4-12-17

The Pitt News

When festival culture gets out of control Page 6

The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | april 12, 2017 | Volume 107 | Issue 158

sexual assault Survivors seek support, healing in WPU

EXPRESS YOURSELF

Dan Day and John Hamilton The Pitt News staff

At the Sexual Violence Open Mic Tuesday night, no one actually used a microphone. Instead, 13 students pushed two tables together inside the William Pitt Union for an intimate discussion on the effects of rape culture and sexual violence.

Pitt’s chapter of the American Association of University Women –– a national organization that works to empower women and fight for gender equality — held the event in the Kurtzmann Room of the WPU as rain poured outside.

Sara Best, president of AAUW at Pitt, said the group designed the event as an opportunity for survivors of sexual violence to heal through sharing their experiences.

“Storytelling is really important for people who are survivors of sexual violence,” Best said. “It’s important for us to have people tell their truth and hear each other’s stories.”

Though the AAUW planned for an event in which students shared poetry and stories through a microphone to the entire room, not enough students attended, so Best shifted the format to a more informal discussion.

Artist Kiyan Williams performs a piece for Alt(e)ar, a multimedia performance and art installation hosted by Pitt’s Center for African American Poetry and Poetics Tuesday. Jordan Mondell CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Pitt Progressives aims to fill gaps on the left Amanda Reed

Contributing Editor

Becca Tasker, a junior majoring in anthropology, first started researching civil rights in middle school.

She had learned about the murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy who was lynched in 1955 after being falsely accused of flirting with a white woman.

“I was always into history, and I started learning about the formation and fight for civil See Survivors on page 3 rights in the U.S.,” she said. “My parents encour-

aged my curiosity by buying me books when they could, and taking me to the library.”

So on a chilly Wednesday night in March, Tasker taught four students gathered in room 227 of the Cathedral of Learning about civil rights and liberties when protesting. The event, called “Know Your Rights!” was part of a weekly meeting for Pitt Progressives, a new Pitt club focused on getting left-leaning students on campus engaged in the community.

Tasker, the social media coordinator for Pitt Progressives, covered the legal limits for Ameri-

can protesters, photographers and detainees.

She instructed her audience on exercising their First, Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights without going too far and risking arrest or injury at the hands of the police.

This year, more than 250 protesters, some of whom were Pitt students, have been arrested in Pittsburgh and in Washington D.C. for aggravated assault, resisting arrest and trespassing — charges all related to protesting.

See Pitt Progressives on page 2

News

SGB promises online NYT subscriptions, forms committees Nolan Roosa Position

After promising changes to the Student Government Board governing code all year, SGB introduced four bills last night that would create new committees and provide students with online New York Times memberships.

Two of the new bills will add a communications committee and the First Year Council into the official SGB constitution. These committees functioned this year in ad hoc form — subgroups that are typically dissolved once their task is completed.

Adding the committees into the governing code legitimizes the communications committee’s role, according to Communications Director Kara Boutselis.

Boutselis created the communications committee after discussing her need to delegate certain tasks within the board. SGB functioned better when committee members utilized their Justin Horowitz speaks to students about four new bills SGB plans to enact for own specific skillsets, such as video production the next academic year Kyleen Considine STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER and graphic design, to advertize SGB news and

Pitt Progressives, pg. 1 Other campus groups have continued to raise funds for those who are currently still facing legal charges — making Tasker’s presentation all the more relevant.

“If you are detained, ask what crime you are being detained for. Until you ask to leave, you can’t walk away — you could be charged with a crime,” Tasker told the students. “How the cops will react depends on what they’re questioning you for, the color of your skin and what part of the country they stopped you in.”

Sam Spearing, a junior political science major and Pitt Progressives business manager, said that knowing your rights is especially important for young people who are fresh to the political scene. Spearing referred to nationwide protests that broke out after Trump’s controversial executive order banning travel between the United States and seven countries with majority Muslim populations. “[Knowing your rights] has a newfound relevance,” said Sam Spearing, a junior politi-

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cal science major and Pitt Progressives business manager. “There’s been a lot of civil disobedience recently — at the JFK airport after the [first] travel ban, for instance.”

Jeff Migliozzi, a junior marketing major and president of Pitt Progressives, said the group grew out of Students for Bernie, an organization dedicated to supporting Bernie Sanders’ efforts for the Democratic bid during the 2016 election. Although Students for Bernie was focused on the primary election and most of its group members did not join Pitt Progressives, it officially became a student group three months after the 2016 election.

“Before the Pitt Progressives, the left wing at Pitt had to choose between the anarchists or the College Democrats. We wanted to fill in the void between them,” he said. “The Democratic Party is more corporate-leaning. As for middle ground between us and the anarchists, there is probably much less because we do not believe in violence or their general philosophy on society.”

This meeting was about civil rights, but the See Pitt Progressives on page 3

events she said.

“Since there are specific positions, we are able to pull amazing talent from this school,” she said.

Since one of SGB’s primary goals in the coming year is to engage more students in decision making and idea gathering, Boutselis said the committee will be a vessel of student outreach.

Chief of Staff Phil Anderson introduced two bills that SGB will pass at the final meeting of the semester next week.

One bill will give all students a free subscription to The New York Times, transitioning from the paper copies that students currently have access to. At peak traffic –– Friday in Posvar Hall –– people were only removing 11 papers from swipe boxes. SGB representatives said that going digital will lead to higher student readership.

“We thought we could appeal to more students more broadly. For us to provide [The New York Times] for 18,000 students online is cheaper than providing 250 New York Times See SGB on page 5

Kenyatta Bundy performs a poem he wrote during the Pitt Progressives’ open mic night in Nordy’s Place. Elaina Zachos SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

April 12, 2017

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Survivors, pg. 1 “Sometimes it’s important to talk about this topic in a smaller setting,” Best, a senior economics and gender, sexuality and women’s studies major, said.

A 2015 survey at Pitt quantified the prevalence of sexual assault on campus, finding that 21 percent of females, 6 percent of males and 19 percent of transgender or non-gender conforming students reported experiencing “nonconsensual penetration involving force or incapacitation or sexual touching” during their college career at Pitt.

The survey also revealed that bystanders were hesitant to report sexual assaults, with 40 percent of responders indicating that they don’t know what happens after reporting an assault.

Among the individuals who came to share their experiences was Casey Madden. A 2016 Pitt graduate, they attended the event representing the Gay and Lesbian Community Center, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group that wants to increase their community outreach.

“Speaking to a room full of people that you don’t know is pretty liberating,” said

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Madden, who is a sexual assault survivor.

“Bringing people together like this, letting people who have been assaulted see that there are groups out there that support them, is very important.”

Before sharing their own experiences, the group watched two videos of women using slam poetry to speak about rape culture and sexual violence in pop culture, like Jamie Foxx “blaming it on the alcohol” and Robin Thicke knowing “you want it” in his pop song “Blurred Lines.”

“It’s difficult to observe rape culture because it happens a lot in tight-knit groups,” Frances Berger, a senior GSWS and sociology student, said.

Berger said this normalization of sexual violence has permeated her conversations.

She was troubled by the reactions people had when she told them about her sexual assault.

“It was shocking how normal it was to get raped,” she said.

Many of the other students that shared their experiences noted that their friends showed a lack of understanding and added to the pain she experienced after her assault.

“I was dating someone at the time [of my assault],” Best said. “He was like, ‘It could

have been worse.’ What do you mean it could have been worse? You didn’t experience it.”

Berger had a similarly negative experience when she shared the story of her assault with a friend.

“The first thing [a friend] said was, ‘Do you think she’s telling the truth?’ For some reason, there’s this idea that survivors lie about their experiences. You could count them on a hand,” she said. “People don’t lie about their sexual assaults.”

Essence Kimes, an administration of justice major, came to the event as a representative of Pitt’s Title IX office –– which works to ensure the non-discriminatory treatment of students on the basis of sex.

“It’s not until you experience sexual violence that you understand how traumatic it is,” Kimes said.

As more stories of sexual assault came to light, attendees responded by sharing various methods of support and healing. This discussion focused on ways society can be more accepting of survivors. Best said this starts on the individual level.

“What has been healing is coming to terms that I am more than [my assault],” Best said. “That’s something we should celebrate a lot more.”

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Pitt Progressives, pg. 2 Pitt Progressives meetings are different each week –– members will present a topic, listen to a guest speaker or hold an event. The gatherings are centered on a common desire to make students more politically active, according to Jeff Migliozzi, the club’s president.

“The main goal of every meeting is getting students more involved politically in our community... at the federal, state, city or university level of politics,” Migliozzi, a junior marketing major, said.

The club recently had an open mic night March 29 for students to express their feelings about the election and the inauguration through poetry, rap and spoken word. At its next meeting on April 12, they will hold a poster-making party in anticipation of the Pittsburgh satellite of the March for Science on April 22, which they are planning and participating in. The March for Science, held on Earth Day, in Washington, D.C., brings attention to funding cuts to the sciences under the Trump administration.

“The march is going to have thousands of participants and scientist speakers, so it is far larger in scale than anything else we have done,” See Pitt Progressives on page 5

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The Pitt News

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SGB, pg. 2

Pitt Progressives, pg. 3

and 250 USA Todays across campus,” Anderson said, adding that the switch will save the University $5,000 per year from the Student Activities fund.

SGB will advertise the new online subscription in Arrival Survival packets and on residence hall desks for move-in, according to President Natalie Dall.

The second bill authored by Anderson puts the First Year Council, a committee the chief of staff oversees, in the governing code. The First Year Council is a group of select first-year students who work with the board on SGB initiatives.

SGB also proposed an amendment to their current meeting format that introduces an additional open floor at the beginning of the meeting –– in addition to the two later in the meeting –– open for anyone from the Pitt community to voice their opinion to SGB. Dall said more students will attend meetings with a decreased wait time to voice their opinion. This style is similar to the town hall meetings that SGB began holding monthly this semester. These meetings have not been wellattended.

Dall also said she felt confident that the new opportunity would bring out students that would be more hesitant to come to a town hall.

“Different people would come to a town hall than a public meeting. There may be a small area of redundancies, but it’s still our job to listen to student concerns,” she said.

Migliozzi said.

Although Migliozzi would not say which guest speakers are attending the Pittsburgh satellite march, he said the organizers will announce the speakers next week in a press release.

According to Tasker, Progressivism isn’t solely about action — it’s about taking leftist ideologies and making policies that will work for the people. “[Progressivism is] about moving forward

with our actions to make the world a better place,” Tasker said. “We want to continue the passion from the 2016 election and mobilize students to create a passionate movement to help the greater Pittsburgh area.”

More broadly, the Pitt Progressives will focus on working toward universal health care, raising the minimum wage and resisting the Trump administration by supporting the sanctuary campus movement.

“It is important that every person, progressive or not, defends the most vulnerable in our society, and that includes immigrants being rounded up by ICE. We are a nation of immi-

grants, and Pittsburgh is a city of immigrants,” Migliozzi said.

And though Trump hasn’t been in office for even 100 days, Migliozzi said Pitt Progressives is already looking toward increasing student engagement in the next election, four years from now.

“Voter registration will be huge next year.

National organizers of 2016 campaigns noted the lack of political engagement and turnout for such a big school,” he said. “We need to change that [through activism], and this can be done without any official party affiliation.”

Allocations Enactus requested $2,218 for a national competition. The board approved $1,693 and denied $525.

Women’s Club Ultimate requested $1,258.90 for a sectional competition. The board approved $320.34 and denied $938.56.

Women’s Club Ultimate requested $1,339.34 for a regional competition. The board approved in full.

Women’s Club Ultimate Requested $2,630.94 for a national competition. The board approved in full.

Men’s Ultimate Frisbee requested $1,800.36 for a conference competition. The board approved in full.

Panther Hurling Club requested $2,217.86 for the NCGAA National Championship. The board approved in full.

Panther Hurling Club requested $1,273.88 for team equipment and uniforms. The board approved in full.

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April 12, 2017

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Opinions

column

from the editorial board

New businesses, partnerships vital to Braddock’s future If you drive 30 minutes outside of Oakland along I-376 and take a few strategic turns, you’ll find yourself on Braddock Avenue. The street is the main strip of the Braddock borough, a suburb east of Pittsburgh, and it consists of a line of old buildings and warehouses — many of which have been sitting abandoned for years.

Braddock declined with the steel industry in the 1970s and 80s. Mayor John Fetterman — the neighborhood’s champion — has been trying to revitalize the area since 2005. Recent developments show that change is coming.

Trau & Loevner, a custom screen-printing shop, moved in a decade ago, and the redeveloped Free Press Buildings on the avenue now include commercial and residential tenants.

And Kevin Sousa — a prominent Pittsburgh chef — is working to open a new restaurant in that building called Superior Motors.

Now Pittsburgh-based Crazy Mocha Coffee Company and local nonprofit Heritage Community Initiatives — which provides transportation and services to low-income Braddock residents — are partnering up to continue helping the revitalization efforts, according to reports from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Tuesday.

The partnership is a sweet one for both parties. The nonprofit, which owns the Cuda building, received a $25,000 grant from the Heinz Endowments to use for improvements to the building’s exterior. Additional funds for the renovation will come from fundraising and a matching dollars agreement between Heritage and Crazy Mocha.

These partnerships will allow businesses and those invested in the community to team up and provide mutual benefits and this is exactly what Braddock needs to jumpstart further progress.

But there’s reason to be cautious. Coffee shops and places to custom design T-shirts are nice, but they aren’t the type of businesses a community absolutely needs.

We need to ensure businesses and partner-

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ships are focusing on bringing in grocery stores and opportunities for non-service jobs through industry and manufacturing that can create employment and better sustain the more fundamental needs of Braddock’s population.

Although Braddock is not technically a food desert — two small markets off of Braddock Avenue satisfy the requirements — the town could still benefit from a larger supermarket. A stable, rebuilding community such as Braddock is in need of key essential features including infrastructure, particularly on the abandoned main street buildings, public parks and outdoor activities for children and families and an industry large enough to employ the people who live there.

In addition to the shops, restaurants and renovations of the last few years, the Braddock Borough Council also approved plans to build a medical marijuana facility in March. The borough will still need to obtain the proper licenses from the state but if the plan pans out, it could be another huge boost in investment for the town to both employ Braddock residents and bring in others from out of town. Investments in industry and small, local shops is what Braddock needs to make itself a more attractive place to live and to create more jobs and better lifestyle for its residents.

Partnerships, such as the one between Crazy Mocha and Heritage Community Initiatives, are an ingenious way of incentivizing new business to invest and build in Braddock. But investing in a town like Braddock is risky from an economic viewpoint, so offering other incentives such as tax breaks or rent discounts can help motivate more businesses to open up locations and take a chance on Braddock.

Braddock’s former steel industry may have fallen down decades ago, but with a few more quality investments over the year, it’ll surely be strong part of Allegheny County once again.

Music festivals need more focus on safety

Liam McFadden STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

Julia Aldrich Columnist

When I walked through the security gates at Electric Zoo — a dance music festival that takes place every Labor Day weekend in New York City — in 2015, there was a noticeable nervous vibe in the air.

Police walked dogs up and down the aisles of festival-goers waiting to enter the grounds, as security thoroughly patted down anxious entrants. These increased measures came after the deaths of two at the festival, reportedly due to MDMA overdoses, in 2013.

These tragedies were only one example of an increasing trend: Mingled with the eclectic bands and vibrant fashion trends, abusing drugs has become a staple of festival culture.

The popularity of drugs — most of which are illegal and synthetic — combined with festivals’ generally poor safety precautions, has led to dangerous instances across the country. Following the incidents at Electric Zoo in 2015, two and three college-aged kids died at Hard Summer in southern California in the summers of 2015 and 2016, respec-

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tively.

Approximately 32 million people will attend music festivals in the U.S. this year, according to Billboard— a 2016 report from Aloompa showed that 51 percent of Americans attended a music festival in 2015, up nearly 10 percent from 2014. As the number of music festival-goers increases, drug-related deaths at these festivals have likewise been increasing in recent years. While the large bulk of deaths are due to trampling, structural collapses or motor-vehicle accidents, a 2014 Canadian study found that 13 percent of all deaths at music festivals were related to drug and alcohol use between the years 1999 and 2014. Meaning that of the deaths not involving physical trauma, drugs and alcohol were by far the most prevalent causes. Additionally, the authors of the study noted that this number doesn’t include unreported deaths, a figure that could be much higher. Add that to the number of people who are harmed by drugs, but not fatally: there are still numerous hospitalizations for sickness, injuries and See Aldrich on page 7

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Aldrich, pg. 6 arrests at festivals.

If we noticed an uptick in people dying or being injured from stage malfunctions — microphones short circuiting, platforms collapsing, roofs falling in — we’d be coming up with solutions immediately. We should do the same for increasing drug abuse at festivals. First, we need to acknowledge that young people attending concerts aren’t going to stop experimenting with drugs, regardless of how many of their peers die from it or how aggressive security may be. The “just say no” to drugs approach isn’t a relevant one here.

Because many of the drugs most frequently taken at these events are illegal — MDMA, LSD and cocaine — people are less likely to report their usage, making it more difficult to determine how many attendees are consuming them.

DrugAbuse.com — a website dedicated to providing information and resources about drug addiction and recovery — conducted an Instagram-based study in 2015 that measured how often people hashtagged or mentioned certain types of drugs in the captions of photos taken at music festivals. The results showed that alcohol was the most commonly mentioned

drug with MDMA/ecstasy a close second. Although this study does not decipher whether those who mention the drugs are in fact taking them or just talking about them, the correlation is still clear.

Although deaths from MDMA or other drugs are often reported as overdoses, this isn’t always the exact case. DanceSafe — a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating people on how to safely take drugs — argues that most reported MDMA overdoses aren’t even technically “overdoses” but rather deaths and injuries due to heatstroke and other complications from these drugs.

Music festival organizers know that their target ticket-buyers aren’t going to give up drugs. And they know which kinds of drugs are most likely to be abused. So instead of ignoring the issue as an unfortunate side effect of “festival culture,” we should be doing something to make safety a bigger priority.

Offering better access to water and medical help in addition to implementing drug-testing stations are steps that should be taken to immediately to help prevent possible deaths this upcoming festival season.

At an Avicii concert in Boston in June 2014, the temperature reached almost 90 degrees, and 36 concert attendees were rushed to the hospi-

tal, reportedly for dehydration, which is a side effect of both MDMA and alcohol.

In order to combat the negative effects of these illegal drugs, it is imperative that music festivals provide the resources for their ticket holders to be properly cooled and hydrated.

Many festivals, such as EDC Vegas and Bonnaroo, provide water refill stations, but large crowds pile up into long lines at the fountains.

And the cost of purchasing a bottle of water from a vendor with a shorter line can be high — with the average being $4, according to EDM. com — making people less inclined to buy them.

Festivals should make sure the cost of water bottles is affordable or that there are enough water refill stations to provide for the crowds.

Dehydration and hyperthermia aren’t the only risk factors that accompany drug use, so it will take more than just a few extra water stations to fix the issue. Because so many drugs consumed at these festivals are illegal, a buyer doesn’t always know what might be in them or if that ecstasy is really ecstasy.

Drug testing stations where attendees can check the contents of their pills with anonymity and no repercussions can help combat the danger of attendees accidentally consuming unknown drugs. In the United Kingdom, a

nonprofit organization called The Loop makes its rounds to various music festivals with the purpose of testing drugs and providing drug safety information.

In the U.K., the group is allowed to test a sample of the drug, and since it’s often destroyed during the process, there’s nothing to be returned to whoever submitted it. In the U.S., groups who try to do similar work give out selftesting kits instead. Right now the process is not, strictly speaking, legal. So those in charge of the stations, usually nonprofit organizations, either have to convince the police at the festivals to look the other way or risk fines and confiscations.

By instituting greater safety measures, such as better access to water, and by allowing legal drug testing stations or self-testing kits in the U.S., we can make safety part of the vibe at music festivals.

Festivals have never been — and probably never will be — drug-free. But we can do more to make sure they’re death-free.

Julia primarily writes about politics and social issues for The Pitt News.

Write to Julia at jla85@pitt.edu.

The Pitt News SuDoku 4/12/17 courtesy of dailysudoku.com

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Sports Q&A: JOSLIN SELLERS ENGINEERS FINAL SUCCESS ON THE TRACK Mackenzie Rodrigues Staff Writer

Senior distance runner Joslin Sellers has been carving out her spot on the track since the seventh grade.

This year, as she finishes up a nearly ten-year running career, she solidified a high-ranking position in Pitt history after finishing the 2016-17 indoor season with not one but two record-breaking performances.

Sellers broke Pitt’s program record in the mile with a time of 4:43.33 — beating Maureen McCandless’ 2005 record of 4:44.00 — at the ACC Indoor Championships on Saturday, Feb. 25. At the same competition, she ran as the anchor for the distance medley relay team that set the school record with a time of 11:18.78, previously 11:31.99 from 2016.

Although she’s a senior, Sellers took time off to participate in Pitt’s co-op engineering program— meaning she still

has one more year of eligibility as a Pitt athlete. She will race in her final season for the Panthers’ cross country team next fall as she finishes up her degree in chemical engineering, works toward joining the workforce and plans to pursue a business degree.

The Pitt News talked to Sellers about balancing her time as a student athlete with a rigorous major and about reaching the apex of her fast-paced career: setting a record in Notre Dame, Indiana.

The Pitt News: When did you get into distance running? And what made you want to start cross country?

Joslin Sellers: I’ve been running track since seventh grade, but I wasn’t a distance runner until my sophomore year of high school, when I started running cross country.

I did cheerleading, but then I fell in See Q&A on page 9

Joslin Sellers will graduate from Pitt with the school mile record and a degree in chemical engineering. Photographer’s Name POSITION

McKayla Taylor named ACC Player of the Week Bayard Miller

Assistant Sports Editor

McKayla Taylor’s hot streak from the batter’s box led to the ACC naming her the ACC Player of the Week. John Hamilton CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

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Thanks to an excellent week at the plate and in the field, junior Pitt shortstop McKayla Taylor became the ACC’s Softball Player of the Week Tuesday afternoon. The Atlantic Coast Conference announced the honor Tuesday afternoon.

The Florida State Seminoles swept the Panthers in Tallahassee the weekend of April 2, dropping the team’s record in conference play to 1-11.

Since then, Pitt has rattled off four straight wins, in large part due to Taylor’s play.

The junior administration of justice major from Huntington Beach, California hit one home run in all four of last week’s games, scored six runs and drove in seven Pitt baserunners. With seven RBIs, Taylor now has driven in the fourth-most runs in Pitt softball history with 116 to her name.

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Over the course of the last week’s action, in which the Panthers played St. Francis Tuesday, April 5, and Virginia Tech April 8-9, Taylor got a hit in six of her 15 at bats for a .400 batting average.

Taylor completed the week with an on-base percentage of .438 and a slugging percentage of 1.200.

Her best day at the plate came in Saturday’s series opener against the Hokies, during which she went 3-4 with a home run, two RBIs and three runs scored.

Taylor played flawless defense at short last week, making eight putouts and 12 assists with no errors.

Taylor and the Panthers play their next game on Friday, April 14, as they open a three-game in-conference series at home against the Syracuse Orange.

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love with running. I started running the 400 meters and the 800 meters a little bit, and my track coach convinced me to run cross country because he saw potential in me as a distance runner as well.

TPN: In high school you were also an MVP, team captain and the 2013 athlete of the year at your high school. How do you think high school track prepared you for college track?

JS: High school really prepared me for the racing aspect. The thing that was hardest transitioning from high school to college was that in high school you’re a big fish in a small pond. Then going to a Division 1 school, you’re a small fish in a really large pond. Especially my freshman year, it was really hard not being the best one on the team and not winning a bunch of races. I think that was definitely the hardest part. High school definitely prepared me for college because it prepared me for the work ethic that was required to excel in a Division 1 sport.

TPN: Have you ever had an injury that kept you off the track?

JS: I had two stress fractures in high school, and I had a stress fracture last track season, so I didn’t get to run outdoor track last year.

TPN: Why did you choose engineering and how do you balance being an engineering student and an athlete?

JS: I originally applied to Pitt as a pre-med student because I wanted to be a doctor, but I decided that I didn’t think I wanted to go into the medical field at the last minute, so I reapplied to the engineering school. I‘ve always been pretty good at math and science, so I figured it would be a good fit for me. Then I decided to go into engineering, and I definitely think I made the right decision.

It’s definitely a lot of time management. I have to plan out my schedule, sometimes weeks in advance, especially during track season. We are traveling usually every weekend, and I’ll miss sometimes two or three days of class.

It’s definitely a lot of time management

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and a lot of grit. A lot of times I can’t do what I want, can’t watch TV, relax because I have to be in the library or the training room or on the track. But I love my classes, and I love engineering and I really love running so I make it work.

TPN: Who would you say is your biggest support system?

JS: My family is a huge support system. They’ve supported me since day one. My parents and my two brothers are great. Also, Coach [Adam] Bray has been an amazing coach. I kind of struggled last track season after taking a year off for co-op. I had a lot of doubts about whether I wanted to continue running or not, and he really convinced me to stick with the sport, and he saw potential in me and told me that I had what it took, I just needed some confidence. That really helped me get through and continue to improve.

TPN: How have you seen yourself grow from your first season to now?

JS: My confidence is definitely the biggest thing that has changed. I’ve always tried to work hard and put in the work, but my confidence definitely improved this track season as I started to see my times improve, and I had some good races. That fueled the fire and allowed me to reevaluate my goals for the season. I would say that my love for running is the same. I’ve loved running ever since I started.

The Pitt news crossword 4/12/17

Q&A, pg. 8

TPN: You recently set the record for the mile. What was that race like?

JS: That race was awesome. It was actually exhausting because it was my third race for that meet already. We ran the [Distance Medley Relay] on Thursday night and set the school record for that, and then I had to qualify for the finals in the mile. So, I ran the qualifying mile and then qualified. For the final, I was a little tired, but there was so much adrenaline, and I just did what I had been doing the whole season. I just needed to lay it all on the track and try to really kick the last couple laps. I had no idea that I did break the school record until I looked up on the board afterwards and saw my time. I was so happy. It was awesome.

April 12, 2017

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