GOLD workshop provides alumni connections

The Career Development Office at Geneseo partnered with the Geneseo Opportunities for Leadership Development Program to host a Speed Networking Event on Tuesday Nov. 18 at Big Tree Inn. The Speed Networking was organized into seven different tables where one, two or three Geneseo alumni were seated. Each table was assigned a different category: Interview Questions, Problem Solving, Networking and Group Interviews. The sessions were divided into a circulation of 10 minutes per table. For seven minutes at each table the students––myself included––had the chance to participate in each activity. For the remaining three minutes, we were given feedback on what we did right and what we could improve on.

According to assistant director for programming and development Kathy Tonkovich, the event was open to all majors and class years and even counted for the GOLD Leadership Certificate. “As a department, we had planned and just brainstormed the structure that would be the most helpful and the most fun,” she said. Tonkovich reported that 13 alumni and 24 students participated in the event.

The event aimed at practicing both interviewing and networking skills in an attempt to show students how to market these skills in a professional environment. “I think this event brought together a lot of different people from different backgrounds in both private and public sectors,” interviewer and Educational Opportunity Program counselor and Geneseo alumnus Brian Rivera ’04 said. “It’s good to bring the students into a setting like this and have them think quickly, promoting good networking skills that they’ll need to have.”

“There is a strong value in networking with alumni,” Tonkovich explained. “Seeing where alumni have gone in their career paths can be very insightful and it can give ideas on different paths that you could pursue.”

Tonkovich urged students to “maintain contact with the alumni that they met and then follow up with them at the time that they are looking for an internship.”

As an attendee, my confidence level increased with each table and I tended to share more information about my interests and skill sets. Most importantly, I learned that there are many things I had to pay particular attention to in order to get hired.

The Career Development Office does many programs, including weekly “How to Find an Internship” workshops on Wednesdays from 2:30-3:30 p.m. The locations for these workshops can be found on the KnightJobs website. The Office’s next main event is the Business Etiquette Dinner on Feb. 17, which will help students apply their networking skills over a meal.

Business professor publishes fourth book

Lecturer and senior research scholar of the school of business Paul Scipione ‘68 recently completed his latest book, A Nation of Numbers: The Development of Marketing Research in America. Its expected hardcover release will be in late 2014, and its softcover release date is due in early spring 2015. As the first of its kind, Nation of Numbers tells the history of marketing research in the United States. According to Scipione, it also tells “the definitive history of the market research business from day one.”

Scipione graduated from Geneseo in 1968, was drafted into the Vietnam War and returned to the United States to complete his masters degree and PhD at the University of Buffalo and Rutgers University, respectively.

Scipione described the history of marketing research as a “unique American movie.” Scipione stated that he drew inspiration for his book through the influences of statistician George Gallup and his own mentor, co-founder of the Response Analysis Corporation Herb Abelson. Nation of Numbers is almost a biography of all the pioneers in the different fields in market research, with Gallup being the head honcho. Researchers in the field used Gallup’s name as a verb––you have ‘Galluped’ the population’s opinion.

“I’ve always been fascinated about the history of companies and industry,” Scipione said.

Scipione’s interest in the field of market research stems from when he graduated from Rutgers University with his PhD and received a call from Raymond Rubicam to be the very first research director at his ad agency. According to Scipione, Princeton University is now the market research capitol of the world. He worked for the Response Analysis Corporation with Abelson as his mentor. He then became the vice president and copy research director for the U.S. offices in the late 1970s.

“It is important to know the roots of the field to understand what we’re doing now,” Scipione said.

At Geneseo, Scipione is working on his next four novels which he has mapped out. In the summer of 2013, a company from St. Paul, Minnesota opened up a publishing company called Quirks and asked Scipione to use Nation of Numbers as its pioneer book.

Most of the research for the book comes from Scipione’s own research from the Advertising Research Foundation, American Marketing Association, Council of American Survey Research Organization, AAPOR libraries and even Gallup’s personal papers and files. Scipione also gathered research for his book by taking notes at his meetings with Gallup himself.

“We both had Volkswagens and we met in the Princeton waiting room,” Scipione said. “He had a little Beetle and my wife and I had a Dasher, special wagon. I went over and introduced myself and we were still talking once our cars were done and he invited me to lunch. We had lunch four, five times in the years after that.”

Quirks is publishing a website for Nation of Numbers in the coming months where Scipione would like to post supplements to the book. Since there wasn’t enough room in the book for all of the information, Scipione plans to upload the additional information to the website.

Model UN motions for SUNY success

Geneseo’s Model United Nations team traveled to Philadelphia to attend the University of Pennsylvania Model United Nations Conference XLVIII from Thursday Nov. 6 to Sunday Nov. 9 for its second conference this academic year. Model UN is a “club sport” sponsored by Student Association that helps students understand the processes of the United Nations by practicing debate skills and resolution writings. The club focuses the better half of the academic year on the conferences they attend. For the second semester, members focus on being actively involved in the Geneseo community, specifically by participating in Relay for Life.

At this conference, the club did not leave with any awards. Model UN President senior Zachary Perdek still congratulated his team for its hard work. “We’re proud that Geneseo gets to compete with these institutions,” he said.

Such competitors include teams from prestigious American and international schools such as the University of Chicago, Harvard University, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania and West Point University. They compete for the first place award of Best Delegation. This year, Chicago won.

The team may not have won any awards at the UPMUNC conference, but at the previous competition held at Yale, Geneseo took home four awards. Perdek stated that this accomplishment was “great considering our team is younger and trying to develop our school’s delegation.” By attending these conferences, Perdek has been able to recognize the improvement of the club’s younger delegates.

At these conferences, the teams are placed in a simulation of a UN General Assembly, meaning that all the six chambers of the UN are presented. All of the topics discussed are relevant and serious. Students actively take part in delegations and create solutions to the problems presented.

In these conferences, every school represents a different country. At the UPMUNC conference, Geneseo represented the delegation of the Ivory Coast. The Geneseo team was given information on their country and committees three weeks in advance in order to help them prepare for the competition.

Perdek said that although they did not win any awards, the delegates left the conference “experts on the Ivory Coast.”

According to Perdek, the debates are UN-based but “they really try to mix in different subjects to keep people interested.” Perdek himself was debating the conference of Peace in Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years War and Eighty Years War in 1648.

“We represented the German free cities and talked on simulating debates that would have taken place at that conference,” Perdek said. All of the German powers and big European empires created a document that had a lasting influence on European politics.

Perdek noted that these conferences allow students to connect with students from all over the world. At the club’s next conference in Montreal, students will visit from Nigeria, Ghana, India, Pakistan and Japan.

Authentic altar competition celebrates El Dia de los Muertos

A collaboration of professors and students across the Latin American studies minor as well as the Spanish department created a replica of El Dia de Los Muertos––Day of the Dead––a Latin American festivity inviting and celebrating the spirits of the deceased on Thursday Oct. 30 at 5:30 p.m. Associate professor of Spanish Rosemary McEwen describes El Dia de los Muertos as having “been combined with traditions brought by the Spanish, Catholic and Christian cultures and melded, creating a syncretic cultural product that in essence invites the spirits of the beloved dead relatives.” In Mesoamerica, the celebration takes place typically from Nov. 1-2.

To emulate the grand holiday of Central Latin America, Geneseo students and faculty entered a contest to create traditional altars. In Latin American culture, elaborate altars of all kinds invited the spirits of the deceased. Along with the Geneseo community, an alumnus from Elmira College and Allendale Colombia School in Rochester created altars. One altar even invited a professor from the anthropology department who passed away last semester.

Students from classes in political science, anthropology, Spanish and history filled out registration forms to enter the competition to win the prize of a pizza party sponsored by Campus Auxiliary Services. In total, 16 altars were created to commemorate and invite the spirits of the dead.

These altars are pieced together by adding things that the deceased loved. Food, colors, flowers, smells, toys, items and much more were included to invite the dead and “make the journey” easier.

According to McEwen, El Dia de Los Muertos has been celebrated for years here at Geneseo. During her first year at Geneseo, an altar was created in a café called Around Back, where the building that used to host Inn Between Tavern now stands.

To make event as similar as possible to El Dia de los Muertos, traditional foods such as pan de muerto––bread of the dead––and hot chocolate were sold.

The event served as a collaborative effort between students and faculty of the Latin American studies minor. “It’s interesting to see Geneseo’s own take on the Day of the Dead, because it’s obviously different,” junior Nico Banghart said. “From a socio-holistic point of view, it’s very interesting to see how each class takes their own different approach.”

Banghart is a student in a socio-holistic anthropology class here at Geneseo. McEwen stated that Geneseo hired a cluster of four new faculty members who are specialists in Latin American studies. Geneseo now has a full staff for the minors with classes across the spectrum.

The event served in part to promote Hispanic Heritage Week, which was surveyed October 27-30. “It’s important for people who are not used to seeing people of color to know that it is different, but that it’s not beyond the scope of reality for the United States,” McEwen said. She emphasized that the events during Hispanic Heritage week promoted the study and appreciation of cultures that are not your own.

“I was very satisfied with the turn out,” she said. “It was exhilarating to see the enthusiasm from the people who came to ask questions.”

Simple, spirited Halloween costumes

Scenario: It’s the day before Halloween and you desperately need a costume for that party you just got invited to. Midterms are over, the week has just ended and now you want to go out, but you don’t want to be the only one at the party without a “real” costume. Whether you want to be a vampire, a cat or something more original, you can find everything in your closet or with an easy trip to Wal-Mart or Goodwill. Be a mummy. There’s a simple and comical way to do it: toilet paper. Wrap yourself in it or any other type of long material for a simple, classic mummy look.

Although vampires, witches, cats and mice are at times overplayed, dressing up as one of these archetype fictional horror figures will grant you an easy remedy for that last minute get-together. All you need is a black outfit and some makeup.

If you want to go for a more original costume, try going with a historical character––dress up as Rosie the Riveter. All you need is a denim shirt, a polka dot bandana and a bun and you’re set to go. You could try Frida Kahlo for a little artistic representation. Create the classic unibrow by rubbing eyeliner between your brows, put on a flower headband, find a peasant shirt and voila!

If you want to try and be funny on Halloween and don’t have any time, do something simple. Be a pothead––literally wear a pot on your head. Or you can try to be a stick figure, just trace the outline of your body with black tape. Wrap a scarf around your head and carry a globe, and suddenly you’re a fortune teller.

You can also take a trip to Wal-Mart where they sell Superman shirts for just $7. Wear a white button down, jeans, maybe a tie over the shirt and you’re automatically Clark Kent. Or be Waldo and get people to try and find you by wearing a red-striped shirt and jeans. Hide from your friends and trick them into finding you. Another option is to try being “witty” is to dress as pumpkin pie by attaching a pie symbol to an orange t-shirt.

If none of these options sound appealing to you, there are plenty of online sites that list various options you can pull together in less than two hours. Buzzfeed has a list of “51 Last Minute Costume Ideas” that will guarantee one for your taste. If that’s not your style, Pinterest has plenty of pins that provide unique, quick costume ideas.

If all else fails, be a ghost and cut holes in a white sheet. Everyone appreciates a good spook.

Sociology professor draws attention to disability stigma

Linda Ware, professor of disability studies in the School of Education and adviser of student group Students Educating About Ableism, works hard every day to promote a society where we see disability as a something that is “just part of the range of human difference.” Ware strives to transform the perspective of her students so that they recognize students and people with disabilities. Ware’s passion stems from her own work teaching in different places across the country, from El Paso, Texas, to the City University of New York in New York City. She started off as a middle school teacher in El Paso after graduating from the University of New Mexico.

After working with students who had disabilities, Ware took it upon herself to change the attitudes of the community that surrounded them. She went on to continue her doctorate at the University of Kansas and taught at the University of New Mexico, the University of Rochester, Syracuse University, CUNY City College and then at Geneseo.

Ware teaches two interdisciplinary disabilities studies: Disability INTD 288 and INTD 105: Disability in America, one course in women's studies: Bodies that Matter and one course for junior year education majors: Art, Education and the Community. When it comes to her students, Ware said that she “tries to get them to re-imagine disability.”

She stated that education students grapple with the tension of becoming a teacher looking to find defaults in students with disabilities versus becoming a teacher who teaches both disabled and non-disabled kids that there is nothing wrong with their disability.

“What I’m talking about is society’s reaction to disability,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what disability, society’s reaction is what creates the disability problem.” She further explained herself by stating that as soon as we mark a body as different, we create a barrier to understanding.

Ware encourages her students to take a different stance on how they view disability and challenges them to think about the disabilities of others in more positive ways. Ware believes that the isolation of those with disabilities is the same practice of core injustice, but that people call it by a different name.

“Putting kids in special education does not make progress,” Ware said. By isolating these students, the system is only increasing their unemployment or underemployment rates.

All of the problems that Ware tackles when she takes on projects at different schools and universities can be daunting; creating real change takes time. Ware stated that it is a hard system to push back against even after all her years of experience.

“You have to have a principal that sees this as a leadership program,” Ware said. “I want to imagine a future that doesn’t make fun of people with differences.”

Despite any obstacles she faces, Ware definitely has the support of teachers from across the country and around the world. These teachers have the same ideas about disabled students and inclusion.

Ware has been teaching at Geneseo for nine years and is currently working on books discussing her ideas about accepting students with disabilities

Poet continues pursuit of knowledge, self-actualization

Avid volunteer freshman Lilly Perry has seen poverty both in the United States and abroad. Her passion for service work stems from her personal experiences with volunteering and a deep commitment to bringing about positive change. “My family was always into volunteering, but I became passionate about it when I went to Guatemala,” Perry said.

Perry’s experience in Guatemala as a high school freshman through the nonprofit Safe Passage organization helped to guide her course toward her future in philanthropy. According to Perry, she was most affected by visiting the mile-long city dumps, where impoverished Guatemalans scavenge through gigantic trash piles for items and material to sell for whatever money they can get.

Perry explained that the Guatemalans label this occupation “dump picker” and that children look to dump-picking as a future career. Her most resonant memory is the sight of Guatemalans running after the garbage trucks to get the first look at the trash.

---

Favorites

tv show: “Lost”

book:  Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

food:  Penne a la vodka

poem:  “for Those of You Who Can Still Ride an Airplane for the First time”  by Anis Mojgani

song: “She’s a Jar” by Wilco

---

Perry’s volunteering experience didn’t stop in Guatemala. As a sophomore in high school, she continued her mission by volunteering in New Orleans through her Unitarian Church. Perry said that her trip involved projects that focused on rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit.

This trip encouraged her to volunteer again in New Orleans in the spring of 2014. Perry noted that that this return trip was much more eye-opening; she was focused more on “social justice, not just building houses.” Perry added that she experienced workshops in racism and classism, issues she said “were brought to light [in New Orleans] after the hurricane.”

According to Perry, there are still 100,000 displaced people in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. “It was heartbreaking to see all the abandoned homes, knowing that those families couldn’t return,” she said.

Perry’s experience in New Orleans demonstrated that even in the United States, people suffer immensely from poverty. “After Guatemala, I was interested in developing countries,” Perry said. “After New Orleans, I was interested in domestic work,” Perry said.

Perry continued to pursue domestic volunteering through Girls Inc., an organization that works with girls from kindergarten up until their senior year of high school. The organization helps the girls with homework and gives out snacks. According to Perry, many of the students come to the program hungry because they don’t have a lot of food at home.

In addition to being an active volunteer, Perry is a member of Peace Action Geneseo and the Slam Poets’ Society on Avon Road. Perry encourages others to volunteer not only for the joy that comes with helping others, but as a means of self-discovery and growth.

“By focusing on the world around me, I ended up learning about myself accidentally,” Perry said.

Presidential tea invites community members to discuss fair trade issues

Approximately 100 members of the Geneseo community attended a tea held by Interim President Carol Long at her home on Monday Oct. 6. This event is the first of two to be held his semester. Long began by introducing the theme of the event: the utilization of fair trade products and encouraging Geneseo’s commitment to increasing fair trade practices on campus. She promoted the discussion of the sustainability, state and condition of oppressed workers in developing nations, mentioning the 10 Principles of the United Nations Global Impact.

Founder and president of the Geneseo Fair Trade Club junior Benjamin Conard is at the forefront of the Fair Trade Campaign on campus. Conard saw the President’s tea as an outlet for information on fair trade policies because tea is not grown in the United States, making it a popular fair trade product.

“I was pleasantly surprised to see a number of fair trade products already being sold on campus,” Conard said.

Conard believes that fair trade can have a powerful impact if given the chance of “becoming a standard—it’s the way you do business, there’s no unfair trade and it’s a natural way of including human rights.”

These efforts coincide with other initiatives the Geneseo administration has taken recently, including the introduction of environmentally-friendly residence and dining halls, offering certified organic coffee at Books & Bytes and creating an Office of Sustainability.

Long encouraged students, faculty and members of the community alike to engage in conversation.

The teas at Long’s home began last semester when she suggested the idea in an attempt to show appreciation for community integration.

“I was trying to set up a way to use the President’s house to bring people in to have conversations—student, faculty and staff alike,” Long said.

This year, the event drew its audience through faculty invitations. Long stated that with the reelection of the new president for the next school year, there is no time for third and fourth presidential teas. The date of the next tea is yet to be announced.

The teas are not to be confused with the past World Café’s that Long has hosted on campus. These cafés were designed to facilitate discussions about what students want to see in the future college president.

Discussions on the hiring of a new college president are still in progress. Last year’s World Café Conversations were taken into account by the selection committee.

To learn more about the World Café conversations, Long encourages individuals to visit the presidential search website, which includes a summary of those conversations. She states that the decision on who the new college president will be will be announced in spring 2015 and said president will be inaugurated in July 2015.

Watt Farms baker brings delightful donuts to Geneseo

Geneseo’s weekly Farmer’s Market on Center Street draws in throngs of students every Thursday. Out of all the stands, however, one in particular draws a notably large crowd. Watt Farm’s Country Market’s delicious donuts are the top-selling product at the Market, selling about 1,200 donuts each Thursday. Baker Kirsten Newbould makes all of the donuts, frying almost 2,000 each week for all of the towns she visits. According to Newbould, Geneseo is where most of her donuts are bought. At 50 cents each, the donuts usually sell out within the first hour or two of the three-hour slot that the Market is open for.

Newbould said she has had a passion for baking ever since she was a little girl growing up in Albion, New York. She learned how to bake from lessons with her grandmother and father. She particularly enjoys working in the fall season, when she can enjoy the atmosphere and do what she loves.

“Whenever I make the donuts, it reminds me of how much I like fall,” she said.

According to student workers juniors Grant Horner and Brittney Richardson, donuts are by far their top-selling product.

“Our first week of school, we sold out of the donuts in the first two hours,” Richardson said.

Newbould started making donuts in 2009 after she left culinary school in Orlando, Florida to work for Albion Farm. Newbould began making these donuts in a unique twist of fate––Watt Farm won “Donut Robot,” a donut-making machine valued at $1,000 for the price of $100 at a 2009 auction. According to Newbould, it was “a killer deal.” The machine has been a blessing for the farm as the donuts’ popularity only continues to increase.

This fall is Newbould’s seventh season working for the Watt Farm’s Country Market and has been selling donuts in Geneseo since 2010. Watt Farm’s Country Market offers Geneseo three donut flavors: the original apple cider, pumpkin spice and this year’s newest addition, raspberry vanilla.

Newbould said that the donuts all are made from the same mix, but the farm adds special ingredients grown right on the farm to make the special flavors. For instance, the apple cider donuts are made with special Watt Farm cider, the pumpkin spice donuts are given a special touch of pumpkin and the raspberry vanilla donuts are given a slightly purple tint that comes from the farm’s fresh raspberry juice.

In addition to its popular donuts, the farm offers a wide variety of food such as pears, donut peaches, nectarines, apples, cheese, plums, pluots, raspberries, flavored syrups and many delicious baked goods.

Newbould aspires to open a bakery of her own one day, and hopes that she can share her recipes with other baking enthusiasts.

“I would like to expand my baking abilities to other people,” she said.