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Greg Zwiers/Iowa State Daily

The Veishea Task Force meets June 5, 2014. The task force met recently to form recommendations for events that would showcase the students at Iowa State. Courtesy of Samuel Ennett

Samuel Ennett sits with his host family Cesar and Lucy Tucupi in Ecuador. Ennett spent six weeks there as part of his internship.

Courtesy of Samuel Ennett

Ennett stands with a spear in Ecuador.

Courtesy of Samuel Ennett

Ennett has a photo taken with students he taught English to in the village of Shuar.

6 weeks in the Amazon

ISU student finds adventure while pursuing dream internship By Jace.Dostal @iowastatedaily.com

iving abroad can be scary for many students, but try living in a tree house in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest. That is exactly what Sam Ennett, senior in global resource systems, did this summer. Ennett is required to study abroad and have an internship for his major, but he said he didn’t want to do a normal internship; he wanted his experience to be unique. “I wanted something that let me work with water filtration,” Ennett said. He turned to Google to start his search. “I eventually found this website that allowed people to advertise internships and found a guy who was looking for exactly what I wanted to do,” Ennett said. It just so happened that this internship was hosted in the Ecuadorian rainforest region — a region so isolated that it’s three hours from the nearest city. Ennett’s internship host, Cesar Tucupi, is an Ecuadorian who lived with the indigenous people of the rainforest

region and helped keep their village standing. Tucupi aided with repairs and any other tasks that were required and also hosted a number of nongovernment organization members who were there for work. Once Ennett found the internship, he was hooked. He knew it was exactly what he was looking for. It provided him with a unique experience and allowed him to study exactly what he wanted to. But what did his family think about him spending six weeks in the Amazon Rainforest? “My parents were fine with it, for the most part,” Ennett said. “I studied abroad in Switzerland during my sophomore year, and [my parents] definitely fought that one more than this. I think they knew it was either I do this or I completely change my major.” His grandparents, on the other hand, didn’t want him to go. “They were convinced I was going to be attacked by some wild animal,” Ennett said. Before traveling to Ecuador, Ennett had to take a survival course, where he researched the major regions

of Ecuador, learned any hand gestures that wouldn’t be appropriate to use and had to locate the nearest hospital. “This class prepared me for about 50 percent of the challenges I encountered in Ecuador,” Ennett said. Ted MacDonald, professor of global research systems, said the survival course is meant to prepare students for possible situations they might run into and teach them to think on their own. “We try to make sure our students can think through things so they aren’t surprised or overwhelmed when they visit a new country,” MacDonald said. “However, there is no substitute for actually putting your feet on the ground.” Once Ennett had been accepted for the internship, he expected to hear from Tucupi, but didn’t receive an email until a week before he left. All the email said was that Tucupi would meet him at the bus stop in Macas. “It was weird,” Ennett said. “I was going to a new country and all I really knew about my host was that he would meet me at a bus stop.” Once Ennett reached Macas, he was in for a surprise. “[Tucupi] told me we were going to go for a hike,”

Ennett said. “That hike turned out to be a three-hour trek through the heart of the Amazon Rainforest. About halfway through we encountered a river [and Tucupi] told me to strip to my underwear so my clothes wouldn’t get wet. Once on the other side, he told me to just keep my clothes off for the rest of the hike.” This was no ordinary hike either. Ennett said no marked path existed and the ground had turned into about four inches of mud. Once Ennett reached the village of the Shuar, the indigenous community, and was able to get dressed, the Shuar hosted a meeting. “I was sitting at this meeting listening to the Shuar speak, not understanding any of it because they were speaking Shuar,” Ennett said. “I knew they were talking about me though because I could pick out select Spanish words. They kept saying ‘American.’” Ennett said the Shuar do not have words for things that were created after their language, like America, so they use the Spanish word when necessary. “I asked [Tucupi] later what they were talking about, and it turns out they thought I

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Sanders grows post-debate support By Shannon.McCarty @iowastatedaily.com Despite national media crowning candidate Hillary Clinton winner of the Democratic debate, Bernie Sanders supporters are satisfied with the Vermont senator’s performance. It’s been a week since the five candidates running for the Democratic nomination appeared on the national stage together for the first time to debate the issues. “Overall, I think he did really, really well,” said Rosie Cook, freshman in pre-business and president of Students for Bernie. “I think he fumbled a little with foreign policy, but I hope that means he can grow from that in the future.” Despite being the underdog, the self-described “Democratic-socialist” has gained more

Jenna Reeves/Iowa State Daily

A crowd gathers to see Bernie Sanders speak at Iowa’s Latino Heritage Festival in Des Moines on Sept. 26. Sanders has been growing support since last week’s debate.

supporters than analysts ever expected, but a majority of polls still indicate Sanders being behind Clinton. Cook said Sanders exem-

plified his no-smear campaign when speaking to other candidates, and expressed his policy well. “I knew he wasn’t going to

attack Hillary,” said McKinly Springer, junior in pre-business and a recruiter for Students for Bernie. Springer said he thought Sanders’ decision to not attack Clinton during the debate was the right move, including Sanders’s now infamous comment about Clinton’s emails. “I think he did a very good job,” Springer said. As for how Sanders compared to Clinton, Mack Shelley, professor of political science, said Sanders and Clinton see eye to eye on a few things, but Sanders’ stance on gun control could be a problem. “[Sanders] certainly got in trouble over gun control,” Shelley said. During the debate, Clinton said Sanders was too soft when it came to gun control, although,

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ISU aims to replace Veishea By Makayla.Tendall @iowastatedaily.com Though the official Veishea celebrations are as crushed as the light pole students knocked down in the 2014 riot, President Steven Leath received recommendations from the Veishea task force outlining possible events that could fill the void. The task force was formed after the 2014 riot, where students threw bottles and rocks at police and tore down street signs and a light pole that injured one man. The committee consisted of faculty and representatives from Student Government, a studentathlete and members of Student Affairs. The committee found that the official Veishea traditions were overshadowed by the unofficial activities with which students associated the celebration of colleges. It said students wanted entertainment, and the traditions of Veishea were not serving a purpose because students were not engaging in the official activities. Veishea also provided many student organizations on campus with an opportunity to fundraise for their club. One of the recommendations was that another campuswide event would not take place late in the spring semester. One of the main purposes for another event is to showcase the students at Iowa State. The recommendations include: • A winter event, which would be early to mid-January to welcome students back to campus. • A celebration in February that would feature the sell of cherry pies for Valentine’s Day. The event may also celebrate Black History Month. • A “March Madness” event where a game watch party will take place at Hilton Coliseum for the final men’s basketball game. This could give clubs a chance to display their products and fundraise. • A celebration of arts in April that would highlight artistic factions of the university, such as the Fashion Show, theatre production groups and Cyclone Market. • A parade that would use the same route as the homecoming parade. It would begin in downtown Ames and conclude on campus, with a possible college showcase at the end. • Community service event: Students would lead a community service project during the fall semester.

ISU’s tall tales continue to circulate student body By Kyndal.Reimer @iowastatedaily.com Regina George from “Mean Girls” was elected as homecoming queen after getting hit by a school bus, and Josh and Cooper from “Dead Man on Campus” received 4.0s when their roommate passed away. Although both of those examples are fictitious movies, Iowa State has its own tales. It has been rumored that if a student gets hit by a CyRide bus they’ll receive free tuition for the remainder of their college years. Another rumor is that if a student’s roommate were to pass away, they’d receive all As in their

classes. These urban legends have been circling the student body for years. However, both morbid tales are fictitious. “The rumor regarding a student getting all As if their roommate passes away is 100 percent false, and frankly, a grossly inappropriate thing to make light of,” said Brittney Rutherford, marketing coordinator at the Department of Residence and ISU Dining. Kipp Van Dyke, assistant dean of students, reflected on how long these myths have been around, even when he was a student himself. “These are the sort of tales that it’s impossible to narrow

down the roots for. They’ve been around forever,” Van Dyke said. “There’s no blanket policy for dealing with these situations. We’re not just going to say ‘Hey, here’s a check,’ but we are going to navigate what it is you need.” While the university does not offer any academic or financial bonuses in such tragic circumstances, it does offer support and resources for students. “Mental health is an incredibly important subject,” Rutherford said. “Whether it’s suicide, murder or an accident, death happens, and helping students with the grief process, whatever that looks like, they have our full support in that situation.” Rutherford said the severity

of the situation doesn’t matter, and the university has means to help students cope. “If anything happens to a student — they break a leg or an arm, a death in their family, a death in their roommates family, or anything of that nature — we are here for them,” Rutherford said. The death of a roomate myth, which rose and gained popularity in the mid-1970s, according to a study done bySnopes.com, an online fact-checking site, has been featured in the plots of movies such as “Dead Man on Campus” and “Dead Man’s Curve,” and TV shows such as “The Simpsons,” “Law & Order” and “CSI New York.”

When CyRide drivers were asked if they had heard the talltale regarding free tuition in the case that a student gets hit by a bus, the immediate reaction was a laugh. All of the drivers had heard the story before, and most found it humorous that students would be that gullible. “To be fair, urban legends like that are out there and students are bound to play around with them,” Van Dyke said. “However, I would caution people to be sensitive in these tragedies. It wouldn’t be helpful for people in the middle of those tragedies to be questioned about whether or not they’re being compensated for their losses. It’s nothing to joke about.”