WEDNESDAY
February 20, 2013 Vol. 97 • No. 3 www.therambler.org
The Rambler The voice of Texas Wesleyan University students since 1917
Students search for campus signatures
Homecoming court named
Victoria Slaten
Santiago Munoz
vaslaten@txwes.edu
Smunoz1367@txwes.edu
Every semester, many international students at Texas Wesleyan group together to gather signatures from various staff members and learn what resources are available for them. Joe Brown, dean of freshmen success, said international students who transfer to Wesleyan as freshmen must complete a program called The Freshmen Success Experience (ASE 1111) during the third week of the semester. This gives students the opportunity to familiarize themselves with most of the buildings, speak to staff and learn who can provide them with personal assistance if needed. Dr. Bruce Benz, professor of biology, said the hunt helps students. “The scavenger hunt provides them with the opportunity to locate those resources on campus,” Benz said. “It also requires familiarity with the map of campus and the ability to read English fluently.” For the most part, the signature hunt takes place during the Fall. Because there were so many new students in the Spring, the faculty made an exception. “About the third week normally, we do what we call campus resource availability, familiarity, all the places and people at Wesleyan that can help students,” Brown said. “So as a new student you don’t know a lot of this, so most of the faculty plays this game, whether they do it in the class itself or they give the students a paper to go around on their own collecting signatures.” Benz said he personally takes his international students to gather signatures around campus because the campus map is in English and it might be a problem for his students to read. He makes his students take notes and jot something down about every location they visit, includ-
HUNT, page 3
Sports,
Tutors hired to meet high demand
page 8 Lupe Salas/Rambler Staff Jonathan Bravo, freshman exercise science major, and Samantha Max, junior english major, receive cheers from the crowd after they were crowned homecoming king and queen.
All hands are on deck in the Academic Success Center. The Academic Success Center hired more tutors because of the influx of new students during the spring semester. Michael Greer is currently the director of Academic Success Center. “We’ve been fortunate to find tutors for the additional subjects that we added, as well as additional tutors in things already offered, like math and writing that just needed to be increased so we had more sessions available at the same time,” Greer said. Greer said the Academic Success Center is busier this semester than usual, but they are not looking for any additional tutors at this time. Greer said starting next semester there may be some positions available. Greer said it worked out well that there were tutors who were able to translate and communicate with students in a language other than English. “I have applications sitting there should we open it up for more, but as of right now we’re pretty well covered,” Greer said. Fez Alghussein, sophomore business major and an international student who translates and tutors math, said students were coming and not finding anyone to tutor them, so more tutors were hired to be available almost all the time. “Actually they hired me because a lot of international students are having trouble understanding math and English. So, they hired me to tutor them in Arabic for the Saudi students,” Alghussein said. Aglhussein said he also tutors other students besides international students. Deborah Harrison, senior comparative religion major who tutors ESL students, said she feels like the staff has doubled because of the need for tutors. “That’s [tutoring ESL] really my passion. I feel like I’d rather work with the ESL students over anything else,” Harrison said.
L.E.A.D. program holds summit, encourages leadership Victoria Slaten vslaten@txwes.edu
Men and women basketball teams proved victorious at homecoming. For More Current News, check out TheRambler.org
Texas Wesleyan’s leadership program creates the leaders of tomorrow, today. Michael Chaney, coordinator of student activities, organized the Leadership Summit on Feb. 16, where students and staff members focused on the qualities of leadership. “We focus on the components that leadership is found everywhere in life. It’s not just found at the heads of companies and organizations,” Chaney said. Dakota Baggett, senior political science major, interns for the Leadership Empowerment Action Direction (L.E.A.D.) program, under Chaney. She attended the Summit. “We had a great group of people. They really were all on the same page. They were
all willing to do whatever was asked of them. They all participated very well, and I think everyone had a great experience,” Baggett said. Baggett said the speakers at the Summit, Mindy Audlin and Aldean Pearson, answered questions, and Baggett learned being a leader is about being yourself. Chaney said he started the L.E.A.D. program about four years ago when he was hired. Chaney said the three levels to the program are the initial L.E.A.D. certificate, The Wesleyan Leaders Flame and the Mentor’s Horn. Chaney said to earn the L.E.A.D. certificate, one must attend a leadership conference, do 10 hours of community service, and participate in five cafe discussions, which are group discussions built around concepts of leadership. To receive the Wesleyan
Leaders Flame, Chaney said one must attend two additional conferences, complete all 15 of the cafe discussions and do 25 hours of community service. One must also complete a personal development plan, which will be presented at the completion ceremony that is held once a semester. Chaney said to complete the leadership program and earn the Mentor’s Horn, one must complete the first two steps, help lead conferences and cafe discussions, mentor others and pass an exit interview. “Leadership really is a journey,” Chaney said. “It’s never ending. You never reach your full maximum potential. There’s always something that you can expand on and grow and learn.” Brandon Flowers, senior computer science major, has been involved in the
L.E.A.D. program for more than three years and is at the Mentor Horn stage. Flowers said he joined L.E.A.D. to better his leadership and decision making skills. “It challenges me and my decisions I make daily because it helps me realize that everything that I do just does not affect myself, but people in the area around me,” Flowers said. Flowers said he has learned from L.E.A.D. that he is always being watched and his actions affect what other people think about him and themselves. Flowers said he recommends that others get involved in the program. “Even though you might not think right away that it will be beneficial, as you progress through the program you see that you are more aware about what you
do, what you say, how you do things,” Flowers said. Baggett said L.E.A.D. is really beneficial. “It helps you work with other people. You get a better understanding of other people, and a better understanding of yourself,” Bagget said. “It’s a good program if you take it seriously.” Baggett said he is grateful to Chaney for organizing the Summit, and making the conferences happen. Chaney said in the future he wants L.E.A.D. to be a self-sustaining program, led by students. “I realized that I created something that I was the glue that bound it all together,” Chaney said. “In reality, a great leader is not going to just be the glue, but is going to be a glue maker and help create other people who will help hold things together.”