Student Spotlight | QU
Let Our VOICEs Be Heard Vote. Organize. Inform. Communicate. Evaluate. The studentrun VOICE was heard loud and clear last fall, leading up to the November election. Under the direction of two faculty advisors—Megan Boccardi, associate professor, and Natasha Ramsey, director of multicultural and leadership programs— about a score of students had the chance to learn about the candidates and the election while earning ten service-learning hours during different events. VOICE helped set up the mock debate that the Student Senate held as well as a viewing party of the presidential debate in the Hawks’ Nest. At this event, members watched the presidential debate and then discussed major topics and the candidates. The group also held “Qyo and Conversations,” where participants conversed about the candidates and election and received a coupon for frozen yogurt from Qyo Sweet Treats Café. The group organized a pledge-to-vote project, where individuals signed a banner, proclaiming their promise to vote. They also held a voter-registration event at four different locations in the community to register voters. The group started at Quincy University and moved on to the Quincy Public Library, the Quincy Mall, and the Redmon Lee Center. In total, VOICE registered over 120 people.
Qyo, the new create-your-own-confection yogurt shop, is attracting students, alums, and townspeople.
Sweets Below the Stacks QU’s sweetest gathering spot, Qyo Sweet Treats Café, made its debut last May on the lower level of Brenner Library. Open to both campus and the surrounding community, Qyo Sweet Treats Café sells yogurt by the ounce. You grab a dish, choose from one of six flavors available each day and then lade on toppings such as sour gummy worms, Oreo pieces, chocolate rocks, and strawberries. The Qyo-rista weighs your concoction and you pay up at 39 cents per ounce. “I enjoy seeing little kids come in and be mesmerized by all the toppings. Then their parents rush to prevent them from putting a thousand sour gummy worms in their cups,” says Elizabeth Guidry ’14, a student worker at Qyo. She works under the able direction of Matt Bergman ’99, director of advancement, who was office manager of The Country’s Best Yogurt (TCBY) in Quincy for ten years. Qyo offers other items as well, including sodas, waffles, hot chocolate, cappuccinos, and coffee. Customers gather in the sensational citrus themed space, where there are tables, comfortable chairs, stools, Wi-Fi and big-screened TVs. The shop is open from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays and noon to 11 p.m. on weekends.
Carrying On: The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien’s Pulitzer Prize winning and now classic novel, The Things They Carried, has been adapted to the stage by QU’s own Valerie Hernandez. Carrying On: The Things They Carried made its debut last November at MacHugh Theatre. The show, directed by Valerie Hernandez and Bridget Quinlivan, was the final event of the 2012 Big Read Program.
Mason Ellion’s character dies as, from left, Andrew Marshall, Cory Smith ’15, Jon Graff ’14, and Patrick Regner look on.
QUniverse | Winter 2013
The show focuses on Vietnam veterans and their experiences both in and out of the war, including a soldier’s struggle to come to terms with killing a man, another’s attempt to make the woman of his dreams love him, and
a soldier who brought his girlfriend to war only to see her transform into the most savage killer that he has ever seen. The play shows how, even years after the war ended and the soldiers came home, their war experiences haunt them. As the play progresses, it becomes clear that each soldier carries his own mental baggage; O’Brien uses storytelling within his novel to come to terms with his own horrific war experiences; and Hernandez portrays this continuously throughout the play. Appropriately, the tickets were free for all veterans. www.quincy.edu
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