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THE
Clarion Call CLARION UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1913
APRIL 18, 2013
VOL. 99 ED. 22
Students give back during Community Service Day Leah Loscar STAFF WRITER
CLARION, Pa. - Some events in Clarion bring the university and the community closer together. Community Service Day is one of these events. “This is a college town, and these are the moments you prove it,” said President Karen Whitney to the group of student volunteers who arrived at 9 a.m. in the Gemmell Food Court on Saturday, Apr. 13 to begin a day full of activity and involvement. After receiving breakfast and a T-shirt and hearing a few words from Mayor of Clarion Andrea Estadt as well as President Whitney, students dispersed to their various assigned locations. These locations included both the Brookville and Clarion YMCAs, where students painted, cleaned and organized, as well as County Park on Main Street. The biggest team of the day, comprised of about 30 volunteers, had the task of cleaning up the park. Some students volunteered on their own, while others volunteered as part of an organization.
Clarion students Dallas Hall, Alex Angelone and Michael Robertson remove branches from Clarion University’s Community Service Day. “It’s mandatory for us, but I like volunteering,” said Liz Lipski, Clarion University senior and sister of Delta Zeta. The DZs volunteer at the Golden Living Center, a nursing home in Clarion. The members have volunteered there in the past and performed activities ranging from yard work
to spending time with patients, doing such activities as painting women’s nails. “I love seeing the smile on people’s faces when we come out to help,” said Brittni Nassan, a sister of Delta Zeta and junior at Clarion. Some students signed up prior to Community Service Day, while others
showed up Saturday morning and received task assignments on the spot. “I’m not too picky about the things I do,” said freshman James Ban, who showed up that morning ready to help his community. “I believe it’s something everyone else should be doing.” Ban is the community
of the Clarion University Emerging Leaders program who organized and ran the event. The Emerging Leaders are a group of freshmen looking to get involved. Natalie Godwin, Maura Miller, Clarissa Potsubay, Maria Russo and Alissa Stegman are this year’s Emerging Leaders. They work all semester to plan these community service days. There is one community service day in the fall and one in the spring, and the volunteering sites differ from semester to semester. “We contact places around the area to see who needs service,” said Lizz Murr, Clarion University sophomore and student coordinator of the Emerging Leaders. This was Murr’s third Contributed Photo the yard of Frances Kelly during time running a community service day event. “We’re just a wellservice chair for the Uni- rounded community,” versity Activities Board. said Estadt. “We love hav“I encourage UAB mem- ing the students here.” bers to come help with Before sending stuit, whether it be with a dents out for a producgroup or their own group tive day of community of friends,” he said. involvement, Elizabeth EsThe Advisory Board for tadt, the mayor’s 3-yearLeadership and Engage- old daughter, had some ment sponsored Com- words for the volunteers: munity Service Day, but “Thank you for cleaning it was the young women up our community.”
Clarion students named finalists in PASSHE competition Alizah Thornton NEWS EDITOR
CLARION, Pa. —Clarion University students are using the skills learned in the classroom to their advantage. The university had two student finalists and had five semi-finalists in this year’s Student Business Plan Competition sponsored by the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Finalists Jared Gilmore and Zachery Padasak, both seniors and business management majors, created their entrepreneurial business G&P Plastic. Gilmore and Padasak competed against more than 200 submissions from students across the state. Their project was one of seven that became finalists. G&P Plastics is a manufacturing plastic engineering company that uses a process called extrusion to melt down small beads of plastic into desired shapes; rectangular plates, rods and pipes are the company’s specialty. The shapes can vary in width, color and length and other companies can buy the plastic products to
break them down using their machines to be used for their final products Gilmore said. Gilmore said he and Padasak believe they have a competitive advantage with their company because they make pipes for companies in the Marcellus Shale region. “We created the business because we know the Marcellus Shale region is a huge opportunity for business growth and innovative creations. We also know that the plastic industry is one that is growing steadily and here to stay for a long time,” Gilmore said. Director of the Clarion University Small Business Development Center and professor of Administrative Science
Kevin Roth helped Clarion students begin and develop the projects. The projects began as a part of the Entrepreneurship course in the College of Business. The Clarion University SBDC and Entrepreneurial Leadership Center were made known to the students in the course and offered assistance to students interested in the competition, Roth said. “The overall project was designed to stimulate creativity and entrepreneurial thinking leading to the formation of an entrepreneurial concept and eventual business plan,” Roth said. “We entered into the competition because we felt we had a good, solid business idea
“We are both proud of how far we have gotten, and at this point we are very appreciative of the experience we are gaining.” - Jared Gilmore
that would hopefully pay off in the end,” Gilmore said. First place winners in the competition will receive $10,000; second and third place project will receive $5,000 and $2,500 respectively to begin their businesses, according to a PASSHE press release. “We are both proud of how far we have gotten, and at this point we are very appreciative of the experience we are gaining,” Gilmore said. Roth described working with the students on these projects “exciting.” “They apply classroom concepts to situations
that have direct meaning to their future,” Roth said. “It is rewarding to see their excitement when they realize their ideas and concepts have both value and potential for success.” Gilmore and Padasak’s project was reviewed by professionals with entrepreneurial endeavors of their own. As finalists, they had a personal interview by these professionals in which their business concept was “very well received,” Roth said. Three projects have been turned into actual businesses by students who continued their busi-
THIS WEEK’S EDITION
Inside
INDEX
Casey Ireson gives Autism Speaks presentation. FEATURES PAGE 6
First round of Clarion Idol. ENTERTAINMENT PAGE 9
Clarion athletes named PSAC all-time winners. SPORTS PAGE 12
News Opinion Features Classifieds Puzzles & Comics Arts & Entertainment Sports Standings
ness formation. “It is exciting to see all the Clarion University students recognized for the good work they are doing,” Roth said. The five semi-finalists’ projects from Clarion University were from the following students: BreAnna Kirkland, Brent Bigler, Andrew Naugle and Joshua Domitrovich, Elliot Diamond and Gilmore and Padasak who went on to become finalists. The chart above describes projects of the semi-finalists and finalists from Clarion in the SBDC student business plan competition.
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