Home Sweet Home

By Abigail Wolfgang

BALTIMORE, MD– With summer just around the corner, dumpsters are lined up outside the residence halls and signs are displayed across doors.  It is hard to ignore what time of the year it is.  Another semester has come to an end and whether students plan on staying in the Baltimore area or heading back home, everyone is gearing up to move out.

For residents in dormitories with shared apartments the moving out process may be a little more complicated than it is for some freshmen on Hillside with only one roommate.  The more roommates there are living together, the more cleaning there is to accomplish.

Meaghan Woods junior phycology major does not seem too excited about dividing up the cleaning duties between her five other roommates.

“It’s really annoying. It’s difficult to split up the work because people move out on different days,” complains Woods.

To help with the cleaning process RA’s distributed lists from Student Life to the apartments to assign chores for each room. Once the rooms are cleaned and students are checked out, they are free to head home.

For many students, heading home is as simple as packing their car and driving home.  For others, it is not so simple.

Junior communication major Breelyn Starrett has a journey ahead of her.  As a Florida resident, her trip entails much more than packing her car.  Starrett’s dad will leave their home on May 9 and stop in North Carolina on his way up to Loyola.  Then they will spend a night in Maryland together before heading back down south.  They plan on stopping again in North Carolina before finally making it back to Florida.

“I’m making a nice trip out of it since it’s a 13 hour drive.  I’ll be home just in time to be a mother’s day gift,” Starrett said.

For another family, the trip has become routine. With two Loyola graduates and two current students the Quintanos are no strangers to the drive to and from Loyola.  There dad will drive their van down from their Easter Chester, NY home to bring back his junior and sophomore daughters, Eva and Tammy.

“We will pack up Eva’s things as soon as my dad gets here, and then we will pack up mine.  My dad has a 14-seater van so we are lucky that everything will fit together,” said Tammy Quintano.

The one thing that is most notable around campus is the feeling of excitement for summer despite the cleaning and moving out process.

 

Karmin and Shwayze Take the Stage

By: Kendall Hartzell

BALTIMORE, Md.– On April 28,Loyola University hosted their annual Loyolapolooza festival concert. Students gathered on the quad to enjoy bands Karmin and Shwayze who kept the crowd dancing and entertained.

The first act of the afternoon was Shwayze. Shwayze,born Aaron Smith, is a rapper from Mailbu, California. He was discovered by Cisco Adler when he started freestyle rapping on stage during his friend Alex Orbison’s band Whitestarr’s performance.

He was then later signed in 2007 with Geffen Records. At Loyola, Shwayze performed many of his hits and new songs including “Corona and Lime“, and one of his newest songs “Love is Overrated“.

Sophomore Cassandra Halko, a public relations and advertising major from New York said, “Shwayze is extremely unique. His songs are rap with a reggae twist.”

Also during Shwayze’s performance of his hit “Buzzin“, one student decided to climb a tree in front of the stage. After the song ended Shwayze said “look at that guy up in the tree!” The Loyola Police immediately came through the crowd and escorted the student away from the concert.

The second act of the day was chart topper Karmin. Duo consists of singer Amy graduated from Berklee College of Music along with her fiancé Nick. They both began their success with covering hit songs. Amy, who is one of the singers of the duo, is not only a rapper but also a talented singer.

When she performed Karmin’s breakout cover song “Look At Me Now” in April 2011, she certainly proved her musical talent. In addition, she won Rolling Stone magazine’s Women Who Rock competition. Karmin sang many of hits from their debut album of May 2012 and new songs as well.

Sophomore Kathleen McCarthy, a psychology major from Pennsylvania, said, “I definitely think Karmin is unique. Every person in the band has a great personality, especially Amy who was completely mesmerizing. “

While performing their hit cover song “Look At Me Now”, Amy pulled a student named Anika up on stage to help her rap the song. Halko remarked, “I’ve seen the Youtube video with Karmin rapping that song and Anika was just as good. It was awesome to see such amazing talent coming from a student in our school.”

Overall, students seemed to really enjoy Karmin’s performance over Shwayze’s. Junior Kim Ruiz, a sociology major from New Jersey, explained, “I thought that Karmin was a clear better choice for a performer and did a great job with keeping the crowd entertained and the energy levels high.”

Let’s Worship

By Charles Cuthrell

Baltimore, MD -“My God is Awesome,” is one of the songs sung by Chosen Generation, Loyola’s Gospel Choir, in the Alumni Chapel on April 20^th, 2013. Students, friends, parents, and administrators all gathered in the chapel on a beautiful spring day to hear the melodies and harmonies from Chosen Generation.

The concert featured Chosen Generation and the Loyola’s Praise Dance Team led by juniors Jordan and Joelle Hernandez. Audience members were impressed with the different songs and dances that were performed during the concert. The concert opened with Chosen Generation singing “You are good,” composed by Israel and New Breed. This cheerful song grabbed the attention of the audience right from the beginning of the concert. “I really enjoyed listening to their upbeat songs and seeing their passion as they sang,” said junior Emma Freese. Chose Generation’s musical selection during the concert lifted the spirits of the audience members.

 

Chosen Generation chose upbeat and slow songs that complemented their theme of the night, “Let’s Worship.” Throughout the concert the emcee for the night Maurice Carroll, director of Chosen Generation, reminded the audience to reflect on the songs so each member of the audience could form a personal connection to the songs. The choir stressed how all the songs they sang were personal and what the meaning behind each song was. “The main motive of our concert was for people to reflect on their own lives by making the songs personal,” said sophomore Devon Stone, a member of Chosen Generation. There were moments throughout the concert where people could think and reflect.

Chosen Generation ended the concert with a selection by Jonathan Nelson called “Strong Finish.” After the selection, audience members rose to their feet and rendered the choir with applause. Many audience members enjoyed all the songs that they heard that night, which was seen through their participation throughout the concert.

Chosen Generation is a yearlong gospel choir at Loyola University of Maryland. Each year they have a winter and a spring concert. This year’s choir included two seniors, Alexa Stone and Alexa Cavacchioli. The concert concluded with both seniors being recognized for their hard work and dedication to the choir. “Four years have gone by so fast,” said senior Alexa Stone, president of Chosen Generation, “it has been a blessing for me to be a member of the choir since I was a freshman. I can truly say I have enjoyed every minute of it, and I have made some lifelong friendships.”

 

Loyola Jazz Spring Concert

By Shanika Peck

Baltimore, Md- On April 25 at 8 o’clock students, faculty and staff poured through the doors of McManus Theatre for Loyola’s jazz spring concert.

This event featured Loyola’s Jazz Ensemble that consisted of several students, alumni and faculty members. Special guests included retired faculty members who continued their involvement in live music. The lighting of the stage created a smooth and sophisticated atmosphere as members of the audience snapped their fingers to the sounds of jazz.

As an introduction into the concert the Jazz Ensemble performed musical pieces by Duke Ellington and Irving Mills. Among the audience were students from all class years, faculty and a few visiting parents.

 A few audience members were specifically there to give respect to the seniors of the ensemble and support them on their last performance of the year. Several members of the jazz ensemble had a chance at a solo performance.

Senior Akua Frimpong, who is a member of the trombone section, shared a nervous smile with her friends in the crowd. Prior to her performance she shared how happy she was to finish the year with her favorite instrument. “I will truly miss playing the trombone in between studying for my Microbiology class,” she said.

Erica Maduakolam a senior at Loyola, and friend of Akua Frimpong explained how this was her first time seeing her close friend play. “She really did a great job,” she said as she took several photographs.

Director Anthony Villa, who is a Professor of Music at Loyola University, hoped that the audience enjoyed the concert. Like Director Villa, Kenneth McNickle, a senior, wished the audience had enjoyed the concert as much as he enjoyed his four years of participation in the jazz ensemble. “Words should be able to express how grateful I am for the past four years, but they can’t.”

 

Chimes and Belles Rock McManus Theater

BY MARIA ARENAS

On Apr. 26 and 27 a sold-out crowd gathered in McManus Theater for the semi-annual presentation of Chordbusters.

The popular event that features Loyola’s a-cappella groups, the Chimes and the  Belles, offered audience members a fun night of music with a hint of comedy. The showcase, which began with comedy sketches created by both groups, had audience members laughing and intrigued from the start.

Sophomore Hope Gamper, who attended Chordbusters for the first time on Friday, said that show was a lot better than what she thought it was going to be. “Well I had never gone to a show before so I didn’t know what to expect, but it ended up being really good and funny,” she said.

Like Gamper, Sophomore Sarah Ortiz also enjoyed the performances by the Chimes and the Belles.  “I had a lot of fun watching them perform,” Ortiz said. “It looks like they work hard and you could see in their performance.”

Both Ortiz and Gamper explained how they were impressed by the comedy that was produced by both groups. “The comedy sketches were really funny,” Gamper said.“Especially the Chimes’ mock Pokémon battle, that was really funny.”

Having already attended a Chordbusters show before sophomore Lauren Andes knew about how funny the show was, but explained that this show had been a lot better. “The Chimes were really funny and entertaining and the Belles had a lot of songs I knew so I was  able to sing along,” Andes said.

Andes said that she really liked it when the Belles sang Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble.” “It’s one of my favorite songs, so I was really excited when I heard them start singing it,” she said.

Since these Chordbusters shows were the last ones of the 2012-2013 school year both the Chimes and the Bells had tributes for the seniors. Ortiz said that this was one of the best parts of the show.

“I really liked that the Chimes senior song was ‘Bye Bye Bye’ it really made the show,” Ortiz said. Although Gamper did enjoy the senior songs she states that the last song of Chordbusters was the best part.

“I thought that Chordbusters ending with both the Chimes and the Belles singing together was really nice,” Gamper said. “And the fact that it was the ‘Circle of Life’ just completed the show.”

 

 

 

Belles and Chimes please crowd at Chordbusters

by Amanda Ghysel

The line stretched from the box office all the way through Boulder Thursday morning as students waited for tickets sales to open for Loyola’s semiannual a cappella show.

Chordbusters, the always popular end-of-semester showcase of the Belles and the Chimes, was held April 26 and 27 in McManus Theater to sold out crowds both nights.

The show began, as always, with skits from both groups. The Chimes, Loyola’s all-male a cappella group, transported the audience back to the early 2000s, engaging in a mock-Pokemon duel, which ended with the entire group falling on the floor and freshman member TJ Cook III telling the audience, “There’s a metaphor here but we haven’t found it yet either.”

The Belles, the all-female group, held a humorous group therapy session, complete with a Snapchat addict, Where’s Waldo enthusiasts, and a mumps patient.

The Chimes’ set list included some oldies but goodies like “Come On, Eileen” and “Only the Good Die Young” mixed with some contemporary favorites like One Republic’s “Secrets.” The audience favorite, however, was Chris Maymon and Kyle Jones’ rendition of 90s pop hit “Bye Bye Bye,” complete with boy band-esque choreography.

The Belles also mixed old and new with top 40 favorite “It’s Time” and Whitney Houston classic “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” and concluded with Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble.”

“I think this was one of the best Chordbusters I’ve ever seen,” said junior Alex Snyder, who has been attending the performances since her freshman year. “I think it’s so popular because the show is always funny and the music is fantastic and people like to see their friends perform.”

During Saturday’s performance, each group honored their graduating seniors as the Chimes said goodbye to crowd favorites Chris Maymon and Kyle Jones and the Belles bid adieu to leaders Amanda Hale and Claire Tomes.

“It’s sad to see the seniors go,” said sophomore Johanna Sullivan. “I’ve loved watching them perform over the past two years.”

This concert was the Belles and Chimes’ finale for the 2012-2013 school year, but both groups will hold auditions for new members upon returning to Loyola in the fall.

Symposium on Social Advertising

By Kaila Rooney

S#6

On Tuesday, April 23^rd Loyola’s Communication Department held a symposium on social media advertising. The symposium included a panel of five professionals in the advertising world that came to share their knowledge on social media.

The panelists included Kelsey Jones, Leland Malinski, Matt McDermott, Neal Shaffer, and Dan Mechhi, all of who work in and around the Baltimore area. Throughout the symposium, each speaker got up and gave a short presentation on social media; they explained what they thought about it, where it was going, and what its place was in the advertising world. First to speak were Kelsey Jones and Leland Malinski. During their presentation, they discussed how a company should use social media and how it shouldn’t. To help get their point across, they used to two examples, Navy Federal Union Bank and the Red Cross.

Navy Federal uses social media sites to reach out to their customers. This is their way of showing that they are always there for their customers; ready to answer any questions at any time. The Red Cross uses social media when disaster strikes; they use it to reach out to the community, and to send out alerts to let people know what is going on. However, when there aren’t any disasters they use it to recruit people to help them for when disaster does happen.

In their presentation, the two tried to cover the main points. “Always tell a story,” Jones said, “use an active voice and think about what you say, don’t just say something to say it.” In order to avoid tweeting something a company could regret, Jones and Malinski said to come up with a social media campaign. This would mean planning out everything the company would tweet for about a month in advance so everything is approved before it goes out to the public.

Another key speaker at the event was Matt McDermott. “Social is overrated,” he said. McDermott was a very big advocate of traditional advertising and claimed that all social media advertising stemmed from the traditional. According to him, social is good because it helps engage consumers but it is just one part of something much bigger.

Students who went to the event seemed to agree with the speakers. “I love using social media but it is important to be careful with what you say,” Katie Karwoski, a sophomore from New York, said. “It was also nice to hear that it isn’t completely taking over and that traditional advertising still exists.”

 

Asia Fest

By Shanika Peck

Baltimore, Md.- In celebration of Asian Pacific Islander awareness month, ASA, Asian Cultural Alliance, at Loyola University held its annual Asia Fest in McGuire Hall on April 17.

This year, ASA collaborated with numerous restaurants and groups in the Baltimore area.

The collaboration of groups included the Hopkins Hip Hop team and Bon Rai dance group, along with ALANA services and Loyola event services. Cuisine featured at this event was from restaurants such as King Wok, Nak Won, Asian Taste, Mama Rosa and Kumari.

Hosting this event was Jordan Hernandez, a junior at Loyola. Many thanks were given to the stage manager Brittany Brin a senior and communications major, as well as to the countless volunteers and performers.

Returning students such as David Engelhardt, a junior at Loyola University, found the cuisine to be “authentic and a great representation of the cultures represented.”

Students quickly found seats and immediately joined the food line. There were an array of selections of cuisine ranging from Chinese, Thai, Philippine, Korean, and Japanese cuisines.

Opening the Asia Fest was the Loyola Dance Company, which welcomed the crowd with their modern twist of Asian melodies.

Following the Loyola Dance Company was Loyola’s Ju Jitsu Club, which included several members faculty from Loyola.

The newest addition to the Asia Fest came from California, Wong People. Their portion of the event truly awed the audience with their Chinese Lion Dance and thorough explanation of the history and techniques of martial arts.

Groups from John Hopkins University such as Hopkins Bharata and The Hip Hop Team left the crowd with an uproar of energy and excitement. Caelyn Sommerville, freshman at Loyola said “I had no idea there were dance groups like these at Johns Hopkins!”

The Hopkins Bharata club had Loyola students on their feet trying out new dances from the Indian culture.

Finally, closing the event, ASA’s Tinkling performers were cheered on by students as they performed routines from their repertoire. “The Asian Fest really impressed me. I didn’t expect a show where dance and martial arts were the main components” said Alice Maule.

Students new to the Asia fest enjoyed the event. Danielle Richards and Dana Arscott, freshmen at Loyola, both concluded that they enjoyed themselves and are “looking forward to coming back next year.”

Greycomm Studios is the Club to Watch

By: Kendall Hartzell

Baltimore, Md.- On April 21, Loyola students gathered in the Fourth Floor Programming Room for the Greycomm Studios 4th Annual Awards Banquet. The banquet celebrated not only student efforts within the club but also the impact the club has made beyond Loyola’s campus.

Greycomm Studios is a Loyola University Maryland’s campus television station where students create, edit and film their own TV shows and report the news. This year the club has been very successful with its hit shows The Good The Bad and Ugly, The Echo, Domestically Challenged and more.

The banquet started to celebrate this year’s success with a delicious Italian buffet. The buffet included chicken parmesan, salad, bread, alfredo pasta and baked ziti. The dress code for the event was semi-formal; girls wore dresses while boys wore suits and ties.

While students and professors of Greycomm Studios ate, they enjoyed a music video put together and performed by the seniors in the club. The song they selected was Can’t Touch This by MC Hammer.

Sophomore Taylor Morello, a communications major from New Hampshire, describes her thoughts on the music video and the departure of the seniors. She said “I thought the senior music video was really funny and I thought it was awesome that they got together one last time after all the time and hard work they have dedicated to Greycomm. I’m really going to miss them next year.” The seniors of the club were each awarded senior awards for their accomplishments this year.

All students who have invested a large amount of time and energy in Greycomm received awards throughout the night. Steve Celano, head of production, won a leadership award and Most Likely to Win a Emmy, while Morello earned Rookie of the Year and Best On Air Presence Award. The popular comedy show The Good the Bad and the Ugly was also honored with an award.

Jay Dunmore also went on to explain the accomplishments this year and how Greycomm is special. He explains that our equipment in our studio makes the club unique because a lot of other colleges do not have what we have and they are using our studio as an example. In addition he said that Greycomm won club of the year this year and remains the only school to broadcast streaming online as well as in high definition. Finally, he expressed how the club has made an impact on both Loyola’s community and outside of the community.

Sophomore Meg Rice, a communications major from New Jersey, shares her thoughts on Dunmore’s speech. “ I really loved Jay’s speech because not only did he talk about past accomplishments and how far Greycomm has come, but he really inspired us by talking about his goals for the future especially when he mentioned the theme for next year which is no limit.”

Loyola Students Help Construct a Village in Haiti

By Abby Wolfgang

Have you ever thought about becoming more involved at Loyola? It seems that as a Jesuit school everyone on campus is involved in service learning or volunteering, but making the commitment is often difficult with busy schedules.  The Children in Need Club is a way for students to make a difference in a foreign country without leaving campus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9cy64J-MF8

On Friday April 19^th the quad was filled with students crowded around various tables.  One “Rendez-Vous Haiti” table, hosted by Children in Need, stood out.  The atmosphere was very inviting. Students gathered around and posters of young children smiling were on display.  Cookies, bracelets and flip flops were for sale, and there were even sign-ups for an upcoming soccer tournament. This table was similar to ones that have been seen at lacrosse games and outside Boulder throughout the year, so what is Rendez-Vous Haiti?

Rendez-Vous Haiti partners with Children in Need to raise money to improve the situation in a Haitian community. Both clubs work on fundraising events to support needy children in the Village of Notre Dame de Lourdes in Santo.  “It’s a very safe village in a very unsafe city. It’s outside Pour Au Prince. So what we do is try to raise money to fund the programs that they already have,” said junior and Children in Need Club President Carolyn Ketterer.

Rendez-Vous Haiti is an initiative that was founded by Madame Savell after the earthquake. Rendez-Vous is the larger of the two organizations on campus and is headed by senior, Kendall Ryan. “Together, both clubs have made a difference for children both near and far. Although both clubs may be small in numbers, they are both enormous in impact,” she said.

Some of the previous works of the clubs include the building of a chicken coop, a school and a bakery in the village. The money that funded these projects came from various sources including the sale of Haitian-made bracelets, magnets, bake sales and other fundraising events.

Fundraising is not the only way to contribute. Students can still support the program by building a friendship with the children of Haiti.  Students in the club can write personal letters to the young people or help host awareness events.

The future of the Haitian village looks promising with the continued growth of the organizations on campus. In the next year, Rendez-vous Haiti and Children in Need will combine their members into one group.

“I hope both clubs continue to blossom. It is my hope that Rendez-vous Haiti is able to recruit many underclassmen and groom them into future leaders of the club in order to sustain and spread the efforts of Redez-vous Haiti,” said graduating Rendez-vous president Kendall Ryan.