Articles by: jennykrashin

 

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  Mason Week celebrates road to Cabrera’s inauguration

  Featured, Lifestyle, Multimedia April 30, 2013 at 8:27 pm Comments are Disabled

  Mason Week 2013 featured concerts, events and giveaways for Mason students ready to show their Patriot pride and celebrate the inauguration of Mason President Angel Cabrera. The week began with a trip to Kings Dominion on April 20, and ended with a finale celebration at Mason Day. Concerts throughout the week featured rapper Kendrick Lamar, acoustic artist Chad Hollister, Andy Grammer, and local band of Mason students Sub-Radio Standard. Other events included a zip-line, a BMX bike show, a comedy show featuring Scott Schendlinger and the carnival rides and booths at Mason Day.

   
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  Women’s lacrosse look forward to A10 after winless season

  Featured, Sports April 30, 2013 at 8:21 pm Comments are Disabled

  Coach Lauren Hay congratulates seniors, encourages returning players  The final seconds ticked off the collegiate career of eight women’s lacrosse seniors on April 21, as Mason fell to William & Mary, 16-12. Senior attacker Allie Hilderbrandt led the way in scoring with a career- high six goals for Mason, capping off a season of solid play for the team. The loss was Mason’s seventh consecutive defeat, all of which were against CAA rivals. “We played an exciting game, our girls fought back late in the second half and it is always tough to lose, especially when you are saying goodbye to the senior class.” said coach Lauren Hay. “I would like to recognize the hard work of all eight seniors have put in their careers at Mason. All will graduate from here and I am proud to have watched them grow as people and athletes.” Looking back on the season as a whole, Mason had and up and down season, claiming all of their victories against non-conference opponents while being bested by all their CAA foes. Mason finished the season with a record of 5-11, going 0-7 in CAA play. “Overall, we had many contributions by numerous players. Our seniors […]

   

• Workout of the week: Squats, deadlift, bench press

  Sports April 30, 2013 at 8:18 pm Comments are Disabled

  It is important to use proper form when squatting, as incorrect form can lead to injury. When completing any of the three traditional lifts, the squat, bench or the deadlift, make sure that you start out with a light weight and always use a spotter. Squat The squat targets the gluteus maximus, hamstrings, quadriceps, and requires you to stabilize your core. Implementing squats into your leg routine can strengthens your legs, increases flexibility, and strengthens the muscles around your knees. To begin, set the bar in the rack at about mid-chest level. Then position your feet shoulder width apart, directly under the bar. Place the bar evenly above your upper back muscles at the base of your neck. By lifting the elbow up, you can create a shelf for the bar to rest on so that it is not resting directly on your spine. Step forward and then begin the movement downwards with your weight on your heels and sink your hips by moving them backwards as if you were going to sit in a chair. Keep your chest up and look forward to maintain a straight back. Once your hips are parallel with the ground, drive your heels downward […]

   

• Play by play: Life lessons from sports

  Sports April 30, 2013 at 8:12 pm Comments are Disabled

  Finals week. Ready- No? Tough tinsel. The coach is putting you in anyway and you’ve got some big plays to make. You’re coming late into the game and there is nothing you can do to change that, so you’ll have to roll with it. Take what you’re given and hopefully put on a little late semester magic. If you aren’t sure how you’re going to pull this off and hope seems lost, here is a rundown of some steps that should give you a game plan. Check the scoreboard. Even if you have been paying attention to the game the whole time, you need to forget about it for now and look at the scoreboard. It gives the honest facts of the right here and now. It doesn’t tell you how you got lucky by guessing C three times in a row after a string of all A’s and B’s on that last quiz. The scoreboard does not care about outliers, flukes, runs, momentum swings or any of that. It tells you that you have this grade,it can go up or down by this much with the final and how much time you have until it’s here. The situation is clear. […]

   
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  Underwater Hockey team prepares for nationals

  Sports April 30, 2013 at 4:20 pm Comments are Disabled

    The underwater hockey team is preparing for their upcoming national tournament in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this July, the team’s fourth and final tournament of the year. This year, they have traveled to Canada, Orlando and have held their own tournament at the AFC. “I love going tournaments, especially nationals, is really fun,” said Dan Yocum, president of the team who will be taking his third trip nationals this summer. “Preparing for it is difficult and getting everything organized. It is fun to push yourself for three months for the big tournament so we can play high level hockey. We are lucky at Mason because every practice we get in a high level game.” Underwater hockey is an interesting vari- ation of hockey in a pool where swimmers have a mask, snorkel, fins, gloves, small stick and weighted puck. It is played with six people in the pool per team, typically with three forwards and three defensemen but no goalie. Yocum believes it is the type of sport where people will get a lot more out of it then they expect. “Underwater hockey was weird when I started and I did not know what to expect, but I thought it was […]

   

• Letter to the Editor

  Editorials April 30, 2013 at 3:24 pm Comments are Disabled

  We are writing to formally make a complaint about the two articles in the April 22, 2013 edition of Broadside that contain blatant false statements of fact in the context of a clear intent to defame and/or dismantle Students Against Israeli Apartheid. Erez Cramer’s claims of anti-Semitism and hate speech are predicated on SAIA’s advocacy “through posters” that Israel should be eliminated. He states as a fact that these posters exist and also blame Jews for America’s problems. These posters do not exist. SAIA does not advocate any of these positions, and in fact has spoken against anti-Semitic and other types of hate speech. On April 13, the group posted its “Guiding Principles” to their Facebook page. The final paragraph states, “SAIA maintains a nonviolent and non-confrontational stance in both our actions and our speech. We reject any and all hateful speech, and will not be held accountable for such speech made on our behalf by non-members.” These principles were created before Hala Numan’s article ran in the Broadside. SAIA has not released any “anti-Semitism messages” in any form. Through his opinion piece, Cramer shows clear intent to designate SAIA as a hate group, which is not only damaging to […]

   

• Celebrating Earth Day, Warts and All

  Editorials April 30, 2013 at 3:03 pm Comments are Disabled

  As most know, last Monday was Earth Day. A holiday focused on awareness of environmental causes, there were many activities connected to the global observance held at Mason. Celebrating the efforts to maintain a healthy environment on the third planet from the Sun are widely socially accepted. Exempting the occasional right-wing concerns over extremist environmentalism, most everyone either takes part in Earth Day or at the very least looks upon it ambivalently. This even though one of the major figureheads of the effort to create an Earth Day was a convicted murderer. Ira Einhorn, a bearded, bespectacled hippie was the master of ceremonies for the first ever Earth Day, held in 1970 as a rally at Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. A self-described pacifist, as reported by Remy Melina of NBC News Einhorn’s stated disdain for violence did not extend to his girlfriend Helen “Holly” Maddux. In Sept. 1977, Maddux went missing. “It wasn’t until 18 months later that investigators searched Einhorn’s apartment after one of his neighbors complained that a reddish-brown, foul-smelling liquid was leaking from the ceiling directly below Einhorn’s bedroom closet,” wrote Remy Melina. “Inside the closet, police found Maddux’s beaten and partially mummified body stuffed into a trunk that had […]

   
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  Ten Minute Play Festival brings talent to the stage

  Featured, Lifestyle April 30, 2013 at 2:59 pm Comments are Disabled

  On April 26, the Mason Theater Department presented the Seventh Annual Ten Minute Play Festival. The end product of a grueling playwriting competition, the festival showcased the work of eight aspiring student playwrights. This competition narrowed down the submissions based on their ability to create a meaningful, well- rounded story in just ten minutes. To some, this may not seem like a great task. However, it should be noted that many great performances do not even introduce their main character in the first ten minutes, much less craft an engaging plot with a solid beginning, middle and end. The plays’ brevity had the potential to create problems. With so little time, it can be difficult for the audience to build a connection with the characters on stage. In addition, the playwrights had to build a world on stage quick enough for viewers to feel engaged without making it confusing or contrived. The student writers and their casts managed to pull off that task seamlessly. The festival’s performances ran the gamut of the human experience. From the literal dawn of time to a plague infested future, from silly, heartwarming romantic comedies to gritty, realistic family meltdowns. The playwrights utilized every last minute to […]

   
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  Study abroad offers students a chance to work with the African Wildlife Foundation in Kenya

  Featured, Lifestyle April 30, 2013 at 2:49 pm Comments are Disabled

    This winter break, while many Mason students were stuck in frigid temperatures in the U.S., eight students were able to escape the cold and enjoy the dry, 70 degree weather of a Kenyan summer. These eight Mason students not only earned the opportunity to study environmental conservation and wildlife in Kenya, they were also offered the chance to work with the African Wildlife Foundation (AFW). “Students are now more interested in more exotic places. They’re also not satisfied with things that are easy to get — they’re interested in a real adventure,” said Academic Director Ryan Valdez, who has been teaching students in the Kenya study abroad program since 2010. Valdez has been with the Kenya study abroad program since it began, conducting research with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. “During my research, I began working with the African Wildlife Foundation, who’s primary role is conservation. Over the year my collaboration got better and better, and the opportunity for my students to work with the AWF came up,” said Valdez, who is also working on his doctorate degree at Mason. “I’m always looking for new things for students to do, and I was specifically looking for internships.” In the […]

   
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  Student Body President inspires brother to attend Mason

  Lifestyle April 30, 2013 at 2:44 pm Comments are Disabled

  It is not uncommon for a typical-age college student to say, at least a few times, that they don’t know what to do with their life. Christopher Williams, a junior economics major transferring to Mason this fall, was no exception to this rule. After graduating from high school in 2005, Williams blindly chose to attend Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia. “I started out in psychology just because it seemed like something easy to pick,” Williams said. When his grades were below what was required to continue on with his major, Williams dropped out of University and attended NOVA for a time, though his grades still suffered. “I don’t know if I always wanted to become a Marine,” Williams said. “I literally had no direction with my life. I ran into a recruiter during my lunch break while I was at NOVA, on the Sterling campus. At the time, I was living at home and in between jobs while all of my friends were being successful in school. So, I decided to give the marines a chance.” When Williams joined in 2007, he thought he had found a safety zone for his future. His plan was to serve a full […]