Old alumni, current swimmers, and recent graduates gather to honor Wheaton College swim coach induction to Yowell Hall of Fame

Barrett Roberts accepts his award at the induction ceremony.

NORTON, MA – Barrett Roberts, the current head coach of the Wheaton College Swim Team, was inducted into the Wheaton College Yowell Hall of Fame on Friday, surrounded by the support of friends, family and teammates alike.

Roberts, a Wheaton College alum himself (’07), was inducted for his numerous swimming accomplishments while a student at the college. He excelled both academically and as a swimmer during his time, becoming the first ever Wheaton swimmer to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

Roberts went on to become a four-time NCAA All-American in both the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle; had six NEWMAC all conference finishes, including four championship finishes; and was named NEWMAC Swimmer of the year in 2006. He still holds three school records, and currently continues to lead the team as head coach.

Roberts was one of six former scholar-athletes to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, alongside a “legendary” two-sport head coach, and the first Wheaton Baseball team to advance to the Division III World Series championship game. The ceremony took place on campus in Chase Dining Hall on Friday, and many people, including recent graduate and former swimmer Timmer Sposato, gathered to show their support.

Sposato, who graduated this past May, was a notable student-athlete swimmer under Robert’s coaching.

“When Barrett found out he was being inducted, he asked all of us who had just recently graduated if we would like to be there for the ceremony,” Sposato said. “and we all love him so much because he was the best coach, so we instantly decided to go.”

Sposato, who currently lives and works in Portland, Maine, drove down to Norton on Friday afternoon for the ceremony and reconnected with his former swim family.

“The ceremony was held in my least favorite dining hall (laughs), but I walked in and recognized so many people, and everybody seemed so happy,” Sposato said. “There was a lot of positive energy in the room.”

Roberts was introduced by a former teammate of his, who highly praised him during his speech. While Sposato and his teammates know Roberts as a coach, the speech reminded them all of the great impact he had on the history of Wheaton as a swimmer.

“It was really inspiring and cool to see swimmers from Barret’s time,” Sposato said. “And even though we weren’t there for any of Barret’s swimming, he is the best swimmer Wheaton has ever had. So, it was pretty important to us all to be there.”

According to Sposato, the room was packed with old alumni, recent graduates, and current members of the team all there to support Roberts. What began as a celebration of Robert’s swimming career, continued into a celebration of friendship, reconnections and nostalgia for Sposato.

“After graduating, there’s definitely some overwhelming relief that it’s all over, that I never have to go back,” Sposato said. “I was very convinced I had eaten my last meal in Chase Dining Hall back in May and would never be back (laughs). But being back this weekend, and listening to Barret talk, and looking around at everyone laughing and smiling, I was like ‘okay I am not mad to be back in this dining hall right now’. It kind of made me more aware of the lot of things I valued about my Wheaton experience.”

The morning following the induction ceremony was Wheaton Swimming’s season home opener. And the stands were packed.

“We were all back in the same place for the first time, and it was kind of overwhelming but really cool,” he said. “It felt like we were all a team again. We all came for Barret. Some people came as far as Michigan. We would do anything for him.”

Should you be worried about the mumps?

Steven Schwab, an Elon University senior, is exposed to more germs than the average student. As a barista and bartender at The Oak House, he is in contact with students, faculty, and locals throughout his entire day.

Handling hundreds of people’s credit cards a day, passing off coffee to unknown hands and working in one of the most popular places on campus, Schwab is constantly at risk for catching germs, and currently, the mumps.

However, this doesn’t seem to concern him. He has taken the precautions he feels necessary, and now, it’s out of sight out of mind.

“I got the vaccine before coming to school,” he said. “So, it doesn’t freak me out at all. I just feel like if I have the vaccine, I won’t get the mumps.”

On a campus with 7,000 students, and only ten current confirmed cases, Schwab feels protected with his vaccines. However, some students feel quite the opposite. Junior, Phoebe Mock, has yet to get her third dosage of the MMR vaccine.

“I’m afraid if I get it (the vaccine), then I’m going to get sick,” she said. “But I’m also a hypochondriac.”

The mumps have spread less quickly at Elon than at other campuses across North Carolina, however most students are still stressed about it. So should you be worried about the mumps? While Schwab and Mock’s feelings about the issue are quite different, they do have something in common: easing your mind in whatever way works for you is the best plan of action as of now.

Elon University's Sigma Kappa chapter hosts Homeland Security Investigations Agent Kelly Harrison

Elon University’s Kappa Zeta chapter of Sigma Kappa partnered with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Agent, and Sigma Kappa alumna Kelly Harrison, to host a live speech and Q&A session this past Monday.

Harrison has been a Senior Special Agent with HSI for the past 18 years. HSI is the investigative sector within the immigration and customs enforcement agency (ICE). The primary goal of HSI according to Harrison is, “the investigation of complex and transnational criminal investigations.”

Harrison’s sector is the largest investigative arm for HSI, doing a variety of things from drug trafficking to money laundering. For the last ten years, Harrison has been specifically assigned to the Charlotte office working on child exploitation cases, cyber crimes and human trafficking.

Throughout her time in the male-dominated field, Harrison has had success in saving hundreds of children and adults from exploitation and is recognized by ICE as a Subject Matter Expert in human trafficking investigations.

As a Sigma Kappa herself, Harrison spoke to Kappa Zeta about her experience as a woman in her field and how it has helped give her strength and determination in her success. With an hour speech and an hour Q&A session, Harrison helped Kappa Zeta make history with this event. No other greek organization on campus has put on an event like this by themselves.

Elon alum return to campus for homecoming weekend, some share experiences with current students

Elon homecoming weekend is often a busy weekend on campus. Many alum return to their old stomping grounds having gained many new experiences since graduating. Mia Ginea Watkins and Lindsey Lanquist are among the many alums who returned to an Elon classroom to share their post graduation knowledge with current students on campus.

Both Watkins and Lanquist are 2016 graduates of the university working in the communications, multimedia field. Watkins, currently working as a community outreach specialist for Playstation in San Diego, began as in intern for the company the summer directly following her graduation. By the end of that summer, she was hired as a contractor, and by October of 2018, she was a full time employee.

In Watkins experience, she says talking to as many people as she could has been a large influencer of her success thus far.

“I do talk to a lot of people,” she said. “People will always come up to me and say ‘how do you know this person?’ and ‘how do you know that person?’ But it’s literally just because I went up and said hi.”

According to Watkins, going out of your way to talk with as many people as you can and gaining those connections can increasingly benefit your longterm career. Another secret Watkins shared with current students was simply to, “always write thank you cards.”

Watkins not only stressed the importance of communicating and putting yourself out there, but she also emphasized the importance of a good work ethic beginning in college.

“One thing I was very fortunate to develop here (Elon), was just a very good work ethic,” she says. “Most of my time was spent in the editing suits. Literally if you couldn’t find me, I was down there.”

Lanquist, currently a freelance writer in Nashville, TN, was adamant about this as well. She started working in the Women’s magazine industry directly out of college, and after working her way around various editing and writing positions in the industry, she decided to change directions and become a freelancer.

“I was scared at first,” she said. “But now I’m not.”

According to Lanquist, freelancing was a risk. But, it has allowed her to build her own schedule, work from home and write the content she wants to write. Like Watkins, Lanquist credited her work ethic and drive in college as one of the main things that set her up to be a successful freelancer. This she says, is something that students still in college can start building skills on as soon as they want.

“The cool thing about freelancing for you guys, is that you can start doing it now,” she said.

Both successful in their various fields, Watkins and Lanquist sat in the chairs they once were students sitting in, and shared wisdom, advice and anecdotes of their experiences with Elon’s classroom of students, sparking excitement and hope in the aspiring journalists.

What goes into the interview relationship between journalists and trauma survivors? Deirdre Kronschnabel breaks it down into 5 categories

Deirdre Kronschnabel, 2017 graduate of Elon University, conducted research on the relationship between journalists, and the survivors of trauma stories they interview. Kronschnabel began the research as an Elon senior, with three main focus questions:

1. How do journalists process survivors’ narratives as they conduct interviews and develop news stories?

2. How do journalists understand their roles in interviewing trauma survivors?

3. In what ways does the interaction with a survivor during an interview influence a journalist’s outlook about writing a news story?

“I really wanted to study the interview process,” she said. “And study something that was timely and compelling.”

The thought process behind the research, according to Kronschnabel, is based off of the fact that journalists “operate in a world of narratives, and few are more dramatic and reflective of the human spirit than stories of people who have lived through trauma”. Exploring this process of how traumatic stories and events become news

Kronschnabel talked with 12 working journalists throughout a four month period, and analyzed the relationship between their moral and ethical values and their professional goals and practices. This lead Kronschnabel to break down her findings into different categories of what she refers to as, the ongoing narrative between the journalist and the trauma survivor.

1. Interviewing Behaviors and Mechanics

2. Skills and Lessons

3. The Journalist’s Dilemma

4. Being Human

5. The New Narrative

“The new narrative became the conclusion, or common thread of the thesis,” she said. “Which is that there is this narrative that does exist between the trauma survivor and the journalist.”

This ongoing narrative Kronschnabel became so fascinated with, lead her to eventually shift her motives for the work.

“While I was doing the work, I was definitely more focused on what the research implications of the project would be,” she said. “But it’s definitely become less of a research project in my mind, and more of an opportunity to have these enriching conversations with people.”

Because after all, journalist or trauma survivor, they all fall under the same category of being a human being. And this narrative, of how trauma becomes news from survivor to journalist, starts with recognizing that. According to Kronschnabel’s research, “these professional journalists all found it most important to treat survivors as humans, first and foremost.”

An Analysis of Motoko Rich's Article “Craving Freedom, Japan’s Women Opt Out of Marriage”

In Motoko Rich’s article “Craving Freedom, Japan’s Women Opt Out of Marriage,” he uses a classic anecdotal style structure to tell the story.

Rich opens the story with a detailed scene of Sanae Hanaoka’s wedding for herself. By beginning the story this way, Rich immediately pulls the reader in to her moment, making them want to learn more. In a typical anecdotal style story, one would begin with a lead then transition into more general facts and background knowledge, and finish with a conclusion of some sort. In this case, the lead was this opening scene of Hanaoka’s wedding scene.

Rich then makes the transition into the harder facts and background knowledge of the marriage situation in Japan. He makes this transition with his paragraph (immediately following the scene):

Photo pulled from the New York Times Article

 “Not so long ago, Japanese women who remained unmarried after the age of 25 were referred to as “Christmas cake,” a slur comparing them to old holiday pastries that cannot be sold after Dec. 25.”

After creating the scene of Hanaoka getting married to herself, and then stating this fact about the stereotype of single women in Japan, Rich creates a smooth transition into the body of facts for the story. He goes on to report on multiple sources of data that explain how and why the choice to be single for women in Japan is rising.

Rich uses photos and quotes from several other sources throughout this section of the story, to create a well-rounded narrative and explanation for the reader, before going back to Hanaoka’s story.

Rich transition’s back to her story by bringing the reader back into another scene: Hanaoka taking a dance class, in her element and daily life of being a single woman. He swiftly brings the reader through this scene, showing more of her personality, daily routine and lifestyle. As he takes the reader back into her story, he concludes the piece by returning to his initial scene at her wedding saying,

“When loneliness creeps in, she pulls up the video of her ceremony to remind her of the people who support and love her.”

He concludes with a quote from Hanaoka, about how she feels empowered doing what she wants – away from the marriage. By using the anecdotal structure, Rich was able to bring the reader directly into context of his story by beginning with a narrative scene, and quoting real women dealing with these issues, as opposed to just spitting out the facts and figures.

EDITORIAL: As college students, we are the future: Why we need to be pushed beyond the bubble to be ready

College is arguably one of the most transitional times a young adult’s life. It is the stepping stone to education, experience, and self-awareness that shapes developing students into working and functional adults. 

It is a time when teenagers are put in a parent-free environment for the first time and are forced to be curious about who they are, what they want to do, and where they will go. The world is at students’ fingertips, but only if their nails are strong enough to burst through the mental, and sometimes physical, college bubble. 

“Every institution of higher education can exist in a bubble – but it is up to each college or university to make that conscious choice,” said Elon University’s Associate Director of Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement, Bob Frigo. 

At Elon University, I would argue that this college bubble is ever so present. According to Elon’s 2016-17 factbook, the university’s student body is just under 6,000 students, and an overwhelming 80 percent of them are white. Students can often be seen wearing name-brand clothing, Greek life T-shirts, or fashion’s latest trends. 

Every building on campus is built with beautiful red brick and landscaped with perfectly manicured flowers. The physical campus is isolated, with the nearest city of more than 60,000 residents a 30-minute drive away. 

While none of these characteristics necessarily hinders one’s curiosity about the outside world, collectively they perpetuate narrow perspectives that, depending upon who you are, manifest utopian ideals or pessimism for life after college. 

Frigo, however, was quick to point out that Elon, specifically Elon Volunteers! (EV!), has numerous opportunities for students to engage with our surrounding community. 

“These opportunities range from an afternoon volunteer experience with our Get on the Bus program at organizations such as Boys and Girls Club or Allied Churches, to a postgraduate year with a community agency such as Alamance Achieves with our Elon Alamance Health Partners (EAHP) program,” Frigo said.

The issue is that a large number of students are either unaware of outside realities, or do not take advantage of these possibilities. This is the first step to busting the bubble: tackling student’s lack of awareness. The bubble creates a small, enclosed community with a multitude of support from faculty and staff in which students are able to hold leadership positions in many organizations on campus, and seek out programs like EV! – but this isn’t enough. 

Elon Alum Ali Broadbridge can attest to this. Broadbridge graduated in 2018, and the effect of the Elon bubble on her transition to the real world was harder than she expected.

“At Elon, the education bubble helps you advance your network with alumni and colleagues,” she said. “But the social awareness aspect of the bubble does not prepare you for the wide range of situations life throws at you.” 

If students are not aware or interested in engaging in opportunities like EV!, the bubble is inherently stronger.

Elon is virtually its own town with its own police system, post office, and even movie theatre. There are three dining halls serving food all the time, exercise facilities equipped with student-run workout classes and a health center all located right on campus. 

Students could never step foot off of campus and still live a perfectly functioning life, creating a bubble that suffocates students need to seek out programs like EV! that offer exposure to realities of social and economic differences. This is especially true if you don’t have a car.

“If you were to go into Burlington, the bigger town here, it’s a totally different environment than at Elon and most people would never know that,” said Elon senior and Student Director of EV!, Amanda Corso.

In 2006, Superior Court Judge Howard Manning threatened to close an underperforming school in Alamance County, just seven miles from thriving Elon University. Alamance County, where Elon is located, is an area that lives with numerous low incoming housing units, 15 Title I schools, and a 14.4 percent poverty rate. But some Elon students will go their whole college career without ever seeing or knowing that this different reality exists just beyond our manicured red brick pathways.

Corso works with student-run volunteer programs as director of EV!. She notes that while a small portion of students do take advantage of these programs, more times than not the bubble seems to curb the desire to look beyond the suffocated campus, and hinder the development of diverse views. 

Corso finds that many students who do volunteer are also largely unaware of the difference in communities outside of Elon. Further, a majority of the students who do go out into the outside community are there to complete mandatory service hours for classes, and seldom return after hitting their numbers. 

“You'll see the service classes working at after-school sites for their hours, and then just like that, we will have no volunteers again after they complete them," she said. "The people that stay long-term throughout their four years are the ones who make the largest impact, learn the most and gain real-world experience.”

Because of our bubble, the students who don’t actively seek out these engagement experiences are left with unattainable ideas of perfection and expectations of reality for life after college. 

Broadbridge, a cinema and television arts major, struggled with this as she left the University bubble for the first time. She now hosts at two different restaurants in New York City while simultaneously searching for a job in her field.

“Everyone seems to graduate with the same mindset of ‘You need to get the best job at the most recognized company in the field that your degree taught you,’ but that’s not how life works,” she said. “It took me months to find the best job and experience out there. Then my contract was up and I was back at zero looking for what’s next. At Elon, everyone is so caught up in their own experiences in the bubble that the idea of the future mimics what we know to be true at Elon; it’s this idea of a perfectly manicured life.”

What Elon needs is exactly what EV! already offers: more integration of the outside community with the university so students can interact with and become aware of the importance of engagement opportunities that expose these different realities lying minutes away from our campus. 

 “The Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement and Elon Volunteers are instrumental in connecting campus and community,” Frigo said. “They provide a way for students to move beyond campus and experience our local community through classes with a community engagement component and volunteer opportunities with nonprofit organizations.”

We students need to be exposed to reality. We need to be challenged, not coddled – pushed, not protected.

We must be curious of the world beyond our red bricks and tall fountains, and we must be strong enough to pop this bubble we so innocently float in. It is programs like EV! that will bring true growth, knowledge, and experience to us as we march confidently into the real world.  

Photo pulled from The Kernodle Center Website

The New, The Next, The Needed: How OZY is Changing The Face of Multimedia News

Marketing to what they call “The Change Generation,” Carlos Watson and Samir Rao have built an increasingly successful media company backed by prominent investors and a team that prides itself on their diversity and fresh perspectives.

In 2013, Watson and Rao, former colleagues at Goldman Sachs, ran into each other in a Chipotle parking lot and had a conversation that sparked the beginning idea of OZY: reimagining news for a “globally minded, discerning and diverse group that they named the Change Generation.” They wanted to make a platform for the people who were tired of reading the same menu of news, rehashing yesterday’s big stories.

Backed by prominent investors like Laurene Powell Jobs, they launched OZY in 2013, and the platform quickly took off. While there are many alternative news platforms now, OZY took a completely different approach then their competitors. They marketed to the thinkers who challenge the status quo, who question the news they are handed, who push boundaries. They marketed to readers who were tired of echo-chamber news, and ready for a fresh perspective. They flipped today’s news on it’s head - and it worked.

Today, OZY reaches over 50 million people each month on their variety of media platforms. From podcasts, to YouTube and Television, to the thriving online magazine, OZY has built a reputable name by focusing on “the new and the next.”

Whether it be the newest rising sports star, or latest fad, OZY prides itself on getting there first. They have profiled over 1,000 breakout figures and trends before larger publications like New York Times and The Economist. (OZY featured Trevor Noah before he was named host of The Daily Show, and showcased Aaron Judge before he was a Yankee All-Star.)

Take for example, a story published on Tuesday about a Ivonne Roman - a female Newark Police Commander who is working to get more women in policing by launching the Women’s Leadership Campaign. OZY published this as the top feature of the day on Tuesday, spreading the awareness of what Roman is trying to do. They even go as far as to include a subheading titled “Why You Should Care,” with a quick sentence explaining the importance of what Roman is doing.

The feature is extremely readable and intriguing, yet full of outside information that backs up Roman’s interview. The article, chalk full of hyperlinks, photos, and data is driven by Roman’s quotes embedded in each paragraph in a way that makes the reader feel as if they’re conversing with Roman herself:

“At the same time, women are named less in lawsuits and force complaints and have fewer allegations of excessive force. “I use my wits … because I’m smaller in size,” she says. “There’ve been a ton of times where I’ve convinced someone to comply with me by not coming across as aggressive. I still get the same outcome and without having to escalate a situation.’”

In a single paragraph, OZY writer Cari Shane has set up the use of Roman’s quote with a brief sentence, a link to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service report that backs up what she says, and a quote that allows the reader to gain a glimpse of both Roman’s personality and reasoning.

This story may not have made the front page, or even been reported, on many other publications sites. OZY however, has published it with conviction.

They use multimedia tools to grab the reader’s attention and make the story readable. They use multiple sources and links to previous research on the subject to gain credibility. They use significant interviews to build a sense of rapport between the reader and Roman. And they tell you exactly why it matters.

Ozy has branded itself into its own category of news. They have made themselves available across many media platforms, and have not lost their credibility along the way. They report with accuracy and creativity. With diverging perspectives and boundary pushing concepts. With conviction and clarity. They report journalistically, yet keep up with the ever-changing world of technology.

OZY reports on the new and the next, for the Changing Generation.

An Important Read for the Believers, Non-Believers, and Everyone in Between

Christopher Soloman, writer of The New York Times, paints his readers a stunning portrait - one most will never get to see in real life - of an area quickly vanishing in our nation-wide gamble for oil and money.

While some people choose to wave human interference off as a contributing factor to the world’s changing climates, others paint a vivid picture of one of the most capturing Wildlife areas in the world, that leaves readers who have never been there begging the question are we willing to lose this? With his article, “Exploring a Timely Wilderness Before Drilling Begins” Soloman does just that.

This piece is a silent killer. Soloman’s eloquent language, and detailed descriptions of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge take the reader on a serene journey through the sanctuary, planting only small seeds of information that question why we would drill a “Deleware-size” hole into the wildlife rich lands, for oil and money.

Writing in first person narrative, Soloman takes the reader along his journey. You can feel his sense of calm and awe as he navigates the land with passages like,

“We drift and paddle and drift more. Faced with the unceasing light of an Arctic June, time loses shape. The tyranny of the alarm clock is replaced by a fainter pulse, usually lost to us nowadays: the rhythm of natural places. We eat later and later, and take meandering walks in the convalescent light of midnight.”

Soloman quickly and quietly moves the reader downstream. He takes them along with him as he soaks up his views, keeping them intruiged by shifting from long, descriptive sentences, to short, straightforward statements. Yet as the structure changes, the beauty does not.

“A moose startles. The sun drops behind those walls. The world, and lips, turn a shivery blue. Finally, the mountains release the river. The sun splashes us with caramel light and reviving warmth.”

As a reader, you become captivated by his sensory details. This is what makes the piece so impressive. Just when you let your surroundings go completely and succumb to this beautiful trip Soloman takes you on, he hits you with the reality.

“‘Welcome to the Arctic Plain,” Mr. George says, standing in the stern of our raft like a Mississippi boatman.

So this is what all the fighting is about.

For almost a half-century, the stretch of land between mountains and sea here has been a sanctuary with an asterisk ... For nearly 50 years a battle has been waged between those who think drilling in the so-called 1002 Area is Alaska’s birthright and can be done well — the oil industry, many of Alaska’s politicians, the native corporations that would see needed funds from drilling — and those who say the place is too valuable for other reasons, and also too wild, to drill.”

Just like that. He pulls the reader in, captivated by an image from his descriptively detailed writing, and then switches gears to reality giving the reader no time to blink. It is artfully written in a way that uses emotion to grab the attention of the reader before relaying the facts.

Soloman goes on for several more graphs to explain this history of drilling in this area and what implications it may have to continue with this bill. The argument used by many pro-drilling representatives is that this Arctic Plain is the most ‘desolate’ area in Alaska. Soloman allows the reader to draw their own conclusion about that as he uses it to end his piece with clarity and ambiguity all at once.

‘Desolate!” we say each time a snowy owl lifts off in search of a lemming.

“Nothing here!” we call out to one another as the next herd of caribou shimmers into view. We know better than to chase them, now. And we wait, patiently, for their arrival.

The sun is high. My watch is dead. It is exactly the time it is supposed to be.”

It’s beautiful, it’s quiet, and it’s powerful.