Technician
Service Raleigh helps community University clubs team up to serve local community in largest student-initiated service project Annie Albright News Editor
29 2010
Student college investment passes Congress Congress ends subsidizing of banks for college loans and provides more funding for Pell Grant Program David Britt Staff Writer
Tim O’Brien/Technician
Student volunteers get breakfast and find their groups for Service Raleigh Saturday morning. The combination of Service Raleigh, the engineering open house, Raleigh Relays track meet and a marathon down Hillsborough Street made the traffic around campus difficult and gave most groups a slow start.
volunteering and doing good. “It was mandatory for our sorority but it is also a great way to give back to the community and volunteer,” Frena said. “It was a lot of fun because all of your friends do it and stuff.” Frena said her group focused on the landscaping of an area school. “We went to an elementary school,” Frena said. “My group dug trenches and did the whole entrance flower bed by digging all the plants up and replanting them.” Frena said the parents of students who attend the elementary school were extremely helpful during the project. “There were parents there as well to lead little groups all over,” Frena said. “Some people would like put mulch down to make it a lot nicer for the children, and a lot of the parents were really excited that we were there.” The biggest reward, Frena said, was the appreciation of parents. “They kept coming up to us and saying how they were so excited to have us there and how much it meant to them,”
Frena said. “They kept telling up how they were so proud to call it their school.” Long said it was a great experience because the difference they made was evident. “I think it was a good experience just because it was so tangible,” Long said. “We worked a elementary school, planting painting benches, etc, and when we got there it was looking really dry and dead because of the winter. When we left it was obvious the difference that we had made, so it was so satisfying because it was very tangible.” Frena said she would really encourage other students to become involved with Service Raleigh and that she would definitely consider volunteering again. “I definitely would, especially if you have a group of people to do it,” Frena said. “It’s like a bonding time and it’s not like it’s hard or anything, its just a few hours out of the day.”
Tim O’Brien/Technician
Pulling ivy from a pine tree, Tsekai English, freshman in mathematics, volunteers with the Society of African Americans in Physical and Mathematical Sciences at Edna Metz Wells Park for Service Raleigh Saturday morning.
Trey Warren named first Mr. Engineer, pageant exceeds expectations Pageant raises more than $600 for Society of Women Engineers’ Relay for Life team Jessica Neville Science & Tech Editor
The Society of Women Engineers sponsored the first Mr. Engineer Pageant Friday in Stewart Theatre with more than 200 students in attendance. The pageant coordinators designed the event as a way to raise money for SWE’s Relay for Life team and they hope to make the event an annual tradition. Lisa Moll, a junior in material science and engineering, said the purpose of the event was to raise money for a worthy cause and bring attention to the Society of Women Engineers as well as the College of Engineering. “We have participated in Relay for Life for the past two years and we were trying to think of a unique way to raise money,” Moll said. “We only thought of this idea in January, so everything had to be planned in two months.” Friday’s competition for the title of Mr. Engineer was between 11 male engineering students from different departments within the College of Engineering. Moll said 12 finalists were
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Service Raleigh, an annual citywide day of service, was held Saturday. The 13th annual installment of the event brought together many campus groups and students to help the community. Victoria Frena, a freshman in criminology, said she participated in the event for the first time with her sorority, Chi Omega. “One of our girls is big on volunteering so when she heard about it she said she had a really good idea for our sorority and our president decided we should do it,” Frena said. Breanne Long, sophomore in biological engineering and Chi Omega community service chair, said volunteering at Service Raleigh has become a tradition with the sorority. “It was an optional service event but several girls had to go out of town or they had work, but it was encouraged certainly and we had about 46 girls attend,” Long said. “It’s an event that we have participated in for several years now and I’m the community service chair so I signed us up about a month ago and I registered us as a group to attend and volunteer at a time.” Nathan Maher, a senior in mechanical engineering, said his club, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) also participated. “We got to pick up trash around Lake Raleigh,” Maher said. “We actually had people on canoes, going around and picking it up around the lake. It was a really nice day and I met a lot of people I hadn’t met before.” Although it was a lot of work, Frena said she enjoyed representing the University by
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selected from approximately 25 appli- the title of Mr. Engineer. Warren said cations. One of the finalists was unable his friends ask him to participate and he agreed because he saw that it was to participate because of illness. “The application asked questions for a good cause. “My costume was a lot of work, but on career goals, school involvement and why they wanted to participate it was worth it. All of the participants in this event,” Moll said. “All of the were very talented and I had a great applications were good and it was hard time participating,” Warren said. “I think it was run very well for the first to make the selection.” The students competed in four cate- year. It can definitely be bigger and better in the fugories: interview, ture as more peotalent, business ple get involved.” attire and a pracWarren’s taltice FE exam. ent was a song he The FE exam is wrote and played a standard enon t he g uita r gineering exam about the Mr. that was taken Eng ineer pagbeforehand and eant. References comprised 10 of Trey Warren, junior in construction to the University the 100 total posengineering and the College sible points in of Engineering the competition. Four judges gave up to 35 points in his song made it successful with for talent, 35 points for an on-stage the audience. The runner-up for the Mr. Engineer interview, and 10 points for “profespageant was Jordan Shelly who represional attire.” “The professional attire was a cre- sented civil engineering. In addition, ative way for the competitors to rep- the audience had the opportunity to resent their major,” Moll said. “For ex- select a People’s Choice winner by ample, the construction engineer wore writing the name of their favorite engineer on a slip of paper. a costume shaped like a bulldozer.” The People’s Choice winner was Trey Warren, the construction engineer in question, ended up winning Richard Pridgen, a senior in paper
“All of the participants were very talented and I had a great time participating.”
science and chemical engineering who represented chemical engineering in the pageant. “I did it against my better judgment, but I had a lot of fun,” Pridgen said. “It’s cool to meet people in other disciplines of engineering. There were some majors I had never even heard of.” Pridgen’s talent was a song he improvised after asking a member of the audience to tell him what he should sing about. The topic was puppies. Diana Beck, a sophomore in psychology, attended the pageant because her friend was a member of the Society of Women Engineers and she thought it sounded interesting. “It definitely met my expectations. It was really entertaining and all of the guys did a good job,” Beck said. “My favorite was Mr. Chemical Engineer because his song made the whole audience laugh.” Tickets were sold for $3, which resulted in a total of more than $600 raised for SWE’s Relay-forLife team.
$6.00 T-Shirt Sale @ NC State Bookstores All Soffe brand t-shirts Reg. 2 for $20
Congress passed new legislation on March 21 that will take private banks out of the student loan market. The government will provide all student loans instead of banking institutes like College Foundation of North Carolina, Sallie Mae and other commercial banks. The United States government has been subsiding commercial banks to give out student loans. Through this process the government would provide the capital and assume a majority of the risk while commercial banks would hand out the loans to the students and gain a fee from the government. Jake Bloodworth, chair of Tuition and Fees Committee in the N.C. State’s Student Senate, said he believes the program is important to students. “I like the idea of the program because I think it is important,” Bloodworth said. “Financial aid is hurting and more students are applying for financial aid and parents are losing jobs. I think that it is important that if we can cut out a middle man, I think it is something we should do.” According to the bill, subsidized payments that would be given to the commercial banks will be put back into the Pell Grant program and funding for community colleges as well as allow students to easily pay back their student loans. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the savings from this bill will be in the area of $61 billion. Some of these savings will be used to fund the objectives of the bill. Julie Rice Mallette, associate vice provost and director of the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid, said the changes would save the federal government money. “In the long run probably having the Federal Direct Loan Program as the only loan choice will save the federal government money,” Mallette said. “If they turn around and use these savings and increase the funding of the Federal Pell Grant program, other education initiatives that will improve access for students then that will be a good thing.” Mallette said one of the key measures of this bill would be the influx of money into the Pell Grant program. Out of the $61 billion in savings, $36 billion will go to Pell Grants. She said if this money had not been put into the Pell Grant program, it is possible that the Pell Grant would have decreased. The bill will increase the maximum amount of the grant to $5,500 for the
Legislation continued page 3
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