High Expectations
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While the women’s basketball team wants to improve on their knowledge of the game, men’s basketball coach said the Mustangs are eyeing national gold.
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Students and community members experienced the Indian culture during Garba dance event.
wichitan
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Wednesday — October 31, 2012
Culture Shock
thewichitan.com — your campus / your news
Frese finds success while battling with schizophrenia Makayla Kinney Staff Writer
Learning to control several psychotic breaks and accepting the diagnosis of schizophrenia were two things well-known psychologist and professor Frederick Frese experienced. On Oct. 25, Frese spoke to faculty and staff about his personal experience with mental illness. “Just because we’re different doesn’t mean we’re deficit. Schizophrenia is a hyper rationality at the sacrifice of common sense. I’m not going to be
ashamed of having this condition,” Frese said. Frese was first diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 25. Since his diagnosis, he has been an advocate for consumers and their families. He is a board member for the National Alliance of Mental Illness to provide a support group for the mentally ill and their families. “Three percent of the population is subject to mental illness. We will no longer be ashamed of the mental illness in our families,” Frese said.
Three months before Frese was diagnosed with schizophrenia, he scored an 810 on the Graduate Record Exam. Even with this lofty score, Frese said it was unlikely for the mentally ill to get a job in the mental health profession. “The difference with mental health disabilities is it isn’t visible,” Frese said. “One common misconception is that all schizophrenics hallucinate. Not all do, but delusions, you have to be careful with them. People with delusions don’t realize what
they’re experiencing is a delusion. To them, it’s reality.” Frese signed a contract with the television show Perception. He has worked with Eric McCormack, the main character, throughout the production of the series. “I just inked the contract last week for a show/series. It’s going to be a lot like MASH. This is going to be set in Afghanistan and in a VA hospital where the chief officer has schizophrenia. I don’t get to sign movie contracts every day, so wish me luck,”
Frese said. Along with teaching and practicing psychology, Frese has written and published books. He said even though people with mental illness may struggle in some areas, they excel better than the average in others. Frese said, like many other people with schizophrenia, his strength was found in writing. “A lot of folks don’t realize that the mentally ill have some strengths better than average. The folks with these disorders get the signal they cannot be socially
accepted in the real world.” Frese is well-known for his humor and his ability to make his audiences laugh. His comical nature was present and accounted for in both places he spoke on campus. “In some places, they call me a stand-up schizophrenic,” Frese said. During the faculty and staff luncheon, Frese talked about national disability
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D E T C E F N I N W O T S L FAL Orlando flores jr. A&E Editor
People dressed as zombies on Saturday during the Zombie crawl. Photo by KERRI CARTER
The route of the 5k took runners through smoke-filled areas like the one pictured above. Photo by KERRI CARTER
The dead inherited downtown Wichita Falls on Oct. 27, as the third annual Wichita Falls Zombie Crawl and 5K took place near the Farmer’s Market Square. The event was sponsored by a number of local businesses, many with booths set up to sell or promote themselves, and the proceeds benefited the Downtown Proud organization, as well as the American Red Cross. “All of the profits from our merchandise, like the Zombie Crawl T-shirts, go straight to the American Red Cross,” Media Coordinator Teri Stalee said. “As well as a portion of the 5K registration fee.” Several students got involved with the planning and production of this event. “I volunteered with Delta Simga Pi registering people for the 5K,” Senior Accounting major Dustin Casey said. “This is the second year I’ve volunteered for this event, and it’s probably the most fun I’ve had at a volunteer event. You always see something new, exciting and interesting.” The Halloween event began at 4:30 p.m. and included a number of events that celebrated the holiday including a costume contest, free concert from four area bands, a rib-eating contest and a flash mob put on by Dance, Etc. One of the main attractions that MSU students got involved in was the art contest, sponsored by the Wichita Falls Downtown
Art Gallery. Students and residents of Wichita Falls were encouraged to enter the contest by Oct. 15, with voting taking place on the Zombie Crawl’s official Facebook page until Oct. 26. The theme of the contest was “creepy” to fit the Halloween holiday, but the event called for zombie-related material. Computer Science majors Lauren Rios, a senior, and Zack Shanks, a sophomore, collaborated on the best-in-show winning piece “Technology Zombies.” “Everybody could do whatever media they wanted, except for sculptures,” Rios said. “So Zack and I put together a digital media piece using Photoshop and other programs.” “We came up with the idea of how people walk around like zombies when they’re on their phones,” Shanks added. “We took a bunch of pictures of our friends, put different skin tones on them and we cropped them all and put them in background pictures and made it look dark.” Rios and Shanks both attended the event last year and said they were looking forward to attending and getting involved with this year’s event. “I came out last year, and had a lot of fun,” Rios said. “I was so excited to take part in [the Zombie Crawl] this year. I’m here to support only, since I’m not a runner, but I made sure to wear my zombie killer shirt.”
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