Blue & White Magazine: CTOPS 2013

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1998

U N C - C h a p e l H i l l ’s p r e m i e r m o n t h l y m a g a z i n e

RAP’S NEXT BIG THING:

JSWISS

“This is what I’m supposed to do.

It’s just a matter of time.”

inside: The Climb of Cat’s Cradle • Championing “Disability” • The Dean Dome Detailed C TOPS 2013 | Vo lume 15 | Is s u e 6 | w w w. bl u eandw hitem ag. co m | F RE E

table of contents in this issue

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9 REDEFINING DISABILITY Student group Advocates for Carolina strives to make positive changes toward the idea of “disability” through weekly meetings and outreach projects.

12 it’s a carolina twang A celebration of the South brings the Chapel Hill community together for Music on the Porch, a series where songwriting contest winners recently performed.

16 Breaking into the rap game UNC-CH student rapper JSWISS­—who has performed with popular artists Asher Roth and 2 Chainz—talks about his hopes of making it big off-campus.

19 A musical haven Renowned concert venue Cat’s Cradle has hosted a myriad of budding and famous musicians alike for over 40 years.

22 Dome of distinction

Built in 1986, the Dean E. Smith Center serves as a beacon of college basketball for sports fans and a cherished symbol of UNC-CH for students.

blue&white

UNC-CH Campus Box 5210 | Chapel Hill, NC 27599-5210 Editor-in-Chief COURTNEY LINDSTRAND Managing Editor JESSICA GAYLORD Associate Editor of Content Planning & Development KATIE JANSEN President NATALIE MEYER Art Director EMMA GALLI Creative Director brendan Leonard Vice President of Public Relations RACHEL RONDEAU Vice President of Internal Relations COURTNEY VANDYNE Webmaster DARA SCHWARTZ Treasurer CONNOR BELSON CONTENT STAFF University Editor ANA ROCHA Arts & Entertainment Editor WENDY LU Sports Editor LUKE NEENAN Photography Editor MARK PERRY Special Sections Editor LAURA HANSON Columns/Editorials Editor DALE KOONTZ Blog Editor ANISAH JABAR Chief Copy Editor MARISA DINOVIS Writers ABIGAIL BREWER, JORDAN CARMICHAEL, CAROLYN COONS, ANDREW EDWARDS, CANDACE HOWZE, SYDNEY HARRIS, JORDAN NASH, ALEXIS SIMMONS, HALEY SKLUT, ANDREW TIE, NATALIE WARNER Copy Editors JESSICA CASTRO-RAPPL, SARAH CRONIN, KATHARINE MCANARNEY, HANNAH WEINBERGER

in every issue CITY LIVING

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POP TOPICS 15 SIDE(LINE) NOTE

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TWO VIEWS

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ON CAROLINA TIME

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Columnists KATE ALBERS, ERIK AUGUSTINE, KATIE GUTT, EMILY MILKS, SARAH MOLINA Designers LISA DZERA, MELISSA FLANDREAU, DALE KOONTZ, KATIE MARRINER, SYDNEY NARAYAN, samantha sabin, DARA SCHWARTZ Photographers LISA DZERA, katherine harrell, dale koontz, wendy lu, morgan mccloy, mark perry, HALEY SKLUT, Bloggers SARAH ANG, MARISSA BARBALATO, CONNOR BELSON, JUANITA CHAVARRO, SAVANNAH COPELAND, SYDNEY HARRIS, KATIE KING, DUSTIN MCMANUS (columnist), MALLIKA RAJAN, KATIE WILLIAMS, EMILY WIGGINS (columnist), SHAWANNE WANG INTERNAL RELATIONS Printing CHAMBLEE GRAPHICS | Adviser JOCK LAUTERER Board of Directors RENA CHERNOTSKY, LAUREN RIPPEY OUR MISSION To inform readers of the unique personalities, events and traditions that define the University’s heritage and help shape its future, and to offer staff members practical and enjoyable journalism, business and management experience.

Blue & White is produced by students at UNC-Chapel Hill and is funded at least in part by student fees, which were appropriated and dispersed by UNC-CH’s Student Government.

Email Rachel Rondeau at rrondeau@live.unc.edu for advertising information.

————— Front Cover Photo by Morgan McCloy

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that’s hot Stylin’ New Football Uniforms

“There’s more to life than football and being really, really ridiculously good looking”— Derek Zoolander(?)

Hairston’s Here and Mac’s Back Two campus favorites will be back for their junior seasons. Now if only we could secure Wiggins…

Gearing Up for FallFest We’re already ready to swarm South Road for all the free food and swag in August.

Compliments on ‘Spotted at UNC’ Sometimes we just scroll down the anonymous Facebook page and smile at all the love Tar Heels have for each other.

Summer Blockbusters The Great Gatsby, Iron Man 3 and Monsters University in all their glory—and air conditioning.

quad This month we sent our photographer Wendy Lu to find unique fashion statements around campus.

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CTOPS 2013

in our A Letter From the Editor If you’re reading this issue at CTOPS, there is something you should know: I am very, VERY jealous of you. Maybe you’re already annoyed of hearing about how you’re embarking on this grand new journey called college. If you’re not tired of it yet, you will be after you sit through the three-hour “Carolina Way” lecture.

When I arrived at college, I was excited…but I was also really nervous. Three years later, I’m no longer anxious about finding classrooms or taking my first exam; I’m scared for an entirely different reason.

I’m a rising senior, and come August, I’ll only have Courtney Lindstrand one more school year to make memories and check off is a junior from Greenville.

She can be reached at all of the things on my Carolina bucket list (which I lindstc@live.unc.edu. have yet to officially write).

When I interviewed E! News correspondent and UNC-Chapel Hill alumna Ashlan Gorse (page 6), she said she wished that she had realized how precious relaxing with your friends on a nice spring day truly was. She rattled off the names of her top Franklin Street spots and told me all about her favorite journalism classes. It made me realize that when I graduate, I’ll have my own memory bank of experiences I had in college. I’ve already

opinion

that’s not Sweating on the way to class

made a ton, and I have my amazing friends to thank for that. But I don’t think it’s possible to make too many college memories, so senior year I’m going all out.

Luckily, I have the stories from this issue to serve as inspiration. After reading our feature on the Dean Dome (page 22), I have made a resolution that I must get riser tickets (practically on the basketball court for those of you who don’t know the term) for at least one game. But since I’m going “all out,” it would preferably be the Duke game. Then, I had a realization that I have never been to the legendary Cat’s Cradle (page 19). And after reading about how it’s an “icon and a destination in the global music community,” I decided I better get my butt down to Carrboro for a show, stat.

In addition to activities like cheering on the Tar Heels and jamming out at a rock concert, this issue also made me recognize the plethora of organizations on campus that allow students to help others. From mentoring middle school students with the SMART program (page 6) to educating others about disabilities with Advocates for Carolina (page 9), there are plenty of opportunities for me to get involved, even as a senior. More importantly, that means there is plenty of time and opportunities for incoming freshmen to make an impact during their four years here. Or, as your OL would say, “leave your heel print.” I’m still working on my heel print, and I’m going to take my time making it perfect before I’m forced—perhaps physically—to leave UNC-CH.

A 10-minute walk suddenly leaves you with gross backpack strap marks on your shirts.

Bye-Bye, Bullock

Sadly, Reggie won’t be raining 3s for the Tar Heels anymore.

Trying to Master the Bus System You’ll find your way eventually, but in the meantime, check out page 8 for some preliminary pointers.

Pick-up lines on ‘Spotted at UNC’ But then again, there’s a line between cute and creepy…

Allergy Season There’s nothing like following the yellow brick road to class, all while struggling to breathe.

“It was colder than I thought it’d be. It seemed like a sweatshirt kind of day. The sweatshirt’s actually [from] the band fun. I got it online!”

Eileen Quinn, freshman “I like my pants. I got them my sophomore year in high school. They’re loose, they’re comfortable, they’re breathable.”

Kevin Claybren, junior “The shirt is from Madewell. It’s loose-fitting, easy to just throw on with anything else.”

Kristi Buckley, senior “I’m a Young Life leader and it’s Tacky Prom tonight. It’s a mosh posh outfit.”

Sa m Henderson, freshman www.blueandwhitemag.com

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from the bell When Work is Play

alumni profile: Ashlan Gorse

Sometimes college can seem like all fun and games, especially for members of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Jest for Fun. For these students, making balloon animals, painting faces, juggling and performing card tricks are commonplace activities.

“On campus a lot of reaction is ‘Is this a club?’” says Jenny Ellis, a senior biology and psychology double major.

Ellis is the three-year president of Jest for Fun, a UNC-CH community service organization founded in 2006. The group provides this complimentary entertainment by request at events sponsored by campus and community organizations. Because Student Congress funds Jest for Fun, its services are free to everyone.

Within the local community, Jest for Fun has entertained children at places such as the Human Rights Center of Carrboro and the Town of Chapel Hill Community Center. Ellis says entertaining people can be a rewarding experience not only because of the smiles it evokes, but also because of the impact the organization has on children.

“I felt really inspired,” says Ellis. “I face-painted this little girl, and she came up to me and said, ‘When I grow up I want to be an artist like you,’ and that made my day.”

Jest for Fun entertained customers at Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day in April by painting faces and making balloon animals. At the event, balloons made children smile and also provided entertainment for UNC-CH students waiting in line.

“Many [college students] pay attention—most of them won’t ask, but if you go up to them with a [balloon] sword and say, ‘Would you like a sword?’, they’ll say, ‘Absolutely,’” says Emmy Johnson, a freshman public policy major and member of Jest for Fun. Jest for Fun receives positive reactions from audiences of all ages, and the members of the organization are looking forward to broadening their talents by introducing magic acts in the future. Jest for Fun’s weekly meetings are always open to volunteers who want to get involved.

“I enjoyed it enough that I wanted it to continue because I knew that obviously if no one else did, I felt like it would fall away,” says Ellis. “It’s been an adventure building [the club] back up.”

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Jenny Ellis, president of Jest for Fun, paints children’s faces at Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day.

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CTOPS 2013

By Alexis simmons photo by Katherine harRell

Turn on E! News any given night, and you can find Ashlan Gorse interviewing celebrities such as Johnny Depp and Meryl Streep. But it wasn’t very long ago that this UNC-Chapel Hill alumna was reporting for the television program Carolina Week in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Gorse graduated in 2002 with a journalism degree in the electronic communication sequence and says she appreciates the practical experience Carolina Week gave her.

“I meet so many kids out of college that don’t know how to read a teleprompter or have never worked a camera before. There was such great hands-on experience that I got from Carolina Week that really put me ahead of the game,” she says.

Charlie Tuggle, news director of Carolina Week, was one of Gorse’s professors and remembers her for her work ethic and bubbly personality.

“She was a good reporter and did a good job for us… but as soon as she graduated, that’s really when she had her growth spurt as far as presence in front of the camera. Now, she’s in front of millions of people every day,” Tuggle says.

Post-graduation, Gorse was a participant in the highly competitive NBCUniversal Page Program that prepares participants for entry-level careers in broadcast television. After the program, Gorse continued her climb at NBC, landing jobs as a field producer at Access Hollywood and a segment producer at MSNBC. In 2006, Gorse made the decision to move from New York City to Los Angeles to pursue her ultimate dream of becoming a correspondent

A Positive Partnership Part of UNC-Chapel Hill’s mission is to give back to the community— and it was with this mindset that the SMART mentoring program, which allows UNC-CH students to reach out to middle school students, was born.

SMART focuses its efforts on low-income communities in Orange County and highlights important social issues through these mentor relationships. Students interested in participating must first submit an application. If selected, they are enrolled in a three-credit-hour course in the fall as well as a one-credit-hour course in the spring, and they meet with middle school students once a week.

“I first wanted to be a participant in the mentoring program after a friend from APPLES suggested I look into the program,” says Daniel Bower Gehle, a sophomore in SMART. “I thought it would be very fulfilling to have experience mentoring and form a friendship with a younger person outside of UNC and be able to integrate that into my own curriculum.”

Students who are a part of the SMART program are matched with a middle school student in September through a partner organization called Volunteers for Youth. Coordinator Susan Worley says that the Volunteers for Youth program has benefited greatly from its partnership with SMART, as it has provided a pool of committed volunteers ready to help out the local community.

“The students who serve as mentors bring a real energy, enthusiasm and dedication to service,” says Worley. “We screen the SMART applicants

to the well for E! News, the position she now holds today.

But before she started rubbing elbows with Check out celebrities on the red carpet, Gorse was just like any other Yogurt-Pump-devouring, basketballblueandwhitemag.com loving Tar Heel. for an extended look “This is probably going to sound horrible, but one of my best memories [from college] at our interview with is just day drinking at Top of the Hill,” Gorse Ashlan Gorse says. “A beautiful spring day, sitting up there with my friends, not having a care in the world… there’s nothing more beautiful than the University of North Carolina campus in the spring.”

Gorse was even able to use her social and interviewing talents while serving as rush chair for her sorority Alpha Delta Pi during her senior year.

“It was such a great experience to meet all of these new people and to go around and talk to them and get them engaged and get them excited. That was actually really good training for what I do now,” Gorse says.

Gorse may be interacting with the power players of Hollywood now, but she says the prestige of UNC-CH has stuck with her and continues to help her in her career today.

“The legacy that comes along with saying you’re an alumni from Carolina, it really gets people to sit up and recognize you and take you more seriously,” Gorse says. “It’s one of those schools that everybody knows. I’m very proud of that.”

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carefully, and the students who end up as mentors are truly dedicated.”

The first of the two courses required in the program—Sociology 444: “Race, Class and Gender”—teaches students about social inequality and oppression in light of the responsibility placed before them as mentors. The second course—Sociology 397: “Service Practicum”­—allows students to take their knowledge outside of the classroom and into the lives of Orange County youth.

SMART program mentor Mariah Akinbi makes “SMART grounds some of a pizza with mentee Allison Salinas at The the theory discussed in class to a Standard Restaurant. human reality,” says Kai Schwartz, a graduate student in the School of Social Work who teaches SOCI 397. “Students are encouraged to think critically about how their actions now and in their future may impact their mentee, their mentee’s family and the community as a whole.”

Ashlan Gorse, who graduated from UNC-CH in 2002, is a correspondent and fill-in anchor for E! News.

By COURTNEY LINDSTRAND Photo COURTESY OF JONES SOCIAL PR

Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen and a push in the right direction.

— John c. crosby

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By Jordan carmichael photo COURTESY of SP Murray

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is a senior from Cary.

She can be reached at emilks4@gmail.com.

Emily Milks

City Living

Student about Town

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OCTOBER 2012

You know that moment when you get to a city and realize you don’t know your way around? You don’t know the bus system. You might not know how to hail a taxi. You don’t know how to get from point A to point B. That’s how I felt when I came to Chapel Hill, freshly dropped off by my parents. I was so confused and disoriented that I didn’t even know how to get to Franklin Street from my dorm on South Campus.

Getting to know the public transit system here brought me closer to Chapel Hill, and it was a lifesaver on those days when I didn’t want to walk to class.

It’s not hard to admit: Rainy days are the worst. Especially when you live in a dorm on South Campus and walking to class takes 30 minutes. This is when the bus system becomes your best friend. Yes, the buses are more crowded on those days, but the benefits outweigh sitting or standing in tight spaces. Taking a bus and having to stand for a few minutes is better than getting to class soaking wet and realizing the air conditioning is on full blast.

The great thing about Chapel Hill is that the bus system doesn’t get you only around the University; you can also get around the town just by riding a bus, and you won’t have to wait long until one pulls up to your stop.

But let’s talk about that infamous bus, known by students as the P2P. You could say the P2P deserves its own column. Riding it is always an interesting experience. It’s both a great and horrible thing, and my words won’t do it justice. It’s something you have to experience for yourself and then tell your children about when you’re older.

The P2P is a bus that runs late at night and, according to UNC-Chapel Hill’s Department of Public Safety website, is available to both students and faculty. I have never seen a professor use the P2P. As one might expect, it’s most popular at 2 a.m. when kids cram into the bus, and you can’t see the person sitting across from you. Chances are, someone you’ve never met might sit in your lap and befriend you. Still, beware of vomit.

It doesn’t sound appealing, I know. It’s not appealing. I will admit, though, that despite its reputation, the bus is a good thing for students. It’s a good way to get around in the early hours of the morning, especially if you live in a dorm on South Campus. It gets you home quickly and safely, and really that’s all that matters. It’s an experience you need to have as a UNC-CH student.

Figuring out all the ways to get around is also something you need to do. If you get on the wrong bus, you’ll know which not to take the next time. Figure out the best shortcuts around campus. Walk to Carrboro.

Do it so Carolina doesn’t feel foreign to you.

Here’s the thing, though. That feeling of disorientation happens everywhere.

Last year while studying abroad in Scotland, I took a trip to Rome to meet up with a friend, and I had to figure out how to get to a hostel on my own. It sounds easy enough, but it wasn’t. I had to get on multiple buses and different trains, and I had to walk through a maze of streets all while not understanding Italian. But I did it—and by myself, too. I had this great moment of “Yeah, I did this,” until I realized I didn’t know how to get anywhere else.

So I understand that feeling of not knowing where you are and not knowing what to do, of feeling incredibly small. But the beauty of it all is that after a while, Chapel Hill starts to feel like a small town. You run into friends on campus, you go to the same restaurants, and the employees at your favorite coffee shop know your name.

My friend who lives in New York says she feels the same way about Brooklyn. It’s all about acquainting yourself with the place. After a while, getting around becomes manageable, and a little while after that, it becomes routine. It’s really a matter of taking that first step and exploring.

And after four years, you get to do it all again somewhere else.

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Advocates

Overcoming

Adversity by abigail brewer photos by wendy lu design by katie marriner

Advocates for Carolina, newly incorporated into the Campus Y, works to bring awareness to disabilities, both visible and non-visible.

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Growing up, Katie Chrismon never thought

of her life as anything other than normal. Her mother was diagnosed with Lupus before Katie was born, but it wasn’t until she was a teenager that her mom sat her down to talk about the illness.

Lupus is a disease that causes the immune system to attack its tissues, leading to inflammation, swelling, pain and damage.

Chrismon’s mom, like many others living with disabilities, feels there is a stigma attached to the idea of disability. She doesn’t feel comfortable disclosing her condition to those outside her family.

“This Able Life” was a photo gallery and narrative exhibit hosted by Advocates for Carolina. Members of the UNC-Chapel Hill community participated in a photo shoot and wrote narratives about what “disability” means to them.

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Chrismon, a junior majoring in psychology and anthropology, joined Advocates for Carolina in February after hearing about the club in class. The group promotes awareness about accessibility and many different types of disabilities. In just a few short months, Chrismon has met other students affected by disabilities and become an on-campus advocate. While some of the students live with disabilities themselves, others, like Chrismon, simply act as supporters.

“I view my mom in a different light, and it has definitely strengthened our relationship,” Chrismon says. “I find myself wanting to know more about her experience and how her illness has shaped who she is and who she still wants to be.”

Foundations

Katie Savage, a junior majoring in psychology and communication studies, is no stranger to adversity—at the age of 14, she lost her leg. After months of rehabilitation, Savage learned how to walk again using a prosthetic leg.

However, she says rehabilitation wasn’t the most difficult part of her recovery.

“Imagine all of sudden, you are handicapped, crippled and disabled,” Savage says. “You are called all these things you never thought you would be.”

Upon transferring to UNC-Chapel Hill in the fall of 2012, Savage met a military veteran who had lost both his legs and an arm. Savage learned a great deal from him— namely, to not let a disability define who she is as a person.

Savage says she saw the healing power in talking to people who could relate to her and wanted to give others the same opportunity by bringing together a community of students affected by disabilities.

Savage’s dream came to fruition in January 2013 when Advocates for Carolina became an official campus organization. A few months after Savage founded the group, she received an email from Chrismon asking how she could become involved.

“The email was so sweet; I had to share it with everyone because it melted my heart,” Savage says.

Sarah Jagdmann, a junior majoring in biology and psychology, says she also wanted to become involved in the group because she recognizes the importance of drawing from a variety of voices.

“It’s nice to know there is a community of us who are affected by a disability in someway,” she says. “Not all of us have disabilities, but we are all affected.”

The group meets on a weekly basis, and the leaders have additional meetings.

“We have realized we are not simply individuals working together for a school organization,” Chrismon says.

“We are several individuals working to discover who we are, how we can help each other grow and how we can encourage others on campus to not only join us in this journey, but allow us to join them in theirs.”

Campus Outreach

The group may be in its infancy, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t already making an impact on campus. The group’s members knew they wanted to create an outreach project, but were running out of time to do so before the end of the semester.

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“This Able Life” was featured in the Student Union’s Gallery from midMarch to mid-April.

When space in the Union Gallery opened up unexpectedly, the group pulled off an exhibit in just two weeks.

“This Able Life” was built around the concept of asking students, “What does disability mean to you?”

The group invited fellow students to answer the question and have their photographs taken. These photographs were then hung in the Gallery alongside students’ narratives about what they think disability means.

Savage says the idea for the project came during a discussion of the word ‘disabled.’ Just as with Chrismon’s mother, stigma surrounding the word had always bothered her.

“One night I woke up at two or three o’clock in the morning and thought, ‘Why don’t I just own this word?

Why does this bother me so much?’,” Savage says.

The group believes that sharing personal experiences with disability will lead to empowerment. Chrismon says the group’s strong bonds are a result of members trusting each other enough to discuss personal and often painful experiences.

Recently, Advocates for Carolina became a committee of the Campus Y. “We look forward to partnering with other Campus Y committees, such as Best Buddies and Rethink Psychiatric Illness, and we are sure that the Campus Y will help us develop connections on campus and throughout the community,” Chrismon says.

A New Age

The creation of Advocates for Carolina coincided with big changes at the Department of Accessibility Resources & Service. Jim Kessler, who served as the department’s director, retired in April after more than 30 years.

Over time, the department has evolved based on the needs and desires of students. Formerly, the office was referred to as the Department of Handicap Student Services.

During Kessler’s tenure, the department changed its name to reflect the fact that the office is available for a variety of students—not just those who have a physical handicap.

Until a new director is chosen, Tiffany Bailey, who has worked in the Office of Disability Services at UNCGreensboro as well as UNC-CH’s Department of Accessibility Resources & Service, will serve as the department’s interim director.

This is definitely the first time my parents have seen me really thrive since I was 14.

This is the first time they have seen me do something positive with something that has impacted me so negatively.

Katie Savage “Sometimes the word ‘disability’ has such a stigma attached to it that people don’t want to come into the office,” says Bailey. “Nationally, there has been a trend of disability service offices changing their names to be more welcoming to a greater amount of folks.”

In the hopes of forming collaborative relationships between the department and the rest of the UNC-CH community, the office reaches out to various student groups and gives presentations to students and staff. Most recently, Bailey hosted a discussion with Advocates for Carolina about the future of the Department of Accessibility Resources and Services.

Bailey became familiar with the group while it was still in early planning stages and has seen it grow into a fullfledged organization in just a few short months. During her time at UNC-G, she was an adviser for a group called Able/Disabled Students in Action.

Bailey witnessed the group at UNC-G disband due to a lack of student interest. Conversely, she says, the group at UNC-CH has developed during a time when many students are passionate about these issues.

“Every office at every institution has their own culture of what the students want,” Bailey says. “We all do the

same thing—supply accommodations and offices.”

Still, the members of Advocates for Carolina say they hope to see accessibility services become more welcoming to students with different kinds of disabilities. For example, if a student doesn’t come to school with an official diagnosis, they often don’t think to contact the office to discuss accommodations.

The group has been in contact with Bailey to ensure that these concerns are addressed in the future.

The students who are active members of Advocates for Carolina assist accessibility services in reaching out to other students with disabilities and explaining the services offered at UNC-CH. “It’s empowering for people with disabilities to talk about their disabilities themselves,” Bailey says.

While UNC-CH’s accessibility services will likely change based on the philosophy of the new director, Advocates for Carolina will continue to play a role in advocating for students with disabilities.

“This is definitely the first time my parents have seen me really thrive since I was 14,” Savage says. “This is the first time they have seen me do something positive with something that has impacted me so negatively.”

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The organization saw a large turnout at the gallery reception, with professors, students and Chapel Hill locals alike who came to view the exhibit. Advocates for Carolina emphasizes accessibility, advocacy and awareness.

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Sounds

of the

by jordan nash photos by lisa dzera design by sydney narayan and dale koontz

Aaron Burdett and Tom Fisch, winners of a recent songwriting competition, channelled their love for North Carolina into the lyrics of the songs they performed at “Music on the Porch,” a concert series sponsored by UNC-Chapel Hill.

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Aaron Burdett was shocked when he received a call in mid-October that he had won the Our State Magazine “Carolina Songs” songwriting contest.

“I didn’t even know what [the caller] was talking about for a second,” Burdett says. “I heard about the contest through a friend. He sent me the link, and I entered. I had kind of forgotten about it.”

Our State Magazine held its first competition for original North Carolina-inspired songs in 2012. Burdett’s song, “Going Home to Carolina,” beat out more than 250 entries. The contest, which was held to encourage artists to celebrate North Carolina culture, was judged by local industry professionals.

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S O U T H

“It was fun to listen to a variety of music and people’s interpretations of what ‘write a song about North Carolina’ means,” says Laurie Weaver, the integrated marketing director at Our State.

“We live in a state full of great musicians,” Weaver says.

“It was easy.”

To celebrate the talents of Aaron Burdett and runner-up Tom Fisch a concert was held on April 4 at the Love House and Hutchins Forum on East Franklin Street. Our State partnered with the UNC-Chapel Hill Center for the Study of the American South (CSAS) to put on this concert. The center emphasizes the need to research and celebrate Southern culture in a changing world.

The concert is part of the “Music on the Porch” series, which is held twice each semester and focuses on Southern influence in modern-day music. The series invites local artists and performers to share how the South has influenced music—both music that they created and that others created.

carolina ties

Burdett knows exactly what it’s like to call North Carolina home, as he was born in Laurinburg and now lives in Saluda.

“If I hadn’t lived in Boone for about eight or nine years when I was in my twenties, my guitar style would not be the same,” Burdett says. His music encompasses folk rock, blues, bluegrass and pop. Burdett looks to musicians like John Prine and Cat Stevens for inspiration.

Burdett became interested in music at a young age and began by playing covers of other songs. He then transitioned to writing his own songs when he was in his 20s.

For Burdett, it hasn’t always been about a music career.

He originally began playing guitar and writing songs for personal enjoyment.

“I really hadn’t put my heart into doing it professionally until I was in my thirties,” Burdett says. “It’s been a long, lengthy process. I have been doing this for 25 years, off and on.”

Although Burdett had never won a songwriting contest until October, he is no amateur when it comes to music and competitions. He released his fourth album, “Breathing Underwater,” in September. He has been a finalist in many other songwriting contests, including the North Carolina Songwriter’s Cooperative Songwriting Contest. He was also notified in early April that he is one of three finalists for the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest sponsored by Merlefest, an outdoor music festival in late April, where Burdett will be performing.

Burdett finds confidence and the ability to communicate through music.

“I still think that songs need to have some sort of message or meaning,” he says. “You can say things in the format of a song that you could never say to someone in real life.”

“Carolina Songs” runner-up Tom Fisch is a native of New York but considers himself a fan of the Tar Heel State and now calls Flat Rock, N.C., home.

Fisch moved to Nashville, T.N., from upstate New York in 1991 before finally settling in western North Carolina in 2004.

“I was ready for something different, [and] there is a great acoustic music scene in western North Carolina,” Fisch says. “It just felt like the right thing to do.”

Since moving to Flat Rock, Fisch has continued to cre-

Aaron Burdett performs “Going Home to Carolina,” the song that won Our State magazine’s contest.

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ate and perform a unique style of music that he discovered when he was young.

Like Burdett, Fisch began his musical career when he was 10 years old. He began by playing other artists’ songs but soon moved to creating his own original sound, a mixture of bluegrass, jazz and country. Fisch found the gradual change from playing guitar to songwriting much more organic.

“It was a natural offshoot to want to do my own songs,” Fisch says. “I eventually graduated to writing my own songs.”

His song, “Carolina Sky Blue Day,” was the runner-up for the Our State contest. He says he wrote the song, inspired by a clear, sunny day, shortly after coming to North Carolina.

“It was a gorgeous day,” Fisch says. “There was nowhere else I wanted to be at that point.”

between the lyrics

Although Tom Fisch is a New York native, his love for North Carolina is apparent in his music.

It was this extreme love for North Carolina and music that brought students, professors and members of the Chapel Hill community out on April 4 in Chapel Hill to enjoy the musical talents of Burdett and Fisch.

Bland Simpson, a UNC-CH comparative English professor who teaches a songwriting class, introduced the musicians. Simpson listed many famous musicians who can point back to North Carolina for musical style and inspirations, from James Taylor to Doc Watson.

Throughout the concert, audience members sang along, tapped their feet and bobbed their heads to the beat of the music.

Fisch played songs from a variety of artists, from “Homegrown Tomatoes” by Guy Clark to “If I Only Had a Brain” from the 1939 musical, “The Wizard of Oz.” He even played a song that was created when he put a melody to a poem his wife wrote. His original style exhibits jazz, bluegrass and country undertones.

Burdett stuck to original songs, including his contestwinning song. In between performances, he told stories about each song, allowing the audience members to look through a window into his songwriting process. For instance, Burdett was inspired to write “Three Months of Twelve” after visiting a farm in the woods of Western North Carolina and imagining how life would’ve been like if he’d lived there in the winter years ago.

Members of the audience enjoyed the ability to appreciate live music in a cozy setting.

“It’s nice to just take some time out of the day and relax and listen to music I can relate to,” says Karla Towle, a junior journalism major and a Southern studies minor.

She attended the “Music on the Porch” series for a Southern studies class. “I always love coming to ‘Music on the Porch.’”

Burdett encourages young, aspiring musicians to never give up.

“There are unlimited opportunities to be discouraged everyday [and] unlimited reasons to give up,” Burdett says.

“More than half of [being successful] is to just keep doing it.”

Both Burdett and Fisch plan to continue writing and performing in the future.

“I’m just hoping to figure out how to earn a living doing what I am best at,” Burdett says.

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is a sophomore from Georgetown, Mass.

He can be reached at aug13@live.unc.edu.

Erik Augustine

Pop Topics

INFAMOUS ILLUMINATI Quick—what do Kanye and the pope have in common? Besides the flashy dressing, that is.

They are both regularly accused of being members of the Illuminati—the secret society that supposedly controls everything from the world’s currencies to Lady Gaga.

While there have been serious claims and statements made about the Illuminati as a secret society, which I am not confident in exploring, I am extremely interested in considering the common man’s take. Regular people from all over have taken the idea of the shadowy group and run with it. A Google search will reap the findings of thousands of investigators and theorists. You will learn about how a secret Bavarian society from the eighteenth century was outlawed and supposedly disbanded, while actually building itself into an international network of deceit and control. Dig a little deeper, and you might hear about how a few alleged families of the Illuminati—such as the Rothschilds and the Kennedys—have shaped the world into its present position.

A lot of inconsistency comes up among these online theories. The only consensus seems to be that one: they do bad things, and two: they love rap.

This is my favorite part: in the extensive lists of supposed Illuminati members, you might find that politicians and business moguls are often outnumbered by pop musicians—especially rap artists. The idea is that musicians have been recruited and then turned into superstars so they can disseminate subliminal messages for the Illuminati. A couple of years ago, you may have heard this in regard to the Jay-Z and Kanye collaboration “Watch the Throne.” Everything about that album and tour has been chalked up to secret society stuff. The triangles on the album cover? Illuminati symbols related to the Eye of Providence symbol seen on the dollar bill. The lyrics about religion and kings in “No Church in the Wild?” Illuminati members rejecting conventional power structures.

The theory even explains the deaths of celebrity musicians. Allegedly Michael Jackson rebelled against his Illuminati controllers, and they took his life for it. And Eminem has apparently been struggling for years to break free from the order’s grasp —I guess he’s not as power hungry as Jay-Z and Kanye.

In a way this kind of makes sense. Listen to any recent song by Jay-Z or Kanye, and you will hear all about how rich and powerful they are—I suspect they’re the kind of guys who would love to be in a world domination club. But if that is the case, then aren’t they kind of bad at their job? If they’re supposed to be sending subliminal messages and brainwashing the public, then how have they let so many people catch on to them? That’s not very shadowy. If the Illuminati are so secretive, then how are so many people aware of who the supposed members are?

But let’s ignore that for now and get back to the musicians. I really want to know what messages they’re drilling into our skulls every time we listen to their songs on our iPods. Most theories online seem to say that the messages in the songs are about mind control itself, like what apparently happens in Lady Gaga’s “Telephone.” That seems really weird—I don’t really see the point of putting secret messages about secret messages in songs, but I guess that’s why I’m not in the Illuminati.

Several of the websites I’ve looked at seem to think that the society uses pop music simply as a way to distract the public by making us complacent and docile like cattle or the citizens of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” I, for one, can totally see this being true—the general population is not exactly on the cutting edge of current events. Maybe the Illuminati just doesn’t want us paying attention while it takes over the world. If that’s the answer, then I guess I could totally see the Illuminati doing this—I bet its members are in the movie industry too. But then that means the Illuminati has given us a lot of good entertainment over the years—maybe its members will be nice totalitarian overlords.

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KEEPING IT

“Awthentic”

Julian Caldwell, JSWISS, works in a lab in Swain Hall to edit and mix his music. He listens to his tracks over and over again as he analyzes them and works to perfect them.

by carolyn coons photos by morgan mccloy design by melissa flandreau

UNC-Chapel Hill student Julian Caldwell is often better known by his rap persona, JSWISS. With a new LP, “Awthenticity,” and a fierce sense of determination, he plans to make his mark on the music scene.

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Under the dim lights of the recording studio in Swain Hall, senior Julian Caldwell works late into the night, listening to his own voice reverberate around him: “Yeah, I heard about you; I see you in the mirror.”

As the strong, steady beat pulsates through the air, Caldwell jumps quickly to the back of the studio, bows his head and closes his eyes. This sudden move goes unnoticed by Caldwell’s mixing engineer and producer, Carson Koenig, who works diligently on the computer to adjust various keys and tones.

“We listen to the same verse over and over again,” says Koenig, a senior majoring in communication studies with a music minor. The monotony of working in the studio can demand a change of perspective for Caldwell, requiring him to step back and analyze his tracks more closely, but making music is his passion.

Raised with Rhythm

As a rapper, Caldwell goes by the moniker “JSWISS,” a nickname that has been with him since elementary school.

“It wasn’t a [name] I made up to become a rapper,” says Caldwell, a journalism major. A friend from fifth grade used to call him Jay Wills, after former Duke basketball star Jay Williams. Somewhere along the way, Jay Wills became JSWISS. Growing up, Caldwell didn’t dream of performing on stage—he saw his future on the basketball court.

“I was always the kid that always had a basketball in his hands,” Caldwell says. “That was my identity.”

From the time he was five years old to the end of high school, Caldwell played as point guard, recording and making music on the side. He’s loved music all his life, but it wasn’t until coming to UNC-Chapel Hill in 2009 that he began to pursue rapping seriously.

Caldwell grew up in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., along the Hudson River—about 25 miles from “the city that never sleeps.” An only child, Caldwell says his love of music comes from his father, a lover of jazz and R&B who has worked in the music industry.

“When I was two years old, I used to recite lyrics from A Tribe Called Quest,” Caldwell says of an ‘80s hip-hop group he admires. On his website, he also lists Jamiroquai, The Brand Heavies and Musiq Soulchild as some of his favorite musical artists.

Over the years, he rediscovered the groups whose music he was introduced to as a child and began writing his own lyrics.

“It got to a point where I couldn’t help myself from writing,” he says.

When Caldwell entered high school, he started to record his raps. Then in 2009, he performed at his first open mic night—where his father stood in the crowd, cheering him on.

Caldwell says his parents continue to support his music, despite the departure from his journalism major.

“They’ve been really supportive, even if I went to school for four years and ended up doing nothing with my degree and doing music,” Caldwell says.

He sends them his latest tracks, asks for advice on his most recent single and takes their criticism seriously, not only as family but also as fans.

“They actually like my music, more than just trying to be nice,” he says, laughing. “I can tell they’re really into it.

I’ll be home on break and hear my mom or my dad playing my music from another room. They don’t have to do that.

It would be enough for me to send it to them and they say, ‘that’s nice,’ and move on.”

Musical Maturation

For Caldwell, UNC-CH has been vital to his success as a music artist.

“I wouldn’t be doing this at all—or on the level that I am now—if it wasn’t for coming here [to UNC-CH],”

“ ”

I wouldn’t be doing this at all—or on the level that I am now—if it wasn’t for coming here.

Caldwell says. “I don’t know if I could have gotten there if I went somewhere else. Maybe I could have gotten just as good of an educational experience, but this whole other life wouldn’t have happened.”

Caldwell uses the free on-campus studios, both in the Media Resource Center (MRC) in the Undergraduate Library and in Swain Hall, to create his music. The studio at the MRC is where Caldwell met Koenig when they were both freshmen.

Koenig, also known as “Cayso,” recruited Caldwell for a music collective called No9to5 he founded in 2011 with senior Joshua Rowsey, also known as “(J) Rowdy.”

“No9to5 is a group of artists collaborating and supporting each other to grow and be successful in creative careers,” Koenig says.

The group puts on performances and produces mix tapes with the message of pursuing what you love rather than settling for a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. work lifestyle.

Caldwell was unsure about joining the group at first because many of the members were new to music. Rowsey says Caldwell was just beginning to make a name for himself and create his personal brand as a rapper.

“Everyone raps, but few take this art form seriously,” Rowsey says. “I made it one of my missions to prove to him that I was a true artist. After my first mixtape, SWISS realized I was serious and started critiquing me on my flow and the new songs that came out.”

Caldwell has also been able to share his own experience to help the other rappers. Now, through No9to5, he has been able to perform with famous rappers including 2 Chainz, Juicy J and Asher Roth.

“We almost felt like rock stars,” Caldwell says of No9to5’s performance with Asher Roth in February 2012 at Pulse Nightclub. “We had two girls—I don’t know where they came from—dancing on stage.”

Caldwell says he enjoys performing with more prominent rappers because they come with a larger fan base. He says students don’t always appreciate his music, despite his growing success.

“One of the biggest challenges is proving to people that this is something I do seriously and do at a high level, because everybody’s a rapper now,” Caldwell says.

Rowsey says one of the things that sets Caldwell apart from other emerging artists is his ability to make music and be successful without the help of a music label or wellknown connections.

“I think he’s tired of being put in a box with his music, and constantly fighting the stigma that an artist from college can’t make quality hip-hop,” Rowsey says.

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Left: JSWISS and fellow No9to5 member Carson Koenig work together to edit music. They listen to clips of a song on repeat and talk about the changes that could be made.

Right: JSWISS sits in the back of the lab with lights lowered and eyes closed as he listens to a few verses of his song on repeat.

Caldwell has fans around the world, receiving comments on his YouTube videos from viewers as far away as Malaysia and Australia—his video for “Four Corners” had more than 16,000 views in just three months. He also receives emails from fans requesting shows in Canada and the United Kingdom, places he hopes to visit and perform at in the future.

But at UNC-CH, Caldwell says students take for granted the low prices and close proximity of his shows.

“I can’t wait to be a little bit bigger and people will say ‘Oh, I want to go to his show,’ and tickets are $50, but you had the opportunity when it was right there for three dollars,” he says. “It keeps me grounded, but it’s frustrating at the same time.”

Caldwell plans to continue to make music until he can work as a rapper as his sole career. He says he has a lot of ambitions regarding music and won’t stop until he’s accomplished them.

“I heard Virgos are perfectionists,” he says. “And I’m a Virgo.”

AUthentic Art form

Caldwell takes his craft seriously, working in the studio for hours at a time. Rapping isn’t his hobby or extracurricular—it is the driving force in his life. He makes meticulous, slight adjustments to his beats, unnoticeable to the untrained ear. He raps until his voice is hoarse and then goes on to rap some more.

Caldwell recorded one track from his upcoming LP “Awthenticity” after performing one night at Local 506, a music venue on Franklin Street. The track, “History,” only had two verses written when he came into the studio. Feeling weary, Caldwell wrote the third verse about his experience in the studio at that moment and recorded the rap minutes later, the huskiness of his voice audible in his delivery.

Caldwell says the LP is his most personal and creative project to date, and Koenig agrees.

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“[JSWISS] is always striving to improve and bring something fresh and creative, and when someone has that approach in any craft the result is special,” Koenig says.

“He sees himself as competing with the top artists in music period, so he doesn’t accept anything less than the best he can give.”

The song “History” is one example of Caldwell taking himself further—music with an authentic quality and rawness—but “Heard About You” provides listeners a different perspective of JSWISS. In the track, Caldwell takes a critical look at himself and his choices. He talks about quitting his basketball team and being unable to talk to a crush—taking an honest look at his faults.

Caldwell says he was always shy as a kid and had to make an effort to get on stage to perform for the first time. He says he still hasn’t gotten used to his new rapper persona.

“Jay-Z wasn’t born Jay-Z,” he says. “Obviously my whole life I haven’t been JSWISS. I was Julian before. It’s interesting that people see me just as JSWISS. I still see myself as the shy person who has to force himself to talk to new people.”

Koenig thinks the hard work Caldwell has put into “Awthenticity” will pay off and help him go into music full time.

“I know JSWISS will be one of the top artists in hiphop in a few years as long as that remains his goal,” Koenig says. “He is focused, hardworking and talented, and can already compete musically with the top up and coming hip-hop artists.”

Caldwell says he is returning to New York after graduation and has looked into broadcasting jobs, though making music professionally is still his ultimate goal.

“I’m not stopping with music until that’s something that I could do full time,” he says. “I believe that is what I’m supposed to do. It’s just a matter of time.”

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CALLING ALL CRADLE RATS by natalie warner photos by mark perry design by lisa dzera and samantha sabin

The Carrboro music venue Cat’s Cradle has come a long way from its humble rock club beginnings.

Since its opening in 1969, it has morphed into an iconic destination in the rock music community.

p

“People come to Cat’s Cradle to have their faces rocked,” says Matt Martin, guitarist of Holy Ghost Tent Revival. With this statement, he characterizes the dark, gritty, grungy thrill of experiencing a concert in the same venue where a star-studded playbill of performers—including The Black Keys, fun., Iggy Pop, John Mayer, Nirvana, R.E.M. and Sonic Youth—have headlined shows since the doors of Cat’s Cradle opened in 1969.

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“When you walk out on the stage and you get the feeling that you’re singing from the perspective of all the great acts that have come before you, it’s a humbling experience,” Martin says. “It’s very exciting. I can think of few other places that give you that sense of urgency and will to put on a good show.”

Located off of East Main Street in Carrboro, just around the corner from Chapel Hill and barely a mile from UNCChapel Hill’s campus, the venue attracts college students and community members alike. Cat’s Cradle’s status as a local legend has been cemented by the electric atmosphere of a great concert and a history of spectacular live sets from truly talented performers.

BEHIND THE SCENES

“Getting quality, cutting-edge music without going broke is harder to do than you may think,” says Derek Powers, manager of Cat’s Cradle. With almost two decades of experience at Cat’s Cradle under his belt, Powers knows a thing or two about the business side of the industry.

“I used to work overnight at Kinko’s, and I’d see the owner [Frank Heath] wrestling with fliers,” Powers says. “I told him I was a badass with the copy machine and if he ever needed some help, he should give me a call. I wasn’t a hardcore, three-or-four-nights-a-week Cradle rat, but I was fascinated with what happened in there.”

Over the past 20 years, he says, the venue has changed dramatically in its appearance.

“It’s sort of come full circle to look more like it did when I first started there,” Powers says. From 1994 to 2010, the staff added walls, a little backstage area and even a second smaller stage. During a significant renovation in the summer of 2011, the staff discovered something surprising as they removed walls and risers.

“We found writing on the floor dated back to when I first started,” Powers says. “It was so peculiar to pull out a riser and see the names of guys who [worked] here in 1994.”

More significantly, however, the venue has changed in an operational sense: Today, they handle advertising and publicity in a technologically savvy way. Before the advent of social media, the venue sent post cards and fliers to 300 record stores, newspapers and undergraduate radio stations.

“The birth and explosion of the Internet completely changed everything,” Powers says. “We actually have all of this paperwork saved—all of the demo tapes from 20 years ago, the posters, the Visa statements—and it demonstrates so well how much things have changed. You can do more today with an iPhone than three or four people then who worked all day weighing envelopes.”

This publicity work used to be a primary part of Powers’ job. Since becoming venue manager, however, he is mostly concerned with the safety of concertgoers.

“I’ve always been the dude at the door,” Powers says. “I take your ticket, check your ID, make sure you’re standing straight and not wobbly.”

Powers coordinates security, watches for stage divers and settles the occasional argument between customers.

“I make sure that everyone comes in, has a good time and leaves in one piece,” he says.

Top: Heather Robb from New York-based folk rock trio The Spring Standards performs onstage at Cat’s Cradle.

Bottom: Matt Martin of the Greensboro-based based band Holy Ghost Tent Revival performs during the band’s fourth show at Cat’s Cradle.

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THE CRADLE CROWD

Holy Ghost Tent Revival, based in Greensboro and founded by Matt Martin and fellow guitar and banjo player Stephen Murray in 2007, began as a folk rock band. Before the group’s April concert at Cat’s Cradle, Martin reminisced about the ways that the band has changed since their first performance at the venue in 2008.

“We’ve morphed into a more electronic, rock ‘n’ roll kind of outfit,” Martin says. “We’ve realized we can reach people in a more sonic way with electric guitars.”

But whether they’re harmonizing with banjoes or rocking out on electric guitars, one source of constancy for the band is the crowd at Cat’s Cradle. Holy Ghost Tent Revival has performed at the fabled venue four times to a turnout of both rabid fans and a hotbed of college kids, Martin says.

“We don’t play 700-capacity venues every night, and this is definitely the hometown crowd,” he says. “We still play at small clubs where people don’t know your name.

That’s not the feeling we get at Cat’s Cradle.”

The whole band looks forward to the familiar faces they spot in the crowd.

“Every time we go, it’s great,” Martin says. “Not to mention that the sound is really good, and you can’t go wrong when you play there, from a musical standpoint.

They treat you well, and you feel like you’re in professional hands.”

The first time Morning Brigade took the stage at the Cradle in November, the band participated in “Handle with Care,” a George Harrison tribute concert. Morning Brigade was one of two college bands chosen to participate. The rest of the performers were professionals, which lead singer and guitarist Peter Vance admits was initially nerve-wracking.

“But the atmosphere was really friendly,” says Vance, a junior majoring in dramatic art and communication studies. “The sound guy we worked with made the experience less intimidating. He was just cracking jokes the whole time. He was really funny. When we took the stage, we killed it. The performance was more successful than I could have dreamed.”

Vance never imagined he would have the chance to play at Cat’s Cradle. As a freshman singer and songwriter, he merely hoped for opportunities to perform. “I’ve gotten to do things I never would have believed were an option then,” he says.

For Vance and the five other members of Morning Brigade, the future is just as bright. “I really think playing Cat’s Cradle was that step that we needed to continue our growth, and now, we are approaching the next step and the next step,” he says. “It opened the doors to more opportunities for us to do even crazier things. It’s really cool to be able to consider previously unreachable standards.” Vance hopes the band will have opportunities to tour both outside of North Carolina and even around the country.

The Cat’s Cradle staff is excited to host emerging bands like Morning Brigade before they make it big. The venue’s schedule is more like a lineup from New York or Los Angeles, Powers says.

“When a dude marries a gorgeous woman, people say that he’s ‘outpicked his coverage,’ and I think that describes us,” Powers says. “We’re beyond the ‘tiny rock club that could.’ We’re an icon and a destination in the global music community, while still being accessible to everyone and anyone in town.”

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A Cat’s Cradle shirt on sale at the venue. The venue has hosted shows for famous bands like Nirvana and R.E.M.

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Cat’s Cradle often books bands on the brink of profound musical success, which makes coordinating the venue’s calendar a task that Powers likens to the analytical section of the GRE. “When you click on the website and you see all these shows going down from April, May, June, July and August, it looks like we’re just pulling names out of a hat and putting them up there,” he says. “In reality, that’s hours of phone calls and sidestepping egos. Someone has to be told they can’t play on a certain night. And then, there’s always the risk that you choose Band A and Band B winds up on SNL.” “Getting those bands here gives my boss the same gray hairs I get when I’m checking IDs and making sure you’re not going to die while you’re here,” Powers adds. He works with the owner to coordinate a schedule of current artists that mixes more established groups such as Holy Ghost Tent Revival with rising names like Morning Brigade, a folk rock outfit composed of UNC-CH students.

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HOME IN THE DOME

The Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center opened in January 1986 after the men’s basketball team’s fan base outgrew the seating available in Carmichael Arena.

The Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center, better known as the Dean Dome, has become an iconic arena for college basketball fans. Since its opening in 1986, it has represented the legacy of Coach Smith and ‘The Carolina Way.’

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by andrew tie photos by dale koontz design by dara schwartz

When the North Carolina men’s basketball program began in 1910, the team played its home games in Bynum Gymnasium. Most students have never heard of Bynum Gymnasium— that’s because it was transformed into Bynum Hall. Over the years, as the team’s popularity grew and times changed, the team moved from Bynum Gym to the Indoor Athletic Center (also known as the Tin Can) to Woollen Gymnasium to Carmichael Arena, where the legendary Michael Jordan played. After Jordan and the team won the 1982 national championship, efforts to find a new home for Carolina basketball began in earnest.

In January 1986, the Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center opened; it has been home to Carolina basketball ever since.

“We had an event [at the Smith Center] the night before the Duke game [in 1986] for the College of Arts & Sciences,” says Angie Bitting, director of the Smith Center. “Then of course, we had the Duke game the next day, which we won. Steve Hale was backdooring Duke all day, which was great. Ever since then, it’s been a great place for basketball.”

While the building’s full name is the Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center, it’s more affectionately known as the Smith Center or the Dean Dome.

However, the building has served for more activities than just basketball. Steve Kirschner, UNC-CH basketball spokesman, says the Smith Center used to host many concerts featuring famous artists.

“For the first seven to eight years, they hosted a lot of concerts, but sometime in the early ‘90s, a lot of other buildings opened in North Carolina,” Kirschner says. “That took a lot of the concert business away, and we had some restrictions being on a college campus, so that killed the concert business. Now there are career fairs, blood drives, commencements, things like that.”

Kirschner says he’s seen shows from Sesame Street to Billy Joel to NBA exhibition games, while Bitting says the Grateful Dead, Garth Brooks and Tina Turner were some of her most memorable concerts in the Smith Center.

History of the Smith Center

Kirschner says the Smith Center was built because the popularity of the basketball team exceeded the capacity of Carmichael Arena.

The seating capacity of Carmichael was more than 10,000 in 1986, but many more fans were clamoring to watch the team play.

“In the early ‘80s, they decided they needed a bigger facility, so working with the Ram’s Club, they raised over $32 million of private money,” Kirschner says. “The students had an opportunity to fund part of it with student fee increases, but they voted against that.”

Bitting says she is proud of the fact that the Smith Center did not use any public funds.

“At the time it was built, it was the only arena in the country— and still is—entirely built with private funds,” Bitting says. “It was totally private donations raised through the Ram’s Club and through Skipper Bowles. It was an amazing campaign to raise that much money from our donors.”

Joe Petrizzi, former public relations chair of Carolina Fever, says the Smith Center offers an amazing experience that the former home arenas couldn’t—the buildup before a game.

“It’s at the bottom of campus,” Petrizzi says. “It rises out. You see it in the distance. When it was in the middle of campus, I imagine it wasn’t as quite of a pilgrimage. Everyone streams down [to the Smith Center] and ends up at the same place.”

The Smith Center represents a culmination of more than 100 years of UNC-CH basketball tradition and history, and to many, it symbolizes what makes UNC-CH a great school.

The Dean Dome Today

On game days, the excitement before the game starts hours before tipoff. Fans chatter about the team’s recent performance while students wait in line and the band, ready to lead the 20,000 or so fans in attendance in cheers, warms up. Many people prefer to watch sports in the comfort of their home on their giant HDTVs, but attending games at the Smith Center offers an experience incapable of replication on a television.

Petrizzi says games at the Smith Center have provided some of his favorite moments of his life.

“If I made a list of the top 10 experiences in my life, at least half of them would have taken place in the Dean Dome,” Petrizzi says.

“The biggest part of the experience is getting there hours before the game starts. Then there’s the scanning of the tickets and sprinting

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The Dean Dome’s cost—$32 million—was funded in full by private donations from the Ram’s Club and Skipper Bowles.

The building was named after Dean Smith, the 37-year coach of Carolina basketball. He retired in 1997 with a historic 879 wins.

down to the risers. The Dean Dome is my favorite place in the world.”

When asked about his favorite games he attended as a student, Petrizzi rattled off a list including games against N.C. State University, Kentucky and Duke.

He also says he thinks the Smith Center today is seen as a symbol of college sports in America.

“It’s a monument to college basketball history in the United States that this building exists for the sole purpose of playing basketball,” Petrizzi says. “It’s like a Yankee Stadium or a Fenway Park.”

Bitting shared similar thoughts to Petrizzi—both separately called the Smith Center a “Mecca” of college basketball.

“It’s one of those iconic places that when people see it, they know what it is,” Bitting says. “Never a day goes by that someone isn’t trying to get in here to see it. On the weekends, there’s always someone tugging at the doors wanting to see it. That’s a tribute to the program, the history and everything Coach Smith and Coach Williams have done. It’s a special place.”

The Influence of Coach Smith

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Whenever someone references the Dean Dome or the Smith Center, he or she names former coach and legend of UNC-CH basketball, Dean Smith. When the 37-year coach of Carolina basketball retired in 1997, he left the game with the most wins in Division I with a historic 879 victories. Sixteen years later, people still feel Smith’s influence on the basketball program and the University as a whole.

“What he instills on his players, and the way he went about coaching, is the way I look at the way we manage the building,” Bitting says. “Our job is to make everyone who

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comes in here have a great experience.”

But Smith, whose name adorns the building’s signs, didn’t even want the venue named after him.

“The night before the gala for the College of Arts & Sciences, they named it for him,” Bitting says. “And humble as he’s always been, he did not want it named after him.”

Kirschner added that it took some coaxing to get Smith to allow the commemoration.

“Eventually the people in the administration and his friends finally say, ‘Coach, we really want to do this to thank you for all that you’ve done for Carolina basketball,’” he says. “But Coach Smith didn’t like to bring any attention to himself or in any way take credit for the success of the Carolina basketball program.”

But Kirschner says it was appropriate to name the building after Smith because UNC-CH basketball will always be inextricably tied to him.

“Coach Smith is Carolina basketball,” Kirschner says.

“You have Michael Jordan, Phil Ford, Tyler Hansbrough— but first and foremost, you think of Coach Smith. Players for other teams didn’t like him because his teams won so many games, but they had a tremendous amount of respect for him.”

Petrizzi urges students to uphold the legacy that Smith left behind.

“He continues to shape UNC-CH—not just the sports,” Petrizzi says. “He coined the term ‘The Carolina Way,’ and it’s something we’ve carried over into academics and the way we as Tar Heels live our life. Not only did he build the basketball program that we love to watch, but he also helped build the Carolina we go to. Carolina would not be what it is today without Dean Smith.”

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Side(line) Note Luke Neenan

is a sophomore from Atlanta.

He can be reached at neenan@email.unc.edu.

Basketball Reflections Any time a Tar Heel basketball season comes to an end without a National Championship, there is a poignant sense of disappointment among Carolina’s faithful. We are conditioned to expect nothing less than banners in the month of March because we have been spoiled by decades of excellence during tournament time. This year’s team did not match the lofty achievements of many of its predecessors, exiting the NCAA Tournament in the second round.

Does the lack of hardware or signature wins collected by the 2012-13 Tar Heels mean that this season was a failure by Coach Roy Williams and his players? Far from it. Rather, the success of this year’s team should not be measured solely by where and when its season ended, but by where its season started. The theme of this year’s basketball team was growth.

There were several low points for the Tar Heels this season. Devastating defeats stung our pride and left us wondering whether this team was destined for another NIT rebuilding year similar to 2009-10. Double-digit defeats to Butler, Indiana and Texas exposed Roy’s boys as unworthy of their lofty preseason ranking—a measure of potential and the Carolina name rather than a realistic appraisal of the team. Then the Tar Heels started the ACC season 0-2, lost to NC State for the first time this decade, and were embarrassed by the Miami Hurricanes on national television. After each of these humiliating losses, we had to wonder if this team had it in them.

And then something changed. Coach Williams deviated from his devotion to a traditional line-up and made PJ Hairston a starter. Although many fans had been clamoring for the gifted sophomore to get more minutes since the season began, Coach Williams had been reluctant to digress from his proven two-big-man system.

Facing a potential lost season, Coach Williams took a chance going into the Tar Heels’ first meeting with the Duke Blue Devils. Even though the Tar Heels lost a heartbreaking game, they looked more dangerous than they had all season long.

Suddenly, the Tar Heels were playing with a newfound swagger, and fears of missing the NCAA Tournament became a distant memory. Hairston was on a roll, raining 3-pointers from impossible distances and scowling at any opponent that dared to guard him.

However, it wasn’t only Hairston who picked up his game.

Freshman Marcus Paige began to exhibit the poise and leadership Tar Heel fans have come to expect from their floor generals, averaging 10.5 points and five assists in the course of the final 12 games of the season. Reggie Bullock continued his consistent play, Dexter Strickland returned to his pre-injury level, and James Michael McAdoo managed to produce some consistent outings.

The team wasn’t the most talented squad Coach Williams has ever assembled, but it became one of my favorites to watch over the final third of the season. It wasn’t because of how good they were, but because of how much better they had become. The same team that looked like it might never score a basket again when facing Texas or Miami now looked as imposing as any team in the country, with Bullock and Hairston hitting 3-pointers from every angle and McAdoo channeling his natural athleticism into actual results.

So although the season did not end the way Tar Heel fans had hoped, we have a great deal to be proud of. No matter how frustrating it was to watch the 2012-13 team play some nights, you have to respect the consistent fight it displayed to improve.

But the job Coach Williams has done to move this team forward should carry over into the 2013-14 season. With a Top 10 class on the way and only one scholarship senior graduating, the Tar Heels look poised for a year that should produce the type of success to which Tar Heel fans are accustomed.

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sports TRIPLE THE DETERMINATION Ice baths, post-race blackouts and cramped muscles.

For most college students, this may sound like a Friday night disaster. For the 20 members of the UNC-Chapel Hill triathlon team, it’s the aftermath of an all-out race.

Incorporating hard work and pain into daily life, the team pursues a hard-fought passion that requires total commitment from all members.

The UNC-CH triathlon team was founded in 2001 by undergraduate student Adam Pomerantz with the help of fellow triathlete and graduate student David Williams.

Williams has remained integrally involved with the club team and serves as its current coach. “[Being a triathlete is] an art form, really,” Williams says. “It does take a lot, competing in three sports and trying to keep up your strength.”

Williams, who specializes in training triathletes, runs the team’s weekly practices throughout the year.

“We have Tuesday and Thursday morning swims together and Tuesday night track workouts,” says Gil Cukierman, a sophomore and the team’s president.

Cukierman also says that bike workouts and additional practices throughout the week are coordinated among the team members depending on their class schedules.

The demands of this training regimen can only be handled with a sharp sense of time management, according to Cukierman.

“It’s really tough, but we’ve all got online calendars,” he says. “You’ve got your classes in there, your workouts in there. A lot of us really do schedule our workouts as if they were classes.”

Mollie Brewer, a senior exercise and sports science major and the club’s former vice president, plans her day down to the minute.

“Everything is planned in the day—I even include rest,” Brewer says. “I get up really early to do homework before classes start. I just have to make that time. If you love something that much, you can make time for it.”

According to Brewer, a love for triathlon training also means facing pain.

“I’ve had days where I’ve slept for more than 13 hours,” Brewer says. “Sometimes it’s just a full body exhaustion, and you literally want to lie on the floor, but it’s a good hurt because you’ve done well.”

Race days often demand that triathletes push themselves beyond their limits.

“The longer ones really just take you over at the end, and honestly the pain has gone away by the middle of the run,” says Will Sickenberger, a sophomore psychology major from Reston, Va. “You can’t feel your legs at all at the finish line, and if you can feel them, you’re cramping up.”

According to Cukierman, post-race blackouts do happen.

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CTOPS 2013

“Last year at collegiate nationals, I remember crossing the line, then having a couple-minute gap and waking up in the ice bath,” Cukierman says. “Once you cross the line, your body kind of decides it’s over. The recovery sometimes takes a good bit.”

Despite the physical demands of being a college triathlete, members of the triathlon team say that the club’s shared sense of community is incredibly rewarding.

“I have made some of my best friends [through the club],” says Logan Cerwin, a sophomore biology major from Charlotte and the club’s current vice president. “Just being able to be part of a club that is so committed to doing what I love as well has been so much fun.”

According to Cukierman, this sense of community and common interest also serves as a powerful motivator to continually improve as a triathlete.

“We’ve had new members come out, train with us a bit and sign up for races,” Cukierman says. “They’re nervous before the race; not sure if they can finish [but] end up finishing, and it’s a really cool thing to see. A lot of times after the first race, they catch the triathlon bug, and we have members for the next four years.”

Because triathlon is not an NCAA sport, the UNCCH triathlon team competes nationally against other university club teams through the United States Triathlon Collegiate Program. The program is organized by USA Triathlon, the sport’s governing body, and includes over 140 student-led college teams divided into 10 regional conferences. The UNC-CH Triathlon Team competes in the program’s Mid-Atlantic Conference alongside many familiar athletic faces, including Duke University and the University of Virginia.

For Brewer, the club’s team-oriented collegiate races are one of the greatest ways in which a sense of camaraderie is fostered among its members.

“One thing that’s my favorite about collegiate triathlon is the team aspect,” Brewer says. “In collegiate triathlon, it’s scoring for points. Teammates are pushing each other—the atmosphere is unlike anything else in the country because of the team aspect. They’ve taken an individual sport and made it into a team sport.”

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By Andrew edwards PHOTOs BY lisa dzera

Triathlon Team member Chris Pollenz is a freshman from Raleigh studying Astrophysics.

Sophomore Logan Cerwin of Charlotte, NC, currently serves as the Vice President of the Triathlon Team.

shorts player profile: Kelsey Kolojejchick As a four time All-American, selection recipient of several All-ACC awards and member of the U.S. national team for field hockey, senior Kelsey Kolojejchick is used to being in the spotlight.

However, while striving for that fourth All-American selection was a personal goal for Kolojejchick’s season, this year was all about helping the field hockey team reach its goals as a unit.

“I always put the team first. I want to win,” Kolojejchick says. “I would do whatever it takes to reach that main goal.”

And Kolojejchick’s teams have certainly been winning. During her four years at Carolina, field hockey has won a national championship and finished as a runner-up three times. As Kolojejchick enters the last few weeks of her senior year, she has started to look back on how her time at UNC-CH has shaped her experiences.

“You will always represent Carolina throughout your entire life,” she said. “Being a Tar Heel is just an awesome thing. You will never regret it.”

Kolojejchick’s time at Chapel Hill was also spent playing for another team—the USA Women’s Field Hockey Team.

During her freshman year, Kolojejchick had a standout year for the Carolina team and was selected to play for the U.S. national team. In the spring of 2010, she enrolled in online classes so she could travel with the national team.

For Kolojejchick, having the chance to represent her country was—and still is—an honor.

“When you hear that national anthem playing, you’re just like, ‘wow,’” Kolojejchick said. “I’m representing the entire country. A program is one thing, but you’re representing something bigger than that, bigger than yourself.”

Despite getting an opportunity to play on the biggest stage, Kolojejchick did not mind returning to Chapel Hill for her senior year, where she spent more time with the team and made some of her best memories off the field.

“We were able to grow,” said Kolojejchick. “It was fun to have a little change from just constantly playing field hockey.”

For this field hockey star, it’s the best of both worlds. Through the ups and downs, she is a member of two teams, one collegiate and one national, that she cares for dearly.

Yet, while the stars and stripes are an honor to don, Kolojejchick will miss putting on her Carolina Blue uniform each week.

“You’re representing something bigger than yourself when you put on this uniform. The program, the history, the University and other athletes, not just your sport, past and present,” Kolojejchick says.

“You think about Mia Hamm, Michael Jordan and so many amazing athletes that came out of this program and wearing these jerseys.”

Kolojejchick doesn’t know exactly what’s in store for her after her May graduation. She plans to continue playing for her country, but she also has dreams of becoming an ESPN broadcaster. Wherever she goes, the spotlight will shine brightly on the accomplished field hockey player.

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You can quit for you want, and no one will care. But you will know for the rest of your life.

—John Collins, Co-founder of the IRonman Triathlon

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By Sydney harris PHOTOS by Mark perry

www.blueandwhitemag.com

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one issue,

The Summer Money STRUGGLE An unpaid internship can provide student with an educational opportunity that a minimum wage job cannot.

—Sarah Molina

Sarah Molina is a freshman from Chapel Hill.

She can be reached at smolina@live.unc.edu.

KATIE GUTT: If you’re lucky enough to get a minimum-

wage job this summer, I say, go for it! Part-time work is a great way to make money, work flexible hours and get references for your resume.

Money, money, money! Even if your job pays the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, that’s still better than working for no pay. A job would help you pay for summer road trips, buy a new pair of Oakley sunglasses or even help you increase your savings. If you work 20 hours a week earning a minimum wage salary all summer, you would earn $2,175 before taxes. That’s a lot of gas, snacks, and clothes.

Most low-wage, college-student-type jobs offer flexible hours. You can work as many hours as you want. I have friends who make a lot of money working full time in the summer. On the other hand, I’ve held jobs where I’ve chosen to work just 10 hours a week. You can work at McDonald’s for as long as you want and still have time for summer fun.

If you want to make a bunch of money, you can. If you want some money but want more time to relax, this is a great option for you, too.

While working at The Gap may not exactly align with your career goals, it can still provide valuable job experience.

The fact that you sought out a job for the summer shows that you are driven and responsible. Working specific jobs can even help you add key skills to your resume. How about managing a team during your afternoon shift at Chick-fil-A? Or working with a sales goal while at The Limited? Your boss can help you decide which attributes you’ll gain while under his or her tutelage. He or she can also be a valuable reference if you perform well.

So don’t turn up your nose at a minimum-wage summer job. You’ll earn money and improve your employability. You can’t beat that!

just as hard as they do during their months in the classroom.

The debate surrounding the value of unpaid internships has surged in response to pressure on undergraduates to leave college with experience related to their intended work field.

Participating in an unpaid internship has value that an unrelated, minimum-wage job cannot match.

First and foremost, an unpaid internship can provide students with an educational opportunity that a minimumwage job cannot. What you learn in an unpaid internship, from handling small responsibilities to observing the work environment firsthand, cannot be found just anywhere. I once listened to a student speaker discuss her internship with a graphic design company. As a journalism student, she had learned graphic design skills in the classroom, and as an intern, she was able to apply those design skills to projects for her company. She also learned about the laid-back environment of the company, how to work with a team and methods for polishing her design skills. As an intern, she was able to gain both experience in her work field and a renewed passion for her major.

On the other hand, I have heard horror stories of students disliking their internships and discovering that they would not want to work in a particular sector. This learning experience is crucial for development as an undergraduate.

For instance, if you think that you want to work for the financial sector, then intern at Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs. You will be able to test your passion for your dream job, and if you find that you don’t actually like the job, you have time to explore a new passion upon returning to school.

Oftentimes, we paint pictures of our desired careers without having concrete knowledge of the day-to-day requirements of the job. There is no better way to explore your dream job than through a summer internship.

SARAH MOLINA: Summer used to mean time to relax—to lounge at the pool, hang out with friends and spend a long afternoon with an entertaining read. However, summer has recently become a time in which students work

KG: On the surface, it is difficult to justify taking a job as a waitress when there are internships available in your major’s line of work. Why work for less than minimum wage plus tips when you could be putting what you’ve learned in eco-

What is your most bizarre freshman memory?

PHOTOS By Wendy Lu

Brian Harris, senior

My suitemates came in from a party at 3:30 in the morning. They knocked on my door for 15 minutes. We let them in, and they came in and went to sleep on our beds.

Jennifer Archer, junior

We woke up one morning and someone had barricaded the lounge by pushing furniture against the doors so no one could get in.

two views

Is your summer better spent sitting on a lifeguard stand or fetching coffee for your intern supervisor?

Each month, two writers take opposing views on a current topic.

Disclaimer: The views expressed by the writers do not necessarily represent their own views or opinions. nomics classes to work through an internship with an insurance company or bank? A minimum-wage job may not offer the opportunity to use what you learn in class in a career setting, but there are some skills that can’t be taught in school that also need honing.

Social skills are seldom taught in class, but they are expected in all manners of employment. Learning to smile in the face of pressure and helping a troublesome customer get his or her lunch order fixed will benefit you in two ways. First, you will learn valuable customer relations skills. Jobs ranging from pediatric oncologist to Harris Teeter cashier require this ability; it’s better to perfect this over the summer and get paid to do so. Second, when your boss or supervisor sees you developing your people skills, he or she will be more likely to offer you a promotion or a stellar recommendation for future employment. Developing workplace social skills over the summer through minimum-wage work is both a personal benefit and a wallet-friendly use of your time.

Finally, while unpaid internships can show you the types of careers you won’t enjoy in the future, I’d argue that minimum-wage jobs could work the same way.

Most of these jobs require a lot of social interaction, as mentioned above, which is an important factor to consider when planning for a career. Do you want a job where you have to deal with customers face to face several times an hour, or would you feel more comfortable in a setting where you interact with others via the computer? Would you rather have a job that involves physically moving from place to place, or do you feel more comfortable working from a desk? All of these factors are important things to consider when planning summer activities and future career plans.

SM: An unpaid internship provides students with a value not easily quantified. Although a paying job would allow you to have extra spending money to

Taylor Sharp, freshman

Traveling to Kansas City and watching the basketball game [against Villanova]. It was Roy Williams’ 700th win and we sat in front of his wife.

buy a new pair of sunglasses, the value of your unpaid internship is greater than any stylish eyewear. Instead of thinking in the short term, think of securing an unpaid internship as an investment in your future.

While you may not be receiving money for your unpaid internship, you are investing in your future by cultivating experience that can help you when applying to a job after graduating.

Now is the time to hold an unpaid internship rather than post-graduation. As an art history major who hopes to later work as a curator in a museum, I know the importance of internships. In the field of art history, job competition is fierce and specialized. Potential curators all hold higher educational degrees and years of experience interning for museums. Internships at small-name and big-name museums are expected for those wishing to enter the field of curating. Instead of getting an unpaid internship after I graduate, when I have to pay my own rent, I know that now is the time in which I should be gaining practical experience through internships.

Although I won’t argue with the idea that a minimum-wage job would enhance your resume to some degree, an unpaid internship would give you an edge when it comes to writing resumes and getting reference letters. For example, if you are applying to medical school, your internship at a hospital or private medical practice would not only reflect your interest in medicine but also demonstrate the hands-on experience you have received with your intended profession.

Also, your employers would most likely have connections that could be beneficial to you as you begin your application process to medical schools. You also would have the chance to get to know your employers, ask them questions about their work experience and listen to their advice about applications. Don’t miss the opportunity to apply for internships while you are an undergraduate in college in order to gain valuable skills and knowledge for the future.

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Saima Akbar, freshman

When one of my friends ate a hamburger with raspberry jelly and hot sauce. He said it tasted good.

Part-time work is a great way to make money, work flexible hours and get references for your resume.

—Katie Gutt

Katie Gutt is a sophomore from Matthews.

She can be reached at gutt@live.unc.edu.

On Carolina Time Kate Albers

is a freshman from Mooresville.

She can be reached at kalbers@live.unc.edu.

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CTOPS 2012

Remember to Slam Dunk One day before leaving my comfortable home for a less plush life in a college dorm, I was throwing my life’s collection of things into boxes. Literally. With “Say Yes to the Dress” on in the background, I chucked a sweater from the bed into a plastic tub. Two points for me. I ran from the kitchen with a plastic square of new sheets, jumped and slam-dunked the essentials into a Rubbermaid bin on my dresser. Another two points.

College packing was a game. It hadn’t hit me yet that I was really moving away from home. When you pack for the wonderful, the amazing, the gamechanging UNC-Chapel Hill, don’t sweat the small stuff.

Packing isn’t really a game full of alley-oops, 3-pointers and buzzer-beaters. And as long as you don’t procrastinate too much, you’ll have time to jam that fluffy mattress pad into your suitcase and pack up in just 24 hours.

First four hours:

Packing day begins with you sleeping. Your mom barges into your room and demands your attention as she babbles about duvet covers versus comforter sets. You moan and roll over. This continues for what feels like an eternity until you smell French toast cooking in the kitchen.

Second four hours:

Still tasting that dash of cinnamon and hint of maple syrup, you stare at the gigantic pile of laundry some evil demon must have left sitting on your bed. Playing “Call of Duty” on Xbox, catching up on “Gossip Girl” or even pulling out the old Gameboy Color seems more appealing than sorting through that mess of clothes. And so you choose to save your fellow soldier from that fictional sniper, relate to Blair Waldorf ’s love troubles or even reminisce with Pikachu in an imaginary world on an outdated green Gameboy—that laundry can wait until later.

Third four hours:

As you start to get hungry again, you meander into the kitchen. After making a sandwich, you sit down at the table where your mom has strategically placed a magazine about organization. Flipping casually through the pages, you start to realize how completely unprepared you are to leave for school. You almost choke on said sandwich. This is when you start to call for help. Your parents soothe your worries and recommend a trip to Target or Wal-Mart. Gladly accepting the suggestion, you gulp down the rest of your sweet tea and head out the door.

Fourth four hours:

Returning home with plastic crates, a bookcase and a neat shoe organizer, you finally tackle that pile of laundry. When you sort your clothes by season, only taking what you’ll need at first, you feel less overwhelmed. Pack only the clothes you know you need and will wear. Donate the rest or leave them for a younger sibling or friend. Also, I can promise that you won’t need 15 pairs of shoes. Athletic shoes, waterproof shoes, sandals and a pair for special events are all that’s needed. After sorting, remember to slam-dunk.

Fifth four hours:

After you’ve packed your clothes, shoes and jackets, you stare at the pile of things you have. You wonder how it’ll fit in your dad’s Toyota Prius. You stare and think that there is no possible way you are prepared. You think you don’t have enough stuff and become so panicstricken that you run from your room and out the front door. Again, off to Wal-Mart you go.

Sixth four hours:

You return with an ironing board, a toaster, a Keurig coffee maker, a stereo, a new swivel chair and a purple lamp and proceed to dump all of them on the floor. You step over the clutter in distress because you’ve just realized you do not have the most important things: UNC-CH apparel or memorabilia. Take a deep breath. Count to five. Shake it off. Relax. You have time, and it will all work out. You will make it to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, fully prepared for all your new adventures.

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