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Est. 1929 Vol. 90 No. 7
Mercyhurst university
Wednesday, noveMber 2, 2016
4th Vow awakens students By Jenny Sabliov
Arts & Entertainment editor
Over the weekend of Oct. 21-23, Mercyhurst students had the chance to step out of their comfort zone on the Fourth Vow retreat. Colin Hurley, director of Community Engagement, and Greg Baker, director of Campus Ministry, were the main organizers of the Fourth Vow retreat. By design, they want to keep elements of surprise with these retreats so a lot of the details are kept confidential. The retreat allowed students to get a sense of charity and mercy and how that works to challenge them. This helps students understand themselves and the “other.” The “other” means the people who are different, which is a cause of fear that people have with one another. “There are is a lot of rhetoric in the news which shows there is a lot of underlying fear,” Hurley said. “When Greg and I met several months in advance to design these experiences, we were hoping to confront some of
Contributed photo
At the Fourth Vow retreat, students reflected with Greg Baker on the events that had transpired earlier that day in the city.
the injustices and a lot of the fears that we see in society.” They paralleled the story of Catherine McAuley to juxtapose their situation on day two when they went into the inner city and stayed in the Benedictine operated facility called “Space to Create.” They did neighborhood surveys on the east side of Erie,
partnering with the House of Mercy in the U.S. The students went out in pairs and did neighborhood canvassing around issues that are present in residents’ lives. “Most students got three or four houses to open the door for them, and I think it was a step toward how do we get the student to ask and knock and
confront others,” Hurley said. That afternoon, the students were given a series of challenges to meet people and give back to the city. All of these students have been on a Carpe Diem retreat. “It was a nice segue because they were taking it up a notch and saying ‘where does my story blend in with the community’s story?’”
Hurley said. “Carpe Diem, to seize the day, is not just about being comfortable with yourself and your story, but that your real happiness is found when you start recognizing the ‘other’ and start encountering other people and you start learning what it means to serve and to love people,” Baker said.
The challenge for the students was leaving them with the question “what is your fourth vow?” It is a critical thinking challenge that they are left with. “We check in with them over time, we don’t just leave them. We continue to cultivate that relationship with them,” Hurley said. The third day they met with Pastor Charles Mock from the Community Baptist Church. Few of the students identified as Baptist, so attending this church was another opportunity for them to experience those with different traditions through conversation and a meal. When deciding the design of the retreat, organizers needed to outline a challenge for the students. “How do we get students uncomfortable by brushing up against and colliding with some of the issues we see in the news? Our students are now wrestling with that in a good way, not a confrontational way,” Hurley said. Overall, according to Hurley, the Fourth Vow retreat was a success and will most likely become an annual affair. @TheMerciad
MU breaks down barriers Winter weather is coming By Melanie Todd Staff writer
Research presented by a Mercyhurst team is looking to break down language barriers for students. “Creative Tutoring with Language Learners,” a paper presented by the Mercyhurst team of Janelle Newman, Ph.D., Justin Ross, Ph.D., Kerrie Findlay and Cole Lowe, details the use of tutors to help engage and work oneon-one with the students. “Our main goal was to show that a language barrier is not an excuse to excluding diverse students from the classroom. It is our responsibility as teachers to reach everyone in our classroom, and here was an idea to do so. With language, the main purpose of learning it is to communicate,” Cole Lowe, a junior Spanish Education major, said. The team’s research was presented at “Languages: The Flagship to Opportunities,” the annual Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association conference in October. “I became involved because I was the first student to really be fully immersed in
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the English as a Second Language Certification Program we have on campus. Janelle Newman is a personal mentor of mine, and we have worked very close together on other projects, and this was a good fit to show some of Mercyhurst’s success,” Lowe said. Lowe was pivotal to this research project because of his personal experience. “My role was to provide personal anecdotes and experiential research of being a tutor and successful ways to reach students. I have worked as a tutor extensively, and being a world language major and specifically an ESL minor, I had the education to have success with our students of other languages,” said Lowe. “I told our audience of stories that I had experienced within the tutoring environment (Spanish and ESL) and how it was relevant to teaching strategies and cultural or linguistic awareness.” The topic of this research project explored the use of tutors but specifically using unique techniques to help students learn languages. “The research we had done was based on our successes with having a tutor in a language setting. This included
foreign languages and learning a second language. We wanted to show secondary teachers and post-secondary teachers the methods of having a supplementary source (a tutor) such as one-to-one or group environments and embedded tutoring. Mercyhurst has a substantial tutoring program with modern and cutting-edge methods,” Lowe said. Lowe also was able to earn credit for his involvement. “Also, the presentation was connected to the Honors Program, for I had used the research as a way to honorize a class to fulfill the eight-class honors class requirement,” Lowe said. The team will continue to share the findings in conferences. The goal is to spread their research so that others can benefit, especially the students. “Janelle Newman and I re-presented the topic at the conference for Western Pennsylvania ESL Teachers (Three-Rivers TESOL Conference). We continue to work with and enrich the tutoring opportunities for our university ESL students,” Lowe said. @TheMerciad
By Lauren Murphy Staff writer
Winter is coming, and it is going to be a rough one. Weather and temperature forecasts all predict a slightly colder winter on the East Coast. What does this mean for the school? Maintenance was unavailable to comment on this issue, but for the students it means bundling up more before heading to class. The cold temperatures, bitter winds and heavy inches of snow seem to not be in favor with many students. “I don’t really like the snow, and if this winter is worse than last winter, I’m not excited,” said senior Erin McGarrity. Of course, winter and the snow give both students and faculty alike a reason to drink hot chocolate from Tim Hortons and partake in the winter holidays. The cold cannot be all that bad. “I like winter, because I get to wear my warm sweaters and the campus looks pretty,” said junior Jane Van Vessem. Weather forecasters are saying that a La Niña is expected to influence winter conditions this year. A La Niña tends to influence the drier
Casey Bleuel, file photo
Icicles hanging from the Herrmann Student Union during the harsh winter in early 2015.
and warmer winters in Southern states, while influencing the wetter and cooler winters in Northern states. This winter, Southern states are expected to experience higher than average warm and dry conditions. Northern states are expected to experience higher than average wet and cool conditions. The National Weather
Service (NWS) states that 70 percent of fatalities related to snow and ice happen in automobiles. About 25 percent of all winter fatalities occur because people are caught off guard. The NWS advises individuals who venture out into the snow to be careful and stay on guard.
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