Michelle Russ Dances Her Way to the Pacific

Dance Major, Michelle Russ

Slippery Rock University freshman dance major, Michelle Russ has been taking dance lessons for years and found that she had a passion for all types of dance. This past year her passion is taking her on an adventure that most would kill for. Russ is attending the University of Hawaii, at Manoa for three weeks to learn cultural dances and participate in a local festival, and also by participating she receives seven credits towards her schooling. The University awards two in state scholarships and two out of state scholarships for the rest of the United States. After a long application process, Russ was awarded one of the out of state scholarships, allowing her to have an easier time financially. Slippery Rock is sending five dance majors to Hawaii this Summer, including Russ.

Michelle Russ when she was on point
when doing ballet.

Michelle started taking dance lessons at the age of three years old because her sister begged her mom to include
Michelle in the lessons. When Michelle got older she was not only involved in dance, but soccer and softball, but once it became to hectic she had to choose and decided to quite the other two sports and only focus on dance. In her dance career Michelle has learned how to do ballet, tap, jazz, modern, hip-hop, and many other genres of dance. While she is a well rounded dancer she still hopes to learn more while attending Slippery Rock and by participating in programs like this upcoming Hawaii trip. She hopes that she can learn more cultural dances and even some ballroom dancing.

When she was applying for colleges her dream school was New York University, she loved the dance department and loved the school, and she even got accepted into the University, but unfortunately she could not attend due to financial reasons. In the end she was deciding between two schools, Drexel University and Slippery Rock University. She did not know which school she was attending until the night before she had to make the decision, and decided to follow her sister and attend SRU. While she loves to dance and perform after she graduates she is interested in either becoming a choreographer or work with the technology/technical part of dance.

Michelle Russ performs with fellow dancers in a more
contemporary piece put on by the studio.

Today Michelle Russ is getting ready to head to the University of Hawaii and hopes to learn more about dance, especially the cultural dances of Hawaii. This past year she even learned a Hawaiian dance, by Michael Pili Pang, that involved moving her hips and using a Hawaii instrument. 





Michelle Russ describes her experiences with dancing at such a young age, from hardships and injuries to finding her passion.

 

Michelle describes some of her favorite dance styles and styles that she hopes to learn throughout her dancing career.




Michelle describes the steps that she took to get accepted into the University of Hawaii summer dance program, and how she got the one of two dance scholarships to the program.




Michelle and four other girls perform a traditional Hawaiian hula taught by Michael Pili Pang. This type of cultural dance is an example of what Michelle hopes to learn while in Hawaii.




Melissa Teodoro is a dance professor at Slippery Rock University and she helped the students going to Hawaii apply and ultimately be accepted into the program. She explains what the program entails and what she hopes the girls, specifically Michelle, get out of the experience.

The dancers get ready to perform a traditional Hawaiian Hula for the Introduction to Dance class.

Web Biography Proposal

Option #1

I live in Rhoads Hall at Slippery Rock University and this past semester there have been numerous drug busts in the resident halls. I happen to know one of the dealers, Cody McAvoy, as my neighbor. One idea I had was to interview him and ask how he got involved with drug dealing and how he managed his business out of his traditional sized dorm room. Along with his interviews, I would take pictures of his room and where he stored the drugs throughout the semester, and then I would also interview a police officer to find out how drug cases are handled and what are the proper protocols.

Option #2

My other choice is to interview a freshman dance major, Michelle Russ, who this semester was awarded one of two scholarships in the United States to spend the summer studying dance at the University of Hawaii. This girl lives, breathes, and loves dance, so I would ask her questions about the trip to Hawaii and what all she is hoping to learn. I would also ask her how she became interested in dancing and what hardships has she faced throughout the years before getting this opportunity at Slippery Rock University.

Every Week Should Be Earth Day

Earth Day 2013 at the Slippery Rock University campus was not a day, but two weeks of events, like a film festival, a carnival, a TOMs Awareness Walk, and even a competition called Canned Castles. SRU has been celebrating Earth Day since the year 1990, but this is the first year it was a campus wide, two week event. While the main focus was on Earth Day and sustainability many campus organizations and sponsors joined to help create the festivities.




Introduction picture link
YouTube Video on Oil Spill posted by the TheBlueSeals
YouTube Video on Earth Day History posted by accuweather

Proposing Earth Day (or Should I Say Week)

The schedule for Slippery Rock University's annual
Earth Day celebration.

Earth Day is a day that is celebrated every year, but is often ignored by the general student population except those who truly have a passion for sustainablility and going green. To stop those from ignoring the day and stopping the spread of sustainability, Slippery Rock University has created a week and a half worth of events that are taking place all over campus and focus on different parts of the environment.

The program Meograph has the ability to combine text, pictures, and videos, but what makes this program different from all the other programs out there is a feature that includes maps. This feature can be used with Earth Day Week on the SRU campus because all the events are happening at different locations around campus and not just on one day. I would start with researching the beginning of Earth Day, and then try and get into contact with either the CSIL office or the Office of Sustainability to figure out when Slippery Rock began celebrating Earth Day in such an elaborate way, and then to finish off I would attend 2 or 3 events and report the goings on and interview some people who are involved.

Throughout the week events include an Environmental Film Festival from Monday, April 15 to Thursday, April 18, lectures ranging from sustainability to forest destruction, A "One Day Without Shoes" Awareness Walk on April 16, an Earth Day Carnival on Tuesday, April 23, and many more. There is an event for everyone, something for those who are movie buffs, for those who enjoy going to lectures, for those who want to take a stand and raise awareness, and lastly something that can be done with a large group of friends.

Also this is an event that many students and faculty support and participate in, and many do not know very much about the line up of events. This is the perfect chance to showcase what many organizations have put together for students to promote a good cause while still having a good time.

Step Up! to the Challenge of Making a Difference

Thursday, April 4, 2013 @ 12:30 p.m. (Common Hour)

(picture)

On Thursday, April 4, during common hour, Slippery Rock University's HOPE Peer Mentors kicked off the Step Up! Bystander Intervention Program with the Alcohol Addition. A small group of students came to the event and left with not only a Step Up! T-shirt, but also useful knowledge about helping themselves and others safely consume alcohol.

The event started when three Peer Mentors introduced themselves as junior, public health and professional studies major, Chloe Ruot, 21, junior, health and physical education major, Coleen Lugar, 20, and junior public health major, Nick Jones, 20. They then jumped right in to talking about scenarios and asking us the all-important question: What would you do if you were in that situation? This point was proven even more so when we watched a clip of the ABC show What Would You Do?



Video found on YouTube, posted by greenclips. This clip of What Would You Do? was shown at the beginning of the event to see the audience's initial reactions and spark a discussion.

According to Junior, Mary Leach, 20, in response to the video, “I put that scenario at popular party spots in Slippery Rock, and thought that we will never have a parental figure at the Heights with us, it all depends on students.”

When the clip was finished the event became mostly discussion based, with the audience discussing what they would do if they were taking one of their friends out who just turned 21 and had never had a drink, if they found out that their designated driver was drinking, and what to do if a drunk host of a party was asked to drive and purchase more beer. Some of these scenarios were answered with long drawn out answers from multiple members of the audience, while others were simple such as, “Don’t let anyone get in the car.”

Peer Mentors, Chloe Ruot and Nick Jones share with
the audience what a standard drink size is.
(picture)

Some other basic information that was presented  included some strategies that would help student’s help each other know when too much is finally too much. Some strategies include creating a drink limit before going out, switching to drinking non-alcoholic drinks when you feel you have reached your limit, never feel like you have to drink every time you go out, make sure to have a designated driver or even be the DD, and many other strategies.

“Another strategy is to only bring a certain amount of cash to the bar and when you have spent all the cash, know that you can no longer buy anymore drinks,” advised Health Coordinator, Renee Bateman.

           

Lastly they covered what students should do if they see someone showing signs of alcohol poisoning. Alcohol poisoning is a serious matter that should not be taken lightly, symptoms include turning ashy and blue, vomiting, and suffering from confusion. When seeing someone it is best to turn them over on their side so they do not choke on their own vomit, call the police for emergency medical service, and never leave them alone.

“So if you are at a party and someone has alcohol poisoning and your friends are leaving, it’s one of those awkward situations when you have to choose, please choose to stay with them [person with alcohol poisoning], and get the help that they need,” explained Peer Mentor, Nick Jones, 20.

Overall The Step Up! Bystander Intervention program is a helpful program to SRU students that provides knowledge about not only about safely consuming alcohol, but the next event is going to focus on sexual assault with college students on April 18 during common hour.

The intimate audience listens intently and participates
in the numerous discussions.
(picture)

Health Coordinator, Renee Bateman, discusses why she feels that this program is important for Slippery Rock students, and junior, Mary Leach explains how she will use what she learned at the event in her everyday life.

Sprinkles Cupcake ATM

Sprinkles Cupcakes Bakery in Beverly Hills introduced the world's first Cupcake ATM in March 2012. It dispenses cupcakes 24-hours a day in a multitude of flavors. Flavors that are dispensed include chocolate-marshmallow, red velvet cupcake, chai latte, brown sugar praline, doggy cupcakes, and many more. The cupcakes are always fresh and ready to be eaten, just in case the infamous cupcake shop has a line out the door and around the block.


 

Rockin' Women in the Music Industry

Are YOU a Feminist?

Slippery Rock University, Senior, Grace Evans, explains what being a feminist means to her and how she came to terms with being a feminist. She also explained how in today's society feminism is a taboo and has become the new f-word.


Slippery Rock University Faculty member, Michael White explains when he discovered that he was a feminist with the help of a student and a dictionary.


Slippery Rock University Professor, Dr. Pease-Hernandez, tells the story about when she was applying for a job at SRU and how she asked if there was any reason that she should not get a higher pay grade.

Brandy Geist is a Slippery Rock University student and part of the on-campus organization Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance. She explains what her personal definition of feminist is.

There is No Shame in the Word Vagina!

To Be Popular or Not?

The Constitution is one of the founding documents of the United States, and the steps to electing a new president with the electoral college is found in Article II. According to electoral-vote.com each state gets the same number of electors equal to the number of representatives they have in Congress. Each state chooses their own electors but these electors are the actual people voting for the president. What the general public is voting for   is a slate of electors who have pledged to vote for a certain presidential candidate. Most states today have a "winner-takes-all," system, according to NARA, which means that all of the electoral votes go to the same candidate, the candidate who won the state's popular vote.

The Electoral College is an traditional system that many feel has its advantages and disadvantages when it comes to picking the next president of our country. For example, according to the Chicago Sun Times Blog, some disadvantages are that sometimes the candidate with the most popular votes will not be the winner in the electoral college. George W. Bush in 2000 is a strong example, because he did not win the popular vote, but managed to win the electoral college. Another example of a disadvantage that the electoral college according to How Does the Electoral College Work?, is that the "swing" states receive a larger amount of attention from the candidates, because they need that specific states electoral votes. If the election was based off of popular vote, then more attention will have to be payed to all states, because then each individual vote would count. Lastly the electoral college makes the election difficult for third party candidates because the majority, at least in a winner-takes-all state, has to vote for the third party.

According to Slate, one advantage of the electoral college is the fact that it is able to produce a clear winner. If the electoral college was changed to popular vote, the "what if" possibilities would increase and the entire system would need to be reevaluated. Another advantage of the electoral college, according to keyframe5, is that the smaller, less populated states play a role in the election, and prevent the bigger states such as Texas and California from controlling the election.

picture source: Chicago Sun Times and C-SPAN

Introducing Saad Mohseni, the MOBY Media Mogul

picture source

Saad Mohseni is a 44-year-old media entrepreneur in Afghanistan. He is the chairman of MOBY media group, the largest media group in Afghanistan and the group is linked to popular brands like Tolo TV and multiple radio shows. While being mainly involved with media, his is also well in tune with politics in Afghanistan and is considered somewhat of a radical himself. He has been criticized for being "un-Islamic for allowing women and men to be on the same show together, especially on the popular singing competition show in Afghanistan, Afghan Star. He has also been threatened to be arrested for his outspoken views against some aspects of the government and encouraging journalists to investigate the government corruption. MOBY media group has many branches that range from television, radio, and slowly into new media as well. If I ever have the chance to interview Mohseni I would ask, "How do you balance working in the media, while still living in a country that is mostly under the control of the Taliban, a group that is firmly against uncontrolled media?"

The New Yorker

I choose the article from the New Yorker because reading through the story, I could tell that the interviewer had met with Mohseni because of the detailed account of the day of the interview.

TIME Magazine

I used TIME Magazine because Mohseni was part of the 2011 TIME 100, so it was not a long article about Mohseni, but just gave the basic details and a small overview of what he has done.

MOBY Media Group

I used the MOBY media group website, because this is Mohseni's company and it held the information of all aspects of the group from broadcast, print, and even new media options that are trying to be implemented.

The Daily Show Interview

I used this site because it had a video interview of Mohseni. He talked about Afghan Star and the affect that is has had on Afghanistan and the contestants. It was a reliable source even though it was taken from comedy central because comedy was not the main part, getting the information and learning about the show was the central idea.

Step 1: Introductions

Hello! My name is Stephanie Cheek (or Steph if you prefer)

This is not my first attempt at a blog, but this is the first time that I am excited and looking forward to creating and posting in a blog. I am a sophomore Communication Major at Slippery Rock University, so I feel like I should have started a blog a long time ago, but my New-Media Journalism class gave me the push that I needed to start and actually enjoy blogging. 

I am like most college students enjoy spending time with friends whether in person or through Facebook. Facebook is one of the few social media sites that I am consistently on so my Twitter is completely new and foreign to me, but you learn by doing, so I'm starting. I am specifically interested in print journalism, and since the field is changing, this is a great opportunity to familiarize myself with social media and how it can be used to help me in the future. I hope to be able to blog on a regular basis and almost become addicted to constantly updating.

I grew up living bi-coastally, part of my time I lived with my mom in Los Angeles, CA, and the other part of my time I spent with my dad in Pittsburgh, PA. I love the fact that I grew up traveling and going on numerous vacations with my family, so it blossomed my love for traveling. I go through phases where I need to write on a regular basis, and others where I just create a list in my head of things that I want to write about. I love spending time with my friends and family and try to be up for almost anything, but I'm a true introvert at times wanting to curl up and read a book, watch a movie or my favorite television show.

Journalism and finding news has truly changed from more of a traditional route to a more convenient and easier way to find and read the news. An example of a traditional news source is USA Today. USA Today is one of the top newspapers in the country and captured audiences with their use of graphics and color. They cover a wide range of news topics while at the same time capturing attention. An example of a new-media outlet is Mashable. Mashable is a news website that has articles, pictures, videos, and even comics. It is a truly interactive news website that allows the audiences to be a part of the news. Also they actively participate in social media and have sections that range from business and world news to technology and entertainment, making it a news site for any age.

I look forward to continuing to post and travel through the world of blogging, so follow along and start passing notes!