Jodi Picoult Comes to
Meredith
On Monday March 8,
popular author Jodi Picoult visited
Meredith College through a part
nership with Quail Ridge Books.
Piccoult spoke for an hour on her
new novel House Rules.
The book is about Jacob,
a brilliant boy who suffers from
Asperger’s Syndrome. Jacob also
helps the local police department
solve murder mysteries, but one
day the town is devastated by a
murder that has the police accus
ing Jacob as their first suspect. The
remainder of the book describes
Jacob’s trying to solve this mystery
and clear his name.
Jodi Picoult was inspired
to write this book because her
cousin David is autistic. David
is an adult and lives in a group
home, but autism makes life a daily
struggle for him and his family.
His mother has, on more than one
occasion, had to wrestle 6 foot,
200 pound Jacob to the ground in
order to settle him down from an
outburst. When this has happened
in public, Jodi Picoult’s aunt has
had multiple people call the police
with reports of child abuse. Pic
coult wanted to speak about the
struggles faced by autistic children
and parents and uses House Rules
Aleigha Page, Staff Writer
to comment on this
widely misunderstood
disorder.
Sam Rams-
dell, a Meredith
sophomore, attended
the lecture. Sam states
that Jodi Piccoult is
one of her favorite au
thors and that she was
thrilled to know Pic
coult would be speak
ing at Meredith. Sam
was veiy impressed
with Picoult’s visit,
noting that Picoult is
“very sweet and down
to Earth. I had this
impression that some
authors can be kind
of pig-headed and con
trolling. She was none
of those things. After
her speech and ques
tionnaire, she spoke
for about 2 hours be
fore beginning to sign
books. She answered
all questions with
lengthy and detailed stories. All
in all it was a great night and she
signed 2 of my books.” Obviously,
Picoult made a positive impression
on the Meredith student body;
OUSE RULES
Upcoming
Events
gathered by Kristen Gallagher
• Mar 25 - Disability Awareness Day
• Mar 25 and 26 -Aqua Angels On
Broadway Show at the Pool, 8 pm
• Mar 26 - MEA, MRA, and RHA
meetings
• Mar 26 - Non-profit Career Fair at
Peace College (gym) 11-3 pm
• Mar 27 - Junior Visitation Day
• Mar 27 - Class of 2012 Tea for Two
11-3 pm at the Crabtree Marriot
• Mar 28 - Tennis vs. Christopher
Newport
Photo courtesy ofjodipicoult.com
hopefully her books raise awareness
nationwide.Now that’s what I call
having fun on a budget!!
Does your club/group/organization have
an event on campus? Email it to us at
herald@meredith.edu and we’ll list it
here!
Campus
Announcements
Attention Faculty, Staff, and Students:
Join others from Raleigh colleges and
universities in a healthy conversation on
race relations.
Sat., Mar. 27: 9am-i2pm & Sun.,
Mar. 28: 3pm-6pm @ NC State
Mondays, Mar. 22, 29 & Apr. 5:
3:30pm-5:30pm @ Peace
Sat., Apr. 10: ioam-4:3opm @ St.
Augustine’s
Tluirs., Tues., Tliurs., Apr. 8,13 &
15: i:3opm-3:30pm @ St. Augustine’s
To register for these sessions visit:
http://www.ncsu.edu/mdap/index.html
Transportation provided if needed and
refreshments will be seived!
What to Eat, What to Eat?
Kristen Gallagher, Staff Writer
Meredith has a great his
tory of hosting community events,
and the Film Feastival on March
9th was no exception. The Inter-
Faith Food Shuttle, Raleigh District
Dietetic Association, Durham-
Chapel Hill District Dietetic As
sociation, Slow Food Triangle, and
Meredith College’s own Master in
Nutrition Program partnered to
bring Joel Salatin and other holis
tic farmers to Jones Auditorium.
The event was designated in honor
on National Nutrition Month and
aimed to raise awareness about “a
new way of thinking about what we
are eating,” according to the Mer
edith MS Nutrition website. The
core part of the event, the screen
ing of the documentary Fresh, was
well attended and quite interesting
to say the least.
Fresh attracted foods
and nutrition as well agriculture
students from other local colleges
as well as members of community
gardens and advocacy groups. As
representatives from the support
ing organizations introduced each
other, I mentally jotted down notes
about what to look for in the film.
I generally take a decently sober
attitude toward documentaries,
especially those whose topics are
particularly in vogue - like Fresh’s
holistic farming method versus
factory farming debate. Despite
the use of clearly “sided” filming
techniques such the instance the
crew focused in on the ‘warning:
toxic’ label on the litter bag for the
chickens and the pervasive use of
music to highlight the ‘good’ and
the ‘bad,’ the film was not terribly
biased, which was quite refreshing.
Watching the film gave me
a chance to think about my own
food values - where I get my nour
ishment, who nourishes it, and
what goes into the entire process.
After seeing Fresh, I decided to
make a conscious effort to eat food
that is truly good for me and for
those who helped me get it. One of
Fresh’s goals is to promote sus
tainable food, and locally grown
food is probably the closest you
can get. If you had a chance to eat
the best food, wouldn’t you?