A new feathered friend for BC Eagles

Snowy owl makes a home in the local community

In 2014, Virginia has hosted an incredible mi-gration of snowy owls

with one individual in Rock-ingham County being seen almost daily near the White Wave plant, just a short dis- Please see Owl Page 6

Story by Dr. Robyn Puffenbarger

“Even in a good year for snowy owl flight, it is much more likely to see these owls further east on the beaches. This is only the 4th or 5th record of a snowy owl in Rockingham County.”

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The complete works of Wil-liam Shakespeare (abridged) are coming to Bridgewater.

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Men’s basketball comes to-gether on a winning streak

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Tidewater Guitar Orces-tra comes to Bridgewater Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014.

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tance from Bridgewater Col-lege campus. One owl has been here in Rockingham County since late Novem-ber 2013, and birders from Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina have made the pilgrimage to see this bird. I have been out numer-ous times to see the snowy owl and have had the chance to take birders from college age to first grade students

out to see it. Even in a good year for snowy owl flight, it is much more likely to see these owls further east on the beaches. This is only the 4th or 5th record of a snowy owl in Rockingham County. As a teacher of ornithology, I have had lots of questions about what is happening with the owls, their habitat up north and if the owls will stay to breed here. So, let us

start with some basic biol-ogy and a fun new word – ir-ruptive. In North America, irruptive species normally live way up north and with some frequency leave their normal habitat, sometimes in significant numbers, to invade more southerly en-vironments. Snowy owls (snowies), great gray owl and common redpolls are known

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“Changing Ourselves and Changing Our Community”

BI-WEEKLY, FEB 19-MAR 4, 2014

Serving Bridgewater and surrounding communities

Whether you call it “snow-poca-lypse” or “snow-

mageddon,” a snow day is a snow day. It is a time when students, faculty and staff have a day to theoretically do nothing. Students can play in the snow with their friends, and then spend the rest of the day with hot chocolate and a movie mar-athon. Faculty and staff can do the same and spend time with their families while en-joying the peaceful snowfall. However, I have noticed that for students like myself, there are three options for snow days. We can either spend all day catching up on homework, ignore home-work completely to enjoy the snow or have an internal compromise doing both ac-tions. An article by Joseph Cer-rone titled “Top five ways to be productive on a snow day (That you probably won’t do),” which I found on Saint Joseph’s Univer-sity’s student news website The Hawk, describes how people can be productive on snow days. This article focuses on college students and what they should do on snow days. First is to catch up on reading. Many classes will give students more than enough to read in a days’ time, so snow days allow students to catch up. This past snow day, this is how I

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spent my time. While it was maybe not the most fun, it was the smartest option for me. Second is to clean your liv-ing space. With schoolwork and club activities, students’ rooms can pile up with clothes and trash. A snow day can be the perfect time to get things tidy again. Also included in this section, stu-dents could spend some time on any laundry that has accumulated. Another option is to re-search jobs or internships. Whether you are a senior or not, now is the time to look for a summer job or post-grad opportunities. The last option Cerrone suggests is to relax. If you are on top of your work, then take the day off to drink hot choco-late and play in the snow. While we may all want to do this last option first, it is good to be productive with time off in my opinion. While some snowy fun sounds like a good plan, re-member that as students we are missing time from class-es and our education. Col-leges may not have makeup days, but primary and sec-ondary schools do, which puts a strain on students and teachers. In an article titled “As the snow day clos-ings pile up, schools debate measures to meet required class days” by Ted Roelofs, from the website mlive.com,

he discusses how Michigan schools are handling the loss of over six class days. Teachers should have 170 days’ worth of instruction and 1,098 hours of classes. When students miss school for snow days, the time can be added to the end of the school year or add minutes onto each school day, of which some teachers and administrators do not ap-prove. Another option is to make a 200-day school year to make sure students in Michigan have enough in-struction. When looking at every perspective of a snow day, it is easy to see what the “smartest option” is. Stu-dents should try to keep up with their work because missing school puts them behind on their education. However, we do not typical-ly want to spend our snow days doing schoolwork, so often we opt for fun snowy activities. We need to keep in mind though how difficult it is for administration to choose how to handle snow. They need to keep students safe, but also keep them on track with their classes. I love snow, but I do not love hav-ing to make up class time. So, as much as we love a day off, remember all of Cer-rone’s suggestions next time class is not cancelled.

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Editorial

By Brooke Thacker

Snow day debacle

Veritas is a publication manged and produced by stu-dents of Bridgewater College. As a news organization serving the Bridgewater and surrounding communities, Veritas publishes regularly opinion articles and letters submitted by members of the community which do not reflect the opinion of the Veritas staff or of the Bridgewater College’s administration. We encourage members of the community to submit information, opinion, and critiques in order to promote a healthy dialogue. The Veritas Edito-rial team also reserves the right to edit, modify, or exclude any submissions containing offensive or innappropriate language or remarks. To reach the newsroom, contact the advertising team, or submt articles and letters, please send us an email at:

veritas@bridgewater.edu

Editor-in-Chief: Brooke Thacker

Business Team:Public Relations Director: Emily NowakAdvertising Manager: Emily HeacockSocial Media Manager: Victoria WilsonMarketing Associate: Taylor PrillamanOffice Manager: Kelsey VelandriaFinancial Manager: Katy Hutton

Editorial Team:Managing Editor: Lacey NaffHead Copy Editor: Alyssa PenningtonLayout Editor: Megan Ford

Content Editors:Emily HigginsMelina NormanKatie LeBranche

Sub-editors:Jason ManagoRianna Hill

Senior Staff: Abgail Blair, Cyndi Wibe, Andrew Levin, Janelle Alexander, Jess Snellings

Printed by the Daily News Record in Harrisonburg, Va.

FEB 19-MAR 4 2014

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The Arc of Harrison-burg and Rocking-ham is an organi-

zation that works to meet the needs of individuals with intellectual or devel-opmental disabilities in the community. The Oppor-tunity Shop, or ‘Op Shop’ as it is called, was started in 1983 as a day program for adults with disabilities who did not qualify for other services. Through the Op Shop, “clients have the opportunity to earn a paycheck by making high quality craft items, pre-paring bulk mailings, do-ing small assembly jobs, and sharpening life skills.” (www.getconnected.uwhr.org). Senior Nutrition major Miranda Moss first volun-teered at the Op Shop with her roommate as part of her PDP service require-ment. Having grown up with a cousin with Down’s Syndrome and later baby-sitting two autistic chil-dren, Moss was exposed to disability at a young age and is not bothered being around people with func-tional differences. She says she has always been in-spired by people with dis-abilities “trying to better themselves… their will to want to learn, that’s what made me really decide that I wanted to… work with special needs.”

By Kathleen Herring During her time at the Shop, Moss noticed that there were very few healthy eating guidelines in place for the clients. Seeing an op-portunity to put her Nutri-tion major to use, she asked if she could create her own i n t e r n s h i p program, and began drafting lesson plans. “I started with an intro-duction to the food groups and a work-shop on flu p r e ve n t i o n , then I had them do health goals, and then we… talked about the im-portance of water and why sodas were bad,” Miranda explains. Each week of her internship, Moss created, designed and led two different les-sons for the Op Shop resi-dents. At the end of the week, she arranged a tast-ing of some of the foods they had discussed to en-force the lesson as well as bring a fun, hands-on as-pect to the program. “The

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first tasting we did fruits and vegetables as well as Crystal Light. The second week we did measure-

ments, portion control… we talked about manners. The second tasting we brought in the weight and everybody got so excited – everybody cheered and it was fun.” Moss created work-sheets for each lesson, which could be brought

home to share with the cli-ents’ families. At the end of the program, she gave out hand-made graduation

c e r t i f i c a t e s to each cli-ent who had completed the program. She also created a guide book for the program with copies of each les-son and work-sheet, which the center will continue to utilize to help their clients make healthier choices with their meals. Miranda hopes to find a career work-ing with indi-viduals with special needs, and hopes to take the Praxis II exam and study sign lan-guage in ad-dition to her

Nutrition degree so that she can qualify to teach. Al-though her internship has officially ended, she con-tinues to volunteer when she can because she wants to keep in touch with her favorite clients and watch them progress. When asked about her

Let’s talk Op Shop!an “intern of the week” interview with Miranda Moss

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Senior Nutrition major Miranda Moss poses with an Op Shop client.

favorite lesson, Moss cited the last tasting where they brought in scales and ev-eryone got weighed: “We got on the scales and ev-eryone cheered… every-one was encouraging and shouting out and cheering no matter what the num-ber was.” One client in a wheel-chair lost 11 pounds dur-ing the course of the pro-gram, mainly by switching from soda to Crystal Light, at Moss’s suggestion. Internships are a unique opportunity to ‘try on’ a career. For Moss, it was a game-changer. “I thought I was going to go one way, but the hands-on experience that I did [at the Op Shop] really showed me that I wanted to go in a direction I wasn’t even thinking about be-fore,” explained Moss. In addition to helping her to explore a new career path, Moss’s internship created an opportunity for improvement of an existing service program and personally created the tools needed to bring that idea to life. Looking for a great intern-ship experience? For more information on internship opportunities, contact the Office of Career Services at ocs@bridgewater.edu....

Campus

4 Campus

The time has come once again to select campus housing for

next year! When thinking about housing sign-ups, the images that come to mind probably go like this: Being crammed into the benches inside the Carter Center like sardines. Then waiting for what seems like forever for Dean Miracle to call your lottery num-ber. And then, just before your number is called, the dream space you’ve been hoping for is taken. If that was frustrating for you, then you’re in luck. Bridgewater College Residence Life has been working hard and has suc-cessfully modernized this system of housing sign-ups! Though we may hate to see the traditional way go, this new online hous-ing system is much more efficient and convenient for residents and will allow BC to better serve all of our housing needs. The myHousing Portal is your online access to the 2014-2015 Housing Selec-tion. The portal can be accessed at starrez.bridge-water.edu/StarRezPortal as well as at myBC on the Student Housing page. To login to the portal, use your Bridgewater username and password. A reminder to students: you need to pay your $300 Reservation Deposit to re-

By Abby Blair

Out with the old and into your roomResidence Life modernizes housing sign-up system

turn as a student next year and complete the Housing Selection process. To avoid a late fee, the deposit needs to be paid by March 7. Stu-dents who do not pay their deposit by March 23, will not be able to participate in Housing Selection and will not be guaranteed a place as a student here next year. To begin the Housing Selection process, students must complete steps one through eight after click-ing on “Housing Selec-tion” in myHousing. This will complete the Housing Application, which is Part one of the Housing Selec-tion process. Students can complete the Housing Ap-plication before their res-ervation deposit is paid. All students who could possibly live on campus next year should complete the Housing Application, including commuter stu-dents who are on-the-fence about continuing to commute and seniors who are not sure if they will graduate in May. It is imperative that each student (not parents or any other individual), com-plete this information as thoroughly and honestly as possible to ensure the best possible roommate match and housing assign-ment. Students should not skip over this part assum-ing that their roommate situation is set in stone for

the following year. This in-formation will be used if a student must be paired with someone other than their planned roommate, so play it safe and make it accurate! After completing steps one through eight, a con-firmation email should be sent to your Bridgewater email. If you do not re-ceive this email, your Ap-plication has not been completed. If this occurs, please log back into my-Housing to complete the application. Completing the Housing Application is the first part of the hous-ing process. Please note: You should only cancel your Housing Application if you will not be returning to Bridgewater. Canceling your application will result in the inability to restart it without approval from Student Life. March 17 will mark the start of “Selecting Your Roommate,” Part two of the Housing Selection process. This is where the process gets really interest-ing. Only those who have completed their Housing Application and paid their Reservation Deposit will be able to take part in this step. Students may search for a specific roommate(s) or choose one (or more) matched by the system. All this is driven by the profile responses from

FEB 19-MAR 4 2014

Please see res liFe Page 5

Part one, with probability of a positive roommate re-lationship showing as the recommended roommates. Roommate requests must be mutually accepted in order to be recognized by the online housing sys-tem. There will be an op-tion to request roommates as well as deny or approve requests that you may re-ceive. You will be able to select a roommate at any time during the process ex-cept on March 26 and 27. You are not required to have a roommate to se-lect a room, but you are HIGHLY encouraged to do so. All spaces on cam-pus will be filled; therefore, if you do sign up for a room without a roommate, a roommate will be as-signed to your room. Stu-dents who are able to fill a room/suite/apartment/house will receive prior-ity in selecting housing. In order to fill the room/suite/apartment/house you would like to live in, you will need to select the correct number of room-mates. Therefore, please ensure that if you would like to live in an Honor House, four or six-person apartment, suite, triple, or quad, you select the appro-priate number of room-mates. Please note that only one member of your roommate group will re-

serve the room/suite/apartment/house. Gener-ally the individual with the earliest selection timeslot will reserve the space. It is also important to know that just because someone accepts your roommate request, they still need to pull you into a room with them. If you do not get pulled into a room and as-signed a space, you can still choose a different room-mate or pick a space in a room as an individual later in the process. If you aren’t sure if someone pulled you into a room, email reslife@bridgewater.edu to ask. Communication with your potential room-mates is key. If anything changes in your housing plans that would affect your roommate(s), please tell them! If possible, it is ideal for all roommates to be together at the same computer during the actual selection. All returning students will choose a room be-tween March 25 and April 4. There are four phases of selecting a room. Students will only choose a room in one of the following phas-es: Room Renewal AKA “Squatting” (March 25), Honor Houses, Wampler Towers, and Stone Village (March 27), Fill a Room (March 31 - April 2), and

5 Campus CommunityFEB 19-MAR 4 2014

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Last Chance (April 4). Timeslots will go out to individual students dur-ing the week of March 24. Your timeslot is the earli-est you may select housing, but you may select hous-ing any time after that un-til that selection phase has ended. All selection timeslots are randomly generated within each class status (rising sophomore, junior, senior). For group housing, the member of the group with the earliest time slot should sign the group up at their time. Groups will only be able to sign up in spaces for which everyone in the group is eligible. If the person with the best timeslot for your group has a class during their timeslot, they may complete the Proxy Form at this address: https://w w w. s u r v e y m o n k e y.com/s/HousingProxy. If this form is completed at least two hours in advance

of the timeslot, a Resi-dence Life staff member will select your room in your absence. You should be as specific as possible with your preferences on that form, but realize that there is no guarantee that you will get the specific housing that you want. It is highly recommended that you have several back-up plans agreed upon by your group in case you are unable to reserve your top room preferences. Prezi presentations and PDF in-formational booklets have been sent to all students. If there are any questions after reviewing the infor-mation sent out, please ask your RA or AC or email re-slife@bridgewater.edu for further questions. As al-ways with the housing lot-tery: Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

...

Beginning last week, the Spanish film festival has continued the new and exciting convocation series that we have here at Bridge-water College. Last semes-ter Bridgewater students had the privilege of being introduced to the college’s first attempt at a foreign film festival; thanks to Dr. Pierson and those involved in the for-eign language depart-ment the Spanish film festival has become the next installment in the series. The series of films were shown Feb. 5-14 at 7 p.m.; the titles of the films were “Despues de Lucia, Post Mortem, Even the Rain, Wilaya, and The Return. Dr. Pierson collaborated with the foreign language department in order to find grants that would support the opportunity for Bridge-water to hold an educational convocation series in the form of a foreign film festi-val. This semester the school was able to gain the grant for the Spanish film festi-val and partnered with the Embassy of Spain to choose a variety of movies for the students to view during the event. “I wanted to interna-tionalize the convocations,” said Dr. Pierson when asked about the two film festivals that were held at Bridgewa-

Expanding cultural horizonsBC’s first Spanish film festivalStory and photo by Melina Norman

ter. He says that it is a good way for students to experi-ence things they have not experienced and to learn about other people. Dr. Pierson fully intends to continue the foreign film festivals in the future, one each semester being the plan. He says “I’m toying

with the idea of showing different movies from differ-ent countries in one film fes-tival.” Dr. Pierson likes the idea of having a festival with a variety of movies from dif-ferent countries rather than just doing a specific festival for a specific culture. The festivals have been getting a solid turn out, “more than I thought I’d get,” said Dr. Pierson. He has gotten back some good and useful reviews from both faculty and staff about the film festival this semes-ter, which prompts him to want to continue with putting on them on. “They increase the level of empa-

thy and patience that the students have for foreign cultures, said Dr. Pierson. Overall the festivals bring the students closer to the cultures that they are be-ing exposed to through the films. Dr. Pierson, having a particular interest in media

and film has had the experience of attend-ing other film festivals other than the two held on campus thus far. His interest in film has taken him to a number of different festivals in Virginia, New York and North Carolina. “Foreign film isn’t categorized as distinctly as our films here in America.

They aren’t pigeon-hole like American film can be,” said Dr. Pierson. A wide range of emotions can be experienced throughout the viewing of a foreign film no matter what the genre is. “Despues de Lucia” (After Lucia) is his favorite film out of the Spanish film festival, said Dr. Pierson. He claims that the “end just stays with you,” even after you finish the film it keeps you think-ing. According to Dr. Pier-son foreign films “tend to have more thought provok-ing endings and do things to get you to contemplate,” he said. ...

The KCC displayed movie posters of each film for the Spanish film festival.

6 Main Focus

The last time a snowy owl came this far south was 2009, and the 2013-2014 numbers are very high for the amount of irruptive birds.

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irruptive species. So, why irrupt? Why leave the normal breeding or win-ter habitat to fly, sometimes hundreds of miles south where there are more hu-mans and many other mam-mal or avian competitors? Turns out scientists only have some data on this phe-nomenon. In the case of the smaller birds like the red-polls, it looks like birch cat-kin (seed) production in the north is a strong predictor of irruption. If there is plenty of food up north, the birds stay. If the food sources are low, the birds leave, irrupting into the south to the delight of birders. Why do the larger birds like snowy owls irrupt? The data says they are not stressed and low weight from starvation. In fact, Project Snowstorm has data that suggests in a flight year, when the snow-ies head south, they are of higher body weight than non-flight years. An irrup-

tion is likely a complex set of interactions that include success-ful breeding, changes in prey and an over-abundance of younger birds. Snowy owls are well known to move great distances over the artic to find their favorite food, lemmings. A snowy owl can weigh up to four pounds, which is a pound heavier than our more local great horned owl, they eat over 1,500 lemmings per year and have up to nine eggs! One of the questions that scientists would like to answer is which owls are coming south? Are the owls coming south male or female? Females are gen-erally a bit darker in their barring than adult males, but

young birds are also darkly barred to match the snow-free tundra of their birth. The snowy owl currently living near Bridgewater Col-lege is barred, but I have not heard a definitive answer yet if this individual is a ma-ture female or a juvenile that hatched last season. Once the irruptive species are here, what happens to them? One of the myths is that the snowy owls found in the south are not able to feed, in some numbers starve, and are unable to return north. While it is clear that some of the snowy owls get into trou-ble while down south, scien-tists studying mortality have linked it to unintentional hu-man interactions: owls are hit by cars, eat poisoned rodents and are electrocuted by pow-er lines. Snowy owls brought to rehabilitators are often low weight but that seems to be a side-effect of trauma, rather

than a direct inability of the owl to find food. A number of snowy owls tagged by re-searchers give a clearer pic-ture that these birds come south, feed, survive and then head back north. Is there any chance that global climate change is driv-ing the current irruption and if the snowy owls here will stay to breed? This is an-other complicated issue. At least currently, the research I found does not implicate climate change in irruptions. Irruptions appear to be a multifaceted behavior where birds integrate their sensory data to make decisions about staying or migrating. It turns out to call someone a ‘bird brain’ is not really an insult; birds have highly developed brain cortical regions and they are adept at making complex decisions. There is no evidence that any of the irruptive species, including

snowies, will use the south-ern environs as breeding ter-ritory. As the days get longer and warmer, the surge of sex hormones seems to trigger the movement of all the ir-ruptive species back to the north to find territory and mates. So, enjoy the snowy owls while they are here. The cur-rent irruption cycle has seen many snowy owls coming south for winters since 2009 with 2013-14 numbers off the proverbial charts. The last reports of numbers this high are from the early 1970s, so unlike redpolls that invade on a four-year cycle in the east, it might be decades before the snowy owl count in Virginia will be this amaz-ing again. Be cautious of approaching any wild bird, which adds to its stress. View from a distance and enjoy.

...The snowy owl is an irruptive specieis, meaning it moves with the weather to the north and based on seed production.

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7 Main Focus

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)

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“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have

their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts…” is just merely the start of one of William Shake-speare’s famous monologues from As You Like It. This idea of many roles being played by one person is embraced bril-liantly through this spring’s the-atre at Bridgewater College per-formance of, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) which is set to go on Feb. 27 through March 2 in Cole Hall. Theatre at Bridgewater Col-lege will be presenting the re-nowned comedic play which was written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Win-field as this year’s spring show. What makes The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) vastly different from any other Shakespearean performance is its boldness for three actors to

Transporting Shakespeare

perform all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays in just 97 minutes. The show highlights Shakespeare’s most famous plays Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, while also braving those Shakespearean plays that are not as well-known such as Timon of Athens and Trolius and Cressida; allowing this performance to enlighten the audience on the inner layers of Shakespeare. Although the show will per-form Shakespeare’s plays, the manner in which the plays will be performed is extensively different from how the Globe Theatre would have put on a Shakespeare play. While most find many of Shakespeare’s plays serious and or plot heavy, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), transposes the early English mannerisms of Shakespeare and transforms them into the new era. The play follows three ac-tors who endeavor to do what

they believe have yet to be done, perform all 37 William Shakespeare plays within 97 minutes. As the trio goes along, they find they may not be the Shakespearean scholars they have made themselves to be. Howev-er, the three will not allow themselves to fail in their endeavor. With the help of cooking, rapping and foot-ball, the three actors strive to make sure the show does in fact go on. Taking on the incredulous endeavor of performing this comedic retelling of Shake-speare are seniors, Nicho-las Davies, John Oates and

Garrett Schwalbach. The show, which calls for much improvisa-tion, has allowed the actors to take hold of the show and make it their own. Through rehears-als which started at the begin-ning of February, the show has transformed from mere words on a page to a world of live en-tertainment at its fin-est. The actor-generated movement is what di-rector Scott Cole high-lights and commends his actors for. During the rehearsal process, Cole said that, “It is a pleasure watching improvisational move-ments be created by the actors.” Cole also expressed how he hopes the audience will have an enjoyable and entertaining night at the theater watching

this witty and hilarious show. The Complete Works of Wil-liam Shakespeare (abridged) will not only entertain the audience from the stage, but will also encourage audience participa-tion. During the performance the entire theatre audience will be incorporated into the show making the audience the se-cret fourth cast member of the show. Along with director Cole are several students who have dedi-cated their time to work show. senior Will Browning and ju-nior James Custer are serving as assistant directors. An invaluable aspect of this particular show are the props that will be used throughout the performance. Property Master, Laine Mills has been working diligently to acquire props for this very heavily focused prop induced show. Mills says, “It has been difficult due to the strange props that are used by the ac-tors in the show.”

Additional crew includes se-niors Morgan Elkins who is serving as stage manager; as-sistant stage manager Jonathan Trejo; Jennifer Scalfani as as-sistant set designer; Bashar Mu-rad as dramaturge, and Bekki Haines as assistant light de-signer. Three local community mem-bers have also stepped in to help bring this show to life. Shan-non Dove is set designer, Holly Labbe is costume designer and David Vogel is light designer. While the show will be per-formed in Cole Hall, reserva-tions for the performances are recommended and can be re-served by calling 540-828-5631. Show performances will be held at 8 p.m. Feb. 27 through March 1 with a matinee performance on March 2 at 3 p.m. The show will count as a convocation for Bridgewater students. Tickets will be $9 for adults and $7 for seniors and non-BC students....

Story and photos by Morgan Elkins

Seniors Nicholas davies, John Oates and Garrett Schwal-bach practice for their three-man performance of Shake-speare’s greatest.

8 Commununity in Action

“Receive love. Give love. Repeat.” This inspirational motto belongs to RISE

a religious, United Method-ist Faith Community located in Harrisonburg, Va. RISE focuses on giving love and ac-ceptance with open arms to the Harrisonburg community and anyone who wishes to be a part of their community. In response to the question, “What makes you differ-ent from every other church in Harrisonburg?” RISE responds on their website with, “We believe that many churches say one thing and do another. We love you, but ...” At RISE, we believe in a love with no strings attached. Ev-eryone means everyone. And we want to share that with our community.” RISE has a United Method-ist foundation, but that does not mean that you must be a Methodist to go! It means that their overall theology of open hearts, open arms, and open minds. The idea for RISE itself was developed in 2009 from a ministry group at JMU who wanted to spread a love for Jesus. What began as a church group for college students in late 2009, quickly grew and has changed many lives. RISE be-gan when the leaders from the JMU Wesley Foundation—a campus ministry—that changes were needed. They wanted to answer the questions, “Who are we? Who are we called to be? What are we called to do?” The answers were not found un-til they turned outward to the community and saw what they needed to do, help the commu-nity. RISE works hard to make contributions to the commu-

By Abby Blair and Cyndi WIbe

RISE to live and love equallyA United Methodist Foundation serving the community

Community in Action is a partnership between The Community Foundation, United Way and Veritas.

nity. They have a Rise & Shine program that collects hygiene products for families that can-not afford them. On the first Sunday of every month, they get together at their Mission House and put the products into pack-ages for the families in need. The second program is Love Packs. It is a program through RISE in that provides meals on the weekends to about 30 kids

in need at Spotswood Elemen-tary. They get together every Thursday night in the Mission House to pack backpacks with meals and give them to the kids on Friday. Volunteers are always welcome to help out with these missions! They also like volun-teers for set up and clean up be-fore and after each service. The next event they have coming up is Open Doors. It is a week-long event, Feb. 17 through 24. They offer warm meals to homeless and hungry community members. The mis-sion will not be complete with-out help. Food and volunteers are needed still. Volunteers will be needed to help with dinner and overnight shifts. If students are interested they can contact

Megan Marker at markermr@gmail.com. The event will be held at Faith Community Church, located at 1660 S. Main St. in Harrisonburg. Though RISE is in its slow season right now and not put-ting on a lot of events, Jen Landrein, a JMU graduate and leadership team member, said if someone does have an event they would like to put on, they

can assist them.“If someone needs help or sponsorship, we will be will-ing to help out,” explained Landrein. More of RISE’s core be-liefs are stated on their web-site and include, “Each of us is messed up. God loves us anyway. Nothing can separate us from God’s love. Nothing. We believe in the importance of taking risks. Together. God gives to us, so we give back.” This organization offers a variety of programs to help the community. Through their programs, our community is coming together to help those

in need. Along with bringing people together, RISE provides spiritual services. They offer a weekly worship that takes place every Sunday morning at 10 a.m. located at Court Square Theater in down-town Harrisonburg. Services originally targeted college stu-dents, but accept anyone who comes. Landrein said, “If you look in, you will see families and a lot of homeless people.” RISE welcomes you to come as you are, whether it be “in your pajamas or your wedding dress,” with whoever you would like to join in the open armed worship and love of Jesus that they will have waiting for you....

For a fun-filled night of amazing bluegrass music, you do not want to miss Grammy-award winner Peter Rowan’s Bluegrass Band who will be at Harrisonburg’s Court Square Theater Friday, Feb. 21 at 8 p.m. Peter Rowan’s Bluegrass Band consists of outstanding musicians with over 100 years of combined record-ing and performance experience. Joining guitarist Peter Rowan are Michael Witcher, dobro; Keith Little, banjo; and Paul Knight, bass. The ensemble has graced the stages of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Grey Fox, Merlefest, and numerous other festivals domestically and abroad, entertaining audiences with original and traditional. This will definitely be a show you do not want to miss.

Want to spend Saturday afternoon learning about the wide variety of cool birds right here in our local community? If so, “Feath-ered February: Get to Know Your Local Birds” at the North River Library is the place for you to be on Saturday, March 1 at 1 p.m.! Dr. Robyn Puffenbarger from Bridgewater College will be presenting about our local birds and it will be interesting and en-gaging for those who love the outdoors and want to know what they see when they are out and about.

Come out and get a delicious meal on Saturday, March 8 that you do not have to clean up afterward, AND support the community all at the same time. For your dining pleasure, there will be a meal full of flavorful choices! Instead of choosing to go out to just any restaurant, join this delightful Our Community Place fundraiser. Bring a friend, bring family, bring the one you love the most and experience Our Community Place’s Second Saturday Night Out! Suggested donation is $20/person and 25 percent of proceeds go to help Nan Boukan, a community in Haiti, where folks usually eat one plate of rice every other day. If you’d like to go ahead and reserve a space, call 540-442-7727, or email OCP at info@ourcommunityplace.org.

For all you lovers of poetry and literature, we have the place for you! Come out to listen to poet and author, Dr. Sarah Kennedy at the Massanutten Regional Main Library. She will be discussing her book The Altarpiece on Monday, March 10 at 1p.m.

RiSE is not just for college students, but for anyone who is interested.

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This week’s events and opportunities

FEB 19-MAR 4 2014

9 Arts & Style

Tidewater Guitar Orchestra to perform on campus

Want to enjoy a one of a kind guitar or-chestra? On Thurs-

day, Feb. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Carter Center, the Tidewater Guitar Orchestra (TGO) will be preforming classical com-positions, including pieces by Bach, Telemann and Mozart. In addition, they will also play a few modern tunes. Composed of a large group of musicians playing three dif-ferent types of guitars, this clas-sical guitar orchestra is a one of a kind here in the United States. It began with the Tide-water Classical Guitar Society in 1984. According to the Tide-water Classical Guitar website, the nonprofit group began with “a mission to provide cultural and educational opportunities to those interested in classical guitar.” Each year the Society does performances by many of the world’s best-known guitar-ists and lutenists. In 1996 Sam Dorsey—a professor of Mu-sic and Humanities at Norfolk State University—founded the Tidewater Guitar Orchestra. Inspired by a similar orchestra in Costa Rica, the TGO was formed based on the concept of a large group of musicians playing three different types of guitar. There is the classical gui-tar, soprano guitars, and bass guitars. A classical guitar is an acous-tical wooden guitar with six guitar stings. The shape of the classical guitar differs from the acoustic. Classical guitars are more round while acoustics are squarer—the head stock as well—and have a piece of plas-tic next to the sound hole—the hole in guitar. Classical guitar strings are nylon and finger

plucked while acoustics use picks to strum the metal strings. Nylon strings create a smooth sound, while metal strings cre-ate a more crisp sound. The second type of guitar is the soprano guitar, also known as the requinto. Requinto means a smaller, high-pitched version of another instrument. A requinto guitar has six ny-lon strings. Introduced by the Mexican guitarist and vocalist Alfredo Gil, this little guitar has a pitch that is higher than a clas-sical guitar. The third guitar, the bass gui-tar, plays a pitch range lower than the classical guitar. It func-tions as a supportive role creat-ing a pulse and foundation for the music. Together these dif-ferent types of guitars use an array of sounds that come to-gether to create the contempo-rary works and classical compo-sitions of TGO. The Virginia Commission of Arts (VCA) and the Na-tional Endowment for the Arts (NEA) are sponsoring this con-vocation, according to Dr. Jef-fery Pierson, the Convocation Director. “The VCA and NEA are state and federal agencies that promote the arts by pro-viding financial assistance to organizations that present fine arts to the community,” Pierson said. This year, the convocation department was presented with grants to bring TGO, along with several other musical groups, to campus. Going to miss out on the Tidewater Guitar Orchestra? Keep a look out for the next upcoming musical group, Io-na—a Celtic group—coming to campus in March. ...

Not just stringing you along

By Cyndi Wibe

Music is art, and in for-mer Grateful Dead member Bob Weir’s

words, “It’s music and poetry and it’s art, and it can do what art can do.” On February 8, I was able to witness that mix in the pur-est kind at a Grateful Dead art exhibit in downtown Roanoke, Va. The exhibit featured the only licensed photographer of the Grateful Dead, a Grateful Dead painter and poster maker. I was so excited that I came home for the weekend to check it out and hoped to buy an au-thentic picture that is not sold in regular stores and accessible all. The Grateful Dead, a popular jam band that began in the 60’s, had a major impact on not only rock n roll music, but also made cultural changes we still have today. They were the evolution of tie-dye shirts, hippies, music file sharing and jam sessions. They are my favorite and most inspirational band to listen to. A group of loved ones and I showed up at the exhibit around 4 p.m. and spent about an hour flipping through all the pictures in a matte frame. There were larger pictures in wonder-ful frames, but the price range for those far exceeded the bud-get for this classic broke college student. We stayed by the bins containing pictures priced from $15 to $30, which was actually everything I could have hoped for. We spent our time showing each other the awesome ones we found and laughed at the ones that showed the famous goofy facial expressions of Phil Lesh and the short jean shorts

By Lacey Naff

Grateful Dead art exhibit“Helping the legacy live on”

of Bob Weir back in the 80’s. The one that wrenched my heart and won me over though was a picture of lead singer Jerry Garcia singing one my favorite songs “Row Jimmy.” Any Garcia fan knows when he is feeling the music because his eyes squint in a soulful manner and that look literally gives me cold chills. I grabbed that photo and did not let go. Being a huge Grateful Dead fan my whole life, I wanted to talk to Robbie Cohn, who was the photographer for the band because I knew that she has lived an extremely fun and in-teresting life thus far. I took my chosen picture to purchase and asked if she would sign it for me, as she graciously signed it and addressed it to myself. We talked to her for a few minutes and she explained to us how she started going to Grateful Dead concerts in 1971 but by 1980 or so she realized that she needed to do something in order to af-ford to keep seeing them. She had the idea to photo-graph them because she could

get paid to do what she loves. Cohn has been up close and personal at so many shows, and has even spent time with Jerry Garcia and the other members. I felt lucky to be in her presence, as I would be in the presence of anyone who has attended their shows or knows them. Cohn’s personality was so warm and welcoming and it was clear she appreciated any-one who appreciated her work. People like her are a great repre-sentation of the loving Grateful Dead culture and that made my entire day. I left the exhibit feel-ing thankful that, even though Jerry Garcia is no longer with us and the original Grateful Dead is longer together, that there are so many people out there helping make the legacy live on for those of us who did not have the opportunity to see them ourselves. The Grateful Dead family is still as strong as ever in this country and I am happy to be a part of it. ...

Display of pictures taken by Grateful Dead photographer Rob-bie Cohn in downtown Roanoke, Va.

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FEB 19-MAR 4 2014

FEB 19-MAR 4 201410 Arts & Style

Since this past Wednesday, I have been trying my hand at horseback riding.

This is something I have ex-tremely little experience with and Wednesday was my first lesson. An incredibly significant thing to learn is how to find the rhythm of the horse. Once you find that rhythm, the two of you can move together, almost glide…in a jolted kind of sense. Unlike horseback riding, it has taken me about 21 years to fig-ure out there is a natural rhythm in life. There comes a time for ev-eryone when they start to make decisions that will follow them for the rest of their lives. This sounds intense and terrifying, but really it is all about follow-ing where our hearts lead us. It is not even up to us to decide where we go. Inside each of us is what is often referred to as personality. No matter where we are from, what life is like, we each have our own personality. We influence it when we need to, but generally that is what drives us in our waking lives. This is what works with our minds (somehow) to develop interests and passions. In the end, we never make a decision out of the blue. We follow an instinct. We follow our hearts. Hold your hand over your heart or press your index and middle fingers to feel your pulse in your neck or your wrist. That pulse is the rhythm of your life. Just like no two horses will have the exact same gait, thus causing every ride to feel dif-ferent, no two hearts have the same pulse. Therefore, no one has the same life beat. We often like to ask for advice for differ-ent events or occurrences that pop up in our lives. There is absolutely nothing wrong with

this, as long as we understand that it is our decision to make in the end. One of the things I have been working on with riding is trotting. When the horse walks, each hoof hits the ground on its own beat. There are never two hooves that hit the ground simultaneously while a horse is walking. When it gets into a trot, the rhythm is cut in half. Now there are two hooves hit-ting the ground at the same time, so the beat goes from four counts down to two. While the horse is trotting, the riders tend to post. This means with every beat, they will rise or sit on the saddle. There is one mo-tion per beat. In one beat, the rider rises; in the next beat, the rider sits. This sequence is re-peated however long the horse is trotting. This is where it is vi-tal to be able to find a rhythm and follow it. Without finding that rhythm, figuring out when to post would be extremely dif-ficult if not impossible. In the same sense, while moving through life it is im-portant that we find the rhythm and find a way to move with it. When we miss a beat or find ourselves offbeat altogether, we feel an incessant sense of dis-cord in our lives. To get to this point, we tend to take a path our feet have never travelled and do not navigate very well. When we find ourselves here, we have stopped following the rhythm our hearts beat for us. The solution to being off-beat in both the saddle and in life is to take a moment, slow your mind, and find the rhythm again. While finding a rhythm on a bouncing horse might be somewhat easier than finding it in a not-so-tangible organ, there is a way to find both. On

Finding Your RythymBy Jess Snellings

a horse, I can find the rhythm by staying down on the saddle for a beat or two, regaining a sense of where the beat is, and resume posting once the sense of rhythm fills me. In life, if a decision or circumstance causes me stress or immense displea-sure and I start to feel utterly hopeless, I can assume I am not in the groove of my heart’s rhythm. Weighing out options helps, and when I come to one that makes the extra weight on my shoulders lift away com-pletely, I can count on that be-ing the route I need to take. Because this matter is so sub-jective, it is impossible for me to give a perfect description of being on or offbeat that will apply with everyone. Gener-ally speaking, from listening to friends and family, family of friends, I have found that symptoms of losing rhythm are about the same. The feeling that comes with falling back on beat comes in various forms. I have heard many say it is a re-moval of weight, a clearing of the mind, a brightening of the mood and/or an overall better attitude towards life. In my own experiences I have found that the world, perhaps even the universe, seems to have a rhythm that drives it. We all fit into it somewhere. Our job is to find out where each beat is, let it flow through us and then follow it. We can even count it out in our heads if we need to. One-two, one-two, one-two… No one can tell us where our cadence carries us: we are the only ones who feel it. As long as we take a moment to make sure we are following that heart beat and follow it to the best of our abilities, we are following our hearts and there is no way we could ever be happier....

SidewinderBy Whitney Debilzan

Sneaky thing you are,Twisting your body through the grass as words spill out of your

mouth,Filthy poison to infect the earth,With your own personal brand

of absolute disgust,We need to stay pure,We must stay clean,

We must mean what we say and say what we mean,You rule the world,With an iron fist,

But even the greatest of tyrants must eventually fall,

High from your lofty places,Hitting the ground with a sicken-

ing crunch,No little sidewinder,Do not blame me,

For it was you who elevated your-self so far above the rest.

And you only have yourself to blame,

Enjoy the fall

This issue’s featured cam-pus poet is sophomore Whitney Debilzan. De-

bilzan is a young poet, having started writing and recording her work her senior year in high school. “Yes,” Debilzan answered when I asked her whether or not she considered herself a poet. “A poet is someone who finds the best way to share their thoughts with the world is to put them on paper. That is ex-actly what I do.” Debilzan believes that her writing style stands out from others because she is bold. “No sugar coating,” she said, emphasizing that she writes ex-actly what she is feeling at that particular point in time. “Maybe I can inspire others to write too,” Debilzan stated when I asked her what she hopes to accomplish with her writing. Debilzan wants to be published “so the world can share my thoughts with me.” Debilzan is also in the edit-ing process of her upcoming

book, “20 Tiny Details that I Never Factored In.” So as not to let the cat out of the bag too soon, Debilzan didn’t go into detail on what exactly the book is about, but she did say that she hopes to start the publishing process by May 20 of this year. Debilzan says “poetry can set you free and ease your mind.” She says she finds it best to write when she is troubled about something or anxious. “It’s the only way I know to let those thoughts out.” “This poem is for the peo-ple who look down on me…no matter what you do to me, in the end you are the one that is hurt with only yourself to blame,” Debilzan says about the piece, “Sidewinder”, that she chose to feature. If you’d like to be a featured poet in the next issue of Veritas, please contact me (Rianna Hill) at reh002@eagles.bridgewater.edu, so you too can share your writings with Bridgewater’s campus and the surrounding community!...

Inspired!

Featured campus poet: Whitney DebilzanBy Rianna Hill

Writer’s Block

11 SportsFEB 19-MAR 4 2014

The Bridgewater College Men’s basketball team is on a three game win-

ning streak and look to con-tinue this success on Feb. 19, when they host their cross town rivals Eastern Mennonite Uni-versity. Not only is this a rivalry and conference game, this will be the last regular season home game which denotes senior night. There are seven seniors on this year’s team by the names of Ronnie Thomas, Tavis Staple-ton, Kenneth Waugh, Daniel McClain, Romie Powell, David Larson, and Kyle Van Orden. These gentlemen have worked hard over the years and contrib-uted heavily to their team each

By Jason Manago-Graves

Men’s Basketball: Band of BrothersEagles hope to make it to the tournament after a winning start

time they put on a uniform. Though at times they were plagued with injury, they con-tinued to believe and support each other which are the defini-tion of true teammates. For as long as he has been on campus, team Captain Ronnie Thomas has been a leader on and off the court for his team-mates. His hard work, prepara-tion, and dedication to the game of basketball have influenced many people around him, and have gained him the upmost respect from his peers. Humil-ity and humbleness aren’t traits that you find every day in a lot of people but most students and staff will affirm that Ron-nie is a well-mannered student-

athlete. Ronnie is always in-tense and whether it is a game of NBA 2k14 or real life, he wants to win at all costs. “If you don’t win, you lose. Simple as that,” Ronnie said. However, he has had the biggest impact on his counterpart Tavis Stapleton from Car-thage, Texas. Tavis is a proud Texas native and it will not take long at all for him to remind you of that. As a basketball player one of his idols is an NBA player by the name of Paul George,

an All-Star for the Indiana Pacers, who also came out of the state of Texas. Ronnie and Tavis are four year starters for the Eagles and have grown and ma-tured together as not only teammates but as men. In fact, they have such a com-petitive edge against each other that in practice they won’t spar or defend each other to avoid any tussling. When asked of this re-lationship with Ronnie, Tavis chuckled and stated, “That’s my brother, we work out and shoot to-gether all the time but it’s something about our will to win that will make us feel like foes on the basket-ball court … I’ve learned so much from Ronnie without him even having to say anything; his work ethic speaks for itself and

is definitely a great teammate to go to battle with.” This past summer, Ronnie encouraged Tavis to stay in the area to work out and sharpen their skills on the court which strengthened their relation-ship along with their basketball skills. Due to the fact that I lived nearby, I had the opportunity to witness the practice those guys put in all summer while work-ing on campus 40 hours a week. For starters the sun showed no mercy each day they were out-side working hard to help keep the maintenance of the campus in great shape. Deciding to stay in the area over the summer with Ronnie to work on his game was one of the best decisions he made according to Tavis. He feels it contributed to a new focus and energy for this season as a whole. Tavis is averaging 12 points and six rebounds on the season

while also shooting 77 percent from the free throw line. He has been helping his team in any ev-ery way this year whether it is with his jump shot, rebounding, or playing tough defense. Junior, Ed Reddick has car-ried the scoring load for the Eagles this year by averaging 14.6 points per game while also Kenneth Waugh has been scorching from the three-point line. Daniel McClain has also forced his presence in the post as well as knocking down that mid-range pull up. The Eagles have faced some ups and downs this season but with the help of their wing-man Tavis Stapleton, Captain Ronnie Thomas, and the other seniors the Eagles look to fin-ish the season strong heading into tournament play. Be sure to show your support on senior night Eagle fans!...

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Number 10, Tavis Stapleton, dribbles around a vMi defender.

Captain, Ronnie Thomas, concentrates as he takes a shot against a vMi player.

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12 Sports FEB 19-MAR 4 2014

Senior, Carrie Crowther is now considered to be the most decorated

swimmer in Bridgewater Col-lege history after the ODAC Championship meet took place the weekend of Feb. 7, which was the last meet of her swimming career. In the ODAC Championship, B r i d g e w a t e r ’s swim team fin-ished fifth over-all. At the meet, Crowther earned third in the 200 yard freestyle, fourth in the 100 yard freestyle and fifth in the 50 yard freestyle. Those p e r f o r m a n c -es earned her Bridgewater Col-lege Performer of the Week. “To be honest, I didn’t even know I had been named Bridgewater player of the week! I am really hon-ored to have been selected,” Crowther said. Currently, Crowther holds 21 combined school records including new records in the 50, 100 and 200 yard free-style events and the 200 me-ter freestyle. “When I swam, I didn’t nec-essarily go out to break re-cords every time I got in the pool. I just wanted to have

By Emily Higgins

Senior Spotlight: Carrie CrowtherThings do not always work out the way you plan

a great race and improve on my time. It wasn’t all about breaking records, but I am proud of my accomplish-ments,” Crowther said. Besides holding so many records, Crowther is the

only Bridgewater swimmer to earn All-ODAC honors three times and she is still let-ting that fact sink in. “It is a lot to take in … I hope the team continues to grow and get faster so that more people can achieve the same thing,” Crowther said. What is even more as-tonishing than her achieve-ments is that Crowther did not plan on being a swimmer at Bridgewater College or any college for that matter.

Crowther began swimming when she was five years old but stopped when she was 12 years old. During middle and high school she played field hockey and soccer in-stead. She did not competi-

tively start s w i m -m i n g again until she came to Bridge-water. After dec id ing to attend B r i d g e -water be-cause she w a n t e d to go to a small s c h o o l and she r e a l l y liked the c a m p u s , Crowther

planned on playing field hockey for the school. “I had originally tried out for the field hockey team. When I didn’t make the team, I decided I wanted to swim again,” Crowther said. Instead of being discour-aged by a change in her origi-nal plans, Crowther decided to set her sights on swim-ming where she achieved much success. When asked who she might owe that success to she re-

sponded, “I don’t think my success is owed to just one person. I started swimming because of my older cousin, and when I decided to try it again at Bridgewater, Fran Smith was willing to see what I had to offer … she con-tinued to work with me so I could get faster… And of course my parents have been supportive of me the entire time.” Now that her swimming career has come to a close she is mostly happy about how it turned out. “For the most part, yes [I am happy]. At my last ODAC championship, I placed high-er in each of my events than in previous years, so I was happy with that. I wish that I had been able to bring back an individual first place to Bridgewater, but I tried my best and that’s all I could do,” Crowther said. Even though swimming at Bridgewater was not what she had planned on, Crowther would not go back and change anything. “Sometimes I think about where I might be if I had not taken a break from swim-ming. I may have ended up at a different school, who knows, but I wouldn’t trade the experiences that I have had at Bridgewater,” Crowther said. Crowther made the best of her experience here at

Bridgewater and now looks to achieving other goals like being a physical education teacher at an elementary school. As she will no longer be a college athlete she does have some advice for any in-coming freshman athletes. “Sometimes things don’t work out the way you had planned, but don’t be dis-couraged. As long as you work hard and balance ath-letics and academics it is all worth it. Being a college ath-lete is special because you have your friends you meet through classes and around campus, but you also have your team as another family,” Crowther said.

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Crowther smiles while standing on top of the podium after taking third place in the 200 freestyle event at OdaCs .

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Crowther shows her love for swimming with a huge smile in this underwater photo. Crowther says she loves swim-ming because “it keeps you in great shape and is just a lot of fun.”

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