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july 28, 2011 what’s inside Troubleshooting jCamp .............. 2 VaTech’s skunky invaders ........... 3 Navigating VaTech ...................... 4 The price of school spirit ............ 5 jCamp’s favorite co-director ....... 6 How VaTech compares ................ 7 Looking back .............................. 8

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Feels like the 1st time

D2 servers dish out top-rated eats

ALYSSA STOVER

jCampers participate in a game of egg-chicken-dinosaur during the relay race component of journalympics in the quad in front of Peddrew-Yates Hall on Wednesday afternoon.

FIRST-YEAR JCAMP STUDENTS ENJOY EDUCATIONAL, SOCIAL OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE ON TECH CAMPUS BY DANAITE HAMNOT

ALYSSA STOVER

Katty Mattus, a food service assistant in D2, helps make sure dirty dishes are properly stored for cleaning.

ENTHUSIASTIC EMPLOYEES HELP PROPEL TECH’S DINING SERVICES PROGRAM TO TOP IN COUNTRY BY MAGGIE DEPRETGUILLAUME Bobbie Blevins loves her job. Every morning, she works the “front line” of the Italian shop at the D2 dining facility in Dietrick Hall, making sure her staff is ready to go by 11 a.m. Blevins keeps the counters clean, serves specialty pastas and checks food temperature. “I’ve had a lot of fun here,” she said. “I’m a kid at heart.” But she does more than put food on plates. While she serves a portion of the average 2,752 people eating at D2 each day during the academic year, she’s gotten to know the students over her 29 years on the line. “Kids that graduate send me Christmas and birthday cards and some even call me,” Blevins said. Students and visitors rave about

the delicious food served in Dietrick Hall and in other dining facilities on campus. jCamper Mary Katelyn Koszycki spoke highly of the meals she has enjoyed during her stay. “I think the desserts are the best part,” Koszycki says. The Princeton Review also gives high praise to Virginia Tech dining services, awarding the program No. 1 Best Campus Food published in “Best 366 Colleges: 2010 Edition.” To prepare these meals, Tech employs about 15,000 people during the academic year, making dining services the largest single employer at the university. “We have a very diverse group,” said Gabe Petry, operations manager of D2. About 50 percent of the employees work for wages, while 25 see D2 / page two

Miles away from home, summer camps include strangers, foreign sleeping arrangements and randomly assigned roommates. But none of that bothered Austin Stover. An aspiring photographer, Stover showed up at jCamp to learn more about journalism. But he and his fellow first-time campers say they got much more than that. Arriving at jCamp was also not frightening idea for newcomer Christina Beiene. She had positive nervous flowing and were pleasantly surprised to see what was in store at orientation. “It was really nice once I arrived. I was able to make friends in my track and I really liked my instructor, Kelly Furnas because he was able to explain the curriculum really well and gave us real-life examples that we could apply to our work,” Beiene said. Knowing her roommate ahead of time because of her early request differed from Stover’s randomly assigned roommate. But random roommates were fine with Stover. “It was cool getting to know all the other guys in the dorm because they were really nice and welcoming,” he said. Once the bond between the guys was forged, playing Mafia and free styling was promised for the duration of the camp.

Dorm life also suited the new campers well because of the spacious layout and comfortable beds. Returning campers knew to pack only the essentials. “I definitely over packed the first time, so I made sure to bring just the necessities this time,” Jordan Page said. Once the busy schedule of jCamp had gone underway, it let the campers experience everything jCamp had to offer them. Campers were divided into subject tracks.

It was really nice once I arrived. I was able to make friends in my track and I really liked my instructor. CHRISTINA BEIENE ADVANCED REPORTING TRACK

“I would definitely say to take a class that you would be really interested in because I enjoyed mine a lot more by doing so,” Beiene said. Stover’s willingness to try to new things landed him in a photography and design class. Navigating Tech’s complex campus was a challenge that both returning and first-time campers faced. “I remember the first day I got lost going to Squires. It was difficult because all the buildings looked the same,” Stover said. The challenge of getting around actually brought Beiene to her natural habitat. “It was fun because I love explor-

ing and navigating around,” she said. “Even though it was difficult our track was able to find our way all at once.” Recreation and downtime allowed Stover and Beiene to socialize with their fellow campers. Veteran campers also knew the importance of socialization. “I would say don’t be shy because these people are who you’re going to be on staff with and they should know who you are,” returning camper Sami Drew said. That was certainly a lesson camp co-director Liana Bayne carried right along to college. Bayne, who was a camper while she was a high school student in 2008, attended jCamp that year with another student from her high school. Other than her usual church retreats with a youth group, it was her first overnight expedition. She said her main goal was to come away with a positive experience, so she went in with a positive attitude. The enthusiastic camper whose work resided in advanced reporting was able to balance the work while making new friends. “We had to do a lot of waiting for sources to get back to us because everything wasn’t that accessible, but we were all able to do it in the same track, so that helped us bond more,” Bayne said. Whether the experience will lead Stover and Beiene to becp,e counselors is still up in the air, but other than the enhancement of skills, jCamp guarantees friends even after the four days. “We still Facebook chat to this day,” Bayne said of her roommate from jCamp 2008.


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