stentorian
vo!. XXXII, issue 3
north Carolina school of science and mathematics
Social business competitors
meet Nobel Laureate
October 2012
stentorian@ncssm.edu
By Andrew Peterson
NCSSM students met
Nobel laureate Muhammad
Yunus at the UNC Social
Business Conference on Sept.
27. This competition was the
first time NCSSM students
were given the opportunity to
compete on the university level
for entrepreneurship.
The goal of the competition
was to design a social
business to meet a need in the
community.
Faculty sponsor Alison
Blaine explained, “A social
business addresses a social
problem or need in the
community. Mohammad
Yunus started several social
businesses to address
poverty in his home country,
Bangladesh.”
Yunus received the Nobel
Peace Prize for his efforts to
create social and economic
development. He did this by
developing the concepts of
microcredit and microfinance,
which allows individuals in
poverty stricken areas to start
small businesses.
NCSSM presented two
proposals: one about a summer
camp to promote healthy
eating, and one about using
video game software for
vocational training.
Senior Helen Powell
presented one of the team’s
proposals, and Yimus sat in on
her presentation. Afterwards,
he told NCSSM parents,
“These kids have it right. This
is the way of the future.”
Powell and several other
NCSSM students met Yunus
after their presentations. She
said, “Meeting Yunus made it
a lot more personable. We’ve
been working with real people
in the community and him
being there made it seem real
and worthwhile.”
Powell worked with several
other NCSSM students to
prepare for the competition,
and the team had to create
several business proposals.
Eaeh student who
represented NCSSM in the
competition was nominated
by the humanities department.
They worked with their faculty
advisor throughout last year
and the beginning of this
school year to prepare for this
competition.
Stratton Barth, Kristen Michele Larson, Matt Gibson,
Ryan McCord, AllyPfotzer, Patrick McKeen, Helen
Powell, and Allison Blaine with Muhammad Yunus at the
UNC Social Business Conference
Courtesy of Helen Powell
Unicorns to
move up to
2A division
By Mitchell Tague
NCSSM’s athletic staff
recently confirmed that the
school will move from the lA
to the 2A division for athletics
beginning in the 2013-2014
season.
The student body is largely
unaware of this change. A
sizable number prefer the
change, but most students are
apathetic to the shift.
In d poll of 100 random
NCSSM students, only 28
responded that they had heard
anything about this change.
The majority of these were
athletes and friends of athletes,
which means that the athletes,.
Of the 100 students polled,
30 were directly in favor of the
shift, with 18 opposed to it.
Senior Yohana Dierolf
commented, “It seems like a lot
of our teams are owning at life,
so I think they’ll appreciate the
challenge.”
Put more bluntly by senior
Christopher Panuski, “All we
do is win.”
Senior Jordan Clark-Brown
is not so certain the shift is a
good idea. “It is good for the
soccer team; it’s bad for most
everything else,” he said.
However, the majority
of the polled students are
apathetic to the changes. Most
of these students commented
that they just aren’t into sports.
“We’re an academic school,
not a sports school,” said
senior Alexander Jacobsen.
One other student, senior
JoJo Drake, finds both
positives and negatives in the
seenario.
“I mean, the issue isn’t so
black and white. On one hand,
this is great for our good sports
teams, who wilt have increased
competition and probably
increased scouting. On the
other hand, a few of our sports
teams aren’t so good, and I
worry for how they will fare in
the 2A enviromnent.”
The decision to switch will
cause NCSSM to play bigger,
tougher schools.
The decision comes off the
heels of the 2011-2012 Wells
Fargo Cup, an award NCSSM
received as the best lA sehool
in athletics in the state this past
year.
In addition, NCSSM is on
the cut-off line in terms of
population between 1A and 2A
schools. Greg Jarvis, NCSSM
Athletic Director, said, “It’s
going to be different for us.
We’re right on that fringe
between 1A and 2A.” ••
One big potential bonus
his shift entails is increased
scouting. By increasing the
difficulty of competition, more
college scouts may come to the
school to scout for potential
players for their teams.
The school will remain in
the Coastal Carolina 1A/2A
conference, but will move into
the 2A division. This shift also
means NCSSM will only play
Raleigh Charter once a season
instead of twice.
NCSSM goes orange for hunger awareness
By Su Cho
The UNI’s Fighting
Hunger Club worked to spread
himger awareness in a variety
of different activities and
events for each week during
the month of September, or
Hunger Awareness Month.
The Go Orange month
kicked off with Orange
Weekend, which included
the Orange Out soccer game
against Cedar Ridge and the
flash mob on Family Day.
Students attended the soccer
game in orange and cheered
the team to a 1-0 victory. The
NCSSM Chorus surprised
many parents on Sept. 8 with a
rendition of Andy Grammar’s
“Keep Your Head Up”.
From Sept. 10-14, the
club introduced the Facebook
Orange Out. Students posed
in front of a “Go Orange”
backdrop and posted it as their
profile picture on Facebook
during the whole month. Its
purpose was to have constant
awareness online for not only
NCSSM students, but also the
whole online community.
During the third week of
September, the club promoted
the Dine Out sponsored by No
Kid Hungry and participated
in the Creative Food Drive,
or Canstruction. Chain
restaurants like Bruegger’s
Bagels and Papa Johns donated
part of their revenue to No Kid
Hungry.
The NCSSM Volleyball
team hosted the second Orange
Out game of the year on Sept.
20 against Roxboro, winning
in three sets. The players and
coaches supported hunger with
their orange socks and ribbons.
On Sept. 22, UNI’s
Fighting Hunger as well as
other organizations in North
Carolina worked to spread the
awareness of hunger during
Canstruction. Students from
the club used cans of food to
create an original work of art
incorporating science and
mathematics. The club worked
/r;
A Chalk the Sidewalk statistic about hunger
Courtesy of Andrew Peterson
hard to build a periodic table,
a beaker, and the equation,
E=MC^.
The Creative Food Drive
raised cans for the Food Bank
for Central and Eastern North
Carolina, whieh is the largest
food bank in the state. The
food drive also benefited New
Hope, an organization focused
on housing for the homeless in
Durham.
The Go Orange month came
to a close with the Chalk the
Sidewalk. Students decorated
the eampus with hunger facts
and posters.
“The reason I think fighting
hunger is such an important
cause is because hunger is
real and is all around us,” said
senior JoJo Drake, president
of UNI’s Fighting Hunger.
“We as individuals may only
be one person but even so
we’ie capable in making a
difference.”