November 17, 2017

Issue 2 / Volume 76

FROM LOYOLA TO CAMBRIDGE..4

LEAVING NEW ORLEANS...3

GRE PREP...7

Editor’s Note

Wolf magazine

H

ow the time has dissipated into a plume of smoke! Upon crashlanding here as a freshman in 2014 I had no idea I’d make it this far, and there’s still time for any of us to plummet if we think about it for too long! All jokes aside, my future is taking a fascinating shape, as it has for more than just the hilarious scholars featured in this final grad school issue.

Editor-in-Chief nick reimann Managing Editor for Print paulina picciano Managing Editor for Electronic Properties sidney holmes Maroon Minute Executive Producer lily cummings Photo Editor barbara brown Copy Editor katelyn fecteau Design Chief hayley hynes Contributor Claire McLaughlin Contributor Kiley Pohn

While post-grad is not in my list of priorities, (the cost-sum opportunity for journalism grad school is daunting), many of my peers have set their sights on furthering their education in new cities, and will soon bid goodbye to the ridiculous, exuberant gem of a city where we met four years ago.

Whether it’s honing their instrumental skills and performing with world-class orchestras, or furthering their research in state-of-the art laboratories abroad, the opportunities are stunning.

While I indulge in great memories I’ve had with departing friends, and retire from my role as editor of this magazine, (you’re crying!) I present a few choice pages of advice, anxiety and reflection from seniors and post-grads alike, train hopping from one adventure to the next.

The Wolf Magazine | 2

STAFF Wolf Editor caleb beck

Distribution Manager ANDRES FUENTES Advertising Art Director HAYLEY HYNES Faculty Advisor Michael Giusti

ABOUT US

Wolf Magazine is a publication by Loyola University New Orleans Student Media and does not necessarily reflect the views of Loyola’s administration. Unless otherwise noted, all content is copyright to the Wolf Magazine. The first copy is free to students, faculty and staff. Every additional copy is $1.00.

CONTACT US

Caleb Beck Wolf Editor

Visit Wolf Magazine online at loyolamaroon.com/ category/the-wolf/ or follow us on our Facebook or Instagram at @loynowolfmag

Cover photo by Lili Mae Kinney

Senior Quotes Quite a few students gave us their thoughts on leaving this university and transitioning to the rest of their lives. Here are some of our favorites.

Victory Screech compiled by Caleb Beck

“I don’t know where I’m going, but at least it’s forward.”

-Hayley Hynes, English and design senior

“At just five years old, I knew I wanted to change the world, but I was not sure how, until the countless opportunities I have been blessed with at Loyola.”

- Sabrine Mohamad political science senior

“As long as you’re happy, the effort is worth it.”

- Myranda Elwell, biology pre- med senior

“I will carry all I have learned with me for the rest of my life, and I will leave in May as prepared for reality as I ever could be.”

- Camille Didelot, French and mass communication senior

1. Fame (Remastered)

by David Bowie 2. Just A Friend

by Biz Markie 3. Time Moves Slowly

by BadBadNotGood, Samuel T. Herring 4. Do You Like Dragons?

by Naughty Professor, Jason Butler 5. This Year

by The Mountain Goats 6. More Bounce To The Ounce

by Zapp 7. Wolf Like Me

by TV On The Radio 8. Return Of The Mack

by Mark Morrison 9. Show You The Way

by Thundercat, Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins 10. Baby Blue

by King Krule 11. Chameleon

by Herbie Hancock 12. Hell Yes

by Beck 13. Boogie Nights

by Heatwave 14. Mistadobalina

by Del The Funky Homosapien 15. ATLiens

by OutKast

“Here for a good time, not a long time.”

- Kati Hash, history with teaching certification senior

Use the QR code to open this playlist in Spotify 3 | The Wolf Magazine

Loyola’s Spider-Man Goes to Cambridge

By Michael Pashkevich Photo courtesy of Michael Pashkevich

Michael Pashkevich, a biology graduate of 2017, was awarded the Gates Cambridge scholarship to Cambridge for his ongoing research on spiders and arachnids. He told us he owes much to Loyola’s education and values. kindly funded by the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. I’m ecstatic to be in Cambridge.

The University is incessantly bustling with cultural and intellectual events. Yesterday, I left a talk on negative emissions technologies and, two hours later, was exploring the melancholic dispositions of Early Modern witches. I’ve met fantastic people here with whom I’ve shared what I can only describe as “Loyola-esque conversations,” i.e., ones focused on society at its most triumphant

Courtesy of Michael Pashkevich

Paskevich eating mealworm fudge at St John’s College, Cambridge. Pashkevich is an avid fan of eating insects as well as researching them.

I’ll succinctly state it: I love New Orleans.

I was raised an hour north just five minutes’ drive post-Causeway but, for me, New Orleans is home. This is largely attributed to Loyola. From the kind university faculty and staff to the critical worldview I attained as a student, Loyola left an indelible mark on me that I don’t foresee fading. It follows, then, that – after four years in Uptown (and another ten years in southeast Louisiana) – leaving New Orleans this summer was heart breaking. But, even moreso, leaving was an exciting and appreciated start to novel adventures.

In mid-September, I moved to Cambridge, England to study for a PhD in Zoology.

My research focuses on spider ecology in Sumatran oil palm plantations, and I’m

The Wolf Magazine | 4

Courtesty of Michael Pashkevich

The outside chapel of King’s College Cambridge facing out into the River Cam.

and reprehensible. When discussing the latter, we pitch means of fighting back.

Cambridge, like Loyola, inspires me to pursue unfamiliar endeavors. Academically, I’m laying the groundwork to conduct metaanalyses from systematic reviews. Socially, friends and I enjoyed a grueling boxing class, which was a fantastic bonding experience and my first arm-focused exercise in years. And, gastronomically, I consumed a four-course meal of insect-based foods and their proper

wine pairings (take note: locust pecan pie and pinot noir are deliciously complementary).

After four years at Loyola, it is heartening to find familiarity in such unfamiliar experiences. Being a first-term graduate student is stressful (although worse academic stress is certainly forthcoming). In addition to navigating an intensive and new intellectual environment, I’m also forging novel friendships and adapting to a different culture (spotted dick is an English dessert, not a venereal disease). But unfamiliarity is what I sought after fourteen years in the Greater New Orleans area and, I suppose, unfamiliarity feels so welcome to me in part because of Loyola.

Loyola challenges its students to embrace the unfamiliar. This is evidenced in my postgraduate friends, whose activities since May inspire me. Here’s a brief snapshot of their lives: moving to South Africa to study sustainable agriculture; becoming a nationally recognized counselor for Crisis Text Line; and tutoring at-risk students in New York. They, too, were prepared as undergraduates to encounter the difficulties of new adventures and still press on.

I write now to current seniors: you will miss New Orleans. Within my Cambridge happiness, I still miss walks with friends in Audubon Park and anoles darting across impossibly cracked sidewalks. England woefully does not have fried shrimp po-boys.

But post-graduate life is also thrilling, and 6363 St. Charles Avenue is only a beginning.

I value so much that Loyola prepared me as a person for post-undergraduate life. This is far more important, I think, than academic preparedness (although, certainly, I received that, too).

So, if this old alumnus can offer one piece of advice: fall in love with Loyola and your undergraduate experience, but also embrace the unfamiliar and life will always be memorable.

St. Charles | S. Claiborne | S. Carrollton | Riverwalk

Editors’ Relaxation Tips The Maroon’s eboard tells you how they unwind after a long day of running to classes and meeting deadlines. We had quite the diversity of answers, leading us to believe we lead very separate lives

Nick Reimann Playing Temple Run for hours

Sidney Holmes Bundling up in a blanket and listening to a podcast

Paulina Picciano Sitting outside and listening to music

Erin Snodgrass Eating an entire dominoes pizza in one sitting by myself

Caleb Beck Drinking espresso and putting on The Florida Boys

JC Canicosa Meditating and playing basketball

Horoscopes You’ve seen fire and you’ve seen rain and you think your GPA stands between you and your dreams? For shame, for shame.

Hayley Hynes Watching Youtube videos and petting my dogs

Katelyn Fecteau Doing yoga

John Casey Drinking a beer and watching some football

Davis Walden Reading to classical music

For the month of November For entertainment purposes only You’ll get to see the new star wars this year. I don’t mean the movie.

After a long dialogue with the stars, you’ve realized that math credit might have been the worst choice at a liberal arts university.

DO NOT let the temptation of revenge color your spurned relationships. Get revenge by leading your best life and curing cancer.

Balance? Balance is for yogis and psychiatrists, you’ve got this in the bag.

Fear of the deep sea is no excuse not to plunge deep, steal one of those bioluminescent fish and make a lamp out of it.

Matthew? In this McConaughey?

Float twice as high as a butterfly are rookie goals if your aspirations end at most ceilings.

You are one of those seen as mad by those that cannot hear Run-DMC’s “It’s Tricky” playing in your head.

Your past is not your prologue! Throw the playbook out entirely. Start a salsa company.

The Wolf Magazine | 6

They’ll say you’ve changed and you’ll say “of course I have.”

The fish that keeps on swimming is the last to fry in a dockside bar and grill

The GRE: The Good, the Bad and the Stress

By Kiley Pohn Photo Illustration by Lili Mae Kinney

On Sat, Oct. 21, I wandered around an office complex in Metairie until I found what I was looking for: a professional testing center. It was a place I hadn’t known existed until I registered for the GRE, and when I entered the office I knew why. It was freezing cold and incredibly sterile, as if germs could pass you answers to the test. Eliminate every possibility of cheating, right?

All my meager belongings save for my driver’s license were placed in a locker outside what I called the “inspection room”.

Here, we got waved with metal detectors, turned out our pockets, and confirmed that we were not in fact hiding test answers underneath our leggings and norts. I had to take off my headband, because the testing center gremlins could tell that I had written the quadratic equation inside it in hopes that it would seep through my skull via osmosis and grant me a perfect score.

After another gremlin had confirmed my signature matched the haphazard version I signed on my license at age 16, I was granted admission into the magical testing room, with corrals of computers lining the room.

I was given my desk, a booklet of scratch paper, my ID, the key to my locker, and a whisper of “good luck”.

Joking aside, the actual experience of the GRE is what you’d expect. You sit in a cold room for hours on end, frantically typing and scribbling on your scratch paper, wishing you had your own calculator that some smart friend had rigged in high school to include every formula you could possibly need. It’s the standardized test we all know and love, just a little bit harder.

If I could give you one piece of advice, it would be this: study for the GRE. As soon as

I decided I would be applying to grad school I registered for the test, giving myself months to prepare. However, this coincided with the start of the school year, and suddenly my window of time to study was rapidly closing.

It came down to two days before the exam, when my thesis advisor let me know that it was probably too late to start studying, and oh my gosh I hadn’t even looked at a practice test?

Knowing what you’re getting into is the easiest way to prepare in my mind. The GRE consists of three sections: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and analytical writing. The test begins with two writing prompts, with thirty minutes to answer each.

You’ll hate listening to everyone’s frantic typing, but as long as you can form coherent arguments this tends to be the easiest section of the test. Once that’s done you’ll get two sections each of verbal and quantitative reasoning, plus an extra “experimental” section designed to help the test writers come up with better exams.

What this meant for me was struggling through not two but three sections of math, not knowing which were included in my score and which was experimental. Upon completion of the test, the computer spits out your score for the verbal and quantitative sections, ranging from 130-170. You can choose to send scores to grad schools now for free, or wait and send them later for a fee.

Once you’ve done that, you’re able to collect your belongings and leave the center. If you look sad enough on the way out the security guard might toss you a piece of candy, but don’t tell him I warned you. And remember this: I can promise that a high score is sweeter.

7 | The Wolf Magazine