GENEVA (AP) — Delegations from Syria’s government, opposition and civil society have started a new round of meetings in Geneva aimed at revising the constitution of the war-torn country. The fifth round of the so-called Constitutional Committee on Monday comes days after the U.N.’s special envoy for Syria said many subjects have been discussed for more than a year. He said it’s now time for the committee to ensure that “the meetings are better organized and more focused.” Syria’s nearly 10-year conflict has killed more than half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war 23 million population, including more than 5 million refugees mostly in neighboring countries.
NEW YORK (AP) — Now, even the pros on Wall Street are asking if stock prices have shot too high. The U.S. stock market has been on a nearly nonstop rip higher since March, surging roughly 70% to record heights. Wall Street was always quick to justify it, even as the pandemic took its toll on people’s health and the economy. But some of the market’s recent, huge moves have become more difficult to explain, and it’s not just the maniacal swings for GameStop and some other stocks. That has some investors openly debating whether the market is in a bubble, after months of batting away the possibility.
Francis Tuhaise knows from first-hand experience that non-profit organizations can make a difference in the lives of Ugandan citizens. Tuhaise, a student in the Kroc Institute’s Masters Program of Peace and Conflict, will speak Wednesday about the challenges, justifications and opportunities for the non-profit sector in Uganda. He is currently the co-director of the Kyembogo Farmer’s Association (KYEFA), a non-profit organization in Uganda that works with farmers in the region. He received a bachelor’s degree in adult and community education from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Tuhaise also worked for the Ugandan government as a community development officer, mobilizing communities for government-funded programs. Fr. George Muganyizi, a Holy Cross priest, founded KYEFA in Western Uganda in 1998. Tuhaise was involved in the initial planning stages of the organization and became co-director after two years. KYEFA works to improve farmers’ access to education and medical care by increasing their incomes, Tuhaise said. The organization focuses its resources on agriculture because it makes up more than 70 percent of the Ugandan economy. The primary crops in Uganda are pineapples, coffee and tea. “We give [the farmers] improved seeds, we assist them in forming groups, and by forming groups, they are able to market their crops more effectively,” Tuhaise said. He said these collective marketing groups are essential to building income. Tuhaise said the people of Uganda are generally more willing to embrace help from non-profit organizations than government, because they trust the non-profits more. “The nonprofit sector provides a very good opportunity for development in developing countries,” he said. “People have a lot of trust in them, and they are less bureaucratic … They are very transparent as opposed to government, which is seen as very corrupt.” When KYEFA was first founded, 15 families were willing to invest. Now, it has grown into a network of 36 associations serving 936 families in 64 village communities. These families live on isolated farms scattered throughout the Kyembogo region of Uganda. KYEFA also assists farmers by providing a tractor to share between several farms. Farmers may borrow the tractor but must pay for their own gas. Tuhaise also said KYEFA offers support to farmers beyond the monetary realm. “Not all the support is just financially related,” he said. “We also offer technical advice.” The organization also works on two other projects: one focusing on water distribution and another on orphans. The water project helps to sufficiently hydrate families, their animals and their crops, Tuhaise said. The orphan project assists children in buying basic materials for school, like pencils, paper and proper clothing. “In Uganda, we have free primary education, but these orphans do not have the basic [resources] they need to attend school. We help over 1,000 orphans,” he said. “We have 3,000 orphans [in total] but we cannot provide for them all. We select the ones with the most need.” Tuhaise said KYEFA’s goals for the future include increasing funding and expanding its network of associated organizations. “Over 36 groups are associated with us, [but] we want as many groups as we can associated with us,” he said. “We want each group to be independent, have a strategic plan, have its own programs, and sustain its own activities.” Uganda Farmers, Inc., a tax exempt, non-profit group, was formed in solidarity with KYEFA in 2007. Tuhaise said this organization, founded in Connecticut, is key to KYEFA’s programs. Founding KYEFA was not very difficult, Tuhaise said, because it had a wide support base from the beginning. He said the idea for KYEFA actually came from the farmers themselves. “There was already the support, [the farmers] just needed someone to organize and put the papers together,” he said. “The government values non-profits in Uganda.” He said in Uganda, the non-profit sector is able to grow faster and with fewer resources than governmental initiatives. “From experience, I have seen non-profits grow more with less compared to government. Something very small can create a very big impact,” he said. “You are near people, and you don’t need to spend on the big structure. This gives a lot hope.” Tuhaise will speak Wednesday at 8 p.m. in Geddes Hall. read more
Notre Dame and South Bend community members commemorated the lives of deceased loved ones at a Día de los Muertos celebration Tuesday evening in the Hesburgh Center for International Studies. The event featured performances by student groups Mariachi ND, Ballet Folklorico Azul y Oro and Coro Primavera de Nuestra Señora. It was sponsored by the Institute for Latino Studies, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies and the Snite Museum of Art. In Mexican tradition, Nov. 1 is the one day each year when the souls of the dead return to the mortal world, said sophomore Briana Cortez, who performed with Mariachi ND and Coro Primavera. “It’s the one day where you can spend time with your family and friends that have passed on to the next life,” she said. “Instead of it being eerie, the way Halloween is portrayed, it’s more of a celebratory holiday.” During Día de los Muertos celebrations, people create ofrendas, or altars, to honor the dead, Cortez said. “One thing everybody does is have ofrendas, which consists of putting food and flowers on the gravestones of your loved ones and in your home, so when the spirits come back to visit you they can eat [and] see the different images,” Cortez said. The Día de los Muertos celebration featured an ofrenda by internationally known Mexican artist Ana Teresa Fernandez. Fernandez also covered four ladders in black feathers and arranged them in a diamond shape in the Hesburgh Center to signify transportation between the worlds of the living and the dead. “I wanted to play with the space and create almost an infinity sign where you don’t know whether it’s going up or down,” Fernandez said at the celebration. “Heaven’s supposed to be an allegorical space, but we get put under the ground [when we die].” The ladders symbolized the dead’s ability to lift themselves from the ground into heaven, Fernandez said. “I was taking the more utilitarian ladders as a way for them to climb up and down and be able to wear wings and transport themselves,” she said. Another ofrenda, created by Kellogg Institute faculty and staff members, included orange and yellow marigolds and small models of human skulls and bones. Cortez said the Día de los Muertos celebration included traditional Mexican elements, such as bread that is usually placed on ofrendas for the dead, as well as candles meant to ward off evil spirits. Fernandez’s ofrenda will be on display in the Great Hall of the Hesburgh Center through Thursday. read more
Candidates at Moreau Seminary and undergraduate seminarians at Old College deciding to become Holy Cross priests or brothers may live on Notre Dame’s campus but lead very different lives than the average student. Fr. James Gallagher, director of the Office of Vocations, said Moreau Seminary and Old College give young men the opportunity to experience religious life and determine if it is their calling. “The Moreau Seminary and Old College Undergraduate Seminary are run independently from the University of Notre Dame,” Gallagher said. “They are programs the Congregation of Holy Cross offers to help men consider a vocation as a Holy Cross priest or brother and helps to prepare them for that life and ministry.” The Process Young men without undergraduate degrees reside in Old College, where they live for up to three years while enrolled at either Notre Dame or Holy Cross College, according to the Office of Vocations website. Stephen Barany, an undergraduate in Old College studying philosophy and industrial design at Notre Dame, said seminarians fulfillspecific academic requirements from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). “[The USCCB] requirements involve mostly philosophy and some theology,” Barany said. “Beyond that, if it’s possible, we are allowed to major in something else.” According to the Office of Vocations website, men who already have undergraduate degrees enter Moreau Seminary and spend one year as a candidate. Moreau Seminary candidate Walter Pruchnik III said candidates, who are mostly Notre Dame graduates, take the same classes as graduate students in the Masters in Divinity program. They also must meet the same USCCB academic requirements as undergraduate seminarians, he said. “[The candidate program] focuses on academic preparation for the Masters in Divinity Program and growth in … spiritual formation and formation for community life in Holy Cross,” Pruchnik said. Moreau Seminary candidate Brendan Ryan said all of his classes this semester arewith undergraduates. “I’m 26. For some of the undergrads, they probably think it’s a little strange I’m in their classbut I think that makes us a little more well-rounded,” he said. After their candidate year, the seminarians become novices and spend a year of contemplation at a novitiate in Colorado Springs, according to the Office of Vocations website. Brian Ching, a temporarily professed seminarian, said they profess formal vows for the first time after the novitiate year. “After that year in Colorado, you take for the very first time the vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience,” he said. “You profess them for one year at a time and renew them for one year at a time for the next three or four years. The purpose of that is to live it but to also have an out if … you decide this isn’t part of your life.” Ching said seminarians then return to Moreau in the professed program and learn about being a priest or brother. Seminary Life Barany said life in Old College is more structured than students’ experiences in otherdorms. “Prayer is more organized and our formation schedule is very organized,” he said. “Consequently, that leads to the rest of our lives essentially having to be organized, as well, whereas the average college student is able to basically come and go as they please.” Residents are required to wake up for 7:10 a.m. morning prayer in the Log Chapel, Barany said. Eucharistic adoration runs until 7:45 a.m. Pruchnik said candidates follow a similar routine. They attend a 7:15 a.m. prayer, daily Mass at 5:05 p.m. and evening prayer, he said. “Morning prayer, Lauds, and evening prayer, Vespers, frame our day and help build a structure of prayer in our lives,” he said. Moreau Seminary and Old College come together for full community events a few times a week, Pruchnik said. “We play basketball here Sunday nights,” Pruchnik said. “About half the guys participate.” The seminarians train for the Mundelein Seminary Shoot Out, a basketball tournament among regional seminaries in late January, Pruchnik said. Ryan said other sports are popular, as well. “We play racquetball a lot here,” Ryan said. The seminarians also gather every Thursday at Moreau Seminary for a meal, attend a larger Mass and host public Lucernarium, an evening prayer service, in the seminary chapel with a social afterward, Pruchnik said. “We have a larger Mass, a fancier dinner,” he said. “It’s a good night to invite guests, faculty from our classes or friends from the community.” The Old Collegians host a public Log Chapel Mass and a social afterward every Tuesday at 9 p.m., Barany said. Role of Notre Dame Community Although Moreau Seminary and Old College are separated from the University, Gallagher said the Notre Dame community plays a large part in seminary life. “What makes our seminary programs unique from stand alone seminaries is that it offers our men an opportunity to study side by side with their peers, who are training for a whole range of other jobs and vocations,” he said. “They are ready and able to understand and interact with the men and women who will be their parishioners as well as their peers in academia.” Pruchnik said going to undergraduate classes sometimes feels like “commuting.” “I’m not staying up ridiculously late anymore hanging out with the guys in the dorm playing video games, but you’re still embedded in the culture at Notre Dame,” he said. “We’re still very much active and involved.” Ryan said he feels some distance from undergraduates is a good thing. “It’s nice to have some separation because we’re not fifth year seniors,” Ryan said. However, Ryan said students should reach out to the seminarians in their classes. “I think some people are afraid to talk to us,” he said. “We’re just normal guys.” read more
On a snowy January night 20 years ago, a bus carrying the Notre Dame women’s swimming team slid off the Indiana Toll Road and rolled over. Then-freshman Haley Scott DeMaria suffered a broken back and was paralyzed in the accident. DeMaria said receiving the Beeler-Hipp Award, named for freshmen Meghan Beeler and Colleen Hipp, who died in the bus accident, was the “greatest honor” she could have received at the time. First awarded her freshman year to a freshman male and female swimmer, she said the Beeler-Hipp Award remains the most meaningful honor she has ever been given. A year after returning to campus, DeMaria swam in her first meet since the accident, winning her heat of the 50-yard freestyle. “I knew at that moment I would be fine. It didn’t matter that I was a freshman, it didn’t matter that I couldn’t walk or I may never swim again for the University,” she said. “I was part of this family, and whatever shape that was going to take, I would be fine.” DeMaria said she believes she would not have received the same level of support had she attended a different university. She said it was “amazing” that students, faculty, professors and coaches continued to visit her at the hospital in the two months following the accident. DeMaria, who will deliver this year’s Commencement Address on May 20, returned to campus this weekend for the Blue-Gold Game and Monogram Club events. She said support from the Notre Dame community still runs strong, even two decades later. “I didn’t come here as a Catholic, I wasn’t Catholic as a student,” she said. “[Malloy] said, ‘Can I pray with you?’ I remember saying what most non-Catholics would say, ‘But I’m not Catholic.’ And he said, ‘That doesn’t matter. Can we pray?’” DeMaria said moving away from the Notre Dame family came with emotional challenges as well. DeMaria said this visit from Fr. Malloy marked a significant point in her recovery. “To be honored in their name, and to have known them, has always been one of the most meaningful things to me,” she said. Physically, DeMaria said the toughest point in her recovery was when she was transferred from South Bend to a hospital in San Diego two months following the accident. DeMaria said a visit from then-University President Fr. Edward “Monk” Malloy after she came out of surgery following the accident was the first of many gestures of support she received throughout her recovery process. DeMaria returned to campus in the fall, gradually recovered and began to swim again. Because swimming was such a big part of her life at Notre Dame, DeMaria said returning to the pool and the swim team was the highlight of her recovery. “When I say it truly changed everything in my life, it truly changed everything in my life,” she said. “I am so blessed and so happy, and find meaning in things I never would have before. It’s a challenge at times to think that all of this stemmed from such a sad event … It’s hard to be grateful for something that happened, yet I’m so grateful for the lessons I’ve learned because of it.” “It’s very characteristic to have support at the initial time of an incident or accident happening, but that support never went away,” she said. “That’s what I think is so unique to Notre Dame.” “It was the right place for me to be. I think I knew I would wake up that morning and want to be here … Once I knew there was going to be a Mass, I knew I had to be here. It wasn’t an option to not get here,” she said. “It was exactly what it should be.” But DeMaria beat the odds. Not only did she regain the ability to walk, she returned to swim for the Fighting Irish the following year. In her current role as first vice president of the Monogram Club, DeMaria said she loves interacting with student-athletes at Notre Dame. Through these relationships, DeMaria said she realizes while the campus has changed physically, the University spirit she experienced as a student is still alive. But she said the meet was not so much a personal achievement as it was a representation of the strength of the University family. Not only were professors and fellow students in attendance, but the state trooper who first responded to the accident and her emergency room doctor were present as well. “I didn’t have people coming to see me every day,” she said. “It was a very isolating time, because I didn’t necessarily have the level of support that I did here, because people just didn’t know.” “It was also almost like every other meet,” she said. “That’s what I wanted it to be, at least for myself. It was a big deal in the sense that it was such an illustration of the sense of community that is here.” “That sense of what the students do, and the traditions that haven’t gone away, just sort of those snapshots of life here on campus, a lot of that hasn’t changed,” she said. “I love that.” In January, Notre Dame held a Mass of Remembrance in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the 20th anniversary of the bus crash. DeMaria said she originally planned to spend the day with her family, but when the Mass was organized, she knew she had to attend. Doctors told her she might never walk again. “Swimmers are swimmers. It’s all that I can do … I’m at home in the pool. Someone asked me today what my favorite place on campus is, is it the Grotto or Rolfs [Aquatic Center],” she said. “Well, I love the Grotto, but Rolfs is Rolfs – it’s that sense of chlorine, that smell.” “By that point, my spine had re-collapsed, they weren’t able to straighten my spine. I was looking at a life being very uncomfortable,” she said. “I had suffered heart failure, my lungs had collapsed. I was really in bad shape, physically.” When she considers how far she has come in the time since the accident, DeMaria said she is thankful for the good that has come out of such a trying experience. “It’s been 20 years since the accident, and I can’t tell you how many people still care,” she said. “That level of caring is just different here.” read more
In the next four years of his presidency, Barack Obama will expand on the efforts of his first term in office. But he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do so without a broad national base of support. In terms of the immediate results of the election, political science professor Darren Davis said Obama’s maintenance of his 2008 electorate contributed to his reelection. “Looking at the results, I think what stands out is the remnants of Obama’s electoral coalition from 2008,” Davis said. “It was reduced … but there were still those signs of an intact coalition that got him elected.” Just as in 2008, Davis said Obama performed well among young voters, women, African-Americans and Latinos but garnered little support from white male voters. Political science professor Peri Arnold said Republican Gov. Mitt Romney’s reliance on white voter support – exit polls showed 89 percent of Romney’s total votes came from white voters – does not bode well for his party’s future. “That’s a bad sign because we are quickly becoming a minority majority country, so the problem for Republicans that emerges is that they do very well in Oklahoma, so to speak, but Oklahoma is not the future of America,” Arnold said. “The election seems to suggest kind of a remnant or older embodiment of the Republican Party in the largely white, largely older electorate.” Despite the breadth of the president’s victory, Arnold said Obama’s close national margin of victory reflects a “problem in American politics.” “There is a partisan cleavage in which Democrats have the advantage because their demography is the emerging national demography,” Arnold said. Davis and Arnold said the outcome of the election revealed the Republican Party’s primary weakness in appealing to a broad electorate, as evidenced by the president’s sweep of all battleground states except North Carolina. But both professors said strengthening that weakness by 2016 will prove challenging. “The real dilemma for the Republican Party … may be more than a matter of what kind of candidate they put forward,” Arnold said. “It may be more of a deep cultural matter because the Republican Party is old, religious and white, which is not very appealing as America becomes less religious, less white and more diverse.” “It’s one thing for people to suggest that the Republican Party needs to moderate and be less antagonistic, but … parties are made up of individuals, so it’s really difficult for some authority to reframe what a party stands for and what it is,” Davis said. “If the Republicans want the White House in 2016, there are things they need to do, but whether they can do it is a different story.” That party identity will also factor into the basic function of the government’s legislative branch, Arnold said. “We’re still in a real pickle regarding governance because of the polarization of the parties and the Republican control of the House,” he said. “The strategic problem for Obama is still figuring out how to do business with House Republicans.” Arnold said collaboration between Congress and the president will be necessary to address the nation’s impending economic issues. “The initial posture of the Republicans in the House is that they don’t plan to be very flexible, especially in terms of a fiscal policy deal to avert the coming fiscal cliff, so that’s cause for immediate worry,” he said. Continuing disagreements about marginal tax rates and the dramatic drop in the stock market over the past two days also raise questions about the ability of the government to cooperate on vital issues, Arnold said. “Now that the election is over, what we really need to worry about is can this government govern and deal with our most central problems?” he said. But Arnold said the president will likely be more flexible on policy in his second term without considering his prospects for reelection. “Now that he’s not facing reelection, you’re going to find that Obama is more flexible than in his first term and willing to make deals if he can find Republicans willing to make deals with him,” Arnold said. “But the Republicans in the House right now are so ideological that it will be a real challenge for him.” Despite that challenge, Davis said the reduction of pressure on Obama will impact the president’s governing style. “I think you’re going to see a different Barack Obama in his second term. His presidential style and character are going to become more assertive and aggressive,” Davis said. “He’ll identify areas where he would like to have a substantial impact and focus on those things. He has to think in terms of his legacy.” But in order to become a more effective leader, Arnold said Obama must overcome his first-term weakness of failing to discuss his decisions with the American public. “The presidency is an office of narrative and storytelling to the American people, explaining leadership and reasons behind choices, and Obama simply wasn’t doing that. That was a really striking failure,” he said. “Now that Obama seems to realize his weakness, I think we’ll get a president who is more aware and more committed to the explanation of his leadership to the American people. Presidents are successful because they explain themselves well and have a narrative, not necessarily because of what’s happening behind closed doors.” As the president transitions into his second term, Arnold said Obama must take care to consider the second-term precedent set by former Commanders-in-Chief. “We as Americans and Obama as a second-term president ought to be wary of the historical pattern of traps and crises for second-term presidents,” Arnold said. “More than anything else, it’s a tendency towards overconfidence because they don’t have to run again and got a mandated reelection, so presidents have over and over again acted in ways to suggest they think they can push boundaries.” Contact Kristen Durbin at kdurbin@nd.edu read more
Campus Ministry recently established Cross Examination, a new student-led discussion group format that aims to answer pressing questions on Catholic doctrine and provide an educational format for students with a variety of faith backgrounds.Brett Perkins, campus minister and one of the developers of Cross Examination, said Campus Ministry designed the groups to provide students with a more accessible way to engage in conversations and introduce students who might not have had a strong background in Catholic doctrine to fundamental concepts of Catholic dogma. Perkins said the discussion format with student leaders will provide the participants with an interactive way to explore their faith.“They’re open to students of any background, whether they’re Catholic students who have questions about the faith that they’re already practicing, or if they’re coming from any other faith tradition or none at all and just have questions about this Catholic universe that surrounds them at Notre Dame,” Perkins said. “It doesn’t require any kind of commitment to sign up for the whole semester. People are able to drop in at any time.”According to Perkins, the structure of Cross Examination consists of eight discussion groups spread throughout various dorms around campus as well as a graduate student group at Fischer, O’Hara-Grace Graduate Residences and an off-campus group at Irish Row. Upperclassmen with experience in campus ministry will lead the groups, which will feature an interactive question-and-answer format in which students can submit questions regarding Catholic doctrine to student leaders and receive answers during the meetings. Perkins said the primary goal of Cross Examination is to provide a more active context for students to explore different hot-button topics in faith.“If it leads someone to investigate more about Catholicism, so much the better, but that’s not the principal aim of the ministry. It’s really to help students find answers to questions about the church in a spirit of intellectual inquiry,” Perkins said. “We just ask that they come ready to be honest with the questions that they have and being willing to listen with an open mind and an open heart to the response so that they hopefully walk away with a better understanding of what it actually is that we believe as Catholic Christians.”Emma Collis, a senior and one of the student leaders of Cross Examination, said she was motivated to participate in the program after her experience with faith-based conversations during her study abroad in Spain. Collis said she hopes Cross Examination will help students understand Catholic doctrine in greater depth.“The idea of the group meetings is to get together in a common place and have a conversation about the Catholic faith,” Collis said. “I hope that it will be an opportunity for people to come to get their questions answered and to find out what the Church actually says.”Tags: Campus Ministry, Catholicism, club, Cross Examination read more
The Center for the Study of Language and Culture (CSLC) has announced a new minor for the 2016 spring semester: The Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). According to Denise Ayo, assistant director for academic programs, the CSLC ran a TESOL boot camp for two years before the minor was officially announced.Hana Kang, associate professor for second language acquisition, said TESOL is a catch-all term that includes teaching English as a second language and teaching English as a foreign language.“There is a bifurcated idea of teaching English as a second language and teaching English as a foreign language. The difference between those is if you are teaching English as a second language, you are teaching English in an area where English is the predominant language. But, if you are teaching English in China, where the predominant language is Chinese, you are teaching English as a foreign language,” Ayo said. “With TESOL, we’re teaching students to teach English as another language, whether it’s in China teaching English as a foreign language or in America teaching English to immigrants.”Janice Chung | The Observer The program was fueled by student interest in teaching English to non-native speakers, Ayo said.“Students want to perfect their second language — whether it’s German, Japanese or whatever. They want to go that that country, they want to live in that country. A good way to support yourself while you are in another country is to teach English, whether on your own or through a Fulbright English Teaching Award,” she said.Ayo said the CSLC is responding to the amount of students applying for the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships, and two individuals involved in the TESOL program received English Teaching Assistant Awards.“It gives you a leg up when you’re going for Fulbright or just going to an individual country, saying you want to teach English. You can say you are trained to do that. Not only do I speak English, I understand language pedagogy, I understand language methodology, I’ve studied the theoretical backings behind it,” she said.Ayo said as English becomes the dominant global language, more students are interested in teaching the language.“Also, English is becoming the major language of commerce, it’s becoming the go to language for laws, money, government everything is typically done in English. So as a consequence, individuals are needing to learn English if they want to become a global player in their field. Therefore, you need individuals teaching English,” she said.The minor is not only for those interested in teaching English, Kang said.“It is not only for those interested in teaching a language, maybe your ultimate goal is not to be an English teacher but you are interested in learning a foreign language. You will learn the theories on how language acquisition occurs, so you can understand your own learning process and come up with a better learning strategy which fits you. So you can, by knowing that background theory, hopefully learn your foreign language better,” Kang said.The minor is meant to be inclusive for any student who plans on interacting with non-English speakers after graduation, Ayo said.“This is great preparation for anyone who wants to go into a teaching occupation either in the United States or abroad. Peace Corps, Teach for America, a lot of these people are going to be interacting with individuals whose native language is not English but either need the language or are interested in the language,” she said. “Whether they need it to pass their classes, or they need it to get a job, join the workforce or anything. Having this knowledge to how best to approach helping these people acquire the language. It’s not just, ‘I speak English, therefore I can teach it,’ there is a whole science behind it and a methodology that is important to learn.”Tags: CSLC, TESOL read more
The Angela Athletic Facility is now open at Saint Mary’s and features all-new gym equipment, as well as multiple lounges, television viewing spaces and a brand new cafe.Murphy’s Cafe tested the waters this week by giving out free samples of its healthy food options in hopes to get feedback on the new menu. Sophomore Haley Roecker said she has tried multiple items from the new cafe and is happy with the kinds of food being offered. “The new cafe is amazing,” she said. “Personally, I have tried the Le Mans and McCandless smoothies and the veggie wrap. For the smoothies, they used all fresh fruit and they were delicious. All of the menu options are healthy, which I think is a great alternative for Saint Mary’s to have.”Senior lacrosse player Liana O’Grady said she is thankful the facility was completed before she graduated, as she believes it will increase opportunities for both her team and other Saint Mary’s teams sharing the space.“The new Angela offers everything we need to practice and become the great Division III college that we believe we are,” she said in an email. “With more court space, improved training facilities and our own locker rooms, we are able to become more focused on our sport, rather than trying to juggle practice times and workout classes with the rest of the community. I believe the improvements to Angela will make other teams and recruits take us more seriously when they come to our campus.”O’Grady said she is excited for the new cafe because it ties the Saint Mary’s community together while also expanding options in dining.“I believe by offering healthier options and delicious smoothies, the cafe will encourage the Saint Mary’s community to expand their taste buds and be more conscious about making healthier choices,” O’Grady said. “The cafe also has fun names for their food options, for example, the smoothies are named after the dorms on campus. This adds a personal touch and connection to Saint Mary’s that the community can all relate to.”Senior Shaianne Chavez-Fields, said she likes the open concept of the new facility, as well as its natural lighting, which she described as a nice change from other more closed-off buildings on campus. One of her professors hosts office hours in the new cafe and Chavez-Fields said she hopes other professors will also begin to utilize the new building.“We have a class in there which is really great,“ she said. “I think it would be cool if a lot of other professors would incorporate the classes into the building and take advantage of this awesome facility we have.” O’Grady said she also has classes in Angela, which is nice change from the normal classroom setting. This change of scenery is beneficial to her health, she said, and increases her energy during the day.“I actually have two classes in Angela, which I enjoy because I am able to get something from the cafe before or after class, or even work out,” O’Grady said. “By having these classes in Angela, I feel as though I am subconsciously being healthy and feel a closer tie to the healthy community and people around me that are using the new facility.”Tags: angela athletic and wellness complex, Angela Athletic Facility, gym, Murphy’s Cafe read more