The Signal: Spring '13, No. 11

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Freshman Council receives formal funding

Ashtin Helmer Pitched a perfect 4-0 for softball

see News page 7

See Sports page 32

Vol. CXXXVIII, No. 11

April 10, 2013

Serving The College of New Jersey community since 1885

M&S Guitar wins Mayo Awareness raised Understanding autism

Nisha Agarwal / Staff Photographer

Pfenninger, Seyffart and Matteson win for their guitar-building business. By Courtney Wirths & News Assistant Christopher Rightmire News Editor The final round of the College’s Mayo Business Plan Competition was held on Wednesday, April 3. Three teams competed for the honor, as well as prize money, totaling $20,000, which was given toward starting each team’s business. “This is a campus-wide competition,” said William Keep, dean of the Business School. The competition drew in participants from 5 of the College’s schools. The winning team on Wednesday evening was M&S Guitar. The team plans to offer customizable guitars with the same quality sound as many classic designs, but at more affordable prices. The team stressed that they didn’t want guitar purchasing to have to be based on “the size of a wallet or the excellence of talent.” The two other teams competing were SurpriseMe and Campus Corner Laundry. SurpriseMe is an app that would allow users to create a profile with their favorite items. Businesses would also have a profile and other users could purchase items for their friends using the app. Campus Corner Laundry is a plan for an on-campus laundry service that would be run out of the Brower Student Center. Students

would purchase different plans depending on how frequently they wanted their laundry done. Each team was required to present their business plan to a panel of judges. The judges were then free to ask the team questions about the finances and operations of the potential company. The idea for M&S Guitar’s product came from senior mechanical engineering major Alex Matteson. Matteson has been playing guitar since he was nine years old, and making the guitar had been a project he was working on by himself. “People would come in and out of the machine shop here at the school and I would say, ‘I am doing this, this and this,’” Matteson said. “And enough people said, ‘Hey, why don’t you try entering it in the business plan competition,’ that I figured I would go to the info session.” From there, Matteson asked two of his closest friends, Tim Pfenninger, junior finance major and James Seyffart, junior accounting major, to join him. “I got two of my friends who were the best business people I knew, and we put a team together,” Matteson said. The team plans to grow their business with the $12,000 awarded by the competition. They will work together on the weekends to build guitars that are ordered online as well as guitars they sell at shows. “The reason why in our business plan we can offer these guitars starting at $900 is because we are in a unique situation,” Matteson said. “The skilled labor is the owner of the company.” The team only needs to sell 18 guitars in the first year in order to be profitable. Judges told M&S Guitars that they were victorious because it was evident that even if the competition didn’t exist, they would still be working on starting this business. They had the interest and drive. Next year the business school hopes to raise greater interest in the competition by having a larger monetary award. “I hope to make things a little more interesting next year,” Keep said, “and I can tell you (the prize money) will not be going down.” When asked what he learned from the competition, Matteson said, “It isn’t work if you like it. When you are cursing at it at the end of the day, you can step back and say it is still a guitar, and honestly guitars are cool.”

Lianna Lazur / Photo Editor

Autism is discussed at a parent-professional panel. By Amy Reynolds Managing Editor In the United States, one out of every 88 children has autism. In New Jersey, however, that number jumps to one in every 49 children, according to Debbie Schmidt, a mother of a child with autism and a presenter for Autism Awareness Week at the College. Events on Monday, April 1 kicked off Autism Awareness Week, a tradition that was started just two years ago. “I believe autism is an experience,” said Shridevi Rao, associate professor in the department of special education, language and literacy and graduate coordinator for the special education graduate programs. “We need to peel the layers and try to understand how people with autism experience the world and engage with the ways in which

this experience is different from or similar to ours.” According to Richard Blumberg, director of the Center for Autism at the College, preparations for Autism Awareness Week began in the fall of 2012. Preparations included inviting presenters, creating visual representations, fundraising and planning a variety of activities. “The mission of TCNJ is to prepare this generation to change the world,” Blumberg said. “Autism awareness is about everyone being involved in that change.” The week consisted of a parentprofessional panel, the presentation “Representations of Autism in Films: body, behavior, identity and presence,” the presentation “What does Autism Look Like?” by Just 2 Moms, a human puzzle piece, and more. According to Rao, the assumption see AUTISM page 3

New performing arts minor announced

By Tom Kozlowski Opinions Editor

The College’s old theatre and drama interdisciplinary minor was struggling. With narrowly specialized courses and declining enrollment, the program was failing to attract those it aimed to serve, students interested not only in art and performance, but in the universality of human expression. As a result, the College’s School of Arts and Communication has announced the integrated performing arts minor, a revised and remodeled program shaped from the foundations of the theatre minor.

INDEX: Nation & World / Page 9 The Signal @TCNJsignal

Modifications have been underway since fall of 2011, yet the products are finally being seen this spring. The IPA minor is an expansion of the previous theatrical experiences; it is designed to not only instruct students in technique and performance history, but to “connect people and communities.” As art interacts between individuals and collective societies, classes in the program will focus on the societal concerns that stem from the arts and, ultimately, influence students to create new works of their own.

Photo courtesy of James Day

see IPA page 3 Students rehearse in Professor Risa Kaplowitz’s VPA 201 class. Editorial / Page 11

Opinions / Page 13

Features / Page 15

Arts & Entertainment / Page 19

Sports / Page 32

Synergy Dance Team performs intense 13th annual recital

Educational Lecture Saving lives through storytelling

Celeb Spotlight Read all about Justin Bieber’s monkey

See A&E page 19

See News page 5

See Features page 15


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