Study Breaks Magazine San Marcos Issue

PLUS: THE ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST IGNORING DEATH THREATS pg.46 • FREE SPEECH’S WAR ON FREE SPEECH pg.22 • FIELD HOCKEY’S MOST RESILIENT RUNNERS-UP pg.18

When Life Hands You Lemons, Major in Citrus & Horticultural Studies page 23 Vinesh Kannan’s Omnipointment Brings Order to Group-Work Anarchy page 12

WELLESLEY STUDENT AND STEM PIONEER

The College Phenoms Shaping the eSports Industry page 28

ON BRINGING REPRESENTATION TO CODING: “Maybe I want to be around women while I study a career dominated by men.”

THE RANDY MARSH www.gumbyssanmarcos.com

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ONLINE THIS MONTH PAGE 4

STUDENT EXHIBITION

Citrus College Student Caleb Kline Is Making the Transgender Community More Accessible, One Joke at a Time page 34

PAGE 6 USC student and New Dehli native Aman Adlakha ref lects on Cannes

COV E R SP O T L IGH T

By Jack Bra ndon

TAKING BACK TECH

screening his short film at

Photography by Ariel Parra

TASTEMAKERS

#COLLEGEHACKS

PAGE 14

PAGE 26

At the University of New

Let yourself go over the

Jersey, designer Meme Cisse

summer? We’ve got the

combines her West African

hacks you need to get back

TAKING BACK TECH

roots with a ‘90s aesthetic

in studying shape

PAGE 40

By Kaitlyn Peterson

By L ia m C ha n Hodge s

Anah Lewi, a STEM pioneer and Computer Science major at Wellesley College, is

GREEK LIFE

helping bring much-needed representation to the world

Photographer Sarah Schecker,

STUDENT GOVER NMENT

an NYU student and Kappa

PAGE 22

By Carli Scalf, Ball

sister, is channeling the

When it comes to

State University

influence of her mentor, artist

protecting free speech, the

Duane Michals

persecuted have become

By C h r i st i ne A scher

the persecutors

EXTR A CREDIT

By L ex i L ieber ma n

PAGE 46

PAGE 16

TALKING NOTES

of coding

Pomona College student

PAGE 10

and climate-change

Oceanline, a summer

activist Tom Erb is risking

Maryland, has fought

WHAT’S YOUR MAJOR?

against geography to

PAGE 23

carbon tax

produce an intimately

Ensure yourself a lifetime

By K at h r y n Pa rker

familiar sound

supply of Vitamin D by

By Christian Zeitler

majoring in Citrus and

love garage band from

STEM GEMS

INTR A MUR ALS

his life to implement a

Horticultural Studies

SMASHING SUCCESS

By Br ia Jone s

PAGE 28

MEET THE PRESIDENT

PAGE 18

A look into the growing

PAGE 48

PAGE 12

Messiah College student and

world of college eSports

Texas Tech’s Robbie

Vinesh Kannan brings

field hockey athlete Carissa

THE MEAL PL A N

through two of its

Meyer takes criticism

order to group-work

Gehman helped her team

PAGE 25

phenoms, Samuel “Dabuz”

w ith a grain of salt, but

anarchy with his start-up,

end eight consecutive years

This summer, frozen coffee

Buzby and Victoria

not when it comes to his

Omnipointment

of championship defeats

has never been hotter

“VikkiKitty” Perez

guacamole

By Kel ly Keg lov it s

By Da kot a Bu h ler

By A bbey Slat ter y

By Ben S eidel

By St udy Bre a k s St a f f

STUDYBREAKS.COM

AUGUS T 2017

EDITOR’S NOTE

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

NEW YEAR, NEW FORMAT

N THIS, our first issue of the new school year, you might find that we have made a few changes to the structure of the magazine, for which we have several perfectly good reasons, though only one is worth explaining.

When “Study Breaks” in its current iteration was born, its bedrock concept was that it would be written entirely by students from across the country, and that they would participate in what would come to be a rigorously structured program designed to better them as writers. For several months, our claim to fame was our unique authorship, and as the program grew, the caliber of student we attracted grew, and thus we saw that it was good.

Then we realized that, in our mission to shine a light on the talent of student writers, we had neglected the large population of the undergraduate body that had no desire to write professionally. So, as a way of offering them a spotlight similar to the one we aimed to give our writers, we set up a system for conducting student interviews in order to tell their stories.

At first, the writing staff produced a handful of these profiles a month, most of which were for the magazine, though overall it was a paltry number.

Over time, we routinized the process and the number of features produced monthly rose from a handful to several dozen, which is about where we sit now.

As time passed and the student pro-

I

files became the trademark of “Study Breaks,” the feature that most attracted potential writers and campuses to our cause, it dawned on us just how much of a two-birds situation the concept was; student writers showcasing their abilities by spotlighting the achievements of other students was the Xzibit “Yo dawg” meme of student empowerment.

So, now we arrive back at the reason for the changes to the magazine.

Starting this month, we’ve removed a few departments that we considered to be the most expendable and replaced them with a roster of new student interviews, each of which highlights a specific subsection of students. In the next few pages, you’ll find an interview with a student artist, band, member of Greek life, STEM pioneer, style innovator and athlete; toward the back of the magazine, you’ll find that “Extra Credit” and “Meet the President” are largely unchanged, with the exception that now the stu-

dent spotlighted in “Extra Credit” comes exclusively from a non-profit or social justice background, as opposed to general entrepreneurship.

I realize that all of this matters very little to you, and I would even venture to wager that you would not have noticed a single difference had you not made it this far in my note—and that’s okay. The point is that when we see an opportunity to make a change that allows the magazine to better represent its readers, we jump at it. Including more student profiles may be a small one, but we think it reflects the nature of what we aim to do here, which is make y’all look good. Hope you like it.

OUR TEAM FOUNDER: GAL SHWEIKI ART DIRECTOR: IAN FRIEDEL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: MARK STENBERG DIGITAL EDITOR: EMILY BOWEN, VANESSA MARTINEZ, ISABELLE PFEFFER GRAPHIC DESIGNER: BRYAN RAYNES MARKETING: RALPH CHAPLIN ACCOUNTING: ELIZABETH CASTRO DISTRIBUTION MANAGER: MARCUS FLORES DISTRIBUTION: FRANK HARTFIELD, JOSE ESPINOZA, ERNEST WARD

MARK STENBERG EDITOR IN CHIEF @MarkStenberg3

Production: Shweiki Media Study Breaks magazine is published twelve times per year by Shweiki Media, Inc. copyright 2012. All rights reserved. This magazine may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented without written permission from the publisher. Reproduction or use in whole or in part of the contents of this magazine or of the trademarks of Study Breaks Magazine, Inc., without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. The publisher assumes no responsibility for care and return of unsolicited materials. Return postage must accompany material if it is to be returned. In no event shall such material subject this magazine to any claim for holding fees or similar charges. Study Breaks Magazine is an entertainment magazine for the students of San Antonio, San Marcos, Austin and Lubbock, published 12 times a year. Corporate Office: Study Breaks Magazine Inc., 4954 Space Center Dr., San Antonio, TX 78218 • Contact Study Breaks: editorial: Mark Stenberg, 210-705-3284 editorial@studybreaks.com • Study Breaks Magazine is excited to help your brand reach our audience through video and written content. Sales: Ralph Chaplin, 210-892-0951 /// contact@studybreaks.com

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WRITER

CONTRIBUTORS

PHOTOGRAPHER

LIAM CHAN HODGES @mauimongol Franklin and Marshall College Government #COLLEGEHACKS PAGE 26

KAYLA KIBBE Connecticut College English THE NOT GAY CLOSET PAGE 34

JACK BRANDON University of Michigan English STUDENT EXHIBITION PAGE 6

CHRISTIAN ZEITLER Carnegie Mellon Professional Writing and Creative Writing TALKING NOTES PAGE 10

KELLY KEGLOVITS @kellykeglovits University of Texas Austin Plan II STEM GEMS PAGE 12

KAITLYN PETERSON @kaitlyn.patricia UCLA English TASTEMAKERS PAGE 14

DAKOTA BUHLER @dakotabuhler George Fox University English INTRAMURALS PAGE 18

CHRISTINE ASCHER USC English & Economics GREEK LIFE PAGE 16

SIERRA EMILAIRE Southern Adventist University English Professional Writing AROUND CAMPUS PAGE 21

ABBEY SLATTERY @abslatt Northwestern College Writing and Rhetoric THE MEAL PLAN PAGE 25

LEXI LIEBERMAN University of Pennsylvania English STUDENT GOVERNMENT PAGE 22

BRIA JONES @vanwynthegarden Georgia Southern University Writing and Linguistics WHAT’S YOUR MAJOR? PAGE 23

KATHRYN PARKER @katyannparker Fordham University Comparative Literature EXTRA CREDIT PAGE 46

BEN SEIDEL St. Olaf College English & Film/Media Studies SMASHING SUCCESS PAGE 28

CARLI SCALF @carliscalf18 Ball State College English & Journalism TAKING BACK TECH PAGE 40

SHIVAMM PAATHAK @shivamm_paathak Pearl Academy New Dehli Fashion Media and Communication STUDENT EXHIBITION PAGE 6

CONOR BULAKITES Wake Forest University Computer Science TALKING NOTES PAGE 10

MARK CAPAPAS Lane Tech Undecided STEM GEMS PAGE 12

SARAH BENNET @sarahnatannia College of New Jersey English & Elementary Education TASTEMAKERS PAGE 14

LINDSEY KREIDER @lindsey_._anne Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences Emergency Medical Tech INTRAMURALS PAGE 18

MAURA MCNULTY @mauramcnulty17 NYU Fashion Psychology & Fashion Business GREEK LIFE PAGE 16

MEGAN BENDER @bender_snap Citrus College Journalism THE NOT GAY CLOSET PAGE 34

ALEXANDRA STEARNS @alex_stearns Pratt Institute Photography EXTRA CREDIT PAGE 46

JUSTIN REX @justin.l.rex Texas Tech Electronic Media and Communication MEET THE PRESIDENT PAGE 48

ARIEL PARRA UC Berkley

JAYNE CHEN @jayneinnyc

Biological Engineering

CUNY Baruch

TAKING BACK TECH

Computer Science and

PAGE 40

Business Communications

STUDYBREAKS.COM

SMASHING SUCCESS

NOAH VILLAMAR @NoahVillamarPhotography Broward College Central Campus Business & Management SMASHING SUCCESS PAGE 28

STUDY BREAKS is written exclusively by a team of student interns from across the country. These writers work with the editorial team to pitch and submit one piece a week for the website, in addition to writing for the monthly print magazine.

Fall internships run from September 28 to January 28, and applications close January 14. If interested, email editorial@studybreaks. com with “Student Writing Internship” in the Subject.

Introduce yourself in the body, making sure to include your name, school and major.

Please attach at least two samples of your work. Ideal writers are intelligent, funny and talented, though no formal experience is necessary.

PAGE 28 AUGUS T 2017 //

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ONLINE THIS MONTH

R IGH T NOW AT

ST U DY BR E A K S .COM SPOTLIGHT FROM THE VAULTS

Business Insider

This Trans NCAA Soccer Player Kept Her Gender a Secret for Years After Mack Beggs, the Texas high school transgender wrestler, made national news for the controversy surrounding his battle to compete in the men’s division, UC Santa Cruz student Athena Del Rosario felt prompted to do something. As a trans female, after years of playing women’s soccer, Del Rosario came out to her teammates and the media, creating an uproar of her own. “I didn’t have that opportunity to ask about the experience of trans women athletes, and I think people deserve that opportunity,” she told UNT student Brittany Sodic.

Partisan Professors and Impressionable Students Written last fall during the election, Franklin and Marshall student Liam Chan Hodges’ piece on the extent to which professors should share their political opinions is as relevant today as it was last year.

No one denies that educators are entitled to their opinions, but politically charged classrooms can make for inhospitable learning environments.

So what’s the answer? According to Hodges, it’s complicated.

thevalleystar.com BOOMSbeat

ONLINE COLLEGE This month on the website, learn how to: Convince your parents you’re not a baby // Talk to younger siblings, maturely, about sex // Self-induce crippling nostalgia // Explain to your best friend why y’all can’t be roommates // Mourn the integrity of ‘Cowboy Bebop’ // IMPRESS BILL GATES // Nail down the difference between appreciation and appropriation // Get ahead of the contraceptive curve

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On Being with Krista Tippet

More Perfect

Invisibilia

HONOR ROLL

W H AT ’ S O N T H E I N S I D E

THE HONOR ROLL STUDENT EXHIBITION

TALKING NOTES

TASTEMAKERS

INTR A MUR ALS

GREEK LIFE

PAGE 10

PAGE 14

PAGE 18

PAGE 16

PAGE 6

Oceanline, a summer

At the University of New

Messiah College student

Photographer Sarah

USC student and New

love garage band from

Jersey, clothing designer

and field hockey athlete

Schecker, an NYU student

Dehli native Aman

Maryland, has fought

Meme Cisse combines

Carissa Gehman helped

and Kappa sister, is

Adlakha ref lects on

against geography to

her West African roots

her team end eight

working to channel the

screening his short film at

produce an intimately

with a distinctly nineties

consecutive years of

inf luence of her mentor,

Cannes

familiar sound

aesthetic

championship defeats

artist Duane Michals

By Jack Bra ndon

By Christian Zeitler

By Kaitlyn Peterson

By Da kot a Bu h ler

By C h r i st i ne A scher

STEM GEMS

BRINGING ORDER TO CHAOS

Vinesh Kannan, a Computer Science major at the Illinois Institute of Technology, is the co-founder of Omnipointment, a start-up designed to make group work a little less terrible.

By Kelly Keglovits, UT Austin Photography by Mark Capapas, Lane Tech

V

INESH KANNAN, a third year student at the Illinois Institute of Technology, grew up in Schaumburg, Illinois, and it was in the tiny Midwest town that he first developed his love for computers. Kannan went on to study Computer Science in college, and while there, he, like almost every undergraduate, experienced the anarchy of one of the most reviled of all university traditions—the group project.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12

STUDYBREAKS.COM

AUGUS T 2017 //

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STUDENT EXHIBITION

AMAN ADLAKHA is a junior Film student at the University of Southern California whose work varies from drama to documentary. A native of New Delhi, Adlakha found his way across the world to Los Angeles to pursue his passion of filmmaking. Two years later, he and his friends created a shor t film, “The Spaceman,” for the Campus Movie Fest competition at UCLA. The film won the Jury Award and other nods from shor t film festivals, but, most notably, “The Spaceman” was selected to be screened at Cannes 2017. Adlakha has one foot in Hollywood and the other in Bollywood, and is currently exploring the worlds of both.

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By Jack Brandon, Universit y of Michigan Ann Arbor Photography by Shivamm Paathak, Pearl Academy

JACK BR ANDON: To star t, how did you get involved in making films?

AMAN ADL AKHA: There’s no one moment that I can pinpoint to say, “This is when I knew.” I always had an interest in photography. When I was a kid, my family and I would go on trips and I’d be the one with the video camera. I would load this footage onto my computer and tr y to make a cohesive stor y. I didn’t really think much of it; it was only a pastime for me.

JB: What changed?

A A: When I was t welve or thir-

teen, I got into gaming. I’d play a lot of “Call of Dut y,” “Halo” and the like. YouTube was really big at the time, so I made this lit tle channel of my own gameplay and it took of f. I ended up get ting over a million views.

JB: Are you still making those videos, or have you used those skills on other projec ts?

A A: Not anymore. I think that was just me experimenting with dif ferent ways of telling stories. When I was six teen, I decided to make a shor t film in

my room. I spent four to five hours shooting on a lit tle DSLR. It was a shor t t wo-minute film called “Technological Irony,” and it was about how we depend on our smar t phones and devices.

It was the first live-ac tion film I did. Ever y thing I’d done before was gaming or documentar y.

JB: Another of your shor t films, “Happy Hour,” deals with similar themes.

A A: I filmed that a few years later.

We were planning on shooting, and I wrote “Happy Hour” the day of the shoot. I spent

half an hour writing out the first thing that came to mind. We shot that entire thing in t wo days.

Looking back on it, I’m pret t y proud of it.

JB: Are you mostly at trac ted to films that critique societ y?

A A: When it comes to what stories I want to tell, I’m figuring it out as I go. As long as I have a personal connection to something that I’ve been through or can relate to, it helps me be more authentic when I’m writing it.

JB: One of your most recent projec ts, “The

STUDYBREAKS.COM

AUGUS T 2017 //

7

STUDENT EXHIBITION CONTINUED

Spaceman,” tells the stor y of a man who regrets let ting go of his childhood dreams. Can you tell me about the process of making that?

A A: There is an organization called Campus Movie Fest that comes to a bunch of college campuses to host a film competition, and it showed up to UCL A. I was a par t of the film fraternity, Delta Kappa Alpha. We knew Campus Movie Fest was coming back and pitched a bunch of scripts. My script for “The Spaceman” was selec ted, so we went to work.

Essentially, we had to make a film within one week with the equipment Campus Movie Fest provided. We made it in five or six days, from shooting to editing, and finished a couple of hours before the deadline. Afterward, they had a showcase where they showed the top sixteen from UCL A at a red carpet screening.

JB: And “The Spaceman” made it to the top sixteen?

A A: Yeah, it was crazy. Not only that, but we had been selec ted to be in the top four.

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// AUGUS T 2017

They had at least one hundred submissions. Af ter the screening, we didn’t hear much.

JB: What came in the months that followed?

A A: Eventually, I got a call from my producer, Will Greenberg, saying that we made it to Cannes. It was ver y surreal, honestly. Cannes picked twenty to twenty-five films from universities and decided that our work was going to be included in the showcase.

JB: Can you elaborate on your experience there?

A A: We par ticipated in a few workshops and sat in on speakings and screenings. We watched some Godard, Villeneuve and Sicario. I wouldn’t call myself a film buf f, though; my tastes are more aligned with mainstream cinema.

JB: Who, in particular, inspires you from mainstream cinema?

A A: I would probably say Tarantino, Spielberg and Nolan. They are a huge influence on me and the way I tell stories. As I’m get ting more involved in filmmaking, I feel like I’m expanding what kind of influences I draw on, a lot of which aren’t from

Hollywood. I had a ver y Westernized upbringing, but recently I’m watching a lot of old Hindi classics.

JB: Have you been able to explore Indian cinema as much as American cinema?

A A: When I was back home over the winter, I made this ten-minute film called “Kuch Baatein.” I had a lit tle screening of it back in Delhi.

A photographer from a corporation came up to me and said she really enjoyed it, and explained that they were planning on making a documentar y about the empowerment of women and children in rural areas in India. She asked me to film it, so for t wo weeks this summer I’ll be working with them.

JB: Do you have any other big plans for the summer?

A A: I’m planning on writing a feature script.

That ’s something I’ve been thinking about for quite awhile now.

I’ve done about eleven or t welve shor t films now, and I feel like at some point you have make that step. Other than that, I’m transfer-

ring from UCL A to USC. JB: Do you have any goals or plans for when you’re done with your degree?

A A: That ’s a big question. It ’s tough for me to say any thing.

Would I rather be in Los Angeles shooting big Holly wood films, or would I rather be in India contributing to cinema there? In India, we’re at a

crossroads where mainstream cinema is changing.

A good deal of Bolly wood films have moved past the song-anddance, escapist model and are in-tune with the realities of Indian societ y. It ’s too soon to say where I’m going to end up, but if I continue down this path I think I’ll end up in a good place, wherever that is.

FAC T F I L E NAME: Aman Adlakha SCHOOL: USC MAJOR: Film FILM: The Spaceman HOMETOWN: New Dehli, India FILM INSPIR ATIONS: Spielberg, Nolan, Tarantino

STUDYBREAKS.COM

AUGUS T 2017 //

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TALKING NOTES

THE EBB AND FLOW OF OCEANLINE

L-R: Dan Gallagher and Josh Earls of Oceanline

The indie rock group, helmed by two Music Production majors, has battled against the realities of distance to produce their signature emotive sound.

By Christian Zeitler, Carnegie Mellon University Photography by Conor Bulakites, Wake Forest University

J

OSH EARLS AND DAN GALLAGHER have been making music together for the last six years, and they aren’t slowing down any time soon. Their band, Oceanline, has undergone many iterations as its members have grown, gone to school and discovered new musical inf luences. As both Earls and Gallagher have both pursued degrees in Music Production, their education has helped their sound evolve from a garage band into something much more serious, but through it all they’ve kept their love of music, their unique sound and their impressive ambition.

Oceanline is the embodiment of sixties “summer love” rock. Their sound is buoyant and smooth, and their lyrics alternate between introspection and storytelling. If you go on Spotify, you’ll also see that they are remarkably prolific, having clocked in well over sixty tracks since their inception. Their passion for songwriting and recording was obvious from the beginning.

“Freshman year of high school, I saw Dan play bass in our marching band,” says Earls. “So one night I had my whole group of friends over at my place, and since I had never hung out with Dan before, I invited him over and told him to bring his bass.” As the rest of their friends watched a movie, Earls and Gallagher broke off and had a jam session that would change the trajectory of their lives. “We talked about wanting to write songs and started having some ideas,” says Earls, “and the next day Dan came over and we recorded an entire album on my crappy computer speakers.”

Terrible or not, the creative fire had been lit, and the two instantly sought to recruit members and gain legitimacy. It was in this process that they found their long-term drummer, Ethan Caldwell, and their lead singer, Logan Harpine. The band began grinding out recording sessions, selling CDs

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to their classmates and performing at talent shows. They immediately had a unique, if unpolished, sound that was inf luenced heavily by their collective obsession with the Beatles and John Mayer. It was rock with a dash of folk, blues with a sprinkling of funk; it was interesting and fresh.

In high school, they dropped four albums, three of which made their way to iTunes and Spotify. Earls’ ability to write songs incredibly quickly had fused with Gallagher’s mastery of the bass and Harpine’s heartthrob voice to make something special. And so, with a progressively broader list of featured instrumentalists on each record, Oceanline became an Avengers-esque collection of the school’s most talented musicians. That is, of course, before everything fell to pieces. “We realized we were going to different schools,” says Gallagher, “so the plan was that Oceanline was just going to die.”

Gallagher went to UMBC, Earls went to Shenandoah Conservatory, Harpine went to Stevenson University and Caldwell went to Central Wyoming College; the Avengers had disbanded. Earls, however, refused to accept their departures as the end of the band.

He sat in his dorm writing songs alone, week after week, with no outlet for his creativity.

“I was writing a song or two a week at that point,” he says, “and it sucked. I couldn’t let Oceanline just stop like that.”

After having not seen each other in months, Earls and Gallagher met up over Thanksgiving break to record a song ironically titled “Goodbye.” They called Harpine, asking if he happened to be in town. As the three played, they began to see a vision for a reunion album, an album appropriately titled “New Beginnings.” They started working on it the following summer in earnest.

Their dream album did have an important caveat, though: Harpine would be leaving school and joining the Marines in October.

There was now a critically small window of

time for them to finish recording, turning their project into something of a race.

“I think my most moving, important musical experience was recording that album,” says Earls. “Every time we worked on it, we had all our friends over. Even our friends who weren’t in the band. We’d send a message out saying, ‘We’re recording tonight, bring food,’ and everyone would come and hang out while we recorded.”

Soon, the twenty-song album was finished in time for Harpine to leave. Caldwell, their drummer, also decided to leave the group due to the complications of going to school so far from the other members.

Faced with another pivotal moment, Earls and Gallagher did not hesitate this time to fill the holes with other talented musicians.

They tried out a series of new drummers and picked up a singer/songwriter from Hood College named Sam Lister. Where Harpine’s voice had been airy and light, Lister was able to belt powerfully, allowing them to produce a much heavier, emotive, punkier-rock sound. They were also able to enlist the help of Nick Jones, a sound engineer from Shenandoah, who helped them record their most recent work, the self-titled “Oceanline.” They began employing new production tricks they learned in school to see what worked and what didn’t.

The revamped Oceanline began gigging more than ever, playing small music festivals and multiple citywide events throughout Maryland. The new shift in membership solidified Earls and Gallagher as the core members of the band, the ones who would never let go of the thrill of playing and recording music.

“The way I view it, “ says Gallagher, “is that, as we finish college, I think that maybe the name Oceanline will go away but…

Oceanline is embodied in the two of us. And I don’t think we are going to stop working together for a long while.”

FAC T F I L E NAME: Oceanline GENRE: Indie Rock / Pop Punk MEMBERS: Josh Earls, Shenandoah; Dan Gallagher, UMBC; Sam Lister, Hood College; Ethan Caldwel, Colorado Film School NUMBER OF ALBUMS: 6 SONGS TO LISTEN TO: “Mountain Top”; “It’s You”; “Allison Wonderland, Goodbye”

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STEM GEMS

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THE JUNIOR FOUND THAT MANY OF THE PROBLEMS with collaborative work stem from poor communication, and while he realized that there was no app in the world that could motivate an uninvolved group member, Kannan went about creating software that would make organizing and communicating amongst teammates as simple as possible, thereby removing as many impediments to clear communication as possible. The result was Omnipointment, a start-up that Kannan created alongside another student in order to improve the group project experience.

FAC T F I L E NAME: Vinesh Kannan SCHOOL: Illinois Institute

Kelly Keglovits: When did you first develop your interest in computers?

Vinesh Kannan: When I was in high school, I got introduced to computer science and programming by classmates who loved learning about it on their own. I really liked the idea that you could just write tex t in a file to make a computer do cool things. And it didn’t seem like you needed to be a cer tain age or skill level or have a degree to do it; you could learn from your own experiments and mistakes.

KK: Can you describe your star t-up, Omnipointment, and what your inspiration was for the projec t?

VK: Omnipointment is on a mission to save college students from crappy group projec ts! Many students have horror stories about finishing all their team’s work the night before a projec t is due or dealing

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with teammates who never seem to be free. We think it ’s a shame, because working in teams can teach students a lot about their own skills and leadership abilities; instead, group projec ts seem to be teaching us to trust no one.

We create web-based tools to help students work bet ter in teams. Students at sevent y-five universities use our website to find times when their team is free to meet. It ’s especially useful for students who are par t of multiple group projec ts and student orgs, tr ying to manage ever y thing on their plate. We also provide “collaboration repor ts” to help students exchange construc tive feedback on how to do bet ter qualit y work.

The repor ts also loop in the professor, so they can help teams that might be having trouble before it ’s too late, as well as give fairer grades at the end of the semester.

KK: What was the creation process for Omnipointment?

VK: For more than six teen months, we have been inter viewing professors and students all over the countr y and from all kinds of colleges to learn about group projec ts. When we create new produc ts, we test them with students and use their feedback to improve. Having professors and schools pay for our ser vices has been a challenging journey, but we really enjoy working with our customers, because they’re not afraid to experiment with new ways of teaching and learning.

KK: What t ype of help/suppor t have you received?

VK: My par tner in crime, Brendan Batliner, is our CTO. We are constantly reviewing our findings from inter views with students and professors to figure out how to make group projec ts a bet ter experience for students.

We are really blessed with mentors. Our entrepreneurship professor, Nik Rokop, is a real-world mentor: He teaches us about business by pushing us to do things and learn from our customers. Omnipointment is also suppor ted by Future Founders, which runs a national fellowship of college-aged founders who motivate and learn from each other.

KK: Has Omnipointment received any success or recognition?

VK: We’re not some crazy machine-learning or emoji star t-up, but we have been invited to many great star t-up competitions.

One highlight of this year

of Technology MAJOR: Computer Science HOMETOWN: Schaumburg, Illinois INVENTION: Omnipointment, a star t-up designed to improve the group-work experience

included traveling to Austin for SXSW. We competed in the final round of Student Star tup Madness, a March Madness st yle tournament for college companies.

KK: What else are you involved in?

VK: I love to learn about civic technology ever y week at ChiHackNight. I am also working with a team to teach a class for incoming college freshmen; it ’s all about computer science and infec tious diseases.

KK: Do you have any big ideas to come?

VK: Well, we’re really invested in the Facebook memes space right now. We star ted a small group called Group Projec t Memes for Collaborative Teens and we really think it can shake up the... kidding! In all seriousness, we are working on a new tool to help students learn how to delegate responsibilities ef fec tively. If a professor or class you know would be interested in tr ying it out, shoot us a note at team@ omnipointment.com!

STUDYBREAKS.COM

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TASTEMAKERS

THE CRADLE OF DESIGN Meme Cisse, a fourth-year student at the University of New Jersey, combined her West African roots with a ‘90s sensibility for her Black Student Union’s annual fashion show.

By Kaitlyn Peterson, UCLA Photography by Sarah Bennet, College of New Jersey

T THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY, fashion isn’t just used for its aesthetics and colors; it’s used to speak a powerful message. Fourth-year Sociology and African-American Studies student Meme Cisse served as the vice president of programming for the college’s Black Student Union (BSU) in 2016, where one of her main tasks was planning the organization’s annual fashion show. During the event, designers and models united their abilities to strengthen and empower African-American culture.

As a West African herself, Cisse wanted to honor the traditions of her culture and look back on Africa’s very beginning. After looking at past shows completed nationwide, she said the Black Lives Matter movement was one of her main inspirations, leading her to incorporate activism and cultural inclusivity into the event. She and her team decided to name the fashion show “The Rise of an Empire” in order to embrace Africa’s past, and the event featured traditional symbols such as pyramids, asymmetrical designs and ’90s-inspired fabric and clothing. “Bringing it back to Africa was the way to start,” Cisse says. “For me, that’s where everything began, that’s where it all started, so why not incorporate that in the show too? It was a no-brainer.”

Although learning about the past is easy through written records and the internet, it is difficult to connect history to the modern day. Still, Cisse wanted to feature designers who had close, personal ties to Africa, and the resulting clothing designs embodied the presence of African traditions within the current day. Cisse was given a lasting impression by Gideon’s Needle, a clothing line that stood out for its authenticity and appreciation for African roots. All of the line’s materials are originally from Africa, and the designer sews each and every piece by hand.

The bright, colorful pieces were modern adaptations of traditional images, which was key to the fashion show’s main purpose of embracing African history. By having designers with direct connections to Africa, Cisse was able to represent her own culture and love for Africa in the fashion show as well. She even wore a lot of the clothing that was in the show because of her African heritage and family traditions.

However, making such a powerful message came with complications, difficulties and hurdles. Cisse and her team in BSU spent months reaching out to designers and models, and a booking conf lict caused the show to be rescheduled. Even on the day of the show, Cisse had to deal with broken materials and designers stuck in traffic. Yet even amidst such trials, “The Rise of an Empire” persevered and came to a successful conclusion. Cisse even cried out of relief and happiness when thanking everyone for their support at the end of the show. “We could all agree that everything we put in the show was meaningful,” she says. “I hope that the future shows that come evolve from that. They learn from the mistakes, and they learn from the accomplishments.”

As she enters her last year at the College of New Jersey, Cisse is now able to watch this upcoming year’s fashion show from the sidelines and see her legacy come to life. BSU was where she found her home and family, and she has certainty that the organization will continue to create a safe space and remember its purpose of empowerment, strength and leadership. “I think a lot of times we get really caught up in the fun stuff and the fun stuff is really cool, but at the end of the day there are issues that need to be broached, whether it’s about Black Lives Matter, politics or whatever the case may be,” Cisse says. Whatever the solution to future problems may be, it starts with an appreciation of the past, a task that Cisse’s clothing turns into a work of art.

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FAC T F I L E DESIGNER: Meme Cisse SCHOOL: Universit y of New Jersey YEAR: Senior MAJOR: Sociology and African-American Studies SHOW: The Rise of an Empire INSPIR ATION: Paying homage to traditional African clothing, especially of West African origin; Gideon’s Needle

GREEK LIFE

Cuba.” Because he wasn’t in school or working, Schecker was able to capture more varied activities, and more of life in Cuba as a result. When photographing people, her goal is always to help people to see from the subject’s perspective. In this case, illustrating the world from Kevin’s outlook allows viewers to understand what it would be like as a young child in a communist country. “It was really cool to get to know him and his family,” she says, “and to see what life there is like from a child’s perspective. I like to convey a story, and if that comes through in my images, then I’m happy.”

Photographing locations also helps Schecker feel closer to her roots. As a Jewish student at NYU, she is involved in Jewish life on campus and has visited Israel several times.

During her travels, she was able to combine her passion for photography with her knowledge of and dedication to the religion. She explained that traveling to Israel gives her the opportunity to photograph something that she understands on more than just a surface level, something that she really connects with.

As a member of the Eta Pi chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma, Schecker uses her talent for camerawork to benefit her sorority and to help out their charities. For the past year, she has been serving on the executive board for the NYU dance marathon as the interactive media chair, which reFAC T F I L E quires taking pictures and videos for the event. “Serving on the execPhotographer and Kappa Kappa Gamma sister Sarah Schecker, NAME: utive board for the dance marathon a rising junior in NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, captures the Sarah Schecker has been really valuable,” she says, unseen side of the world by looking beyond the simple shots.

SCHOOL: NYU “because it’s taught me how to chanBy Christine Ascher, University of Southern California MAJOR: nel something I really like—photogPhotography Photography by Maura McNulty, NYU raphy—to satisfy the needs of my and Imaging position and to give back to kids who INCE THE AGE OF TWELVE, which she can then capture on film SORORIT Y: need it.”

Kappa Kappa when she first began taking nature and hopefully convey to her audiIn addition to continuing with Gamma shots, Sarah Schecker has been ence. An avid traveler, Schecker has her own shooting, Schecker also enamored with photography. photographed countries including MENTOR: hopes to learn more about the critDuane Michals Now about to be a junior at NYU, Cuba, the United Kingdom, Belgium, ical side of photography. “Images where she studies Photography and Imaging in Holland and Israel. In addition to FOCUS: Travel are the way of the future,” she says, photography the Tisch School of the Arts, Schecker’s taking helping her get to know a different “so being able to understand them her commitment to the next level. In between society, shooting on location allows and their deeper meaning is crurunning a food Instagram with her sorority big her to see people that she might not cial.” Working with closely with called @bigplate_littlewallet and becoming a otherwise notice and places that she Duane Michals and hearing firstcompetitive pool player, Schecker has traveled might not otherwise visit. She exhand the stories behind his photos, around the world taking photos and spent plains that shooting allows her to get to know new for instance, helped her appreciate this side of the last semester interning with well-known cities beyond just the tourist spots. photography. Michals, known for his narrative photographer Duane Michals.

Her favorite project, in fact, is one that she sequences, proved a major influence on the phoFor Schecker, photography is not only an art completed last summer while studying abroad tography of the mid-twentieth century. Now at form but also a way of exploring the world. “I’ll be in Havana, Cuba. Her first major project on loeighty-five-years-old, Michals is, in Schecker’s walking down the street and I won’t have a camcation, she focused on a unique subject—rather words, “a master who was ahead of the times.” era with me, but I’ll view the world in images,” she than an adult, she chose to photograph a young In addition to his work, she admires his attitude says. “That inspires the projects that I work on.” boy. “I photographed this little boy named Kevin when it comes to life in general. “He embraces In particular, when visiting new countries, her who was four years old at the time—too young to everything with such positivity and creativity,” photographic mindset allows her to gain a betgo to school,” she says. “I followed him around she says. “I hope I can embody some of those ter understanding of local customs and culture, for a few days to see what he did in communist characteristics moving forward.”

A SENSE OF PLACE S

Locations, clockwise from left: Havana, Cuba;

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Kevin in Havana, Cuba; Havana, Cuba; Copenhagen,Denmark; Kevin in Havana, Cuba; Green Park, London

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FAC T F I L E NAME: Carissa Gehman SCHOOL: Messiah College SPORT: Women’s DIII field hockey MAJOR: Applied Health Science HOMETOWN: Lancaster, Pennsylvania CL AIM TO FAME: Gehman led the team in scoring and helped end an eight-year championship drought

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INTRAMURALS

A VICTORY NINE YEARS IN THE MAKING Carissa Gehman dishes on what it takes to win a national title in the newly emerging sport of field hockey.

By Dakota Buhler, George Fox University Photography by Lindsey Kreider, Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences HE MESSIAH COLLEGE women’s field hockey team woke up to falling snow on the morning of the Division III National Championship. It was November in New York, and their semifinal match the previous day had been played under beautiful, clear skies. Unfortunately, the morning’s forecast didn’t look quite so promising for the most important game of the year.

“It was miserable outside; it was insanely cold and I thought my fingers were going to fall off as I played,” says Carissa Gehman, Messiah’s leading scorer. She shared the sentiment with most of her teammates, but they knew that they had to give that game everything they had, regardless of the weather.

After a full hundred minutes of playing time, the score was still tied 0-0 between Messiah and Tufts, so the National Championship continued forward into overtime.

Then double overtime.

With the score still tied up after two additional periods, the teams moved into a headto-head shootout during which five players on each team were given eight seconds to score against their opponent’s goalie. “Eight seconds may not seem like a lot, but it’s plenty of time to score a goal,” Gehman explains. She had the first opportunity to score for her team and ended up making her shot. “It’s kind of a blur, but in the end we put in two goals and they only put in one. Our goalie was our savior; she was awesome. She stopped so many goals.”

With a final score of 2-1, Messiah College took home their first ever National Championship.

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Their victory was well deserved, as it was their ninth consecutive time playing in the championship game, but their first victory; for the past eight years, they had taken second place. Dedicated to breaking the runner-up streak, the ladies of Messiah College laced up their shoes and did what they had to do to find the top of the podium.

Field hockey is an officially contested sport in the NCA A, but it is relatively new to the United States. “Field hockey is mostly popular in Europe,” Gehman explains. “It’s actually a men’s sport in Europe, and in the U.S. it’s mostly women who play.” Gehman considers herself lucky to have grown up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, one of the most popular places for field hockey in the United States.

The sport is played on the turf with a stick similar to those used in ice hockey. In a brief rundown of the sport, Gehman points out that what makes field hockey unique is players are only able to use one side of the stick, unlike ice hockey where they can dribble with both sides. In field hockey you have to actually f lip over the stick to the f lat side when you’re dribbling. A variation on ice hockey, field hockey can be played on turf fields anywhere—no sub-zero temperatures required.

Growing up, Gehman’s athletic life revolved around soccer. When she got to middle school, she decided to take up a second sport in order to stay in shape for soccer season, so she grabbed a list of sports offered at her school and stuck her finger on field hockey. By the time she was in high school, Gehman had abandoned soccer completely in favor of her newly discovered passion.

When the time came to choose a college, she did so with field hockey in mind. While she could have chosen to play for a Division I school, Gehman decided to look toward Division III, where she could be more than just an athlete. “That’s part of what attracted me to Division III rather than Division I. I know there’s going to be an emphasis on academics—that my coach isn’t going to be completely focused on field hockey, but that she’ll also make sure we’re students first, rather than just athletes.” Division III programs encourage a balance between athletic excellence and academic achievement, allowing Gehman to pursue a degree in Applied Health Sciences while still putting in hours upon hours of practice on the field.

Those hours paid off this past season, as Gehman helped lead her team to the first national championship win in the history of their program. A rough season opener was an important moment for Messiah field hockey, as they lost to the team that would go on to win the Division II championship later in the year. Making the decision that they would refuse to lose another game, the ladies turned around and pulled off an undefeated regular season. “I know a lot of my teammates felt like that game was going to define our season,” Gehman says, “but it didn’t end up that way at all, because we didn’t lose any more games after that.”

They climbed back through the rankings until they were seeded number one in their division. Fighting their way through the NCA A playoff bracket, the team eventually found themselves on a snow-covered field in Geneva, New York, for the championship game.

The rest was history.

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UNIVERSITY REPORT

W H AT ’ S O N T H E I N S I D E

AROUND CAMPUS

By Sierra Emilaire, Sourthern Adventist Unviersity

STUDENT GOVER NMENT

WHAT’S YOUR MAJOR?

THE MEAL PL A N

#COLLEGEHACKS

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This summer, grab some

Let yourself go over the

When it comes to

Ensure yourself a lifetime

ice, coffee and chocolate

summer? We’ve got all

protecting free speech, the

supply of Vitamin D by

syrup, because cold

the #BacktoSchoolHacks

persecuted have become

majoring in Citrus and

caffeine has never been

you need to get back in

the persecutors

Horticultural Studies

hotter

studying shape

By L ex i L ieber ma n

By Br ia Jone s

By A bbey Slat ter y

By L ia m C ha n Hodge s

THE BUZZ B Prepared University of California Davis recently installed a Plan-B dispensing vending machine on campus that stocks morning-after pills, condoms and pregnancy tests.

THE SPOTLIGHT

W

YOMING AREA Secondar y Center’s high school valedic torian and class president, PETER BUTERA, who will be at tending Villanova University in the fall, was escor ted of f the stage during his more-than-frank valedic tor y speech on June 16. In the middle of thanking faculty and administration for their work, he was quick to point out the student government’s lack of agency, as well as the authoritative at titudes of some staf f members, claims that were enforced when the faculty promptly turned his mic of f middiatribe. Later that week, Jimmy Kimmel gave him a chance to finish the interrupted speech.

Barton Clement Texas A&M

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS THE AGGIELAND DREAM Texas A&M ranked 25th in the “New York Times” list of the top one hundred seventy colleges doing the most for the American Dream. The rankings were determined by the socioeconomic mobility of low- and middle-class students following graduation. SIC’ EM, RESEARCHERS Baylor sent a delegation of “Rising Star” researchers to the first ever Baylor “Research on the Hill” in Washington, D.C. to meet with key policy-makers about Baylor research initiatives and the university itself. COMMITTED TO CHEMISTRY Four-star guard prospect Barton Clement announced his commitment to Texas A&M last month over Ohio State and many other schools because of the Aggies’ chemical engineering program. Clement is considered the No. 251 overall recruit and the 12th-ranked guard in the 2018 class. BIG AND BRIGHT University enrollment is declining rapidly nationwide, but Texas colleges and universities are bucking the national college-admissions slump by enrolling 1.7 percent more students year after year, as compared to the 1.5 percent decline in student enrollment nationwide.

STUDYBREAKS.COM

Not So Evergreen After anonymously reporting that an armed man was heading to the campus of Evergreen State College, located in Olympia, Washington, a New Jersey man has been arrested and charged with making terrorist threats, criminal coercion and causing false public alarm.

Jobs Aplenty Southwestern Michigan Community College launched a $9.6 million initiative to expand its nursing and health education building.

The move reflects the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ estimation of 19 percent job growth for registered nurses in 2022, resulting in over one million job openings.

One Up ’Em Forget New York’s $125,000 cap — Tennessee’s Reconnect Act now offers free community college to all state residents of at least one year with no advanced degree, regardless of their income.

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STUDENT GOVERNMENT

FREE SPEECH’S ATTACK ON FREE SPEECH

Spurred by suppressions of conser vative thought on colleges across the countr y, state lawmakers nationwide are enac ting legislation to protec t a right that has found its traditional protec tor and prosecutor reversed.

By Lexi Lieberman, University of Pennsylvania

HE UNITED STATES prides itself on being a nation of free speech. After all, the very first amendment added to our constitution in 1789 grants citizens the right to speak freely.

But, if the ability to speak openly is a fundamental American right, why did Wisconsin lawmakers find it necessary to pass a bill in 2017—228 years after the implementation of the amendment—protecting it? The bill, which passed in a 61-36 vote along party lines on June 21 and is known as the Campus Free Speech Act, is currently awaiting approval from the state senate before it can become a law.

Still, the fact that lawmakers feel that the need exists to pass a bill to protect free speech is alarming. In an age in which Americans have a number of platforms they can use to express themselves, how is it that speech is less free than it was a few decades ago?

What is most confounding about the Wisconsin bill is that it became a party-line issue, one in which both sides claimed to be the champion of free speech. Republicans say the bill is necessary because controversial speakers should be protected under the First Amendment, but at many universities,

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protesters have caused disruptions that have prevented speakers from sharing their views.

On the other hand, Democrats say that the First Amendment protects the rights of the protesters to speak out against the lecturer with opposing views.

Republicans cite the Ben Shapiro incident from last fall as an example of why the Campus Free Speech Act must be passed. Shapiro, a conservative media commentator, had just begun his lecture at the University of Wisconsin when protesters sprouted out of the audience, crying out “shame” and “safety” in an effort to drown out his speech. According to reports, some of the protesters moved to stand in front of Shapiro, preventing him from continuing to deliver his speech, entitled “Dismantling Safe Spaces.” Campus police finally arrived and the protesters left, allowing Shapiro to finish his address.

In this scenario, regardless of your political leanings, it is clear that the students were in the wrong. While his rhetoric may be controversial, Shapiro is not inciting violence with his words or using his platform for hate speech. He is speaking his mind and sharing his opinion in a peaceful way, and the protesters have every right to do the same. If they want to stay outside the building and hold up signs or stand in solidarity, they are free to do so. But being so disruptive as to impede the invited speaker from communicating with the audience was not only disrespectful, it also made it clear to Wisconsin lawmakers that not everyone’s speech was being protected on college campuses.

Lawmakers in other states have come to the same realization. For example, politicians took a similar approach to protecting free speech in Colorado by enacting legislation, and similar measures were introduced in Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia and California. State governments have found these protections necessary partly because the Shapiro incident was not an isolated one, nor was it even near the most serious. The University of California Berkeley, for example, felt obligated to cancel an April speech that was to be delivered by

Ann Coulter, an outspoken conservative commentator, because protestors posed a potential security threat. Yes, you read that right: Berkeley students prevented a woman from speaking on campus because her political views differed from theirs. It’s every bit as absurd as it sounds.

Democrats consider the bill a way to silence liberal voices on campus and allow conservative speakers to share their views unopposed. However, not every college campus has such an outspoken liberal body. In fact, in an instance in which a conservative campus would move to silence a liberal speaker, the Wisconsin bill would protect their right to free speech just as it would protect the conservative’s right.

Plus, students have proven time after time that there are powerful ways to protest in non-violent ways. And, under the Wisconsin bill, students would be encouraged to express their views by means of protest, so long as they do so in an appropriate manner.

If protestors refused to cooperate and instead demonstrated unlawfully, the legislation grants every student a warning offence. After two complaints about a student’s conduct during a speech or presentation, the school would take disciplinary measures that could lead to a hearing and subsequent semester-long suspension. A third offense would lead to the expulsion of the student.

College campuses are supposed to be a place for everyone to share their opinions, a place of diverse dialogue and elevated discussion. It should not be an echo chamber for people of either political party, of any viewpoint. I am all for protesting and standing up for what I believe in. I think educating yourself about issues important to you and protesting injustices is not only the courageous thing to do, it is the right thing to do.

But you can show your disagreement with someone and voice your concerns without silencing your opponent. And a bill like this one will, hopefully, prevent that from happening, allowing everyone who wants it the chance to speak.

Fabrice Sommier 5

WH AT’S YOUR M A JOR?

THIS MONTH, WE’RE STUDYING:

CITRUS & HORTICULTURAL STUDIES

By Bria Jones, Georgia Southern University

Have you ever sat down with a tall glass of orange juice, took a sip of the beloved breakfast drink and said, “Wow, I really want to get into the citrus grove management industry”? Probably not, but work with me here. ¶ At Florida Southern College, you can earn yourself a bachelor’s degree by majoring in Citrus and Horticultural Studies, where you’ll learn everything you need to know about oranges, lemons, pineapples and all of their friends. Then, every time life gives you lemons, you can teach life about the reproductive cycle of the Rutaceae family, and, afterwards, life will leave you alone forever.

KEY TERMS

POTENTIAL JOBS

FLORIDA Florida Southern College is in Lake Wales, smack dab in the middle of good ol’ notorious Florida. Students flock to the university on the off chance that they’ll get to meet local news and social media icon Florida Man.

GROWER If you like manual labor, this is the job for you.

You can be one of the people in charge of ensuring that the fruit trees grow up big and strong. You could probably be the hand in the Florida’s Natural commercials too.

TREES Florida Southern has a bunch of citrus trees on campus for teaching purposes (and it doesn’t look bad, either). The school probably always smells like oranges, so that’s nice.

WHAT-ICULTURE? If you were only in it for the vast knowledge of citrus fruit and have no idea what “horticulture” is, it’s basically gardening.

FLORIDA’S NATURAL This major gives you an opportunity to work with everyone’s favorite orange juice brand, plus its HQ is located in Lake Wales too. How convenient!

PL ANT BREEDER &GENETICIST If you’re more into the scientific aspect of citrus, this is one of your many options. Hell, throw on a white lab coat, create a new varietal and you might just become the next W.T. Swingle! (He invented the tangelo.)

AGRICULTUR AL BUSINESS CONSULTANT Help companies in the agricultural business by evaluating crops and providing expert advice with the goal of increasing productivity, efficiency and profit. In other words, help the underdog companies overthrow Simply Orange.

CONVERSATION STARTERS “You know when a pineapple starts stinging your mouth after a few bites? That’s because it’s basically eating you back.” /// “Actually, grapefruit makes up the majority of citrus shipments from Florida, not oranges. It’s got them beat by 19 percent. Wild, right?” /// “An orange is a type of berry. I know, mind blown.” /// “Listen up, I’m about to end the debate right now. The color got its name from the fruit.”

STUDYBREAKS.COM

AVERAGE SALARY

27,810

$

MYTH AND TRUTH MY TH: With a Citrus and Hor ticultural Studies major, you’ll never get taken seriously.

TRUTH: Not true at all—there are a lot of people who would love to have you and your citrus knowledge: environmental biologists, farmers, that blood orange lady from “Projec t Runway” (but not our boy Christopher Palu, he’ll just call you pretentious) and pumelo vs. tangelo enthusiasts.

MY TH: You’ll only be learning how to grow citrus fruits.

TRUTH: This major is so much more. You’ll be taking classes in Biology, Microeconomics, Calculus, Which Soil Tastes Bet ter, How to Fight a Caterpillar and much more.

MY TH: You’ll only get jobs at Florida’s Natural or Simply Orange.

TRUTH: With that at titude? Yeah, maybe. Think bigger!

FUN FACT Christopher Columbus brought the first citrus to America in 1493 and in the 1500s, Ponce de Leon, among other Spanish explorers, planted the first orange trees. Bearing in mind the pillaging, disease-bringing and general awfulness of the conquistadors, bringing fruit to the New World may be their greatest achievement.

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THE MEAL PLAN

sharedappetite.com

CHILL WITH THE CAFFEINE

INGREDIENTS: + 1 ½ cups chilled, strong coffee or concentrate* + 1 cup whole milk, or more to taste + ½ cup chocolate chips, or any chocolate topping + ¼ cup sweetened condensed milk + ¼ cup chocolate syrup or any syrup desired, plus more for drizzling + 1 teaspoon vanilla extract + ¼ cup half-andhalf, if needed + Whipped cream for topping

This summer, the hot cold drink is a frozen mocha. A frocha? A mozen? ¶ Am I trying to make this a thing when it’s fine the way it is?

By Abbey Slattery, Northwestern College ummer, depending on how you look at it, could mean sun, sand and blue skies, or it could mean bug bites, sunburn and sweat. But, largely thanks to local coffee shops like your neighborhood Starbucks, summer is also the season of the blended coffee drink. Yes, whether it’s Frappuccinos, iced coffees or whatever that unicorn thing everybody Instagrams—cold is king.

Now that August has rolled around, the dog days of summer have come with it, and there’s a reason Florence and the Machine rejoiced at their being over. When those hot, humid days stick to you and you find yourself longing for the snowfalls of winter, iced drinks are your lifelines to cooler times.

Plus, if you find yourself back on campus around this time of the year, whether your vibe is more hoodie up while you brood in the air-conditioned library or f lower crown and pastels while you soak up the sunny outdoors, these frozen mochas are some of the best study drinks around. It’s a versatile drink for a versatile crowd.

Not only will you save some precious dollar bills with this recipe by cutting your trips to your local coffee shop in half, but you can also make enough to share with your friends. You’ll soon be the hero for all the caffeine junkies on campus. Statues will be made. Parades organized. They’ll change the university’s name in honor of you. Look: It’s a good deal. Nothing brings people together like a nice cup of coffee, no matter the form.

Plus, for the recipe, all you really need is a bunch of coffee and some sweet fixings.

Technically the recipe calls for cold brew, but if you don’t have the time or equipment to do so, you could probably get by with refrigerating a batch of the hot stuff. I won’t tell the coffee purists if you don’t. And while it does claim the title of mocha, you can feel free to

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S T U D Y B R E A K S . C O M

FROZEN MOCHA

*COLD BREW CONCENTR ATE (If you’re so inclined or feeling adventurous) add in whatever sort of sweets you want. The recipe calls for chocolate chips and chocolate syrup, but feel free to get creative. Skip the blender and just throw in some caramel sauce, or buy fancy syrup from the store and make it whatever f lavor you want. One of the great things about this recipe is the room for improvisation—it’s a frozen mocha, but you aren’t tied down. Keep the basic formula and spice up the rest. Become the barista you’ve always dreamed of being.

Once you’re done fixing up your perfect blend, feel free to top it off with a healthy spritz of whipped cream and a drizzle of your favorite sauce. Heck, throw some chunks of your favorite candy bar on there, too, if you want. There are no rules here. Make it for dessert or just for pure, ice-cold caffeine.

The choice is yours, and really, there are no bad ideas here. It can be a pick-me-up before class, or a treat to share with your friends on a movie night. It’s a win-win-win-win-win.

That’s five wins. All for you.

1. In a large container, mix coarse ground coffee with cold water.

Follow a 1-to-8 coffee to water ratio.

2. Cover and refrigerate for 18-24 hours, stirring once or twice while brewing.

3. Once complete, strain coffee through a filter and discard the grounds.

4. Use as needed.

1. Add coffee, milk, sweetened and condensed milk, vanilla and your choice of fixings in either a blender or mixing bowl.

2. Add ice to the mix if you choose to use a blender, and blend until the mixture reaches your preferred smoothness. Otherwise, mix together ingredients and add ice to the final product.

If you want it to be a little creamier, consider adding half-and-half or a flavored creamer of your choice.

3. Pour the mixture out to be served and garnish with the toppings of your choice.

YIELD: 6 servings TIME: 10 minutes

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#COLLEGEH ACKS

STUDY BREAKS PRESENTS

#BACKTOSCHOOLHACKS With summer winding to a close and classes starting back up again, here’s what you need to know to get back on your school grind.

By Liam Chan Hodges, Franklin and Marshall College

REGARDING THE RETURN TO CAMPUS

For most collegiate institutions, August marks the end of summer and the beginning of yet another academic school year; depending on your situation, this can either be a joyous time or one of drudgery. If you’re working a backbreaking summer job or tedious unpaid internship, going back to school can mean celebrating your return to the academic high life. If you’ve been living the good life in the sun and the sand, then the resumption of class is a time for kicking and screaming as you’re forcibly dragged back to campus by your academic responsibilities. Either way, no matter how your summer has gone and how you feel about your impending return to school, there are a few things that every student should consider before heading back to campus.

THE ENDORSEMENT:

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Having a clean and comfortable living space is key to getting back into the daily routine of school. Being able to have a room to de-stress and focus in can be the difference between a great semester and an awful one, so splurge a little on a mattress cover, a desk lamp or a mini fridge. Make sure that

Before the start of each semester, it is extremely important to remember why it is that you decided to attend the school that you did, and why it is that you’ve taken it upon yourself to return this semester.

Whether it’s to make your parents happy, further your education, get a high-paying job, meet your future spouse or simply to party till you’re purple, it’s best to be well aware of what your goal is going forward. College goes by quickly, and before any of us know it, we’ll have our diplomas in hand and be marching into the jaws of the big bad world. So take a moment to remember the reason that you came to college, otherwise you’ll end up being that creepy alumni that’s always on campus wishing he or she could do it all again.

you’ve picked roommates who respect your space and your study habits, and who you legitimately enjoy being around.

Whether you’re living in a dorm room, a house or an apartment, this is your home away from home, and for the sake of the upcoming semester, it is imperative that it feels homey.

HOW TO PREPARE FOR SCHOOL Be an Incredible Child The reality is, no matter how mature you think you are, you still need your parents, or at the very least, their checkbooks.

So, build up those brownie points throughout the summer months so that if shit hits the fan during the school year, you know they’ll be willing to help you out, whether it’s buying you a new laptop or bailing you out of jail.

Buy Expensive Clothes Come back from summer looking extra fresh in brand new attire. Don’t let the fact that you’ll be too tired and hungover to wear anything other than sweats to your 8 a.m. class stop you from dropping serious dough on the trendiest new looks.

SHOULD YOU BUY THE ASSIGNED TEXTBOOKS? As the school year approaches and classes draw closer, the age-old question arises: Do you really need to purchase all of the assigned textbooks?

ANSWER THESE FOUR QUESTIONS TO FIND OUT.

Does the idea of carrying around a book the size of a microwave appeal to you?

Does the thought of forking over your inheritance for a pile of paper seem preposterous?

Do trees enjoy being murdered and printed on?

Do you have the internet, a magical device that has any and all information that a textbook might have?

* If this quick questionnaire resulted in three no’s and a yes, then congratulations, you can officially go paperless this year. All hail Sparknotes and Wikipedia.

VISUAL RULE WHAT STUDENTS WANT TO DO IN AUGUST

0% Stay at home with their parents

STUDYBREAKS.COM

0% Go back to high school

0% Get a job

100%

Fake a Disability Was last school year a little rough?

Never fear—fake a disability and you could suddenly have access to amazing benefits like a therapy puppy or some Adderall. Side effects may include going to hell.

QUIZ

Go back to the stresses of college

AUGUS T 2017 //

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sets in the distant horizon, illuminating center stage and setting the scene for a climactic showdown between two titans locked in combat for two consecutive days, fighting off endless challengers and avoiding a formidable wave of upsets in their quest to win the grandest tournament of their careers.

One, with his penchant for analytical precision, is the epitome of consistent excellence; the other, clawing his path through a cutthroat bracket with crowd-pleasing style, is a rapidly improving dark horse; both are seeking their first major victory in their journey to become the best in the world, the champion that everyone else aspires to topple. With hundreds in live attendance and thousands more around the world witnessing the clash through live streams on their computers, the commentators relay statistics and stakes to prepare the audience for this final match in arguably the most celebrated tournament in the history of their chosen game.

This isn’t the Super Bowl, the World Series or an Olympic trial, nor is it the Stanley Cup, Wimbledon or any other conventional contest that might have come to mind after reading the above description of professional competition. Rather, it’s the grand finals of 2GGC: Civil War in Santa Ana, California, the largest exclusive competition in the fledgling lifespan of video game “Super Smash Bros. for Wii U” (also know as “Smash 4”), an infant in the rapidly evolving and exponentially lucrative eSports industry.

When the dust settled following a turbulent bracket in which the

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current first- and second-ranked players in the world finished in a shocking 49th and 65th place, respectively, among countless other stunning upsets throughout the weekend, it was ultimately intellectually inclined tactician Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby who claimed his first major “Smash” Wii U crown over fan-favorite underdog extraordinaire Griffin “Fatality” Miller. Thus, the sun set at eSports Arena, bringing the roller coaster Civil War single’s tournament, the culmination and celebration of the gradual ascension of “Smash 4” to worldwide eSports fame, to a suitably dramatic conclusion.

“When you’re playing well, sometimes you almost go into this other world in your head where you can’t even think about what’s happening, but at the same time you know everything that’s happening,” Buzby says of his victory performance.

“It’s almost like when you have a dream and upon waking up you forget it…that’s kind of what happened there. I was just really happy cause I finally did it.”

Buzby, a college student currently attending Stony Brook University in New York in tandem with balancing a professional “Super Smash Bros.” career, is currently ranked as the fourth best player in the world on the Panda Global Rankings version three, the official rankings system of the “Smash 4” competitive community. Widely regarded as the most proficient and accomplished Rosalina player in the international tournament scene, Buzby has used his trademark analytical, systematic style of play to push

the character to the top levels of competition, consistently placing as a top-eight finisher in nearly every major tournament since the game’s release in fall 2014. After joining the eSports team “Renegades” two years later, his tenacity was rewarded when he broke through and secured first place at the anticipated Civil War tournament in March 2017, claiming the champion’s spotlight in a “Smash 4” national major for the first time in his career.

“I’ve always had a competitive drive, wanted to be the best at things,” Dabuz says. “I hate losing, and the idea of fighting other people with a similar mindset was a good drive for me to want to play this game competitively. My strength is definitely outside the game; I’m really good at analyzing and breaking down players, matchups and basically anything that requires taking a step back from the game and slowly dissecting it.”

Of course, no competitive broadcast would be complete without commentators to guide the viewer through the contest with agile wit and stylistic personal flair, and the eSports industry, a labyrinth to newcomers looking to learn about and join the competitive gaming community, is hardly any exception. A guiding voice is necessary for viewers peering into the unfamiliar, oftentimes overwhelming expansive world of eSports, an industry filled with new games possessing their own rules, teams and players being continually introduced every year. Commentary detailing neutral game-exchanges, extensive combos and predictions requiring immense experience and foresight is necessary for facilitating the game’s allure to a less-experienced audience. For “Smash 4,” Victoria “VikkiKitty” Perez, a prominent top-level commentator and Mass Communications and Media Broadcast major attending Florida International

University, is one such guiding voice.

“I see commentary as a major ‘professional’ branch in gaming,” Perez says. “It helps set the boundaries on how we want to be seen as a community. The best benefit that comes with commentating ‘Smash 4’ is the knowledge and different outlook you get from different players, characters and decision-making. You bring in all that information, while also conducting a message to an audience who may be learning the game themselves.”

With her adaptability when teaming up with fellow co-commentators and ability to comfortably deliver fluid commentary to large audiences, either watching and reacting at home via livestream chat or viewing “Smash” tournaments in person, Perez has quickly made a name for herself as a premiere eSports caster. Skillful, quick-witted commentary during matches at highly renowned national fighting-game tournaments, such as EVO, CEO, Genesis and 2GGC: Civil War, drew the attention of Nintendo, the developer and publisher of “Smash 4.” Eventually, the company contacted Perez with opportunities to commentate a wider breadth of eSports, allowing her to branch out into other fighting games such as “ARMS” and “Pokken Tournament DX” at E3 2017, the largest video gaming event of the year.

“Working at E3 for Nintendo really tested my skill as a commentator,” Perez says.

“I had four days to learn two new games I have never played before...I knew I had to treat it like a college final. For those four days, I wrote exactly twenty-one pages of notes for each of the two games I had to commentate. Coming from ‘Smash Bros.,’ I had a basic understanding of a fighting-game background and applied it to the two games, while also adapting to how unique they

are in their own ways. After the event, it really refreshed my mindset, and I then knew I could work so much harder in improving myself as a commentator.”

Buzby and Perez are exceptional examples of college students finding their competitive outlet and passion through eSports, a growing trend that has caused many universities to take note and encourage participation during recent years.

Schools around the nation, such as Columbia College, Robert Morris University and UC Irvine, have begun organizing official teams to represent the universities in national competitions for cooperative and competitive eSports that achieve pinnacles in popularity, such as “League of Legends” and “Overwatch.” Some colleges have even offered scholarships and built eSports arenas for their respective players and organizations, and in doing so acknowledge competitive video gaming as an emerging entertainment industry, as well as a suitable competitive outlet for students post-high school when such options become more limited. Although “Smash 4” has yet to reach this level of overwhelming popularity and recognition, both Buzby and Perez are optimistic that its vast array of learning benefits and growing participation could eventually result in scholarships.

“I believe in the far future, if the ‘Smash’ community continues to pull themselves higher and higher, we could potentially see students be rewarded for their eSports play,” Perez says. “I hope that commentary scholarships would be available to students in the communications departments thanks to eSports.”

Says Buzby, “It’s hard to compare to other extracurricular activities, but I know I always have something I can do or something to practice more.

I can go to another tournament or event, I can stream or there’s

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always social media stuff I can work on, so there’s always something to do. It’s a great outlet for people who are very goal driven, like me.”

Both students cite “Smash 4” and eSports in general as an effective supplement for coursework in numerous academic areas of study.

College students in media and communications departments around the nation who share an interest in competitive gaming can fuse their hobby into their degree and network the way Perez has, and, according to Buzby, marketing oneself as a player and personality helps teach successful business strategies that will be tremendously valuable for anyone job searching following graduation. There are a wide variety of opportunities for self-betterment through eSports beyond the video game itself that can assist students in translating what they learn in the classroom into tangible success outside of it, similar to the method in which working on a student newspaper complements a journalism degree.

“I think ‘Smash’ is a really great opportunity to get into the real world of business and stuff, so I do feel like colleges could look at it,” Buzby says.

“I’ve learned a lot about the business world, so many things with marketing and social media, so much that you wouldn’t get by simply going to classes or doing clubs or that kind of thing. It’s great experience for all these different paths I can go into with various jobs if I want to do so later. I really think it’s worth schools investing in them for STUDYBREAKS.COM

that kind of experience for students.”

Perez agrees, saying, “I think commentary in general can branch off career-wise in the professional world. As a Mass Communications and Media Broadcast major, having a history with different companies looks fantastic for work experience. You’re exposed to many important people running the show, so networking is always a main priority after you’re done working an event.

That’s how I’ve managed to receive the amazing opportunity to work alongside Nintendo and receive an internship opportunity with Viacom Media Networks.”

Colleges actively encourage students to travel via study abroad programs and internships overseas, allowing them to gain a greater understanding of world cultures and a firm grasp of the international landscape as a whole. While eSports don’t necessarily account for a comparable global edification, the worldwide participation and exploration that they do provide allow players to regularly travel, cross cultural barriers and interact with a diverse set of backgrounds from other competitors all over the globe, a unique opportunity that complements a collegiate education. “Smash 4” is a great example of this, as six of the current top-ten ranked players in the world, according to Panda Global Rankings version 3, hail from outside the United States in such countries as Canada, Mexico, Japan, Chile and the Netherlands.

“That’s the best thing about this community,” Perez says.

“The different backgrounds everyone brings with them.

You’re constantly learning about the geography of different players or tournaments.”

“I’ve never been on a school-sanctioned international trip, so I don’t know how it compares to what I’ve been doing, but I can say that you do see a ton of different cultures and learn about the world while traveling,” Buzby says.

“If that’s the goal of it, then I’d say it’s similar. I do get a lot out of it, because I’m doing things I enjoy and learning about how they impact different parts of the world.”

As with any committed extracurricular, balancing a professional eSports career and personality with a full course load can present a herculean task to players and commentators who travel every weekend while attempting to prepare for Monday’s classes. Occasionally, elements of a typical college schedule must be edited or omitted entirely to accomplish the perpetual juggling act. However, according to Buzby and Perez, maintaining academic proficiency is made possible by careful organization of classes and notifying professors in advance, and the advantages of traveling, earning income and socializing with the “Smash 4” community outweigh potential casualties to one’s daily social life. Unorthodox though it may be, balancing eSports and school is an achievable task, just like any other demanding hobby, with proper scheduling and time management.

“Before every school term, I always run my eSports schedule by professors to see when future exams and projects are due,” Perez explains.

“If the schedules don’t work out, I have time to pick up another class or professor before the courses are set in stone. Understanding when your most frequent travel days are, even before tournaments are announced, is the best

way I plan around school. I rarely miss class, and if I have assignments due the weekends I travel, I have them done early most of the time.”

“Generally I’m busy all the time during the school semester,” Buzby says. “I’ll have weeks when I’m going to class four days a week, doing homework and taking tests, but that same weekend I’ll fly into a tournament at 10 p.m.

I’m constantly doing things like that, and I do have to sacrifice a bit of time for social life stuff to make it all work, but at the same time, I’m able to accomplish a lot of things in college and I have a good amount of money saved up as a result.”

For aspiring players or commentators, with eSports there’s something for every college student to invest in the way Perez and Buzby have. Doing so can supplement one’s formal education with indispensable experience in marketing, communications and business, while allowing students to meet a variety of competitors from around the world and explore a passion in hopes of achieving excellence.

“Remember when you used to play the game for fun, with your friends in someone’s living room?” says Perez. “Think back to how comfortable you are with your friends or a sibling you used to practice with.

When you’re commentating, you’re only talking about the game you love playing with those people! It’s only you and your co-commentator during this time, so if you’re ever nervous, remember, you’re only having a conversation about the game you enjoy playing.”

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Citrus College Student Caleb Kline Is Making the Transgender Community More Accessible, One Joke at a Time College onnecticut C , e b ib K rus College

By Kayla Bender, Cit n a g e M y b y Photograph

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STUDYBREAKS.COM

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ACK BEFORE CALEB KLINE WAS CALEB KLINE, he was a twelve-year-old aspiring comedian, poring over comedy routines online and Facebook-messaging “Saturday Night Live” to let them know he’d be making an appearance someday. ¶ Kline may still have his sights set on an “SNL” appearance— he’s still waiting on a reply from their Facebook account—but a lot has changed for the student and comedian, now twenty.

In the past two years, the Citrus College student from Monrovia, California, has completed half of his undergrad degree in Biology, launched his standup career at Flapper’s Comedy Club in Burbank and served up countless Unicorn Frappuccinos as a Starbucks barista, all while transitioning from a biological female to the Caleb audiences are discovering today.

Now over a year into his transition, his experiences as a transgender male have become a stand-out feature of his comedy, and Kline has quickly found himself an educator and activist, as well as an entertainer. Since “coming out of the not gay closet” to the audience at his first Flapper’s showcase in May, Kline has attracted attention from fans and fellow comedians for his witty, eye-opening and refreshingly accessible insights on transitioning and the LGBTQIA community.

Kline’s routine takes a no-holdsbarred approach to his transition, leaving out no awkward moment or embarrassing misunderstanding.

Covering everything from strangers searching for signs of male genitalia to Caitlin Jenner’s misleadingly glamorous transition, Kline illuminates the familiarity that has always been at the core of a historically misunderstood and underrepresented community.

“I think most people think of Caitlin Jenner when they think of somebody who’s transitioning. I don’t remember Caitlin Jenner’s transition. I just remember one day she walked out, beautiful with a great rack, and she was a woman,” Caleb quipped to his audience at the showcase back in May. “That’s not how it happens when you’re poor,” he concluded to uproarious laughter. “I feel like with a lot of my humor, a big thing I want to do with it is teach people,” says Kline. “I am trying to teach people about the trans community in the sense that I’m trying to show people that we’re all human beings, just like everybody else.”

Unsurprisingly, most people have a lot to learn. Since beginning his transition, Kline has encountered numerous stereotypes and misunderstandings about transitioning and the trans community. Still one of the most pervasive? “That being trans is a mental illness. It’s not,” he says.

For Kline, and much of the trans community, transitioning is the solution, not the problem. Gender dysphoria is a condition many trans individuals, including Kline, identify with prior to their transition. The feeling that one does not identify with their biological gender, a hallmark of gender dysphoria, is not an illness in need of treatment itself. Rather, gender dysphoria refers to the feelings of depression, anxiety and other mental and emotional complications that can result from an incongruity between one’s body and gender, to which transitioning is often pursued as a cure.

“I don’t think that a lot of people realize that,” says Kline. “That psychologists and doctors across the world have agreed that this is the best way to help treat gender dysphoria. People still will think that it’s a mental illness when we’re really just average people trying to be ourselves.”

Kline’s own experiences of gender dysphoria began early in life, but, as he says, he didn’t always have a word for it. “The best way I can explain it is I just grew up very uncomfortable with myself. I was always really insecure, but I was never entirely sure what I was insecure about,” he says. “I was always dieting or trying to change my body in some sort of way, but it was just something I couldn’t really pinpoint.”

Having grown up in a relatively small town, Kline didn’t know anyone who was transgender, and it wasn’t until his freshman year at UC Santa Cruz

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that he was introduced to the concept on a more personal level when he became close to a faculty member who was intimately involved with the trans community. “I was like, this makes so much sense, now I know why I just haven’t felt right my entire life,” says Kline of the realization. “It felt like this entire weight was off my shoulders.”

Of course, misconceptions about the trans community go beyond Caitlin Jenner and accusations of mental illness, and, true to form, Kline addresses them in the best way he knows how—with humor. “One thing I hear a lot is people will look at photos of me from before and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, you were really pretty?’ with a question mark at the end of it,” he laughs.

“And I’m just like, people don’t transition because they think that they’re ugly and they’re just really hoping that they’ll have a better shot with the other gender. I’m pretty sure some of the most beautiful people could still feel somehow wrong in their body and

maybe even be trans.”

Confusion and misconceptions regarding the trans community aren’t just limited to the straight and cisgender world, however. Even other members of the LGBTQIA community don’t always know the best way to approach transgender issues. “I don’t think a lot of people realize that sexuality and gender are two very different things,” says the comedian. “Being trans is the only part of the LGBT community that is really spoken of that deals specifically with gender, and I think that a lot of people, even within the community, are still very confused about it and just haven’t learned as much about it, because what they’re dealing with is something with their sexuality; it has nothing to do with their gender.”

The gap between LGB and T is very real, the most infamous example coming from the fallen icon of the trans community, Caitlin Jenner, whose esteemed role as a trans activist suffered a precipitous decline after she voiced controversial opinions against gay marriage. “If you’re going to try to be an advocate for the trans community, you should also try to be an advocate for the entire LGBT com-

munity,” says Kline. “We’re all in this together. You can’t just leave part of them out.”

With all these misunderstandings about transitioning still prevalent in society, and even within the LGBTQIA community itself, it is no surprise Kline has used comedy as a platform to clear the air, combining his lifelong passion for stand-up with his intuitive understanding of both life in the trans community, as well as other people’s confusion about it.

“Comedy is a great way to introduce new or controversial ideas,” says Joanie Coyote, a fellow comedian and Kline’s instructor during his six-week comedy course at Flappers earlier this year. “I think Caleb has a chance to not only enjoy expressing himself, but also to do a great service for the LGBT community,” continues the comedian, whose own career has included stand-up and improv performances at some of the top clubs in the country alongside performers like George Lopez, Brian Regan and Wanda Sykes, to name a few. “We found a way to turn his life experience into really fun jokes, but he alone was responsible for the charm and likeability of his stage presence.”

Before Kline was enlightening audiences about the uncomfortable realities of transitioning and the very real effects of testosterone on porn-watching habits, his first student was his own mother, Margaret Kline.

“I think, surprisingly, the hardest person to tell for me was my mom,” says the young comedian. “She took it pretty hard, which was surprising to me because, as I mention in my standup, she’s gay, and so I kind of expected someone who was also in the LGBT community to be more accepting of it. But to her, the way that she was viewing it, I guess, was that she lost a daughter.”

Kline’s mother recalls her initial response similarly. “It took my feet out from under me, took my breath right out of me. I wasn’t at all anticipating this and I hadn’t read the signs correctly. Looking back now, I wish my initial response had been a little bit more advocating for him.” At the time, she says, her response had more to do with fear of what it meant for his future.

Over time however, Margaret came to terms with her son’s transition, and in the process, learned more about the LGBTQIA community, of which she herself is a part. “He has shown me in this year and a few months that he is exactly the same person that he was when he was someone I called by a different name, and that helped me understand that the wrapping and the packaging of something is strictly that,” she says. “He has shown me by his example that you can do this with your head held high, and proud of who you are and who you’re becoming. Seeing that in a kid who, at that point was nineteen turning twenty, was pretty humbling for me. He has shown me bravery, he’s done it with humor, he’s allowed me the time I’ve needed to come up the learning curve and he’s been honest.”

Kline’s mother knows that she isn’t the only one benefitting from her son’s unique approach to raising trans awareness. “The fact that he’s used his transition in a fun way, with humor and standing up in front of people and trying to make them laugh, which he’s actually pretty good at, it helps people.

It kind of takes the edge off a topic that can be awkward or difficult,” she says.

“I think it gives them some permission to ask questions, because Caleb is will-

STUDYBREAKS.COM

ing to laugh at himself and his process a little bit, and it just sort of opens the door a crack for some people who may have been put off by not understanding much about transitioning.”

Despite any early hesitancy on his mother’s part, the young comedian and activist acknowledges that he’s been very fortunate when it comes to the support of his friends and family.

“I am so lucky because of it. I know a lot of people don’t get the kind of support I get, so I was very fortunate.”

And while he’s checking his privilege, Kline remains adamant that, although educating people about transitioning is a big part of his comedy, he in no way claims to speak for the entire trans community. “My biggest worry is that I’m going to upset people within the transgender community because they’re going to think that I’m speaking on behalf of all of them,” says the comedian. “What I want to make very clear is that my comedy about transitioning is about my own personal transition; it’s not about anybody else’s.

Like I said, I’ve been really fortunate with the people I’ve surrounded myself with and the help I’ve gotten from all the doctors I’ve had, so I don’t want everybody thinking that I’m trying to speak for the entire trans community.

I am trying to teach people about the trans community in the sense that I’m trying to show people that we’re all human beings just like everybody else.

But the examples that I’m using are just mine and mine alone. I can’t speak for anybody else.”

While Kline may never claim to speak on behalf of the entire trans community, his insights have resonated with enough individuals that the LGBTQIA community has begun actively seeking him out as a representative. Following his performance at the showcase in May, Kline was immediately approached to perform in a June 8 show celebrating Pride Month.

The “Rainbows and Unicorns” show also took place at Flappers, and featured Caleb alongside headliner Jen Kober as well as other prominent LGBTQIA performers. “I was terrified, like, the entire time,” says Kline of his second performance. “I think I was so scared for the second one just because I was performing with comedians who had been doing it for so much longer than me, and I was just a

kid who had taken a beginner class.”

Despite Kline’s fears, however, he was a hit, at least according to the show’s producer and emcee, Meera Manek. “When I saw Caleb, I just saw this individual who really could help educate the community about his experience and what it has been like, and really get people to have a better understanding of what these individuals experience as they learn more about themselves,” says Manek, who produces the “99 Percent Funnies” series at Flappers, of which the Pride Month show was a part.

The series, which will soon be known instead as “Laugh, Resist, Repeat,” has a focus on community action and social justice, and frequently teams up with charities and organizations in the Los Angeles area to raise money and awareness for current issues.

Last month’s pride show benefitted My Friend’s Place, a homeless youth center in Hollywood. “Forty percent of homeless youths identify as LGBT,” explains Manek, who also co-chairs the Emerging Leaders Council, a group of over a hundred young professionals who support and advance the mission of My Friend’s Place through volunteering and fundraising.

Using comedy as a platform to raise awareness has opened up more doors for Caleb, who has since become a member of the Emerging Leaders Council himself after performing in the pride show. “For those young people to see an individual like Caleb offers them a sense of hope,” says Manek. “My Friend’s Place really enjoyed his coming to them and offering his services, because they could immediately identify with his ability to get the young people to identify with him.”

While Kline’s burgeoning comedy career is still the stuff his dreams are made of, continuing to give back to the LGBTQIA community will always be a top priority, whether he makes it to “SNL” or not. “I’ve become really interested recently in giving back to LGBT youth, because a lot of them weren’t as fortunate as I was,” he says.

“I’d love to be able to be the kind of support for them that I have had.”

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IT’S A SUMMER DAY IN 2017

FEATURE STORY

ANAH LEWI

IS GIVING BACK TO TECH ON HER OWN TERMS The rising sophomore and STEM pioneer is using her skills as a front-end developer to inspire and mentor others.

BY CARLI SCALF, BALL STATE UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARIEL PARRA, UC BERKLEY PAGE FOURTY

AND ANAH LEWIS IS SITTING ACROSS from a concerned high school girl. She is having a one-on-one conference with a student enrolled in the LA chapter of the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program, a national initiative that exposes high school girls to computer science and jobs in technology. Mentoring students is one of Lewi’s main responsibilities as a teaching assistant with the seven-week class, and right now, her student looks worried.

“What if it never makes sense to me?

What if I never get it?” the girl says.

Lewi thinks for a minute. “Well, I didn’t always understand this,” she says.

“I didn’t even understand it until the end of my first semester. I had to take a year’s worth of computer science classes in college to finally understand these concepts so that I could teach them to you.” She can assure the girl with confidence because she was once in her shoes. Lewi is an alumna of the Girls Who Code program, and now, at the ripe age of eighteen, she’s already interned with Cambio at AOL, taught a class at General Assembly, hosted a hackathon with Tumblr and been featured on Huffington Post’s 20 Under 20 STEAM Pioneers list. Lewi stresses to her mentees that her own success wasn’t always clear cut. “The hardest things don’t always come easy. You have to have a growth mindset,” she tells them.

As a freshman in high school, Lewi wasn’t even considering a path in computer science. She was trying to redefine her career aspirations altogether. “I had decided freshman year that I wanted to

go to MIT and be a civil engineer, but I realized I didn’t like drafting or drawing things. I wanted a new career choice,” she says.

Now a rising sophomore at Wellesley, Lewi attended a high school for architecture and design. While reconsidering her career path, she discovered a viral video during a late-night YouTube surf that caught her attention. The video, “What Most Schools Don’t Teach,” featured many tech pioneers and celebrities talking about the benefits of learning to read and write code. The video sparked an interest Lewi didn’t know she had.

“It brought life to something I’d never thought about. I immediately jumped into it, looking for programs on how to code and becoming a tech assistant at the Brooklyn public library during my sophomore year,” she says.

After that, she applied and was accepted to the Girls Who Code program, and spent the summer after her sophomore year commuting to the heart of New York from Brooklyn for the class.

While she learned technical skills and computer lingo, the program’s biggest gift was exposure. Interaction with her Girls Who Code mentors put her on AOL’s radar, with whom she had an internship during the summer before her senior year of high school. “When I received an offer for the internship, I was shocked. I went from getting in and being happy, to immediately learning that I didn’t know anything,” she says. Lewi worked on an AOL website for millennial girls called Cambio, building new features to increase user engagement and learning on the fly. Though the gig was challenging, it allowed her to hone her technical computer skills.

“I didn’t even understand it until the end of my first semester. I had to take a year’s worth of computer science classes in college to finally understand these concepts so that I could teach them to you.”

PAGE FOURT Y-ONE

AS LEWI’S CONFIDENCE IN HER CAREER PATH GREW, so did her assertiveness in shifting her dreams to match her new trajectory. After years of planning on attending a prestigious technical school, Lewi decided to not even apply to most of them. “I was trying to keep up with my friends, who were all applying to Ivy Leagues and technical schools, when something in me shifted,” she says. “I had to start from the very bottom my senior year to figure out where I wanted to be.”

At Lewi’s high school, over 50 percent of the students were guys (some of whom did not take kindly to the fact that Lewi had beaten them all out as valedictorian). She didn’t want a repeat of that environment, nor a school where she would be one of only a few black women in the class. “I don’t think I ever realized subconsciously that I feel very lonely because I’m usually maybe one of three black girls in the classroom,” she says. “I want to create more opportunities for girls who look like me. If you don’t have that representation, how do you know you’re capable of doing something? I noticed that someone out there would probably look at me and think, ‘I want to be like her.’”

After abandoning her dream schools, she took a closer look at a pamphlet called

PAGE FOURT Y-T WO

the “Wellesley 100,” which highlighted the opportunities available at the prestigious women’s-only college. “Something changed in me, and I thought, ‘Maybe I want to be around women while I study a career that is dominated by men,’” she says. “My mom looked at me like I was crazy when I decided this three months before applications were due, but I think it ultimately came down to the opportunities there.”

Lewi’s determination to forge a career path in an industry unkind to diversity doesn’t end with her. Her internship with Built By Girls also exposed her to another side of the tech world–giving back through teaching.

In the fall of her senior year of high school, she and another Cambio/Built

By Girls intern were asked to teach a class for young professional women on some basic web skills they might need, like blog building and understanding website frames. The class was given through General Assembly, an education company for professionals that has worked with Microsoft, Google and Visa among others. Most of the students in the class were in their mid-twenties and further along in their careers than Lewi. She said though teaching was nerve-wracking, it felt good to share her knowledge with others.

“Afterward it really resonated with me that, ‘Oh my gosh, I taught a class for the first time and I taught it at General Assembly of all places!’ I just remember having so much fun, and being happy that I could help people who really wanted to learn about computer science and web development,” she says. Once Lewi found the spark of giving back through tech, she didn’t want to stop. After deciding to attend Wellesley and graduating high school, she collaborated with two fellow AOL interns to start Pixie Hacks, a high school hackathon with a strong focus on female immersion, empowerment and exposure in the world of tech.

The founders started by organizing a hackathon for high school girls over

the summer. Lewi took on the role of logistics and management lead, which left her, among other responsibilities, in charge of getting sponsors for the event.

She was catching up with her volunteer Girls Who Code instructor, Jamie Gilyazetdinov, and mentioned the project.

Gilyazetdinov immediately thought of the company she worked for, Tumblr, as a possible big sponsor. “She told me Tumblr has a space they recently renovated, and they wanted to provide this space to high school students and underrepresented communities in STEM and tech,” Lewi says.

With help from Gilyazetdinov’s connection, Lewi had secured sponsorship and a venue from one of the web’s biggest players, with 354.9 million blogs and 150.6 billion posts made on Tumblr to date. Securing that kind of sponsorship allowed the event to grow, and gave Lewi a heightened presence in the tech world.

The hackathon itself hosted over fifty high school girls (over the building’s capacity limit) for a twelve-hour event of games, learning and coding. The winning team developed an idea for an app that could help people find emergency vehicles on the go. “It was overwhelming but definitely worth it in the end,” she says. “Everything the girls made went really well.”

“I want to create more opportunities for girls who look like me. If you don’t have that representation, how do you know you’re capable of doing something? I noticed that someone out there would probably look at me and think, ‘I want to be like her.’”

PAGE FOURT Y-T HREE

THE MOST REWARDING PART ABOUT SHARING HER LOVE of coding has been the response its inspired in other girls. “It’s really nice to see other girls who are about to start that journey, who are getting ready for that big leap and who want to learn about how to code,” she says.

Lewi’s first year at Wellesley was challenging, but she stayed involved outside her classes as the workshop chair of her college’s computer science club and the social media coordinator for WHACK (Wellesley College Hackathon). Though she’s become an influencer by mentoring others, her most formative moment this past year came from an interaction with her own mentor. After a tough first semester, Lewi was questioning whether computer science was still the right path for her. Reassurance from Christine Bassem, her data structures professor, made all the difference.

“Christine is definitely an amazing teacher, but she also has a way of nurturing her students and making them feel like they’re all capable of doing amazing things,” she says. “I’d gotten a really bad grade on my first midterm, and I remember her telling me, ‘I know that you can do well in this class.’ That changed the way I saw myself performing in school.”

With renewed confidence, Lewi finished out her first year at Wellesley and knew she had something to offer oth-

PAGE FOURT Y-FOUR

ers. Instead of taking an internship, she wanted to give back to the program that started her journey, Girls Who Code, by becoming a teaching assistant with the summer immersion program. She is working at the Los Angeles program, trying to guide students through the trials of their early computer science careers.

The TA position is what brought her

into that one-on-one session, where she shared her own past failures in the hope that the girl sitting across from her would feel encouraged by her story.

“A lot of what I’m struggling with as a part of the teaching staff is telling the girls that, yes, we understand you want to master a certain concept, but we only have seven weeks to teach you certain information,” she says. “We want to

“We want to make sure the girls are learning, but not resenting us for spending their summer in school.”

make sure the girls are learning, but not resenting us for spending their summer in school.”

As the weeks have gone on, Lewi said she’s been able to build relationships with the students through her one-onone meetings and commenting on the journal entries they keep throughout the course. Though it isn’t always easy, she enjoys watching the girls grow with each lesson.

“We were all kind of stuck in our ways when we were sixteen and seventeen years old, and that just makes the experience even more rewarding. I can’t wait to see what they build in the next few weeks, especially when it comes to final projects,” she says. Once her tenure at Girls Who Code ends, Lewi isn’t sure what her future holds. She likes mentoring others, but is more interested in taking her skills to the workforce.

Currently, she’s exploring the options available for Computer Science majors in the finance world “I see myself building platforms for companies and helping their clients,” she says. “But that’s just right now, it’s always changing.”

Her interest is due in part to her mom, who works in finance and has encouraged Lewi along her career path. “For me, it was having two very nurturing parents who supported me in every decision,” she says of her ability to succeed.

Above all, Lewi wants young women interested in technology to know that the biggest power comes from working toward your dream, even if you have to fail on your way to getting there. “I wish I had known growing up that no one is perfect,” she says. “It has to do with imposter syndrome, but you have to remember that you shouldn’t feel like a fraud; you should learn from your mistakes and then make them into accomplishments.”

Whether she’s playing the role of student, hackathon organizer, intern or mentor, Lewi will continue to forge her own path in the tech industry while inspiring other girls to do the same.

PAGE FOURT Y-FIVE

EXTRA CREDIT

Get ting to Know:

TOMERB The Pomona College student spends his free time lobbying for a carbon tax, the single most promising step in the process of combating climate change.

By Kathryn Parker, Fordham University Photography by Alexandra Stearns, Pratt Institute Twenty-one-year-old Pomona College student Tom Erb is the co-founder of a citizens’ climate lobby that has teamed up with the non-profit group Our Climate and the award-winning documentary series “Years of Living Dangerously” to launch the “Put a Price on It” campaign, which seeks to institute a tax on carbon emissions. Erb and his colleagues train students across the country to organize locally and to lobby city, state and federal officials about carbon pricing.

Erb’s work organizing students and lobbying elected officials got him featured as a dynamic character on an episode of “Years of Living Dangerously” that focused on the potential of carbon pricing as the most promising solution to climate change. With experience serving as a climate intern for Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz and a communications/press intern for California Congressman Eric Swalwell under his belt, Erb is well prepared to continue contributing to the fight against climate change, in college and beyond.

“When we started this campaign at Pomona College, we eventually decided that we wanted to focus on solutions. We came to the consensus that carbon pricing was the solution we needed to get all the other things that we’re trying to do. It’s essentially a baseline solution to catapult a transition to a sustainable economy.”

“We’re mimicking the federal policy process—whenever you see major legislation passed, you need a coalition. We tried to replicate that at the college level by getting students to get clubs on campus, departments, professors–all the way up to the college president–to endorse this idea. Our goal was to get this at other colleges across

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the country, and eventually go and lobby elected officials.”

“Right now, polluters don’t have to pay to put pollution into the air. We pay to get our trash picked up on the sidewalk, you pay if you pollute water but companies that are putting greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere—emissions that the Supreme Court has ruled are pollutants—aren’t paying for it. So, simply, what a carbon tax does is force polluters to pay for the actual cost of their production, which is the essence of how a free market society is supposed to work.”

“There are three things we need to do: We need a carbon tax; we need to get rid of subsidies for fossil fuel companies and dirty energy in general, and we need to increase our investment into battery technology and renewable energy and infrastructure. As soon as there’s a clear signal that dirty energy is expensive and clean energy is less expensive, then investments will start pouring into renewable energy—and that’s where you start seeing the renewable energy revolution take off.”

“This is something we need to work on together, and that is why carbon pricing is so appealing to both sides: It can be pitched as a conservative or a progressive idea, and it’s an idea that could bring the parties together at a time when they’re completely separate.”

“In the past four years, I’ve seen a change among young people, even young conservatives, young Republicans. They’re realizing that the science of climate change is accurate, and it’s more about solving this problem than denying that the problem exists.

There is the potential for a productive debate between Republicans and Democrats about how to address climate change.”

“When I was fifteen years old, I was at the dinner table with my dad, and he started talking to me about climate change. I remember that he said, ‘Fifteen or twenty years from now, you may be sitting down with your own children and they may be coloring an elephant in a coloring book, and your daughter could ask you why there were elephants alive when you were growing up but not now.’ I know it’s the decisions we make right now that decide whether or not we have elephants in twenty years.”

“I started organizing in high school around 2012, doing general environmental work. There were people who didn’t appreciate that, because it was really the ‘climate change is a hoax’ era on our campus.

I started getting anonymous letters; there was stupid stuff like newspaper cutouts about how climate change isn’t real, things like that. But then it escalated to the point where they were making weird threats against me, and they were kind of stalking me, coming to basketball games. And I don’t know if these were from the same people, but at the same time my house was continuously vandalized for six weeks in a row. On the last day someone actually blew up my mailbox, and the trash in my front yard was lit on fire. That was the moment I decided to do this for the rest of my life, because I realized that even though this is scary, the overwhelming impact of climate change will be greater than any personal impact that I could face—even if it’s someone blowing up my mailbox.”

“I think Trump and the United States being out of [the Paris climate accord] is better than Trump and the United States being in that agreement and not doing anything to meet our obligations. Because if we stay in that agreement and we don’t live up to what we’re supposed to do, it shows the weakness of the agreement overall. And now you have all the cities and states stepping up, trying to live up to it as well.”

“The number one thing I’ve learned would be that one person actually does have the ability to bring about a lot of change through consistent effort, teaming up and realizing that the only way you get something done is by working with other people.”

FAC T F I L E NAME: Tom Erb AGE: 21 SCHOOL: Pomona College MAJOR: Environmental Policy YEAR: Junior HOMETOWN: Poway, California MISSION: Organize a coalition to tax carbon emission

S T U D Y B R E A K S . C O M

MEET THE PRESIDENT

What is your dream job?

I would love to become a physical therapist. Eventually, I want to own my own clinic and work with the athlete population.

Photography by Justin Rex, Texas Tech University

What is your typical outfit?

Chacos, shorts and a polo. It’s never a bad time to dress like you are going to the beach or out on the lake.

What is your definition of failure?

Not getting back up after a loss. Everyone will lose, the question is how they respond.

What academic focus most interests you?

I am a man of science. I love anatomy, because it directly relates to what I want to do, and it is very cool to see how the body moves.

What is currently on your mind?

The state of this nation.

Sometimes I worry that we have strayed far away from God and we need to get back on the right path. We need a leader in this time.

What are your intellectual strengths?

I am good at taking criticism.

This is a strength that I have honed and am proud of. It is easy to be shocked and then proceed to shut down when people criticize you, but I have learned to take the advice and use it to mold myself into a better person.

What historical figure do you admire?

Martin Luther King, Jr. It takes guts to be the one to speak out against the culture.

If we look back now, most people agree that it needed to be done and that those standards should have never been in place at all. Being a change-maker is scary and takes some courage.

What will you never understand?

I will never understand why people want to argue. I am a person that believes in bringing in a team to discuss a topic, not argue over who is right and wrong.

What are your summer plans?

Work. Work. Work. I will be working all summer and preparing for the school year!

What qualities do you most admire in a person?

Reliability. Empathy. Love.

What is your most marked characteristic?

According to Strengths Quest, positivity is my number one strength, and I think that accurately describes who I am as a person! There is always a silver lining.

What is your biggest indulgence?

Going to music festivals.

I love being in that atmosphere, and I love music in general.

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What angers you?

People that are willfully ignorant. It may not be soothing to know all the facts, but if you are privy to the information, then you should reach out and gain that knowledge.

ROBBIE MEYER Student Body President of Texas Tech University

What is your motto?

“If you don’t become an actor, you’ll never be a factor.”

- Lupe Fiasco.

Where do you want to go most in the world?

I want to visit every single MLB park. That would be a dream.

What’s a secret talent of yours?

I don’t have a lot of secret talents. I make some really good guacamole though?

Who are some of your favorite authors?

Stephen King is my favorite author of all time. His imager y is amazing. He can make a scenario seem so real that you ac tually can’t sleep, because you don’t know what is behind your closet door. It is amazing how he writes.

What music are you into at the moment?

I am a very big fan of alternative music and rap music. Currently, I have been listening to a lot of DREAMERS, Mac Miller and Calvin Harris.

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When Life Hands You Lemons, Major in Citrus & Horticultural Studies page 23 Vinesh Kannan’s Omnipointment Brings Order to Group-Work Anarchy page 12

WELLESLEY STUDENT AND STEM PIONEER

The College Phenoms Shaping the eSports Industry page 28

ON BRINGING REPRESENTATION TO CODING: “Maybe I want to be around women while I study a career dominated by men.”

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CALEB KLINE Meet the Citrus College comedian making the transgender community more accessible, one joke at a time page 34