may 2013
news
the stentorian | ncssm
Student Life curriculum NCSSM fights
hunger with
fourth food drive
to see major overhaul
next school year
By Su Cho
By Carl Yin
Both junior and senior
student life classes, starting
next school year, will see
significant changes in
curriculum. The Student Life
program will be rebranded as
“Residential Education” (RE).
Incoming juniors will
begin Residential Education
with a trimester-long course
covering much of the SLIOI
health curriculum. Following
the first trimester of SLlOl,
juniors will be able to choose
their next two Residential
Education courses for the year.
These courses are all a single
trimester in length, and will
cover a variety of topics.
The topics covered next
year will be Public Speaking
1, Public Speaking 2, Financial
Planning, Marketing U,
Leadership, and Diversity.
Marketing U will be
a course similar to third-
trimester SLIOI this year,
where students will practice
interviewing and making
resumes.
The new Leadership class
will cover topics similar
to those in the Leadership
seminars, and could eliminate
the seminars for following
years. These courses were
chosen from the advice of
juniors this year, who were
asked to choose their favorite
options out of twelve potential
courses earlier this year.
The possibility of courses
being added and dropped to
Residential Education is a
possibility for future years to
come.
For rising seniors. Senior
Student Life will be completely
restructured, becoming more
than a bi-monthly Monday
meeting. In place, a new
curriculum similar to that of
the junior class will be put into
place. Seniors will have to take
two more one-trimester long
Residential Education courses,
which they are free to choose
from the available courses as
mentioned previously.
The grading of Student Life
will also be modified for this
new curriculum. For future
Residential Education courses,
there will be an ABCDF
grading scale instead of simple
pass/fail. Moreover, the grades
issued will factor into the GPA
of students starting next year.
All Residential Education
courses will be given a 4.0
weight, becoming the first
NCSSM courses to have a
weight below 5.0. The courses
will continue to be once a week
for all Residential Education
courses available.
The upcoming plans for the
Student Life curriculum has
seen generally positive views
from students and staff alike.
“There are some interesting
topics in the curriculum”, said
junior Samuel Lee. “Once a
week is tolerable and shouldn’t
be a problem.”
“I think it’s a good idea”,
stated senior Emmanuel Assa.
“Those are important skills
that many students do not get
out of high school. By giving
students options, it allows
them to choose what they want
to learn.”
Emmie Corl, SLI on 1st
Royall and Student Life
Instructor, stated, “I think it
is a very beneficial change.
Students will get the chance
to choose what their interest
is, and get a further edueation
in the basic concepts covered
in the previous Student Life
course.”
Anita Sim/ta and Vice Chancellor of Academie Programs Steve
Warshaw make a cameo in NCSSM’s LipDub video
Students helped fight
against hunger by volunteering
at the fourth annual NCSSM
Food Drive on March 23.
However, what makes this
year diflferent from the last
three years is the school’s
involvement with the Fox Fifty
Lip Dub Project.
The goal for this year’s food
drive was to collect 50,000
pounds of food. Another goal
for the food drive was to cross
the one million pound mark
since the first food drive four
years ago.
This year, the UNI’s
Fighting Hunger Club hoped to
bring the NCSSM community
together. The club wanted to
do the Lib Dub because the
school has helped facilitate the
Food Drive, and they wanted
to give back to the school.
The Fox Fifty Lib Dub
is opened to high schools in
North Carolina, and the task
is to create a one-continuous-
take music video “lib dubbing”
to a song.
“I think collaborating on
this project really shows the
unity here at our school. I mean
we have teachers, faculty, staff,
and students participating in
the video,” said senior JoJo
Drake, president of UNI’s
Fighting Club.
Some people who
participated in this video
included Chancellor Dr. Todd
Roberts, Vice Chancellors
Steve. Warshaw and Joan
Barber, and instructors Kathy
Berberian, Greg Jarvis, and
Jon Miller.
Different groups on campus
such as the chorus, orchestra,
and Dance Ensemble were
featured as well.
In a close contest, the school
did not end up victorious in the
LipDub contest, losing out on
the top prizes.
If the school had won the
$10,000 prize, the club had
hoped to allocate $4000 of
the winnings to NCSSM arts,
another $4000 to NCSSM
athletics, and the final $2,000
to be divided up amongst all of
the other clubs.
The UNI’s Fighting Hunger
Club offered many different
ways for students to contribute
to the cause. There was a
competition to see which hall
could raise the most money
for the Food Bank of Central
and Eastern North Carolina.
The hall with the most money
raised won a flat screen TV,
and the second most won a
DVD player.
Throughout Mareh 15-26,
there were local businesses
that donated a percent of their
earnings to the NCSSM Food
Drive. Some places included
Ben and Jerry’s, Elmo’s Diner,
Randy’s Pizza, Pelican’s
Snoballs, and Tutti Frutti.
There were also difTerent
volunteer opportunities during
the food drive, including
food collectors, food bank
truck volunteers, and street
volunteers.
“After four consecutive
years of Food Drives, the Food
Bank depends on NCSSM’s
yearly donation collected
from our Food Drive,” JoJo
Drake said when asked why
it was important that NCSSM
holds an annual food drive.
“Food should be a right not a
privilege. Nobody deserv'es to
go hungry.”
SG receives grants for solar power
and more exam library hours
By Anita Simha and
Vincent Cahill
NCSSM Student Govern
ment recently applied for
green initiative and campus
innovation grants from the
UNC Association of Student
Governments, a student-run
organization with voting
delegates from all seventeen
UNC-system schools.
A Campus Innovation
Grant was submitted to
extend library hours during
third trimester exams. The
Committee on Finance and the
Budget approved this request
and, therefore, the Borden
Mace Library will be open
for five hours on Saturday and
five extra hours on Sunday the
weekends before and during
exams.
These additional operating
hours will allow students to
have a greater degree of aecess
to one of the most popular
study areas on campus,
which will prove especially
useful for students who
are working together to
complete final projects or
are studying in groups for
final exams.
The appropriated funding ^
will also address the student
body’s exam-induced
anxiety by providing stress-
relieving activities.
Student Government
recognized both the need
for supporting both green
advancements and student
inventiveness; both of these
came together in the NCSSM
delegation’s Green Grant
proposal.
Student Government
requested funding to
build a solar-powered
charging station...such
a product would allow
people to work outside
for extended periods of
time.
Student Government
requested funding to build a
solar-powered charging station
based on an idea created by
Tyler Hayes, elass of 2012, and
current senior Benson Robles.
CombiningNCSSM’s
encouragement of
STEM pursuits and
its students love for
working outside, such
a product would allow
people to work outside
for extended periods
of time while charging
phones and laptops
exclusively by the sun’s
energy.
Robles said that he
and Hayes were inspired
because they wanted
to “bring green energy to the
school,” but did not want to do
anything “too invasive.”
Their brainchild will
“allow students and faculty
to use solar energy to charge
their laptops and cell phones,
showing green energy isn’t
that difficult to produce for a
community.”
The primary purpose of the
UNCASG is to unite individual
campuses so that system-
wide issues such as academic
transparency, rising tuition and
fees, and student affairs can be
addressed cohesively.
Funded by a dollar from
every paying student s tuition,
the Association spends an
annual budget of $220,000.