflict zones?” Her example was Zehava Ben, an Israeli singer whose music includes Arabic tones. Her fans are from across the middle east, including Muslims as well as Jews. The WC Chorale also performed. One of their pieces was “Bridges”, a song about connecting people to work together rather than fight. 

The final speaker of the night was Emmanuel Jal. For us freshmen, this session was particularly significant. For our summer reading, we read his autobiography “War Child: A Child Soldier’s Story” and during orientation, we watched the documentary as well. Wednesday night, we actually got to hear him speak and tell his story; from seeing his Mom beaten when he was a child, having to run from village to village to escape the war in Sudan, his trek to Ethiopia to “school” and his training as a soldier to his rescue by Emma McCune and the hope and voice he found creating music. He was a very eloquent speaker, and was more humorous than I expected. We also got to hear him perform, and during his last song, he called volunteers on stage and taught us all how to do the “demon-stomping dance”. Though he was out of CDs, he did sign books and talk to students after his performance. He also started an organization called Gua, which means both peace and power in his native languages. The purpose of the organization is to build schools and bring education to the people of Africa; the freshmen Honors Global classes held a fundraiser and flip-flop drive during the symposium to help him raise money and awareness, while the flip-flops donated would go to the kids. The whole day was awesome!

Homecoming Week!

Hey guys! Well campus is really busy this week because we’re gearing up for Homecoming! The game is Saturday at 1:30 and our Quakers will be battling Otterbein. The Student Government Association and the Activities Programming Board will be selling t-shirts all week; I can’t wait to get mine! There is a banner contest going on. The winning group receives a couple hundred dollars in prize money :) Any group can participate, whether it’s a team, an organization or just a group of friends. The Judging will be Friday at 12:00. On Thursday, there will be a mud volleyball tournament and then there is going to be a bonfire. I’m so excited! APB is also taking students to see Dane Cook live on Thursday night, then bringing a different comedian to campus Friday night; it promises to be a fun-ny weekend ;) Saturday kicks off early with Greek bed races at 10:30 am and a street fair at 11:30. The KIng and Queen will be crowned during the football game, followed by a girl’s soccer game at 7 and a dance at 9. It’s going to be busy, but well worth it :)

Issues & Artists: Jim Keady

Thursday night was the 2nd event of Wilmington College’s Issues and Artists Series. In this series, the College gets speakers to come and discuss various political, scientific and international issues. Thursday night the speaker was Jim Keady and the issue was Nike sweatshops. Keady was a soccer coach at St. John’s University, his dream job. He was only making $4,000 a year, but he was also getting free tuition, studying to get his masters degree in theology. However, things changed when he was assigned his first paper. While researching Nike labor practices, he found that they violated all the basic Catholic teachings of the University. At this time, the University was negotiating a $3 million contract deal with Nike, so Keady’s speaking out against it was not appreciated or tolerated, and he was forced to resign. That set him on a new path. After several failed attempts to contact Nike and get the executives to listen, Keady and Leslie Kretzu took a radical step and went to Indonesia to live a month on the $1.25 a day wage Nike paid their workers. When they retuned, they started Education for Justice and began speaking to all who would listen about what was really happening in Nike’s factories. They can explain first-hand how humiliating it is to live in a  9x9 box with sewage in the surrounding streets, and how hard it is to choose between meals and medicine, or how much dignity is forfeited to survive. They give stories of individual workers who were beaten or threatened for trying to organize labor unions. However, they also explain how we can join the fight and help make a difference, who we can contact, what products we can buy that are “sweat free”. Keady was an impressive speaker; in fact, in response to his visit, we are actually starting a Students Against Sweatshops group on campus. Wish us luck!

Cardboard Village!

This weekend was so much fun!!! It was the weekend of Cardboard Village; students across campus get groups together and spend the night in cardboard houses to raise money for the Clinton County Homeless Shelter. There are different competitions like Best Use of Duct Tape, Homiest Box and Most Creative. Boxes this year included GSA’s Haunted Mansion, the Sig’s Pirate Ship and a box for 3 girls with heart shaped doors. Students donate $10 to the Shelter when they register. Another way money was raised Friday night was through suitcase-auctioning. There were 5 different suitcases decorated with various themes such as sports or entertainment and filled with secret goodies. The largest box went to 3 GSA members for $100! By the end of the night, WC students raised almost $1400 to give to the Homeless Shelter. There was also a showing of The Soloist, the true story of a homeless man in LA who is befriended by a columnist who discovers the man is a Juilliard dropout who plays beautiful music but suffers from schizophrenia. Prior to the movie, DJ Ken (Ken Lydy, Dean of Students) kept the music going. At one point here was even a dance floor in the middle of the cardboard village as students took on the Cha Cha Slide, The Cuban Shuffle and even Soulja Boy. Faith in Action provided Vegetable and Chicken Noodle soup to keep participants warm and oatmeal was provided for breakfast. Those who stayed all night even got T-shirts! Luckily it stopped raining early Friday so the skies were clear and though it was cold, I think it would be safe to say that everyone involved had a blast anyway. It was definitely an awesome experience I plan to repeat in the future :)