COMMUNITY NEWS
NEWS EDITOR: Steve Fruehauf
5
Thursday, Oct. 17
Alumna research leads to Africa Eau Claire grad takes what she learned in class out into the field
Emily Albrent CURRENTS EDITOR
A UW-Eau Claire education can take you far, maybe even as far as Africa. Eau Claire alumna Sarah Ivory took another trip to Afri-
SUBMITTED
CROSS-CONTINENTAL: UW-Eau Claire alumna Sarah Ivory is currently in Africa researching how vegetiation affects human evolution.
ca to research how vegetation affects human evolution. She said going to Africa was the next step after finishing up her PhD from University of Arizona. “I worked on Africa vegetation for the last five years during my dissertation, and I haven’t had any opportunity to go into the field and look at the vegetation first hand,” Ivory said. “My adviser had this project going, and I always thought that it would be a great opportunity to be able to go to Africa.” BARTH Ivory said the team worked by taking long drill cores from two sites in Kenya, each core being a little over two hundred meters — approximately 656 feet. She said the samples would be cut up and sectioned off to be shipped to the United States and looked at closer in the months to come. “I look at fossil pollen,” Ivory said. “By looking at that pollen I can kind of reconstruct what the vegetation might have looked like in the past.” Eau Claire anthropology professor Bob Barth said vegetation relates directly to how humans evolve. “Vegetation is part of different eco niches, and organisms evolve into eco niches,” Barth said. “Also, changes in vegetation was one of the things that lead homo sapians to go out of Africa, so vegetation is very important because it’s part of the overall environment in which you adapt.” Studying cores in Kenya taught Ivory so much more than
what her research set out to do. She said she got to know the locals, their culture and how to stay safe in Kenya. “You are more on your guard,” Ivory said. “I was with a group of people who knew Kenya really well and the area well and could give me some advice on where to go, where not to go, and what to do to make sure that you had personal safety.” Ivory said many times, safety wasn’t just a social construct, but an environmental one as well such as not placing a backpack on the ground because a snake might crawl in it. The locals may have taught Ivory a lot, but her education at Eau Claire was something that also impacted her life, she said. “It helped me a lot actually,” Ivory said. “I was really lucky because I was always involved in research projects.” A professor at Eau Claire that changed her course of study and direction of her career was Biology professor Joe Rohrer. Rohrer said Ivory was a great student who was smart and motivated. “I remember her saying that being in my class reminded her of how much she liked plants,” Rohrer said. “It was some time the next year that she majored in biology, and since she had been in my class, she started to talk to me and I got her involved in a research project that had to do with Native American plumbs.” Ivory said her work is not done researching the cores and samples that the team has taken. She said in the months to come she hopes to learn more about how the vegetation in parts of Africa influenced how early humans evolved. Albrent can be reached at albrenec@uwec.edu.
Light up the night Charity run combines good cause with bar atmosphere fun Karl Enghofer
STAFF WRITER / GRAPHIC DESIGNER What has 600 legs, likes to dance and glows in the dark? About 300 runners who participated in Saturday night’s E-Glow Twilight Rave, a 5K charity run, fit the description. The race began at Lake Altoona County Park and finished at Whiskey’s Grill and Bar in Eau Claire with a dance party. Whiskey’s owner Brad Windeshausen, along with friend James Riemer and Brian Sandy, The Leader-Telegram’s marketing and promotion manager, all collaborated on the idea of a night run. “Safety is the most important thing, but then have fun with it too,” Riemer said. “This was a fun run ... dance before hand, do some crazy stuff, paint each other.” All participants gathered at Lake Altoona County Park for music and events prior to the beginning of the race. Then, once they finished, a black light dance party was waiting for them with food and drinks at Whiskey’s after. Eau Claire resident Heidi Klime, 30, said she was impressed with the turnout and enjoyed the nighttime aspect because the trails were illuminated from glow sticks. Registration was $40, which included a gift bag containing a t-shirt, drink vouchers, coupons from local businesses, a Monster energy drink and glow-in-the-dark paint. Runners received a $5 discount if they
brought a food item to donate. Whiskey’s is donating all of the food and a portion of the proceeds to The Community Table, a charitable organization in Eau Claire. “That’s the purpose of these races,” Riemer said. “It’s fun for people to get out and do it when they know it’s something that’s important.” Windeshausen said a committee is still counting the items of food and figuring out the expenses, but he’s confident they’ll be able to “cut them a sizeable check.” He said he plans on organizing another E-Glow next year but won’t have it fall on Homecoming day again. It did, however, provide fun for some UW-Eau Claire students who opted out of Blugold festivities. “There were quite a few college kids that did participate that wanted something different from the normal house party type thing,” Windeshausen said. Amy Seeger, a Whiskey’s employee, said they tried to attract students in advance who were looking for a change of scenery. “We still had an awesome turnout despite (Homecoming),” she said. “We kind of advertised it that way too, like ‘If you’re sick of going to house parties, here’s something else cool to do.’” Being that it was a first-time event, Riemer said he didn’t have any specific goals or expectations going in other than doing as much as possible for charity and the Eau Claire Community. Enghofer can be reached at enghofka@uwec.edu.
SUBMITTED
GLOW IN THE DARK: Participants in Saturday’s E-Glow 5K received glow in the dark paint as one of the gifts they received prior to the race. Runners were invited to a dance party at Whisky’s after finishing.
PARTY from page 2 “I think the university, in a collaborative effort with the community and the police department, really has done a great job getting those needed messages across to the students,” he said. Senior Emily Huber said she thinks, overall, students are getting smarter about dealing with their alcohol, but it doesn’t take away from her responsible celebrations. “Homecoming is always a blast,” Huber said. “My favorite part about the whole thing was definitely having all the alumni back.”
Parties were scattered throughout the neighborhood directly around Water Street for the majority of Saturday and Mack Jenz said the camaraderie he saw throughout the day made him want to come to UW-Eau Claire. He said everybody was super welcoming to him and a few friends who were visiting one of the residents of the party. “This is so much fun, it seems like everybody is in the best mood,” Jenz said. “The weather is nice, I really just wish I went to school here for days like these.”