Intro to Reporting, Spring 2013 Stories
Rainboots at Cedarville
A Puebla, Mexico, Mission Trip
Three Cedarville students who have gone on the MIS trip to Mexico and served as camp counselors said they are able to establish relationships with the campers and reconnect with them year after year.
“It means something to them when you go back year after year, like, ‘wow, you really do care about us!’” junior Marissa Yorgey said. This year, Yorgey, sophomore Andrew Gutberlet and senior Ryan Sjoquist were part of the team that traveled to Puebla, Mexico, during spring break. Sjoquist and Yorgey have worked as camp counselors in Puebla for five and three years in a row, respectively. “I would definitely say there’s something special about this trip if people are giving up five of their spring breaks while they’re in college to go work with these kids,” Gutberlet said. “I don’t think we were made to just sit around for a week,” Sjoquist said. “I think we were made to serve others.” Just like the students, campers come back year after year, some of them for six or more years, Sjoquist said. “The biggest thing people try to put on short term missions is it doesn’t really make as big of an impact,” he said. “I would say for this camp it has the potential to have a massive impact.” “I’m already staying in contact with the guys I had in my cabins on Facebook, talking with them a couple times a week,” Gutberlet said. During the trip, the Cedarville team held a camp for elementary students and a |
camp for high school students, Sjoquist said. Each camp lasted three to four days and had chapel, meal times, games, and plenty of time for talking.
“I was just so surprised at how big of an event this was for those kids,” Gutberlet said. “This is like the highlight of their year.” Yorgey said many of the students who came to the camps were missionary kids, but there were also several native Mexicans as well as some from the local Korean population. “They [were] born all over the place, but they all have that common love for God,” she said. “They’re both men and women of Christ that I would gladly be with whenever—anytime—fly cross country to go see,” Sjoquist said. Sjoquist said there has been many times in his five years of experience that he has served as a mentor for the kids, but in return they have taught him a lot as well. “It’s really my home,” he said. “It’s really the only place I can think of that’s free in Christ.” “You go down with the mindset of ‘I get to minister to somebody,’” Yorgey said. “But in the end, God speaks to you through different means.” “It’s all God—if anything was good, if anything was bad, it was all God—and you learn that every time,” she said. |
Profile Story
Sitting in a dentist’s office, she watched the news of a huge earthquake cover every television channel. A tsunami was engulfing part of her country.
Freshman Irene Blocksom, an international student from Japan, said she spent every moment she could watching the news during the weekend the March 2011 tsunami destroyed the Tohoku region of Japan. Blocksom said the moment she remembers watching most was a huge wave washing away thousands of cars. As the death count increased and Blocksom watched footage of the remnants of swept-away towns, she said she realized that this was not a small thing. Though no one she knew was affected by the earthquake, Blocksom said it was still really devastating to her. “It was kind of unreal actually,” she said. “I couldn’t really relate with it.” Blocksom said, however, “I really wanted to go there myself.” Her desire was fulfilled when her school gave students the opportunity in August 2011 to take a 10-hour bus trip to work with Samaritan’s Purse for earthquake relief in the Tohoku region. Blocksom said that the students helped clean up the flooded houses. She called the clean-up “mudding out” because of all the dirt and debris that had filled the houses and which needed to be removed in order for people to continue living there. Blocksom said that although they spent a week in the devastated area, they were only able to mud-out three houses. “It was really humbling to see how little we could accomplish,” she said. “That really opened my eyes.” Having lived in Japan her entire life, Blocksom has also had her eyes opened when she came to college in America. The biggest cultural adjustment she has had to make has been the difference in food, she said. “Nothing can beat your mom’s cooking,” Blocksom said. However, Blocksom’s roommate, Vineeta Rao, added that Blocksom has had to adjust to a less-formal classroom environment than that had in Japan. |
Rao explained that there is a big distinction between teachers and students in Japan, but not so here. Blocksom said that it has been strange seeing students challenge professors by questioning what is being taught.
“You never do that in Japan,” Blocksom said. “If the teacher asks questions, it’s not usually about ‘what do you think?’ it’s like ‘what have you learned that you can apply to this?’” Blocksom went to an international school in Japan that offered classes taught in both English and Japanese. Since her mother is Japanese and her father is American, her parents pushed her to learn both languages fluently. “In Japan, of course like 99.9 percent of the population is Japanese, so just the fact that I’m not completely Japanese kind of makes me a little different,” Blocksom said. Mia Moulden, a junior student and friend of Blocksom from Japan, said Blocksom’s dual culture will be very beneficial as she majors in international business. “She understands both cultures, and she knows how to relate or work with people from different cultures, and she’s fluent in both languages, so that’s obviously a plus for her,” Moulden said. “One of my dreams is working with international people, in Japan or in the states,” Blocksom said. Rao and Cassie Gray, Blocksom’s RA, agree that Blocksom is good at working with people. “Irene is probably one of the most caring people I know,” Gray said. “She goes out of her way to be hospitable.” Blocksom is also compassionate, Rao added. “When she asks someone a question, she really listens for their answer,” Rao said. “Listening should be her love language.” |
Student Government Association Elections
Grace Sincock, an SGA vice presidential candidate, said the big ideas candidates in the upcoming election are emphasizing are “relatability and connectedness to students.” Sincock said she and her running mate, if elected, will work to eliminate barriers that exist between SGA members and students.
“I think every year SGA tries to become more approachable,” Rebecca DeRose, current SGA leadership director, said. Sincock said students and SGA members seem to be disconnected from one another. However, she said she and her running mate, Dylan Cimo, are working to change this and unify students by giving them a common sense of identity through SGA. “We really want SGA to become more of a voice and an advocate for the whole student body,” Sincock said. “We’re all yellow jackets and we all are under the same umbrella of Cedarville.” Sincock said she considers the various meet and greet events the candidates have held to have been successful. Through these events, Sincock said she was able to talk to many students she didn’t know. To campaign, Cimo and Sincock have made social media sites, videos, and posters. The candidates also use their first names on all publicity. “We really wanted to make our campaign more personable because we want SGA next year to be more personable,” Sincock said. Zak Weston, current SGA president, said campaigning begins by just being a student. He said it is about meeting people and developing relationships with |
them.
Before students could begin campaigning this year, they had to attend an informational meeting held by the SGA leadership director. Students running for chaplain, president or vice president then had to get various amounts of signatures on a petition. If enough signatures were obtained, campaigning could begin for a two-week period. A primary election was then held last Friday to narrow each office down to two candidates. Lastly, the remaining candidates will each give a short speech during chapel this Friday before the voting for the general election begins. Weston said every year SGA should strive for “incremental improvement in every area.” He said the members should bring the attitude that they will use their positions for good and will try to do better than those did the year before. DeRose said the large number of candidates for the chaplain position has made this year’s election unique. She also noted that none of the candidates for the positions was an incumbent for that position. Upon being elected, next year’s SGA president and vice president will choose nine other members for their team and the 13 total leaders will then pick their committee members. However, no one will fully begin their given roles until August, DeRose said. “For me, this process has been so good and so encouraging, but it has been hard and I don’t think people realize that,” Sincock said. “In my weakness, I have truly learned that in my conversations, God is strong. God gives you words when you have none, and He gives you energy when you have none, and He gives you concentration when you have none.” |
Radiance: A Woman's Event at Cedarville University
Housing Projects at Cedarville University
The construction of townhouses is a new concept for the university, and the construction of a new residence hall is expected to provide the university with greater flexibility, Cedarville faculty said. The construction is expected to be finished this spring and ready for students to move in this fall, Rod Johnson, associate vice president for operations, said.
Johnson said one part of the university’s housing project is constructing a series of townhouses that will house 48 students. There are eight separate units, each in which six men or women can live. Johnson said graduate students, particularly those in the pharmacy program, will be given first priority if they choose to live in a townhouse. Kirsten Gibbs, acting vice president for student life, said the townhouses are the first housing Cedarville will offer that is more like an apartment. Each fully furnished unit will include three traditional bedrooms, two bathrooms, laundry appliances, a living room area, and a fully equipped kitchen with a dishwasher, refrigerator and the like. “It’s a lot nicer than you’d find around here [off campus],” sophomore pharmacy student Stephanie Cailor said. “Laundry and a kitchen is definitely a benefit—a plus for people.” Gibbs said the university believes the experience of living in a townhouse will provide an easier transition for students who move into this type of housing in the real world. Students living in the townhouses will have no required meal plan or curfew, but Cedarville will still maintain the townhouses. Students will be provided with quality housing on campus with the benefits of off-campus living, Gibbs said. |
“I think that would be a big thing to adjust to — the whole ‘I’m still on campus but I’m not,’” Cailor said. “You do get the nice living style, so I think that’s why people would want to [live] there.”
Gibbs said the room costs for a townhouse will be more than a traditional dorm room but less than room and board. According to Gibbs, the university will “learn and grow together,” given that it’s the first time the university has offered townhouses to students. The university is also building a residence hall in the traditional style behind Murphy and Rickard Halls, Johnson said. He said the residence hall has been dubbed “The Annex,” although no formal name has been chosen. The Annex is being built as four separate pods. This allows the university to close a portion of the dorm building or more easily alter dorm rooms from a female layout to a male layout, depending on the needs of the university. “They’re being built as flexible as possible,” Johnson said. The Annex will also provide more men’s housing. Gibbs said there are currently more dorms on campus for women than for men. She said the university would currently have to alter an entire dorm building, which is about 150 beds, if female housing was to be changed to male housing. With the pod structure, a much smaller number of dorm rooms can be altered at a time. Gibbs said The Annex will also create a courtyard-like feel, building community within the dorm for students. |