October 2013
fea tures/opinions
the stentorian I ncssm
NCSSM celebrates Joe Liles
Fine Arts Endowment Fund
continued from Page 1
Common app issues
By Steven Liao
NCSSM celebrated the Joe
Liles Fine Arts Endowment
Fund on Oct. 11, 2013 with
a kickoff event eonsisting of
an exhibition of artist Sherry
Larsen’s painted fiddles and
a concert with guest director
Marshall Forester ’86.
Larsen, an artist whose
murals grace the walls of
hundreds of schools in South
Carolina, painted the fiddles
(guitar-shaped objects) with
the Blythewood High School
orchestra.
“Half of them are painted
by me, and half of them are
painted by students. When I
started this projeet, it was sort
of a collaboration between two
art mediums; my daughter was
playing in the orchestra at the
time,” said Larsen.
The fiddles, many of which
are currently still on display in
the ETC lobby, were painted
to decorate the orchestra room
and to raise money for the
orchestra program. Larsen still
leads ‘painting parties’ after
school to create the fiddles.
The art exhibition was
followed by a concert featuring
NCSSM’s Wind Ensemble,
Chorale, Danee Ensemble, and
Orchestra.
As part of alumni weekend,
guest conductor Dr. Marshall
Forester ‘86 was invited back
to conduct two pieces of the
concert: Finlandia by Jean
Sibelius, and Solas Am by
Samuel R. Hazo.
Fittingly, Finlandia was
the first pieee Dr. Forester
read during his junior year
at NCSSM, while Solas Ane
translates to “Yesterday’s Joy”
common purpose.
“The whole evening made
me very proud to still be
assoeiated with Seience and
Math even though I no longer
work there.”
The Joe Liles Fine Arts
longer have any problems
getting doeuments.
The Common App serves
517 member colleges and
universities and is led by a
nonprofit organization.
According to the 2011
federal tax return for the
Common App Inc., annual
revenues are about thirteen
million dollars, mostly
coming from the fees of the
applications.
The board of directors of
Common App Inc. consists
of admissions officers and
college counselors. Rob
Killion, the executive director
of Common Application Inc.,
supervises a staff with no more
than eight paid employees.
Common App officials plan
to increase their staff sometime
in the middle of next year.
Offieials expect that a larger
staff will deerease the amount
of problems on the site.
The purpose for this new
version was to ereate a smoother
and easier application, but the
glitches have created some
problems in this goal.
However even with these
malfunctions, the students’
hopes of receiving college
acceptance letters still remain.
Fine Arts students perform at the event. Courtesy of Anne Lee
Soccer Senior Nieht
in Gaelie.
Forrester described the
night, “It was fantastic. The
players are just fantastie
musicians, well prepared by
their marvelous instructors.”
Former visual arts
instructor Joe Liles, whom the
Endowment Fund was named
after, was also in attendance
during the kickoff celebration.
Liles opined, “The art
exhibit of the painted fiddles
by visiting artist. Sherry
Larsen, impressed me with
their creative themes. The
music, chorale, and dance
performances of the evening
reminded me, once again, of
the amazing things that ean
happen with students at the
School when talent, discipline,
and a little guidanee ean all
be combined to aeeomplish a
Snapchat change
draws differing
opinions
By Addy Liu
Snapchat introduced a new
feature called “Stories” earlier
this month. This picture
sharing app, popular for its
ephemeral nature, allows users
to send photos and videos for
a brief period of time. After a
period of up to 10 seeonds, the
photo or video can no longer
be viewed.
Snapchat’s latest update
allows users to share “stories”
that are posted in a feed
instead of being sent to
specific recipients. Multiple
pictures ean be shared in a
single story for up to one
minute. Stories can be viewed
endlessly for 24 hours before
they disappear.
“I like seeing what
someone’s doing every day.
You can also see who watched
your own stories,” junior
Seyram Dodor said about the
addition of stories.
“The story part of Snapchat
is just a new concept that you
have to grasp,” junior Erick
Aguilar explained. Adding this
new feature gives more room
for creativity in Snapchats.
However, not all NCSSM
students like the story function.
“It’s weird because
Snapchat is supposed to be a
short thing,” senior Alex Smith
remarked.
These sentiments have been
echoed among others: junior
Daniel Blackey noted that “it
seems to almost eontradict
the idea of Snapchat.” Other
students have stopped using
Snapchat, preferring the early
versions of Snapehat because
of its simplicity.
“Snapchat used to be
better,” Junior Senita Portlock
commented, “It was cool in the
beginning because it was nifty
but the stories and the different
fonts... it’s just too much.”
Still others simply haven’t
paid attention to the update.
“What update?” asked Junior
Kevin Chen.
“Snapchat has a stories
feature?” senior Julia Hu also
asked.
Junior Claire Namboodri
remarked that “I don’t mind it
but I don’t use it! I still just use
the single pictures and videos.”
This viewpoint seems to be
typical for most students, who
have learned to ignore the new
feature for the most part.
Overall, the new stories
function has not diminished
Snapchat’s popularity, but the
initial fervor of Snapchat has
died down.
Endowment Fund was made
possible by a gift from Chris
Han ’84. Endowments work
by investing these initial gifts,
and then using the growth and
income from the investment
to help fund the intended
program. This structure allows
endowments to support long
term growth of the program.
In particular, the Joe Liles
Endowment Fund will help the
NCSSM Fine Arts Department
continue to enhance the events
and opportunities for NCSSM
students and the greater
Durham community.
*. _v*
NCSSM*s soccer team beat DSA Oct 16, on Senior Night
Unis go Orange for
Hunger Awareness
By Andrew Peterson
September is a very active
month as NCSSM students
fight hunger. After classes
have finally kicked into gear,
passionate students banded
together to raise Hunger
Awareness and Fight Hunger
network of food banks works
to inspire individuals to
donate and take action against
hunger in their communities.
Hunger Action Week is one
of several events that UNIs
Fighting Hunger participates
in throughout the year.
The student body seemed to
Members of Student Government pictured during the Orange Out
on and off campus.
Each year, the UNIs
Fighting Hunger club
dedicates a special week of
activities towards promoting
Hunger Awareness. September
is Hunger Action Month, and
the school’s participation is
just one small effort to fight
this major problem.
UNIs Fighting Hunger is a
fairly new club at NCSSM; one
of its main events is hosting
Hunger Awareness week in
September.
Every September, the
Feeding America nationwide
respond well to Hunger Action
Week. UNIs Fighting Hunger
President, Vany Nguyen, said,
“We think Hunger Aetion
Week was a great success. The
Student Body seemed really
shocked by the facts chalked
around campus, and many of
the students came out support
NCSSM athletics in our fight
against hunger!”
After the close Orange Out
defeat against Raleigh Charter,
NCSSM senior, Allison
Melling, had some comments
about the game. “I’m sad we
lost, but I don’t regret coming
out. It is great to see NCSSM
raising Hunger Awareness. I
think it is important for us to
be aware of the impacts of food
insecurity in the community.
I’m glad UNIs Fighting
Hunger is trying to pop the
NCSSM bubble to raise hunger
awareness on eampus and in
the community. It is so
easy for us to forget how
prevalent hunger is in the
community.”
While Hunger
Awareness Week is a
major event sponsored
by UNIs Fighting
Hunger, they also
organize other
activities throughout
the year. They help
plan the Annual Food
Drive in March, where
the student body and
the community come
together to collect
nonperishables for the
Food Bank of Eastern
North Carolina.
Besides hosting a large
food drive every year, UNIs
Fighting Hunger plans on
organizing many more events
to fight against hunger. In
February, NCSSM is hosting
the North Carolina No Kid
Hungry conference.
This is another opportunity
for the student body to
volunteer in the fight against
hunger. There is also a new
activity planned by the officers
every year that focuses on
working with the student
body on a specific program or
competition.