dec._4_2014_combined.pdf
TRANSCRIPT
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The announcement that the students from the Dominican Republic would be moving to Logans campus spring semester 2015 was met with sadness and some anger. The move, though sad, is required. The students dont have all the options they need in Price
This is the first time Dominican Presidential Scholarship Program has been run through USU Eastern. They had a baseline in which they were to follow and no one knew what the out-come would be based on the programs of study straddling two campuses. They were given two years in Price before they were to be moved to Logan. They should have one more semester here, but the rate at which the students are progressing, is much faster than first thought. Instead of one more semester, they are being sent
to Logan so that they may continue to prog-ress in their programs of study according to the scholarship program requirements.
Kimberly Pratt, as-sistant to student life,
involvement and leadership, who worked personally with the students said, The students were given four semesters with us. They progressed at a different rate than expected and now its time for them to move to Logan.
They were given nine semesters to get their degree, eight for fall and spring, and then one summer. Four of these semesters should have been at USUE, but they are being cut one because they are ahead of schedule on getting their degrees. They have progressed at a much
faster rate than first expected and now its time for them to change to the main Logan campus. The move is sad for all of USUE, but an understanding is needed when it comes to this situation.
Shelly Ortiz, program coordinator in the office of global engagement said, This program was a learning curve for all of us. We have been so happy and so
thrilled with USU Eastern staff. We are appreciative of a l l USU Eastern has done and all the help given dur ing th is time.
By moving the students up to Logan sooner, it means that less money will be spent on the students. The sooner they graduate, the sooner more students can be introduced to the program. Any money leftover means an education for someone else who needs it.
UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY - COLLEGE OF EASTERN UTAH - 451 E 400 N - PRICE, UT 84501
VOICE OF THE STUDENTS
UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY-COLLEGE OF EASTERN UTAH 451 E 400 N PRICE, UT
Volume XXXVIIIINumber 7
Utah State UNIVerSIty eaSterN
LIFeStyLeS Legend of Korra review La Leche League Jan thornton harley earl Les Miserables page 4-5
SPOrtS Womens soccer nationally ranked No postseason for baseball From rio to Price Lessons for life Volleyball preseason: 6-7 page 6-7
VIeWPOINtS Politically correct apps waste of time? Dont judge Wasssuppp?! Calendar of events page 2
Dr. Who Interstellar movie review Pendergrass recognized Letter to Santa Student of the Month
page 4-5
WBB 8-1 Love special teams Josie Morris Cavs off to bad start Sports beyond USUe page 6-7
Stop your yaking SMorgan Loving yourself First Whassuuppp?! page 2
December 4, 2014
This place was like home.
The Dominican Republic students end their journey at USU Eastern
and start a new
chapter of their lives.
JosieSueSlade assistant editor-in-chief/[email protected]
Utah State University Easterns nursing accreditation takes place every eight years, with the Price campus in year two of its most recent accreditation. USUs Travis Peterson was recently appointed as the head of USUs new department of Nursing and Health Professions and plans are being de-veloped to further expand the program throughout the state.
Peterson said the nursing faculty are working hard to ensure students in Price receive the highest quality education. He is optimistic about the programs being offered at USU Eastern and across the state.
The programs accreditation, last
reviewed in 2012, will continue through Spring 2020. At the time of the last review, the Accredited Commission for Education in Nursing had a few minor conditions to be addressed in a standard follow up report. The faculty worked hard and took multiple steps to ensure these conditions were fully met, and submitted the follow up report in October.
Our accreditation is in good stand-ing and we have quite a few things in the works for the future, Peterson said.
A major focus has been placed on preparing students for the nursing NCLEX exam that is taken to become a licensed nurse at the end of the pro-
gram. The exam was recently altered, resulting in lower pass rates nationally. USUs nursing faculty worked hard to combat the falling pass rates and prepare students for the new exam with great success.
The USU programs pass rate has increased about 10 percent over the past several years, Peterson said.
To achieve this improvement, USU Eastern faculty examined every aspect of the program and what needed to change. The required prerequisite courses were reorganized so students have all additional courses completed before they start the nursing program. This change allows students to take the
NCLEX exam and become licensed as nurses as soon as they finish the pro-gram, instead of waiting six months or more to finish additional courses. The department is monitoring this change closely to ensure students feel ready when it is time to graduate and move on.
We have made these changes to allow students to be more successful in the future, said Sandy Nadelson, director of nursing programs for USU Eastern campuses in Price and Bland-ing, plus the USU Uintah Basin campus.
Nadelson appreciates the support the administration and community have shown the program.
Nursing accreditation in good-standing
see Accreditation page 3
see Move page 3
Four-in-Four update, where is USUE with enrollment?JosieSueSladeassistant editor-in-chief [email protected]
In an attempt to bring up the amount of students enrolled at USU Eastern, a Four-in-Four plan was enacted as a goal for the college in 2012. USUEs goal was to bring the amount of students enrolled to 4,000 in four years. With 1,800 students enrolled when this goal was set, USUE would have to grow at a larger rate than any other university in Utah.
If student enrollment grows as planned, it brings multiple benefits to the college and the local commu-
nity. USUE can offer more classes, extra-curricular activities and events for students to attend.
More students also help local businesses and help attract new things to the city of Price.
2013 was a great year for new students and the amount of enroll-ment increased. The problem is that in the 2014 year, the number of new freshmen dropped by 60 students. Greg Dart, vice chancellor over enrollment management said, A drop like this can play negatively for the next three years.
The Price campus is down by two percent and the Blanding campus is down by eight percent.
There is some good in this new year. Fall-to-Fall retention (the amount of freshmen kept for their second year) has increased by nine percent and applicant numbers are at an all-time high.
In addition to this, it is projected that a larger number of returning missionaries and graduating high school students will be enrolling in Utah in fall 2015 than any year in history. There is still hope for USUE to meet the 4,000 students it needs by 2017.
Dart created a plan to help USUE meet the hefty goal. He said, Stu-dents are more likely to enroll in a school if they have visited the cam-
pus. Our goal is to get more s t udent s to visit than ever before. This year there have been efforts to do just this. So far in this school year, nea r ly 9 0 0 students have already visited the campus and the hope is that 1,800 students will have visited by the end of the school year.
A pull for brand awareness has
USU Eastern soccer fields
USUE professors published in Sports Illustrated
see Published page 3
USU Easterns campus hosts foreign ex-change students from various countries. They have become integrated into the community and student body that makes up USUE. With countless friends and plenty of memories, their lives are in Price.
Greg Dart
See Enrollment page 3
Six of the students included in the move
stand before the USUE sign to pay
homage to the place they call home.
photo by Edison Lascano/The Eagle
ChristopherPalostaff writer
Green grass, white lines, goals and competi-tion. This is the scene planned for the vacant lot north of USU Eastern. What is now an open field with sparse patches of grass has a destiny of becoming a soccer mecca in Carbon County.
Utah State University Eastern, in collabora-tion with Carbon County officials, are making efforts to turn that patch of unused land into competitive soccer fields, for not only college students but also local country recreational personnel.
USUE and the county working together is a win-win situation. The county has been consid-ering putting in soccer fields for youth soccer programs and other athletic soccer programs plus USUE needs a larger soccer field for col-legiate play.
Eric Mantz, associate vice chancellor Price campus business services, described a scenario where both parties would benefit the university, the county and even the local high schools if agreements are met by all parties. A draft docu-ment has been given to the county for review and a request has been made for the county to make a final document.
The land is owned by USU Eastern and it is anticipated it will be leased to the county for 20 years. USU Trustees and the Utah System of Higher Education Regents have agreed to this proposed use of land as long as it meets the attorney generals approval.
Though nothing has been formally agreed upon and no lease has been signed, Carbon County commissioners will meet the first part of December to further the discussions on the project.
USUE hopes to build upon its nationally ranked soccer program and provide spaces for clubs as well as bring in soccer camps to give the college greater exposure. This isnt a strictly university-benefiting endeavor, Mantz said. The main point of this is see Soccer page 3
Its most sports photographers dream to get their photos printed in Sports Illustrated. This week, two professors from USU Eastern can check photos be-ing published in Sports Illustrated off their bucket list now that their photos appeared in the Dec. 1 edition of SI.
Tyson Chappell, biology professor, and Kimball Johnson, former nursing instructor, followed the College of Eastern Utahs Cinderella-esque bas-ketball team in 2009-10 capturing each hard fought win during its regular season and at the Scenic West Athletic Tournament, Southern Regionals and National Junior College Athletic Conference Tournament in Hutchinson, Kan.
Names like Michael Glover, Jonathan Mills, Isiah Williams, Cliff Colimon, Tony Dalton and Aaron Hawk-Harris were leading the team in scoring and rebounding. Thousands of photos, documenting the magical season, were taken by Chappell and Johnson as the teams chemistry and play continued to improve throughout the season.
Johnson, who has since moved to Ogden and teaches nursing at Weber State University, said he had two days to go through his archives to find pho-tos of Coach Chris Craig for Sports Illustrated. He found 12 photos of the coach that he put on Google Drive. SI photographers selected one of his photos for the story on the former CEU coach.
Getting published, he said, I feel like I just hit a home run in the majorsbut my heart goes out to Chris Craig and his family.
His favorite shot was of Coach Craig along with coaches Vando Becheli and Brad Barton in the background watching a last second shot. Johnson was in Hutchison, Kan., and CEU was behind by two-points with a few seconds remaining in regula-tion play. Sophomore guard, Leon Sutton, came off the bench and hit a two-pointer, sending the game into overtime. The Eagles won in OT and finished as the third best team in the nation that year.
Chappell found 120 shots of Craig in his archives after spending four hours going through two years of game shots. This was my second year working at the school and I was just trying to get used to
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Morgan Verdieditor-in-chief
Never once in my life did I ever think I would be where I am today. Writing for the college newspaper, writing an editorial. It has provided me with experiences I never thought Id get to be part of. This may be my last newspaper, it may not. Just like life, its an undecided area. I love writing. I love reporting. I guess you could say I love what I do tremendously. Because of that, I got to thinking about the saying, Find something you love doing and you will never have to work another day in your life. I think that statement is true, for the most part at least.
Doing what you love brings happiness, or its supposed to. However, in life being happy all the time isnt possible, and thats okay. Humans have to realize bad things will happen. Thats the result of being an imperfect person living in a world full of imperfect people. Sadness is inevitable, but it doesnt have to control you. Sometimes its hard to stop the sadness from overtaking you. Some days you simply cant stop it from happening, and thats okay. Some days you just need to be sad, and hopefully those who truly love and care for you will understand that, but you deserve to be happy.
You deserve to be happy as often as possible. Everyone deserves that. I know it seems com-pletely clich to be writing about happiness. Everyone writes about happiness, but if its so common it has to be a topic worth writing about right? Different things make different people happy. Just like different things destroy and break different people. Humans are differ-ent from each other, and thats a good thing. Nobody wants a bunch of Morgans on this Earth, that would be a disaster. Thats why different personalities are good. Different views are good.
Just because you may be dif-ferent from those around you, doesnt mean there is anything wrong with you. It doesnt mean you have to change. Its simply a way of life. Thats something Im still trying to learn. Letting other people control the way you feel is one of the most deadly things a person can do.
Josie Sue Sladeassistant editor-in-chief [email protected]
Social media keeps gain-ing more attention as each year passes. More apps and sites pop up with the intention of connect-ing people to each other. The idea behind social media is fantastic, the problem though is that people use social media as an excuse to bully and write stupid things. There is a new fad that is fueling the bullying, anonymous posting.
Apps such as PostSecret, Whis-per and Yik-Yak are the rage right now. The one app that has swept across USU Easterns campus is Yik-Yak. It is an anonymous social media app designed for sharing posts with people in close proxim-ity to you (1.5 mile radius). The intention is to make the posts more personal to you while keeping you and others anonymous
from each other.The results are disastrous. Behind
the mask of anonymity people are free to say anything they
want and arent forced to face
consequences. While the app does have rules in place and the yaks are monitored in order to get rid
of anything con-sidered inap-propriate; posts slip through the
cracks and hurtful words are posted for everyone to read.
I was on the app for an hour before I got disgusted and deleted it. In one hour, I read more hateful and disturbing posts than I had in an entire week on Facebook. There were specific groups
on USU Easterns campus who were being targeted and it made me sick to my stomach to read. When did it become okay to harass anybody?
The yaks student posts are tasteless and deal with anything ranging from hooking up to students they dislike. Rarely is a yak worth anybodys attention posted and when it is, people down vote it and post rude comments in response. In reality, Yik-Yak is not worth anybodys time or energy.
We face negativity every day, so why would we seek out more on an app that follows us everywhere? If you have Yik-Yak on your phone, youre allowing something negative to follow you around all day. For once lets stop with the negativity and get rid of Yik-Yak before it becomes a catastrophe.
Womens Basketball @ 5:30 p.m. CSIMens Basketball @ 7:30 p.m. CSI
Katrina Woodnews editor
Im doing it. After all the unkindness, doubt and harsh-ness, Im taking that first coura-geous step.
Its a journey 19 years in the making. Ive had my ups and downs, and laws almighty, Ive had my doldrums of, What in the heck am I going to do next year? Ive stayed up all night driving myself to the brink of insanity and back, and cried so hard I couldnt breathe prop-erly. Time and time again Ive looked in the mirror, taken a deep breath in and walked away frustrated and unsatisfied. Ive had all those moments and more, but recently Ive had something else.
Over the years Ive come to appreciate that, with every bad day there is an even better good day waiting. Ive become thankful and appreciative of my trials. Though I would rather not go through the pain I felt again, Ive realized I wouldnt trade my hardships for anything. In addi-tion to appreciating the rainbow, Ive come to love the rain.
My trials are as important as my victoriesand likewise, so are my faults. All the little things that drive me insanemy weight, my voice, my inability to get to the point, my over-whelming shynesstheyre a part of me. Some I can improve, but some Ill be stuck with for all eternity. Regardless of whether I can change them or not, Ive gradually began to see myself in a different perspective.
Granted, its slow progress. As with many things in life, I have instances of incredible improvement that blows my mind, and I have times I take about five trillion steps back and reduce myself to less than dirt.
Its something I have to actively work for every day, and oh, is it hard. There are days I have to fight that voice in the back of my mind with all my might, and there are days she nearly wins.
That angry, harsh whisper has her power. She convinces me that Im too disgusting for my own good, but as of late, her influence has been waning. With every passing day, every instant of joy or pain I experi-ence, it dies a little.
Im silencing hermy own harshness with a realization thats taken me far too long to reach. Indeed, Ive never been what others think I should be. Im not skinny, I talk a lot, I dont get to the point, I get so excited about video games and shows that I dont know how to talk about anything else, and for goodness sake, I tell the dumbest puns. Ive been told many times that Im either not enough or too much, and Ive often believed them.
Ive been reminded day in and day out of all the faults I possess. Of the bad and worse, the unpleasant and irritating. Ive learned from others of just how annoying I can beand Ive realized they dont matter.
And they dont just not mat-ter to me because it sounds cool to say that. They dont matter because Ive realized I am who I am. Im complicated, goofy, I love to chat and make others laugh and I rock my outfits no matter what anyone says. I dont fit in with what is cool or popular, and I most certainly dont fit in with what society deems right. And you know wha t? T ha t makes me awe-some.
Cotton Candy Day
The Eagle Newspaper publishedCountry Swing @ 8 p.m
Bill of Rights Day
Poinsetta Day
Mens Basketball @ 5 p.m. BDAC
Mens Basketball @ 5 p.m. BDACDance for Luck @ 9 p.m
Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day
Oatmeal Muffin Day
National Maple Syrup Day
December 4, 2014
The Eagle USU Eastern 451 East 400 North Price, UT 84501SAC Room 109 Office: 435.613.5250 Fax: 435.613.5042 http://www.usueagle.com
About The Eagle The Eagle The Voice of the Students is an award-winning, school-sponsored student newspaper, published bi-weekly fall and spring semesters (excluding holidays) at USU Eastern. A complete list of publication dates can be found online. Distribution - The Eagle is distributed in all nonresidential buildings on the Price campus, as well as at the LDS Institute of Religion. Content - Eagle editors and staff are USU Eastern students and are solely responsible for the newspapers content. Opinions expressed in The Eagle do not necessarily represent those of USU Eastern, its staff or students. Columns & letters are the personal opinions of the individual writer. Funding comes from advertising revenues and a dedicated student fee administered by the Eastern Student Association (ESA). Information concerning advertising rates is available by e-mail at [email protected] or in the advertising section of The Eagle Online. Ordering The Eagle - Subscriptions must be prepaid. Forward all subscription correspondence, including change of address to the adviser, Dr. Susan Polster via e-mail to [email protected] or mail care of The Eagle. The first issue is free, others 50 cents. Submissions - We welcome comments, complaints, suggestions and recommendations. Send letters to the editor to [email protected]. All submissions must be received in The Eagle office no later than 5 p.m. the Friday prior to publication. All submissions become property of The Eagle and cannot be returned. All letters must be signed by the author(s). Also include contact information (telephone or address). No anonymous letters will be printed.
Dr. Susan A. Polsterfaculty adviser [email protected]
Morgan [email protected] Josie Sue Sladeassitant [email protected]
Jorge Lascanophotography [email protected]
Katrina Woodnews [email protected]
April Millerediting [email protected]
Talore Millersports [email protected]
Katelyn Tresnerweb [email protected]
layout staffJosie Sue SladeMitchell Van WagonerBonnie BlackburnBrett AllenTalore Miller
photographersHunter FreeEdison LascenoJosie Sue SladeMitchell Van Wagoner
staff writersBonnie BlackburnChristopher PaloAbbie BirdCiarra CupplesSamuel CzarneckiCarly DaltonKaitlin FeliceJordan MellenKali PeiKaren ReynaPriscilla SharpMartin SmithMason SteelNathan PenaNathaniel WoodwardMichaella CrooksChantyl HenrieShania HurstJoshua Van Weezep
Page 2
Womens Basketball @ 5:30 p.m. SLCCMens Basketball @ 7:30 p.m. SLCC
National Cookie Covered Anything Day
Thursday Friday Saturday SundayWednesday
Human Rights DayChristmas Card Day
Monday
International Childrens Day
Tuesday
Womens Basketball @ 3 p.m. SnowMens Basketball @ 5 p.m. SnowCretacous Christmas
8 9 10
74 5 6
Womens Basketball @ 3 p.mMens Basketball @ 5 p.m. N Idaho Humbug Day
15 16 17 2118 19 20
1211 13 14
Letter to the editor
policyLetters to the editor should only be
sent to The Eagle. We do not publish open letters or third-party letters.
Letters for publication should be no longer than 150 words, and must include the writers address and phone numbers. No attachments, please.
We regret we cannot return or acknowledge unpublished letters. Letters may be shortened for space requirements.
Send a letter to the editor by emailing letters to [email protected]. You may also mail your letter to: Letters to the Editor, The Eagle, 451 East 400 North, Price, Utah 84501
Stop your yaking already
Put a stop to cyber-bullying
see SMorgan on page 3
Learning to love myself
see Love on page 3
CAMPUS EvENTS& other holiDays & activities
UsU eastern online calenDar: www.eastern.UsU.eDU/Price
Dec. 04 - Dec. 21
Finals week
Olsen family scarves Gingers Bow ties The color blue Regeneration Anything sonic Bananas
Blinking time Pepper shakers Wood Tally marks Goodbyes Spoilers Souffles
The Dr. Who Club
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shooting intense games. Learning how to best prepare, focus and shoot the action at just the right moment took a lot of practice and was made much more difficult using the Canon 5D which only shot three frames a second.
This forced me to have to time my shots just right. Nowadays I neednt worry about timing so much as my latest camera shoots 12 frames a second. Now I can just hold down the shutter button and pick the image I like after the fact. Its like going from a bolt-action rifle to a machine gun.
On being published, Chappell said, I never con-sidered that my photos would ever be used in SI. I
shoot out of the joy, rush and pleasure, in and of itself. Capturing the best images possible and feeling happy and content with my own images is more than reward enough for me. Anything above and beyond my own satisfaction with my images is just icing on an already delectable and scrumptious visual chocolate cake. Any accolades regarding my photos are never expected, but always greatly appreciated.
Since being in SI was never on my own personal bucket list (as it always seemed to be such an impossibil-ity), I guess Ill be putting: get published in National Geographic on my bucket list to see what happens.
His favorite photo is displayed in the hallway of the Bunnell-Dmitrich Athletic Center. It shows the team immediately after winning the SWAC championship
and they are holding the trophy. Such bliss in all of their faces. Such raw emotion and joy. It was a spectacular night to watch such an intense game and to come off as conquerors.
Although the notoriety of photos being published by two USU Eastern photographers is phenomenal, the story behind the photos tells the sad tale of Coach Craigs bouts with mental illness.
Hired at 25, Craig was thought to be the youngest head coach in the country at the time. It took him three years at the Eagle helm to finish third in the nation and move onto an assistant coach at a Division-1 college: Northern Colorado. After a year, he sought a head coaching position and ended up in Midland, Texas, at Midland College, a coveted two-year college coaching
job. While in Midland, he got married and had his second daughter.
However, after the death of his best friend and former assistant coach, Barton, at 31, plus a player striking him in the face and knocking him unconscious, Craig changed. He resigned his job at Midland in March 2013. A lifetime of on-and-off schizophrenia became forefront as Craig traveled the country and to Israel twice with his erratic behavior getting him in several skirmishes with the law. He spent time in a state hospital in Pueblo, Colo.
A threatening letter to USU Eastern Athletic Direc-tor Dave Paur last summer placed Craig in the state hospital in Provo, Utah, where he remains on medication and is receiving therapy.
December 4, 2014 Page 3
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SMorgan continued from page 2Its hard to brush off mean
words. Its hard to hold your head high when you know the whispers are about you, but though its hard its possible.
My mom tells me People throw rocks at things that shine. I started giving that phrase some thought. We all shine when we are doing what we know and believe to be right, but along with shining, be prepared for the rocks. Someone asked me what
made me happy the other day. I had to think about it.
I came up with a few things that make me happy, maybe some of you can relate. Bonfires make me happy. My sweet baby girl Kayla, and my fireball little man Anthony make me happy. Baking days with my little cousin Mason make me happy. Coffee, running, and trips to Provo with my auntie make me happy. Playing bas-
ketball with my brother, and visiting my dad at the power plant make me happy. Listen-ing to my moms harsh humor makes me happy. Visiting my friends, like family in faculty and staff, make me happy. Epic adventures with Dixon Wood-ruff make me happy. Bread n soup night makes me happy. My friend Boog makes me happy. Chris Palo makes me happy. My bros, Sid, Jen,
my sister Stephanie and all my brothers in newspaper make me happy. Learning makes me happy. Numerous other people and things not mentioned make me happy.
Happiness is what you make it. Life is what you make it. Never lose sight of what makes you happy. Never forget to stop and remember to be happy. Love yourself for who you are. Smile, and never stop shining.
Love continued from page 2My good and bad
make me who I am. They make me unique. They make me happy, and they remind me of who I am: a daughter of God whos got great things in store.
A daughter of God who is working to be who her Heavenly Father wants her to be, who can share her talents with the world and be a friend to all who need
one, and who can, through her weaknesses, continue to grow and learn.
Am I perfect? Far from it. Am I broken? Absolutely not. Im human, and Im full of mistakes and lessons to be learned. I have days where Im strong. I have days where Im weak. And I have I heed the advice of a wise man known as Dr. Seuss, Be who you are and say what
you feel, because those who mind dont matter and those who matter dont mind.
I have up and down days, good and bad days, days where everything goes right and days where everything is flipped upside-down. I have all of those and ev-erything in-between and using them to be the best me I can be. Im using them and learning to love myself.
Move continued from page 1The students are sad to go, but overall
understand why the location change is needed. Jario Arias, one of the Dominican Republic students, said, Most of us dont want to go, but we have to for scholarship reasons and more class opportunities. This place was like home.
Emely Sanchez Baez, another Do-minican Republic student, said, I have
had a great experience here in college. I have also made some great friends that will always remain in my mind, because of their good example and kindness, when l first came here. I will miss the friendly people from dining services, and our dear Kimberly Pratt who has helped us go through our college life in America.
Campus next semester is going to
be a little lonelier without them. To say goodbye, ESA is putting on a Dance for Luck dance on Dec. 5. Students are invited to come and wish the Dominican Republic students luck on their future endeavors. The dance will be held in the Jennifer Leavitt Student Center Ballroom at nine p.m.
Katie Felice contributed to this story.
Accreditation continued from page 1Nadelson hopes that
support continues in the future, as there are many opportunities for growth.
This program provides great opportunities for students to learn and stay in the area, Nadelson said.
Nadelson and Peterson agree that the program provides an invaluable
opportunity for many stu-dents in the community who are not able, or do not want, to move away or travel long distances for their education.
The majority of our nurses are fully employed after graduation and many stay in the area and work in the hospitals here and
health care facilities, Peterson said.
Information about the programs and applying can be found on nursing.usu.edu. The school currently offers both LPN and RN programs. All materials for the application are due by May 21, 2015 for next years nursing cohorts.
Enrollment continued from page 1also begun and Dart is attempting to make USUEs brand known throughout Utah.
Weber State University conducted re-search to see which schools in the state of Utah high school students were aware of. Dart said, When Weber asked 247 students the question, Why USU Eastern? only 11 could answer the question. The hope is to make high school students aware of USUE and the brand it presents.
The more people that recognize USUE, the more likely enrollment is to increase at the rate hoped for.
USUE is not deterred from the goal despite the drop in enrollment, and hopes are still high.
Dart is working on plans to bring brand awareness for USUE as well as reaching more students in Utah (as well as other states).
Soccer continued from page 1to make use of the land, provide the county with new soccer fields and in the process have new fields for the soccer team plussupport for the school and county.
Two new fields will be placed on the lot located at 600 north between 500 and 600 east.
A parking lot plus bleach-ers and facilities will make it a competitive site worthy of the players, both collegiate and
youth, Mantz said. These new f ields wil l
breathe new life into the lo-cal sports scene, pending ap-proval from the county and its residents.
USU Eastern will have a 10-year option in the lease that reads if the university needs to use that land for a new facility, it can, but that is over a decade away.
Once the fields are com-pleted, the school will have first
use of the field, but will share with the county and depending on the amount of traffic the field sees, the local high school may be included in the lease.
The benefits to the building of these fields are both positive for the county and the university. Collegiate players and youth players will have three new fields to play on and USUE soccer players can compete on regulation soccer fields. Concept art of new soccer field
Published continued from page 1
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Josh Van Weezep is the Outstanding Student of the Month for December. He is involved in a number
of activities on campus including the mens basketball team where he serves as captain of the team, and sports columnist for The Eagle newspaper. He is active in the community where he assisted with numerous volunteer projects including Kiwanis Kids Day, Day of Caring, Boys and Girls Club plus local churches. In his free time Van Weezep enjoys watching sports, sleeping and being with his friends.
Van Weezep chose USU Eastern ,because I wanted to continue playing basketball and my good friend Brad Barton was the coach down here, so I came to play for him. He passed away while I was on my LDS mission but felt like I owed it to him to come back to Price, Utah.
His favorite things about USUE are sports, professors and small classes. Overall, he de-scribes USUE as small, fun and personal.
USU Easterns Cham-ber Choir, commu-nity orchestra and chorus will present A Little Bit of Christmas Concert on Sunday, Dec. 7 at the Price City Civic Center at 7:30 p.m.
Opening the concert will be a combined number with the community orchestra, chorus and USU Eastern Chamber singers called, Run to Bethlehem followed by a variety of numbers from each group.
The orchestra will per-form two ar rangements of the Christmas favor-
ite, Sleigh Ride while USU Eastern Chamber Choir performs Pavane for a Silent Night by Shafferan/Lieber-gen and Rose of Sharon by Parker/Drennan.
The community choir will sing What Sweeter Music,
Carol of the Magi, Silent Night and Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind arranged by John Rutter.
Other songs include White Christmas by Irving Berline and arranged by Mac Huff, plus Good King Kong
Looked Out by P.D.Q. Bach and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Johnny Marks and arranged by Harry R. Wilson.
The concert will end with a combined num-ber, He is Bor n The
Div ine Ch r is t Ch i ld. USU Easterns music instruc-tor, Kay Fox, will direct the concert and hopes this musical festivity will be a favorite of the community. The concert is free and open to the public.
December 4, 2014page 4Holiday concert
photo by Josie Slade/the eagle
Derek Quinton, William Chen, Kaden Worwood, Sam Czarnecki, Shelby Smith, Roselynn Blake, Kelsey McFarlane and Serena Key, members of USU Easterns Chamber Choir, performed a Veterans Day concert on Nov. 12, 2014.
Before coming to USU Eastern, I have lived in the western coast of Saudi Arabia which is just off the coast of the Red Sea. Life is quite different in the United States compared to Saudi Arabia, and the differences are a topic for hilarity. So here are the main reason as to the many odd things that Saudi Arabia has and what the U.S. has not.
Saudi Arabia does not have a single public theater. Either you wait for the movie to be released on DVD, or you pay to get it on Netflix or Hulu. This is crazy when you think about it, not a single place to watch the next Marvel movie (*cough* Age of Ultron). But this is because of the cultural rules the country follows. It is law that a man and
woman must not stay together unless the two are married. Even the high schools-even international ones-do not have a male and a female in the same classroom. They build walls to separate the genders. So what would be a massive no and must be banned? Two people watching a movie in a dark area together for one and a half hours.
Another is that gas prices in Saudi Arabia which are 91 cents a gallon in U.S. currency. Looking at the prices of the resource here in the U.S., it is hard to imagine that it costs so much less in the Middle East. Probably the reason why is that Saudi Arabia sits in a large amount of oil, which is used to trade with other nations around the globe. Saudi Arabia has so much of this resource, that in almost any direction out of the cities, you can see large oil refineries with their steel candles burn-
ing as they process the oil.Saudi Arabia is all sand and barren
mountains, but the weather can be as freaky as Utah. In the vast deserts of the Middle East, it rains. Rain in the country can either be light in one day, or it can be so heavy that it floods bridges and roads for hours in another. Sometimes both situations happen in a single day. Also instead of snowstorms we have sandstorms, heavy sandstorms. In one area in Saudi Arabia, there was a sandstorm so large it turned the afternoon into a pitch-black night. In cities with high elevations, it snows and hails during the winter months.
Now you may wonder why I am far away from home. There are thousands of amazing universities around the outskirts of the cities. These universi-ties are funded by the government and
so these universities lean over to the scientific form of education. They are amazing, however the requirements to apply to one of these universities is extremely high. One university nearest to where I used to live requires you to have a masters degree. It also requires large amounts of money just for the tuition, not including the books and other supplies.
Yes, Saudi Arabia may be a parallel world to the U.S., but it is also a country where you can get the most out of your life. The people you meet come from a variety of nations, you will be in the center of a melting pot. You will get to know the different traditions of many countries just by making friends in Saudi Arabia. It is a wonderful country, a place rich with tradition and culture and this is basically my life in Saudi Arabia.
Movies are made to make us think about ourselves, humanity, our planet, the universe or any number of important aspects of existence.
There are at times in the history of cin-ema a movie that has the potential to be paradigm shifting.
In an age where mass p r o d u c e d specia l ef-f e c t s a r e thrown at us for no other reason than to boost the sub-par writing or performance in a film, it is all too rare to find one whose effects not only make the picture believable, but plays to the exceptional material it is representing. Interstellar is one of those films.
The writers, director, actors, and visual effects artists came together to create something not only touching, but believable. The blending of scientific prin-
ciples and theories was inspir-ing, with elements of Newton, Bohr, Einstein, Hawking and even Dawkins, Mendel and Darwin all converging to cre-ate an image of a destiny for the human race. Also applying not only entertainingly, but theoretically correct pieces of M theory, Quantum Loop Gravity, warped space-time and a unified
field theory in ways that show why scientific re-search and space explo-r a t ion a re critical to the development of our cul-tures.
I f a ny-th ing, th is f ilm shows how art is a medium on wh ich ou r best scientific ideals can be
visualized by the masses as well as the academic with the outcome being what every sci-entist hopes for, the emotional investment of the world.
Interstellar is directed by Christopher Nolan and stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain and is a well spent three hours.
Nathaniel Woodwardstaff writer
Film Review: Interstellar
Nathan Penastaff writer
An interview with Kris Alley
Meeting Johnny Depp while he was filming The Lone Ranger in Shiprock, N.M., is one of Kris Alleys fa-vorite stories. His background is eclectic with experience in several fields.
Alley was recently hired at USU Eastern to help make a better learning experience for all students. Alley goes to all of the high schools in Carbon and Emery counties to help students keep up their grades and helps them find scholarships.
He is not just here for the high schools, he says, he is here for USU Eastern students. Al-ley works for the GEAR UP program that helps students with homework, tutors when needed and even helps stu-dents get involved in school activities.
A l leys backg rou nd includes teaching. He also has coached football and basketball. I absolutely miss teaching and sports. I miss seeing the students on
a daily
basis.Alley loves helping students to be the best that they can be. He misses teaching and coaching, but loves helping students through GEAR UP. The best part is the chance to help and impacted youth, and trying to help the disadvantage students with what they need, Alley stated.
I have worked as an educator and I worked for Wal-Mart, Price City, and a video editor, Alley said.
Dont let that fool you because Alley has a lot of fun when he can get an instrument in his hands. I play music, drums, keyboards, guitar, bass and vocals.
[Alley] is a strong ad-vocate for our students. He enjoys getting to know them and working with them at each of the schools. He makes sure the students know what opportunities are available to help them get to college such as financial aid and scholar-ships. Hes always talking about the monies available, influencing them to set their education goals a little higher, GEAR UP director, Brenda Rawson, said.
Ciarra Cupplesstaff writer
Student of the Month
People have the habit of blaming their problems on someone around them. One person gets blamed; they be-come something called a scapegoat. Instead of people taking reasonability for something they did, they turn to the scapegoat and point a finger.
Darrin Brandt, director of student services, said, We can see this hap-pening in about any group where something is going on. A family, a workplace and even a friend group.
Where did the term scapegoat come from? Before the middle ages, towns would gather together once a year to participate in an event that
brought about this term. The best goat the villagers owned would be brought to the middle of their town square and the town would then proceed to dirty their hands (in ashes from a fire burned the previous night) and rub the filth onto the animal. When this was done, the strongest fighter would take the goat out into the wilderness and abandon it. The town would then see their sins as washed away. The scapegoat took care of all their problems for them.
Often times in a family we can see this happening. Brandt sets up a scenario to help students better under-stand this concept. Imagine you have a family and the father of this family has a terrible addiction to alcohol. The wife doesnt want everyone to know about this, so she begins a behavior in
order to screen the problem. When the first child comes along, he becomes the hero child. This is the child that gets good grades and always excels.
The mother is turning attention to this child in order to give people the impression that they have the perfect family. The hero child learns that the only way to be acceptable is to excel, causing more problems on its own. Then the second child comes and obviously they cant be as good as the first child. Every problem that arises, even if it was the first child, gets blamed on this child. They are the scapegoat for the family and just another part of the shielding process for the mother. said Brandt.
The scapegoat isnt the problem at all, but the people around the scapegoat
are. People use a scapegoat in an at-tempt to hide their own problems and blame someone else for something they didnt do.
Why do we do this? Everybody has their own problems and by blaming everything on someone else, we cause more problems. It is never right to use a scapegoat to make yourself feel better. Its time to remember that we have to own up to our own problems or they will never go away at all; theyll just get worse.
Instead of finding a scapegoat to blame your problems on next time, own up to them. Not only will this stop more problems from arising, but it also will make you feel better. There are better ways of dealing with things than blam-ing them on someone or something.
Josie Sladeassistant editor-in-chief [email protected]
Student welfare discussion with Brandt: the scapegoat
It is that time again, your mailbox has to be filled to the brim with letters of all sorts and shapes, and The Eagle Newspaper Staff might understand this somewhat, or at least Susan Polster must. Every production week, Im sure her inbox mirrors yours. The Eagle newspaper staff chatted and decided this year we must have at least been a little good, so here is our effort to bring our wish list to you.
Mitchell Van Wagoner, who has recently been the winner of his own Xbox One, has decided all he would like is a few accessories for his Xbox.
Brett Allen, would like a new set of skis so he can attempt to break himself on icy slopes this year. Katrina Wood would simply like a Wii U.Ciarra Cupples can only think of one thing in particular, it isnt very common in our desert plain, but when it does happen, its usu
ally in large amounts. You guessed it right, all she wants is snow. Nathan Pena would only like one item, a book by the name of Artemis Fowl. Katie Felice would like a Ukulele if your elves wouldnt mind. Josie Slade would love an Arizona State University sweatshirt if you can stop by there first. April Miller doesnt want an item, she would only like for her mother to get better.Chantyl Henries specific request is a Naked Vault. Now before you go assuming something crazy, let me reassure you, its only
makeup with an interesting name. Masi Steel requests a G Eazy T-shirt. Abbie Bird would like a pair of Beats Headphones.It may seem like Jorge Lascano decided to copy Bird, but his is slightly different, he would like a Beats Headphones Studio. Talore Miller sat and pondered and gave much thought to her choice and she finally decided clothes would probably work.It shouldnt seem like this is kidnapping, but Erika Haynes would like Sam Winchester for Christmas, but only for a few days. Christopher Palo would like $1 million so that he could give half to David Osbourne, Jr. David Osbourne, Jr. would like $2 million and would donate half to Christopher Palo.Morgan Verdi thought of many things but decided if it were possible to just have no drama, for the rest of the semester and continu
ing into the next that would be grand. Or if thats not possible, she would just like Katie Felices hair. It may seem like a few of us are requesting that you steal people from their house but, Sam would like a girlfriend for Christmas.
(P.S., ladies this means hes single.) Kiara Horowitz would love an awesome adventure with some awesome friends, so if you could possibly scrounge up a cruise to
some remote island or deserted place, this might fit the bill.Hunter Frees request may seem a little unordinary for a man, but he would like a pink unicorn, a few jelly beans, happiness and
we absolutely cannot forget, world peace. Last but not least is myself (Priscilla Sharp). I cannot think of a single thing to ask for Christmas, so I ask for another year. Not only
for myself, but for my friends and family around the world.
Concert features choirs,
orchestra
Josh Van Weezep
Life in Saudi Arabia is different than the United States
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An innovative healthcare practitio-ner and Utah State University Eastern nursing instructor was awarded on Tuesday Nov. 18, the Breakthrough Leaders in Nursing by the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, a joint initiative of AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Danielle Howa Pendergrass is one of 10 recipients of the national leader-ship award recognizing her, in part, for work that led to changes in Utahs Medicaid reimbursement policy and opened greater access to care for Utah women and girls.
I could not be more honored, Pend-ergrass says. Its a really exciting award that comes with a ton of responsibility.
And great expectations.You are the future of nursing,
wrote Susan B. Hassmiller and Susan C. Reinhard in their letter of congratula-tions to Pendergrass.
Hassmiller is senior adviser for nursing with the Robert Wood John-son Foundation and director of Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action. Reinhard is senior vice president of
AARP Public Policy Institute and chief strategist for the Center to Champion Nursing in America.
As a breakthrough nurse leader, Pendergrass says she will serve as an ambassador for her profession. In the same way she helped to change a policy that threw open doors once closed to nurse practitioners, she says she will continue her work to expand opportu-nities for this valuable arm of nursing professionals in Utah some 1,000-plus practitioners and across the nation.
Pendergrass continues to work with the Utah Action Coalition for Health (UACH) in removing practice barriers that prevent nurses from working to the full extent of their education and training. Her current focus with UACH is to involve more of the states 10,000 nurses on governing boards, councils, committees and in other positions of influence.
As the most trusted profession and the largest workforce in America, nurses already possess the skillsets that make them invaluable members on any board, Pendergrass says. We are three million strong.
Pendergrass, whose roots are in Car-bon County, opened a womens health clinic in Price two years ago. Today
USU Eastern nursing students work in her clinic as well as nurse practitioner students from the University of Utah. Her clinic serves more than 20,000 women from teens to seniors, both insured and uninsured, in rural Utah.
The change in Medicaid policy that Pendergrass engineered makes it possible for her and other rural-serving nurse practitioners to see patients that would otherwise have to travel great distances for services such as Pap smears and mammograms.
In addition to this award, Pender-grass received the 2013 Utah Nurse Practitioners State Award for Excel-lence in Leadership, the same year she received a doctorate in nursing practice from the University of Utah. She is a 1997 graduate of the nursing program at the College of Eastern Utah (now USU Eastern). She went on to earn a bachelors degree in nursing from Weber State University and a masters degree in nursing, womens health nurse practitioner from the U of U.
The Campaign for Action cre-ated the 2014 Breakthrough Leaders in Nursing award to celebrate nurse leadership and the importance of efforts by nurses to improve health and health care. The award recipients have worked
to help victims of sexual assault, medically fragile children, neuro-logically impaired individuals and low-income women in rural areas, among others.
[Pendergrass] has worked tirelessly to improve access to care for women and girls, said Joan Gallegos, project coordinator, HealthInsight and staff director, Utah Action Coalition. This award recognizes the incredible prog-ress Danielles leadership has made in Utah.
December 4, 2014 page 5
Holiday season is finally here. Having survived Thanksgiving and in prepa-ration for the Christmas holiday, it is appropriate to discuss something many have a natural discomfort for, embarrassing rela-tives. What are the holidays for if not recounting the history of your family and their adventures (and misadventures)? So in this final article of this semester, let me tell you the story of your most immediate family members, the primates and how their lives set in motion a domino chain reaction that lead to us.
You are a member of a unique group of organ-isms, familiarly known as Homo sapiens. Being one is truly a miraculous stroke of good luck, as we are the only remaining member of the hominin clade which is one branch of the great apes family.
Distant grandparents include hominins, like H. erectus and H. habilis, and our cousin H. neander-thalensis. We look back at the fossilized evidence of these remarkable creatures and see striking similarities with ourselves. The Neanderthals (by our best evidence), went extinct between 30,000 and 40,000 years ago and shared many things some claim to be uniquely human including tool making, art, burying their dead, and even language. I cant help but wonder how we would react to another species of humans if they were alive today.
If we reach farther back into our history, past Australopithecine species like the famous Lucy 4.5 million years ago, to a time before our ape-like ancestors descended from the trees, farther and farther still before those primates ascended into the canopy, we arrive some 50 million years ago and to a possible ancestor of many mammals on Earth. A small mammal/early primate named Notharctus discovered to have lived millions of years ago in what is now Wyoming, had developed a new trait that would set in motion the existence of all apes and even you, a divergent thumb. This mutation allowed Notharctus to grab onto fine tree limbs, reach previously unreachable food, and stay high above most predators grasps. This single trait greatly improved members of the primate familys ability to survive, reproduce and continue evolving.
For the first time in Earths history, an animal had a hand that looks nearly identical to our own. The hand is a powerful symbol of the human lineage. When we are sad, it wipes away our tears; when we are in love, we use it to hold the hands of others; when we are pleased, we slap them together to show approval and when we are angry or in danger, we use them to defend ourselves. The hand may be the seat of all human emotions and actions. It is the hand, after all, that we use to shape the world around us.
With the ability to eat more, have more offspring and live longer lives, ancient primate brains began to evolve fascinating new traits. Eventually with these more adaptable (smarter) brains, they could decide when to leave the trees to search for more food, find mates or new range.
After millions of years and drastic climate changes, our ancestors in prehistoric Africa were forced to leave their arboreal homes, but as selec-tion would have it, the primates of the time gained the ability to stand erect.
Remember an organism cannot struggle to develop a new trait, but those with mutations gave them an advantage such as being able to walk upright for long periods of time and see over long grass were much more likely to be passed on. And so the dominos that will lead to modern humans continued to fall.
In the Homo lineage, we have a long list of grandparents we can be proud of, long extinct tool makers and wanderers who left their marks all over Africa, Europe and in Southeast Asia that blazed a trail and left clues for us to follow. Then it happened, unceremoniously the first true modern humans, Homo Sapiens Sapiens, came into existence some 200,000 years ago in what is now Central Africa. You, I and every other person on this planets ances-tors began life in the heart of the African continent.
It wasnt until nearly 50,000 years ago that we even left and began our own journey to shape the planet, to make it the planet of the Humans. The process of natural selection can explain, how with our well-developed forebrains, we began choosing what we wanted to pass on, not just in our species, but those we control, like plants and animals.
So here we sit, modern day, a distant domino being struck by the countless numbers before us. Standing on the shoulders of giants, we gaze out on the amazing beauty of the cosmos and turn our gaze on the dominos yet to fall. The first creatures truly capable of organizing those dominos and choosing which will fall we hold an unmatched power in our wondrous hands.
No longer bound to the treetops, we can soar into the skies, dig deep into the Earth, plant our feet firmly on the ground and think critically about what inspires us. Wherever your journey may take you my friend, gaze up into the skies with wonder, look to the past through your remarkable hands, hold firm to the evidences all around you, and make your lives remarkable.
Perhaps Ill see you along the way, also unafraid of the dark.
RelativesEvolution Part IVNathaniel Woodward
staff writer [email protected]
Student body president Ben Bjarn-son is finishing up his first semester as president, and finding the position much harder than he anticipated.
Bjarnson said, Its a lot more work than I originally thought, and so much of the work goes unnoticed, but Im actually okay with that. He was able to implement some of his ideas. The TVs that I wanted to get hung about three months ago are finally getting there. Administration finally contacted me and the first one has been hung in the Reeves Building and the others are on schedule to be hung in the next week or two, so Im excited about that.
The job of student body president is much different than Bjarnson thought it would be. In years past, I had a lot of interaction with student govern-ment, with how they operated, with their events and different things like that, but it was as a student and not so much on the inside, but from the outside looking in.
This position has given me a new perspective on how things really work. You can talk to anyone who was on student government last year versus this year and its not really a huge change, its not that different even though I thought it would be extremely different. In fact its very similar, so being on the inside, I really see its so much harder than I thought it would be.
Bjarnson has seen many improve-ments in USU Eastern over this semes-ter. Ive seen a lot of positive change with the relationship we have with our administration. At the beginning of the semester, it was strained. We had a lot of questionable actions that had taken place, with terminations of employees we had grown to love, to money being spent on projects that students werent involved in, however, that has improved dramatically since then. Ive formed a much better rela-tionship with the chancellor and the vice chancellors. Its improved 10 fold easily.
Many great changes should happen next semester, Bjarnson said, However I cannot talk about much of it. A lot of it is still on the drawing board, but there is a dramatic change I have in mind.
Ive been working with Greg Dart, as
well as the chancellor, and weve opened it up to more discussion in the following weeks so we will see how far my ideas go. Im not going to share what that idea is yet in order to kind of bait the hook.
Another project that I have been working on is called operation family room. The area across from The Golden Grille is set to be redone. We want to put a couple couches and a coffee table, maybe start a little book exchange thing. That is being put in motion in the next week so we will start ordering the furniture and everything for it.
Hopefully after Thanksgiving Break, we will have some stuff to start putting in there and we can start redoing that area. My hope it that students will start utilizing the spaces that we have and they like all the new hang out spots. Bjarnson stated.
The long term goals Bjarnson has in mind for USU Eastern is to help students here now, and those to come see how much of an impact this school can have.
Ive had a lot of experience with USU Eastern, probably more than the average student should have, and this school has so much more potential than we give it credit for. Ive found reasons to stay here and want other students to recognize and understand those same reasons, because it could benefit them. Staying here is an option and its an affordable option. I also want to make this school inviting for new students. I want them to feel like its an extension of home, not an extension of high school, Bjarnson said.
Another hope for next semester for
Bjarnson is less drama. There has been a lot of controversy and drama taking place this semester. I would really love to see next semester have less drama and more work get done.
As far as what we have been able to accomplish with the events, the dances and the interaction with our students, its been great. Weve been listening to everything thats been said. There was a complaint about the high school kids be-ing at our dances, so I took that complaint to the people that invite high school kids, as well as to the advisors and that has been fixed. There will be no more high school kids at our dances. So at least weve got one problem solved.
On a personal level, Bjarnson says, I plan on being fatter after Thanksgiv-ing, Christmas and being with family. I plan on putting on a couple pounds. Im also considering growing out my beard.
As far as the school goes I think we are on a good track right now, and we just have to follow through. Thats the most important thing. Even though it will be the second semester its not a slump, its not a time to just wing everything, its the beginning of a new semester, its not the second semester. Bjarnson stated.
One of the things Bjarnson loves about being student body president is the people he gets to meet. He said, One of the perks of being the president is I get to meet many people. I get to rub
shoulders with people all across the state of Utah, and also people that are here visiting our campus, thats probably the greatest perk. The network of people Ive been able to build.
Bjarnson dislikes being treated like a child. That happens often when I work with people who are significantly older than me. I feel like there is a sense of superiority, and the view that Im too young and inexperienced to have a voice.
Many times when Im in meetings with faculty, staff and administration that are older than me I feel like my ideas are not always heard, and the students ideas are not always heard. Ive been trying to build my relationship with faculty, staff and administration to the point where hopefully the next person that comes into this position will be able to do so without having to fight these same battles. They wont have to start from the ground up but be able to start where I left off. Bjarnson said.
John DevilbissUSU PR
Danielle Howa Pendergrass, nurse practitioner and instructor receives national leadership award
Laser Tag
photo by Hunter Free/The eagle
Residential Life activityJeff Spears, Hannah Murphey, Johnny Sharpe, Shelby Worthen, Liz Anvik, Braden Atwood, Jorge Lascano, Braden Atwood, Brett Allen, James Bates, Miguel Then, Kylie Page, Melanie Curwin and Eric Curwin pose for their picture after playing an intense game of laser tag. The activity was sponsored by USU Easterns Office of Residential Life on Dec. 2.
Danielle Howa Pendergrass
Dr. Who! Do you like it? Good. Do you not like it? Too bad. Do you not know what it is? Listen up. A bunch of people who do know what it is, and they like it. So much so that theyve banded together and formed a club entirely for Dr. Who fans. Now not only can you watch Dr. Who, you can watch it with other people and totally geek-out about it while doing so.
The series is about a guy simply known as The Doctor, formally known as Dr. Who. He wouldnt be remarkable, except hes a humanoid alien recognized as a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. He travels around in a 1963-style British police box that is also a sentient time-machine known as the TARDIS. He has two hearts and utilizes a sonic-screwdriver tool that can dismantle or fix objects using sonic waves.
The series is broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and is based loosely in Great Britain. The main plotline revolves around The Doctor and his companions as they travel through space and time, fixing other peoples problems and righting various wrongs done by evil entities.
Another interesting factor is The Doctors regeneration cycle. Every time The Doctor is mor-tally wounded, he reconstructs his body, and gains a new face and personality. All Gallifreans posses this ability. However, this process is limited, and causes temporary amnesia after regen-eration in the individual.
This is also an excellent plot device for recasting purposes in every subsequent series, although old Doctors do reappear when the plotline demands it.
Interested? Want to learn more? Talk to Chris Palo, Ka-trina Wood or Nathan Pena for everything you could ever want to know about Dr. Who. They can sign you up for the club.
Whos who? Dr. Who!
Sam Czarneckistaff writer
[email protected] Verdi editor-in-chief
A discussion with President Ben Bjarnson about student life and making progress
Ben Bjarnson is the 14-15 student body president for USU Eastern.
Nathaniel Woodward and his daughter
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December 4, 2014Page 6
David Osborne Jr.sports writer
Offense sells tickets, defense wins cham-pionships and special teams help both tre-mendously, but never get any love. Sure they are only on the field for kickoffs, punts and field goals, but those can have a tremendous effect on the game. So why dont we give them more love when they are the group that makes everything possible for the offense and defense?
Is it simply because most of the time they arent the most glamorous plays and usually run by the second-team players? In all reality the offense and defense count on the special teams throughout the entirety of the game. For many teams the special teams can be the difference between winning and losing a game.
Think specifically about the field goal kicker. The game is ticking down to its final seconds and after a drive lead by the offense, the coach calls his number to go kick the ball from 50 yards. If he makes it, everybody praises the coach for making the decision to kick the ball and the quarterback for leading the drive to get the team in a position to kick the game-winning field goal. But if the kicker misses, it is his fault the team lost and more than likely he has kicked himself out of a job?
Then there is the punter, the one player on the team that can flip field position. He can pin the opposing offense inside their own 20-yard-line. While the art of the coffin-corner, kicking the ball and having if bounce out of bounds as close to the goal-line as possible has been replaced by trying to let the gunners get down the field and stop the ball at the goal-line, the punter has stayed ever important. Not only does he help the defense by making the opposing offense face a long field, but he also helps the offense by hopefully creating good field position for them.
The University of Utah Utes all season have relied on punter Tom Hackett, the Australian born rugby-style kicker to help out the offense and the defense. While the Utes offense has been sort of stagnant, Hackett averages 46.8 yards per punt and is a finalist for the Ray Guy Award (nations top punter). Those punts have allowed the defense to attack the offense, creating turnovers and better field position for their offense.
And who can forget about the kick/punt returners? Is there a more exciting and ex-plosive play? The art of watching the perfect wall form and the blocking down field, the cut that was timed perfectly and a player taking the ball to score. This simple play can turn the tide of the game, bring energy and life to one team and deflate the hearts of the other.
Remember the Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ra-vens? Opening the second half, wide receiver Torrey Smith took the kickoff from his own end zone 106 yards for a touchdown, giving the Baltimore Ravens a commanding lead. Sure, the 49ers came back in the game, al-though they ultimately lost, but the feeling after that return was one of defeat for San Francisco.
Of course there are more positions on special teams that have a huge impact like the gunners, the long-snapper, blockers and more. Most recently the Minnesota Vikings used their special teams in their game on Nov. 30, blocked two punts by the Carolina Panthers and returned both blocks for touchdowns. Head coach of the Vikings, Mike Zimmer, said, I dont know about demoralizing the other team, but I do know that when you score on defense or you score on special teams, your odds of winning a football game go way up, as told to the Associated Press.
Simply put, special teams deserve a lot more credit and love because they are the backbone of the team and create all the scoring oppor-tunities for the offense and defense.
Lets give some love to special teams
Andre Hogan leads the break for the Golden Eagles at home against Impact Academy. photo courtesy Tyson Chappell
Golden Eagles set to finish preseason; begin region playDavid Osborne Jr.
sports writer [email protected]
The Golden Eagles have spent a little over a month preparing throughout the pre-season for their region sched-ule. With one weekend of the preseason left, the team has a 7-3 record, going 2-2 at home, 1-1 away and a perfect 4-0 in neutral site games.
Over the last two weekends the Golden Eagles have been on the road playing in tournaments in Idaho and Wyo., respectively. On Nov. 21, the team played Treasure Valley Community College in Twin Falls, Idaho. The team was able to take away a 10-point victory, winning 89-79. Josh Van Weezep led the team with 22 points, shooting 50 percent from the field, and going 6-12 from deep.
On Nov. 22, the team played Planet Athlete Academy. They easily handled the opponent taking a 107-65 victory. Five players posted double-dig-it scoring totals. Nathaniel Wright led the team with 15 points, he added 10 rebounds for a double double. Marcelo Ruediguer also posted a double double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. The team shot an outstanding 51 percent from the field and almost 77 percent from the free-throw line.
During the Thanksgiving weekend, the team traveled to Wyo., to play in another tournament. On Nov. 28, the team tipped-off against Eastern Wyoming College, with an impressive defensive night, the team was able to post a 96-78 victory. The Golden Eagles recorded 10 total steals and held EWC to 39 percent shooting from the floor. Led by Juwan
Moody, coming of the bench and scoring 21 points, the team had four players with double-digit scoring totals. Wright helped the team with a double double, scoring 16 points and bringing down 13 rebounds.
The following day the Golden Eagles played the tour-nament host Western Wyoming Community College. Unfortu-nately for the Golden Eagles, they were in for a rough shoot-ing night, only hitting 24 of the 64 attempted shots and while making it to the free-throw line 26 times, and only connect-ing on 17. Western Wyoming was able to shoot 46 percent from the field and attempted an outstanding 52 free throws, making 38 of them. At the final buzzer the team lost 80-71. Royale Ewing led the Golden Eagles with 18 points followed by Van Weezep with 16.
Talking about region games
being right around the corner for the team, head coach Ad-jalma Vando Becheli said, Our offense isnt a problem, we score enough to win every game. Of course we can always tweak some things to make it better like screen angles and posting up. The team is cur-rently averaging 95 points per game, and average almost 50 percent field goal percentage as a team.
We do need to pick things up on defense, especially with our region. During the spring semester, we only have three region home games, Becheli added. We are going to have to fight through a lot of adversity because we arent going to get a lot of calls that we would get at home.
The key for the Golden Eagles to having a good run during region play is to play solid defense and get out and
run the floor, hopefully leading to easy baskets, and Vando has complete faith that his team can do just that.
The team plays their final six games of 2014 at home in the Bunnell-Dmitrich Athletic Center, they host Impact Acad-emy on Dec. 5 and 6, and have a 1-1 record against Impact so far this season.
The following weekend Region 18 play starts for the Golden Eagles hosting fifth-ranked Salt Lake Community College on Dec. 11, and the fol-lowing day will host the Snow College Badgers. On Dec. 18, the team will host the second ranked College of Southern Idaho before finishing out 2014 hosting the North Idaho College Cardinals on Dec. 19. The team will then break for winter break and will not play again until Jan. 3, 2015 when they will host the Southern Colorado Kings.
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page 7December 4, 2014
Carly Daltonsports writer
The way that Josie Morris can hustle down the field, you would never know she is still in pain from a previ-ous hematoma in her shin she received the fall of her senior year.
A hematoma is swelling that is filled with blood caused by a break in the wall of a blood vessel. The blood is usually clotted or partially clotted, and it exists within an organ or in a soft tissue space, such as muscle. It started as a bruise, but with time, only got worse. It ended with swelling the size of a grapefruit. She couldnt walk on it for two weeks, and was on crutches for over a month.
Morris is from Layton, Utah, and comes from a family of five girls and one boy. She plays holding mid, which is a defender in the mid field and prevents through balls. The season so far is, totally legit, cause we cream.
The best advice Morris has ever been given is, Never look at the past, always learn from your mistakes and dont dwell on them. If she was to give advice to someone com-ing to USU Eastern to play soccer in the future, Morris would tell them, Make sure you are in shape when you come or the conditioning will be rough and never give
up on your team.Being a part of the first USUE soccer team has been
awesome. Coming in with a new team is cool because we all have the same opportunities and we all have to learn to play together. Morris stated.
The craziest thing that has happened to Morris in a soccer game was when one of her teammates dribbled the ball down the field. When she tried to cross it, it almost went out of bounds. A different girl from her team bicycles it just before it crossed the out of bounds line, which ended up being a perfect pass to Morris, who headed the ball for a goal. The ref whistled and denied the goal. The the ball had gone out of bounds before the girl kicked it back into play.
One of Morriss most embarrassing moments while on the field was when she was running to kick it and no one was by her and she completely missed it and landed on her butt, or when you get a sticky ball and you go to kick it, but you step on it and then you fall over. she stated.
Morriss biggest athletic accomplishment is playing on as a collegiate athlete. She says the hardest thing about playing soccer is, finishing to the very last minute, any-thing can happen so you have to stay focused the whole time. Her passion for soccer never fades because of her love for the game, and shes scared of getting fat.
Morriss coaches view her as an, aggressive and coach-
able player, who plays for her team and not for herself. She is fun and her personality and kindness is contagious. Shes just a good person and a really good soccer player.
The craziest thing Morris has ever done is when, my cousin made me sit down on a long board down this huge hill. I was going 50 miles an hour and I swear I was going die. I hit a crack and fell into a bush and was surprised I didnt die.
Morriss biggest regret is not playing more sports when she was younger; she felt that she just missed out on different opportunities. Besides soccer she loves playing ping pong, racquet ball, and other racquet sports, and she is always up for a challenge.
Morriss biggest fans are her parents, they support me in everything that I do, and also my little sister because she is always at my games and cheers for me. Her hero in life is her older sister Kayla, who is serving an LDS mission. We were really close and she is such a great example to me.
Morris wants to go to a RSL soccer game, or go to California to, surf the beaches if she had a day of no responsibilities. If she was to trade places with anyone, it would be with Emma Watson, because she is Hermione Granger.
Morris is pleased with how the season went and all the great friends she met at USUE.
Abbie Birdsports writer
Over the past few weeks the womens basketball team has played six games and come out on top in the end in all but one of those games. They even set a new record at USU Eastern for most consecutive wins, which was seven; this years team took it to eight.
On Nov. 13, they traveled to Casper, Wyo., to play in the annual Casper Tournament. For their first game, the Lady Eagles played Western Wyoming and came out with an 88-72 win. Guards Maddy Murphy and Caroline Fischer led the team in points; Murphy with
18 and Fischer with 14. Sophomore Jamie Smith had eight assists to help seal the win.
On Nov. 14, the team played Casper College and pulled out a 87-79 win. The womens basketball program has not beaten Casper at home in over five years. Casper has a really good program and is usually an elite prospect. Bryanna Adams led the team in points with 17 and five rebounds. Fischer and Smith chipped in with 10 points each.
Nov. 15, the Eagles played a closer game against Northeastern Junior Col-lege. Smith led the team in points with 23, Adams had 13 and Fischer had 11. Sophomore center Jessica Anderson grabbed eight rebounds that helped with the win. The team also shot 35 percent from the three-point line and had a total of 11-three pointers, but the
game was still tight. In the last minute of the game, Smith stole the ball, got fouled, and hit her free throws sealing the game.
They played an Alumni game at home on Nov. 20, where they cruised to a 79-58 victory. Adams led the way with 15 points. The alumni team included players of former USUE teams.
The team headed back to Wyoming on Nov. 28, to play in a tournament hosted by Western Wyoming. For the fourth time this season they beat West-ern Wyoming. This time they won by five points, the final score was 83 to 78. The team was tied at halftime with the score of 35 to 35, but with the help of guards Smith and Adams combining for 26 points, and sophomore Lejla Hadzialiagics 10 rebounds, the team was able to outscore Western in the
second half. The Lady Eagles suffered their first
loss against Central Wyoming College, by one point: 80 to 79. CWC shot 36 percent from the field-goal range, while the Eagles only shot 28 percent.
The Eagles were up at half time, but lost the momentum going into the second half, and didnt shoot as well as they did the first half. Fouls and turnovers also assisted in the loss, as CWC was able to go to the free throw line and make 25 out of 30. Anderson walked away with a double double of 13 rebounds and 10 points in the loss.
The ladies are on the road this weekend in Idaho. They return home for their opening conference games against Salt Lake Community College and Snow College in the Bunnell-Dmitrich Athletic Center on Dec. 12-13.
Josh Van Weezepsports writer
The Cleveland Cavaliers are off to a not-so-epic start. Their first game had a huge celebration before tip off with music from popular artists, and a huge crowd of people. Television commercials of Lebron James had been on all of the channels with one being a Nike ad about the whole city of Cleveland and the Cavs. Long story short, the Cavs are an average team right now and all those celebrations were a little premature.
The Cavs are six and seven on the season.They have not just lost to the top teams of the NBA; theyve lost to everyone. The Memphis Grizzlies and the Toronto Raptors are leading the league; teams no one expected. Neither the Grizzlies nor Raptors had parties before their first games and commercials about them have not been all over television, but they win anyway.
Everyone would say that the Cavaliers are way more talented than the Raptors and Grizzlies, but they have been together for a couple years, and their teams are playing together and getting wins. Kevin Love, the super-hyped, off-season pick up of the Cava-liers, is very frustrated in the Cavs offense.
New coach David Blatt is in his rookie season as a coach in the NBA and analysts have said that his substitution patterns have been all over the place. James has even said that his minutes and the minutes of Love and Kyrie Irving need to come down. The Cava-liers are experiencing some major growing pains right now.
Not only is Love frustrated, but also James and Irving have had some confrontations in the locker room. James has told Irving that he needs to be more of a playmaker for his teammates and that he needs to move the ball more. Irving wasnt too happy about it and they had a little bit of a heated talk in the locker room.
Needless to say the Cavaliers are far from a championship team right now, but this was expected. With a rookie coach and a new line-up of players, waiting for the team to come together might take a while. It could be by the second half of the season after the All-Star break, or it could take as long as the season. Time will tell.
What we do know is that the Cavaliers definitely have the talent to get a ring if they get things rolling and get ev-er yone on the same page.
Masi Steelsports writer
The dream of any athlete that comes to a two-year college is to continue their athletic career at a four-year school. This dream has come true for many athletes at Utah State University Eastern.
Shantaya Strebel continued on to play at Weber State University in
Ogden, Utah. She is a 5 8 junior playing guard for the Wildcats womens basketball team.
The same is true with womens volleyball, only one continued. Jessica Wilcox attends Montana State University Northern in Havre, Mont. Wilcox is a 6 middle hitter as a junior.
Four men from the mens base-ball team went on to further their careers. Colter Moore plays on the
Pittsburg Pirates in Major League Baseball. He is a right-handed pitcher standing at 6 8. He was both a starting and relief pitcher this year for the Pirates.
Kyle Durbin now attends Mon-tana State University in Billings, Mont. standing at 6 1; Durbin bats left handed and throws right-handed.
Chase Castleberry is a junior at Utah Valley University. Castle-
berry is a right-handed pitcher at 6 2, he bats and throws right-handed.
Trevor Nuttall also attends Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
Mens basketball was the most successful with all sophomores playing at a university level. Jaleni Neely went on to go to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Ariz. He is a 6 and plays guard for the Lumberjacks.
Kendahl Amerson is playing at
Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. He is a junior standing at 6 2 and is a guard for the Braves.
Travon Langston is at Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah. He is a junior and a guard at 6 3.
Leland Miller is continuing at UVU as a sophomore at 7 1 center for the Wolverines.
Trahmeir Burrell is continu-ing to play at American Institute
University in Springfield Mass. He is a 6 4 junior and is a guard/forward for the Yellow Jackets.
Teotonio Do goes to Arkansas Fort Smith in Fort Smith, Ark. Do is a junior forward at 6 10 for the Lions.
Finally Todd Helgeson contin-ued to play at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho. Hel-geson is a 6 8, power forward and center for the Crusaders.
Cavaliers off to not so epic start
Record set for most consecutive winsJamie Smith shoots over a defender from behind the arc at the USU Eastern alumni game.
photo courtesy Tyson Chappell
Nothing can keep Morris from putting her cleats on
Women win eight games to set USU Eastern record
Student athletes contiue success at next level
Josie Morris
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page 8 December 4, 2014
Layout by: Mitchell Van WagonerPhotos by: Edison Lascano, Sherill Shaw and Brett Allen
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