THE ROAD AHEAD temple-news.com@thetemplenews THE TEMPLE NEWS VOL 100 // ISSUE 14 APRIL 26, 2022 NEWS, PAGE 6-7 Temple alumni discuss the financial and emotional tolls of student debt. SPORTS, PAGE 24-25 Sophomore guard Khalif Battle capitalizes on NIL opportunities by creating his own clothing brand. WHAT’S INSIDE Temple seniors reflect on their time at the university as the academic year comes to an end. MAGAZINE Fourteenth Street SPRING ‘22 INSIDE Read more Page 18.
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Natalie Elias, a senior engineering technology major, holds her cap on Polett Walk on April 24.
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PAGE 3The Temple News NEWS I n May, Temple University grad uating seniors have the oppor tunity to attend the university’s 135th commencement ceremony and their individual school or college’s grad uationGraduatesceremony.are allowed four guest tickets for the university-wide com mencement ceremony while ticketing for individual college commencement cere monies depends on the school. To avoid traffic and congestion, Temple encourages individuals to car pool to commencement ceremonies. Parking is available on a first-come, firstserve basis with each school and college offering its own designated parking area. Each graduate is encouraged to use their complimentary parking pass, found in their graduation packet, and assigned parkingGraduatesspace. and guests can use the cam pus map to find accessible parking and en trances for buildings around campus. Following the City of Philadelphia, Temple removed its mask mandate for most indoor spaces on April 22, mean ing masks will be optional at commence mentWithceremonies.ceremonies set to begin in more than a week, here is a list of loca tions and times for each ceremony and other information for graduates and their guests.
What to know about commencement ceremonies
MAURICE H. KORNBERG SCHOOL OF DENTISTRY Friday, May 20, 4 p.m. The Academy of Music COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Wednesday, May 4, 9:30 a.m. The Liacouras Center COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING Wednesday, May 4, 1:30 p.m. McGonigle Hall BEASLEY SCHOOL OF LAW Thursday, May 19, 4 p.m. The Liacouras Center COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS PROGRAMSUNDERGRADUATE Thursday, May 5, 1:30 p.m. The Liacouras Center GRADUATE PROGRAMS Wednesday, May 4, 9:30 a.m. Temple Performing Arts Center KLEIN COLLEGE OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION Wednesday, May 4, 5:30 p.m. The Liacouras Center LEWIS KATZ SCHOOL OF MEDICINE Friday, May 6, 9 a.m. The Kimmel Center BOYER COLLEGE OF MUSIC AND DANCE Thursday, May 5, 5 p.m. Temple Performing Arts Center SCHOOL OF PHARMACY Friday, May 6, 2 p.m. Temple Performing Arts Center SCHOOL OF PODIATRIC MEDICINE Monday, May 9, 12 p.m. Temple Performing Arts Center COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK Friday, May 6, 1:30 p.m. The Liacouras Center COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Wednesday, May 4, 1:30 p.m. The Liacouras Center SCHOOL OF SPORT, TOURISM AND MANAGEMENTHOSPITALITY Friday, May 6, 10 a.m. Temple Performing Arts Center SCHOOL OF THEATER, FILM AND MEDIA ARTS Friday, May 5, 1 p.m. Temple Performing Arts Center UNIVERSITY COLLEGE Thursday, May 5, 1:30 p.m. Rock Hall
TEMPLE’S SPRING 2022 commencement ceremonies schedule
TYLER SCHOOL OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE Thursday, May 5, 2 P.M. McGonigle Hall FOX SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT Thursday, May 5, 5:30 p.m. The Liacouras Center
BY FALLON ROTH AND MONICA CONSTABLE For The Temple News TEMPLE UNIVERSITY Thursday, May 5, 9:30 a.m. The Liacouras Center The Liacouras Center has ramps at all entrances. There will be an American Sign Language interpreter and captions. The Liacouras Center Parking Garage and all Temple parking lots have accessible parking options.
COMMENCEMENT Masking will be optional during Temple University’s 135th commencement ceremony.
The university will create a tiered landlord list, Kaiser said during a press conference on April 14.
NOEL CHACKO / THE TEMPLE NEWS
PUBLIC SAFETY Parents are campaigning and holding periodic discussions to share their perspectives.
Halma acknowledges that partner ships between the university and the neighborhood are key to addressing campus safety issues. “My long term goal would be to de velop a partnership with Temple Uni versity and the North Philly community so that we can address crime,” Halma said. “This isn’t just something like we’re going to put a bandaid on right now.”
Fallon Roth contributed reporting.
parents formed and self-appointed members to a Safety Ad visory committee after the fatal shooting of a Temple student in November 2021 to advocate for campus safety initiatives on and near Main Campus. Despite many students leaving cam pus during the summer, the Rapid Re sponse team plans to continue advocat ing for a more efficient FLIGHT system, walking routes with a heavier police presence near Main Campus, safety ed ucation for students and creating a list of trusted local landlords for off-campus housing, said Fadia Halma, parent of a junior political science and global studies major and a freshman communication and social influence and Spanish major. The Rapid Response team, led by Halma and another parent, Hillary Fletcher, advocates for parents’ campus safety initiatives to university, city and state leaders. Every Monday or Tuesday, Fletcher sends out a new advocacy topic on Facebook and provides parents with the necessary information and scripts to contact university, city and state leaders. “Every week we’re just coming up with more and more things that we’re seeing and talking to the students when we can, but it’s mostly feedback that we’re getting from parents online of their concerns,” Halma said. Parents have reached out to Phila delphia city councilmembers, Philadel phia Mayor Jim Kenney and Pennsyl vania Gov. Tom Wolf, said Fletcher, parent of a senior legal studies major and a junior art history major. This week, the Rapid Response team plans to campaign for collabora tion between local business owners and the university to create well-lit, walking routes with a heavier police presence, on streets like Cecil B. Moore Avenue or Willington Street, Halma said. Halma said local businesses have shown interest in this program, but could not disclose whichHenrybusinesses.Collins, owner of Mecca Uni sex Salon on Cecil B. Moore Avenue near 15th Street, supports an increased police presence on Cecil B. Moore Avenue.
A Temple University police car sits parked on Cecil B. Moore Avenue near 13th Street. Despite many students leaving campus during the summer, parents plan to continue advocating for a more efficient FLIGHT system, increased police presence near campus and other safety measures.
Parents at discussions with Charles Leone, departing executive director of Campus Safety Services, Ken Kaiser, se nior vice president and chief operating officer, and Denise Wilhelm, soon-tobe interim executive director of campus safety, are also reinforcing these points.
The conversations were planned in response to the Rapid Response team and Temple’s self-appointed Safety Ad visory committee’s efforts on campus safety and to provide a space for face-toface conversations, Leone said. “When you talk to somebody, it’s re ally more like you start breaking down some barriers,” Leone said.
As summer approaches, Temple University parents are determined to continue advocating for increased cam pus safety.Agroup of 40 to 50 Temple parents, part of the Rapid Response team, have called and emailed university and city of ficials and state lawmakers about campus safety issues since November 2021. Par ents also discussed their concerns with university leadership on April 6, April 19 and April Additionally,25.
@hockajoc@mconstable7monica.constable@temple.edujocelyn.hockaday@temple.edu
BY MONICA CONSTABLE AND JOCELYN HOCKADAY For The Temple News
Kaiser informed parents that their Rapid Response messaging on Hedberg’s FLIGHT project caught the attention of university officials and that they had plans to review it, Halma said.
“The crime is terrible,” Collins said. “We need more police presence on this street. We want our customers to walk out and feel safe.” Jason Dafis, the manager of City View Pizza on Cecil B. Moore and 15th Street, hopes the parents’ efforts help de crease“Crimecrime.is bad here, but it’s bad ev erywhere,” Dafis said. “Here we need more accountability from the police of ficers when making arrests. I hope what they’re doing works.” Last week, the Rapid Response team’s messaging to leaders revolved around a project by senior industrial and systems engineering major Daniel Hedberg that offers ways to improve FLIGHT, Tem ple’s shuttle bus system, by changing bus routes to decrease wait times. During the Fall 2021 semester, the shuttle service struggled to keep up with demand on weekends amid capacity lim its. This semester, FLIGHT added two shuttles and tentatively plans to add four in the“Largely,fall. those points have been about what we see as potentially low hanging fruit,” Fletcher said. “Things that maybe could be addressed a little easier, but really, it’s always with the in tention of hearing something and mov ing some safety measures forward.”
Temple parents expand campus safety advocacy
PAGE 4 The Temple NewsNEWS
Wilhelm began transitioning into her new role on March 28 by shadow ing Leone while he attended university and committee meetings and appeared at press conferences and discussions with parents about campus safety. Addition ally, Leone shared information about fi nances and budgeting with Wilhelm. While Wilhelm is nervous about the job, she is happy to have support from her “Sure,colleagues.I’mnervous,” Wilhelm said. “My brother-in-law told me you don’t know a job until you have the job and the anxiety about not knowing the job, but I’ve been here long, I have a lot of great support within the department and the university, so I’m excited to transition and keep moving forward.”
PUBLIC SAFETY Denise Wilhem will emphasize campus safety hiring and engagement during her tenure.
BY FALLON ROTH News Editor
PAGE 5The Temple News NEWS
Campus Safety Services’ Deputy Director of Operations Denise Wil helm was surprised when she learned that Charles Leone, executive director of Campus Safety Services and her col league of 30 years, would be stepping down on April 29 after his 40-year ca reer at Temple University.
Although many students will leave Main Campus for the summer, Wilhelm wants to engage those who stay on cam pus by hosting events and facilitating face-to-face dialogue between students and Sheofficers.wants to use Temple Universi ty Police Department’s partnerships with Temple Student Government to offer safety education programming to students, events on off-campus areas to educate stu dents about campus safety resources and increase on-foot or on-bike patrol to pro mote in-person communication between officers, residents and students.
Wilhelm does not know if she will apply for the permanent position, she said. As deputy director, Wilhelm cur rently focuses solely on department-level operations, but as executive director she will need to meet with the university’s executive leadership about campus safety.
Judith Robinson, 32nd Ward RCO representative, does not know Wilhelm and wants her to host a town hall to in troduce herself and discuss safety in the community. She believes that the new ex ecutive director must meet with different community members frequently rather than just speak to a select few residents.
“I want to see our patrol officers out in the community more on a day-to-day basis,” Wilhelm said.
@fallonroth_fallon.roth@temple.edu
“I was extremely shocked and sad, something that I’ve known my whole career here was coming to an end,” Wil helmWilhelmsaid. will become interim execu tive director of Campus Safety Services on April 30. However, Wilhelm anticipates holding the position only for the summer, at which point she thinks the university will select a permanent replacement.
Despite a potentially short tenure, Wilhelm plans to continue initiatives introduced after the fatal shooting of a Temple student in November 2021. For example, she will emphasize Cam pus Safety’s goal to hire 40 new offi cers, oversee former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey’s audit of Campus Safety, continue partnerships with Philadelphia Police Department and Allied Universal security and engage the community and students off-campus.
Interim campus safety director discusses goals
NOEL CHACKO / THE TEMPLE NEWS Denise Wilhelm, Campus Safety Services’ deputy director of operations, responds to questions from the media during a press conference on April 14.
“You can’t keep coming to the same people all the time about whatever prob lems you have in the community,” Rob insonUponsaid.
Leone’s resignation, Temple announced a national search to find his successor.Temple hired Spelman Johnson, a Massahusetts-based executive search firm, to conduct the search, wrote Sha ron Boyle, assistant vice president for human resources, in an email to The Temple“WeNews.have begun the process and hope to have someone in place as soon as possible,” she added.
Encouraging foot and bike patrol is already part of Campus Safety Services’ training, but Wilhelm hopes to promote it on a larger scale during the summer when it is warmer.
Temple hired four new officers who began working on April 25. Temple is also processing fifteen potential candi dates for the police academy, Wilhelm wrote in an email to The Temple News.
The university will seek input about the search from a committee of students and faculty and create an opportunity for university stakeholders to share their thoughts on the process, Boyle wrote.
“It doesn’t have to be anything for mal,” Wilhelm said. “It’s just like ‘good afternoon, how are you?’ or, just have a conversation and honestly that’s the best way to get to know your community.”
Roughly 46 million people in the United States have student debt, which presents particular challenges for stu dents of color, first-generation students, international students and students with financialStudentdifficulties.loandebt disproportion ately affects Black students, because they have less intergenerational wealth than white students, according to the Brookings Institute, a non-profit pub lic policy“[Studentorganization.debt]has implications for racial justice, that has implications for other parts of our economy, like the im pact of student debt on people’s ability to afford housing or homeownership or start businesses,” said Mark Huelsman, director of policy and advocacy at The Hope Center for College, Community and Justice, a research organization.
“It’s such a large sum of money that will have to be paid back, and it’ll just get bigger and bigger with when the interest rate starts accumulating,” Elias said.
Student debt has left alumni and recent and future graduates with an immense financial and mental burden. Amid renewed calls for President Joe Biden to cancel student debt, Temple University alumni and graduating se niors share how student loans impact their lives upon graduation.
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THE COST OF HIGHER-ED As the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, inflation is increasing college tuition and fees, NBC News reported. During the height of the pandemic, universities halted their tuition increases to help enrollment.
PAGE 6 The Temple NewsNEWS Amanda Lien grew up in a lower income family and she, her mother and sister have chronic health issues, which made it difficult for her family to save for her college education.
Natalie Elias, a senior engineering technology major, is anxious about stu dent debt, but she is grateful to have a job that will help her afford the monthly pay ments once the federal moratorium on student loan payments ends on Aug. 31.
During the moratorium, borrow ers do not have to make their monthly payments, interest rates are set to zero percent and the government stops col lecting on defaulted loans, according to the Federal Student Aid website.
Temple students who completed their undergraduate degree graduate with a median federal loan debt of $24,437, ac cording to U.S. News and World report.
GRACIE HEIM / THE TEMPLE NEWS
Natalie Elias, a senior engineering technology major, stands in her cap and gown on Polett Walk on April 24.
“That’s where the anxiety kicks in and the reality of feeling like you’re nev er going to be successful,” said Cordero, a 2021 master of social work alumna. “So you’re always going to be the underdog.”
Overall, Temple’s tuition has trended upward during the past 10 years, except for tuition freezes during the 2019-20
Lien, a 2018 journalism alumna, knew that if she enrolled in a four-year program she would need to take out loans. She tried to limit expenses by at tending community college while in high school, allowing her to graduate from Temple in two and a half years. Despite her best efforts, Lien owes about $68,000 in debt, impacting her housing, her career and whether or not she could get a cat. “I just remember feeling really frus trated that I had worked so hard for the last two years of high school to not have to incur so much debt and then it was still well into the five figures that I ended up graduating with,” Lien said.
Seventy percent of Temple’s class of 2020 borrowed student loans. The class of 2020 also owes an average of $39,913.
How Temple alum, students cope with student debt
Zoraida Cordero, a first-generation college graduate, would like to have children someday, but between housing and car-related costs, financially sup porting her family and student loan pay ments, starting a family would leave her “drowning in debt.”
Seventy percent of Temple’s class of 2020 borrowed student loans and owe an average of $39,913.
BY FALLON ROTH News Editor
Kaiser believes that Temple stu dents’ debt does not lay on the shoulders of one institution.
TEMPLE’S RESPONSE TO DEBT
@fallonroth_allon.roth@temple.eduAMELIAWINGER
The Bursar’s Office also sends students an annual letter that summarizes their debt, so they can make financial plans. Student Financial Services offers webinars on student financial aid. Tem ple allocated 18.4 percent of undergrad uate and 1.9 of graduate tuition to finan cial aid, Muth wrote. However, financial aid, except for grants and scholarships, accumulates student loan debt.
f
All prices, including tuition, rise over time, wrote Ken Kaiser, senior vice president and chief operating officer, in an email to The Temple News. Thirteen percent of Temple’s budget is from state appropriations. Temple has decreased their budget by $74 million in the last two years because of increases in expens es and decreases in enrollment. Any rise in costs is covered by either budget cuts or tuition increases.
“I’m angry at the system as a female, Black, pre-med student, who can’t even afford to apply to medical school,” Saun ders said. “We’re talking $7,000 applica tion process, so it’s just one big hurdle over hurdles that are just easy for people withAmoney.”student’s chosen area of study in college and the earnings of their chosen career also contribute to someone paying off their debt faster than, Huelsman said.
“I wouldn’t say it’s any one individu al’s fault,” Kaiser said. “It’s a lot of things, I mean state funding is a small percentage of the budget and it’s gotten way small er over the last several decades, students and families demanding more services, it’s just everything combined.” Pangaea Saunders, a 2021 biology alumna, is enrolled in Temple’s post bac calaureate pre-health program, which costs approximately $30,000 and offers no federal financial aid, Saunders said. However, Saunders realized that accu mulating student debt was inevitable and that she had to “bite the bullet” and enroll.
The Fly-in-Four program incen tivizes students to graduate on time. Between 2013 and 2016, the program reduced Temple students’ debt by $2.4 million, wrote Conrad Muth, assistant vice president and bursar, in an email to The Temple News.
“Money is the first thing I think about when I go to bed and the first thing I think about when I go to sleep and it has affected every, I mean even when it comes to registering for classes every semester, my anxiety, my fears and my rationale, how I rationalize things just goes out the window because here I am making all my decisions based off of money,” Saunders said.
Cordero is from a working class family, with a lower wage job in the so cial services industry. Because of this, she has to work harder to negotiate her salary so that she can pay for her expens es, including loan payments.
As an international student from India, Ankur Khare faces additional bar riers in paying his student loans. Khare graduated with his first masters degree in business administration in 2005 from the Jaipuria Institute of Management in India before enrolling at Temple in Fall 2017 and graduating in December 2018 with a second masters in business analytics. Khare cannot borrow or refinance his loans from the U.S. Department of Education, even though he attended an American university. Instead, he must use a private international lender, Prod igy Finance, which has higher interest rates compared to U.S. federal loans. “I can take a mortgage, I can take a personal loan, I can take a loan for my car, I can take any kind of loan in [the] U.S. right now, but I cannot take student loans,” Khare said.
The university cannot always supple ment cost increases with budget cuts be cause there is a need to expand compen sation, benefits and services like advising and Student Health Services, Kaiser said. Therefore, tuition must be increased.
PAGE 7
CAN WE CANCEL STUDENT DEBT?
The Temple News NEWS and 2020-21 academic years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the university has not increased its mandatory university fees in approximately five years. In the 2012-13 academic year, base tuition was $13,006 for in-state students and $22,832 for out-of-state. This academ ic year, base in-state tuition sits at $16,488 and out-of-state tuition at $29,712.
While colleges and universities ex perienced a decline in enrollment last fall, indicating a potential decrease in borrowing, almost one-fifth of all fed eral borrowers defaulted on their loans, according to Pew Trusts. Amid these economic challenges, politicians, activists and students have called on the federal government to can cel student debt. Individuals who oppose student debt cancellations say the move would be too costly, with the Los Ange les Times Editorial Board arguing that forgiving up to $50,000 per borrower could cost the U.S. Department of Trea sury an approximate $1 trillion. Huelsman thinks canceling student debt is feasible because Pell Grants, not loans, were supposed to be the main way that students finance their college education.Recently, the value of Pell Grants, state grants for lower-income individ uals, have decreased, allowing loans to become the main form of education fi nance. Funding for Pell Grants decreased from $1.4 billion to $1.1 billion in 2021 because of reduced congressional fund ing, according to the Center on Budget and Policy HuelsmanPriorities.alsopoints to the federal government’s student loan moratorium as an indication that pausing loan pay ments does not upend the U.S.economy. “We’re able to pay our bills as a country, there’s nothing that we need, we do not need to force people into debt to finance anything in this country,” Huelsman said. For Binh Nguyen, a 2017 strate gic communication alumna, the federal moratorium allowed her to catch up on her payments while her loans are not ac cumulating interest. “It was a relief, knowing that now moving forward the amount that I am paying is contributing to the actual cost of my loans and not just the interest as pect of it,” Nguyen said. Despite resources and potential solutions, the anxiety of impending debt weighs on Saunders’ mind.
/ THE TEMPLE NEWS
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Smutek first considered dissolving Parliament in May 2020 before begin ning his executive campaign in March 2021. He believes Parliament has never lived up to its expectations and should not be reinstated for the 2023-24 aca demic“Theyyear.just aren’t doing the work that a functioning legislative student branch would do,” Smutek said. Smutek believes the Legislative Advisory Committee should research creating a new legislative body. The committee should also consider restruc turing TSG to have an executive board, instead of three branches, which would be charged with electing the president or overseeing students’ election of a presi dent, he Smuteksaid.and Sorge are hopeful of where this change will take TSG in the future.“The goal of any org leader should be to leave their org in a better place than when they found it,” Smutek said. “I am hopeful for the future of TSG that they will find a better structure moving forward.”
Newly-inaugurated Student Body President Gianni Quattrocchi believes that TSG is making progress on evaluat ing Parliament.“Ithinkthat with this change, by es tablishing an advisory board to reassess parliament,” Quattrocchi said. “I think it’s a necessary step in ensuring that stu dents have both a well functioning and active student legislative branch.”
The branch passed four final resolutions, despite only passing once since the year began.
Stephanie Ives, dean of students, gives remarks at the Temple Student Government inauguration in the Howard Gittis Student Center on April 25.
TSG
The new constitution will only last a year, and the next executive team will need to enact a more permanent TSG constitution, said outgoing Student Body President Bradley Smutek, a senior historyOnlymajor.twomembers of Parliament vot ed against the resolution to dissolve itself.
TSG wrote a new constitution to re vamp its elections committee, dissolve Parliament and establish a year-long Leg islative Advisory Committee, which will evaluate if a new legislative body can be established for the 2023-24 academic year.
PAGE 9The Temple News NEWS Temple University Student Gov ernment is dissolving Parliament, its 20-year-old legislative branch, after be ing largely ineffective throughout the 2021-22 academic year. Before today, the branch had passed a single resolution since the year began.
Speaker of Parliament and College of Public Health representative Town ley Sorge, a senior public health major, said there were discussions to send Par liament to recess for the past year. Sorge would like to see more accountability measures for Parliament participation. “I think it’s a great decision,” Sorge said. “I’m a co-sponsor on the resolution, and I feel pretty strongly about this reso lution or this measure being needed.”
The committee will audit the previ ous Parliament to determine areas for im provement, and its members will include the seven students elected to Parliament in March, the chief external services offi cer and the director of government affairs. Judges from the Constitutionality Coun cil, TSG’s judicial branch, will oversee the committee’s work.
Temple Student Government dissolves Parliament
BY MADDIE STERNER Staff Writer GRACIE HEIM / THE TEMPLE NEWS
@maddiesternermadeline.sterner@temple.edu
On Sunday, Parliament passed four final resolutions, including recessing Parliament. The other resolutions in clude advocating for textbook afford ability, offering resources for counter protesting and declaring support for Temple Panhellenic’s demands for fra ternities to combat sexual assault.
wendy.garcia@temple.edu
PAGE 10 The Temple News OPINION
Allies support their LGBTQ+ peers by speaking up when someone says an offensive remark, being informed on LGBTQ+ issues like anti-transgender legislation and being accepting of those who come out to them.
WENDY GARCIA Co-Opinion Editor ETHAN CARROLL / THE TEMPLE NEWS
“We shouldn’t center allies because that’s not what it’s about, but I think that they should be allowed to be part of those graduations,” Copes said. LGBTQ+ individuals are more likely to struggle in their education than their straight or cisgender counterparts be cause of discrimination they face based on their sexuality or gender, according to the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, an organization working to create affirming learning environments for LGBTQ+ youth. It’s difficult to say who can or can’t be nominated because there are many fac tors to consider, like how queer identity is personal and can’t be dictated by others, Moscony said. “I’m in support of the way [IDEAL] does it now by keeping it more open,” Moscony said. “I think that you lessen the risk of shutting people out.” All nominations for Lavender Gradu ation are reviewed to see how a person has impacted the LGBTQ+ community, said Nu’Rodney Prad, the director of student engagement at IDEAL. “If there’s an ally that is nominated, then there’s a little bit more leaning into it to see if that person has done a lot of work behind the scenes in order to be named or be a recipient of the cord,” Prad said. Allies typically aren’t nominated, but nominations from allies are still allowed to respect their contributions and because they are part of the LGBTQIA acronym, PradThoughadded. ally support is important because it helps LGBTQ+ individuals improve their self-esteem and well-be ing, they don’t face the same hardships as LGBTQ+ students, which is what the graduation ceremony acknowledges.
STUDENT LIFE A student argues Lavender Graduation ceremony shouldn’t commemorate LGBTQ+ allies.
Because of the challenges LGBTQ+ individuals face due to their sexuality or gender, their accomplishments and per severance should be honored and not be overshadowed by allies who may be well-intentioned but could take away from what their LGBTQ+ peers experience.
Allies should still be included in Lavender Graduation, but they shouldn’t be the main focus, said An dreas Copes, a senior communication studies major who was self-nominated and attended the ceremony.
Nominating allies is bad for LGBTQ+ graduates
LavenderGraduationrecognizes the LGBTQ+ commu nity’s accomplishments at Temple University to support a Nikkiextracommunitymarginalizedthatfaceschallenges,saidMoscony.“Recognizingthe accomplishments of any marginalized group, but especially the queer commu nity, in such a big way is very important and I think that it was executed very well,” MosconyTemple’ssaid.Office of Institutional Diver sity, Equity, Advocacy and Leadership held their Lavender Graduation Ceremony in person on April 20 after celebrating it vir tually for the previous three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ceremony recognizes graduating LGBTQ+ seniors and allies by acknowl edging their academic achievements. Stu dents can nominate others or themselves to celebrate the ways they support Tem ple’s LGBTQ+ community. While allies can still support their LGBTQ+ peers by attending this cer emony, allies shouldn’t be nominat ed because this can diminish focus on the achievements and experiences of LGBTQ+ students. Allies also shouldn’t be nominated be cause allyship doesn’t require a lot of effort because allies only support the communi ty, said Justin Ryan Allen, a senior political science major who was self-nominated and attended the “Lavenderceremony.Graduation is a time for queer people to celebrate their accom plishments and all of the obstacles that they overcame through academia,” Allen said.
A student describes how being a graduate student made her feel nostalgic for reporting.
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KRISTINE CHIN / THE TEMPLEPAGENEWS11The Temple News OPINION CHRISTINA MITCHELL For The Temple News
Now, in my post-Temple News ca reer, I’ve been able to take a step back and reflect on how writing for the newspaper shaped my undergraduate experience and impacts me today. In addition to learning AP style, like not using an Oxford comma or the prep osition “over” when I mean “more than,” I learned the importance of people-first language, putting an individual before their disease or condition. This is a criti cal concept in public health research, and it guided me in my understanding that we’re not defined by things outside of our control.Journalistic writing helped me fur ther grasp the nuance of the English lan guage; this is stressed in public relations, a sector I previously had no interest in. Now I’m building a social media presence for my professional food blog and working with several PR companies. While it isn’t my full-time job, nor is it related to my major, creating content is an escape from monotonous data entry or endless recruitment phone calls. It reminds me that I crave creativity, whether it’s writing essays, taking pho tographs or editing videos. Without The Temple News, I have more time to focus on social media management, and I real ized that both have several parallels: I’m appealing to a target audience, and I’m trying to get a message across. Trying to compile my thoughts and reminisce on my time as an Opinion writ er has been especially difficult because I haven’t written in so long. It feels like the summer between spring and fall semester just passed and I’m scraping my brain for lessons I learned months ago. Thinking about all the people I’ve in terviewed and the freelancers I hopefully inspired gives me a bittersweet rush of nostalgia. One of my former freelancers texting me at 11:45 p.m. reminding me of the midnight deadline feels weird, ironic and wonderful all at the same time. I guess you could say I’m retired at age 23. Although I probably won’t pursue a career in journalism any time soon, I’m thankful for this experience, as it helped me become a better writer and a more in formed person, two competencies I will need after graduating. Every time I look at the small, owlshaped trophy I earned for being on staff, I’ll remember my former editors, free lancers and interviewees I met at The Temple News. christina.mitchell@temple.edu
My schedule was consumed by my job, master’s classes and fieldwork, not The Temple News. While it sounds like journalism was a burden, I couldn’t imagine going through my undergraduate years without it. In high school, I was an overachiever who signed up for every activity available. In college, I was lucky if I came to the sec ond club meeting. But this wasn’t the case with The Temple News. I signed up to freelance for the Opin ion section because I was raised in a conservative, rural town where I wasn’t allowed to express my opinion without controversy, so I thought The Temple News could give me an outlet to speak my mind.And it did. I finally found my voice; although I was too passive to use it ver bally, I could show off my thesaurus-like vocabulary and headstrong personality in my writing. Unlike most freelancers, I wasn’t a journalism major; I was a public health major, so writing for the newspa per was a change of pace from my biosta tistics or epidemiology homework. After freelancing for two years, my editor saw potential in me to be the health beat columnist. It was an honor that he thought I could be trusted to write an ar ticle every week, and his faith gave me the confidence boost to take the next step and apply as an Opinion editor. Running the Opinion section was one of the most time-consuming but worthwhile jobs I’ve had. Every other Sunday, I found myself in the newsroom scrambling to finish my section in time. Two days later, I would see my completed section and think “Wow, I really did this.” For every typo I missed, there was a comprehensive column that would catch the attention of a professor or colleague. Several people, including my best friend’s mom, said they read the Opinion section every week because of me.
My first semester without weekly budget and post-production meetings was a much-needed break.
Adjusting to my new life after The Temple News
On Sundays, my only worry is begin ning the dreaded 9 to 5, opposed to being scolded for a last-minute story published in the newspaper. I no longer throw together sloppy pitches with a vague idea and no ideas for visuals on Tuesdays.
@belladiamore13isabella.diamore@temple.edu
BY ISABELLA DiAMORE Sports Editor
COMMENCEMENT
ETHAN CARROLL
Finding love for writing through The Temple News
I received cancellation emails for summer programs, and I felt like I had zero options. I regretted not getting in volved in different organizations, feeling like I was behind and it was too late. While searching for internships, I received an email from David Mindich, chair of the Journalism Department, about editor positions at The Temple News. Although I felt under qualified because I’d never written for the news paper, I applied to be assistant Sports ed itor and Features editor. On May 13, 2020, I received an email from Madison Karas, the editor in chief at the time, saying she wanted to talk about my experiences and what I could offer to the paper. As I spoke with her, my hands were shaky and I had a pit in my stomach – I wanted this opportunity so badly. Al though my writing wasn’t the best, I knew becoming a part of The Temple News would further develop my skills. Two weeks later while riding my bike, a phone call interrupted my Crime Junkie Podcast. I pulled over to the side walk frantically trying to get my phone out of my “Hello!”pocket.Isaid in an overly-high pitched“Heyvoice.Bella,” Madison answered. She offered me the assistant Sports editor position for the 2020-21 academic year. I was ecstatic. I told her yes of course, signing up for a role I knew nothing about. I became immersed in the job. I was on the Temple men’s basketball beat by the spring semester, editing stories and writing sports features. At the end of the year, I applied to return for my senior year as Sports ed itor. I could expand the sports coverage more as the head editor with my previ ous experience.
The drive from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, to North Philadelphia was quick on a Wednesday night in February 2020. As I arrived at my apartment, I ran inside to change my clothes and was back out the door with a Coca-Cola in my hand. It was 11 p.m. once I got to the TECH Center. I was tired and unmotivated after working a six-hour shift at a restaurant, but I needed to finish an assignment for my Journalism Innovation and Design class that was due on Friday afternoon. I was a sophomore journalism major with no clear vision of what I wanted to pursue. I dabbled in magazine writing and broadcasting without a niche. I didn’t have time to commit to student organi zations because of my work schedule.
My life slowed down for the first time in March 2020. I disconnected from my job, school and friends. I realized I had to prioritize my future despite every brick wall in my way, like companies not hiring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
/ THE TEMPLE NEWS PAGE 12 The Temple NewsOPINION
Coming back as Sports editor my senior year strengthened my knowl edge across all sports. I had the chance to cover in-person events, which helped me build relationships with players and Temple’s athletic administration. I didn’t fully value my job as a sports reporter until my conversation with former Temple University football safe ty Amir Tyler in November 2021. We were outside of Edberg-Olson Hall, and he talked about the adversity he expe rienced as a kid and how he overcame those struggles to earn a Division I foot ball scholarship.“Iwasusedto going on the block and looking up to mentors that were selling drugs or making money in the streets,” Tyler said. I couldn’t wait to write the story be cause he inspired me. Tyler told me it’s important to remember where you come from, but at the end of the day, what re ally matters is the person you become, which stuck with me. I wanted to tell Tyler I understood what it’s like coming from an untradi tional two parent household. Being raised by my dad taught me to have a strong work ethic — one that motivated me to go to the TECH Center late after work. Stories like Tyler’s are why I love sports writing. I knew going to college was a privilege. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it to graduation day with a journal ism degree, but I’m glad I figured it out. Becoming assistant Sports editor at The Temple News my junior year opened many doors for me. It sounds dramatic, but I wouldn’t be who I am to day if it wasn’t for the chance to work here. I’ll be forever grateful for that.
A student explains how her experiences in the newsroom helped her find a future career.
KRISTINE CHIN / THE TEMPLE NEWS PAGE 13The Temple News OPINION TYLER PEREZ For The Temple News
@tylerperez___tyler.perez@temple.edu
COMMENCEMENT
A ‘thank you’ to The Temple News for my growth
When I write a personal essay, it feels like I’m meeting myself through the words I put on the page. The sea of white space on my Goo gle Doc is like baptismal water, a rebirth into the new self I’ve come to know in these sentences. I’ve written essays about my struggles with religion and gender expression, meditations on my develop ment as a poet and an educator and ded ications to the people who’ve helped me grow into who I am today. With each final punctuation mark, I feel like a new person: as if I’m learn ing more about myself in these pages I write and working through my pain in the only way I can. And I have The Temple News to thank for this.
I started at The Temple News during my first week on campus in January 2018, writing columns about drug policy and media representation. I appreciated this space to research social issues and write about my thoughts in a space for others to Duringread.each weekly opinion section meeting, though, I read my colleagues’ personal essays, deeply inspired by the bravery required to bare one’s most in timate experiences and feelings, every thing from their writing journey to their growth as a student, on a platform thou sands of their peers will read. I asked my editor if I could try to write an essay, although I didn’t know what it’d be about. Luckily, she said yes and gave me a flexible timeline to send her a draft when I was ready. During lonely weekend nights at my Gratz Street apartment, I wrote — then erased, then rewrote, repeating about a thousand times — a personal essay about a moment important to me: the day I came out to my classmates as bisexual. I wrote about my senior year En glish class where we held a workshop on writing and revising college essays, and I creatively structured my essay as a free verse poem about coming to terms with my sexuality.Idetailed the anxiety I felt sharing this side of myself with classmates who might not accept me, knowing I’d expe rience that same unnerving feeling again when I sent that essay to my editor and, eventually, to the student body. What I didn’t expect was how I’d feel afterward: by reliving a difficult ex perience and immortalizing those emo tions on paper, I was processing a com plex moment of my life I hadn’t taken the time to fully reflect on. The result was an affirmation of my bravery in that mo ment, of my security in my sexuality and of my abilities as a writer. I titled the essay “A prompt for self-exploration and awareness,” not yet knowing this title could apply to the doz ens of personal essays I’d write for The Temple News during the next four years. That essay became the catalyst for my career at The Temple News. I wrote so often during the next year and a half that I became the lead columnist, and soon enough I was Opinion editor and even tually Chief Copy Editor, helping others share their stories. I found this just as re warding as being the writer myself. Helping others take their person al experiences they haven’t told anyone and embody them in writing to visualize, process and share with the world were the most fulfilling moments during my time at The Temple News, and they’ve inspired me to incorporate personal es says and creative nonfiction into my work as a high school English teacher. Posted above my desk at home is a collage of the different stories I’ve writ ten for The Temple News, with that very first essay greeting me every time I walk out the door. It’s a reminder of where I started and how I’ve grown in the past four years, a testament to the bravery it takes to put myself on the page in my most vulnerable moments and the strength that comes from doing so. It’s the beginning of my baptism into the version of myself I am today: some one more adventurous, self-assured and proud of himself than he was four years ago. But above all else, it’s the physical manifestation of a student newspaper that shaped me into the writer, leader, educator and human being I am today.
A former writer and editor explains how The Essayist shaped his growth as a writer.
GRADUATINGJackDanz Print Managing Editor Gracie Heim Web Editor Amelia Winger Digital Managing Editor Ingrid Slater Design Editor Victoria Ayala Assistant Sports Editor Rosie Leonard Features Editor
SENIORSAllisonSilibovsky Assistant Multimedia Editor Ethan Carroll Assistant Design Editor Erik Coombs Multimedia Editor Dante Collinelli Chief Digital Copy Editor Eden MacDougall Assistant Features Editor Isabella DiAmore Sports Editor
BY NOEL CHACKO EDITOR
The following month, a tornado devastated Temple University’s Ambler campus causing ex tensive damage to university buildings. Classes were canceled and then moved online while the campus was Templerepaired.University football failed to meet ex pectations during their season, ending with seven straight losses and finishing 3-9 on the season be fore firing former head coach Rod Carey. In November, Temple Muslim Students As sociation advocated for their own prayer space. After their initiative gained support on social me dia, they eventually secured a space in the Paley Building in February. On December 6, 2021, Temple Student Gov ernment hosted a candlelight vigil at The Bell Tower, memorializing and mourning the loss of Temple students Samuel Collington, Katherine Kelemen, Matthew Melendez, James Peterman and April Rochester. Students and parents have since petitioned for increased safety measures both on and off campus. Following winter break, Temple temporari ly postponed in-person classes for two weeks due to a rise in COVID-19 cases amid the spread of the Omicron variant. Students returned to class on Jan. 24 but with stricter masking guidelines. On Feb. 2, Mia Davis, a graduate student forward, scored 18 points and became Temple’s new all-time scoring leader with a career total of 2,195Amidpoints.Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, roughly 100 people assembled for a gathering to support the Ukrainian community at the Bell Tower on MarchTemple’s10. Main Campus Program Board hosted the first Owlchella event since 2019 at the Liacouras Center with headlining artists Jack Har low and Swae Lee. noelchacko@temple.edu Photos from the year show an attempt to return to normalcy amid frequent campus changes.
Photosin In August 2021, students returned to in-person classes after almost a year and a half of virtual learning. Students were required to wear masks in all indoor spaces and be fully vaccinated by Oct. 15.
AMBER RITSON / THE TEMPLE NEWS Students wait to enter the Tuttleman Learning Center on the first day of in-person learning on Jan. 24.
YEAR
NOEL CHACKO / THE TEMPLE NEWS Rapper Jack Harlow performs during Owlchella at The Liacouras Center on April 21.
PHOTO
ALLIE IPPOLITO / THE TEMPLE NEWS Students and faculty walk down Polett Walk on Aug. 26, 2021.
AMBER RITSON / THE TEMPLE NEWS
Josh Schmidhuber, a mechanical engineering major, holds a sign calling for an end to war at an event supporting the Ukrainian community at the Bell Tower on March 10.
Members of the Muslim Students Association stand in front of the Bell Tower on Nov. 8, 2021.
NOEL CHACKO / THE TEMPLE NEWS
NOEL CHACKO / THE TEMPLE NEWS
Members of the Temple Football defensive team huddle during the Owls game against Boston College on Sept. 18, 2021.
NOEL CHACKO / THE TEMPLE NEWS
AMBER RITSON / THE TEMPLE NEWS
ALLIE IPPOLITO / THE TEMPLE NEWS Workers clean up damage and debris inside Bright Hall at Temple Ambler on Sept. 13, 2021.
Mia Davis, a graduate student forward, stands with her teammates after becoming Temple’s all-time leading scorer at McGonigle Hall on Feb. 2.
A sign is held remembering Samuel Collington at the candlelight vigil held by the Temple Student Government by the Bell Tower on Dec. 6, 2021.
BY EDEN MacDOUGALL Assistant Features Editor DELANIE WOLFF / COURTESY Jackson Oligino, senior advertising major, poses for a graduation picture outside Klein College of Media and Communication on April 22.
The university will host in-person graduation after last year’s socially distanced ceremony.
Meehan, a senior advertising ma jor, will not attend the university com mencement because it is long and she wants to celebrate her achievements in a more personal way with other Klein students, she In-personsaid.graduation will give Mee han a greater sense of accomplishment because all the graduating seniors from Klein will be together, she said.
Will McGlone will miss professors, like his psychology professor Ronald Taylor, who are passionate about what they teach, but is eager to gain real world experience working as a psychologist, which he sees as the next step toward eventually earning his doctorate in clini cal psychology.McGloneplans to attend the College of Liberal Arts’ undergraduate ceremony to celebrate the milestone of finishing his undergraduate career, he said. “This is an opportunity to recognize your hard work and really acknowledge that it’s a turning point and you only graduate from college as an undergrad once,” said McGlone, a senior psychol ogy major.McGlone is glad commencement is in person because graduation is a special occasion and a virtual ceremony doesn’t recognize that achievement as well as an in-person ceremony does, he said. “It’s less of an event if you’re staying home at your computer, there’s no fes tivities, there’s no event,” he said.
Walking across the stage and getting her diploma will be a bittersweet mo ment for Miyalani Wagner as her college experience comes to an end. Wagner started Thrift and Flop, a sus tainable clothing exchange club, in 2020 and formed a tight circle of friends during her time at Temple University. She will miss seeing them in person but is looking forward to celebrating her achievements at graduation next week, she said. “It just has everything come full circle and it makes you have a sense of accomplishment,” said Wagner, a senior communication studies and psychology doubleTemple’smajor.commencement
When she enrolled in Temple, Nicole Meehan didn’t know what she wanted to study before randomly picking the adver tising major in Klein and “falling in love” with it because it combined creativity with business. She looks forward to cel ebrating her journey at graduation with friends and family at Klein’s ceremony.
Miller is glad his graduation will be in person because having a virtual ceremony in 2020 seemed disappointing, he said.
Temple seniors look forward to commencement
COMMENCEMENT
Bobby Miller is excited to walk at graduation but is still coming to terms with the fact that he won’t be a student anymore unless he enrolls in graduate school. He plans to attend the Fox School of Business graduation because he wants to walk across the stage, something a few of his friends were unable to do because of the COVID-19 pandemic’s emergence in 2020, said Miller, a senior economics major. He also plans on attending the uni versity commencement even though it is early at 9:30 a.m, because it’s a once-ina-lifetime experience, he said.
“There’s something about walking across the stage that validates all the four years,” he said.
PAGE 18 The Temple News FEATURES
is on May 5 for all graduating students and individ ual colleges will hold smaller ceremonies for students throughout May. As grad uation approaches, seniors are reflecting on their Temple experiences and look ing forward to having a more normal graduation after last year’s commence ment was in-person with social distanc ing, masks and plastic barriers due to the COVID-19Wagnerpandemic.wasworried that gradua tion would be virtual due to COVID-19, but is excited she gets to walk across the stage and experience commencement in person at the Klein College of Media and Communication graduation ceremony, she said.“I’m really excited just to be part of all that camaraderie and be around a ton of people that I’ve been with for four years and just everyone being excited and the vibes being high,” Wagner said. Jackson Oligino has been waiting to graduate college since high school and is excited to finally start his career, he said. “Usually your bachelor’s degree is just the next step until you go on to your career, so it feels like I finally accom plished that and can move forward,” said Oligino, a senior advertising major. Oligino also plans to attend Klein’s ceremony and skip the university-wide commencement, which is the following morning, to celebrate with his family in stead before going home to Exton, Penn sylvania, that night, he said.
eden.macdougall @temple.edu
Na’zir McFadden, a senior music performance major, was named assistant conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Detroit Symphony Youth Orchestra on April 6.
PAGE 19The Temple News FEATURES
MUSIC The orchestra named Na’Zir McFadden assistant conductor and music director on April 6.
“I was in shock, a deep state of shock that I couldn’t really feel any thing, and I’m still in a deep state of shock,” McFadden said. “I’m looking for apartments right now. It hasn’t hit me that I’m about to move.” As assistant conductor at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, McFadden is re sponsible for learning all of the music the Orchestra will use during their twice-aweek concerts and conducting 10 weeks of concerts, including pop and classical chamber concerts, he said. As music di rector, he decides what music the Sym phony Youth Orchestra will play. He hesitated to audition to be the assistant conductor because he accepted a position with the United States Navy Band, a band made up of Navy mem bers, in 2021 as a clarinetist but decided to take a chance and apply anyway to see if he could get past the first stage of the application process, McFadden said. Once he advanced to the final round, which includes an audition and inter view, he realized he had a unique oppor tunity as a young Black conductor be cause most people like him do not make it this far, he said. “I’m 21, I’m Black, I’m an inner-city Philadelphia kid, I went through the public schools, I’m from a single family household,” McFadden said. “You know, I’m not supposed to be the assistant con ductor of the Detroit Symphony, I’m not supposed to have these opportunities.” Less than 2 percent of musicians in major American orchestras are Black, WBUR
eden.macdougall@temple.edu
Affron was apprehensive about how the Zoom meeting was going and couldn’t resist poking her head into her office, she said. When McFadden gave her a thumbs up while he was talking, she knew he’d gotten the job.
Senior earns jobs at Detroit Symphony Orchestra
McFadden also studied under Gi Lee, an adjunct clarinet professor at Temple University, before taking his leave of absence. Lee was impressed with McFadden’s hard work and talent and hopes they both can work together one day with McFadden conducting, he said.
In fifth grade, Na’Zir McFadden broke plastic hangers and brought them to his band teacher, asking if he could conduct the school band using his “baton.”
McFadden is excited to work with the children in Symphony Youth Or chestra and share his story with them, which he hopes will show them any thing is possible, he said. “They’re the future of classical mu sic, music in general, and having a di rect impact – I couldn’t ask for anything more,” he said.
“I designed it really honestly with [McFadden] in mind because I knew he was around, I knew he still was very in terested in being a conductor,” she said.
“She never told me ‘no’ and she nev er said, ‘that’s not a baton,’ she kind of let my imagination go wild,” said McFad den, a senior music performance major. After trading in his “hanger-batons” for a baton his friend gifted him, McFad den began seeking out every opportunity he could to gain experience conducting. These efforts led him to be named assis tant conductor of the Detroit Sympho ny Orchestra and music director of the Detroit Symphony Youth Orchestra on April 6. He begins his new jobs at the Orchestra in September and is looking forward to shaping the next generation of classical musicians.
“It was hard to keep it a secret, it was very very exciting news,” she said. When he was 16 years old, McFad den and a group of friends asked Affron if they could sit in the orchestra pit and ob serve the “Nutcracker” because he wanted to see how music and dance work togeth er. Affron said ‘yes’ and set up chairs for them in the back of the pit, Affron said.
After McFadden graduated high school in 2018, Affron invited him to apply for an apprenticeship as part of the Phila delphia Ballet’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access Portal, a task force created to make the Ballet more inclusive, which Af fron is a member of, she said.
BY EDEN MacDOUGALL Assistant Features Editor
Afterreported.months of rehearsing with Philadelphia Ballet Music Director Be atrice Jona Affron, who he works with as the inaugural apprentice conductor for the 2021-2022 concert season, on Zoom, he flew to Detroit for his audition and interview in McFaddenFebruary.received an email the next day from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra asking to speak with him in the middle of rehearsal at the Ballet but had to anxiously wait three hours until he was done to reply, McFadden said. He joined a Zoom call in Affron’s office where the orchestra offered him both the assistant conductor position and the music director position and decided to take a leave of absence from Temple to accept the positions.
SEUNGHO CHOI / COURTESY
Alumna runs publishing company with husband
“When she says she’s going to do something, even at a young age, even as a pre-teen and a teengaer, going to col lege, going to Temple, she went out and she did it,” he said.
“Andre’s Confessions” is about for mer police officer Andre Brown who goes on the run after being accused of murdering Ricardo Desire, a fictional character in the book.
“The main theme is always going to be relationships either between husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend, fami ly,” Edward Christinasaid.and Edward met at Canar sie High School in Brooklyn, New York, in 1992, and dated until their senior year but stayed in touch before getting back to gether, Christina said. They got married in 2000 and have been a team ever since.
They started writing and publishing fic tion with the romance-suspense “Desire Family” trilogy, and their second book in the series, “Andre’s Confessions,” will be released on April 29.
The first book in the series, “Ricar do’s Collisions,” was meant to be a stand alone novel with roughly 200 pages, but Christina and Edward decided to make it a trilogy when they realized they had a larger story to tell, Christina said. Their books usually focus on ro mantic relationships based on their own love story, Edward said.
Christina and Edward want to ex pand their company to include TV shows, short films and feature-length films, starting with a movie adaptation of their memoir, Christina said.
FEATURES The Temple NewsPAGE 20
Sitting in her entrepreneurship elec tive at Temple University, Christina Sledge knew she wanted to start her own business one day but never imagined she would go into publishing with her husband.
Edward’s favorite part of writing is when he watches Christina react to his drafts and measures the quality by wheth er or not she smiles while reading, he said. He trusts her to give him honest feedback if his writing is not up to their standards, and she works with him to figure out what needs to be changed in a story, Edward said. “Even if it’s a stabbing or a shooting or a love scene or romance or something like that, seeing her reaction when she proofreads it, that’s how I know I got something good,” Edward said. Before working in publishing, Christina worked in various managerial roles at companies like A-G Associates, a consulting service, and currently works as a senior meeting manager at the Biz zell Group, also a consulting firm. Christina knows how to balance two jobs because she learned time man agement skills at Temple from balancing classes and her part time jobs as a pro jectionist and usher at the Reel, she said.
“We want to keep progressively growing each year, raising the bar for what we want to do in terms of produc tion,” Christina said.
Christina and Edward work well to gether and are almost always on the same page despite coming from different back grounds – Christina grew up in a multi generational household in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, that prioritized academics, whereas Edward was raised by a single father in Canarsie, Brooklyn, an area sur rounded by crime at the time, she said. Growing up in Crown Heights, surrounded by Caribbean, Hasidic Jew ish and Latino communities, Christina wants their books to reflect that diversi ty in their characters and tell stories for everyone, she said. Because of his difficult upbringing, Ed ward writes grittier stories and Christina likes to write more lighthearted and fami ly-oriented books, like cookbooks, he said.
eden.macdougall @temple.edu
ALUMNI Christina and Edward Sledge founded Sledge House Media to self publish their romance novel.
Edward handles the writing and Christina manages the business opera tions, like promoting the books on social media, she Brandonsaid.Madeam always knew his sister Christina was going to do some thing great but was shocked when she and Edward created Sledge House Me dia because neither of them expressed interest in publishing before. Now, he couldn’t be prouder and reads every book they write, he said.
“It’s definitely been fun, we enjoy learning from each other as we go through this journey,” said Christina, a 2002 com puter and information sciences alumna. After being married for 21 years, Christina and Edward Sledge, a 2013 social sciences alumnus from Towson University and Army veteran, founded Sledge House Media, a Maryland-based publishing company, in January 2021 to self-publish “The Story of Christina and I,” a memoir about their relationship.
BY EDEN MacDOUGALL Assistant Features Editor
CHRISTINA SLEDGE / COURTESY Edward Sledge (left), a 2013 social sciences alumnus from Towson University, and Christina Sledge, a 2002 computer and information sciences alumna, pose with their books at a Barnes and Noble book signing in Ellicott City, Maryland, on Nov. 13, 2021.
“She’s just really dedicated to better ing herself but also working to better the lives of those around her all the while making sure that she’s conscious of her growth,” Kelly said.
Patrick Kelly, a research coordina tor in the Risk Communication Lab, en couraged her to apply because he felt her determination and hard work made her a perfect candidate, he said.
Public health senior advocates for youth COMMENCEMENT
Cassie Navalta will receive a Diamond Award for her work in the College of Public Health.
Kelly worked closely with Navalta and appreciated all of her hardwork and dedication, which is why he helped her with the application process.
After graduating next week, she plans to attend graduate school in Washington, D.C. and pursue a master’s in public health with a concentration on maternal and child health, Navalta said. She wants to focus on maternal and child health because she feels not every one has equal opportunities and experi ences growing up, she said. “I had such a great childhood and, like, I want everyone to have that same amazing experience so that I can just help in any way to create that for some one else,” Navalta said.
After spending most of her life work ing to create opportunities for individu als to find success in public health, Cassie Navalta’s efforts were finally recognized.
“I always feel very lucky and surprised when these great things happen to me,” said Navalta, a senior public health major. Navalta was one of 24 students at Temple University to receive the 2022 Diamond Award, which is awarded to students who demonstrate superior lead ership, academic achievement, service to Temple and impact on a community — whether local, regional or global. Awards will be distributed to winners today.
BY ROSIE LEONARD Features Editor
Last year, accessing COVID-19 vac cines was difficult for individuals who lacked transportation to vaccination sites, according to the Centers for Disease Con trol and Prevention. Coverage was lower in rural counties compared to urban areas.
Navalta was interested in learn ing more about barriers individuals face when trying to get vaccinated and reached out to Bass via email almost im mediately to get involved, she said.
PAGE 21The Temple News FEATURES ADVERTISEMENT
mary.rose.leonard@temple.edu
Navalta started volunteering in Spring 2021, and Bass offered her a parttime job as a health communicator for CPH’s RapidVax Initiative, Bass said. Navalta helped with preparing tran scripts for analysis, assisted in develop ing a codebook to analyze interview data and, as a result, earned a co-authorship on two conference presentations of the 2021 American Public Health Associa tion annual meeting.
She won the award for her time at the Risk Communication Laboratory, a laboratory for educators, researchers, students and public health professionals in the College of Public Health, and the RapidVax Initiative, a CPH project ded icated to distributing COVID-19 vac cines to ensure they’re easily accessible in Philadelphia.Navaltaalso received the Outstanding BSPH Senior Award from the Social Be havioral Sciences Department last month, which is granted to a senior who demon strates personal, academic and professional dedication to the public health field.
She grew interested in volunteering at the lab after Sarah Bass, associate pro fessor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and director of the Risk Communication Laboratory, at tended one of her public health classes as a guest speaker last school year.
Before immersing herself in her pas sion for equitable vaccine access, Navalta was heavily involved in volunteer-based work, she said. She decided to join the Big Broth ers Big Sisters Independence program, a non-profit in Philadelphia that aims to empower children through one-on-one mentoring relationships, in fall of her sophomore year.
@nick_gang16nick.gangewere@temple.edu
COMMENCEMENT Temple senior golfer used his strong work ethic to overcome adversity across five seasons.
FILE
BY NICK GANGEWERE Assistant Sports Editor COLLEEN CLAGGETT / Dawson Anders, senior golfer, follows through on his stroke at the BQ Golf Academy driving range in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 21, 2019.
Temple’s only golfer to shoot below a 72 on the season, noticed a change in his own work ethic after being around Anders his freshman year. An ders’ hard working mentality rubbed off on the junior, who began to show up to practices earlier and rarely missed train ing times, McGrath said. “He definitely helped me to learn to do things the right way,” McGrath add ed. “Anders has the type of personality that brings about a change.” As the “bar-setter” on the roster, Anders played some of his best golf this season. He finished 21st overall at the East Carolina University Intercollegiate on March 22 with an eight-over 224 and a personal season-best three-under 210 at the Princeton Invitational on April 10. Daily 30-minute drives to the 1912 Club in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsyl vania, hours playing on golf simulators and at the range and years of high-level pressure prepared Anders for those mo ments, he said. But the game did not always come easy for DuringAnders.hissophomore year at Tem ple, Anders was plagued with a slump. His drives were not reaching the distance he desired and his short game faltered. Anders was fatigued with a back injury and played in only three tournaments, finishing at a career-high seven over par on theWhenseason.his injury began hurting his game overall, Anders spent weeks fo cusing solely on his body instead of his game, dedicating hours to rehab and lift ing weights as his teammates remained out on the courses. The decision to put his rehab first came down to drive and commitment, he said. This desire is what stood out to Quinn when he started recruiting him as a kid, Quinn said. “His work ethic is second-to-none,” QuinnTheadded.Temple senior knew he wanted to golf at Temple early on in his career because of his proximity to the school while growing up in Souderton and its business programs he could enroll in. From playing at Mainland Golf Course in Harleysville at the age of nine to competing in amateur tournaments at 11 years old, Anders was a college pros pect from a young age. He made a lasting impression while being scouted by Quinn at the coach’s golf camp when Anders was in the 7th grade, Quinn said. “He had a lot of great qualities that you’re looking for down the road,” QuinnDuringsaid. his time at Temple, Anders learned to prioritize his education while finding time to play golf. He graduated from the Fox School of Business in 2021 with a business and management degree and will graduate with a masters in busi ness in Anders2023.plans to pursue a profession al golf career after graduating in May, while having his business degree to fall back on. Anders believes Temple has not only prepared him for his future, but has allowed him to become the person he is today, Anders said. “I wouldn’t put anything past An ders,” Quinn said. “If he puts his mind to it he’s going to be able to achieve it.”
As a 6-foot-3-inch high school sophomore, Dawson Anders could drive a ball more than 300 yards and had the meticulous short game required of a Di vision 1 golfer. “My sophomore year of high school is when I started getting my scores down lower,” Anders said. “I definitely started to notice a little separation between me and some of the guys I played with in highAschool.”fifth-year golfer, Anders led by example the past three seasons as team captain. Whether it’s arriving at the driving range first or staying in the gym until the last teammate leaves, Anders leaves Temple University as one of the most dedicated workers head coach Bri an Quinn has ever coached, Quinn said. His competitive nature helped the Owls make an appearance at the Amer ican Athletic Championship from April 22 to 24, with an opportunity to compete for the AAC title. Even if they don’t win the tournament, they still have the play er talent to advance in individual play, with Anders, junior Conor McGrath and sophomore Graham Chase. “Having that competitive of a lineup really helps you stay motivated,” Anders said. “They’re your teammates, but like Quinn says, ‘you want to try and beat themMcGrath,still.’”
PAGE 22 The Temple NewsSPORTS
Anders, a three-year captain, led Owls by example
Faith Leary, a graduate student all-around, competes on the floor at the Keystone Classic at McGonigle Hall on Jan. 7.
“[Edwards] is a verbal leader,” said women’s gymnastics head coach Josh Nilson. “If something’s wrong, she can circle the team up without any input from me and straighten it up. [Leary], on the other hand, kind of keeps her head down, supports her teammates, just leads by example. She never complained, she just did her job.” During their time at Temple Uni versity, Leary and Edwards helped lead the team to back-to-back conference championships in 2019 and 2020. The two relied on each other along the way for support and their bond helped culti vate a winning environment. Coming into this season, the two put pressure on themselves to beat their scores from last season and finish their last year of gymnastics strong. But they knew as they got older, their bodies couldn’t handle the same gymnastics routines they did freshman year. “Once I kind of realized that I am older and my gymnastics isn’t gonna be the same, I tried to switch my mindset,” Leary said. “I just wanted to live in the moment and absorb everything that was going on at that time.” Although they weren’t competing in every event, the two wanted to help their teammates earn record-break ing scores. Whether it was helping the younger girls with routines or building up their confidence, Edwards and Leary made it known they were there for them, EdwardsLearysaid.earned her career high beam score of 9.675 during the Owls’ 2020 conference-winning season and helped the team earn the sixth-highest overall score in program history of 195.000 at the Ken Anderson Invitational on Jan. 31, 2020.Edwards’ also achieved a career high of 9.875 on bars and 9.825 on vault during the 2020 season. In 2021, she earned a spot in the Second Team All-EAGL for floor events, and posted a floor score of 9.8 or better nine times. As a captain the last two seasons, she hoped to inspire confidence in her teammates.“[Edwards], she’s got ice in her veins,” Nilson said. “She has been proba bly one of the most consistent gymnasts I’ve coached. If I was gonna go to war, I’d want [Edwards] on my team.” Leary believes last season was her most accomplished year. After her leg gave out on the vault at the start of the 2020 season, she had bursitis in her knee and a torn meniscus. Leary was unsure if she could still perform at the high level. She returned in the 2021 season averag ing 9.850 on the floor and scored a career high 9.9 in the floor event at the 2021 NCAANilsonRegionals.believes Leary’s development is her most noticeable achievement. Since she joined the Owls her junior year after transferring from Utah State, Nilson has seen the fifth year consistently improve her numbers on the floor, he said. Because Leary didn’t like public speaking, Edwards would speak to the team most of the time and relay any feed back Leary had to the team, Leary said. “She’s definitely taught me that I have to stand up for myself,” Leary said. “I usually struggle with that and she’s helped me through it. With [Edwards], you feel the expectation from her, and so it makes you want to do better.”
Gymnasts support each other while leading Owls
daniel.heller@temple.edu
PAGE 23The Temple News SPORTS Fifth year senior all-around com petitors Faith Leary and Tori Edwards have two different personalities, but that hasn’t stopped them from leading the Owls to success together.
“To both of them, I just want to say thank you more than anything else,” Nil son said. “To [Leary], for giving me a second chance, honestly, after recruiting her to a different university. That’s enor mous. To [Edwards], for always having my back and being a great team captain. I’m not looking forward to replacing ei ther one of them.”
Edwards, a health professions major, will be moving back home to Virginia before applying to graduate school next year. She plans to obtain her master’s in forensic psychology and work for a fed eral government agency. After leaving Temple, the two will miss their teammates and coaches, but they feel it’s time to move on from phys ically competing in gymnastics. Edwards may return to competing in a couple years, if her body’s up for it, but Leary is ready to live a more relaxed life.
COMMENCEMENT
BY DANNY HELLER The Temple DAVIS / THE TEMPLE NEWS
Fifth-year seniors Tori Edwards and Faith Leary helped secure back-to-back championships.
News NICK
Edwards praised Leary for always having a smile on her face and teaching her to look at the positives. She admires how Leary never brings others down, Edwards said. As they wrapped up their final sea son, both athletes learned to cherish the time they had with the team while they still could.After graduating, Leary, a psychol ogy major, will coach a club team in Charleston, South Carolina. Her goal is to become a college gymnastics coach, but she wants to make an impact at the club level first, she said.
For
PAGE 24 The Temple NewsSPORTS Khalif Battle and his hometown friend, Quan Silvera, would scrape togeth er a couple of dollars as kids to pay for their train tickets into New York City or to shop for clothes. However, finding a way to fund their hangouts came with challenges.
After talking with his dad Gary Bat tle about the NIL rules and whether he should brand himself rather than take an endorsement deal, Khalif felt comfort able investing his money into marketing himself.Following their discussion, Khalif needed to figure out what he wanted
CREATING ‘BATTLE TESTED’
Khalif Battle utilizes NIL through self-branding his own t-shirts as a way to give his name exposure.
The Temple University men’s bas ketball sophomore guard used that same hustle mentality to create his own brand.
Basketball to fashion, guard builds ‘Battle Tested’
“We always hustle as kids,” Battle said. “We were always trying to find something we could make money off of, which was like reselling shoes or what ever the case may be.”
BY ISABELLA DiAMORE Sports Editor
NOEL CHACKO / THE TEMPLE NEWS
The NCAA adopted Name, Image and Likeness on June 30, 2021, granting stu dent-athletes a chance to profit off their name, and Battle has utilized this oppor tunity to give himself exposure and give back to his community. He decided to design his own clothing line. Battle’s first collection of clothes, t-shirts that say “Battle Tested,” were released on April 6. The six-foot-five-inch guard aver aged 21.4 points and 3.9 rebounds per game prior to suffering a season-ending foot injury against La Salle University on Dec. 1, While2021.watching the Owls from the sidelines and focusing on rehab, Battle used his spare time to also read about the NIL policy. As a student-athlete who’s verified on Instagram with more than 16,000 followers, Battle constantly received offers from companies for en dorsement deals, he said. “I got a lot of offers to do stuff,” Bat tle said. “But I always felt like the person that was giving me the offer was gonna benefit more than me and I just put my money into my own thing, so that way I profit off my own name.”
Khalif Battle, a sophomore guard, dribbles a basketball while wearing his “Battle Tested” t-shirt at Amos Playground, on 16th Street near Montgomery Avenue, on April 24.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
By the time Khalif was 13 years old, Gary could tell his son was going to play at the college level but reminded Khalif that basketball is not who you are, it’s what you do, Gary added.
Gary emphasized to Khalif financial stability, the importance of saving mon ey and having other passions in life. “I told him to read books like ‘The Millionaire Next Door’,” he said. “We’ve referenced that quite a bit growing up by saving your money and having a hustle on theKhalifside.”attended St. Joseph’s High School in Metuchen, New Jersey, for a year until he transferred to Trenton Catholic Academy, where he met Silve ra. The two discussed fashion, food and basketball. Even during art class, Khalif and Silvera talked about starting their own luxury clothing brand, Silvera said. “We would sit there in class and look at designer brands, shoes, names,” Sil vera said. “We’d be in our class talking, we’ll be drawing. We be like, okay let’s get older, let’s do something.”
Trenton Catholic has produced sev eral basketball players to the Division I level, like Myles Powell, a star from Se ton Hall University. He currently is on a two-way contract with the Delaware Blue Coats and Philadelphia 76ers. While Khalif, who averaged 23.7 points per game as a senior, was solely focused on basketball, he also noticed the “eye-opening” difference between a city environment, compared to the suburbs.
“It was just a love that our family had for the game and we just started to build a business out of it,” Gary said. “They had to just do all the demonstrations, that was the trade off.”
“A lot of people don’t make it out of that community,” Khalif added. “I’m one of the lucky ones.” When Khalif returned to visit Tren ton Catholic during the team’s final round of the NJSIAA Group Tourna ment, on March 12, it sparked the idea to create his own basketball clinic, similar to what his father did.
Khalif plans to host it at Trenton Catholic in July. He hopes to share his experience and knowledge of the game to help the next generation pursue their basketballBesidesdreams.producing more clothing, like hats and shorts, Khalif wants his teammates to sign his deal. He’s already brainstormed slogans for redshirt-fresh man guard Damian Dunn and freshman forward Nick Jourdain. “I was thinking of a Dame Time tee,” Khalif added. “I was thinking about a Jour-dangerous t-shirt. I’m probably gonna start that up by July.”
@belladiamoreisabella.diamore@temple.edu
PAGE 25The Temple News SPORTS the brand to be. After Khalif underwent surgery on his leg in late December, he stayed at his home in Hillside, New Jer sey, for a couple of weeks. One day, Silvera visited and said to Khalif, “You might as well start finding things you can open up your mind to,” referring to Khalif finding another out let to put his focus into during the recov ery process.Silvera knew Khalif had an interest in fashion and wanted to create his own clothing brand, so Silvera saw this as an opportunity to make it happen. Khalif began researching design logos by differ ent sketch artists on Instagram. He then thought of the line “Battle Tested” to use on theOnetees.night, while playing in a sum mer league as a kid in Harlem, New York, Khalif dropped 40 points. During the game, the announcer told Khalif he was “Battle Tested” and the name stuck, he said.For Khalif, the name represented al ways fighting to do better even when he was being challenged, he said Silvera also helped Khalif with the creation of the t-shirts. As time went on, the two would talk on FaceTime to relay ideas. At first, Silvera and Khalif tried to design a shirt with a journey theme that would reflect Khalif’s transition from childhood to college, Silvera said. Khalif decided instead to use a car toon illustration of himself to capture a child-like image because he wanted the shirts to appeal to adults and kids. He knew of a sketch artist, who goes by the name “Karp SZN” on Instagram because he had previously made differ ent logos for Khalif as a fan, but Khalif said he would pay him if he made the logo for the shirts. Khalif thought he wouldn’t have the shirts ready on time, because the website wasn’t completed yet but with Silvera’s contribution, they made it work. While Battle was finishing up the last touches to the website, his friend helped connect Khalif to 555 Stickers, a California-based apparel company. “He wanted my best interest to make sure I can continue to keep moving for ward,” Khalif said. “We both stayed up late nights, I learned a lot from scratch, I didn’t take no classes, nothing. I just was on YouTube, Google and just trying to figure everything out on my own.” Once the shirts were released, Gary reminded Khalif to make sure he un derstood the rules of property rights, by ensuring he requested the permission of others to use their images and designs on Khalif’s website, he said. “Clothing has somebody else’s name on it,” Gary added. “Or some of the com pany’s name on it, just making sure you have someone else to double-check and look at another set of eyes on you.” When communicating with Tem ple, Khalif needed approval to ensure he wasn’t selling any university products. He said the Temple Compliance & Stu dent-Athlete Affairs office told him that he couldn’t use his jersey on the website, or have any photos and designs with the Temple “T” logo in it. Khalif also needed to give the com pliance office an estimate of how much money he would be making, he said.
As a kid growing up in Hillside, Khalif was fortunate to have family by his side during the early stages of his bas ketballHiscareer.dadgrew up in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, and had a basket ball scholarship to play at the University of New Haven in Connecticut, where he was inducted into the university’s Hall of Fame in After1999.his basketball career came to an end, Gary went on to work in the insurance industry, but he still had a connection to the game. While Khalif and his older brother Tyus Battle, who played at Syracuse University, were around the age of five and eight, Gary started a circuit training program called TeamTheBattle.two brothers would help their dad run basketball clinics at various New Jersey high schools.
MEANING BEHIND THE NAME
NOEL CHACKO / THE TEMPLE NEWS Khalif Battle, a sophomore guard, holds a basketball at Amos Playground on April 24.
Khalif felt the NIL policy offered an opportunity for him to get more expo sure as he prepares for the upcoming NBAHedraft.sees himself as an entrepreneur. Watching how hard his mom worked as a waitress at a diner and grandma as a custodian for a high school made Khalif want to be his own boss. “They never really got that much money because everybody’s moving around from place to place growing up,” Khalif said. “I always told myself that I never wanted to be like that, I didn’t want to work for anybody. I just always wanted to be my own entrepreneur and even if I make it to the NBA, if I’m bless ed enough, or be a successful business man, I always want to branch off and put money into people like my best friends.”
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The Owls utilized a 4-2-3-1 forma tion for most of the season, giving the team four defenders, two defensive mid fielders, three attacking midfielders and one striker. The formation is designed to give teams flexibility on defense, but also leaves a lone attacker against multiple defenders in transition. Because the Owls were missing their best attacking options for most of the season, the team struggled to push the ball downfield in a one-forward system. Rowland plans to switch to a new formation this fall after they fill their roster and determine where they can score goals on a more consistent basis, he said.“Given the circumstances of last sea son, we decided we would be more prag matic and try to be more defensively sol id,’’ Rowland added. “Once we have our full group with all of our new additions we will delve into what formation will help us score more goals and remain sol id onThedefense.”Owls could turn to a three-for ward system to help jumpstart the of fense, with Karani and Eijgendaal man ning the wing positions. A multiple forward formation would allow the team to have more control over the pace of play and give the team more attacking options with extra forwards in transition. Karani will return to the field for the Owls this year after missing all of last season due to a lower body injury. During his freshman season in 2019, Karani started in all 17 games and finished second on the team with nine points from three goals and three assists. He earned a spot on both the AAC and Philadelphia Soccer Six All-Rookie teams and was named to the preseason All-AAC team prior to the 2020-21 season.
Owls search for improved offensive production
Rosen said. “She’s got this nice, powerful shot, she’s got a couple moves that she can free herself up on but she’s starting to become more of an integral passer.”
@belladiamoreisabella.diamore@temple.edu
@samueloneal43samuel.oneal@temple.edu
For The Temple News
“I remember walking on the field and all the parents freaked out,” Mc Gowan said. “People were tearing up on the sidelines. I had just gone through the toughest recovery ever, it was not as easy as I thought it was gonna be.”
“Just sitting in practice was real ly hard,” McGowan said. “Then at the games I tried to be positive, and it was easier to have fun at the games, but it was also kind of like a double-edged sword.” After McGowan underwent surgery during fall break in 2020, she stayed at home from most of the month of No vember through December. During those days, her dad would carry her down to the basement and help her lift small weights on crutches. “I just felt lost,” McGowan added. “I had a hurt knee, so I wasn’t playing lacrosse. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, major wise. I didn’t know what I wanted to be.” As soon as she started walking again, McGowan returned to campus. Her strength and conditioning coach, at the time, Sam Whitney, helped her recon nect with fitness training. He sat down with McGowan and said “Nothing’s gon na happen if you’re not going to put your mind to it.” After that conversation, she worked out with Whitney everyday. Whether it was doing physical therapy rehab, like band stretches, or minor running drills, McGowan’s progress became motivation.
“Seeing the difference that it was making in my knee and how fast I was coming back, it was really exciting and motivating for me,” McGowan said. It also opened another door — Mc Gowan always had an interest in strength and conditioning but she didn’t realize it was her passion until last year. She started applying herself in both areas following the recovery process. Be sides lacrosse practice, McGowan works as a strength and conditioning coach and lacrosse instructor at Commit To Im prove, a training center for female ath letes in Oaks, McGowanPennsylvania.competed in full-con tact practices in the first two weeks after winterHerbreak.career-best performance came against Vanderbilt University on April 2 where she netted seven goals. She tries to not let her injury get the best of her, even though there are days she might be scared to dodge off her right knee. “I have this huge brace on,” Mc Gowan said. “It makes me feel a lot more secure, but I definitely could have come out and been kind of scared and a skit tish player from it. I’m glad that I also had that game where I performed well.” Head coach Bonnie Rosen believes McGowan had two weeks of solid prac tice time leading up to the game against the Commodores. She said when Mc Gowan is given space inside the circle, she’s going to put the ball by the goal keeper“Weeverytime.candevelop her right now,”
BY SAMUEL O’NEAL
After scoring just 14 goals in fall, Temple men’s soccer is trying different formations on offense.
The Owls were forced to give valu able minutes to multiple younger players due to the team’s injury struggles. Fresh man forwards Nigel Griffith and Gyu won Chong as well as freshman defend er Alex O’Leary all logged more than 600 minutes played last season. With multiple key starters including Eijgenbaal, Griffith and junior midfielder Andres Charles returning to the lineup as well as younger players getting some valuable collegiate experience, the Owls believe they have the personnel to get back to competing in the American Ath letic Conference and win consistently, said freshman defender Luka Kozomara. “If we have everyone healthy and committed then we will do well,” Ko zomara added.
CONTINUED FROM 28 WOMEN’S LACROSSE
During a practice in November 2020, McGowan was playing one-vsone with a teammate. As she looked for an open shot on goal, the 5-foot-11-inch attacker planted awkwardly on her foot and realized something was wrong. “I just planted, felt no pain,” Mc Gowan said. “Then I just laid on the ground, and I was in shock.” The next two weeks were tough for McGowan, but the real mental challenge came once Temple’s season started. See ing her friends and teammates get ready for a game, while McGowan watched, took a toll on her ability to focus.
MEN’S SOCCER
PAGE 27The Temple News SPORTS After being without key offensive players in the fall, like sophomore for ward Sean Karani, junior midfielders Kemali Green and Santiago Majewski due to injury, Temple University men’s soccer was forced to play with a squad that wasn’t in sync. “We just need to be on the same page more,” said sophomore forward Mike Eijgendaal. “Last season it felt more like we just had 11 individuals out on the field rather than one team so if we are on the same page we should be able to score more goals and create a more winning mentality.”Temple will look to ramp up their offensive aggressiveness and generate more scoring opportunities to create a more consistent offensive system. Last season, the Owls struggled to push the ball in transition and were oftentimes outnumbered in the final third of the field. This spring, the team has empha sized improving their transition offense by having more forwards on the field. “Obviously we dealt with a lot of in juries,” said head coach Brian Rowland. “We recognize that even with the inju ries, we had a lot of talent but I think that we grew a lot from the experiences from last season so now we have to keep try ing to improve and I think we have made someLaststrides.”season, Temple was outshot 216-150 by opponents and only scored 14 goals during the 16-game season, which placed them last in the conference.
MCGOWAN REGAINS
Junior attacker Riley McGowan’s recovery from an ACL injury inspired her passion for fitness.
Her dad was a coach for a boys la crosse team in Souderton, Pennsylvania. The town didn’t have any girls lacrosse leagues at the time, leading McGowan to play with her brother on the boys team.
W hen Riley McGowan was 5 years old, she would put her lacrosse helmet on in the car as her dad drove to practice. She was hiding her ponytail from the rest of the team, so they couldn’t tell she was a girl.
McGowan learned to become a tough attacker with a strong shot while growing up playing with her dad and brother, and that mentality has helped her recover from an ACL injury she suf fered last year. Now, the Temple Univer sity lacrosse junior attacker has a new perspective about the game and has re alized her passion for strength and con ditioning. After missing all of last season, McGowan made her return in Temple’s exhibition game against Towson University on Feb. 5. Since then she’s played in 14 of 15 games for the Owls and is the team’s third-leading scorer with 28 goals. | 27
Riley McGowan, a junior attacker, runs toward midfield during the Owls game against the University of Cincinnati on April 9.
BY ISABELLA DiAMORE Sports Editor
WOMEN’S LACROSSE CONFIDENCE
“I still kind of have a boys playing style, which serves me well now be cause the game is kind of evolving,” McGowan said. “But when I first tran sitioned over to girls lacrosse, it was a totally different game.”
PAGE 28 The Temple News SPORTS
LACROSSE
NOEL CHACKO / THE TEMPLE NEWS
