USF Vessel October 2020

november 2020

volume 8 issue 2

UNIVERSITY OF SIOUX FALLS STUDENT MEDIA

adam sheffield

erin cheney

parker brown

writers writers writers writers writers writers writers writers writers writers writers writers writers

olivia valdez

everett moran

mercede odegaard

nicole weber

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___edi- tors_____

mataya lines

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greta smith

contents writers........................................................................................................2-3 editors.........................................................................................4-5 usf trivia night.................................................................................................6 lawn chair choral concert..................................................................7 cougar royalty................................................................................................8-9 coming to the table with the culture club..................10-11 see what you can give food drive................................................12 the royal gala.................................................................................................13 staff spotlight...................................................................................................14 muse|usf student poetry.........................................................................15

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USF Trivia Night

story by Nicole Weber

USF Trivia Night was held via Zoom at 7:30 PM Friday October 2, for Cougar Days. It was open to alumni, students, and teachers. The majority of the crowd were alumni, and there were almost 30 people participating.. You might ask, “how did Trivia Night work over Zoom?” Participants used Kahoot to answer the questions more efficiently and to make it fair. Allan Idjao and Brittany Hanson hosted Trivia Night and made the experience both fun and informational. Most of the questions involved USF History and Traditions, and questions about the Sioux Falls community.

Trivia Night Winners & Giveaways 1st Place – USF customized Yeti Rambler Winner: Ellie Herman 2nd Place – Bluetooth Speaker Winner: Jessica Akland 3rd Place - $25 Amazon Giftcard Winner: Hailey Schmidt GIVEAWAY – $10 Amazon Giftcard Winner: Sydnie Saddoris GIVEAWAY – $10 La Luna Café Giftcard Winner: Leanne Wieczorek GIVEAWAY – $10 Cougar Central Giftcard Winner: Savannah Sahnow

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Trivia Night graphic created by USF marketing director Lisa Stahl

Hanson and Idjao also threw in some fun questions such as “who created the world’s largest chocolate company?” to which the answer was Milton Hershey. There was also a question asked about the “Purple Feather Award,” which led to people talking about how you earn one and what it means to receive this reward. Trivia Night was enjoyable, but also an entertaining way to learn more about USF. The winners for Trivia night were Hailey Schmidt, alumni who placed 3rd, Jess, alumni who placed 2nd, and Ellie Herman, alumni who placed 1st. There were also mini giveaways to anyone who participated in the event. The giveaways and prizes were also sponsored by the USF Alumni Association.

LAWN CHAIR choral concert Lawn chair audience watches the perfomance

story by Everett Moran

Cougar Days at the University of Sioux Falls finished the week off strong by ending with a lawn chair performance of a lifetime. All USF’s choirs joined together and performed an indelible concert at the campus quad. Face masks were worn by both the performers and the audience, but this did not stop their angelic voices from reverberating across campus.

Paris Whalen, a freshman at USF is experiencing her first year in the concert chorale-COVID-19 style. Whalen said, “the purpose of the choir is to sing with others, not be a soloist. So with corona, that is something we have to adjust to because we are always six apart from one another.

That’s why singing with a mask on has been a big adjustment. Diction is so important, we need to be able to hear each other and understand what everyone is saying.” By adding multiple microphones and speakers around the choir, it was nearly impossible for Sunday’s audience to tell the difference the masks cause. Whalen also said, “yes, there have been struggles with navigating COVID-19 but overall there is just this feeling of gratitude for being able to practice and perform with one another through all of this.”

USF’s choir director Dr. DeHoogh-Kliewer said, “the goal of this concert was to celebrate community, honor our alumni, and create a worship filled experience for all our listeners.” Dr. DK also gave credit to USF’s administration by saying, “We are thriving due in part to the strict rules our administration established, those rules have resulted in our success.” The turnout for this concert was larger than most people expected. Dr. DK said, “This was a humbling turnout, there were a lot of people here today who do not have a connection with any student, they are here just because they sang here in college, whether that was 10 years ago or 50 years ago. I saw a whole row of women from First Baptist who sang back here in the 50s and 60s and to see that type of support and community outreach makes me feel so fortunate to be a part of this choir group. Linda Klock Higgason, a USF alumni of 1968 said, “I think this concert is great, I did not expect this many people to come. When Dr. DK announced his concert at First Baptist Church, three weeks ago, I immediately marked it down on my calendar. Since the sun was shining today I invited my sister to come out with me.” Higgason also said, “I don’t know any students here anymore but from what I can see USF is handling Corona very well and using precautions.”

Through and through, the Lawn Chair Choral Concert was a massive success and became the entertainment everyone needed. photos courtesy of Greta Smith

Sophomore Megan Sunvold poses for the camera before the concert

Collegiate Choir members singing one of their pieces

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cougar royalty story by Parker Brown

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The 2020 homecoming coronation ceremony, like every other event in this odd year, looked a bit different. Not even the coronavirus could stop USF from celebrating tradition and honoring a group of our seniors. Royalty court nominees and the 2019 homecoming king and queen sat on the stage of the Meredith Auditorium in chairs spread out from one another. A few of the nominees joined via zoom to the festivities due to quarantining.

Family and friends offered toasts to each person on the homecoming court like normal.

Congratulations to this year’s king and queen:

Noah Tyson and Janae Gustafson!

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COMING TO THE TABLE There are a lot of different outlets within the USF community for students to find a place where they feel comfortable. Whether it be through sports teams, church groups, or clubs around campus the importance of these communities cannot be overstated. For many students, college is their first experience away from their friends and family. Many students are from different parts of the country as well as from different parts of the globe. Having a place where they feel that they can express themselves is something that is incredibly important for them to be able to just be themselves on campus.

Sophomore Sonia Agasaro understands the importance these clubs play in shaping students experiences and wanted to start a club of her own. Hailing from Kigali, Rwanda, she arrived in the United States four years ago and attended Roosevelt High School in Sioux Falls. While she was there, she and others helped to establish a Black Student Union for students with similar backgrounds to have a place where they felt at home. She understood the importance of this club and the impact it had for minority students and wanted to bring that with her to college. This brought her to the idea of forming the Culture Club at USF. “I was hesitant at first to start the club here at USF but I saw how small the minority population was here and felt it was important because the unity it would bring would allow voices that may not have been heard before to have a place to do that.”

“I believe it is important that we have a club like this at USF. I think that it allows people from different backgrounds and cultures to come together to talk about issues which may be uncomfortable at first but once those conversations begin people realize that we are all more similar than we think and that together we can achieve so much more. I want to be able to reach out not just to the USF community but the local community as well. I feel that if we reach out to the youth in our area it will have a huge impact on how we see each other and that we can make strides in bringing people together because that is the real world that we are all going to go into once we graduate.”

Club founder Sonia Agasaro

photos courtesy of Adam Sheffield, Millie Piper, and Sonia Agasaro

culture club with the

story by Adam Sheffield

The club had its first event in the spring semester of 2020 and had great success at its first meeting: a potluck where people could experience other cultures’ food traditions and be able to get to know each other. Over fifty people of diverse cultures and backgrounds came together to enjoy food, music, dancing, and laughter. Agasaro felt it was a good start but unfortunately things became tricky when Covid struck the country.

When looking to when the world becomes more normal, she sees the club picking back up where it left off. “I would like to try and do a potluck in Coopers Café with safety protocols in place in regards to Covid but, looking ahead to when things go back to normal I want to be more engaging with club activities and keep growing the community.” She also wants to let it be known that anyone is welcome to attend club events so that people get the chance to gain new perspectives and be able to learn from one another. The Culture Club is still a new community on campus but is already showing how much of an impact it can have into helping bring the USF community even closer together.

Abigail Masters (left) and Culture Club treasurer Diego Jaimes (right) playing corn hole at the welcome back gathering

Students at the John Lewis: Good Trouble documentary showing in Mears LIibrary in October

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see what you can give

Food Drive story by Mercede Odegaard

There are few things in life that are better than being able to give back to your community, and here at USF, we love giving back. For this year’s Cougar Days, one of the events that took place was the “See What You CAN Give Food Drive” competition, where the residence halls, faculty, and staff on campus competed to see who could donate the most food items. This year’s food drive ran from Monday, September 28th, through Sunday, October 4th and was in direct partnership with Feeding South Dakota.

All of the food products donated will directly impact relieving hunger across the state through their Mobile Food Pantry Program.

As for the teams, here’s how it was broken down: each residence hall was their own team, except for Kroske and Burgess who combined to make one team. The commuter students were a team, and lastly the faculty and staff were a team. The team with the most food items donated by the last day of the contest won a prize.

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Giving back to our Sioux Falls community was a great way to celebrate Cougar Days.

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Some of the specific items Feeding South Dakota was in need of included: canned meat, peanut butter, jelly, canned or dried beans, canned vegetables, canned fruits, canned sauces and dressings, oatmeal, boxed meals, and pancake mix. They also stressed the importance of not donating any opened items, any glass containers, and no homemade items. At the end of the week, the items donated by each team were totaled and the winner was announced. This year’s winner of the “See What You CAN Give Food Drive” was Grand Island Hall! For donating the most food items to the food drive, they won a Donut Party.

Giving back to our Sioux Falls community was a great way to celebrate Cougar Days while showing school spirit. If you couldn’t donate anything this year, mark your calendars for next year and be prepared to give anything you can! Hopefully everyone had a great Cougar Days!

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photo courtesy of Lisa Stahl

the royal gala story by Erin Cheney Gala table decorations

the food table

Cougar Days looked a little different this year. With the cancellation of a majority of fall sports and activities, faculty and homecoming planners chose to mix it up with a variety of events, new and improved. These events such as Pumpkin Painting, Coronation, and Trivia Night were all a huge success with students. To end the week USF Students met in the Salsbury Dining Hall for a night of games, snacks, and quality time spent together at The Royal Gala. Orientation Coordinator Mariah Heckathorn said the idea came up weeks before during a New Student Orientation debriefing. She said, “We knew that many incoming students didn’t experience the typical senior year milestones, like prom and graduation. Along with that, I’ve noticed my friends at other schools attending formal events the past few years, and other USF students have wondered why we couldn’t do something like that here. So when someone suggested hosting a “prom” event, we all loved the idea.” Orientation Coordinator Mercy Oyadare said, “Deciding the name took a significant amount of time because we wanted to choose the right name that conveyed the appropriate message.”

The planning of the event took some effort. “As with all events this year, the Covid-19 restrictions made the planning process a little rough. The center of a normal formal event is usually a dance, which is not socially distanced. I asked my friends for socially distanced activity ideas, and we decided to play board games and group Kahoot trivia instead of having a dance,” Heckathorn said. They also got some assistance from her mother who is a wedding florist, so she loaned them vases and arranged centerpieces of wild grasses.

The Gala was a huge success among students. Ladies and gentlemen were dressed to the nines in an array of colors. There was also an array of snacks: brownies, blondies, oatmeal bars, and sugar cookies were just a few of the choices available. There were board games on every table for groups to enjoy. With socially distant tables, groups were able to spend time together and enjoy the games while still being safe. Oyadare said, “I loved how people were willing to and enjoyed playing board games while all dolled up with their friends. We even had a group stay late past the end of the event because they were having such a good time.” A few rounds of Kahoot were played with Pop Culture topics such as The Marvel Universe, Vine References, and The Office facts. Heckathorn said, “Kahoot is pretty unorthodox for a formal event, but then again, everything this school year has been a tad unorthodox due to the virus. Something I really enjoyed was seeing everyone engaged and laughing together while playing.” With nearly 35 players per game, the tensions were high but winners triumphed and were awarded coupons to nearby businesses. An enormous thank you to the Orientation Coordinators for planning a fantastic event that brought Cougar Days 2020 to a lovely close. photos courtesy of Mariah Heckathorn

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staffspotlight:

How Campus Security is taking extra measures to maintain a healthy environment and secure campus community. story and photos courtesy of Parker Brown

Few people connect with a sport like Kevin Grebin connects with tennis. He was always around the game from an early age with his father being considered the “godfather of South Dakota tennis.” Grebin is a proud former tennis player at USF as well as a former football player. Both he and his father have been inducted into the South Dakota Tennis Hall of Fame. He worked as a state trooper for 25 years before transitioning to working at USF. Naturally, Grebin took on the role of head coach of the USF tennis team after he volunteered as a coach for a few years. At the same time, he took on the role of Director of Campus Safety & Security to continue work in law enforcement.

There are many challenges to holding two important jobs on campus, but for Grebin, he has found it to be manageable and enjoyable. “You know I always say that if you want a job to be not a job, enjoy what you do,” said Grebin. “Getting to do two things that I love is probably the most rewarding part, but it’s also working with the staff that I have and these guys are fantastic and that makes my job so much easier.” The people he works with have also helped make the changes brought by Covid-19 more manageable. “I have a really good group of security officers and they’re always very supportive of each other and it just kinda magnified that when Covid came to light. Not only supportive of each other, but supportive of the USF administration and their protocols and everything.”

Covid-19 has changed how his jobs function. He and the rest of the security team made adjustments to patrol routines and put more emphasis on watching the cameras. Changes were inevitable when students came back as well. All this was on top of measures of social distancing. “It was just basically taking us probably out of our comfort zone in terms of what we did prior to this and kinda getting used to the new normal for now.” For coaching tennis, changes were smaller, but very important. Tennis is considered by many to already be a lower risk sport when it comes to social distancing. “It hasn’t been so drastic for us, but there are still some steps we have taken to just make sure that we don’t increase any chances of exposure to each other or to others that are around us, so it’s just kind of a mindset,” said Grebin. He also more specifically tries to coach and encourage his players from a safe distance, which he has been mindful of: “I’ve always been kind of a high-fiver and a close person so I’ve kind of had to adjust that a little bit.”

As we get through the pandemic, he has taken more time to reflect on the others he works with. “It’s not about me, but it’s about who I have working for me and so that’s what makes it easy for me to do both jobs,” Grebin said. He specifically mentioned he was thankful for his assistant tennis coach Kevin Plank and assistant director of campus safety & security Jeff McDonald. He said that he can know that when he has to attend to responsibilities for his adjacent role, it will be in great hands. In the end, Kevin Grebin finds joy in his work. A pandemic and other day to day difficulties have not changed that. “I can’t see myself doing anything other than this.”

Statement from Kevin Grebin: “From the security standpoint, I just want to thank the USF community as a whole for their support and understanding all the time, not just during the covid crisis. We’ve always had a very good relationship with the people here at USF: staff, faculty, visitors, students, and, again, it kind of mirrors back to what I have in terms of a staff that can enable that kind of relationship to take place and have students comfortable approaching officers and vice versa and just how well that we’ve all worked towards the greater good to keep everyone safe until we get through this crisis.”

Grebin at his desk in his Mears Library office

muse. stress Stressed. Stressing. Stress.

Stressed My patience is being tested – Being spread thin.

Stressing My self-esteem is undressing – Exposing all my insecurities.

Stress I just need to rest – Sleeping to quiet my mind.

usf student poetry

sanctuary love radiates through the soil beneath my thighs and grace surrounds me in goldenrods. contentment envelops me in cat tails while wonder awaits in the redtail hawk. sweetness resides in the soft touch of indian grass through my fingers and freedom blooms in the dispersal of milkweed seeds from my palms white pelicans soar across my migrating mind, bringing my soul back into communion as humility unfolds with the fragile wings of an asian beetle. speaking seems sinful, for my feet are on sacred ground. i walk and listen through the swaying bluestem and falling cottonwood leaves and hear a whisper that says “you were made for me.”

-mv-

wake up

When will this stress end?

Hush…

The noise of the world The chaos of life The chatter of conflict …hush Take a deep breath.

You’ll manage it.

Let it all go.

mjp

sunshine I start to walk till I can’t breathe The wind feels good upon my cheeks The grass is green and full of bugs I look up at the clouds above It starts to rain and makes us wet My shoes all soaked, my hair a mess I look to you and see your face It puts the sunshine back in place.

b

from “retail therapy” You fill your mind with things then complain about the clutter.

s.m.s

I wake up again in the same bed, in the same room hair sticking up and bad breath just another day pouring the coffee beans the neighbors silently protest as the grinder starts the kettle whistles her shrill song until I give the attention she needs. the gentle pour begins over my favorite clay mug drip, drip, drip wispy swirls of steam rise rummaging through my backpack I grab my bible, I sit down take a sip breathe deep the well worn pages flip to their resting place I wake up again

cgl to submit a poem, email greta.smith@usiouxfalls.edu

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Late Night

breakfast

Tuesday, November 17

McDonald Center Cafeteria

8-9 p.m. first year students 9:30-10:30 p.m. Sophomores-Seniors & grads