Arches
Winter 2017
Looking Pharr into the Future New President p. 5
The Truth is Out There
Navigating the Media p. 13
Tricklebee
Pay-What-You-Can CafĂŠ in Milwaukee p. 32
Being Successful, Feeling Unworthy: Imposter Syndrome Arches Late Winter 2017.indd 3
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
STAFF
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Natalie Guyette
ART DIRECTOR
A
s the student publication on campus we have a responsibility to fill our pages with the kinds of stories that matter to our students. Every layout, I watch as stories one by one are taped on the wall for proofing, and when the entire magazine is taped up we have quite a display of papers, pen marks and a rainbow of sticky note scrawls. Looking at the pages, I think about our values as students that I see in this issue’s stories. Students here are truth-seekers. We believe in justice, honesty and fairness. Reporter Nhung Nguyen has written “The Truth is Out There” on page 13 about discerning fact from fiction when navigating the web. It doesn’t hurt if you’re an X-Files fan as well. I think you will be as eager to support Tricklebee Café as I was after reading Aneela Nasir’s story on page 32. Tricklebee, recently opened in Sherman Park, embraces the pay-whatyou-can restaurant model, giving people of all financial standings access to tasty, organic foods. You can also strengthen your social justice warrior muscles and volunteer to cook or prep for a shift. Mount Mary students have big goals and big dreams. Sometimes when we accomplish our goals, the satisfaction in achieving them is mixed. Maybe you start feeling anxious or worry you’ve not done enough to earn that achievement, causing you to feel like a fraud. Termeria Taper addresses this phenomenon in her piece on the imposter syndrome on page 17. There’s a lot of time and dedication in this issue that you’re holding, all in an effort to create a magazine that matters to you. Slip it into your backpack to come back to, and when you’ve finished, check out what we’re doing on the web at Archesnews.com. Of course if you have ideas for stories that matter in your world, feel free to contact us at mmu-arches@mtmary.edu.
Denisse Hernandez
WEB WMANAGER Emily Chapman
BUSINESS MANAGER Kimberly Xiong
PHOTO EDITOR Nina Kesic
COPY EDITOR Amanda Cibulka
EDITORS Emily Chapman Nhung Nguyen Ashley Luchinski Termeria Taper Aneela Nasir WRITERS A. J. Perkins Gianna DeLoney Sandrea Smith Katy Groth Termeria Taper Natalie Guyette Julia Wachuta Hayley Hove Nevaeh Wright Aneela Nasir Nhung Nguyen DESIGNERS Payton Hintz Emily Chapman Amanda Cibulka Nina Kesic A. J. Perkins Natalie Guyette Suzie Skalmoski Denisse Hernandez PHOTOGRAPHERS Denisse Hernandez Natalie Guyette Hayley Hove Nina Kesic FACULTY ADVISERS Linda Barrington Laura Otto
Arches is written and edited by the students of Mount Mary University, who are solely responsible for its editorial content. Arches is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press.
Editor-in-Chief guyetten@mtmary.edu In a small newsroom, we all wear many hats.
Contact Arches at Arches, Mount Mary University 2900 N. Menomonee River Pkwy. Milwaukee, WI 53222 414-930-3027 Email: mmu-arches@mtmary.edu Stay updated at www.archesnews.com
FOLLOW US! @MountMaryArches
LIKE US! Arches
COVER LAYOUT BY DENISSE HERNANDEZ
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THE HUMANS BEHIND THE MAGAZINE
Natalie Guyette
Denisse Hernandez
Women of Mag Late Winter 2017.indd 5
Kimberly Xiong
Aneela Nasir
Ashley Luchinski
Gianna DeLoney
Haley Hove
Amanda Cibulka
Nhung Nguyen
Emily Chapman
Julia Wachuta
Katy Groth
Nevaeh Wright
Payton Hintz
Suzie Skalmoski
Sandrea Smith
Nina Kesic
A. J. Perkins
Termeria Taper
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CONTENTS | WINTER 2017
Campus
5 Looking Pharr into the Future 6 ‘Transcend’ CREO at Turner Hall
Feature 10 A World of Pure Imagination 13 The Truth is Out There 17 Being Successful, Feeling Unworthy
Creative Works 21 Student Artwork and Poetry
Review
25 Best Apps For You
Perspective 27 The Y Factor: Surviving as a Man in a Woman’s World 28 A Native Voice: The Power of Oral Tradition
Community
30 Providing Services That Matter 32 Tricklebee Café
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Looking Pharr into the Future Dr. Christine Pharr accepts her role as MMU President
Words Katy Groth Photo Denisse Hernandez Design Suzie Skalmoski As a child, Dr. Christine Pharr was always the teacher when playing school and always the priest when playing mass. Recently named Mount Mary’s twelfth president, she is taking on a slightly different leadership role than the ones she assigned herself in make-believe childhood games with her sisters and friends. Pharr will begin her duties as president in July 2017. She currently serves as the vice president of alumnae and donor relations at the College of Saint Mary, a women’s college in Omaha, Nebraska. “Even back then I was a bold (and perhaps bossy) woman,” Pharr said. “Today I am much more collaborative and fair, and amazingly my sisters still love me and I have many continuing friendships from childhood.” Pharr has always had a love for science and math, even while she was growing up. When she was 10 years old, she asked for a chemistry set for Christmas. She received a biology set instead. After overcoming her disappointment, she discovered it had some interesting items. “It had a small microscope and some brine shrimp I could look at under the microscope, but my favorite things were these solutions that, when you added them together, changed from clear to purple and back again,” Dr. Pharr said. “They called it changing water to wine and back again. How biblical! I thought that was miraculous!” Pharr later discovered the science behind it, but in the meantime the magic was fun. When Pharr first arrived on campus she thought it was beautiful – majestic even. Pharr described Mount Mary as a place where you immediately know it’s special. She is eager to start her time here. “I’m most excited because of the people,”
Sister Georgeanne hopes to pass on Packer pride to incoming president, Christine Pharr.
Pharr said. “Everybody I met, students, faculty, administration, alumnae, resonated with the mission of the institution. When that many people think, ‘This is a great place,’ it’s got to be. I am excited to be a part of that.” Pharr has two daughters whom she credits for helping her to see herself in a different way. “As they grew up and became individuals in their own right I began to see my influence on them, both good and bad,” Pharr said. “Both of my daughters are extremely hard-working but they think I’m sort of a workaholic. I love to work but at times I can overdo it.” One of her daughters is a talented vocalist and Pharr has enjoyed accompanying her on her musical journeys. It’s taught
her to realize that music is something very special to her and has “shaped her soul.” Pharr treasures her family, and with age she’s only learned to appreciate them more. “I have been so blessed to have these wonderful bold women as daughters, to have three bold women as sisters and also a fantastic husband,” Pharr said. “This has made me realize – in a way that I never did as a younger women – that these people are a gift from God and I thank God every day for all of them.” If Pharr won the lottery, she’d first get a good financial adviser, and then give back to those in need. But she doesn’t need millions of dollars, she said. “In a lot of ways, I’ve already won the lottery,” Pharr said.
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Christina Valentino, a senior fashion merchandising student, practices for interviews with the senior designers.
‘TRANSCEND’ CREO AT TURNER HALL Words Hayley Hove | Photo Nina Kesic | Design Natalie Guyette
For the last five years the Mount Mary University CREO fashion show has been on the road. In 2011 students took the stage at the Bradley Pavilion in the Marcus Center, and in 2012 the show was held at the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Milwaukee. From 2013 to 2015 it found a home at the Harley Davidson Museum. Last year’s show was at Pius XI High School. This year the show will be at Turner Hall Ballroom, located in downtown Milwaukee and operated by the Pabst Riverside Foundation.
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An array of programs from past fashion shows reflect a variety of themes and styles.
The CREO fashion show has been hosted in many locations, but never one as convenient as Mount Mary’s own theater, which was home to the fashion show until 2011. If any last-minute work needed to be done on garments, designers could just run upstairs. Wendy Jones, former administrative assistant in fashion, remembers the specific color of the ticket box office being the color of “institutional green.” “It stayed in the theater for years,” Jones said. “It was wonderful because the theater lobby had lounges for the girls to keep their accessories.” Today, the CREO fashion show is no longer held on campus, yet it retains many of the age-old traditions of shows past. Fashion merchandising students still direct and plan the show, which features the collections of fashion design students. CREO, a Latin term meaning to make, create and produce, showcases both the fashion and the art & design programs. The fashion show is planned by the Fashion Show Coordination Class. This year it is being taught by Trish Kuehnl, Laura Kane and Stephanie Brown. It is a required class for all merchandise management students and optional for fashion design students. The theme of this year’s show is Transcend. Andrea Monacelli, a senior majoring in merchandise management, is part of this semester’s Fashion Show Coordination Class who selected the theme.
Photo by Hayley Hove
“Transcend is showing that we can all overcome whatever obstacles we are facing in life and work together to put on one heck of a show,” Monacelli said. Last Year’s Show Trish Kuehnl, co-chair of the fashion department and overseer of the merchandise management program, has been teaching the Fashion Show Coordination class for four years. Kuehnl said that Pius gave the show a very different feeling because it is a high school. “It was a beautiful auditorium and beautiful stage, as far as sound,” Kuehnl said. “Lighting was very professional.” Barbara Armstrong, dean of the School of Arts and Design, is now celebrating her fourth year working with the CREO show. After last year’s show, feedback was gathered from students and guests. “We had an online survey, and we as a team got together and said, ‘Okay, what were the things we did well, and what were the things that we’d like to do differently,’” Armstrong said. She said that the survey brought in a “mixed bag of accolades and concerns.” “We had lots of people who liked the show at Pius High School and liked the theater, but we also heard from some others that wanted it to be more of a runway show,” Armstrong said.
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Fashion design senior Angela Vang sews together 24 pieces of neoprene, a rubbery fabric often used for scuba diving suits, to form the front and back of a skirt for her collection. Tamara Sanchez observes.
Armstrong said that there was a lot of student feedback that they didn’t want it to be at a high school. Sam Rohde, a senior majoring in merchandise management, was a part of the planning class for last year’s show. She said that the Pius’ theater lacked the feeling of the runway coming forth from the stage to meet the audience. “Having it at a venue where you can have a runway again will definitely be beneficial,” Rohde said. Jones said Pius’ auditorium was beautiful but lacking for some people. “We lost some people because it didn’t have that downtown feel, and you know that’s where it’s at,” Jones said. “Even for us old folks, we want to go downtown.” New Venue: The Selection Process Over the summer, there was a search conducted by the planning class’ faculty, Trish Kuehnl and Laura Kane, to find the perfect venue for the 2017 CREO fashion show. Kuehnl and Kane were given summer hours to conduct their search, even physically looking at roughly 10 different venues and examining about 40 places online. They considered factors such as size, appearance and dates of availability. “That was the huge thing because these venues are booked out way in advance,” Armstrong said. They narrowed it down to about five different places. “Pius was still in the mix at that point,” Armstrong said. “Even though Pius was less expensive, we decided that the runway and the downtown location were things that people really liked. We figured out that maybe we could balance out a budget and still do it.”
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Back to downtown Milwaukee it was. Turner Hall Ballroom was chosen, a two-story venue that has since the late 19th century hosted a wide range of events and is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. “Now that it is at Turner Hall, it is going to be a completely different vibe,” Kuehnl said. “It’s going to be more of a gritty, rough and rustic vibe.” When Kuehnl thinks about fashion week, she recalls her time recently spent studying abroad in Paris with other fashion students. Kuehnl recalls helping set up one of the shows she and the students dressed. She said that they helped set up the benches that the spectators sat in, and they put the carpet on the concrete floors to create the runway. “If you’re Chanel, if you’re Karl Lagerfeld, you can pay to have these extravagant venues, but when you’re up-and-coming new designers, theirs are grittier,” Kuehnl said. “They are more on the level of the real people.” Kuehnl said that the show will have a theatrical vibe, rather than a theatrical feel. Tamara Sanchez, a senior majoring in fashion design, will showcase her senior collection in this year’s show. “I’m excited for this year specifically because of the location, I just feel that it’s better suited for the reputation that Mount Mary upholds,” Sanchez said. When the show was held at the Harley Davidson Museum, it would bring in a certain audience that exposed student designers to people who would bring possible future job opportunities to them. There would also be some professional models in the show, bringing the production up a notch. “I’m sure the designers are going to be thinking ‘Well sure it’s downtown, it’s a little bit more high profile,’” Kuehnl said. Angela Vang, a senior majoring in fashion design, will also showcase her senior collection in the show. “The new venue will take us to the next level,” Vang said. “It will also give a lot more opportunity for staging and how the runway will be set up, giving it a more professional feel.”
Fashion merchandising students review photos of models from tryouts. They will assign models to each designer based on ability, size, and their walk.
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CREO 2017 Friday, May 5, 2017 Shows at 1:30 p.m., 6 p.m., 8:30 p.m. Turner Hall Ballroom 1040 N. 4th St. Milwaukee More CREO coverage will be posted on Archesnews.com, including information about art & design exhibits.
Merchandising students prepare for interviews with the senior designers. The interviews will be filmed and played at the show while each of the seniors’ collections is on stage.
Faculty Changes There have been two new additions to the Fashion Show Coordination class: Stephanie Brown, model coach, and Laura Kane, assistant professor of fashion design. The class is excited to welcome Brown and Kane to the team and to Mount Mary. “Laura Kane has a very strong theater background from her undergraduate (program) and all her family is into theater,” Kuehnl said. “Plus she loves to do cosplay. That brings a whole different element in.” Kane brings a lot of enthusiasm to the show preparation by encouraging students to take photo and video to document the process of putting together the fashion show, including documenting the progress of design student collections. Many of these photos and videos will be used to promote the show leading up to the event. “I hope to increase the visibility of the process of putting the show together, so everyone in the community can appreciate the amount of time and effort that goes into the event,” Kane said. When working on cosplay costumes or her own original designs, Kane frequently takes photos to create a gallery and
shoots video to document the progress to share on social media platforms. For the cosplay community, sharing photo or video updates of costume work can be a major component of the activity. According to Kuehnl, Brown, who owns her own modeling agency called Je Suis Talent, might be providing some professional models for the show. “She has lived and worked in Paris, has lots of connections and experience within the fashion industry and doing fashion shows, so it’s exciting to really have her be a part of our team,” Kuehnl said. Brown said that she hopes that when people come to this year’s show, they feel like they are experiencing a high-caliber show. “I hope people take away that the models stood out to them in a very professional, classy way,” Brown said. Brown also has high hopes for all the students that are a part of putting the show together. “I hope that the students leave there feeling like, ‘I want to do that again,’” Brown said.
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A world of pure imagination Not just for children
Words Julia Wachuta | Design Payton Hintz
C
laire Neri, a student in the English graduate program, got her start in writing in the third grade when she and a few friends spent their recesses and free time creating comic books to distribute to classmates and teachers. She was the writer and they were the artists. In fourth grade Neri wrote and selfpublished a 120-page compilation of short stories about her classmates and their supposedly haunted school. It was through writing that Neri used her imagination to better understand her place in the world. “Writing is so important to imagination because when you use your imagination for writing, we can become like children again, where we can be transported and have those sorts of journeys where it doesn’t matter,” Neri said. Children seem much more apt to make believe, to create without hesitation and to focus on the enjoyment of activities. However, your imagination does not fade as you grow; it only adapts as your view of the world around you changes.
Childhood:
Beginning to Make Sense of the World According to Mount Mary University philosophy professor Austin Reece, imagination in early childhood is influenced by the behavior of surrounding adults.
“We have a certain kind of obedience to authority,” Reece said. “We’re trying to understand our place in the family, our place in the neighborhood. We’re simulating whether it’s tea time, playing with dolls or playing with soldiers. We’re trying to simulate reality to understand it and to find our place within it.” To make sense of their world, children have many tools. Kieran Egan, an educator whose career focuses on providing teachers with the knowledge they need to better engage the imaginations of children, said that children’s imaginations are shaped by “the tools they have to think with.” “The first tool we’ve got is a body, and the body has a whole bunch of tools that come with it,” Egan said. “One of the ones that’s very prominent early on, even before we develop language, is our emotions. Children start with an attempt to grasp the world emotionally.” Children have emotions that contribute to the ways that they think, but it is also what they lack that helps shape their imaginations. Lynn Kapitan, professor and director of the professional doctorate of art therapy program, said that young children have minimal life experiences and use their expansive imaginations to fill in the gaps in understanding. “Children come up with the most outrageous ideas,” Kapitan said. “They don’t have that much life experience yet, so they don’t know whether reality always works in a certain way or not.”
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
-Albert Einstein
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FEATURE
imagination
Adolescence
Finding Your Place in the World As a child grows, her reality and experiences expand. Egan said that as a teenager, it is still preferable to read about magical creatures and their fantastic adventures; however, it now must relate to readers’ expanded version of reality. “There’s a great difference between the magic that is a part of a very young child’s story and the narratives that are a part of a teenager’s story, but they are equally fantastic,” Egan said. “Harry Potter is as magical as Cinderella. It’s just that storytellers make accommodations with reality. They fit it into a real context.” When we outgrow fairy tales, we’re really just seeking new boundaries of our reality. “It’s not coincidental that teenagers are interested in ‘Guinness World Records,’ because it’s about the extremes of reality and the limits of experience,” Egan said. “First, it’s these magical, fantastic creatures; later, it’s who had the longest fingernails, who was the fattest person who ever lived or who was the smallest person who ever lived.” Reece believes that the teenage imagination stage is about growth and exploring the self. “We can shape our own identities,” Reece said. “We can follow our own curiosity, and sometimes in doing that we challenge norms and authority, we challenge standards, sometimes we think outside the box, but it’s creative and it’s affirming.” Egan also said, as we get older, we have more experiences and acquire more tools to think with. We only think we are losing our imaginations due to the role that reality plays in a more mature mind. “Students begin to realize after age 15 and as adults that they no longer have this romantic view of reality,” Egan said. “They know they’re agents that are caught in reality in some way, and they’re not as free as they thought. At the same time they can develop abstract ideas and theoretic ways of dealing with the world.”
“I think of someone in early
adolescence or adulthood, with the idea that we can be creative and critical thinkers in our own right.”
-Austin Reece Adulthood
An Adjusted Imagination Pablo Picasso said, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” Kapitan said children try to create art that looks the way an adult would create it, and adults try to create art the way children would. “As you become more and more skilled as an artist, you have a greater and greater desire to go back to that free state of imagination that you had when you were five years old,” Kapitan said. “There’s so much freshness with that.” Kapitan said that our expanding reality as we grow up affects our imagination, but she believes that adults can still access traits of earlier imagination stages. “As you get older, you have to really learn how to take what you know and sort of park it aside and engage in not knowing, so that you can re-enter that state of
openness to what your imagination offers you,” Kapitan said. Egan reinforces the idea that our imagination doesn’t leave, but simply develops. “The tools remain a part of us,” Egan said. “You don’t forget emotions when you grow older. They become more sophisticated in some ways. We don’t stop telling stories, but we do look at more sophisticated stories that aren’t quite as simple as the ones that young children are most engaged by.” While Neri is no longer writing the wildly creative comic books of third grade, she is now working on a dystopian novel. “I stay true to what I like,” Neri said. “I’m not going to change that. Imagination is important, and I do think it changes, but it is essential to keep it.” Natalie Guyette contributed to this article.
“I stay true to what I like. I’m not going to change that. Imagination is important, and I do think it changes, but it is essential to keep it. ”
-Claire Neri, English graduate student at Mount Mary
Study Abroad
Rome 18
Costa Rica
January 2018
Photo credit: John
Heyer
Spain
y 20 Januar ick
Photo
: Jill Kill
credit
Summer 2018
Email Nan Metzger at metzgern@mtmary.edu for more information.
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THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE Winter 2017 | Arches
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How to Discern Fact From Fiction in the Media Words Nhung Nguyen | Design Payton Hintz
oday’s news is often delivered in fewer than 140 characters, via a status update or video that disappears after viewing, bitesized meals for our fast food appetites. With news delivered at such a high rate, it is hard to determine if what you read is true. Carlie O’Donnell, a sophomore majoring in justice, was extensively taught in the classes she took at Mount Mary to find reputable sources. She loves having access to all the information she would ever need, all within seconds of its release. But with information that accessible, the quality of information may be called into question. “You never know if what you’re reading is true,” O’Donnell said. “Is that really what happened or is that what the vast majority of people’s opinions put into an article? It makes getting the facts very difficult.” To avoid this dilemma, she tries to figure out what the article is about and where it originated from.
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“You have to read multiple new media sites,” O’Donnell said. “You can’t just read Fox. You can’t just read CNN. You have to read them all because they all have their own biases.” With the way our news is presented, she said, we never get two clear sides of a story. “It leaves people to have to do a lot of critical thinking,” O’Donnell said. “But if you aren’t the type of person to do a lot of critical thinking, it leads you to do a lot of assuming - which is a danger within itself.” She said we need to be more aware of what is shown in the media. “If you’re consciously aware of it, you can combat some of the bias that is coming from it and take it with a grain of salt,” O’Donnell said. Marmy Clason, chair of the communication department, used to teach her students how to find credible sources. With the flood of mass media delivering and distorting our news, she decided to tell her students to visit sites that she knows are credible.
“If you’re not sophisticated enough to sift out what’s real and what’s fake, then you simply have to go to places that are real before you advance into a level of sophistication where you can figure it out yourself,” Clason said. Like O’Donnell, Clason recommends seeking a broader perspective on what we consume in the news and read from people who disagree with us. “If you think they’re biased, you can still read them,” she said. “It’s not like you’re reading evil ... go read The Guardian; read Al Jazeera. Read people who disagree with you. There are columnists that I have read whose political ideology I disagree with, but they’re intelligent. I don’t always agree with them, but I appreciate their point of view and their writing.” Clason thinks that we as a society have become so steeped in our own perspective that we rarely get a contrary perspective. We are only reading what is on our Facebook page or reading news that algorithms in apps generate for us.
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“It just becomes that echo chamber,” she said. “You’re opening yourself up to a lot of fake nonsense if that’s all you look at.” Clason wants us to lose the sense that all news sources are biased. To her, all media is biased, but so are people. The intent of the media is to inform, she said, but there is a downside of trying to draw readers in. “There is a non-ideological bias — we want to be the first, we want to get it out fast — it’s not always good,” Clason said. “It tends to get things out very piecemeal at times. There’s this hyperventilation over some stories that were not disclosed.” Sister Joanne Poehlman, associate professor of sociology and anthropology, uses a metaphor of a fish swimming in water to help illustrate people’s understanding of the media. “A teacher explains that a fish that swims does not understand water,” she said. “It does not have the ability to poke its head up to breathe air or go beneath to feel the mud. A student responds that the fish does not understand air or mud, but it knows water. The teacher then responds, ‘No, if all you know is water, you really don’t know water. You need something to compare it with.’” Having the ability to compare someone’s opinion with your own gives you a new
way to look at a situation. According to Poehlman, we need to be more aware of our own biases. “I stand here, someone else stands there,” Poehlman said. “We are human so we stand somewhere. But I can learn about someone else’s stance. I can’t change, necessarily, but I can expand my horizon. I can see that other people are standing around me with different perspectives and I won’t see clearly if I only see from where I stand.” Poehlman said that having an open mind isn’t enough. “We can only have an open mind if we know what mind we already have,” she said. “And then know that we might have blinders. We might be going with an open mind but forget that our background, our history and our culture has also shaped the lenses on our glasses that we think are taking us into open new territory.” She suggests talking to people who have different perspectives or beliefs, and comparing them to your own experiences. “It’s always a revolving door,” Poehlman said. “Diversity is great — we want to know about what is different. But we must take time to say, ‘How does that teach me something about who I am?’”
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Being successful, Feeling Unworthy: Imposter Syndrome
Words Termeria Taper | Photo Denisse Hernandez & Natalie Guyette | Design Denisse Hernandez Winter 2017 | Arches
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FEATURE
“In our society women are
reinforced [to think], ‘Oh no, I’m not that smart,’ and downplay their skills because it’s seen as arrogant and sometimes pushy if somebody says, ‘I‘m good at this.’”
-Laurel End
Grace Brown, a senior majoring in art therapy, said that despite her accomplishments, she feels uncomfortable with receiving compliments. “I think some of it stems from low selfesteem,” Brown said. “I have achieved very highly, but I’ve also failed terribly. When I succeed, it brings up old feelings of failure in a way, even though I didn’t fail. I’m in one extreme over the other, I don’t know how to reconcile with it.” This is an example of the impostor phenomenon. Coined by psychologists Suzanne Imes and Pauline Rose Clance in the 1970s, people who experience the impostor phenomenon feel their “success is due to a mysterious fluke or luck or great effort; they are afraid their achievements are due to ‘breaks’ and not the result of their own ability and competence,” according to Clance’s website, http://paulineroseclance.com. Brown said that when she fails at something, she feels like she didn’t give enough effort and internalizes it, but when she succeeds, she feels like her accomplishment was not earned. “You kind of feel like ‘I should be happy about this’, but I’m not and I don’t know why,” Brown said. Those Who Are Affected According to a posting from the American Psychological Association, “Feel like a Fraud?” by Kirsten Weir, individuals who experience the impostor phenomenon combat feelings that their accomplishments are not merited and are apprehensive about being discovered as “fraudulent.” This phenomenon can cause feelings of anxiety and lead to the development of detrimental behaviors. “It has always affected women more than men,” said Laurel End, psychology department chair at Mount Mary University. “The people that are most affected by this tend to be perfectionists. They tend to have high standards and have some self-doubt about their skills and I think that does tend to apply more to women than men.”
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End witnesses the characteristic traits of perfectionism and high standards in Mount Mary students. “I work with students individually sometimes with research and things like that, and they tend to be exceptional students,” she said. “I’m always surprised when they doubt their own abilities, even though they’ve had a lot of positive feedback.” End sees many Mount Mary students striving for perfection and creating high standards for themselves, two things that fuel the impostor phenomenon and the idea that they’re not as good as people think. People who tend to be more humble are affected by the imposter phenomenon more than those who are able to acknowledge their accomplishments. “In our society women are reinforced [to think], ‘Oh no, I’m not that smart,’ and downplay their skills because it’s seen as arrogant and sometimes pushy if somebody says ‘I‘m good at this,’” End said. End, who has experienced bouts of the impostor phenomenon herself, said she first encountered the imposter phenomenon in graduate school. “I started getting positive feedback about my teaching skills or research and then I had to go defend my thesis in front of these professors from both within and outside my program,” she said. This is when the feelings of doubt started to accumulate. “That’s the first time that I was like, ‘Oh no, they’re going to ask me a question, and I’m not going to have a clue of how to answer it’ and ‘People think I know all this stuff, but I don’t know anything,’” End said. The imposter phenomenon is very common among graduate students. According to Weir, the impostor phenomenon tends to be more prevalent among individuals who are pursuing a new venture, which makes graduate students more inclined to experience impostorism. “It’s natural to wonder, ‘Did they make a mistake letting me in here? Because there’s all these smart people here, and I don’t know what’s going on,’” End said.
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Ann Angel, an English professor at Mount Mary, also sees this phenomenon in the writers she works with, her students and herself. “It’s more common in women because of the way we’re raised,” Angel said. “We’re raised to be nice, to be nurturers, so when we take on leadership we think we’re not capable of it,” she said. Every time Angel writes a book, she experiences feelings of self-doubt. “As a teacher for writing, it is important to me to talk about the insecurities that all writers experience so that they realize that it’s not a unique experience and that it’s something that has to be overcome and dealt with,” she said. “I talk about writers who have frozen after having major successes.” Angel references Elizabeth Gilbert, author of “Eat, Pray, Love,” whose book was so popular that she was afraid that she would never again have that “best” work. John Green has started novels since writing “The Fault in Our Stars” but has not finished any of them. Green openly discussed his experiences with writing after his success on his YouTube channel, stating that he feels “this intense pressure, like people were watching over my shoulder while I was writing.” Angel conveyed a similar experience after the success of her book “Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing,” a biographical novel about the singer’s life. “I’ve written since the success of Janis Joplin, but I often think that’ll always be the book that I’m most known for,” Angel said. “I don’t think I’ll ever write a another book that’s that successful. That doesn’t mean that that’s going to be my truth, but it does mean that’s what I have to get over. That’s my hurdle.” Carrie King, department chair in counseling at Mount Mary University, has also experienced this phenomenon and has witnessed it in her students. “Men tend to say ‘I got here on my ability,’ women tend to say ‘It was luck.’ But when things don’t go right, men tend to say it was an ‘outside source,’ but women will say ‘It’s because I wasn’t good enough,’” King said. King’s first encounter with the phenomenon occurred when reading an article about the effects of impostorism in African-American women in U.S. institutions of higher education and its implications in counseling. The effects of this phenomenon in marginalized groups are even greater. “The imposter syndrome is a common phenomenon for women,” said King. “But when
you have a group of women who have experienced racism and discrimination and have been getting additional messages about their ability, qualifications, intelligence or worth, all those pile on top of the sexism.” King said that whenever you are looking at a group that is discriminated against, this inequity has an active impact. “If someone is starting to internalize and believe the lies, myths and stereotypes of who they are as a racial being, sexual being or whatever it is, it just increases the reasons why someone might believe they are an imposter,” she said.
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FEATURE Tips to Conquering Impostor Syndrome 1. Accept your success and learn from your mistakes According to End, it’s important to recognize that through your hard work, you have learned and mastered skills. “Talking about what you can do is just stating facts,” End said. “But I think you should focus on what you have accomplished, while keeping in mind that there is so much more that you could learn. You may have great skills that other people don’t have, but keeping it in perspective so you don’t think ‘I’m so much better than everybody else now.’” End especially encourages women to not downplay their skills to make people feel comfortable and to keep a balanced perspective. “Instead of thinking of the glass as half empty, like ‘there’s all this stuff that I don’t know,’ look at the glass both ways,” she said. “Here’s what I know. I’m going to constantly be learning more, but I shouldn’t disregard what I already know. I can’t disregard that there’s more to learn in my future.” End also recommends having a different approach about what is defined as failure, and to take it as a learning opportunity when things don’t turn out as expected. “If you’ve gotten that feedback, that will help you get a little closer to your goal and rethink about how you’re conceptualizing something so that you’re more accurate next time around,” End said. “But it’s not a failure on your part.”
King said that educating people about the impostor phenomenon could help bring it to the forefront. “The only places I’ve seen imposter phenomenon really touched on is with women in specific careers, and [in] literature-based sources that talk about children of color in schools feeling like they don’t belong,” King said. “Outside of that I don’t read or hear about it on the news.” King said that the more you can get people who are having these experiences to be able to talk about it openly, the better. “I feel like making it a part of the conversation is a way to not normalize it, but acknowledge it and challenge it,” she said. “Once you become aware of it, then you can see where it’s rooted in you, what kind of situations or people can trigger that and then you can talk yourself out of it with self-affirmation.”
2. Let go of perfectionism According to Angel, the best way to cope with impostorism is deciding that it’s not about being the best. “You have to let go of the theory perfection and pick up on the theory of putting one foot in front of the other every day,” she said. “If you’re going to be a writer or a physician, you need to keep walking towards those goals, a little piece at a time.” When dealing with the impostor phenomenon, End said she conquered it by talking about her worries with her mentor, a person she worked closely with throughout her graduate school career. He pointed out that he wouldn’t have allowed End to go into a thesis defense if she didn’t know anything and End found assurance in this because of their relationship of trust. “He would have been the first one to notice that I didn’t know what I was talking about,” she said. Crediting that experience, End has since been largely unaffected by the impostor phenomenon because she no longer cares about what people think about her. She doesn’t fear looking “stupid.” End encourages people to feel more comfortable admitting when they don’t know something because that’s how we learn. “People around us are not going to give us false feedback if they really care about us,” she said. 3. Recognition and support King explained that the imposter phenomenon often occurs unconsciously, so recognizing it helps individuals address it. “Otherwise, it just sits there and then you undermine yourself all the time,” she said. King also recommended locating a peer group for support. “We are less likely to be encouraging of ourselves than we are to be encouraging to others, so it’s about finding people who have had similar psychological and environmental experiences,” she said.
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Creative Works Design Emily Chapman Creative Works provides a place for students to showcase their work. We accept all types of artwork, photography, poetry and flash fiction. For full submission guidelines, visit archesnews.com.
Letting Go
“This piece physically symbolizes the action of letting go,” Hohnl said. “As an artist, this is one of my all time favorite pieces not only because I enjoy the way it turned out but also because of what it symbolizes.”
Tricia Hohnl Tricia Hohnl is a senior in the art therapy and art education programs. In her work, Hohnl likes to explore natural life sequences and the idea of memory. In the future, Tricia hopes to work as an art educator and eventually attend graduate school.
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One day in the future, I will move my hands from the water… And out of the clawfoot bathtub to cradle a small and fragile thing. Unable to speak her grief, I will try my best and raise her from rest, place her half in warm water to lie on my chest. I may hum to her, read to her, coo at her softly; our own private quest to quiet comfort and peace. I will cry over this the least.
One day soon after, I will move my hands from the water… To the edge and claw as I’ll scream out from the curse of Eve. How dare she do this to me, but I will be stronger than questioning. For her, I will have to be. My head against the edge will roll and moan as people I will not fully see clamber around me and just a moment past the last they clamber around us. I will cry over this for as long as I must.
One day soon, I will move my hands from the water… To my stomach, which will be stretched out and rounded. My hands will linger there as the hot water rises, to my thighs, to my arms, to my breasts, to the peak of the mound. I will touch her with fingertips and palms, forming future memories of what she will be. Shedding some tears, I will cry over this for years.
One day, I will have a clawfoot bathtub just down the hall from my bed, I’d like to think that this place will harbor the most peace of my life. As the hot water flows from the faucet, I’ll raise my legs to step in, one at a time, with careful precise movements as not to disturb the flow. The light will be low, all around the room smooth scented candles glow. I’ll put my hands flat to the bottom, and under the water their shape will shift, and in the water my thoughts will wander to my greatest wish.
Winona
CREATIVE WORKS
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One day in a time I cannot think about, I will move my hands from the water… And up to my daughter’s outstretched arms so she can lift me with careful precise movements each leg will be slowly lifted as to not disturb the flow and onto a shaggy square of carpet, where I will stand shaking and vulnerable. She will sing songs from her old class to me as she wipes the droplets from my old skin, touch me with fingertips and palms, blow out glowing smooth scented candles, and watch me steadily, intently as I shrink. The one who harbors the most peace of my life will hum with me and walk me down the hall, away from my beloved clawfoot bathtub to my bed so I will have some quiet comfort and peace. I will try not to cry over this treat.
One day in a distant time from now, I will move my hands from the water… And dry them on a towel, so I can grab my book from the floor and pretend I’m not so alone anymore. I would not focus as this bathtub holds memories of more calming amusements. So bold and free, strong and tender, heartfelt and unbothered; my beautiful sweet girl will be just like her mother. I’ll miss her so much, that I’ll put hands flat to the bottom and rise up with careful precise movements as to not disturb the flow, one at a time I’ll raise my legs and step out of the bathtub. I’ll walk fast to call the one who harbors the most peace of my life… as we make plans for our paths to cross, I will sob over this a whole lot.
One day in the subsequent days to follow, I will move my hands from the water… And up to my kin’s face to clean her of the itchy outside, the uncomfortable matter. We will clap and sing songs together about things she learned from class, and I will watch her steadily, intently as she grows; she will be amazing and full of sass. Just like her mother. Before I cry in my bed over this, I will wrap her up warm and tight and bring comfort until she sleeps peacefully.
I will cry over this the least.
Danielle Burdick is a junior with a broadfield social studies education major and a minor in philosophy. She loves reading and foreign films and has a new found love for writing. Her glasses change every few months with her hair. Burdick is named after Danielle Steel and Ayn Rand. She is a collector of words.
Danielle Burdick
CREATIVE WORKS The Lights
Mikaela Kinjerski Mikaela Kinjerski is a senior with a major in fashion merchandise management and a minor in art. She enjoys taking and editing photos, spending time outdoors and reading and watching “Game of Thrones” and “Once Upon A Time.” Someday, she hopes to move to New York City and work as a fashion stylist or photographer.
I can’t come back home anymore
Vlatko Sagud Vlatko Sagud is a graduate student in the art therapy program. He was born in Zagreb, Republic of Croatia. After he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, he moved to the USA. His art speaks of the individual ever questioning what we are made of and what makes us sentient beings.
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REVIEW
Best Apps for You App-ly These to Simplify Your Busy Life Words Gianna DeLoney | Design Nina Kesic
Maya
WOMEN’S HEALTH
My Calendar Platforms: iOS, Android
Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows, web Use this menstrual cycle calendar to track your flow, weight, mood and other symptoms related to your period. • Record menstrual phases • Log sexual activity, weight • Predict stages of fertility and temperature • Calculate cycle and flow • Log symptoms and moods length • Backup data and sync to • Provide flow history chart devices Standout Features: Maya has a simple interface that uses intuitive color codes to make daily tracking of flow and fertility easier. I love that the app provides daily tips and information about women’s health concerning menstrual cycles. It assures me that how I am feeling physically and emotionally are completely natural occurrences during that time of the month. VERDICT: Both apps succeed at documenting, predicting and helping women understand everything related to their menstrual cycles in an appealing and equally functional manner.
This app works as a woman’s personal period diary to track flow length, cycles, ovulation and chance of conception. • Track flow duration minder for contraceptive • Calculate chance of preg• Activate notifications for nancy period, fertility and ovula• Record mood and symption toms • Help predict menstruation, cycles and ovulation • Set push notification reStandout Features: The fertile symptoms tracker uses complex calculation such as body heat, cervical firmness and cervical mucus to track conception chances. Additionally, the community feature provides a way to communicate and exchange ideas about various topics with other women concerning reproductive health. That being said, My Calendar was rated higher than Maya due to the sheer nmber of features it offers and the complexity with which they function.
FITNESS
Charity Miles Walk and Run Tracker
Platforms: iOS, Android Tracks exercise activity and allows users to earn charity money for every mile traveled via fitness brand sponsors. • Track miles • Pledge 10 cents per mile for • Record fitness stats biking • Create teams for increased • Provides over 40 charities to fitness motivation choose from • Pledge 25 cents per mile for • Provides donation information on selected charity walking or running Standout Features: Donate to organizations like Habitat for Humanity or Soles4Souls while improving your health and maintaining your fitness. With Charity Miles’ easy-to-use interface, users can see the money they have earned in real time.
VERDICT: While I love the generous concept of Charity Miles, The 30 Day Fit Challenge outranks it due to its functionality and
30 Day Fit Challenge Workout Platforms: iOS, Android, web
Offers step-by-step guides to various exercise routines achievable in the dorm without the need for gym equipment. • Remind you to work out step-by-step daily • Include 30 day abs, full body, • Record training progress and butt challenge sets automatically • Provide sharing capabilities • Offer detailed video guides with your friends on social • Increase exercise intensity media Standout Features: This app has up to six months worth of fresh material so routines won’t become repetitive. Feedback is also requested postworkout to help tailor the experience.
quality performance. The 30 Day Fit Challenge offers structured guidance and incorporates versatile routines.
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REVIEW PRODUCTIVITY
Any.do
Todoist
Platforms: iOS, Android, web
Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows, web
Use Any.do to manage your life and stay organized with todo lists, reminders and note taking features. • Set customizable deadline take notes reminders • Store images, videos, audio • Assign tasks & share lists recordings & uploaded files • Use talk-to-text feature to • Sync tasks between devices Standout Features: Any.do is neat because it goes beyond just setting tasks, offering notepad and sticky note features to appeal to your preferred method of input. I like the app’s signature feature, Any.do Moment, which sends a daily preview of your upcoming tasks for the day, over time encouraging the habit of checking your agenda on a regular basis. VERDICT: You honestly can’t go wrong with either of these apps, as both rank close if not equal in performance and functionality, so I recommend downloading both and seeing which one best fits your needs. Keep in mind that this review is for the
Todoist is a feature-rich task manager that allows you to easily organize your tasks and monitor productivity. • Set, complete and re• Incorporate sub-tasks, schedule tasks from any sub-projects, color-coded synced device projects and priority levels • View and manage to-do • Create group/team task tasks • Use graphs to visually track • Set customizable due date progress reminders Standout Features: Organization is taken to the next level by using a cloudbased service in addition to offline management, making all of your tasks and reminders easily accessible. free versions, but if you are willing to pay for the pro versions of these apps, I recommend Todoist because it offers the most features for the price tag.
BUDGETING
Toshl Finance
Mint
Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows, web
Platforms: iOS, Android, web Use Mint to manage your financial life all in one place, from overseeing your budget to tracking your credit score. • Create budget • Offer tailored money-sav• Use line graph to showcase ing tips monthly budget • Send payment reminders • Track upcoming bills • Alert suspicious transac• Show account balances tions • Get credit score (updated • Issue warning for low funds quarterly) Standout Features: Mint gives you insight into your big-picture spending while also tracking your individual transactions. It has the ability to read synced accounts in order to calculate spending habits and suggest better budgeting.
Use Toshl Finance to learn budgeting tips and keep track of all your personal finances. • Analyze past spending • Provide engaging visuals to behaviors manage finances • Encourage saving • Send low budget warning • Remind you when bills are notifications due • Use any world currency
VERDICT: Although Toshl Finance is a well-done app, it doesn’t beat the universal appeal of Mint. The latter works with numerous financial institutions, including PayPal and bitcoin, to offer
you insight into your financial situation all while maintaining an easy-to-use and attractive layout. Mint masters the balance of complex functionality with user interface simplicity.
AD
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Standout Features: My favorite aspects of this app are the user-friendly interface and engaging visuals. This app balances fun with functionality by offering easy-to-understand graphs and monster avatars that offer useful financial tips.
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PERSPECTIVE
The Y Factor
Surviving as a Man in a Woman’s World Words A.J. Perkins | Design Suzie Skalmoski
M
y eyes slide over the title of the top of the page, reading “The Women Behind the Magazine.” The women behind the magazine? Someone in layout is going to have to change that graphic when they add my picture. I am a member of Arches, but I am not a woman. I am a man.
This happened at my first Arches staff meeting as I was handed a copy of the most recent issue. I’ve seen the publication around campus and have read it in the past, but this time I was looking at it with not the eyes of a reader, but those of a staff member. I opened it up to the first page and there it was, an array of headshots of all the people who work on Arches, about 20 in total, and all female. The first time that this “matter” (I dare not call it a problem) of being a male student at Mount Mary University came up was when I got my student ID. The security team assumed I was a faculty member or some other employee simply because I am a male. Although I could’ve had a better parking space, I had to correct their assumption and tell them the truth: I am a student. The second time something came up was when I went to the business office. I got an email saying that I could pick up my tuition refund check. I entered the office and told the lady (who I had never met before) why I was there. She took a stack of envelopes, paged through them, handed me my envelope, but never asked me my name. I questioned her about this and she said, “You’re the only boy in the pile.” She got that right, but she got something wrong. I haven’t been a boy for decades. Perhaps I should be flattered that she thought I looked so youthful, but actually, I’m a card-carrying member of AARP. This is my second semester as a graduate student at Mount Mary studying creative writing. After joining the Arches staff, it was suggested that I do some writing for this publication. I was reluctant to do so, and I had my
reservations because I also have a considerable amount of writing in my classes. As a graduate student I am not only working on class assignments, but I’m also continuing to write a novel. Having assignments in both Arches and my writing classes due at the same time seems like an overwhelming and concerning prospect. Perhaps the female staff members and students can do several things at once, but I can’t. I can only do one thing at a time. It has been said that multitasking is a united struggle for the male. Anthropologists say that it started with the primitive man. The men of the village would go out and have only one task: kill an animal and bring home the meat. The women of the village would stay home in their huts or caves and do a multitude of tasks: gather vegetables, take care of children, get water, tend the fires, sew clothing, etc. The few men of the village who made it to the age of being old and feeble, no longer able to hunt, would stay back at the dwellings with the women and children. I am that old man who stays back with all of the women as the only male member in my village of the Arches staff. I must on occasion remind the staff of my multitasking struggles. Unlike those ancient old men, I live in the modern world, and I can’t sharpen a spear. All I can do is sharpen a pencil. As for arrows, I don’t even have a quiver to put them in. What I do have is a book bag and a laptop, my modern tools for writing this column. So, there you have it. I am a 50-something-year-old, male student taking classes at a women’s university, and this is my story.
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PERSPECTIVE
A NATIVE VOICE
The Power of Oral Tradition Words Sandrea Smith | Design Amanda Cibulka
One of my favorite ways to exchange information is in the form of storytelling. I find it hard to give an answer or explain something without giving it context first, usually in the form of a story explaining the purpose or meaning of my answer. If you are in a rush, don’t ask me how my day is – it could take a minute. In this day and age, storytelling has gone from oral traditions – family moments and cultural exchange – to a story being captured in a click of a button and portrayed in a single image or short video. A big problem with photos and videos are that they tend to convey minimal information and they can change the narrative in a negative way. Oral exchange and storytelling is how Native American culture is kept alive and passed on from one generation to the next. With the rise of online communication, there has been a great loss in the storytelling tradition. The survival of Native American culture depends on the oral tradition because there is little to no artifactual evidence or written traditions among Native American tribes. Even in 2017, there are some oral traditions that have to be told in person. A friend of mine who is of Ho-Chunk tribal affiliation told me that she had to be face-to-face with her uncle in order for him to tell the creation
story of their people to her. In exchange for this oral history, she was to bring tobacco (a medicine sacred to Native Americans and used for prayer and offering). It was not something that could be done informally over the phone. The Impact of Stories Even though traditional forms of storytelling may seem far removed from mainstream society, the evocative power of sharing stories and experiences remains. When I was younger, I wondered why everything I was taught about the Native American way of life and my own identity came in the form of a story. Some of the stories created an “ooh” and “ah” response, while others to this day make me cringe, provoking in me an urge to adhere to tradition or to rectify the situation. Being Ojibwe, I can recall the first time I heard the story of how our people came to be, and being in awe of the muskrat, which had the moxy to retrieve the dirt that became “Turtle Island.” So many underlying messages were conveyed, such as “never give up” and “never underestimate those around you because of size.” The story emphasized the idea that everyone has a purpose.
The Great Flood After their creation, the Anishinabe (the Original People) went astray from the creator’s teachings, so the creator sent a great flood to cleanse the earth. Only one human, Nanaboozhoo, survived, but the whole world was submerged. He needed a handful of dirt to create new land. He dove, but couldn’t reach the bottom. The remaining animals joined Nanaboozhoo in his mission. The loon, the helldiver, the mink and the turtle all tried, but failed to bring back earth. Finally, the muskrat spoke, “I can do it.” The other animals laughed at this small creature — how could he succeed? But Nanaboozhoo let the mustkrat try. The muskrat was underwater so long that everyone thought he had failed. Finally, he floated to the surface, lifeless. In his hand was a little ball of dirt. The turtle offered his back “to bear the weight of this earth.” When Nanaboozhoo placed the dirt on the turtle’s back, the winds began to blow, and the handful of earth grew and grew to form “Turtle Island,” now known as North America.
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Symbolism in Stories My favorite origin story is about how the jingle dress and dance came to be. There are different variations, all with a central theme of an elderly man asking for spiritual healing for his granddaughter who was sick. In asking for guidance, he offered tobacco to the creator and was given a dream in which he was shown how to construct a dress that would cure his granddaughter’s ailments. He was to make this dress and put it on his sick granddaughter, and she was to dance. She was still very sick and weak when she put the dress on, but, as the story goes, her strength grew as she danced. This girl grew strong and healthy. Her name was Maggie White, a member of the Whitefish Bay First Nations. After her healing, her life was devoted to sharing the teachings and healing powers of the jingle dress and its dance. Modern jingle dresses are adorned with twisted snuff lids and are usually accompanied by beautiful beadwork and/or applique. Jingle dress dancers are referred to as healers and are from time to time called to dance for and heal the sick. It is said that the sounds of the jingling cones are a way of calling upon the spirits to heal. Though the regalia may be beautiful and emit an alluring sound, the jingle dress dance is sacred and is of high obligation to those women who choose this style of dance. Through the process of storytelling, the importance and significance of the dress and dance are
reiterated. Some stories can be used to transmit experience. Stories can inspire us with their symbolic meaning or act as guides in difficult times. In my own life, stories have been a way to find purpose in negative events and to articulate the lessons I have learned. Stories of shared experiences can create a dialogue with people you would otherwise find nothing in common with. They lay the foundation for exchange between yourself and those around you. A Deeper Meaning There are stories I can recall being told that had various meanings and messages. Everything was done with intents and purposes that intertwined, drawing me back to the reiterated importance of the circle. To some, myths of trickster spiders and the belief that the moon is our grandmother (Nokomis) might seem a bit outlandish. To me it is so much more. The stories that have been passed on to me have many facets, with multiple interpretations and intentions. The stories encourage habitual acknowledgement of tradition and values, and teach children cause-and-effect relationships and other life lessons, while reinforcing cultural tradition. Stories about something as small as a fly, worker bee or cicada bug can provide enlightenment, encouragement and guidance. They help you find meaning in the things around you and the world you live in, while helping you discover your role in it.
An example of Ojibwe beadwork Photo credit: Creative Commons
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COMMUNITY
Providing Services T Free clinics allow women necessary, affordable care Words Neveah Wright | Design Payton Hintz
FREE 1240 E. Brady St., Milwaukee 53202 (414) 272-2144
Since 1974, the Brady East STD Clinic has been providing sexually transmitted disease diagnosis and treatment, as well as HIV/AIDS testing and counseling, at no cost. “We’re probably the only clinic in the country that has been around as long as we have and have never charged for (STD/HIV) services,” said Jerry Warzyn, who has been volunteering as clinical manager for Brady East STD Clinic for more than 30 years. Every service provided by doctors, clinicians and counselors is 100 percent volunteer and/or donation-based. Volunteers at this clinic have been trained by other veteran volunteers and understand the need for sensitivity and proper care, regardless of gender/sexual orientation.
Distance from MMU (7.6 miles)
FREE
Cross Luth 1821 N. 16 (4
635 W. Historic Mitchell St., Milwaukee 53204 (414) 223-2610 1441 N. Farwell Ave., Milwaukee 53202 (414) 645-4050 Since it was established in 2010, the Women’s Care Center has provided services to more than 23,000 women. Sharon Hudy, executive director of the Women’s Care Center, said that services provided include free pregnancy testing, ultrasound screening, and counseling in relation to abortion, adoption and parenting. If a mother isn’t prepared for a child or has more to learn about parenting, Women’s Care Center provides resources and classes in childproof/ home preparation, nursing, childcare, goal-setting, OB-GYN referral/checkups and birth processes and expectations.
“If they keep with their prenatal appointments and they come to the classes, then they earn coupons which can be redeemed in our onsite clip-club stores for all new baby supplies: convertible cribs, car seats, strollers, clothing up to size T, diapers, wipes, everything that they need to care for the baby,” Hudy said. Women’s Care Center provides a “loving and non-judgemental” approach to helping mothers by offering free books for mom-baby bonding or counseling for mothers in college or who suffer from violence.
Historic Mitchell (6.9 miles)
Farwell Ave. (6.9 miles)
24 minutes
26 minutes
51 minutes
67 minutes
51 minutes
Hours of Operation
Hours of Operation
Services Provided
Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
Services Provided Pregnancy testing and ultrasounds, adoption and abortion counseling and parenting classes
HIV/AIDS prevention counseling and STD testing and education
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26 minutes
Monday/Tuesday 6-7:30 p.m. HIV/AIDS screenings Other services until 8 p.m.
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From basic gynecological services to screening for a possible infection, there always seems to be a need for medical attention, but when that time arrives and you don’t have health insurance, you can feel stranded without options.
Whether you are uninsured because you are low-income, or because you lack the documentation necessary to obtain insurance, Milwaukee is home to several clinics that offer free, quality health care services, regardless of your insurance status or income.
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with the utmost respect regardless of their background, socioeconomic status or any situation.”
-Charline Nguyen
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“Everyone who walks in is treated
Eastbrook Church 5385 N. Green Bay Ave., 53209 (414) 228-5220
Cross Lutheran Church 1821 N. 16th St., Milwaukee 53205 (414) 977-0001
Bread of Healing Clinic had more than 5,000 primary care patient visits and 180 volunteers in 2016. Organizations and facilities like Aurora Sinai Hospital and United Way help supply its volunteer staff and care providers, keeping the clinic available to those without insurance. With three locations in Milwaukee, it provides a variety of services including primary care, behavioral health counseling and eye care. Charline Nguyen, a volunteer, said dental insurance is often hard to come by, and the dental services provided [by the Bread of Healing Clinic] are “greatly appreciated.”
All People’s Lutheran Church 5975 N. 40th St., 53209 (414) 466-3169
Rooted in religious faith and virtues, the clinic ensures that all patients are “treated with the utmost respect regardless of their background, socioeconomic, status or any situation,” Nguyen said. Bread of Healing Clinic also provides classes to teach students an array of health information while ensuring that every uninsured person in Milwaukee is welleducated and well-cared for.
On average clients will stay with us
for three to five years because they’re learning about various things. It can be from learning how to properly discipline your toddler to how to create a budget.
-Sharon Hudy
Distance from MMU Cross Lutheran (6.2 miles)
Eastbrook (8.8 miles)
All People’s (7.7 miles)
17 minutes
20 minutes
19 minutes
48 minutes
57 minutes
53 minutes
Hours of Operation Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Specific location times available on website
Services Provided Behavioral health services/ counseling, pharmaceutical medications, insurance plan application assistance, dental and eye care and nurse/social work education
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COMMUNITY
New Pay-What-You-Can Café in Sherman Park Words Aneela Nasir | Photos Sadaf Nasir | Design A. J. Perkins One chilly Saturday morning, I set out to explore a new pay-what-you-can café in Milwaukee, primarily run by volunteers. As the social services coordinator at my mosque, I am always on the lookout for meaningful organizations we can work with to make a difference, so when a friend suggested checking out Tricklebee’s, I was immediately curious about how a place like this runs and sustains itself. I just had to find out more. Tricklebee Café has been open for three months. Located in the Washington Park neighborhood of Milwaukee’s north side, its storefront sits in an old, renovated building on 44th Street and North Avenue. Had I not been scoping it out, I likely would have missed it. However, for how seemingly unnoticeable it is from the outside, I was completely drawn in as soon as I walked through the front door. I was met with a delicious hug of aromas
and one from a young woman as warm as the sunshine yellow sweater she had on, Christy Melby-Gibbons, the woman who runs the show at Tricklebee’s. She immediately offered me a cup of coffee to warm up from the cold and found me a table to sit down at. Tricklebee’s is definitely one of those places where you have to take some time to look around and just absorb it all in. The décor inside the café is eclectic and colorful. It feels less like being in a café and more like a cozy home. There are smiling faces all around, friendly conversation and children playing together in the kid-friendly area of the restaurant. A young girl, no older than four years old, came over to Melby-Gibbons nibbling on a brownie and asked, “Is there anything I can help with?” Melby-Gibbons’ idea for the café came from her experience living in Los Angeles. When she lived there, she worked
with a church that collected food that had passed its sell-by date from local grocery stores and turned it into gourmet meals. They opened up their doors every Thursday night, providing a meal to anyone who needed one, calling their program, Open Tables. Melby-Gibbons said they found that neighbors would come in from all over the city. “We had homeless neighbors, drug addicted neighbors, mentally challenged adults, lonely widowers, wealthy people,” Melby-Gibbons said. “Everybody just came together because they were hungry for community and healthy food.” After five years of running Open Tables, Melby-Gibbons and her team wondered if there were other places doing this sort of work. That is when they discovered, ‘One World, Everybody Eats,’ a network of 60 cafés similar to Open Tables that are operating throughout the United States, with an additional 50 cafés
The potatoes are roasted and ready to be added, with all the other ingredients of the salad, to complete the day’s feature.
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in the startup phase. The founding principles of these cafés are to provide healthy food for the community, locally sourced if possible. They also ensure that any staff earns a living wage, not minimum wage, which tends to be $12-15 per hour. Tricklebee’s runs on these same values and promotes the idea that people can either pay what they can or volunteer in exchange for their meal if they don’t have any money. According to Melby-Gibbons, the business model works and the café is thriving on it.
Aneela Nasir writes up the day’s menu, featuring a roasted potato salad with a pesto dressing.
I had the opportunity to volunteer during a food prep shift one morning. I threw on an apron and gloves and there wasn’t a dull moment during the two hours of work. I got to chop vegetables for a soup, help prep gluten-free baked goods and write up the day’s menu on a chalkboard displayed outside the café. I was also pleasantly surprised to see how much effort the staff puts into creating exciting vegan and gluten-free options while ensuring they waste as little food as possible. Tricklebee Café relies heavily on volunteers to keep it running. “It’s a really good experience,” Samantha Grusz-
ka, a volunteer at Tricklebee’s, said. “I always feel very welcome volunteering and appreciated, so I keep coming back.” I also met a group of school-aged boys who were incredibly enthusiastic about their relationship with Tricklebee’s. They had wanted to work at the café ever since they discovered it was opening in their neighborhood. Since they were too young to work, they were invited to volunteer instead, and they happily took up the offer. Now, the boys volunteer together on a weekly basis when they are not in school. “It’s fun and we get free food,” said Jalenn Chambers, one of these young volunteers. “The best thing about volunteering here is to help everybody out if they want something and hang out with my friends.” Melby-Gibbons also said that there are a lot of other children that help out at the café in their free time and that parents are supportive of their children’s involvement. Melby-Gibbons continues to have high hopes for Tricklebee Café. When strangers come into the café alone, others offer them a seat at their tables, she said. “Beautiful things happen around community tables,” Melby-Gibbons adds. “I see it every day. I see community blossoming.” According to Melby-Gibbons, the idea of a common table is important for communities to come together. This concept is the common thread that cafés in the network have tapped into. Melby-Gibbons said she believes, “This is what America needs during such polarized times when vitriolic hate is being spewed on every station. “In a time when everything seems to be bad news, we want a place that is good news,” MelbyGibbons said.
Volunteers are always welcome. To schedule a shift, please email tricklebeecafe@gmail.com (subject line “Volunteer”) or call (414) 488-2477
9 - 11 a.m.
Shifts and Timings
Food Preparation Shift
11 - 1 p.m.
Serving/ Table Bussing Shift
1 - 3 p.m.
Cleaning Shift
For more information, please visit tricklebeecafe.org
Aneela Nasir and other volunteers chop potatoes to prepare the feature of the day.
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