Articles by: jennykrashin

Dance Gala provides opportunity for Mason dancers

Featured, Lifestyle March 24, 2013 at 11:01 pm Comments are Disabled

There’s more to the annual Mason Dance Gala than the audience can see. This year, the show featured five pieces, all choreographed by guest artists from various dance companies. Each piece had a personality and style of its own, leading the dancers to choose their favorite pieces to perform. “The gala has showed me ways of moving that I never thought I could do, especially the Petronio piece,” said Julie DeGregorio, who is the senior vice president of the Mason Dance Company and performed in three of the pieces. “I watched the video before we had the audition, and I was like, there’s no way I can move like that. It was something about the slicing through air and release of the neck and head that I fell in love with.” Though it was the third Gala DeGregorio was performing in, there was no denying how much she gained from the experience. “It’s professional work instead of student choreographed. So it’s an honor to be chosen to do work by companies. I’ve made a lot of connections through these pieces,” DeGregorio said. Celine Berthaud, a junior who appeared in three of the pieces, agreed with DeGregorio on the greatly positive […]
To win CAA tournament, team must fix season-long struggles

Sports March 7, 2013 at 1:05 am Comments are Disabled

Mason’s men’s basketball team’s 2012-2013 regular season came to a conclusion with a loss to the University of Delaware, with a final score 82-77. After a several week stint at the top of the CAA at the start of the season, Mason has fallen to finish in fifth place. However, due to sanctions against Towson University,barring them from postseason play, Mason is ranked fourth in the CAA tournament. They will start the first round against fifth seed Drexel on March 9. The Delaware loss further perpetuates Mason’s rollercoaster season, which is out of control with inconsistency. Mason was up 74-69, with just over two minutes to go, and let up an 11-zero run that cost them the game. All season long, Mason has been hot and cold but often able to find a little bit of fire when they need it most. However, the last two games of the season are proof that it sometimes comes too little too late. Mason was down by as many as 10 points against Towson University on Jan. 23, before coming back in the last minute to go into overtime. However, the momentum Mason had started was lost as the Patriots only put up […]
Mason Makes Careers: Robert Perito

Lifestyle March 7, 2013 at 12:56 am Comments are Disabled

Every week, Broadside features a student or alumnus with a great internship or job to highlight the opportunities and potential earning a degree at Mason offers. NAME: Robert Perito GRADUATION DATE: May 20, 2002 DEGREE: M.A. in Peace Operations Policy CURRENT JOB: Director of Center of Innovation for Security Sector Governance, U.S. Institute of Peace What are some of your day-to-day responsibilities? The USIP Security Sector Governance Center helps build professional, sustainable and democratic security institutions that promote respect for human rights and the rule of law. This capacity is essential in countries impacted by the Arab Spring and countries emerging from conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan. The Center conducts programs in security sector transformation in fragile states and helps develop a cadre of security sector reform experts through conferences, research and training. The U.S. Institute of Peace is funded by Congress and dedicated to the peaceful resolution of international conflict. How did your degree and/or courses at Mason help you land the job? I came to the U.S. Institute of Peace as a Senior Fellow to write a book on the role of police in peace operations. The research skills and background knowledge that I obtained at […]
Former Secret Service agent to share stories from White House

Featured, News March 7, 2013 at 12:53 am Comments are Disabled

Nick Trotta to share experiences; hopes to inspire leadership in Phi Kappa Sigma and other students Even presidents want privacy, but when you are the Special Agent in Charge (SAIC) and the president wants to go on a run, allowing him to have privacy is not an option. “Nicky, can you at least give me the illusion that I’m running by myself,” then President George W. Bush said to Nick Trotta, then SAIC. The retired member of the Secret Service remembers the president saying this to him, while he was on a run in Texas during his term. Trotta was a member of the Secret Service for 31 years, but now after his retirement from the service he wants to give back. His son, economics major at Mason Nick Trotta Jr., had an idea of where to start. On March 5 Phi Kappa Sigma will host Trotta at an event in the HUB Ballroom at 6 p.m. Trotta will be speaking about his experiences in the Secret Service as well as the importance of leadership in being successful. “I think it’s very important for me, and I hope others who have had my experience, to give back,” Trotta said. […]
Workout of the week: Hamstring Curls

Sports March 7, 2013 at 12:41 am Comments are Disabled

Leg workouts provide a strong foundation Normally, I do not favor using machines in the gym because they focus on one muscle when you could be working more. I like biceps curls using free weights, as opposed to a machine because it forces your body to stabilize itself and the lifting action is more dynamic. The hamstring curl is a simple exercise to perform you are basically doing biceps curls with your legs. To perform the exercise, set the pad underneath your ankles or lower legs. You need a weight that challenges you but does not have you rocking back and forth. Rocking back and forth on the machine cheats your hamstrings. The key is a slow and controlled movement. Too many people try to do these curls quickly and sacrifice the effectiveness of the exercise. It is better to lift less weight in a controlled manner than to cheat and lift more. Begin curling your feet down and as far back as possible. Slowly allow the weight back to the starting point, being careful not to let it snap back into place. The entire exercise should take a couple of seconds to perform. You may want to count to […]
Student leaders discuss racial inequity

Lifestyle March 7, 2013 at 12:11 am Comments are Disabled

On March 2, Mason’s LEAD Office hosted the Mason Leadership Institute. Held once a semester, the Institute is dedicated to educating Mason’s future leaders. This semester, the Institute focused on the subject of diversity and inclusion. How, as a leader, does one identify internalized biases, and how does that compromise leadership ability? All these questions, and more, were answered by Dr. Shakti Butler. Butler, a true renaissance woman, is African American with a mixed Arawak Indian and Russian-Jewish heritage. Filmmaker and founder of World Trust Educational System, Butler has made it her mission to inform others of their responsibility to each other as humans. “We need to understand that if we want to have a world that thrives, we need to understand how we’re disconnected from each other,” Butler said. The day’s activities primarily revolved around viewing and discussing Butler’s newest documentary, “Cracking the Codes,” a stirring collection of stories that explores both the personal and institutional effects of structural racism. Chimes were played regularly throughout the film, signaling the viewers to turn inward toward their tables and discuss the sensitive topics covered in the film. The film was separated into three sections, the first focusing on the social determinants of […]
Mason hosts CAA Swimming and Diving Championships

Sports March 6, 2013 at 11:32 pm Comments are Disabled

Men’s team finishes in third place, women’s in eighth after four-day competition Four long days of competing may seem like a lot to many people, but it is what Mason’s swimming and diving team look forward to all year. From Feb. 27 to March 2, Mason competed in and hosted the CAA Swimming and Diving Championships. The final results of the championship put men’s in third, behind William and Mary, and let UNCW take their twelfth consecutive champion while the women’s held steady ending the championships still ranked eighth. “In a way, it’s the only meet that matters. It’s what we train for all year. People expect to see a lot of drops [in time] because of how they train,” said Travis Lauri, sophomore swim team member. Head Coach, Peter Ward, would also say that the championships are what the team prepares fully for and is a completely different atmosphere than most individual meets. “The atmosphere here is unbelievable. I have seen a lot of meets from any age group to the Olympics, and this is just as exciting and loud as any of those,” said Ward. After finishing their second day of competition, Mason’s men took second place behind UNCW […]
Breaking down the walls

Featured, Lifestyle March 6, 2013 at 11:25 pm Comments are Disabled

Student with Asperger’s shares his college experience through blogging Sporting a Red Sox hat and a leather jacket, Aaron Gushin, a freshman economics major, may not stand out to you on your walk to class in the mornings. Although his baseball hat may appear conspicuous to some Masons students, the rest of him is fairly ordinary—long brown hair, medium height and medium build. But there is something about Gushin that sets him apart from many: He has Asperger’s syndrome (AS). As defined by the National Institute of Mental Health, Asperger’s syndrome is defined as a neurological condition, one generally considered a form of autism, that causes social impairment, communication difficulties and repetitive and stereotyped behaviors. “Sometimes I feel like I’m a different type of species,” Gushin said. Being a relatively new discovery, AS is a concept many find hard to understand and because of that, difficult to treat or work with. It is this lack of societal understanding, Gushin says, that led him to start a blog to catalogue and document his experiences while at Mason. “I needed to change something for myself, and I just felt putting into words, into writing, all this stuff I’m always thinking, would help […]
Track senior holds current world record time

Featured, Sports March 6, 2013 at 10:44 pm Comments are Disabled

David Verburg is Mason’s fastest man, and he keeps getting faster. Verburg ran a stunning 45.83 in the 400m, on Feb. 9, at the SPIRE Institute Division I Invitational. Not only was it a personal record indoors, for Verburg but it is the world’s fastest time in the 400m, so far this year. “It feels great. It has never happened to me before. How many people can say that at one point they were ranked number one in the world? It is an honor,” said Verburg, a two-time 400m All-American, outdoors. “I know it will not stay there for long, but it gives me a point where I know I can be at the top. I am just trying to work hard and stay humble and will try to get [the record] back when it disappears.” Verburg, now a senior, started running track during his senior year in high school, finding success and scholarship offers. “I chose Mason because it was a small school and I wanted to make a name for myself. I wanted to build up the program,” Verburg said. “I know a lot of good recruits were coming in with me. I did not want be […]
Mason Comedians: preliminaries for D.C.’s Funniest College

Lifestyle March 6, 2013 at 3:50 pm Comments are Disabled

This year, Mason will send three student comedians off to the D.C.’s Funniest College Competition. For the tenth year, the D.C. Improv Comedy Club is hosting the event, waiting eagerly to hear the funniest fresh, live comedy from local students. The competition typically includes students from six nearby universities: George Mason, American, George Washington, Howard, Marymount and Maryland. Each university chooses one or two of their best performers and sends them off to the competition. On March 1, Mason hosted its own preliminary round in order to determine which aspiring comedians could make their audience laugh the most. Set up in the Johnson Center on a Friday night, six comedians were asked to show their sense of humor in a five-minute time limit, lined up with two featured comedians who introduced and concluded the show. Instead of picking two this year, Mason judges chose three people for two slots. Among the winners this year was a two-person act, performed by students Matt Pechiney, Film and Video Studies major, and Chris Lancashire, Government and International Politics major. The pair performed a duet of sorts, with Pechiney serving as the guitar player and Lancashire performing the vocals. Their unique approach to stand-up […]