A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921.
Lawrence Ukenye Editor-in-Chief
Julia Merola Print Managing Editor
Fallon Roth Digital Managing Editor
Megan Phillips Chief Print Copy Editor
Kayla Maguire Chief Digital Copy Editor
Sarah Frasca Opinion Editor
Molly Fiske Assistant Opinion Editor
Mariyum Rizwan Features Editor
Nick Gangewere Sports Editor
Javon Edmonds Assistant Sports Editor
Samuel O’Neal Assistant Sports Editor
Devon Russell Assistant News Editor
Maggie Fitzgerald Director of Audience Engagement
Emily Lewis Public Engagement Coordinator
Taylor Hargraves Audience Engagement Editor
Sara Wexler Audience Engagement Editor
Chris Duong Sports Social Media Manager
Earl Kufen Photo Editor
Erika Monn Photo Editor
Nicole Aquino Multimedia Editor
Nate Pullano Multimedia Editor
Joelle Pacheco Print Design Editor
Allyson Tharp Graphic Design Editor
Isabella Medina Web Editor
Rachel Townsend Data Editor
Olivia Hall Podcast Editor
Rose Mastrangelo Advertising Manager
Matthew Eaton Advertising Manager
Kurt Nolasco Business Manager
The Temple News is an editorially independent biweekly publication serving the Temple University community.
Unsigned editorial content represents the opinion of The Temple News.
Adjacent commentary is reflective of their authors, not The Temple News.
The Editorial Board is made up of The Temple News’ Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, Digital Managing Editor, Chief Copy Editors, and Opinion Editors. The views expressed in editorials only reflect those of the Board, and not of the entire Temple News staff.
A code blue emergency phone near the Bell Tower.
EARL KUFEN / THE TEMPLE NEWSVisit us online at temple-news.com
News Desk 215.204.7419
Email section staff news@temple-news.com letters@temple-news.com features@temple-news.com sports@temple-news.com
The Temple News is located at: Student Center, Room 243 1755 N. 13th St. Philadelphia, PA 19122
Accuracy is our business, so when a mistake is made, we’ll correct it as soon as possible. Anyone with inquiries about content in this newspaper can contact Editor-in-Chief Lawrence Ukenye at editor@temple-news.com.
Follow
@TheTempleNews
Temple University’s Police Department and the College of Public Health and School of Social Work are developing a partnership between officers and Master of Social Work students to respond to mental health calls in TUPD’s patrol zone.
Jennifer Ibrahim, interim dean of CPH and SSW, aims to have MSW students involved in the partnership accompany officers to mental healthrelated calls to counsel individuals in crisis to understand what triggered an episode. Additionally, Ibrahim believes a trained MSW student would be a more comforting presence in times of crisis than a police officer.
“That’s not fair to Temple police to ask them to do that because they’re not trained to do that and that’s why we’re trying to bring together both,” Ibrahim said.
Jennifer Griffin, vice president of public safety, wants to increase mental health training among officers. Currently, 78 percent of all Temple police officers and supervisors have received Crisis Intervention Training, while MSW students are actively gaining trauma-informed social work and clinical experience in North Philadelphia or throughout the region through their field work.
Police officers mishandling mental health crises is a systemic issue across the United States.
Philip McCallion, director of SSW, believes that the solution to officers’ handling of mental health calls requires a collaborative approach from the university.
“This is something that we’re looking at across the country as an issue that each of us has a different skill set that we bring,” McCallion said.
Since 2015, more than 1,600 people with a mental illness have been shot and
killed by police in the United States, according to a database from The Washington Post.
Walter Wallace Jr., a 27-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by police in West Philadelphia during a mental health crisis in October 2020. Claude Fain, a 47-year-old Black man was shot and killed in an apartment in Frankford in January 2020.
Griffin, Ibrahim and McCallion started discussing the early stages of the partnership during homecoming weekend, but plan to meet again in the near future, McCallion said. Griffin wants the program to begin operating within a year, but the timeline for the project depends on the length of researching and formulating procedures needed to create a workflow for
responding to calls.
“If there are issues of food insecurity, if there are issues of housing insecurity, if there are other factors that are coming into play, having Temple police transport a student to [Temple University Hospital, Episcopal Campus] for assessment, that’s not what the student needs at that moment,” Ibrahim said.
The university hopes to draw inspiration from current university and city models including SEPTA’s Serving a Vulnerable Entity program, which was introduced in November 2020, and paired mental health professionals with their police force.
Temple’s mental health and wellness task force and violence reduction task force are also studying the overlap
between violence, trauma and mental health. Additionally, McCallion participated in preliminary discussions for the University at Albany’s partnership between their campus police and social work students before he left the university roughly five years ago.
Ibrahim hopes that this new initiative will help destigmatize mental health issues on campus.
“Destigmatizing someone who has mental health issues is something that’s really important and I think this is a way that we can do it and we can be more caring in our responses,” Ibrahim said.
fallon.roth@temple.edu @fallonroth_
MENTAL HEALTHMaster of Social Work students would accompany Temple police on mental health calls.EARL KUFEN / THE TEMPLE NEWS When answering mental health calls on campus police will bring a Master of Social Work student with them.
COMMUNITY
The center will offer educational resources on religious traditions and bias.
BY FALLON ROTH Digital Managing EditorTemple University is developing a Center for Interfaith Inclusivity to be housed in the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, Advocacy and Leadership.
Although the center won’t be a physical building, it’ll consist of programming to offer educational resources on religious identity, traditions, antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of religious bias. Additional programming for the center will be developed once an extern is hired and offerings should start next semester.
“It really is going to be interfaith and so we want to make sure that we’re looking really broadly across religious identity,” said Tiffenia Archie, associate vice president and chief inclusion officer at IDEAL.
Archie also wants the center to be a place for facilitating mediation and conversations between students who perpetrate and are victims of acts of religious hate and bias.
One in three Jewish college students in the United States experienced antisemitism in the 2020-21 academic year, according to an October 2021 survey from Hillel International and the Anti-Defamation League.
More than half of respondents to the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ 2019-20 report said that they had received hateful comments about Islam from their classmates.
“Sometimes there’s this thing ‘I was just joking’ right?” Archie said. “And I don’t think people understand how really harmful right? It may not seem serious to them, and it may seem innocuous to them, but it’s very harmful, right, to the people who experience it.”
The center, which IDEAL originally proposed last year, comes after President Jason Wingard’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Antisemitism recommended in April that the university needs more educational
programming on antisemitism and other forms of hate, Archie said.
Lila Corwin Berman, a Jewish studies professor and the director of the Feinstein Center for American Jewish History, believes the commission is a strong step forward in addressing religious hate on college campuses and fostering an environment where students can learn about antisemitism and geopolitical issues.
“Certain instances of antisemitism are overlapping with questions about Israel and Zionism, and questions that hit different students really differently and depending on a student’s background or their family connections, they might have very different perspectives on Zionism or policies of the State of Israel,” Berman said.
Isaiah Kaplan, a senior political science major who often attends events at Hillel, wants the center to have programming on the Israel-Palestine conflict to dispel any misinformation surrounding the topic.
“Most of the people I talked to who talked about the Israel-Palestine conflict, they’re usually not either Israeli or Palestinian or they’re not even like Arab or Jewish and they have literally no, like personal connection to it,” Kaplan said.
“And most of like, the information they get is just like what they see on their phone.”
IDEAL plans to incorporate its already existing programming on religious bias and remediation into the center’s content. For example, IDEAL routinely hosts an event discussing the difference between free speech and hate speech.
Attendance at IDEAL events has been inconsistent, Archie said. The office’s event where they discussed free speech versus hate speech garnered a larger audience, while almost no one was at a Spring 2022 discussion sponsored by Hillel which featured a Jewish person and a Palestinian person from a group called Roots.
To draw more attention to the new interfaith programming, IDEAL will continue to promote its social media accounts.
IDEAL wants to continue its advocacy for religious groups on campus with the development of the center. The organization has advocated for a centralized prayer space on campus. Last year, the Muslim Students Association tried to find a consistent prayer space on campus.
MSA President Kubarah Ghias, a
senior neuroscience and psychology major, believes the center’s programming will be important for making students aware of the struggles of other religions.
“Last year, we were campaigning for a prayer space,” Ghias said. “A lot of students who were not Muslim actually didn’t know that that was something that a lot of Muslim students on campus were struggling with and it kind of like opened their eyes like ‘wow, my peers are praying under staircases.’”
Ghias would also want chaplains, officially trained and certified religious representatives, to work full-time to advise the center in addition to representatives from the Interfaith Council.
Archie believes that the center is a step in the right direction towards addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia and other instances of religious hate and bias on campus.
“Will we ever be able to fully, fully eradicate like antisemitism, Islamophobia?” Archie said. “I don’t know if we could do it for the world, but I think we might be able to do it on our campus.”
fallon.roth@temple.edu
ERIKA MONN / THE TEMPLE NEWS The Institutional Diversity, Equity, Advocacy and Leadership building located on Broad Street near Diamond.TUPD is hoping to increase its social media presence to better connect with students.
BY DEVON RUSSELL Assistant News EditorTemple University’s Vice President for Public Safety Jennifer Griffin is looking for ways for Campus Safety Services to improve their reach to students about safety on and near Main Campus.
Griffin is developing a marketing and communications working group to gather student feedback, improve their communication strategies, strengthen its digital presence and recruit more officers.
Representatives from Temple’s office of Strategic Communications and David Boardman, dean of the Klein College of Media and Communication, will be advising Griffin on ways to improve communication, Griffin wrote in an email to The Temple News.
“We can always be better communicators, right?” Griffin said. “That’s the hardest thing because there’s so much volume of information. For us, it’s really finding and figuring out what’s the best way to communicate with students, parents, faculty, staff and the surrounding community.”
The working group comes as Griffin, who started the brand-new position on Aug. 22, is making her “90 days of listening and learning tour,” where she is building relationships by participating in ride alongs and foot patrols. Griffin has also met with student groups for feedback.
Temple University Police Department currently tries to make students aware of safety resources and updates through their social media platforms including Twitter where they have more than 5,000 followers and Instagram where they have nearly 1,000. The university also notifies students of crime on or near campus through TU Alerts.
Natalie Reap, a senior recreational therapy major, is not satisfied with the frequency and timeliness of TU Alerts.
“Oftentimes, I don’t even get TU Alerts when things happen, which is kind of unfortunate that I have to rely on other means to find out things that are happening on campus,” Reap said.
TU Alerts are written in a template that only allows a certain number of characters to avoid giving out too much information in case the initial report of the incident is not accurate, Griffin said.
Last year, some students said they relied on apps like Citizen to become aware of local crimes, like shootings or robberies.
Reap hopes the university shortens the time it takes for alerts to be released and that they improve how it informs students of available safety services, like FLIGHT and walking escorts.
A lot of the students Griffin has spoken to are not aware of the safety prevention measures that Temple offers, she said.
Temple can engage students about
what safety resources are available through interactive social media strategies like infographics, videos and audio reels, said Dave Anderson, professor of social media marketing.
“It needs to have really vibrant colors and it needs to be attention getting because otherwise it’s just going to become white noise competing with the thousands of other social media accounts that are out there,” Anderson said.
Other students, like Evlad Fonda, a junior kinesiology major, believe Temple’s communication systems are helpful to students because alerts are sent to multiple platforms.
“I get them all the time,” Fonda said. “They come to my phone and my email too. So, I think there’s no way to miss it, so they do a good job letting you know.”
One way to make campus safer is to increase the number of resources available to help the community around Temple, Anderson said. He implored
the university to think of ways to uplift the community and provide additional support.
“We should use social media, we should be doing those things,” Anderson said. “But I think a lot of this comes down to not only being reactionary but being very proactive in how we address the overreaching problem of what’s happening in our community because like it or not, as long as Temple sits in North Philadelphia, it’s our community too.”
Fallon Roth contributed reporting.
devon.russell@temple.edu @devonkate_
EARL KUFEN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Jeniffer Griffin, vice president for public safety, discusses goals for next semester by increasing training for campus police officers.On Sept. 23, Jennifer Griffin, Temple University’s Vice President for Public Safety, released a statement emphasizing a list of resources for students following shootings on 13th Street near Jefferson and 17th and Oxford Streets.
During the shooting, a bullet hit Temple’s 1300 Residence Hall. No students were harmed in the shooting, but an eight-year-old girl suffered a graze-wound to the head from another stray bullet and a 20-year-old man was shot in the leg.
In Philadelphia County, there have been 1,395 non-fatal shootings and 370 fatal shootings this year alone, according to the Philadelphia Office of the Controller.
Amid recent violence within Temple’s patrol zone near Main Campus, the Editorial Board urges students to take advantage of resources provided by the university.
This past August, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Ken Kaiser announced that the university’s walking escort program would now cover Temple’s entire patrol zone and the surrounding areas that house off-campus students. Students can request a walking escort by calling 8-WALK (9255) from a campus phone or 215-777-WALK (9255).
The RAVE Temple Guardian
app allows students to designate a “guardian,” like a friend, family member or Temple University Police officer as an emergency contact, while the student walks home. If the student doesn’t make it to their destination in the time allotted, the app will alert the designated guardian.
Resources like RAVE and the FLIGHT program provide students with a safer alternative to walking on and off campus alone.
FLIGHT provides students with a pick-up and drop-off service that travels along two fixed routes on campus. On Aug. 20, Temple adjusted the FLIGHT service to the fixed-route system to improve wait times in comparison to the original service model that ran on-call.
The Editorial Board also recommends that students be aware of their surroundings when walking on and off campus. Students should walk in groups in well-lit areas, and if any student feels they’re being followed they can access the Code Blue Emergency Phones that are placed throughout campus to call for help.
As gun violence continues to disrupt North Philadelphia’s community, the Editorial Board urges students to take the necessary precautions to keep themselves safe by utilizing tools and services provided by the university.
Whilemost Temple Universi ty students don’t worry about having clean water, they should be mindful of conserving water because water shortages will be a problem as climate change worsens.
Philadelphia County declared a drought watch on Aug. 31 after a period of abnormally dry weather, prompting the Philadelphia Wa ter Department to advise that residents reduce their water usage by up to 10 percent. Mean while, Americans consume massive quantities of water, and each Philadelphia resident uses an average of 101.5 gallons per day, according to the Philadelphia Water Department.
The university implemented various mea sures to reduce water waste on campus, like the use of recycled water in Morgan Hall and lowflow fixtures across campus. However, these conservation efforts only exist on campus, as areas off campus don’t fall under Temple’s au thority.
Students living in North Central must lim it their usage to help conserve water off cam pus because the university cannot. It’s a stu dent’s responsibility to ensure they are using water sustainability because as climate change worsens, so do severe weather conditions.
“Water conservation is not as big of an is sue as I think it should be,” said Julian Ortiz, a senior political science major who lives off campus at 10th and Diamond Streets. “I per sonally try to limit my water use, like taking less time in the shower.”
Students can conserve water by only run ning loads of wash if laundry machines are full, turning water off when brushing their teeth and saving electricity, as 65 percent of the elec tricity in the U.S. comes from water-cooled power plants, according to the Union of Con cerned Scientists, a nonprofit organization that supports sustainability efforts.
“One of the biggest issues in terms of con serving water that people can do is look for leaks, because that can waste tons of water,”
said Brian Rademaekers, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Water Department.
Climate change is a complicated issue that can’t be solved only by conserving water, but it still plays a big role in combatting it.
Saving water helps to lower an individual’s carbon footprint because it reduces greenhouse gas emissions used in water treatment, which helps to slow climate change, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Conserv ing water also keeps lakes and reservoirs full to ensure the safety of countless species, while securing a clean and constant supply for our communities.
“The two things you need to survive are water and food, and you have no food without water,” said Fletcher Chmara-Huff, a geogra phy and urban studies professor and the pro ducer of Temple’s Water Week, a week orga nized around World Water Day.
Climate change impacts water availability, and without conserving water, communities could run out.
Due to climate change, dangerous weath er events are becoming increasingly frequent, making water conservation more crucial. Floods, hurricanes and dry spells, like Phila delphia’s recent conditions, will only become more frequent, which can leave people without clean water or pollute an area’s supply.
For example, North Philadelphia faced severe flooding, caused by a burst water main near Fourth and Berks Streets on June 23, highlighting the ability of flooding to cut wa ter supplies off entirely. Lack of available wa ter can seriously impact communities causing crops to die, affecting the local food supply, and drying lakes and reservoirs, potentially causing irreversible damage to local ecosystems.
Dry soil allows floods to spread because the ground can’t absorb water quickly enough to stop flooding. However, if more students pri oritize water conservation, hazardous weather conditions can be kept under control.
Students can help reduce water scarcity by adopting conservation efforts. Temple stu dents need to do their part to help solve this issue to help ensure that clean, accessible water is a part of our future.
A student argues that those living off campus must conserve water amid abnormally dry conditions.
Studying abroad can open students’ eyes to a world of new perspectives by allowing them to immerse themselves in different cultures.
Temple’s study abroad program is a worthwhile experience because it empowers students to challenge their way of thinking, develop independence and build universal skills. However, participating in these programs can be difficult because of expensive fees some students can’t afford, as the Temple Rome, Japan and Spain study abroad programs each cost roughly $20,000 without financial aid at minimum.
Students should apply for Temple’s study abroad program and related scholarships because the university’s Education Abroad and Overseas Campuses department can provide students struggling with affordability with different opportunities to study abroad. There are clear steps for financial aid applications listed under the finances section on their website.
Specific scholarships that accommodate students who struggle to afford these programs include a passport scholarship, which reimburses students for their passport fee, and the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship for Federal Pell Grant recipients, which provides up to $5,000.
“Surviving and learning how to navigate another culture, another subway system, in another language can really help to build confidence and sense of independence,” said Suzanne Willever, associate director for academics and outreach at Education Abroad and Overseas Campuses.
More than 1,000 Temple students study abroad each year. Temple’s overseas campuses are popular among students because of the academic variety each program offers. Taking advantage of these diverse campuses engages students
in cultural studies they wouldn’t typically learn at Main Campus in Philadelphia.
For example, the Rome campus hosts interactive activities like wine tastings, yoga classes and language immersion sessions by conversing with native Italians, while the Japan campus offers a variety of courses for different degrees and access to Tokyo, a vibrant city. Temple’s Spain program in Oviedo is known for its language immersion program, where all courses are taught in Spanish.
Studying abroad provides local experiences with host families and allows students to explore cities they’ll remember for the rest of their lives, said Jaime Duran, an associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese and director of the Temple in Spain abroad programs.
“It is a very enriching experience, no matter how you look at it, from an academic, personal and linguistic point of view, it’s something everybody should do,” Duran said.
Studying abroad can give students experience working with globally diverse groups of people, which could
be beneficial for career development because it improves work efficiency between those of different cultures and languages, according to USA Study Abroad, the U.S. Department of State’s official study abroad website.
Olivia Harmanos enjoys going out to eat with her friends in Rome to learn about the cultural differences in how food is prepared and ordering meals, which makes the experience valuable for her, she said.
“I’ve had experiences abroad where I’m by myself and nobody else speaks English, but I actually feel extremely comfortable here because there’s such a community,” said Harmanos, a junior architecture major currently studying in Rome.
Traveling abroad allows students to step out of their comfort zone, learn a new language and interact with different cultures, preparing students for realworld experiences.
Studying abroad in college is consistently linked to students developing substantial professional skills, according to the Power of International
Education, a global non-profit that designs international education services.
As many students struggle with affordability, they should apply for scholarships by consulting Student Financial Services. Grants that award students an average of $6,000 can help a wider range of them afford to study abroad.
Education Abroad suggests students complete FAFSA early in the calendar year, so they can use their financial package to pay for study abroad programs. Students should take a copy of the package to SFS, where they will re-evaluate a student’s aid package based on the budget for the requested study abroad program.
It’s important for students to take advantage of education abroad scholarships because the experience creates incredible memories, and students can expand their global understanding through academics, trying new foods and making strong friendships in a different country.
A student argues that their peers should apply for scholarships to study abroad.NOELLE ROBINSON / THE TEMPLE NEWS
BY CHELSIE DeSOUZA For The Temple News
Since the day I was born, I’ve had seven grandparents — three on my mom’s side and four on my dad’s side. It was never odd to me; it was our normal.
On my mom’s side, my Grammy, Big Dad and Pops live in Philadelphia; on my dad’s side, my Mum Mum and Poppy live in Washington, D.C. and my Pa pasan and Barbs live in Orange County, California.
All of them are equally important to me and helped shape the person I am today because of their influences on my life. It felt like hitting the jackpot having so many people supporting and loving me despite the exhausting tug of war of spreading my teenage years among all my grandparents.
I’ve lived in a multi-generation al custody agreement. Both sets of my grandparents divorced and all but one of them remarried, which meant my par ents split their time in four households, so my brother and I did too.
When friends would ask me how I had so many grandparents, I would say, “All of them remarried, except one.”
They would respond, “Oh, so step grandparents?”
That term stung a little, as if they were writing them off and putting an asterisk next to their names. They aren’t my ‘step anything,’ they are my family even if we don’t share DNA.
When I explain my unique relation ship with my grandparents, people are always taken aback. Most families have grandparents that they see on holidays, while I needed to travel on what seemed like cross-country excursions to spend time with my grandparents.
Holiday weekends were a mad dash to fit both sides of the family in two days. We would leave our apartment on the Upper West Side of New York on Saturday, drive to Philadelphia for the night, head to Washington D.C. on Sun day, then back to New York in time for school on Tuesday.
I picked up different relationship dynamics, behavioral expectations and diverse ways of life from my seven grandparents. I was immersed in various perspectives formed in different sects of Black America.
I saw many levels of success and ways of living in areas like Orange County, California, Washington, D.C. and parts of West Philadelphia. I witnessed a long history of my family navigating systemic racism and trying to achieve “The Amer ican Dream.”
I picked up the best traits of all seven of my grandparents throughout our time together.
My Grammy was a deacon, so we would attend church whenever we were visiting and that’s why I’m faithful, while Big Dad’s an avid bowler, instilling in me a love for the game. I was never afraid to
get my hands dirty because Pops worked construction and was the funniest per son on the site.
Serena Williams’ career meant so much to me because my Mum Mum loved playing tennis, so every summer I would spend two weeks in D.C. perfect ing my serve with her. Poppy’s a repu table radio show host and is heavily in volved in the Boys and Girls Clubs, so I grew up listening to Frank Sinatra on the radio and valuing community service.
I’ve always been fashionable and loved art because Barbs was a buyer for Condé Nast. Papasan co-owned Boom ers, the jazz club in Greenwich Village in the 1970s, cementing my love for the genre. He was a journalist and advertis ing executive, which is why my journal ism career means so much to me now that he’s gone.
CAL NGUYEN / THE TEMPLE NEWSI had so many role models to learn from, whether I knew it then or not. They taught me how to be an adaptable warrior, and how to deeply explore who I am. I had a hideaway when I was over whelmed in life in my Grammy’s mac and cheese and hugs and the Jackie & Roy songs my Mum Mum introduced me to.
There are a million little things they all gave me, tucked away in mem ories and seen in the person I’ve be come. While most people saw hav ing seven grandparents as a rarity, I always saw a recipe for more love. .
chelsie.desouza@temple.edu @wordswithchelTHE ESSAYIST
A student reflects on how her grandparents helped shape her identity.
I was a junior in high school when I was diagnosed with ADHD. I struggled paying attention in school, during con versations with my peers and had hyper active tendencies and forgetfulness.
I wished I was diagnosed sooner be cause I constantly struggled to find the motivation to complete everyday tasks but knowing what caused these chal lenges may have helped develop healthy habits and validate my struggles from ADHD. I couldn’t complete schoolwork, go to class or clean my room. Even get ting out of bed was an occasional strug gle.
Throughout my childhood, I played piano and if I performed in front of a crowd, I would worry about playing per fectly. The pressure caused me to make mistakes — destroying my confidence.
ADHD affects my writing and test-taking abilities because I tend to make mistakes when I have trouble fo cusing, which causes anxiety and beating myself up over my capabilities.
Before my freshman year of college, I’d already developed a level of indepen dence from becoming more mature and going to therapy. I completed school as signments on time, chatted with friends, managed a busy schedule and main tained cleanliness. However, I was ap prehensive that being thrown into a new environment at college would increase my anxiety and affect my independence and ability to live up to my potential.
When the year started, I became so overwhelmed with the adjustment that I felt I wasn’t emotionally present when socializing or learning. My ADHD med ication, which I began taking in Sep tember 2021, suppressed my mood and confidence which made me less sociable when I was with friends.
I’ve always been very sensitive to ADHD medications. The first time I ever took my medication I was over stimulated by how hyper-focused I was,
but then I emotionally crashed when it wore off at the end of the day. I lost weight from my suppressed appetite and constantly felt moody.
I switched medications six times within two years until I realized in col lege that I didn’t want to continue taking it every day because of how negatively it affected my mental health. The harsh side effects in addition to transitioning into a new environment were too much for me to balance mentally.
I started to wean myself off med ication – only taking it when neces sary -- and discovered that practicing self-improvement and being patient with myself supplemented the medica tion. This allowed me to sustain a more organized, productive lifestyle that spe cifically worked for me because I wasn’t as hard on myself.
At college, I yearned to be more
organized because I knew I had the po tential to live a structured lifestyle and thought it would make me feel accom plished.
I prioritized schoolwork instead of socializing. I found a spot at the library where I could focus best, started exercis ing more and made healthy choices with my eating. I became more organized than ever before by making my bed and writing in my planner.
Becoming independent is important, but I still wanted to be socially involved. I recognized my passion for writing and started writing freelance for The Temple News.
College is known to be intimidat ing and a big adjustment for anyone, but those with mental disabilities may strug gle with the transition more than others. I took note of the strategies that worked for me in the past and I tried my best to apply them to my everyday life as much
CAL NGUYEN / THE TEMPLE NEWSas possible, while also staying patient with myself if some things didn’t get done on time.
Through all the fluctuating med ication, consistently talking about my feelings and observing myself in social settings, I realized ADHD is a significant part of my personality. With attention deficit, I can still be free, smile and make others laugh as my most authentic self.
It’s normal to be fearful that mental disorders may impede self-confidence and independence but accepting my mental disability as a positive part of who I am helped me explore my indi viduality in healthy ways. Going to col lege gave me the perfect opportunity to understand and embrace my ADHD and along that journey, create healthy habits and gain independence.
sophia.reis@temple.eduA student reflects on going to college with ADHD and learning how to manage it.
I always congratulated myself for the many interests that all contributed to the unique development of my personality in my “coming of age” years, like indie pop, colorful Converse shoes and jew elry-making. However, there was one thing holding me back from being my ideal self: my sexuality.
During my life, I’ve avoided explor ing my sexuality fearing what I might discover, but I couldn’t hide from it entirely. I vividly remember watching shows with female protagonists as a child and not understanding my feelings towards them. Reflecting on these mo ments, I now realize I felt a surge of at traction — something I thought I should only feel for boys.
The confusion was nauseating. I used to constantly talk with my parents about anything and everything under the sun, but this new attraction to wom en was too uncomfortable to discuss, so I never brought it up.
Coming out to my family was un imaginable. I could already hear the phrase, “It’s just a phase,” leaving my mother’s mouth, so out of fear, I contin ued to repress my sexuality.
In my preteen years, I was more ex posed to the LGBTQ+ community be cause I was allowed to watch young adult shows. The first real concept of “being queer” was introduced to me through Kurt Hummel, an openly gay character, on Fox’s TV show “Glee.”
There was an episode where Kurt suppressed his feelings for a male char acter Finn and instead tried to project those feelings onto a female character Rachel. Seeing a character struggle with their sexuality on mainstream television was an eye-opening experience after previously only seeing straight charac ters.
Through watching this character face the same issues I was experiencing, my attraction for women slowly began to sneak out from the hole I desperately
tried to bury it in.
As my desires became a reality, I be gan a new cycle of denial. I had crushes on girls but suppressed them to make room for any minimal interest I had in boys, hoping it would overcome any feelings for girls. As I hid these feelings, I discovered a new feeling associated with my sexuality: guilt.
My guilt stemmed from my lack of openness about my sexuality, and I felt like I wasn’t prideful enough compared to those who freely expressed their iden tities. I admired those who could paint their faces with rainbows and dance through the streets, wishing that some day I could join them. I watched from the sidelines, fearful of not being accepted by those within my community.
Until now, I’ve been closeted. The word Pride had always felt ironic to me. I couldn’t understand how people were
so proud of their sexuality while I was working so hard to hide mine.
Many of my friends are a part of the LGBTQ+ community, so having me as a “straight” friend was a sense of normalcy to them, and I liked it because it was easy for me. At the time, I figured that if I don’t fit a stereotypical gay image, which I thought meant dimming my feminini ty, then no one would take my sexuality seriously. I continued to reflect a stereo typically straight image by hyper-fixat ing on my femininity and keeping my hair long, blonde and curled.
After being a first-year student at Temple for more than a month and be ing introduced to numerous students, I noticed each person I met had a certain confidence radiating from them. Their Pride is powerful. Mine is still nonexis tent. Everyone I’ve met is so open about their sexualities, yet I still cannot muster
the courage to confess mine out loud. However, I’m realizing that I don’t have to compare my growth to others. Everyone evolves at their own pace and accepting my sexuality is no different. I might not be 100 percent confident with my sexuality, but I’ll continue to work on that. I fight the constant battle of not letting my guilt get in the way of whom I love.
There’s no question that my mental ity about my sexuality has changed as I’ve gotten older. While my guilt still lives within me, it’s starting to fade as I be come more accepting of myself. As I en ter a new era of my life in college, I think it’s only right to finally declare who I am: My name is Jordan Sandoval and I am a pansexual woman.
jordan.sandoval0001@temple.eduA student confidently declares her identity after feeling denial and guilty about her sexuality.NOELLE ROBINSON/ THE TEMPLE NEWS
The award-winning, independent student-run newspaper of Temple University, The Temple News, is accepting freelance writers, photographers, videographers, designers and advertising sales representatives for the Fall 2022 semester. Freelancing is a great way to get involved at The Temple News as you’ll be able to gain experience that may allow you to apply for staff po sitions in the future.
Freelancers can pick up pitches in any section and are paid $10 for every piece of work published in our print issue or online site.
Scan the QR code to see a full list of sections and their meeting times!
Their yoga event was created to help raise money for their organization’s efforts to save dogs and provide them with better homes.
it was good excuse to see some puppies and get a good workout in the morning, she said.
Behind the wooden doors of the Love City Brewery in Callow Hill lied nicely rolled out yoga mats and the sounds of excited puppies.
On Sept. 24, the Philly Bully Team, a nonprofit organization that rescues dogs from euthanasia, held “Pitties and Poses,”, a puppies and yoga fundraiser on Hamilton Street and Ridge Avenue.
“We help dogs that are about to be euthanized, dogs that come from dog fighting rings, or dogs that get discarded by their owners, and we get them the medical care that they need, and we adopt them out and find them forever homes,” said Jessica Graaf.
Participants at the event donated money to the fundraiser and played with the puppies during yoga.
Cassie Willis, a participant, who follows the Philly Bully Team on Instagram, attended the event because
Despite being too busy for a dog of her own, Willis still supports the organization in other ways.
“I have fostered dogs in the past. During the pandemic a couple of us did it because we had the time and wanted to support,” Willis said.
Christina Sorgi, who worked as a volunteer for the last six months, feels strongly about the medical and hospitality services the Philly Bully Team provides for dogs, and their ability to give pets a permanent home.
The community that Jessica has
created is one of my favorite things,” Sorgi said. “There is something special that she has created in the foster network and the way that there is a community in this organization. It’s something that is really unique to the rescue world.”
People can help Philly Bully Team by donating money to the organization. Individuals can also support them by purchasing their merchandise or buying dog food, dog bones and dog toys from the Philly Bully Team’s wish list.
erika.monn@temple.edu @monnerika ERIKA MONN / THE TEMPLE NEWS The Philly Bully Team hosted Pitties and Poses, an hour long yoga session with adoptable puppies, at the Love City Brewery on Sept. 24. The Philly Bully Team hosted Pitties and Poses with adoptable puppies on Sept. 24.
Participants doing yoga as they’re greeted by the excited puppies. Two puppies that were rescued by the Philly Bully Team.
The young dog, Peanut, who was saved by the Philly Bully Team.
The Philly Bully Teams rescued dog, Turtle, joining the participants in their yoga session. The puppy engaged with a participant as they did yoga.
A puppy and participant sharing the love at the Pitties and Poses fundraiser.
MOVING CLOCKWISE FROM THE TOP
The sophomore computer sci ence student, is a self-taught DJ working at weddings and clubs.
BY MARIYUM RIZWAN Features EditorFor his college essay, Arjun Pa tel wrote about the euphoric feeling of people dancing and singing to his music when he would DJ an event with his uncle.
“It’s a euphoric feeling knowing that you are the reason the crowd is enjoying and having a good time,” Patel said. “You have so much responsibility to make every person enjoy themselves and the moment you can see everyone dancing is a surreal feeling. That’s how I know I’m doing my job right.”
Patel, a sophomore computer sci ence major, has worked with his uncle since he was 14 years old as a DJ for JP Entertainment, an event planning and audio production company. At first, Patel went to weddings with his un cle’s company to watch him set up; he watched his uncle for a year before de ciding to try it out for himself.
“In 8th or 9th grade he just brought me with him and taught me how to set up the speakers,” Patel said. “Eventual ly, I got my own controller and started
watching YouTube videos to do it on my own.”
The Bensalem native has DJed for weddings around the East Coast includ ing New York, New Jersey and Virginia Beach. Since coming to Temple, he has DJed at Chinatown Beer Garden, Pace and Blossom, ROAR and Rec and Royal.
“Whenever I would go out last se mester, I would introduce myself to the DJ or I would DM them on Instagram introducing myself and asking for gigs,” Patel said. “I would always try to keep them in my circle. I don’t get my gigs from club managers or promoters.”
DJing feels like hitting a game-win ning shot in basketball, Patel said. Even when he is unsure of how the crowd may feel about a certain song or remix, the crowd trusts him.
While performing at Pace and Blos som, a nightclub in University City, Pa tel played “Love Story” by Taylor Swift, and the crowd went wild. Everyone was jumping up and down and singing the lyrics.
“For DJs, people are there for your music and they aren’t to complain,” Patel said. “There are obviously requests and stuff, but people are there to enjoy them selves and there’s a guy doing his job and he knows how to do his job. The crowd just has to trust.”
When preparing for a show, Patel
researches the type of music a club typ ically plays along with the type of mu sic past headlining DJs have played and creates a tracklist. His collection includes hundreds of folders and playlists for ev ery type of event, crowd and genre. The process can take anywhere between two to five hours, Patel said.
Despite working at JP Entertain ment since 2009, Chintan Patel, a family friend, worked with Arjun at wedding events for the first time this summer. Despite already knowing Arjun person ally, this was the first time Chintan got to know Arjun professionally as he as sisted him in different events.
“Not many teenagers are willing to give up their Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays every single week to work,” Chintan Patel said. “I feel like Arjun, he doesn’t see it as a job or a way to make money. In his eyes, DJing is something he has the privilege to do and has fun doing it.”
Sophomore finance major Harsh Shah has been Arjun’s friend since ele
mentary school and has watched him grow professionally after attending ev ery one of Arjun’s sets.
“I’ve been to a lot of Arjun’s sets be cause he’s fire and knows the crowd,” Shah said. “From every crowd from EDM to rap, his growth this year has been crazy.”
Arjun Patel aspires to work full-time in his field after completing his degree in computer science and DJ on the week ends for his uncle’s company. Eventual ly, he would like to inherit JP Entertain ment.
“I would definitely love to con tinue DJing, whether it’s a side hustle or my full-time job,” Arjun Patel said. “Maybe one day if my name becomes big enough, I’d love to be doing festi vals and playing at clubs in Vegas, but time will tell how my storyline goes.”
mariyum.rizwan@temple.edu EARL KUFEN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Sophomore computer science student, Arjun Patel, is an upcoming DJ in the Temple community.The month celebrates the culture and achievements of Hispanic Americans.
BY MARIYUM RIZWAN Features EditorFrom on-campus events at Temple University to parades and dance perfor mances in Philadelphia, there are several ways you can honor Hispanic Heritage Month.
Hispanic Heritage Month was first introduced by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 and lasts from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. The month-long holiday aims to rec ognize the contributions of Hispanic Americans as well as celebrate the histo ry, culture, traditions and achievements of Americans whose ancestors originate from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
Here are some ways for students, faculty, staff and community members to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month near Temple’s Main Campus and throughout Philadelphia.
Latinx Art: Representation, Ex hibitions, and Institutions
The Tyler School of Art and Archi tecture and the College of Liberal Arts will host a Latinx art exhibition titled “Latinx Art: Representation, Exhibition, and Institutions” with guest speaker, Dr. Marcela Guerrero, the Jennifer Rubio Associate Curator at the Whitney Muse um of American Art in New York City. The event will take place on Oct. 6 at Ty ler Room ARCH 104 at 6 p.m.
She will explain the ways Latinx art has been interpreted and represented in the different institutions where she has served. The lecture will conclude with an overview of Guerrero’s upcoming ex hibition at the Whitney Museum titled
“No existe un mundo poshuracán: Puer to Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria.”
Esencia Latina is a student-directed Latin dance troupe that will lead a Latin dance lesson and perform choreography Oct. 11 at Howard Gittis Student Center, Room 223 at 6 p.m. The event will be sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and Esencia Latina.
¡Fenomenal! Rompeforma 19891996 - Film Screening
The Boyer College of Music and Dance, and the dance department, will host a documentary preview of “¡Fenom enal! Rompeforma” at the Conwell Dance Theatre. The documentary will highlight Latinx dance and performance festivals in Puerto Rico, with perfor mances from the ‘80s and ‘90s.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with directors Merian Soto and Viveca Vázquez, author Mayra San tos-Febres and video artist Laura Sofía Pérez.
On Sept. 30 at 7:30 pm. the Esperan za Arts Center will host a series of per formances in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month featuring the Philadelphia Ballet. The program will include three solo per formances, a duet from Paquita and an excerpt from “Don Quixote.” Tickets are required and can be purchased online.
iConexiones! Music from Cuba at Esperanza Arts Center
The Esperanza Arts Center will be
hosting its annual Hispanic Heritage Month performance featuring Orchestra 2001, Philadelphia’s community-led en semble orchestra, on Oct. 7 at 7:30 p.m. The program features work by Cuban composers. Tickets are required and can be purchased online.
La Guagua 47’s Celebration of Latinx Artists at Taller Puertor riquena
On Oct. 14 at 6 p.m., Visit Philadel phia will host La Guagua 47’s Celebra tion of Latinx Artists to honor five artists from the Philadelphia region for their tal ent, artistic achievements and communi ty contributions. The event will include Latinx cuisine, live music and dancing.
mariyum.rizwan@temple.edu FILE / THE TEMPLE NEWS
Joseph Labolito donated more than 1,000 photographs to the SCRC on Main Campus.
BY CHRISTOPH SMITH For The Temple NewsDuring the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Joseph Labolito, a senior photographer at Temple Univer sity and lifelong Philadelphia resident, began an 18-month project of organiz ing, chronicling and preparing more than 1,000 photographs to donate to the Special Collection Research Center, a depository center of Temple Libraries in the Charles Library that preserves archi val materials.
For a year and a half, Labolito digi tized more than 4,000 photographs and donated them to the SCRC on May 31 with hopes to enhance the information about Philadelphia’s history and materi als students have access to.
While a student at the University of the Arts, Labolito visited the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, a research facil ity and archive of historical documents, viewed their vintage and preserved pho tography of Center City. Labolito was disheartened when he didn’t see any photographs outside of Center City, in cluding Northeast Frankford, where he grew up.
Throughout college, Labolito con tinued to take photos of the architecture of Philadelphia neighborhoods and res idents in their daily lives to try to show non-Philadelphia natives what the city looks like, he said.
“When I was taking these pictures, somewhere in the back of my head, that’s what I was thinking,” Labolito said. “Someday, these pictures are going to have some value because of what I shot and when I shot it.”
Labolito began managing commer cial photography at Temple in 1996 after George Ingram, a former Temple public relations administrator, saw Labolito’s work on the wall of Willie’s Sandwiches on Ninth Street. Ingram was impressed and called Labolito that Monday to hire him.
In 2020, Labolito spoke with Mar gery Sly, the SCRC director, about form ing the collection.
“I’ve been around Temple long enough to know, and I know enough about Margery and the Charles collec tion that she’s definitely going to take care of it,” Labolito said. “She was super excited to get it, it’s absolutely the right place and it comes full circle in a way.”
Labolito went through each of the portfolios and organized them from negatives to prints in preparation for the collection.
“It’s just a wonderful record of Phil adelphia neighborhoods and their evolu tion over a few decades, and he captured moments in time that will be really valu able for research use and generally doc ument the history of the city,” Sly said. “It’s just a really rich and beautiful col lection.”
Labolito’s daughter, Gabrielle Lab olito, a 2013 sports and recreation man agement alumna, remembers going with her dad to buy an expensive scanner to digitize his collection in 2019. Today, she wants to continue furthering his work by scanning, cataloging and assist ing with her father’s website and social media.
“I’m his biggest cheerleader and his biggest fan and I believe in it, the work,” Gabrielle Labolito said. “It’s a unique human experience in Philadelphia more than the last 30 to 40 years that doesn’t exist anywhere, so I want everyone to see it and want it in the hands of people that are going to appreciate it.”
Labolito is thankful to have his de cades’ worth of photographs preserved and digitized to allow Philadelphia’s history to live on, he said. This collec tion will allow students, scholars and the
public to access the material to contin ue expanding on the legacy of the city.
christopher.smith@temple.edu EARL KUFEN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Joseph Labolito, Temple’s senior photographer, presents a photo at O’Connor Plaza.
1. Which rapper’s full name is Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn?
1.Which rapper’s full name is Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn?
2. Which artist was in the rap group Hoodstars before signing to Young Money Entertainment?
2.Which artist was in the rap group Hoodstars before signing to Young Money Entertainment?
5.Which rapper loves the sweet breakfast food cereal so much they made a song called “Cartoons and Cereal” ?
5. Which rapper loves the sweet breakfast food cereal so much they made a song called “Cartoons and Cereal” ?
7.Whose two albums “WHOLE LOTTA RED” and “DIE LIT” went gold for album sales?
8.Having earned 24 Grammy Awards, this artist is tied with Kanye West for the rapper with the most Grammy Awards.
7. Whose two albums “WHOLE LOTTA RED” and “DIE LIT” went gold for album sales?
8. Having earned 24 Grammy Awards, this artist is tied with Kanye West for the rapper with the most Grammy Awards.
Across:
3. Which rapper signed a deal to play professionally in the Canadian Elite Basketball League for the Scarborough Shooting Stars?
3.Which rapper signed a deal to play professionally in the Canadian Elite Basketball League for the Scarborough Shooting Stars?
4.Which rapper is from Philadelphia, PA?
4. Which rapper is from Philadelphia, PA?
6.This rapper had 10 of his 11 studio albums certified gold in the United States.
9.Which artist is the 12th Artist to Earn 100 Billboard Hot 100 Chart Hits?
6. This rapper had 10 of his 11 studio albums certified gold in the United States.
10.Which artist, born and raised in Harlem, NY started rapping when they were nine?
9. Which artist is the 12th Artist to Earn 100 Billboard Hot 100 Chart Hits?
10. Which artist, born and raised in Harlem, NY started rapping when they were nine?
Temple Football (2-2, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) delivered its first shutout since Nov. 2016 in a 28-0 win against the FBS Independent Universi ty of Massachusetts (1-3). Although the scoreboard showed a dominant result, Temple’s play on the field was far from perfect.
Temple’s quarterbacks have been under duress all season and it finally showed in the box score on Saturday as the Owls allowed their first sack of the year. True freshman quarterback E.J. Warner, who took the sack, has taken hits in the pocket all season and han dled the pressure well. Against UMass though, the pass rush led to some mis takes.
Along with the sack, Warner was hurried on several occasions. The con stant pressure led to the freshman throwing two interceptions and only completing 50 percent of his passes. Head coach Stan Drayton mentioned a need for the offensive line to improve its protection of the young quarterback after the 16-14 loss to Rutgers Universi ty. One week later, the line delivered an even worse performance.
Concerned about UMass’ several blitz packages, Drayton and offensive line coach Chris Wiesehan shuffled the personnel grouping prior to Saturday’s matchup. Graduate offensive lineman Adam Klein, who started at right tack le before missing last week’s game with an undisclosed injury, started at center on Saturday. Redshirt-freshman James Faminu, a transfer from the University of Houston that has played at offensive guard for the Owls this season, filled in for Klein at right tackle.
“What UMass did a phenomenal job of doing was presenting a lot of multiple defense that included pressure coming from everywhere,” Drayton said. “For
us, that centerpiece had to be a great communicator, had to get us in and out of issues today. We had to put a sin gle-digit there.”
As Drayton highlighted in Saturday’s postgame press conference, teams don’t want to shuffle their offensive line unit, which relies on chemistry, around in the middle of a season. Luckily for Temple, as Klein mentioned, Wiesehan is known for cross-training his players to be ready to step in at multiple positions.
The constant pressure kept Temple’s offense stagnant in the first half before Warner connected with redshirt-fresh man wide receiver Ian Stewart for an 11yard touchdown late in the second quar ter. At halftime, Drayton decided to get dual-threat redshirt-junior quarterback Quincy Patterson more involved.
In the second half, Patterson became Temple’s most effective rusher, totaling 52 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries for the day.
“When you have the ability to run your quarterback, it equates to numbers in the run game,” Drayton said. “That
was exactly what we needed to do to get the ball moving.”
For a team that came into the week ranked last in The American in rushing, it was beneficial for the Owls to continue finding ways to utilize Patterson in the run game on Saturday. Perhaps it’s even better that Warner doesn’t feel like the North Dakota State University transfer is stepping on his toes as the defined running quarterback.
“It’s just been awesome to have [Pat terson] there teaching me how to go through college on and off the field,” said Warner, who is Patterson’s roommate. “Having those guys around has been huge and helping me translate to the field really well.”
Defensively, the Owls are continuing to click, forcing their first two turnovers of the season with first career intercep tions for sophomore safety Alex Odom and redshirt-junior outside linebacker Layton Jordan. The edge rusher made a one-handed catch that he returned for a 41-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
Although Temple allowed 179 rush
ing yards, the Owls held UMass to just 80 yards passing en route to a shutout. It is worth noting that Temple hasn’t played a pass-first team since the 30-0 season-opening loss at Duke University, so the numbers may be skewed in Tem ple’s favor. The Owls will play Blue Dev ils offensive coordinator Kevin Johns’ former team in the University of Mem phis (3-1, 1-0 AAC) next week and feel confident in their abilities.
“Personally, I believe that we will be ready for [Memphis],” Odom said. “Because we got a passing team [on our record] and we got multiple running teams, so we’re probably gonna get a mixture of both from Memphis.”
Temple isn’t at its peak head ing into conference play, but the pro gram has its identity as a defensive team trying to find its way on of fense. The Owls begin conference play on Saturday, Oct. 1, at Memphis.
javon.edmonds@temple.edu @javonedmonds45 FOOTBALL Temple Football, now at 2-2 prepares for conference play against Memphis. EARL KUFEN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Redshirt-freshman linebacker Jordan Magee after making a sack on the first play from scrimmage against UMass.Owls wide receiver Jose Barbon has played for three different coaching staffs.
BY NICK GANGEWERE Sports EditorWhen Jose Barbon realized red shirt-sophomore quarterback D’Wan Mathis was being replaced by true fresh man quarterback E.J. Warner, in the second quarter of Temple’s game against Lafayette College on Sept. 10, he showed no signs of emotion, and strictly focused on securing a win.
Barbon, a redshirt-junior wide re ceiver, has worked with 18 quarterbacks during his four-year tenure as a Temple receiver. He has competed under three head coaches, three different offensive coordinators and alongside 37 different wide receivers.
However, the steady wide receiver has been more dynamic each year, be coming the team’s leading pass-catcher in 2021 and already amassing 183 yards on 16 catches so far.
“With every new coach I put my head down and work,” Barbon said. “It’s always the same thing.”
Barbon builds a rapport with each quarterback knowing when gameday rolls around, circumstances can change, like in the Lafayette game, forcing him to be prepared for every scenario. When Mathis was replaced by Warner, Bar bon didn’t skip a beat, performing at the same level with both quarterbacks under center.
When playing against Lafayette, Barbon brought in eight catches for 118 yards. Whether it was Mathis or War ner under center, Barbon knew his role was the same: provide a middle-to-deep threat for his quarterback.
Early in the first quarter, Barbon set up redshirt-sophomore running back Darvon Hubbard’s initial touchdown by bringing in a 29-yard grab from Mathis. In the third quarter he was able to pull in three consecutive passes from Warner for 34 yards.
“He’s a student of the game,” said Ja far Williams, the passing game coordi nator and wide receivers’ coach. “It’s his
attention to detail in the classroom. He’s really intentional about making sure he knows not just his assignments but every position.”
The constant change around Barbon has been the story of his Temple career, but he’s been able to thrive no matter the circumstance by leading a consistent lifestyle, built around making adequate time for his classes and football. Barbon watches film daily and has seen how those habits have helped him develop during the past four years, Barbon said.
“He’s a student of the game,” said Ja far Williams, the passing game coordi nator and wide receivers’ coach. “It’s his attention to detail in the classroom. He’s really intentional about making sure he knows not just his assignments but every position.”
Barbon may have learned differ ent schemes from the various coaching staffs he has worked with, but watching former Temple veteran receivers like Branden Mack in 2019 and Jadan Blue in 2020 allowed him to become the studi ous player he is today.
Barbon joined the program in 2018
and soaked up as much knowledge as he could under former head coach Geoff Collins. The receiver was used periodi cally as a deep-threat in big-play situa tions in 2018 and 2019, but he was not a regular in the lineup and redshirted his freshman season.
When former head coach Rod Car ey replaced Collins in 2019, Barbon saw more routes below the safeties but was still unable to find the rhythm that pro fessional coaches seek due to his lower position on the depth chart.
Barbon is now in his fourth season as a Temple Owl. He has been a part of a bowl team that went 8-5 in 2019, as well as 2020 and 2021 teams that combined for four wins.
Under current head coach Stan Drayton, he is now a leader in the locker room and a target for offensive coordi nator Danny Langsdorf to rely on.
“In the past I had to follow guys,” Barbon said. “Now it’s my turn to lead everybody else.”
Players look to him as one of the veterans in the locker room alongside redshirt-senior receiver Adonicas Sand
ers, as their preparation off the field has earned them the respect of their team mates.
Sanders and Barbon have two very different personalities, with Barbon as more of a quiet leader while Sanders can be more extroverted, but both can provide an example for players like red shirt-freshman receivers Ian Stewart and Malik Cooper waiting in the wings.
“Jose is really smart,” Langsdorf said on March 31. “He’ll help guys get lined up. He’s a guy that you can move around and trust that he knows what he’s doing.”
And while Barbon may not be a sin gle digit player, he is one of the most im portant pieces for a Temple team start ing off 2-2 on the year.
No matter the system or quarter back, the steady receiver is ready to help this team reach a bowl game at all costs.
nicholas.gangewere@temple.edu @nick_gang16
ERIKA MONN/ THE TEMPLE NEWS Temple’s redshirt-junior wide receiver Jose Barbon won Offensive Player of the Week for Temple against Lafayette.When fifth-year defender Katie Coritz graduated from Paul VI High School in Clifton, Virginia, she believed her life after high school would pan out in New York City. She had her eyes set on playing Division I soccer at Colum bia University for her entire collegiate career.
Coritz graduated from Columbia in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in neu roscience and behavior but played lim ited minutes for the Lions during the 2019 season because of her battle with infectious mononucleosis. When the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it provided Coritz one more year of NCAA eligibility and she believed that teaming up at Temple with high school teammate junior mid fielder Emily Kavanaugh was the best course of action.
Coritz has been a key part of a de fensive back line that has produced three shutouts in the first seven games of the season. However, the team has yet to find offensive success, only scoring one goal. The Owls are currently 0-5-4, but the connection between Coritz and Ka vanaugh is a bright spot for the team.
Coritz adjusted well to Philadelphia because of her connection with the area after visiting Kavanaugh. This familiar ity was crucial to Coritz when deciding whether to commit to Temple or a local community college.
“I was lucky because I visited Emily at Temple before I considered coming here,” Coritz said. “I was already friends with some of the players, so it made the transition easier when I decided to come here. I also felt that I could connect with the newcomers since I was also a new comer.”
Coritz has not been intimidated by the new environment because she is a
sociable member of the team, easily able to assimilate to the culture, said head coach Nick Bochette.
“It’s tough when your whole college soccer career is spent elsewhere,” Bo chette said. “When you come in and your peers already have their best friends.”
Although Coritz did not expect to attend Temple, the university provided her with the opportunity to continue both her athletic and academic careers.
“Emily was a big factor in convinc ing me to come here,” Coritz said. “The other half was needing prerequisite credits for physician assistant school, but I thought I might as well take my fifth year of eligibility and come to Temple to play soccer.”
Coritz and Kavanaugh have known each other since they were 12 years old when they played for F.C Virginia ECNL, a youth club, prior to becoming high school teammates.
“We were having tryouts together because our two clubs decided to merge into one,” Kavanaugh said.“We ended up splitting up and played for different
clubs for a while, but on the first day of conditioning practice before our fresh man year, we saw each other and recog nized each other. She ended up being my first friend in high school.”
In April, Kavanaugh notified Bo chette that her close friend was in the transfer portal. Once Coritz took her official visit to Temple, Kavanaugh was excited about the possibility of reuniting with her childhood friend.
With the Owls losing one of their top defenders last season in graduated defensive midfielder Marissa DiGeno va, Kavanaugh knew that a defender like Coritz would be a perfect fit for the team because she sticks to the fundamentals and defends well in one-on-one situa tions.
Coritz played in all 16 games during her freshman campaign at Columbia, in cluding four starts. She aided the Lions’ back line to five shutouts that season and one assist. Her sophomore season was limited to just two games because of her illness, leading to only playing in two games before COVID-19 canceled her
remaining seasons.
In preparation for the season, the two practiced daily throughout the sum mer to get comfortable playing with each other again. Coritz and Kavanaugh worked on drills, practiced one-on-one situations and spent hours in the weight room.
The duo has shared the left side of the field this season, which helped pro duce two shutouts. With Coritz holding down the left side of the Owls’ defense, Kavanaugh feels more comfortable play ing in front of her friend at left wing.
The duo looks to continue their de fensive success, practice their offensive approach and battle through the physical adversity that comes along with confer ence play.
“She’s great technically and excellent in defending one-versus-one,” Kavana ugh said. “I thought she would be a good addition to our team. It is always great to know that she has my back.”
Transfer Katie Coritz chose to play alongside Emily Kavanaugh in her final collegiate season. ERIKA MONN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Temple graduate defender Katie Coritz has brought experience to Temple’s back line in her first year as an Owl.
Men’s Soccer senior Santiago Majewski missed two consecutive seasons.
BY HAYDEN BANDEL For The Temple NewsSenior Temple Men’s Soccer mid fielder Santiago Majewski never suffered a serious injury before arriving at Tem ple in 2018. Yet during the past two sea sons, Majewski has suffered significant tears to both of his ACLs, preventing him from playing the game he loves.
“I knew it right away, as soon as I planted my foot,” Majewski said. “I just heard a pop and it was the same feeling I had already, so I knew as soon as I went down that it was the same thing again.”
Despite the injury, in addition to a 2021 meniscus tear, Majewski has demonstrated his resilience, becoming a valued member of the locker room.
Temple (2-4-2, 0-0 The Ameri can Athletic Conference) has been no stranger to injuries throughout the past few seasons. Redshirt-junior Sean Ka rani, a Preseason AAC All-Conference selection in 2021, tore his ACL last sea son and redshirt-junior Eoin Gawronski fractured his left foot on Sept. 11, 2021,
against Villanova University.
The process of rehabbing from an ACL tear is long and rigorous, but Tem ple has dealt with the process frequent ly. Majewski and Karani suffered their tears around the same time in 2021 and followed similar recovery timetables, al lowing them to undergo treatment and participate in workouts together.
“We both tore it at about the same time and we both got back on the field around the same time,” Karani said. “It’s unfortunate that he tore his again, he’s been through it.”
Between September 2021 through May 2022, Majewski was able to strengthen his quadricep muscle enough to continue training for this season. While the current rehab process is like that of his previous knee injury, a better understanding of the proper regiments has Majewski making faster improve ments to his leg because he knows how to supplement his training.
“Some of the treatments are blood flow restriction and using a treadmill to get back into running,” Majewski said. “I’ve been doing a lot of weight distribu tion exercises and a lot of balance exer cises to make me feel stable.”
Assistant coach Alex Shinsky, a for mer player at the University of Mary land, has helped Majewski the most be
cause he knows firsthand how physically and mentally difficult it can be to remain off the field due to rehab.
“Part of the reason why I became a coach is for that reason,” Shinksy said. “To help these guys and share my kind of experiences with them both on and off the field.”
Majewski has rarely seen action for the Owls because of the upperclassmen ahead of him in the lineup during his early seasons and now the injuries, play ing in a total of 14 games in what will be a five-year career at the conclusion of the 2022 season. However, the midfielder is still helping the team by providing a mo rale boost on the bench, motivating guys to train harder because they see how hard he is working in recovery.
“He’s still a major member of our team,” Shinsky said. “He’s here every day with us, supporting us. He’s still now the spiritual leader of our group.”
Through overcoming adversity, he has gained more respect, becoming one of the most influential guys in the locker room. Majewski is overcoming two bad injuries with a sense of enthusiasm, a quality that teammates can admire.
“He came back strong and positive,” Karani said.
He also delayed his graduation by one year to return to the field this sea
son, further proving his dedication to the team.
“I wanted to play my last semester here,” Majewski said. “One more time, give me one more round.”
And while this plan is no longer a reality, Majewski is already working to wards getting ready for his future.
Majewski wants to take the field again once he graduates, most likely try ing to play professional soccer. While most would give up due to the disap pointment of two ACL tears, Majewski is fueled by the challenge despite con tinuing his recovery process, he said.
“Of course, it’s not always how it pans out,” Majewski said. “It’s a little rough but just something to get through and move forward.”
hayden.bandel@temple.edu @haydendotbandel
Barnett has played a complimentary role on a defensive line that ranks at the bottom of the American Athletic Con ference in goals against average, with a rate of 2.14 goals against per game. He can’t be everywhere at once, but the Owls force more turnovers when the freshman is behind the ball.
His work ethic on the field stems from a youth career at Major League Soccer’s Sporting Kansas City Academy. Barnett used off days as training oppor tunities, perfecting his passing and be coming one of the fittest players on the team, playing all 90 minutes in six of the eight games he’s started.
“While I was with Sporting KC, I developed a lot,” Barnett said. “Even with an injury, when it came time for scouts, I felt confident in my ability still that they taught me.”
After three seasons with the U16/ U17 Sporting KC youth academy from 2019 to 2021, Barnett made the move to play Division I soccer and was offered a full scholarship to come to Temple. He is receiving more exposure on the field in The American than he would have at the U19 MLS division.
Barnett isn’t the only Sporting KC alum on Temple’s roster, both junior forward Sean Karani and freshman mid fielder George Medill spent time in the academy. Karani and Medill have ce mented themselves as sources of energy who are consistently looking to make a difference in games by putting emphasis on moving the ball into the opponents attack area. Sporting KC provided all three with intangibles like open field vi sion and composure on the ball.
Barnett and Medill are both freshmen, but Medill admits Barnett can play like a true veteran on the field, helping facilitate in the midfield and direct the defense.
“We can joke and play around,” Me dill said. “But when it comes time to be serious, that’s where Draven really steps up.”
Barnett, one of 12 freshmen on Temple’s squad, has solidified himself as a cornerstone piece for Temple’s cham pionship aspirations moving forward. While he has served quality minutes, the team is still faltering.
The O≠≠≠≠wls have started con ference play with a 0-2 record, placing them second-to-last in the American, ahead of only the University of Alabama at Birmingham (2-6, 0-2 The American).
Barnett does not appear on the stat sheet in the ways his teammates may, largely due to Temple’s lack of produc tion on offense, constantly forcing the freshman to focus on defense while on the field.
“He can give you that flexibility to have him as a midfielder, but also some times defense is the best decision for him
on the team,” Rowland said.
Despite offensive struggles, Barnett still believes that he can improve as an individual player, and as a teammate.
“I love the culture here,” Barnett said. “I love my teammates, I just want to have more of a vocal presence on the field.”
If Barnett can take command of a midfield in need of a leader, he can play a big role in Temple’s future. But for now, the promising freshman needs to use ev ery minute he is on the field to provide game-changing energy for an Owls team in flux.
Since arriving at Temple, Men’s Soccer freshman midfielder Draven Barnett has established himself as a pivotal player for the Owls. Barnett leads the team in minutes played with 645 and has only been substituted out of a game once in eight starts.
Barnett, who has a versatile skillset, hasn’t been confined to the midfield po sition either. The freshman has proved to be a flexible asset on a Temple team in dire need of a spark.
“It’s always good to have players that are high-level that can give you flexibil ity and you can shift around,” said head coach Brian Rowland.
EARL KUFEN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Freshman midfielder Draven Barnett is proving himself early in the year as a valuable piece for men’s soccer. MEN’S SOCCER 24 For The Temple News Freshman Draven Barnett has led the Owls in minutes played.