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DISSECTING MU’S ‘GROSS LAB’ PAGE 36 PAGE 46 NOVEMBER APRIL2015 2016
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CONTENTS 4
EDITOR’S NOTE
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MASTHEAD
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TOP 5 PHOTOS
16 INSIDER
ELEVATOR HORROR STORIES FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE AFTER GRADUATION BACK TO MU PROFILE SCHLABST- INVENTED BY AN MU ALUMNUS
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OPINIONS
INNOVATION OVERUSE C’S GET DEGREES FAITH AND DOUBT
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
FOREIGN LANGUAGE AT THE COLLEGE LEVEL FASHION- PANTONE
NEWS
MKE REVIVAL UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS GROSS LAB
SPORTS
RECRUTING PRACTICES
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EDITOR’S NOTE W
alking on campus in the fall of 2012, I never could have guessed how much I would change by the time of graduation. Most people, especially my fellow seniors, who go through the process of student media and the trial by fire that is a leadership position with the Marquette Wire. Through all the time and effort, laughter and tears, I wouldn’t trade my experience in student media for any other possible experience I could have had at Marquette. The Journal was faced with some challenges this year, and I’d like to thank anyone who worked on the production, because I know at times it was endlessly frustrating. I think the result was worth it in the end, however. I believe we are going to end the year on a good note with some great, well researched stories. We have three stories from the projects desk, some more lighthearted that will pique your curiosity. One of the stories is about undocumented students on campus and the struggles they go through on a daily basis financially and otherwise. The second is about the upcoming revival of Milwaukee’s downtown, with the implementation of the new arena and other developments. The third will explore the “Gross Lab” at Marquette, a unique lab where undergrads get the chance to work with cadavers. The arts and entertainment section has an interview with a craft brewery, as well as an explanation of the different ways people learn languages. I cannot express enough the love I have not only for this organization, but for the people who help run it. Special thanks to Wire Executive Director Drew Dawson, who listened to my late night freak outs and rants on a weekly basis. Another special thanks to Design Chief Eleni Eisenhart, who pulled double time designing both the Tribune and the Journal, making it as beautiful as you see it on the page. I have felt unbelievably honored to be the Managing Editor of the Marquette Journal for the past school year, and I am immensely proud of the work we’ve done. At times it was frustrating to the point of argument, but the final product made it all worth it. I’d like to thank anyone who has contributed to the Journal over the past year, especially the editors who worked on both the Tribune and the Journal all year. I feel incredibly blessed to have had such a great team around me helping to make the Journal as good as it is. I know next year’s editor Stephanie Harte will do a great job next year, making even more improvements to our publication.
- Matt Kulling
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CONNECT facebook.com/MarquetteJournal
The Marquette Wire EDITORIAL Executive Director Andrew Dawson Managing Editor of Marquette Tribune Amy Elliot-Meisel Managing Editor of Marquette Journal Matt Kulling Online Editor of Marquette Wire Becca Doyle
twitter.com/MUJournal instagram.com/mujournal
NEWS News Editor Natalie Wickman Projects Editor Benjamin Lockwood Assistant Editors Nicki Perry, McKenna Oxenden Reporters Ryan Patterson, Jennifer Walter, Gary Leverton, Maredithe Meyer, Brittany Carloni, Dana Warren, Rebecca Carballo, Tricia Lindsey, Devi Shastri, Patrick Thomas, Alex Montesantos, Alex Groth, Lydia Slattery MARQUEE Marquee Editor Stephanie Harte Assistant Editors Eva Schons Rodrigues, Alexandra Atsalis Reporters Dennis Tracy, Thomas Southall, Rachel Kubik, Brian Boyle, Alyssa Prouty, Mark Jessen OPINIONS Opinions Editor Caroline Horswill Assistant Editor Sophia Boyd Columnists Ryan Murphy, Caroline Comstock, Morgan Hughes, Ryan McCarthy SPORTS Sports Editor Dan Reiner Assistant Editors Jack Goods, Peter Fiorentino Reporters Jamey Schilling, Andrew Goldstein, Robby Cowles, John Hand, Thomas Salinas COPY Copy Chief Elizabeth Baker Copy Editors Emma Nitschke, Kayla Spencer, Caroline Kaufman, Becca Doyle, Morgan Hess, Sabrina Redlingshafer VISUAL CONTENT Design Chief Eleni Eisenhart Photo Editor Ben Erickson Opinions Designer Lauren Zappe Marquee Designer Amanda Brotz Sports Designer Anabelle McDonald Photographers Yue Yin, Nolan Bollier, Maryam Tunio, Michael Carpenter, Meredith Gillespie, Isioma Okoro-Osademe
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TOP FIVE LaLumiere Hall illuminates the central mall on a quiet week night.
PHOTO BY NOLAN BOLLIER
Submit your photos of Milwaukee and Marquette to editor@marquettejournal.org
TOP FIVE Teammates Luke Fischer and Jujuan Johnson share a moment of celebration after Fischer scores the winning free throw against Georgetown. PHOTO BY NOLAN BOLLIER
Submit your photos of Milwaukee and Marquette to editor@marquettejournal.org
TOP FIVE A stormy winter sky sets over Engineering Hall.
PHOTO BY MARYAM TUNIO
Submit your photos of Milwaukee and Marquette to editor@marquettejournal.org
TOP FIVE Traffic flies past the timeless brick icons of Marquette University.
PHOTO BY BEN ERICKSON
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TOP FIVE A student takes in the sunset from the top floor of McCormick Hall.
PHOTO BY MEREDITH GILLESPIE
Submit your photos of Milwaukee and Marquette to editor@marquettejournal.org
ELEVATOR HORROR STORIES: STUDENTS SHARE WORST RIDES BY JENNIFER WALTER he words callback and breakdown may spark images of theater kids excited for a second audition or sad to see the end of a show. In the world of elevator maintenance, however, both are terms with negative connotations. Marquette elevators are serviced once every month with additional safety checks throughout the year. A callback is reported when maintenance needs to repair the elevator systems beyond their routine checks. University records show the cause of elevator breakdowns is most often a result of passenger-inflicted damage. “Parts do wear out, but the elevators are serviced often enough on a routine basis that the items most prone to wearing out are attended to prior to failure,” Rick Arcuri, director of business operations and auxiliary services, and elevator systems record-keeper, said in an email.
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McCormick
McCormick Hall racked up the most callbacks out of all residence hall elevators in the past two years — an average of eight per month. For its four elevators, each one broke down an average of two times per month.
Straz
Coming in a close second was Straz Hall with an average of seven callbacks per month and an average 1.9 callbacks per elevator per month. Kara Kibitlweski, a junior in the College of Health Sciences and
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a desk receptionist in Straz, said she witnesses elevator problems during periods of heavy use, such as the afternoon and weekends. “I’ve been (in Straz) at least three times when they’ve broken down,” Kibitlweski said.
Cobeen, Carpenter and Abbottsford
Cobeen’s two passenger elevators and service elevator accumulated a modest number of callbacks: five per month with an average of 1.6 callbacks per unit. Carpenter Tower had slightly higher averages. For its two elevators, there were four callbacks per month, with 2.1 per unit monthly. Cobeen Hall’s freight elevator dates back to 1928, making it the oldest residence hall elevator on campus. The newest passenger elevators on campus were installed in Schroeder Hall during summer 2015. Abbotsford is stuck with the oldest passenger elevators of all the residence halls, but not for long–they’ll be replaced this summer. Sarah Gilbertson, a sophomore in the College of Business Administration, is a DR in Cobeen. She works mornings and evenings and has never seen the elevators break down. “I get more printer questions than elevator questions,” Gilbertson said.
Mashuda and Humphrey
Mashuda and Humphrey Halls were the only residence halls whose elevators have an average
number of callbacks that totals less than one per unit monthly. The cause of these callbacks ranges from tiny accidents to fullout malicious elevator bashing. “Every year or so, we’ll have someone do something egregious,” Arcuri said. Arcuri recalled an incident in the late 1990s where a student in Straz kicked an elevator door to the point where it had to be repaired, costing the student a few thousand dollars in damages. Other notable incidents include students stuffing chip bags in elevator fans and dropping gum into the elevator shafts–the latter sometimes occurring on accident. If the university has proof of a passenger intentionally damaging the elevators, fines can be issued. For the Straz door-basher, security cameras outside the elevator caught him in the act. Instead of physical damage, passengers are more likely to witness trash, strange odors and messes while riding campus elevators. Adam Gottlieb, a sophomore in the College of Engineering and DR in Carpenter, has seen drinks spilled inside elevators and heard many students comment on funny elevator smells. In McCormick, some students have spilled ice cream and other dairy products on the elevator floor. “The elevators (in Carpenter) move quickly, which is good because there are a lot of floors,” Gottlieb said. Such speed leaves little time to cry over spilled milkshakes.
PROJECTS NEWS
FINANCIAL GOALS, ADVICE FOR SOON TO BE GRADS BY TRICIA LINDSAY t is that time of year again when soon-to-be graduates think about life after college and, notably, spending money wisely. Graduates will take different paths after May 22, and Marquette financial experts provide insight for whichever direction they take. Finance instructor Lora Reinholz said recent graduates need to realize they are responsible for shortand long-term goals as they start their post-college lives. “Think before you spend because tracking the money you have available can help you budget and save at the same time,” Reinholz said. After graduation, students can start saving for retirement, investing in stocks, going to graduate school or paying off student loans. For the first months after college, it’s recomended to track income and expenses, organize files for major purchases and accounts and save money whenever possible. “It’s important to think about how you can use your purchases five years from now, not just in the moment,” Reinholz said. Employers can allow depositing paychecks into more than one bank account. Having multiple accounts allows graduates to put money into savings accounts, day-to-day purchase accounts and reoccurring payment accounts for rent, phone bills, insurance and other expenses. Accounting and business instructor Michael Browne said millennials typically waste money when making major purchases such as appliances, automobiles or houses. “Control the small stuff and wasteful spending by using a budget, but focus on the big purchases and don’t sweat the small stuff,”
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FINANCIAL CHECKLIST FOR AFTER GRADUAITON -Begin saving for retirement -Think about how purchases will be used in the future -Diversify where your money goes- Use paychecks to your advantage -Make a short-term and long-term budgetAnnoying at first, but will help in the long run
INFOGRAPHIC BY MATT KULLING
Browne said. “This budget should include estimates for all expenditures including living expenses, fun money spending, student loans and savings.” Associate accounting professor Jim Trebby said paying off credit cards in full each month is extremely important. Credit cards can build up credit but only if they are used in a smart way. Paying off credit card debt can be expensive, so it is advised that graduates stay on top of their purchases by using a financial calculator to check in on debt and investments. Reinholz advises that students use AnnualCreditReport. com and check it annually. To avoid or minimize identity theft, let a trusted family member
or friend know where to find important items like bank accounts, outstanding loans and passwords in case of an emergency. Keeping social security information private will also help. Trebby, Reinholz and Browne suggest that recent graduates establish their 401k plans, set up an emergency fund to cover expenses for three to six months, get renters and life insurance and spend money wisely while having fun along the way. “By using a budget and making smart choices with your money, you will be on your way to a life of wise financial management and independence,” Browne said. “But don’t forget to celebrate your success of graduating college.” APRIL 2016
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BACK TO MU: KRISTINA ROPELLA BY DANA WARREN Kristina Ropella, current Opus Dean for the Opus College of Engineering as well as a professor in the department of biomedical engineering explains what made her time as a Marquette student special. OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM, WHAT ACTIVITIES WERE YOU INVOLVED WITH? I really enjoyed Mass at the Church of the Gesu and being part of the Mass, it was very important to me. DID YOU ENJOY GOING OUT ON WEEKENDS? I enjoyed going out, and I kind of made it a rule that I was very disciplined in my studies during the week, so Friday and Saturday I was out being social, and you know in those days the drinking age was different. While I wasn’t much of a drinker, I did have fun networking and being at parties with people. WHERE WAS YOUR FAVORITE STUDY SPOT? Once I met my husband – he was a library study person – I did learn to go to the library to study. My husband was studying electrical engineering, and we both lived in Carpenter Tower where I was friends with a number of guys on his floor who asked me to come study with them and at one point invited me to a floor party. 18
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HOW DID YOU BECOME INTERESTED IN WORKING AT MARQUETTE? A part of me always wanted to give back. Even when I was thinking about graduate school, I think there was a part of me that wanted to come back, to make a difference in undergraduate education. I remember sitting in some classes thinking, ‘Gosh, why do they make it so hard?’ There was a part of me thinking that maybe I could teach it better or at least change it.
DID YOU HAVE A FAVORITE CLASS THAT REALLY SPOKE TO YOU OR IMPACTED YOUR FUTURE CAREER? I had a few of those... I had a digital electronics class with Dr. Jeff Hock that I thought was very good, and my organic chemistry class with (former dean of the College of Engineering) Mike McKinney was very well taught and it just clicked with me, the way he took a very difficult subject and made it very, I think, simple and logical.
WHICH RESIDENCE HALLS DID YOU LIVE IN? I lived in Cobeen my first two years, I lived in (Carpenter) Tower Hall my third year, and then I lived up in the Cambridge Apartments on 22nd and Wells Streets when I was a senior.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE RESTAURANT IN MILWAUKEE? Wales on Wells was a restaurant that you would go to late at night, and they had some of the best shakes and the best burgers, so that was a favorite thing to do that I think people knew about on campus.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL BEIERMEISTER
Schlabst
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Composed of a simple mixture of Schlitz and Pabst Blue Ribbon beers, Schlabst has gained popularity at local bars all around Milwaukee. Peter Wilt, a Marquette 1982 journalism graduate and the first president and general manager of the Chicago Fire soccer club, invented the brew in the summer of 2008 when he couldn’t decide which beer to enjoy. The indecisiveness of Wilt, with the help of bartender Robyn Vinje of the Highbury Pub at 2322 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., formed a creation that has taken a run of the city. “Robyn (Vinje) went to get me a Pabst, which is my normal beer, and while she was reaching down to get the Pabst, I changed my mind,” Wilt said. “‘No Robin! Get me Schlitz instead.’ So she went to reach for the Schlitz, and I said, ‘No, no, no. Make it a Pabst… No. No. make it a… you know what? Just get me both of them.’” Today fans sport Schlabst hats, T-shirts and pint glasses. In addition to the Highbury, patrons can ask for a Schblast at Leff’s Lucky Town in Wauwatosa, AJ Bombers on Water Street and the famous Milwaukee Brat House on Old World 3rd Street. “The Schlitz has to be on the bottom, otherwise it would be Plitz,” Wilt said. “So about halfway you go with Schlitz, and then you top it with Pabst ... you don’t have to use a spoon like you do with a Black and Tan.” “It’s got the nice kind of bitterness from both beers,” said Wolf Krekel, a senior in the College of Business Administration and
BY MICHAEL BEIERMEISTER bartender at Caffrey’s Pub. “It’s smooth. It goes down nice, and it’s easy to drink.” Without the certain “science” of the mixture, the one-two punch of the drink drops in flavor. Surprisingly, the beer hasn’t hit Marquette’s bar scene yet. Caffrey’s serves Pabst Blue Ribbon and Schlitz, but they have not offered Schlabst yet. Wilt left the Chicago Fire in 2005 to help foster a grassroots movement in Indianapolis, which eventually led to the North American Soccer League club Indy Eleven, a team that sold out every game in its 2014 inaugural season. “The younger generation, the 18-to-34year-olds, they get (soccer),” Wilt said. “First generation (Americans), they obviously know the sport. They bring a passion for the sport from their home countries.” Now, Wilt has put a lot of his focus on bringing a NASL team to Chicago, a place where the ideal soccer demographics flourish. Wilt also shares the same dream as Milwaukee Barons leader James Moran, whose organization’s mission is to bring a professional soccer team to the Cream City. For the fans, soccer and beer go handin-hand. Milwaukee’s version of the “Black and Tan” has a unique opportunity to continue traveling with Wilt, a man on a mission to spread the beautiful game and his own beautiful drink. APRIL 2016
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Innovation in the developing world BY CAROLINE HORSWILL
PHOTO BY CAROLINE HORSWILL
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f you Google search the word “innovation” beyond its definition, you will find pages upon pages of organizations, business reviews, technology articles, even tweets about the term. Innovation has become the western world’s cooler, more refreshing name for change, transformation and new ideas. And while the growth of small 20
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entrepreneurial companies and large well-established organizations is worthy of praise, my experiences have forced me to reconcile with innovation on a global scale, particularly in developing countries. In January, I had the opportunity to participate in Marquette’s Applied Global Business Learning Program in the municipality Santa Cruz del
Quiche in Guatemala. The program is designed with the intention of assisting communities in developing nations. With the provision of micro-enterprise solutions, the goal is to foster sustainable business practices and maintain cultural ideals. Our focus for the trip was to help further the mission of the Barbara Ford Center for Peace, whether that
OPINIONS PROJECTS
would be developing a plan to implement an ecotourism park on its property or providing those living in the surrounding community with subsistence farming opportunities. This required market research. We spent three days conducting focus groups to get a feel for the needs of the surrounding community. While meeting with a youth group in the rural town of Panaxjit, we asked them what they thought about transforming their current agriculture practices. For now, most Guatemalans grow beans and corn, not for the purpose of selling what they harvest, but instead to provide for their immediate families – the essence of subsistence farming. They seemed lost hearing this idea of “transforming” agriculture since it is part of their everyday routine, so we asked them what they thought about learning how to grow tomatoes, lettuce or other vegetables and fruits to provide for their families. Our hope was that they would be able to harvest more food and sell some of it. For a moment their eyes lit up, but they know more about Guatemalan reality, much more than we could ever understand, especially given our mere three days immersed in their culture. Marta, one of the 19-year-old members of the youth group, kindly explained to us that she and her friends would love to learn how to grow new crops for the benefit of both their families and themselves. Unfortunately, the idea of agricultural innovation, fruitful in theory, poses too great a risk for Marta and her family. To begin farming new fruits or vegetables would require putting time, energy and the small amount of money they have into the venture. It would require transforming the land they currently use for agriculture. But because Guatemalans depend on their crop to survive on a daily basis, innovating is out of the question. “If the crop doesn’t grow or flourish, all of our time, energy and
PHOTO BY CAROLINE HORSWILL
money will have gone to waste and we would be left with nothing,” Marta explained. I grimaced and thought, “How could we not have thought about the effects of innovation failing?” We weren’t capable of providing them with any seeds or resources, and even if we were, we weren’t experts on land or agriculture. Part of me wanted us to rewind time and take back the question that lacked understanding of their culture. The other part of me thought about the faith of the U.S. in innovators and innovation. We praise innovation despite the possibility of failure because we can move forward to the next idea, the next change. Additionally, we can afford to fail. The young people in Guatemala, along with people in other parts of the developing world, cannot fail because it will cost them everything. Now this isn’t all to say that there isn’t progress being made in the relationship between innovation and the developing world. In fact, back in 2009, the idea of “trickle-up innovation” became prevalent. An article on FastCompany.com explained
the term as, “ideas take shape in developing markets first, then work their way back to the West.” This happens when innovations are appealing because they reduce costs and accelerate processes. But this is apparent in some developing places and not others. Some countries, like Guatemala, for example, are still playing catch-up from civil war, genocide and economic disasters. Many of their struggles from nearly 50 years ago hinder their ability to innovate, thrive or even grow. I still think that we should encourage innovation as much as we can, but before we push our innovation-veneration on anyone else, we should strive to be objective in our research and understanding of the histories and cultures of developing worlds. Once we understand, we will be able to offer help and service, however that may look. And sometimes, like I learned with my Guatemalan friend Marta, serving another person simply involves learning about another person’s culture and sharing it with others.
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C’S GET DEGREES BY MORGAN HUGHES
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e’ve all heard the phrase “C’s get degrees.” Maybe you use it jokingly, maybe you use it to validate your tendency to underachieve, but whichever meaning you assign to the trope, the general understanding is the same – why work harder for the same reward? Why work for an A when a C will get you hired as easily as an A would? For me, this mindset began in middle school. By 13, the shine of school had worn off and the excitement I previously felt for education had dissipated. Not having the option to drop out, and not understanding fully why I had to go in the first place, my attitude toward the educational institution shifted. I’ve always loved learning new things, but I had no investment in pre-algebra. I did as much work as was necessary to pass the class and remain only slightly above average with my grades. And so began my life as a C student. Of course it would have been nice to have a 4.0 GPA while applying for scholarships and college applications, but I was confident in my ability to write around my GPA in the essay portion of the applications. Truthfully, I’m a haughty, sometimes over-confident person, but I don’t try as hard as I should when it comes to academics. Thanks to several click-bait sites, such as Elite Daily and Life Hack, claiming that C students tend to be more successful, I can now 22
excuse my poor work ethic by pasting a link, accompanied by a semi-witty and self-deprecating quip, to my Facebook page. Of course there isn’t quantifiable proof that C students are more successful, but there are more than a few examples to back up the claim. One noteworthy C student, George W. Bush, seemed to have no trouble gaining success after college, though his transcript was a topic of conversation during his campaigns. Other real-life examples of people who didn’t excel in, or even finish, college, such as Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, lend validity to the assertion that good grades don’t necessarily matter. Robert Kiyosaki’s book “Why “A” Students Work for “C” Students and “B” Students work for the Government” gives a pretty solid analysis as to why C students have more potential to be successful. In the book, Kiyosaki explains that the “A” students, though well-read and hard-working, often lack the creativity that C students have. The author’s claim isn’t necessarily true, as I’m sure we can all think of some wildly innovative A students and some C students with lackluster ideas. However, his analysis does bring up a few good points. A students are A students because they follow the rules. They do their work in a timely manner and they obey the directions of the professors, and were likely
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GRADES ARE IMPORTANT, BUT THEY CAN’T BE THE ONLY PRIORITY.
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the same way in middle school and high school. They have been trained since kindergarten to follow the rules and do as they’re told. C students on the other hand, as Kiyosaki points out, give themselves more freedom and therefore aren’t constrained by the rigid structure that academic success requires. Kiyosaki continues to say that education aims to produce employees, and C students tend to be the innovators hiring those employees. Again, this isn’t always the case, but there’s significant evidence to legitimize Kiyosaki’s claims. While convincing as theories, what happens when the author’s claims are put to the test by actual C students? If you want real-life examples of anything, the first place you should go is Reddit. While it may not be the best example of a research database, it serves a
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PHOTO BY BEN ERICKSON
pretty solid purpose here. Users replying to a thread asking, “C grade students, where are you now in life?” replied with answers such as “I work as a janitor;” “I dropped out of college halfway through my first year;” “I work in a factory, it’s not a bad job, but I had potential to do way better for myself;” etc. It seems that when Kiyosaki’s theories are applied in real-life situations, it doesn’t take hold nearly as well. Having a job as a janitor or a factory worker doesn’t mean you don’t have success. People define success in different ways. There is the fact though that these jobs don’t require the level of innovative thinking that Kiyosaki claims C
students are meant to have. The truth is, it doesn’t matter how creative or innovative your ideas are if you won’t work hard to achieve them. Reddit shone a little light on the C students, but what about the straight A students? Grades are important, but they can’t be the only priority. College and high school are about more than academics. It’s where you learn how to interact with people who you may not agree with, it’s where you learn how to be responsible for yourself when you gain freedom from your parents’ rules and it’s where you figure out what you believe in and why. If you focus all of your energy on
grades, you miss out on some of the extra-curricular experiences that might end up shaping the kind of person you grow into. Maybe the statement “C students end up being more successful” is unfounded, and maybe it’s an excuse to be lazy in our academic lives. There’s no “right way” to go through college. However, taking a minute to evaluate what you want out of the experience, and comparing that to what you’ve been getting out of the experience, might be eye-opening no matter what end of the grading scale you’re at.
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HELP MY UNBELIEF BY RYAN MURPHY
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here are some people who can write, read or study for hours at a time without ever having to get up. I am not one of them. I am always getting bored with my work, getting up for a drink, getting up to stretch my legs. After reading some very dry “Business Law” in the library, I decided I needed a break to pace around the stacks. I walked up and down the rows of books in the fourth floor reading room, lazily looking at the spines, pulling out the books that caught my eye and reading the backs. This is how I found “Robert Elsmere.” I never heard of the book or its author Humphry Ward, but the questions it asked were familiar. It is about a young Anglican priest who loses faith in traditional Christianity after he is faced with “European biblical criticism, geological and evolutionary discoveries and social liberalism.” None of this makes his marriage any easier – his wife Catherine reads the Bible literally. I was intrigued, so I checked it out, and spent even less time in “Business Law” as I made my way through the novel. Ward seems to have doubted that traditional Christianity could weather the storms of secular study. History shows she wasn’t entirely wrong. In both America and Britain, the Christian population continues to erode as more and more people identify with no religious affiliation. I think this troubled her. To find out how Christianity might fit into the new, secular world, she used the novel as a laboratory. Her process: 24
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Take a devout Christian, expose him to the latest findings in history, biblical criticism and evolutionary theory and watch what happens next. Her guinea pig: an earnest parson. Her conclusion: something’s got to give. A belief in the miraculous, it turns out, is what gives. Elsmere becomes deeply interested in Christian history, and the more he learns, the more he comes to see the Church and its teachings as something constructed by people who were doing the best they could to understand the world and the divine without the benefit of modern science. “So he doesn’t believe in a divine Jesus?” Jame Schaefer asked me as I explained the novel’s plot to her, “No. He sees Jesus as a Buddha figure, mortal, but somebody to learn from and to imitate.” Schaefer is an associate professor in the theology department at Marquette. Her research focuses on ecological ethics and the intersection of religious faith and science. She and a physicist teach a seminar on the origin and nature of the universe together – this is where we first met when I decided she would be an excellent person to interview for this piece. Schaefer suggested that Elsmere’s previous faith depended too heavily on miracles. “Catholics would not interpret the Bible literally as scientific fact,” she says. To do so would be to embrace a “thin and risky faith that does injustice to God and to the inspired authors.” Instead, Schaefer encourages Christians to look
for “the deepest possible meaning” when they read the Bible. But in all this, she and Elsmere have more in common than not. Even after he stops believing in Christ’s divinity, Elsmere still sees the Bible as an important source of meaning and moral instruction. They also agree that science could never “prove a miracle” and that God does not “interrupt the natural order,” to borrow Schaefer’s phrases. But where does all this leave Jesus? For Elsmere, since miracles cannot exist, the Resurrection is out of the question. For Schaefer, it is not so simple. She would classify Christ’s Incarnation, Resurrection, and Ascension not as miracles, but as “divine acts by a divine being.” Schaefer says that to think of them otherwise would be to “reduce them to interventions in nature,” when we should understand them as something transcendent: “God’s self gifts.” Is this splitting hairs? Maybe. But that’s theology – it’s complex. And this complexity is another reason that Elsmere seems to shy away from traditional Christianity. None of it really seems to matter to the lives of regular people. And when we look across the religious diversity at Marquette and in the world, doesn’t he seem to have a point? Does the abstract way people think about God really impact the way they live? I brought this question to the Rev. Ronald Bieganowski, a Jesuit who has been teaching English at Marquette since 1976. He reminded me that the doctrines many of us
PHOTOS BY BEN ERICKSON
see as being imposed from above had egalitarian roots in the early Church. He also believes that the faith of the Church is the faith of the people of the pews. Bieganowski was largely uninterested in talking about “Robert Elsmere” when I interviewed him. He wanted to know why I was drawn to it in the first place. “That might be the better article,” he said. He’s probably right – he’s been reading and writing longer than I have. The book grabbed my attention because the questions and doubts it explores are ones I hear my friends and peers voicing – and ones I ask myself. Bieganowski reassured me that doubt is a normal part of faith, and he offered one of his favorite prayers: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” As it turns out, this prayer comes
from Mark’s Gospel. A man comes to Jesus and asks him to cast out his son’s demon. “Anything is possible with faith,” Jesus tells him, maybe a little smugly. “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” the man exclaims, exasperated. It’s exactly the sort of story that would have put Elsmere on edge. He would have gotten hung up on whether or not demons really exist. But if we follow Schaefer’s advice and look for “the deepest possible meaning,” it has a very practical application to people like me who find themselves asking larger questions about faith. It says it’s OK to have questions, to ask for help. Ward’s novel ends with Elsmere founding a new sect resembling the Unitarians, he dies shortly
thereafter. I thought it was strange that he would found another church, given he had so many criticisms of the institutions that already existed. But I suppose he knew something that I learned in my conversations with Schaefer and Bieganowski: Faith and spirituality need community to grow. You can pose questions to yourself, but you’ll get better answers if you can learn from others’ experiences and perspectives. And you certainly can’t learn forgiveness or compassion on your own. To pray, to serve and to love require that we step outside of ourselves, and Ward understood this well: “Paradise is here, visible and tangible by mortal eyes and hands, whenever self is lost in loving, whenever the narrow limits of personality are beaten down by the inrush of the Divine Spirit.” APRIL 2016
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FOREI LANGU
Reeder visiting Volcano Arenal in Coasta Rica .
AT T UNIVERSIT
BY THOMAS SO
PHOTO COURTESY OF KATRINA REEDER
T
here is an old saying that goes: “What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks one language? American.” It’s a joke that usually results in eye rolls and soft chuckles, but it does highlight the disparity of the typical 26
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American’s ability to speak a language other than English. Despite this, foreign language education is undeniably growing up all around us. From a survey done by the Center For Applied Linguistics, 95 percent of high schools across the country have foreign language classes available. At Marquette, students can pursue a major in French, German,
Spanish and the classics including Greek and Latin, and take Arabic, Chinese and Italian classes. The majority of the classes are taught by professors. Unlike coursework for teaching at the grade school or high school level, programs for aspiring professors provide few courses that teach pedagogy of foreign languages. Tara Daly, an assistant professor
PROJECTS A&E
EIGN UAGE
THE TY LEVEL
OUTHALL
of Spanish, said her program at UC Berkeley required only two classes on how to teach. Most of her knowledge of pedagogy came from real experience as a teacher in the department of comparative literature as well as Spanish and Portuguese. “I would say that 80 percent of my time as a graduate student was teaching,” Daly said.
Sonia Barnes, an assistant professor of Spanish from Spain, said that she only took one class on pedagogy. The most prominent method used to teach a foreign language is the communicative method. “Basically, you want to make language a communicative tool; you want students to practice,” Barnes said. “A huge component of that is context. You want to make everything that you do and all the activity revolve around a context that you create. You try not to spend so much time talking explicitly about grammar, but more practicing.” This method proves to be successful. Katrina Reeder, a freshman in the College of Health Sciences studying speech pathology and minoring in Spanish, said that her intermediate communication in Spanish class is interactive, in line with the communicative method. “It’s mostly based in interaction between students and the teacher, there’s no lecture,” Reeder said. “You come into class, you’re given a prompt and you use that prompt to make a conversation with the people around you.” Reeder said she is making progress with this method. “The prompts that are given are more related to real-world experiences,” Reeder said. “We can transfer what we are learning in the classroom to situations in real life.” Oleg Humenyuk, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences majoring in political science and French, described another way the university successfully teaches language. “One of the best things Marquette has on campus for foreign languages is the language lab they have in Lalumiere,” Humenyuk said. “You can go in there and ask to be set up with someone on Skype. I think that is just so helpful.” Many of Humenyuk’s French classes have oral exams, so he said the language lab definitely reaps benefits. The Marquette foreign language department embraces a progressive approach through the
use of the communicative method, but compared to students in other nations around the world, monolingualism in America remains high. Only 18 percent of Americans are bilingual or trilingual. The U.S. lacks the advantages that Europe has. For example, France is surrounded by countries that speak Spanish, English, German, Italian and Dutch. Even within its borders, significant populations of French citizens can speak Breton, Provençal, Flemish and Catalan. The U.S. misses out on such a mosaic of languages as it’s a country that prominently speaks English in all socio-economic levels. Mobility between countries is of greater difficulty compared to any European country. France can fit into the U.S. 14 and a half times. The prevalence of English as an international language also hinders the necessity for Americans to speak another language. English is the language of the Internet and business, and it’s the most taught foreign language worldwide. It’s almost impossible to vacation in another country and not hear a pop song on the taxi’s radio that is sung in, you guessed it, English. But despite this, students continue to study a language and see its importance as the globe becomes more connected. “I’ve always been enrolled in languages,” Reeder said. “It’s really important for me to be culturally competent.” Universities have the resources and methods to teach students to speak another language. They offer more dynamic approaches with hands-on learning that gets students speaking, not passively watching the professor. “When you learn a language, you are not learning how to communicate, you’re getting a vision of the world,” Barnes said. “You’re not just seeing a different system of symbols or vocabulary or grammar, you’re learning how an entire population sees the world.”
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P A N T O N E BY NATALIE RAGUSIN
A breath of fresh air came to fashion when pantone colors made their mark this season. Light and airy, 2016’s sought-after
aesthetic
will
stimulate
your
style
in
a
new
direction.
It’s the season of pantone in fashion, accessories, makeup – you name it. This light color palette has been popular in street style and on the runway. For spring, we’re going to amp it up, or in this case, dilute it down to pantone pastels. Versatile and flattering for every skin tone and undertone shade, this palette will pop its way through your favorite fashion fixes as a statement color. We’re loving pale yellows, baby pinks and light blues for our transition into the warmer weather.
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PHOTO BY YUE YIN
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PHOTO BY YUE YIN
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With Sephora’s pantone makeup revelation, brands are incorporating pale palettes to bring back a softer femininity to fashion. Top designers are reveling in the combination of these textiles- think Vionnet, Carolina Herrera, Etro, Mother of Pearl and Armani Prive. Recent spring 2016 menswear is all over the combination as well.
Similar to color blocking, the pantone method utilizes different textures, hues and shades of a color family to create one cohesive look. It creates outfits which flow together seamlessly. If you’re a little hesitant to try the color blocking method, stick to the pale pantone look and liven up your spring wardrobe. Sometimes, the less bright the more fluid.
The most accessible and easily worn are serenity and rose quartz. This light blue and baby pink have cool undertones and almost appear as if they’re washed with a slate gray. Paired best with creams, a light-wash denim, gray and a stark white will accentuate even the lightest tone. For men, go for a clean statement blazer with your choice of color and leave the rest of the outfit neutral. Or if you’re more eccentric, opt for a paisley shirt – a popular print with tons of blues and pinks, and something casual, a hoodie or distressed printed top paired with denim and a trench. APRIL 2016
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If pales aren’t usually your forte, opt for a pantone
Beauty plays a key role in this pantone revelation,
accessory, beauty product or shoe. The tones
too. Sephora’s Pantone Universe lipstick and Wa-
are too softly beautiful to pass up for spring.
tercolor lipgloss set are sure to make a splash. Contrary to popular belief, the formula is quite
32
Go-to retailers like ASOS, Topshop, Forev-
sheer and adds a tint of cool toned color to your
er 21, H&M and Pacsun are no strangers to
lipstick shade underneath. Similarly, the Watercol-
pantones and incorporate these colors, es-
or glosses have the same effect. They’re perfect
pecially in their accessories and handbags.
for adding a hint of color that isn’t so conventional.
MARQUETTE JOURNAL
ASOS, Topshop, Forever 21, H&M and PacSun have been incorpporating pantone colors into spring accessories .
PHOTOS BY YUE YIN
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Dow Up
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PROJECTS
How the revival on the east side affects MU
wntown pswing I BY JACK GOODS & PATRICK THOMAS
PHOTO BY NOLAN BOLLIER
n 10 years time, Marquette’s Vice President of Public Affairs Rana Altenburg sees downtown Milwaukee’s Westown neighborhood as one of the hottest spots in the state for millennials. She envisions young professionals living downtown right after graduating college and sees Marquette basketball and the Milwaukee Bucks championship banners hanging in their new arena. She called it an “urban renaissance.” Downtown Milwaukee has seen a surge in development over the past year. The Bucks arena, the 32-story Northwestern Mutual Tower, Bublr Bikes, the Milwaukee streetcar and the Athletic Performance Research Center are all part of the city’s, and Marquette’s, plan to give Milwaukee a fresh look. Altenburg said this new look is directly linked with Marquette’s future, which she said is a bright one. “I just think this is such an exciting time for Marquette,” Altenburg said. “It’s an exciting time to be part of Milwaukee, and 10 years from now people will look back and say, ‘Thank God I went to Marquette.’” Chief University Planner and Architect Lora Strigens said the new development in Milwaukee could be seen as more than just a renaissance. She sees it as a chance for Milwaukee to rebrand itself. “This is a great opportunity for Marquette to have a stronger connection with the surrounding community,” Strigens said. APRIL 2016
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“Everything that is being done, whether Marquette is doing it or a private development, enhances the overall image of the city, and I think we are trying to lift everything up together.” Jeff Fleming, a spokesperson for city development, said Marquette was not always interested and engaged in building up Milwaukee, but now the university is “embracing the area to the east.” “There is a clear embrace in the success of downtown,” Fleming said. “Marquette, through its history, is tied to downtown Milwaukee. When one does well, it benefits the other.” Marquette’s campus expanded eastward last year when the university purchased land just south of Straz Tower for the Athletic Performance Research Center on the 800 block of W. Michigan St. and when Marquette opened its space in downtown Milwaukee’s Global Water Center Jan. 28. City & Residential Development From 2005 to 2015, the city completed nearly $2.9 billion in
Multifamily housing in the greater downtown area Source: Jeff Fleming from Milwaukee City Development
development. As of October 2015, there is almost $1.02 billion worth of construction underway and $1.3 billion of proposed construction – which would nearly double the amount of construction completed in the last 10 years. Fleming said there has been a huge resurgence in building, investments and job creation. Fleming cited the $450 million PHOTO BY YUE YIN
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Northwestern Mutual Tower that is being built on Wisconsin Avenue as an example of job creation. He said Milwaukee residents, some previously unemployed, are constructing Northwestern Mutual’s future world headquarters. “The word ‘renaissance’ is being repeated by developers and businesses, and it is attracting additional investors,” he said. “Milwaukee is in a building boom similar to the one in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.” Fleming said the city has a strong focus on residential development in the downtown area. In 2015, 1,787 residential units were completed or under construction, as opposed to 2014 when only 558 units were completed or under construction. He said, “Downtown is the place to be,” and the young fuel downtown residential growth. For Altenburg, residential development provides an opportunity for Milwaukee to keep its college graduates. In what is known as the “brain drain,” college students tend to leave Wisconsin after they graduate. Altenburg is hoping for a “brain gain.” “We are starting to see a development of housing options downtown that attract a younger
population,” she said. “Millennials don’t need a big house in the suburbs. We want them to stay here after they graduate.” Strigens said stopping the brain drain is one of the key things a city task force will focus on – everyone is asking the question, “How do we keep people here?” She said. Milwaukee has a number of strengths, but the city has never been great at promoting them. One thing in particular she wants to create is a “walk to work environment” for university employees as well as upperclassmen students looking to reach out into the city for job opportunities. The newly renovated Pabst Brewery – which will provide student housing within walking distance of downtown Milwaukee – is an example. “As we start to redevelop student housing, we want to contribute not just to our campus and the Marquette community, but to the surrounding neighborhood as well and provide an opportunity for engagement,” Strigens said. “I think you might see more of a blurring of the edges between what was once a distinct downtown and a distinct university campus to one that bleeds together a bit more in a cohesive way.” Altenburg also talked about this walk-to-work environment. She said walking to work is the “trendy” thing to do. She hopes more residential opportunities downtown will not only promote students to engage in the city, but encourage university employees to move into the city. “We would love to see employees move out there,” Altenburg said. “There is so much excitement about living where you work.” Tying all the development together is the new Milwaukee Bucks arena. Altenburg said it would have a “profound impact” on downtown and the direction of the university and create a more pedestrian- friendly environment in the city.
PHOTO BY YUE YIN
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PHOTO VIA BUCKS.COM/ARENA
The Arena When athletic director Bill Scholl arrived on campus fall 2014, he was put right to work on one of the biggest projects the athletic department has ever been involved in – backing and planning a new billion dollar basketball arena. The NBA said publicly for years that the Bucks needed a new arena, since the BMO Harris Bradley Center no longer met the league’s standard. When Wes Edens and Marc Lasry purchased the Bucks from Herb Kohl, the wheels starting rolling. Marquette wasn’t just along for the ride. As the arena’s secondary tenant, the school has a lot at stake on a new facility. The school is one of seven college teams in the country that play in an NBA arena. If the Bradley Center gives them a recruiting advantage, a state-of-the-art facility could conceivably boost that advantage. In addition to many people in the athletic department, Marquette’s Office of Public Affairs was actively involved in the approval process. “We certainly did what we 38
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The Bucks will break ground on the new arena June 18 at the team’s second annual Summer Block Party.
could to help them get through all the approval process,” Scholl said. “We were on board with what we felt was a legitimate need … We’ve been very engaged with the process from very early on. (The Bucks) carry the ball primarily, but we certainly helped where we could.” After years of negotiation, speculation and many levels of approval, the new arena is finally set to be built. The Bucks will break ground on July 18 in order to finish construction before the 2018 season. The new arena will be right next to where the Bradley Center is currently, still a short walk from campus. Marquette and the Bucks have become serious business partners the past few years. In addition to the new arena project, the two groups are working with Aurora Health Care on the new athletic facility. “It’s the vision of Mike Lovell as a developer, an innovator and an economic genius who sits there and says, ‘How can we partner where one and one equals three?” Bucks president Peter Feigin said.
The connection between Marquette and the Bucks benefits both sides: Marquette gets to play in a world-class facility, which the Bucks will help finance- and help financing the athletic facility, while the Bucks get medical facilities, possible practice space and 18 to 20 dates filled on the new arena’s calendar. “To be the head leasing (tenant) is a pretty big deal and really gives us the foundation to build an event platform beyond the Bucks,” Feigin said. “The fact that we’ve got Marquette as a partner to begin with is a great head start.” Although the arena is funded by the public, Edens, Lasry and Kohl, Scholl said it’s important to note that doesn’t mean Marquette isn’t investing. “Being a tenant who pays on an annual basis, we will be investing in that building over the course of the next 20 to 25 years,” Scholl said. The two sides sat down to start planning the blueprint of the arena, but aren’t far enough along to make anything public. Marquette laid out the general parameters,
but hasn’t figured out how everything fits together just yet. Scholl said only the locker room has been planned in the new arena so far. Marquette has also seen the plan for the lower bowl, but a student section hasn’t been designed yet. The blueprint should be completed sometime in the near future, since it needs to be finished before breaking ground. The two sides are currently working on a lease. Scholl said men’s basketball coach Steve Wojciechowski started bringing renderings of the arena on recruit visits as soon as he could. Incoming freshmen will get a chance to play at the brand new arena if they stay four years with the team. “He made a great statement at an alumni event, where he talked about, for some period of time, we will probably have the best basketball arena in the world,” Scholl said. The players aren’t the only ones impacted. A new arena means updated amenities and VIP areas that can bring the Marquette basketball experience to the 21st century. There are also big plans for where the Bradley Center currently sits. The Bucks released plans for an entertainment district around the new arena, possibly adding
another $500 million investment downtown. The area will feature restaurants, hotels, residential space, parking space and entertainment. This is a long-term plan that likely won’t be fully completed for another 10 years. “You’re talking about two areas that I think will look completely different,” Scholl said. “I think it will definitely enhance the game day experience for Marquette fans, but I think beyond that, it
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IT’S THE VISION OF MIKE LOVELL AS AN ECONOMIC GENIUS
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will enhance downtown Milwaukee on an everyday basis.” Scholl said it’s important that Marquette is playing a role in these changes based on the university’s mission statement. “It’d be disappointing to all of us if we weren’t one of the driving forces,” Scholl said. “There are
several partners that are jumping on board in a lot of ways to help make Milwaukee as good as it can be. It’s thrilling to me that Marquette is playing an appropriate role in that process.” The new project faced some backlash from citizens who thought the $250 million in taxpayer money would be better used for other purposes, especially since Gov. Scott Walker cut education budgets near the same time the arena was passed. Still, Feigin said the project can have a lasting effect on the city and state that goes beyond basketball games. He hopes it can be a catalyst for a transformation of downtown Milwaukee, creating jobs and an atmosphere that encourages people to stay. “It’s not just an arena,” Feigin said. “How do you transform geographic spaces to encourage employment, to encourage residential, to encourage entertainment? Marquette has forged great grounds and really spearheaded development around the city in a time when it desperately needs it … To partner with one of the major developments in the city in Marquette, that’s a big win.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY
The Athletic Performance Research Center, located on West Michigan Street, will be the home of Marquette’s lacrosse and soccer teams when completed. APRIL 2016
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DREAM
A look into the life of undocume BY CLARA HATCHER 40
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MERS
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PHOTO BY NOLAN BOLLIER
ented students at MU
n 2014, Luis Jimenez Gonzalez walked onto a stage facing nearly 5,000 people. He considers himself an introvert. Jimenez doesn’t recall much of what he said now, and could barely remember even when he set the microphone down. What sticks with him is the audience’s reaction as he spoke. “My dream was to attend UW-Madison, but a letter of acceptance was not enough to make that dream possible.” Jimenez has told his story many times. He’s lived in Milwaukee for more than 10 years. He has seven biological brothers and sisters. He went to Marquette University High School. He is now an engineering student at Marquette. And he is undocumented. In 2014, Jimenez spoke to the participants and onlookers of Milwaukee’s ninth consecutive May Day march for immigrant rights. He yelled to a whooping rally: “Scott Walker eliminated tuition equity in 2011, right after we won it in 2009. Now, is that fair that I have to pay out-of-state tuition rates when I have lived in this state for ten years?” Two years into his college education, Jimenez ended up avoiding out-of-state tuition rates altogether by attending a private university. He likes to think he has made the most of his experience so far by challenging himself with a major in bioelectrical engineering, and even snagging a resident assistant job in Carpenter Tower. Jimenez said he prides himself on being an example for others. He pays a great deal of attention to his academics, getting up at 5 a.m. to study and do homework before his 8 a.m. classes, and is always conscious of how he carries himself at Marquette. “I feel like I have a lot to teach,” Jimenez said about being an available resource for his residents. Last year, his freshman year, Jimenez would hop on his bike in the morning and ride across the bridge to campus. Jimenez lived at home as the APRIL 2016
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Becca Zellelew, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, poses in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
second oldest child in the Jimenez Gonzalez family. Now, the three oldest are all in school as first generation college students at Cardinal Stritch University, University of Wisconsin– Milwaukee and Marquette. “Since I came to the United States, education was always on my parents’ minds,” he said. “They were always doing their best to get me into the best schools, and making sacrifices so my siblings and I can get into good schools and excel in academics.” Jimenez was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, the largest city and capital 42
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of the Mexican state of Jalisco. His father came to the United States alone at six years old. Jimenez said the decision to emigrate came down to their financial situation at home. After crossing over to the United States, Jimenez and his family stayed with an uncle in California before settling down in Milwaukee. When it became necessary, Jimenez and his siblings applied for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. DACA is a program initiated by the Department of Homeland Security that allows certain immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and meet a
variety of guidelines to request consideration of deferred action for a two-year period, after which it can be renewed. DACA also allows individuals to legally work in the U.S. Deferred action simply means preventing possible deportation of someone with improper legal status if they meet the necessary requirements. However, DACA does not grant citizenship and can be revoked at any time. Once granted DACA, a recipient can apply for extended parole if they want to leave the country. Extended parole is usually only granted for humanitarian,
PHOTO BY NOLAN BOLLIER
educational or employment reasons. Upcoming elections and threats to eliminate DACA keep Jimenez watching the news and keeping up with new bill proposals. Illinois recently proposed the use of ID in line with the REAL ID Act of 2005, which requires legal residence and date of birth to receive a driver’s license. In 2011, Wisconsin revoked the law, extending in-state tuition to undocumented students with Assembly Bill 75. For Jimenez, some of the biggest challenges involve finances. Even with the full-tuition Opus Scholars
Award, additional expenses come out-of-pocket because Jimenez is unable to apply for a loan with his undocumented status. “Although I have work authorization, pay taxes and am doing everything lawfully, I get nothing in federal aid,” Jimenez said. “I’m still being treated as an outsider.” TACKLING STEREOTYPES Besides financial issues, undocumented students face obstacles revealing their status to people, if they choose to do so. Karen Medina, a sophomore in the College of Communication, is upfront and open about her undocumented status. “I started a Dreamers Club in high school at Von Steuben [Metropolitan] to help people share their story,” Medina said. “I was always aware I was undocumented. Some kids don’t find out until they try to get their license.” According to the National Immigration Law Center, undocumented immigrants are foreign-born individuals who have entered the U.S. either without inspection, with fraudulent documentation or came here legally with nonimmigrant work visas and then stayed after they expired—a violation of the terms of their status. Medina said being undocumented is just part of her life. Like Jimenez, Medina is a resident assistant in Carpenter Tower. The two knew each other as acquaintances from attending meetings for the student group, Youth Empowered in the Struggle— which is dedicated to immigrant rights for students and youth— but never really got to know each other until they both became RAs. Medina was born in Mexico City, Mexico. When she was four years old, her father fell in love with America and the idea that “If you work hard, you get money.” Her family flew to Chicago with tourist visas in May 2000, and settled down with Medina’s aunt. She grew up in Humboldt Park, ranking 15th among Chicago’s 77 community areas for violent crime
reports in a 30-day period. “I grew up around gang violence, drugs and crime,” Medina said. “My motivation to stay and do good in school was my parents and seeing my parents work hard for me to be here and have a good life,” Both students agree one of the biggest challenges explaining their situation is tackling misconceptions and stereotypes. Medina said she has encountered people, even in her classes, who claim undocumented students “steal their jobs” and that there “should be a wall.” Jimenez said there are misconceptions even among undocumented students. “I know in the immigrant community, there is a lot of shame. People need to realize it’s okay,” Jimenez said. “We are all born into a situation. We cannot control that.” Jimenez and Medina try to give people the “right information” whenever they can. They happily answer questions like, “How are you here?” and “Are you worried?” But do not often have an answer to “What is going to happen next for you?” For Medina, the plan is to work in community relations and outreach with an organization after graduating from Marquette. The dream for Jimenez is to be a teacher or to go further with engineering. He is not deterred by some states that do not allow undocumented people to get teacher’s certifications in public schools. He laughed, “Joke’s on them, I’m going to teach at a private school.” Right now, their goal is just to finish college—a greater challenge for most documented students, because undocumented students are ineligible for financial aid. FUNDING A SCHOLARSHIP In 2015, undergraduates at Loyola University Chicago voted to approve the Magis Scholarship Fund for undocumented students. The movement opted to charge students an extra $2.50 per semester in order to reach the ultimate goal APRIL 2016
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of $50,000. Once the vote was approved and the goal was reached, Don Graham, founder of TheDream. US—an organization that helps undocumented students with scholarships— matched the student body’s fundraising efforts and gave another $50,000 to the university. Santa Clara University instated a similar scholarship fund for undocumented students sponsored by the Jesuit Community in 2011. The fund provided tuition, room and board for about four freshmen and one transfer student each year, amounting to more than $1 million a year, which was paid for by the Jesuits through their personal salaries. At Marquette, YES is working to create a scholarship fund for undocumented students by mimicking Santa Clara and Loyola’s efforts. Miguel Sanchez, president of YES
and senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, said the work for the scholarship began two years ago. The group’s goal was to model it after Santa Clara’s, but after talking with Jesuits who were in support, it realized the goal was unsustainable. They pivoted to model the scholarship on Loyola’s after speaking with its student body president, Flavio Bravo. Bravo, now a senior at Loyola, said the university didn’t prioritize creating a scholarship for undocumented students. After becoming president, they did. “It was ready a year ago. Obviously it was in the mission of our university, but we thought it is so much more impressive when an entire university can get behind it,” Bravo said. Marquette Provost Daniel Myers said a similar scholarship isn’t out of line with Marquette’s mission.
“This is a fairly new emerging trend in trying to support, but I don’t know of the prior conversations there have been, if any,” Myers said. “But I do think supporting undocumented students is in line with Marquette’s values.” While undocumented students are unable to apply for federal loans, and in 29 states including Wisconsin must pay out-of-state tuition, it is completely legal for them to attend a university. When students apply to Marquette, they have the option to identify themselves as undocumented. Prior to 2007, there was no option to do so. Eva Martinez Powless, Marquette’s director for intercultural engagement, said this made for a few obstacles, including students being filed with the office of international education despite living in the
Zellelew and Miguel Sanchez, president of YES and senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, plan the gala.
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IN THE IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY, THERE IS A LOT OF SHAME. PEOPLE NEED TO REALIZE IT’S OKAY.
Esme Nungaray-Perez, sophomore in the College of Communication, and Sanchez.
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United States. Now, students are able to identify themselves and list their birth country. “The majority of students that apply that are undocumented typically let the office of admissions know either through an essay, phone call, or request for scholarships,” Martinez Powless said. “There is no way for them to get in trouble because we are an educational institution and our primary goal is to educate students.” However, Martinez Powless said it took several years for Marquette to change that option on the application. Before the change, it would take several months for people like Martinez Powless who aim to help undocumented students find out about their situations. She said many students would fall through the cracks. Now, she said it seems to be better — barring the issue of financial aid. The Immigration Policy Center estimates approximately 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school annually, while less than 10 percent go on to attend a college or university of some kind. Often, this is because of the increased financial burden undocumented students face. “Many of the students, even if they get a significant scholarship at
PHOTO BY NOLAN BOLLIER
Marquette, still struggle to cover the gap between financial aid and tuition.” After recognizing that undocumented students have “a special issue with financial aid,” Myers said he doesn’t think the scholarships available at the university are enough. After nearly two years of planning, YES made a goal to get the Marquette student body, faculty, and Milwaukee community members behind the creation of the Ignacio Ellacuria Scholarship for undocumented students. To fundraise, the group hosted a gala March 31 in order to fundraise the minimum $50,000 and fight the struggle for awareness. Within the first hours, attendees donated more than $20,000. Sanchez said the event was “hectic, but beautiful,” with more than 170 people in attendance and 20 full tables of donors, ranging from community organizations like Voces de la Frontera to Marquette’s former interim president, the Rev. Robert Wild. “It’s immigrants that have built this country, and I think we should never
forget that,” Wild said. “These (undocumented) students are in need of money and support.” Two members of YES and planners of the gala, Esme Nungaray, a sophomore in the College of Communication, and Eduardo Perea-Hernandez, a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences, said although it was unlikely for them to reach their financial goal of $50,000 in the night, the gala just paved the way for more events to show support and fundraise. “The goal for us was just to have the gala,” said Perea-Hernandez. “Even if it is not reached, $20,000 shows how much we have to go off of for next year.” YES will continue to have yearly fundraising galas and start presenting plans to MUSG for an increased activity fee, similar to Loyola. “The fight is not over,” Perea-Hernandez said.
Alexander Montesantos contributed to this article. APRIL 2016
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THE HANDS, THE HEAD, THE HEART BY DEVI SHASTRI
A GLIMPSE INTO MARQUETTE’S RENOWNED GROSS LAB PROGRAM
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t is silent and cold in the belly of Schroeder complex as anxious sophomore, junior and senior biomedical sciences students don their scrubs, sneakers and gloves and gather around their assigned table. The air is heavy. Despite efficient ventilation, the smell in the room is distinct: formaldehyde and “Hawaiian Breeze” air freshener. It sticks on your clothes 46
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and in your nose. This is a place of educational reverence, a hallowed ground—a class where students interact with their teachers on a deeper level without ever exchanging a word. Here, teachers encourage exploration as students have the educational experience of a lifetime. The body stays mostly covered as one brave person from each group carefully lifts the
scalpel and makes the first cut. They do so gingerly, with only a list of terms and the occasional hint from a TA to help them. The College of Health Sciences’ gross anatomy program is a source of interest on Marquette’s campus. The labs are referenced on tours, visited by high schools, dreamed about by aspiring students and loved by current ones. To take it as an undergraduate is a rare
PHOTO BY MARYAM TUNIO
opportunity nationwide—BISC 3136 is one-of-a-kind in that it allows groups of no more than five students to dissect the entire human body and do a full brain unit, featuring a blunt dissection technique seldom found even in medical schools. The course allows 90 students to explore the human body from the outside-in for six hours a week. Many of those who complete the
course return to be teaching assistants, sometimes for graduate-level dissection courses. In a semester, they learn how to succeed in a science course with little structure, see the human body in a new way, and wrestle with the visceral nature of their major. “It’s very intimate and very hands on, but it’s also very professional,” said Adriano Dellapolla, a TA in his junior year. “Knowing that
someone donated their body to science—it’s obviously a very humble and noble act … It’s also very intimate knowing that when you’re doing dissection, you’re taking something that was once someone’s arm or a body part … and separating it out so you can see the finer details of things. It’s definitely a very humbling experience.”
The hands – dealing with the nerves of making the first cut A year ago, it was TA Roxan Hakami-Tafreshi watching as her group made the first cut. As another student cut into the skin, she caught herself tearing up. She had watched videos of dissections to prepare, knowing that dissecting a body would be helpful in her dream to become a dentist. But her nerves got the better of her. “Basically I just got emotional because their life has ended,” Hakami-Tafreshi said. “But then I realized that in essence, their life really hasn’t ended, since their body is being used for educational purposes. Their bodies are still used for great causes.” She took a break in the hallway and had a conversation with William Cullinan, the course’s professor and dean of the college. She said he spoke of the educational value of this experience and reminded her that the people agreed to donate their bodies and this was what they wanted. Today, after taking an additional head and neck dissection course and being a TA in a lab with model cadavers, Hakami-Tafreshi is a TA for the same dental course she hopes to take in her first year of graduate school. Over time, she began to develop her skills and expertise. “It took a while for me to get a hang of the skills of dissecting,” she said. “I love being hands on, using tools and being very intricate with detailed work. That’s one of the main reasons that I really like becoming a dentist.” APRIL 2016
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The head – learning the intricacies of the human body For each unit, students are given a term sheet and a scalpel. Although TAs monitor and help as necessary, students are autonomous, encouraged to explore and discover. It’s an uncommon form of education in the textbook-heavy curriculum of biomedical sciences. “Just growing up in general, you are very spoon-fed and you’re given very explicit directions on how to do things and what steps to take,”said Mikayla Preissner, a senior in the course. “I think that’s the whole part of this process— you have to be okay just diving in and going for it. If you make a mistake, you’re probably going to end up making more of a learning
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BASICALLY I JUST GOT EMOTIONAL BECAUSE THEIR LIFE HAS ENDED. BUT THEN I REALIZED... THEIR LIFE REALLY HASN’T ENDED.
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opportunity at the end of it.” She recalled when her group cut too far into their donor’s knee and they discovered a knee replacement. “But we wouldn’t have figured that out if we made the wrong cut,” she said. As students become more comfortable with the dissection tech48
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niques, they are able to learn more from their donors—whether that involves tracing the nerves of the criss-crossing brachial plexus, using a mnemonic device to identify the thin forearm muscles or holding a human lung or heart. They are extremely careful—placing loose tissue in a donor-specific bucket so that every part of the body returns to the donor’s family after cremation. They also demonstrate their respect by making the most of the learning opportunity. “When you see your dissection on an exam, you kind of feel proud,” said Nick Krueger, a junior TA and lab assistant. “You’re like, ‘that’s my donor and that dissection was awesome.’” Preparing to take gross anatomy is a semester-long effort. All undergraduates are required to take BISC 2135 as a prerequisite—a course titled “Clinical Human Anatomy.” The class includes a weekly lab component where students learn to identify body structures on brightly-colored plastic models. The term lists may be longer, but identification proves to be much easier. “Model lab is great to orient yourself, but that’s not what the human body is like by any means,” Laura Barron, a junior TA, said. “There’s so much variability in the human body and model lab can’t really show that to the students. But gross lab can, and the opportunity to work on a body, see its anomalies, see its pathologies—it’s incredible and … it really changes your perspective.” Undergraduate students and TAs alike speak of the value of the knowledge they leave the lab with. For the majority, the course is preparing them early for their chosen health profession. “I feel so advanced working in that kind of environment,” Kylie Nelsen-Freund, a senior TA, said. “It was just always this level of knowledge that I want-
ed to attain and something that wasn’t offered at other schools that I’d looked into.” An aspiring physician’s assistant, Nelsen-Freund said the availability of gross anatomy to undergraduate students was a major factor in her decision to attend Marquette. She recalled visiting friends at Vanderbilt Medical School over spring break this year, and seeing their surprise when she jumped in on a conversation about their anatomy course—easily holding her own in the discussion. Students in the course also benefit from the shared knowledge
PHOTO BY MARYAM TUNIO
of several health professionals who visit the lab to share their clinical expertise. Yet, broaching the topic of the personal and philosophical side of cadaver dissection yields varying responses and attitudes. Emotional responses are inevitable. After all, when you’re holding a human heart in your hand, it can be difficult not to think about your own. The heart – understanding the sacrifice of the donors It is exam day. Cadavers are lined up in a circle around the lab, each with nothing more
than one dissected area visible. Carefully placed tags and Popsicle sticks indicate the structure to be identified. The students have a minute—Muscle? Nerve? Artery? Vein?—before a buzzer pushes them on to the next station. But before all of this, students have the opportunity to gather a few extra credit points by proving they’ve memorized the words engraved on a plaque outside the lab. “These rooms and the scientific pursuits undertaken herein, are dedicated with the utmost honor to our donors,” it reads. “Their gracious gifts are received here with
profound respect and gratitude.” The words echo through the students’ minds as they write them on the back of their exam, and as they reach out and cradle a three-pound human brain in their hands. For the students who have slipped into the sometimes-detached scientific nature of the work, moments like these pull them back to the full picture. “It’s pretty easy to get disconnected when you’re focusing on a body part, like the leg. You kind of forget sometimes really what you’re doing,” Krueger said. Certain days stick with the APRIL 2016
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PHOTO BY MARYAM TUNIO
students as more personal than others. For Krueger, it was seeing a donor with a port through which chemotherapy medications could be delivered—like his grandmother had. For others, it was the hand dissection—an especially humanizing body part—or a tattoo glimpsed from the corner of their eye. Barron recalls noticing the nail polish of another group’s donor. She said she felt overwhelmed, but took a moment to reorient herself. Hakami-Tafreshi recalls the heart dissection as especially poignant. “With the heart, I found that a bit hard because my dad had a 50
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heart surgery three years ago,” she said. “So knowing that his chest was open and his heart was taken out really made me emotional in a sense that just the way a surgeon held his heart, I’m holding someone else’s heart.” Many of the students said they had thought about body donation while reflecting on the experience and that it is something they themselves would do. The personal aspect is one that the course is designed to allow students to acclimate to—starting with less personal body parts before the dissection of hands or feet. The facial muscles are the last
to be studied. Donors’ bodies are covered everywhere except the area being studied that day. Students also referenced the support of TAs, faculty and their table mates during emotional moments. “We don’t expect everyone to be OK all the time,” Barron said. “I think people think, ‘Oh, I want to be a doctor so I have to walk into the lab and handle this very professionally,’ but it can be an experience that is hard for some people. … And that’s completely OK.” Each year, the body-donors’ gifts are remembered in a student-organized memorial service. The tradition is one that represents a semes-
PHOTO BY MARYAM TUNIO
DEAN CULLINAN
ter of learning in what is considered by many students and faculty to be a sacred place, where relationships are made that transcend even death. “They are that silent teacher who has given everything to us,” Barron said. “They were so invested in our education that they were willing to give that final gift. So, it’s a bond. In a very strange way where you never got to speak to them or hear their story, but through the dissection, you become a part of the donor’s story and the donor becomes a part of yours. It’s amazing. It’s amazing that someone would be willing to do that for people they don’t know.” See more at marquettewire.org
The undergraduate course began in 1997. Cullinan, now dean of the College of Health Sciences, created and led the course from the start. He joined the Marquette faculty in 1995 after completing his bachelor’s degree from Marquette’s physical therapy program in 1981. During his time in the university’s PT program, he took gross anatomy. He still remembers his first cut. “Frankly, it was surreal,” he said. “It was scary. It was in the axillary region, and we were confronted by the very complicated brachial plexus. Which was very daunting.” The course had six students and two cadavers the first year. In the years following, the program grew quickly, and was eventually capped at 80 or 90 students per course. Cullinan said this was to maintain a good student-to-cadaver ratio so everyone could be involved in dissections. Despite the course’s success, he said not every faculty member was supportive of the idea to offer the course to undergraduates in the newly created biomedical sciences major. “Not all of the faculty shared my enthusiasm,” he said. “Sometimes the idea is, ‘Well, this can wait until professional school.’ It can, but some of the students who take that course are going to be profoundly changed
but will never become clinicians. Still, I think that is an extremely valuable learning experience.” In 1999, Cullinan decided that there needed to be something in the lab that embodied and served as a reminder of the level or respect and gratitude the program has for its donors. He wrote the words for the plaque that hangs outside the lab today, insisting to his dean that every word was essential. Then he petitioned for $500 from the college to purchase it. Cullinan is also the reason that BISC 3136 features the opportunity to perform a blunt dissection of the brain: a technique in which layers of the brain are carefully peeled away using the blunt end of a scalpel to reveal the fiber bundles running across and connecting different brain regions. As a graduate student at the University of Virginia, Cullinan found himself working in the lab of Dr. Lennart Heimer, the Swedish neuroscientist who perfected the technique. Each summer, professionals from around the world will pay to attend a seminar led by Cullinan that teaches the technique. Marquette biomedical sciences undergraduates do it for free, spending class periods switching between watching videos of Heimer performing the dissection and following along on their brains as Cullinan does so under a projector. APRIL 2016
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ON THE TRAIL: RECRUITING AT MU BY DAN REINER
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alk around Marquette’s campus and you won’t have trouble finding a student from the Midwest. Only 18 percent of the student body originates from outside the region, with 69 percent hailing from Illinois or Wisconsin. The only places you might have a little trouble finding a student from those places is inside the Al McGuire Center or down at Valley Fields, the homes of Marquette’s student-athletes. Midwesterners make up only 62 percent of that population. With competing athletic programs like Wisconsin, Minnesota, Northwestern and Notre Dame in the region, it’s up to Marquette’s head and assistant coaches to attract high school athletes to their respective teams. Months out of the year are spent on the road or watching tapes of prospective athletes, many 52
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PHOTO VIA MAGGIE BEAN/MARQUETTE ATHLETICS
of whom don’t even end up choosing Marquette. It’s an exhausting process – guided by NCAA regulations – that requires wide-ranging knowledge, persuasion and cordiality to land recruits.
Here’s a question How do coaches get in touch with student athletes? Every team recruits differently. Some, like the basketball and soccer teams, are out on the road for recruiting trips throughout the year, keeping a close eye on potential players. Others, like the tennis and track and field teams, rely more heavily on videos and results found online. Every coach at the Division I level has an approach they prefer more than another, but believe it or not, almost every team and program utilizes online questionnaires in some capacity.
Recruiting questionnaires are the entry-level way for an interested high school athlete to capture a coach’s attention. The online forms ask for basic information – personal information, contacts, test scores – which may lead to a coach doing a quick search on the athlete. “If we get maybe 40 emails a day, there are maybe five kids that we’d like to follow up on to see in person,” Marquette men’s lacrosse coach Joe Amplo says. “Of those five kids, we might get one a week that we want to recruit.” Because of NCAA rules, coaches cannot initiate contact with high school students until July 1 following their junior year. However, starting in seventh grade, athletes are allowed to initiate the contact, so the questionnaires are the best way to get a coach to start following a player’s career.
PROJECTS SPORTS
That’s beneficial for coaches like Amplo, who typically begins recruiting players early in their careers. “We’re not allowed to have universal contact with these kids, especially at the age that we’re evaluating them at,” he says. “We evaluate so young. We’re really looking at ninth or 10th graders, so the contact rules are even more strict.” Conversely, some coaches take advantage of the questionnaires at a later stage in the recruiting process. Track and field head coach Bert Rogers is well aware that athletes typically don’t begin to blossom until their junior or senior year of high school. “We utilize the questionnaires a lot, and I think one thing that’s kind of nice in track is there’s a performance, a mark,” Rogers says. “Everybody has a time or distance. I think we probably are on the road (recruiting) a little bit less. We don’t need to see people play as much. We definitely go see them or at least get video, but it helps that you can go online, and each state some place has some kind of descending order list of all the high schoolers. That makes it easier to pick out the top ones and contact them.”
Playing the cards For some sports – basketball, soccer and cross-country, for example – the Midwest is loaded with talented athletes. Having an abundance of local talent lessens the hassle for coaches to get out on the recruiting trail. However, the Midwest isn’t exactly a hotbed for sports like tennis, golf and lacrosse. Those coaches are the ones that rely on videos and high school contacts, while making time for scouting trips to schools and club tournaments when they can. “It’s still the same as it used to be where we’re trying to identify talent,” Amplo says. “Either we see them first, or they get to us and show us who they are first. They get to us by coming to one
of our camps or sending video. (Or) we go out to these showcases where we identify them. Here it’s not as easy as it is on the East Coast to go see high school games and look at talent.” Those showcases tend to pop up in heavily-populated areas specific to the sport. For lacrosse, they take place in hub states like Colorado, Maryland and New York, while men’s basketball club tournaments garner schools in Las Vegas, Chicago and Miami. More typically, coaches will scout players directly through their high school or club teams to see how they play in a more regular setting.
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YOU CAN LUST AFTER PEOPLE THAT ARE OF A CERTAIN CALIBER, BUT UNLESS THEY WANT TO BE HERE AND THEIR HEART IS HERE, WE CAN’T DO IT
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“There’s two schools of thought,” Amplo says. “Do you wait and just let the cards fall where they may and wait for the best kids that are left? Or do you go out early and try to compete with every school out there and hope you’re right on those young kids?” Amplo says that if he and his staff identify 20 student athletes they’re interested in at a showcase, they’re happy if they land just one of them because they’re the best they’ve seen. If they don’t get any of those 20, they’re still content, confident in
knowing they’ll be able to develop any player who comes Marquette. “There’s good players that develop a little later,” he says. “We’ve found in our last two recruiting classes the kids that we’ve gotten later in the process have been our most impactful kids in those classes.” Other coaches have the same mindset. Men’s soccer head coach Louis Bennett, whose club finished its worst season since 2009 last fall, says he has always recruited players who buy into his program and its passion. “You can lust after people that are of a certain caliber, but unless they want to be here and their heart is here, we can’t do it,” Bennett says. “We can’t do it without people who have a strong heart here and want to get their degree. There are other schools that can do it. There are other schools with bigger reputations, better facilities. They can get players who are almost mercenaries. They come in looking to be one or two and out (of school).” Before last season, the men’s soccer team made a postseason tournament in five consecutive seasons, including its first-ever BIG EAST championship in 2013. Bennett says that team – which reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament – took years to build. It was in 2009 – when the team went 4-11-3 – that Bennett and his staff recruited a class highlighted by future professionals Charlie Lyon, Eric Pothast and Bryan Ciesiulka. That record-breaking class began a run of developing underclassmen to succeed down the road. “No one would accept that they were the leaders in their freshman year,” Bennett says. “By their sophomore year, they had to accept that ... By the time they were seniors ... that is when we won everything because we had a great mix of young and experienced.” Now, Bennett is going through the same struggles he experienced when the team wasn’t winning in the APRIL 2016
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MU recruits from the USA 2015-’16 Out of 305 student-athletes, 280 are from the United States. 5 2
14
4
2
16
3
9
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18
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International recruits
US recruits by region
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es
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Northeast 18%
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Midwest 62%
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2000s. He’s brought in young, local talent in recent years, but many of the underclassmen have been thrown into significant roles due to graduation and injuries. “Seven years ago, we couldn’t get that many talented players in a class,” Bennett says. “We had caliber players here. I thought it would take three years. I didn’t think it would take five. But now, from year to year we’re like any top program. We may go up and down. There are only a few elite programs who don’t go up and down. That’s our goal, to be so elite you can’t go up and down, but it requires us staying old. We have to stay old, and last year we weren’t old. It’s the balance of bringing people in who are top players that might not play in their first year. I don’t know if we ever get to that stage, but that would be ideal.” On the plus side, the five true freshmen who were forced into playing significant minutes for the team last year now have the
experience to help lead this year’s incoming class, ranked 15th in the nation by TopDrawerSoccer. Bennett gained local talent in top players like Luka Prpa, Patrick Seagrist and Connor Alba but also spent nearly a month overseas at European showcases where he recruited Jan Maertins (Switzerland), Anton von Hofacker (Norway) and Zacharias Andreou (Cyprus). Amplo, who doesn’t have to travel quite as far to find athletes, still needs to get to the East Coast fairly often because that’s where the bulk of lacrosse talent lies. Twenty-nine of his 49 players come from states on the East Coast, not to mention the five from Ontario, Canada. “We wanted our footprint to start Philadelphia and north,” says Amplo, whose roster is 24 percent Pennsylvanians. “We said it’s going to be Philadelphia blue-collar kids, Long Island blue-collar kids, mix of New Jersey, some of New York and New England… We wanted to go after the kids from the best high school
PHOTO VIA MAGGIE BEAN/MARQUETTE ATHLETICS
Marquette men’s lacrosse coach Joe Amplo focused on Philadelphia and the Northeast when he began building the progam five years ago.
programs we could get into, kids who knew what a championship culture was, who knew how to win and potentially may not be the best player on their team, but were still good and had something to prove.” In just five years, that championship mentality has morphed into a top-20 nationally ranked team. Although the Midwest only has five Division I lacrosse programs – Marquette, Ohio State, Michigan, Detroit and Notre Dame – Amplo believes the future is budding in the region for the sport. He anticipates that in a few years, players from Minnesota might make up a third of the team’s roster. “It’s a pyramid,” he says. “The sport is growing so much at the bottom levels. Over the past five or 10 years it’s been the fastest growing sport by an enormous number.” He’s not wrong. According to a National Federation of State High School Associations survey, high school participation in organized lacrosse has increased every year since 2006 and is now one of the top-10 most popular sports among high school girls. When it comes to recruiting, coaches will look near and far to find players who will mesh with their program. No matter the sport, the ultimate goal of any recruiter is to create a class of talented student athletes who embrace the formula for success. For Marquette’s coaches, it’s a game of cat and mouse – finding the right way to convince a player to spend his or her college career in Milwaukee. “It’s about finding the right fit,” Amplo says. “For us, the progress has helped because as a coach, you get your ego up and say, ‘Those are the best kids out there. I want to go recruit them.’ Realistically, those kids aren’t excited about Marquette right now. We’re trying to break down some of those walls.”
Jack Goods contributed to this story. APRIL 2016
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