Party auction breaks records from previous years. — Page 3
Soccer at Seward Soccer program to kick off in two years. — Page 7
September 27
Hope & Serenity arrive on campus
Mediterranean Nights
2011 Turning the page
Roommates find common ground. — Page 5
Crusader • RUSSIAN GROUP who visited Seward County Community College Friday Sept. 23. was hosted by the Liberal Rotary club as part of the international district exchange program. This is a program which sends a representative group of people to visit a foreign country in an effort to promote cultural understanding and peace. The group will be in America for 3.5 weeks particularly the Southwest region of Kansas. While in Liberal, they visited Dorothy’s House, The MidAmerica Air Museum. Team Leader Svetlana Chelnokova said, “I feel the boys and girls in America should feel very luck. They have so many opportunities available to them.” •A TEACHER WORKSHOP this Wednesday brought area teachers to campus. Forty-one teachers representing 22 schools attended this year. SCCC has hosted this workshop for more than 10 years. Math and science teachers from middle school to high school are invited to participate at no cost. It is an opportunity for teachers to learn new ways of teaching. •VISIT OPSU Any student wanting to go must sign up by Oct. 21 in Room AA150 with school counselor Star L. Triscornia. Students will be leaving at 8 a.m. and be back by 2 p.m. Nov 4. They will need to provide their own lunch money. •SEWARD PRES is where followers can find college President Dr. Duane Dunn on Twitter. Login through mycampus on the SCCC website, under Official News from SCCC/ATS and see that SCCC/ATS President Dunn has now joined Twitter. He is staying up to date with social networking like Twitter and also Facebook. •BLACKOUT NIGHT is at 6:30 p.m Wednesday at the Green House. Support the Lady Saints volleyball by wearing black clothing that night. Lady Saints will be selling official Seward County blackout shirts throughout the day Wednesday for $12 each. Contact Roy Allen at roy.allen@sccc.edu for questions or to make a shirt purchase. •BRISKET SALE The Saints Booster Club will be selling briskets. They will be available at the Saints basketball preview night Tuesday, Oct. 25. Billy’s Mexican Grill & Q will be smoking the briskets. Briskets will be selling at $40 each. Contact Galen McSpadden to make purchases at galen.mcspadden@sccc.edu or call (620) 4171550. •RONALD RADFORD will be performing his soul-stirring music for the community, playing the flamenco guitar at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15 at the SCCC/ATS Showcase Theatre. Tickets available at Baker Arts Center, 624 N Pershing Ave. or by calling (620)624-2810. Tickets will also be sold at the door. •FINANCIAL AID refunds are in. The checks are available in the business office ready for students to come by and pick them up. •DAVID CARILLO, sophomore, was the first place winner of the CrusaderNews.com planking contest. Freshman Andrew Wolford was the second place winner. •KICKBALL INTRAMURAL sign-ups are due on Friday. For more information contact Wade Lyon at 620-417-1064 or at wade.lyon@sccc.edu.
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SCCC/ATS to receive a $4 million STEM grant Seward County Community will be receiving a $4 million dollar STEM grant. A STEM grant is used toward Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The grant is a classified as a competitive grant with money available at the federal level. “We found out we were eligible in April,” college President Dr. Duane Dunn said. “We
worked on it quite a while.” Dunn was notified by Sen. Jerry Moran’s office last week that the grant had been approved. “We are still waiting on the written notification,” Dunn said. “We anticipate that this week or next week we’ll get the official one.” The funds will be spread out through a five year period with about $800,000 per grant year.
The money will be used towards building a couple of greenhouses for the agriculture department which will be the first project, then new class additions will come afterwards. The first project that will be set into place is the sustainable agriculture; with a program that will focus on soil, water and plant growth. Another program that will be
brought in due to the grant will be food safety. That program will allow for lab testing of food products. This will not be implemented until the third year of the grant term. The grant also allows for a transfer specialist to be brought to the college. The transfer specialist will be able to assist students transfering to the university level.
“This will help our counselors and advisers,” Dunn said. Also, the math and physics labs will be able to have improvements because of the grant. The grant requires students to transfer into a bachelor’s degree and hopefully return with new ideas and new careers to better improve the southwest Kansas area.
Perkins receives Western region award Perkins said. College president Duane Dunn nominated Perkins for the award Years of dedication have led by the Seward County CommuPamela Perkins to receive the nity College/ Area Technical Professional Board Staff Mem- School Committee Board in late ber award. spring. “I can’t think of a more Perkins has been working for deserving person,” Dunn said. “I Seward County Community was glad to nominate her.” College for 20 years. In order to receive the award, Perkins started at the college Perkins had to be a member of as an administrative assistant to the Professional Board Staff Netthe dean of instruction and has work. On the PBSN, Perkins has since been the adserved as presiministrative assisdent, vice presitant to president dent, and secresince 1995. tary. There are five reWhile she was gions, one of them president, Perkins being the Western became involved region, and Perkins with eBay. The was chosen as the PBSN did not region winner of have a gavel, and the Professional Perkins decided Board Staff Memshe would fix ber Award. that. In order to rePerkins purceive the award, chased a “beautiPerkins will have ful rosewood to travel to Amarilgavel” from eBay Perkins lo, Texas, in October. and passed it on at While there, a winthe end of her presidential term ner will be chosen from the re- in San Diego, Calif. gional winners for the national Besides purchasing the necesaward. sary gavel, Perkins also was inPerkins was in Wichita when volved in drafting an informashe was notified that she was the tional brochure because the award winner for the Western re- PBSN did not have one. Perkins gion. was also the one who started a Perkins spent 51 days in Wi- blog for the PBSN. chita with her husband, who was Perkins is involved in Saints hospitalized due to health prob- Educational Support Staff, lems. which is the organization on “It was nice thing to hear amid campus, a local level similar to everything that was going on,” PBSN.
Hei dy Mol i na Editor
Crusader photo/Megan Spain-Crusader illustration/Jose Medrano
Lily and Junior Bernabe pose on campus while texting. The couple is one of the growing number of married couples who have met online. The couple will celebrate their eight month anniversary in October.
Online couple finds link to true love Megan S pai n Entertainment editor Liliana and Federico Bernabe Jr., aren’t the only married couple on the Seward campus, but they do have an unexpected twist in their story: when they met face-to-face for the first time, they had been dating for nearly seven months. Liliana and Federico, better known as Lily and Junior, met in July 2009 on an online dating website. They talked through the website for a few days, before Junior finally asked Lily for her phone number. “Right off the bat, we both felt a connection that made us feel like we knew each other from our childhood days,” Lily remembered. After texting each other day and night, they found out that they were both from Arvin, Calif., although Junior’s family had moved to Liberal while Lily still resided in the small California town. On Aug. 23, 2009, Junior officially asked Lily out, but she told him she needed time to consider the distance and if they would be able to make it work. Five days later, he had an answer: Lily told him yes. In March 2010, Junior and his father and brother traveled from Liberal, to Arvin, Calif. (a trip of 1,172 miles) to meet Lily for the first time. As Lily waited for her
boyfriend to arrive, her friends kept fueling her doubts. They thought that Junior would not be anything like he appeared to be, or worse he wouldn’t show up at all. Eventually, Junior arrived and the couple hugged. “When we hugged, everything felt so perfect,” Lily said. Finally, after nearly eight months of continuously speaking either via text message or computer, the couple went on their first date. Junior remembers that he sat on the same side with Lily in the booth of the restaurant they went to, because he didn’t want to be away from her for one second. After a three hour first date, Junior had to return to Liberal with his father and brother. After meeting for the first time, Lily and Junior kept planning when they would see each other again. However, Junior had a certain question to ask Lily. On December 13, 2010, Junior proposed to Lily over the phone. Though she was initially shocked, eventually she answered and told him that yes, she would marry him. Junior’s parents made the plan to once again travel to California so that he could officially ask for Lily’s hand in marriage. Junior and his family arrived on Jan. 6, but Liliana had yet to tell her parents that her boyfriend was going to be in town. Right before he and his family
arrived, about 30 minutes before, Lily finally told her parents that her boyfriend was going to come visit her. They all talked for several minutes and that’s when he officially asked her to marry him. Liliana recalls her parents being shocked. They couldn’t believe Junior had actually come all that way to propose to Lily. Although Lily’s parents tried to convince Lily to wait a couple months to be married, Liliana was stubborn and didn’t want to wait to be married. On the following morning, Jan. 7, 2011, Lily and Junior were married in Bakersfield, Calif. “As soon as I got home with my parents, I started packing,” Lily said. On Jan. 8, Lily, Junior, and his parents headed back to Liberal. Lily and Junior will celebrate their eight month anniversary on Oct. 8. They currently live with Junior’s parents and they are both majoring in business administration. In the future, they plan to transfer to Fort Hays State University. Once they have graduated from Fort Hays, they would like to start a family of their own. “The best thing about being married for us would be that we could count on each other whenever we need someone,” Liliana said. “Doesn’t matter what it is; we always have one another.”
Crusader photo/ Sandy Alfaro
Blanca Richard watches as a tattoo artist works on her temporary tattoo at an SGA event Monday.
Livestock judging team prepares for upcoming competitions Cel esti na Padi l l a News editor The Seward County Livestock Judging Team traveled to El Dorado, Kan. and Omaha, Neb. for competitions. The contest in El Dorado was hosted by Butler Community College, and included approximately 550 participants. Due to the large amount of competition, the SCCC/ATS Judging Team was unable to place in the competition. The Stock Show in Omaha, Neb. was the event the team attended on Sunday. The Show was called A.K.Sarben, and included more than 300 contestants. Though a smaller contest, the same level of competition was evident.
There were about 80 contestants in the sophomore division, and Seward sophomore Corey Wilkins placed as the 7th high individual overall. “I was glad I was in the top 10,” Wilkins commented. “After the contest it's pretty nerve wracking,” Wilkins said. “I'm usually impatient to see how I did." Freshmen placed third in Reasons and also in Sheep. They came out of the competition fourth overall. Freshman Lindsay Bulk placed fifth in the swine division. “The competition was really competitive all weekend long, but I was happy with my personal success, and more importantly the freshmen teams success,"
Bulk said. In preparation for competition, the team goes over reasons with teammates and Agriculture Instructor-Livestock Judging Coach, Brett Crow. "He tells us what we could do differently, or what we are doing a good job of," Wilkins said. The members of the judging team also review terms, and reasons together in order to prep for contests. The team members have clicked because of the similar interests they have, and how much time they spend together. A typical event for the team consists of getting up early in the morning, going to judge 12 classes, giving reasons, and wait-
ing for the results. These events usually end at around 4 or 5 in the evening. Most people don’t know that freshmen and sophomores compete at different time intervals throughout the year. Freshmen start in September and continue to mid-October. Then they have a break and start anew around Thanksgiving. Then they compete from January to February. Sophomores begin in August, and their last national contest is in Houston, Texas, right before spring break. After that they begin their fundraisers for the program.