THE MARQUETTE TRIBUNE Volume 93, Number 54
THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2009
www.marquettetribune.org
See real poverty on screen
Chopping off a lock out of love
Hunger Clean-Up, Midnight Run host second film festival By Tori Dykes victoria.dykes@marquette.edu
Photos by Ted Lempke/edward.lempke@marquette.edu
Students donated their hair to Locks of Love yesterday at the AMU. Nineteen students had their hair cut and styled by three volunteers from Glow Salon & Spa, 765 N. Jackson St. The hair gathered will be enough for two wigs, according to Laura Buikus, event organizer.
Engineering offers classes to kids 3-day workshop ends tomorrow By Jeff Engel jeffrey.engel@marquette.edu
A smile lights up Charlee’s face as she starts talking about engineering. She is only 13 years old, but the seventh grader is already set on becoming a biomedical or mechanical engineer. “I like taking stuff apart,” said Charlee, a student at the Milwaukee Academy of Science. “Knowing I can make the future better is exciting.” This week, Charlee and about 20 other students are spending three days of their spring break attending robotics classes offered by Marquette’s College of Engineering Outreach Program. The students, ages 8 to 18, are working with LEGO Mindstorms RCX and NXT robots, and programming them to navigate obstacle courses and accomplish physical tasks. The program began in the summer of 2006 with six courses and 64 students, said Lori Stempski,
an office associate in the College of Engineering. The number of programs and attendees has increased each successive year. This school year, the program expanded to 30 sessions held year-round. The year’s attendance could reach 500 students by the end of the summer, Stempski said in an e-mail. The program’s growth during its first four years has exceeded expectations, said Jon Jensen, associate dean for enrollment management in the College of Engineering. “That’s been gratifying for us,” Jensen said. Jensen started the outreach program with Jack Samuelson, a former high school science teacher in Waukesha. Samuelson served as a private consultant until being made outreach coordinator last June. Besides offering courses on campus, the program involves visits to local schools, workshops for local teachers and engineering conferences, Samuelson said. The college makes no profit from the “self-sustaining” See Engineer, page 2
Photo by Ted Lempke/edward.lempke@marquette.edu
Kids from local schools work on building LEGO Mindstorm Robots in the Olin Engineering Center as part of the Engineering Outreach Program.
TODAY’S WEATHER
INSIDE THE TRIBUNE Milwaukee will celebrate the second-annual Record Store Day at various locations Saturday. PAGE 11
Church attendance for Catholics in America has declined. PAGE 7
Men’s tennis starts Big East Championship play Friday. PAGE 15
High 60 Low 37 Sunny
Complete weather PAGE 2
Leading up to last year’s inaugural Reel Poverty Film Festival, former Marquette student Kurt Raether spent about a month visiting different soup kitchens and filming the stories of the people he met. Instead of presenting a documentary full of statistics, Raether said he “really wanted to get the stories of the people.” Raether, now a sophomore film major at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, won first place in last year’s film festival for his depiction of hunger and homelessness. Similar films will be center stage during tonight’s Reel Poverty Film Festival at the Union Sports Annex from 7 to 10 p.m. The free festival is part of Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, sponsored by Midnight Run. The event will feature four student-filmed pieces ranging from five to 10 minutes long, said Mandi Davis, a junior in the College of Education who helped plan the festival. The films are centered on homelessness and poverty in Milwaukee, but student filmmakers chose how to address the subject matter. So the films will not necessarily all be shot in the style of a straight documentary, said John Ross, one of the festival organizers and a sophomore in the College of Engineering. “We’re trying to make a connection with people through the videos,” Ross said. “Once you see these stories, these problems become a lot more apparent.” There will be additional presentations between the films, including a performance by a choir from Repairers of the Breach, a shelter and homelessness outreach center, as well as poetry readings from a man who used to be homeless, Davis said. The combination of student films and performances from members of Milwaukee’s homeless community “gives people more of a complete view” of homelessness and poverty, Davis said. The festival will also feature a display of photographs submitted as part of a contest sponsored by Hunger Clean-Up, said Megan Heinen, co-chair of the Hunger Clean-Up fundraising committee See Reel, page 3
INDEX DPS REPORTS .......................... 2 VIEWPOINTS ............................. 4 OFF-CAMPUS ........................... 7 MARQUEE ............................... 11 STUDY BREAK ........................ 14 SPORTS .................................. 15 CLASSIFIEDS .......................... 19