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FEATURES

Student group Advantage gives thanks for educational opportunities

Kayman Whaley
November 23, 2014

Growing up on the west side of Detroit, college wasn’t a subject often discussed with material science engineering senior Clarence Jilek.OH It is a topic of conversation at Advantage, which is a minority retention program for MSU students that meets every Tuesday.OH It aims to ensure that students achieve their educational goals while attending MSU. The theme of the most recent event was for students to discuss “why” and “what I am thankful for.” Approaching Thanksgiving, discussions of why you attend MSU and what you are thankful for was appropriate, members said. “Everybody’s (mother) had this plan about their kids going to college and none of my boys ever did,” Jilek said. OH“My ‘why’ is graduating and being successful for those mothers because I am, in a sense, their son.”OH Jilek said he wants to set a platform for everybody else from his hometown, including himself, but mainly for the future and “letting them know if I can make it then you definitely can, too.”OH The staff put on skits for the audience portraying potential circumstances where students may feel lost and feel as though they aren’t thankful for anything, but eventually overcome. Secondary education senior Kaylen English, president of Advantage, said it was important for freshmen and upperclassmen to share with one another.

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MSU Opera performances go beyond just singing

Brittanie Chludzinski
November 23, 2014

Each time he steps on stage, vocal performance senior Jon OakleyOH acknowledges that it is an opportunity for more than just showcasing his talent. While most of his family and friends are unfamiliar with opera productions, Oakley finds purpose in using his skills to create a new experience for the audience. “It’s always great to give people exposure to a different art form that they have never really seen,” he said. OH“A lot of people have predispositions about opera and they think it’s just people standing and singing, but that’s not the case.

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Facetime with Raquel Izzo

Meagan Beck
November 20, 2014

Cheering on the sideline during many of MSU head basketball coach Tom Izzo’s 20 years at MSU have been his children, 14-year-old Steven and communication sophomore, Raquel.

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Four sports bars for college basketball fans

Kayman Whaley
November 20, 2014

Aaron Walkowski Physiology Junior Buffalo Wild Wings “The first I went there I sat closer to the door and I thought it was cool because there was a bunch of TVs everywhere. The other times I went there I sat in the back kind of where the bar area was. That was totally different, it’s a lot bigger than you’d actually think and it was on a Sunday night so it was when football was playing. The atmosphere was really cool. Being there on game day would be pretty cool.” Peppino’s Tyler Jelonek Accounting Major Senior “What I liked about it is that their pizza was really good because it was actual quality pizza. Also the amount of TVs they had was pretty cool way to see all the sports. The personalized televisions in the individual booth was what made it a good experience. Peanut Barrel Brian Popis Construction Management Junior Jon Meek ConstructionManagement Junior “It’s kinda lowkey.” “I can actually hear the people I’m talking to next to next to me. The food is great and we usually get good deals.” Spartan Hall of Fame Cafe Joey Salah Landscape Design Construction & management Senior “I liked the atmosphere, it’s definitely a great sports bar. There was a lot of basketball athletes there a couple times I went. Great TVs, friendly staff and the food is pretty good. I ordered a burger when I went there.” Construction management juniors Jon Meek and Brian Poppis said they enjoy eating at Peanut Barrel because it’s lowkey. “I can actually hear the people I’m talking to next to next to me,” Poppis said. “The food is great and we usually get good deals.” “Whenever my dad comes up to visit, we always go to B-Dubs to watch Sunday football. My favorite flavor is Asian Zing and they have a great appetizer selection, I love the fried mushrooms.” –– Kelsie Hoffman, psychology freshman

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Students share their experiences in MSU opera productions

Brittanie Chludzinski
November 19, 2014

Each time he steps on stage, vocal performance senior Jon Oakley acknowledges that it is an opportunity for more than just showcasing his talent. While most of his family and friends are unfamiliar with opera productions, Oakley finds purpose in using his skills to create a new experience for the audience. "It’s always great to give people exposure to a different art form that they have never really seen," he said.

FEATURES

Interfraternity Council elects new executive board, including President Geoff Sabourin

Meagan Beck
November 18, 2014

NGUYEN - I’ve always wanted to do something bigger than myself and the greek community has offered tons of opportunities SABOURIN - I’ve had to deal with working to better our image as a house, working with people, managing budgets and hopefully it can make this job an easy transition I’ve been limited to my house This position will help expand my relationships, meet new faces in greek community KEESEE - I saw this as my opportunity to make it my own position and expand on the position I want keep building towards something bigger, trying to build upon what’s been done Making contacts with Panhel helps to make it work better LINKS -  delta sigma phi http://greeklife.msu.edu/interfraternity-council/d... interfraternity council - http://greeklife.msu.edu/interfraternity-council/i... greek week - http://greeklife.msu.edu/events/greek-week%20.html safe halloween - http://greeklife.msu.edu/events/safe-halloween.html panhellenic council - http://greeklife.msu.edu/panhellenic-council/index...

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A day in the life of a dining hall worker

Leslie Hemenway
November 18, 2014

Everyone’s nervous their first day on a new job — but not everyone breaks 100 plates, like physics senior Arnold Kim . “I was slightly nervous and trying to get everyone home early and was setting up for close like always, but I accidentally ran some plates and broke over 100 plates within five seconds,” Kim said , recounting his first day working as a supervisor in the dining hall.

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Visiting professor to give lecture on ties between music and mathematics

Ian Martin
November 17, 2014

By Ian Martin imartin@statenews.com When hearing the words “music” and “math,” you may not think there’s much of a correlation between the seemingly contrasting subjects, which can be described as “expressive” and “analytical.” Dr. Jason Brown, however, would beg to differ. Brown, who is a mathematics professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, will be giving a lecture at 4:10 p.m., Tuesday in C304 Wells Hall, entitled “A Hard Day’s Math: The Connections Between Mathematics and Music.” The lecture’s title, inspired by the legendary opening chord of The Beatles 1964 hit song “A Hard Day’s Night,” stems from a sudden realization Brown had while thinking about the song in 2004, during the song’s 40th anniversary. Brown said the opening chord to the song was something people had tried to play for years, but could never ‘quite get it right.’ “Everyone had their own idea of what the notes were and I thought back then ‘maybe there’s a scientific way to approach it,’” Brown said. Brown, who taught himself to play guitar at the age of 12 by learning the songs to Beatles records, said when thinking about the song, he remembered a chapter in a book he had read as an undergraduate, on the sounds of mathematics. He has since used something called a Fourier transform, which is a part of Calculus, to ‘unravel that mysterious open chord.’ Brown has written a number of papers on the connection between mathematics and music. “I think on one level you can use mathematics to understand the physics behind sound in music and to see the frequencies of the notes that are played in chords.

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Percussion ensemble creates music with handmade or unique instruments

Brittanie Chludzinski
November 17, 2014

While experimenting with new sounds and rhythms is a constant process for any musician,  percussion performance student Kelsey Tamayo said percussionists are recognized for approaching their music with limitless creativity and originality.  "A lot of composers like writing new music for percussionists mostly because we are game to do anything," she said.  As a teaching assistant and a third year member in the MSU Percussion Ensemble, Tamayo said the group is able perform pieces with diverse elements and sounds as a result of combining the skills that each member has acquired through previous ensemble experiences.  While the percussion ensemble is not a fixed group on campus, all of the students that study within the percussion program at MSU gather to collaborate on assigned pieces of music for various performances and events throughout the year.  Based on the instructions from the composers and the sounds that each group is trying to achieve, Tamayo said the percussionists often have the freedom to create their own unique sound by utilizing the mallets and equipment of their choice.

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Indian heritage group celebrates high-energy folk dance

Leslie Hemenway
November 17, 2014

Name: charu ganesh (she comes up on people search as charumati but this is how she spelled her name/introduced herself so i assume this is what she wants to go by) Grade: senior Major: world politics what exactly is garbhangra? so today is basically a dance event, we’re not really performing or anything. garba is just a traditional indian dance that has roots in goodjruh which is one of the states in india. and hangra is a style of dance that has roots in punjob. so we’re just going to be fusing those two styles and events like this are open to everybody, we’re willing to give workshops and teach everybody how to do all the dances and everything, but it’s a lot of fun. it doesnt have any religious ties or anything, it’s just a traditional indian style of dance that we all use to celebrate. how do you get involved in garbhangra? so CIUS is a southasian organization and we do tons of cultural events and everything like this so if anyone wants to participate they can definitely come out to everything, theres no cover or anything like that, its a style that a lot of indian students do already know just from previous garba events and things like that so most people already are kinda familiar with what goes on but for those that arent, at least for myself, i didnt know how to do it or anything before college so, but we do have tutorials so it is accessible to everyone whats the goal of the event tonight? our main goal really is to give back to our members and throw a fun to event to kind of reel in semester, its our last big one, i guess, for fall, but our goal today is basically to get our members to come out and also sign up for our cultural show satrang which is happening in late march of next year, so thats basically a show where we have 7 different styles of cultural dance that we all perform on stage in this huge charity event and its large end of the year so we try to get people to come out to garbhangra and sign up for that so that’s today’s main purpose, we’re just kind of making it a fun thing for everyone as well is this something you do every year? yes, every year, every spring, usually late march or early april how long has this been going on for? this is actually our 25th anniversary, so this year is actually pretty special to us, our theme actually kind of revolves around the 25th year celebration kind of anniversary theme, so its a big year for us, we’ve been (down?) for a while, this show has never been as big as it is now so we’re pretty proud of that do you know how this started? i dont know for sure just because we dont have very good records of all the people that founded the organization, things like that, so we’ve tried to kind of trace our roots, we do have southasian descent, one of the founders. cultural organizations like this exist on most every campus in north america so i can imagine it started out as people wanting to come together and celebrate their holidays and kind of connect with people that (?) so CIUS is an all inclusive organization so by no stretch of the imagination is it only for southasians or only for indians, we’re actually really open to anyone coming and joining, we really encourage that as well so thats why our event is completely free tonight, we’ve kinda been hoping tonight that we get more people from brody neighborhood and (?) to come out and celebrate with us, so yeah we really love it when there are people that may not have a sort of background in india that come out and participate in celebrations like that Name: fhibani sanghvi (comes up as fenil atul on people search but this is how she spelled her name/introduced herself so i assume this is what she wants to go by) Grade: sophomore Major: finance can you explain garbhangra a little bit? so every spring CIUS puts on a cultural show called satrang and garbhangra is kind of our way to bring everyone together, its also where they can sign up for their dances, its just a really fun event that has different styles of dance that they do to garba, which are two dances from india, but its just supposed to be a really fun event where people can sign up to be in (?) how did you get involved in this organization? well i was in other organizations in high school so from that i knew a lot of people in CIUS so i kinda just joined because they did it, to meet new people and stay in touch with indian culture what do you like most about this event? i love to dance so i think that has to be my favorite part about this event, also its really fun to meet all the new members that we get this year , yeah its just fun, you get to dance around people and see what dances theyre gonna do is cius doing anything special since it’s the 25th anniversary? we are but its a secret Name: rachna chhaya Grade: junior Major: general management can you explain this event? so this event is called “garbhangra” and what we do tonight is we’re gonna have a few hours of just dancing. the indian culture is built on a lot of music and dance and performance and arts like that so it’s a very big part of everyone’s culture and so we have a dj that also goes here and he’s gonna play music all night and everyone’s gonna come and dance and also throughout the process we have a show called (?) every spring that we perform at wharton center, its a cultural show, and so we practice for that all of second semester to put on the show and so tonight our event, one of the main purposes is so people can sign up for that show, whoevers interested, so we have a list of choreographers and those choreographers have decided to create certain dances and so whoever comes today will choose whatever dance they wanna be in and sign up and hopefully we’ll all place them in the ones they wanna be in and then starting in january through march we will be practicing for that and our show at wharton is on march 28th what brought you to this organization? personally ive been dancing all my life, it’s something i really like to do, it would just be weird if it weren’t in my life and actually my roommate introduced me to this organization so once i joined we liked what they did, we enjoyed dancing, i choreographed the last two years’ for the shows as well, so i was really involved, and also on board as funding coordinator so (?) why did you start dancing? actually, not that exciting of a story, but my mom enrolled me in classes when i was little and it was a hobby at first but once you get deeper and deeper into it, it became something i really liked to do and wanna keep doing on the side for the rest of my life so this is a really nice way to be able to do that favorite part of the event? dancing, its great, and you meet so many people and its great because the show allows people from every ethnicity, from any level of dance experience, to join, just to have fun, just to put something on that we do every spring and actually all of our money that we make in that show goes to charities and so it’s like we make a lot of money for a good cause and everyone can enjoy (?) what charities do you donate to? we donate to two charities- one here and one back in india, so the one we donate to (?) and the one we donate to back from india is called (?), it’s for children who are blind, so we help them (?) anything else you’d like to add? not really, our show is free for msu students, (?) Name: manasa gummalla Grade: junior Major: biology can you explain this event a little bit? this is garbhangra so this is an event that we post for our members and its sort of a fusion of garba and hangra, which are two different types of dance. and its kinda a way to let them come and sign up for the dances theyre gonna participate for this event (?) and its like our huge event of the year now can you explain how the dances differ? garba is more like a classic dance in the northern of india and hangra is also from the northern part of india but its more of like an energy-ish type of dance what brought you to this organization? all my friends were all doing it and so i heard about it and then i heard that we have a dance show and i used to dance when i was a kid so i was like “oh it sounds like its gonna be a blast” how did you start dancing as a kid? my mom signed me up for dance and she would force me to go and then i guess i started really liking it how long have you been in this organization for? ive been in this organization for a few years, since my freshman year has it impacted your life in any way? it totally impacted my life, i feel like i made a whole new friend group, and (?) im really interested in indian culture so whats your favorite part of this event? dancing can you describe your show next semester? its a show with different types of dances, like indian dance, classical indian dance, (?) and we have other (?)

FEATURES

Lansing area social club for 20-somethings organizes team sports and bar nights

Brittanie Chludzinski
November 16, 2014

After leaving behind a college community and adjusting to a new lifestyle out on the job market, many recent college graduates find it overwhelming to reestablish the social lives of their undergraduate glory days.  For recent MSU alumnus Cody Wilson, however, this notorious transition has become an outlet for making new connections and finding balance in his life.  After recognizing that many of his close friends would be moving away from East Lansing to pursue their new careers, Wilson joined the Greater Lansing Sport and Social Club a few months prior to his graduation, where he was able to make new friends with students in his area, rather than from his college.  With the intent of creating a social atmosphere for young professionals in the Lansing area, the GLSSC organizes co-ed teams that meet once per week to compete against each other in tons of different sports, before heading to the bars.  "It's a fantastic opportunity to get away from the hustle and bustle of work and just blow off some steam," Wilson said. “Even though you're on different teams, everyone is so connected and it just turns into one giant GLSSC team once we get to the bar and everyone starts mingling."  The club offers two leagues each season, where members can choose between dodgeball, flag football, kickball, beach volleyball, indoor volleyball, and bowling, depending on the time of year. While most individuals focus on the social aspect of the club, Wilson said this does not take away from the competition.  According to GLSSC Director Josh Sherry, the club uses this competitive nature to encourage participants to socialize with members from other teams.