Editorial Staff

Chris Herren signs a copy of his book for a student.

 The Criminology Club invited Chris Herren, a former Celtics basketball player, to talk about his life story in the Athletic Center this past Tuesday. Many gathered on the bleachers to hear his story about his struggle defeating his addiction to drugs. Many students who currently play on athletic teams at Framingham State went to hear Herren speak of his ongoing battle with addiction.

At age 18, the former Celtics player was one of the best basketball players in the United States.

“I was recruited from every school in this country,” he said.

He chose to go to Boston College to represent Massachusetts. After two weeks at BC, he received a call and was told he was one in four men who would potentially make it on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He didn’t make it on the front cover, but was given a full page inside the magazine.

The night after, he was told by his coach he was going to listen to a former NFL player talk about his addiction to drugs.

“Coach, come on man, are you serious? I just had a lecture at the McDonald’s All American. I don’t need to hear this anymore,” he said.

“I had the nerve to judge the man. I had the nerve to laugh at his story, I had the nerve to talk while he talked.”

After the presentation, he found himself being pressured to try cocaine by his roommate’s girlfriend. “She said, ‘Chris, where you going? Come back. It’s not going to kill you, I promise.’”

He felt he had to prove to them that he wasn’t weak. She told him to put some cocaine on his gums. “Three minutes later, she chops three lines out. She looks at me and she hands me the dollar bill.” He told himself that night, that he would never do cocaine again. “I had no idea that … it would be 14 years later.”

He was expelled from Boston College after three failed drug tests. “When I went home, I sat on my couch for two months,” he said. His scholarship was taken away, his basketball dreams disintegrated. He was looking for a second chance. Jerry Tarkanian, a basketball Hall of Fame coach, who had just started his job at Fresno State, told Herren, “I want to give you a second chance.” Herren told the audience, “all I needed to hear were those words.”

At the end of his first season at Fresno, he was told by his coach that if he stayed clean for two more months, he had the potential to be a first pick in the NBA draft. Two weeks later, he was out with his friends drinking.

“Two, four, six, ten, twelve drinks later, I picked up my phone and I called my cocaine dealer.”

Herren smoked cocaine minutes before one of the biggest games of his career thus far. After the game, he was told to take a drug test and failed it. That night, he held a press conference where he admitted that he had a cocaine addiction.

“I was a 21-year old cocaine addict,” he said.

There were several times when Herren chose drugs over his career as a basketball NBA star. He was offered a multimillion dollar position. However, this position would have relocated him too far away from his dealer. In his mind, having drugs was more important. This decision ended his basketball career.

At 22, he was introduced to Oxycontin. He gave his friend $20 for his first pill. He didn’t think it was going to do anything for him. “I had no idea that that decision that day was going to change my life forever.” He spent $25,000 a month on these pills, and by doing so destroyed his basketball career and his family. As his addiction spiraled out of control, Herren had two near death experiences. It took 12 years for someone to finally reach out to help him.

Chris’ friend helped him by putting him in a rehab center. A month in, his wife was in labor with his third child. “I needed to be at one of my child’s births sober,” he said, but that same night, he smoked cocaine and left his family. The next day, he went back to the hospital to ask for forgiveness from his wife. Instead, she told him she never wanted to see him again.

He went back to rehab and his coach said, “You’re going to call your wife, and you’re going to tell your wife that you will disappear. You’re going to tell your wife to tell your three kids that when they saw their dad in the hospital today that it was their last time because their dad died in a car crash.” Chris paused, took a deep breath and looked at his audience. “I started crying. I flipped him the phone and I said, ‘Sir I know what I am.’” He described himself dropping down to his knees and crying in his room at rehab. “The day I dropped to my knees was August 1, 2008. … Since that day after hearing those words, I have not had the urge, the desire to drink, to shoot heroin or to smoke.”

“When I walk into this gym and see this many students, you know that the people who are here want to be here, and that’s what matters,” he said to his audience. He was grateful for such a terrific outcome. “It’s great to see the amount of students that are here.”

Ryan Bradshaw, a recent graduate said, “He was very inspirational. He really cares about the individual.” Many people after his presentation went over to buy his book and have it signed by Herren. Patricia O’Brian, Framingham State University woman’s basketball coach, thought the talk was moving. “To be a college student listening to him say, ‘I was sitting where you were sitting,’ I think it’s a really strong message and I hope they heard it.”

Staff Writer

With the bass throbbing, people yelling and the lights dimming, my stomach does a funny little flip as I realize how close it is to show time and how far I’ve come in the past few months.

I’ve been waiting and working for the spring fashion show for four months. And now, suddenly, it is here. It has completely snuck up on me.  I thought I would have weeks more to prepare and perfect my garments.

The spring fashion show, this year titled “Showstoppers,” has been put on by the Fashion Club for years but this is the second year the show will be on a rather impressive catwalk in the new gym.  Before, when it was produced in the Forum, and then the Dwight Performing Arts center, however, there were never enough seats for the audience.

This lack of available seats is precisely why, even though I was a fashion design student, I had neglected to go to the previous fashion shows. So this is my first fashion show.  I am debuting six new garments, all of which are my original designs.

The music is playing to mask the crazed voices of designers and models alike pleading to no one in particular that they don’t want to trip/throw up/flash the crowd. A towering black curtain is all that separates myself and fellow designers from hundreds of spectators who ultimately judge us as a designer within seconds of our first garment being modeled.

It’s very intense to know that each of my babies is going to be judged – in some cases, very harshly. And they are my babies because after months of gestation in my mind, my ideas are born into a life of change and growth with lots of fighting, tears and love, all leading up to their embarking on a journey into society.  And this isn’t just their journey into society – it’s mine too.

That’s what this whole fashion show is about: my design debut.  Like a southern debutante, I feel as though my whole life in any sort of respectable society will hinge on this moment – except there are fewer white dresses and less elegance and more naked people and panic.  Lots of panic!

Panic has transformed into something tangible to me during the show.  It is like a gnome that keeps running up to me, kicking me in the shins, and asking, “Are you sure you didn’t miss your turn?” or “Are you sure you can’t see that botched hem from the front row?” It is awful.

But then, to fight off Panic the Gnome, there are my peers surrounding me.  These wonderful people and I have grown tremendously in four years together and we know that tonight, we need to be completely supportive of each other. They offer me words of reassurance and the physical support me with a hug when needed.

I turn back to my models and proceed to adjust and pick at the garments endlessly to make sure they are just right for the runway.  To see the clothing on a working human form is always a learning experience.  To know how the piece looks on a moving human form teaches me what works and what doesn’t and what I need to change – fabric, cut, stitching or style lines – in order to make it a better piece for the buyer.

Taking mental notes on the fit of each garment, I once again line up the models in order of appearance, and again go over the mood I want them to evoke and the bounce they should have in their step and the smiles they should have on their faces. They are so understanding of and patient with the crazed woman I have become and I couldn’t be more grateful that fate delivered them to me.

The show thus far has shown freshman, sophomore, and most of the junior designers.  I am immediately able to tell when the last few junior designs are walking because an electric charge fills the space.  There is an increased flurry of activity in the rustling of fabrics, the last minute clipping of threads, pinning what needs to be pinned and numerous “Oh my god! This is happening”s.

I look over each of my models for a fifth-to-last check and they’re all wonderful – even in the dim light being filtered through the curtain.

A voice calls out, “Kate Corwin! Kate! Line up please!” and my stomach does that flip at the same time Panic the Gnome kicks me again.  Overwhelmed, I lead my models to the steps leading up to the stage.  I hug them all, wish them luck and nip into the audience to see my garments finally make their debut onto a real runway.

Despite the blaring club music, all I hear is Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” and I imagine the audience getting out baskets of rotten fruit, and professors with their pens poised to write a solid “F” while I simultaneously try to plan a hasty exit to evade what I fear will be an eventual angry mob.

And then my name appears on the backdrop. White text on a black background – I will never forget it. My first model steps out, and an unexpected, unbelievable feeling of pride washes over me. Suddenly, nothing else matters except the garment I made. I made that garment. With my hands, and my knowledge, and my passion, I made something that people enjoy.  Are in fact actively enjoying – judging by their claps and cheers.

After seeing my garments on unmoving dress forms for weeks, it is a breathtaking metamorphosis to see them flow and move and become living pieces of art – the flow of the tulle in the breeze and the bounce of fabric with each step.  I love how different style lines have made one of my models grow what seems a whole 12 inches, and another dress lengthened my friends torso in an instant.  These five proud women and one dashing man have brought my pieces to life!

I think it takes less than two minutes for all six models to walk but it feels like two hours.  It is such a delectable moment that I could savor and keep all to myself for a moment.

When the designer after me began I slipped back behind the curtain to see my models waiting with beaming faces.  Congratulations were given all around and I think I hugged each of them twice.

The crowd behind the curtain has thins to just senior designers.  After the very last model walks off stage and down the stairs it is our turn to get a little of the spotlight.  Senior designers line up and loop the runway just once as a final bow.

As I step up onto the runway hand in hand with a friend, a tumultuous applause washes over us.  It is another overwhelming feeling to know that so many people liked what I have just shown.

I walk back down the runway, off stage, and down the stairs, stopping at the rack full of my now still garments.  There is a sadness growing in me now and I can’t help but wish that I could rewind the night and play it over and over.  Eventually, there will be relief, but for now, I just miss the magic that was so quickly extinguished.

I pack up my emergency sewing supplies, lay the garments back in the protective bag and, heaving them over my shoulder, I walk out to the audience and I am greeted by the glowing faces of my very proud looking family.  It has been very hard to convey to them the amount of time and hard work I put into my projects, but now, it is all too clear.  They understand and are bursting with as much pride as I am.

This fashion show did something for me that I think everyone in college needs at some point in his or her academic career: the assurance that I am doing something that makes me happy and at which I can succeed. How rewarding is that?

Editorial Staff

It’s that time of year again – papers are due, exams are coming up, and students are scrambling to get everything done and turned in on time.

It’s finals.

It goes without saying that finals cause an inordinate amount of stress in the lives of students everywhere. The mere thought of a deadline can send a person’s anxiety skyrocketing – “When is this due? When is that due? What should be worked on first?” These questions, along with a myriad of others, are constantly running through a person’s head as due dates approach and the scramble to get work in on time commences.

Paul Welch, director of the Counseling Center, said there are different kinds of “stressors” – something that causes a person to be stressed. “There’s a whole academic realm that people can get stressed about,” he said. “People can feel very stressed this time of year if they haven’t kept up with their work, but even if they have, then people can feel very stressed about finals.

“People have other stressors too,” he added, citing relationships (whether they be with friends, family or romantic relationships) as one common stressor. “Those stressors can be acute or chronic. Something can come up out of the blue – surprise someone – and that can be sort of an acute stressor someone can be dealing with. Other stressors can be chronic – sometimes people come and they have chronic stressors from family or relationship difficulties. And those can be more difficult to manage. They require more thinking and more time and more practice to get over them.”

Welch said money and finances are another cause of stress. “And that can effect a lot of things – like housing and ability to feed yourself and to buy the books that you need and clothes on your back,” he said.

Welch said one of the times people might feel more stressed would be the beginning of the year, especially for freshmen coming in and learning to adjust to college life. The end of semesters can also be a time of stress, with finals and stress, “but also because they’re transitioning home, or other places that can be stressful.” The end of the year can also be stressful for seniors who are graduating, and worrying about getting jobs or going to grad school, he added.

“So the beginning and the end,” Welch said. “And sometimes the middle.”

Danielle Brown, a junior psychology major, said school in general is stressful for her. “Anything from having too much to do, writing papers, making presentations. School also causes me stress when it prevents me from being able to deal with life things such as going home to see my family or buying a car. Finals definitely causes stress because everything is due and you have big exams in all of your classes all at the same time.” She added that her job can cause her stress – “Mostly making sure I can get there in time and balance work, school, family and social time.”

When dealing with stress, Brown said she has a variety of techniques. “I like going for walks, drawing, reading or finishing what is causing the stress – for example finishing a paper that I am stressed about getting done in time,” she said. “Sometimes I will talk about what is stressing me with friends or family which can be helpful.

“The other way I try to deal with stress is finding the positives in life,” she added. “Finding something good in life often gives you a reason to smile or relax a little and makes working through stress a little easier. If none of that works, then I just keep on going until whatever is causing me the stress is over.”

Cassie Ferragamo, a sophomore biology major, usually finds herself stressed about her class load. “Having three labs a week makes me super stressed!” She said. “There’s always an exam or lab report or quiz, and usually everything is due on the same day. That is stressful!”

She added she’s usually more stressed during the beginning of the semester, when she’s transitioning into new classes, and at the end of the semester when she’s dealing with lab reports, tests, projects, assignments and, of course, finals. She said she handles stress by “just doing the work when I can, occasionally napping, and going home on the weekends to just rest and relax and get away from school. Also knowing summer is close helps de-stress.”

Taryn Anastas, a junior education major, said there are several things that cause her stress – “The things that cause me to become the most stressed are when I have lots of homework to do, a long to-do list of meeting with people or searching for a job.”

Anastas said she feels stress the most during the winter months, “because it is cold and dreary outside.” She added that she feels stress the week before finals, because that is when all of her work is due.

To deal with stress, Anastas said she has several different techniques. “I go for long runs, do a 40 minute session of yoga or just go for a walk to clear my mind. Making a schedule of how I will allocate my time also helps me to deal with my stress because then I have a plan of when I will do what needs to get done.”

Junior history major Laura Douillette said, “If I have a million things to do and no time to do it, I get stressed. And oftentimes I push back the more difficult or time-consuming tasks for later, which causes me more stress because not only will it be difficult, but it also hasn’t been done yet.”

She said the time of the year doesn’t really affect her stress levels, because from the first week to the last she is “constantly busy.

“I know it sounds crazy, but finals week is actually one of my favorite times of the year because everything I do is over except for academics,” she said. “I have so much free time then, so I am actually a lot less stressed. Usually my finals are just papers or tests, which won’t be too arduous, so it’s not too stressful.”

To deal with stress, Douillette said she just tries to finish whatever needs to be finished. “It only makes me more stressed if I try to avoid doing it or to get my mind off of it,” she said. “So, I just get it done and then I feel much better!”

When helping students handle stress, Welch said the counselors try to “tailor the stress management approach to what [the students] need.” He added there are healthy ways and unhealthy ways for a student to deal with stress.

“Ones that we might typically see because students are coming in and needing our help are more unhealthy ways,” he said. “Like smoking or procrastinating or drinking too much or spending too much money or avoiding people.”

With that in mind, Welch said, the counselors try to talk to students about healthier ways of coping with stress. “Like making sure you get adequate rest,” he said. “That your nutrition is good, that you’re practicing good time management skills, that you have good social support, that you’re having fun – you can forget about your problems for a little while.

“It’s tough,” Welch added, “because when somebody’s stress, if they’re doing something that’s unhealthy – like smoking cigarettes or using drugs or alcohol – part of what happens is if you feel stressed and smoke a cigarette, you sort of feel a little better. So the cigarette helps temporarily, or the alcohol or drugs help temporarily, but then they create other problems – like addiction or misuse. So it’s tough when the solution to the problem then becomes the problem.”

Welch said, when managing stress, “It depends on what the stressor is in terms of what the solution might be.”

Editorial Staff

Kendra Sampson with her stuffed elephant named Joplin.

Inside a FSU SGA office filled with the excited chatter of newly elected student government officers, the rustling of papers and the bustle of Xerox machine, Kendra Sampson can be found sitting calmly at her desk.

Within the midst of the final weeks of the semester, the 2011-2012 academic year’s “accidental” student trustee finds a few minutes in her hectic schedule to listen to Florence and the Machine.

“They’re my favorite,” she says with a smile as she turns her mp3 player off.

She sits back and recalls her journey as student trustee over the last year, beginning with her surprise write-in for the position.

“It was really interesting – you can say that,” she says. “I had talked to Danielle [Farmer] prior, and she really wanted me … to agree to it.  I thought about it a lot and decided I would take on the challenge, but it wasn’t something that I necessarily fully understood.  And I was very hesitant because it wasn’t something that I wanted to do really – it was something that was brought to me.”

Sampson admits what would probably surprise a lot of students – she isn’t a “politics person.”  She had been an SGA senator, but quit in the spring 2011 semester.

“And then I was coaxed into being trustee, so…” she trails off with a “the rest is history” air.

Although the student trustee doesn’t have a vote on SGA, part of the role includes being an ex officio member, Sampson explains.

“I’m part of the executive board. … It’s sort of my choice if I go to senate meetings or not, but I like to stay involved with SGA.”

An eye-opener

Although becoming student trustee was unexpected, Kendra Sampson has brought her unique and free-spirited personality to the role, and has made it her mission to work on behalf of her fellow students.

“So, I sit on the Board of Trustees,” explained Sampson.  “I am the student voice for basically the entire campus about these major issues that are voted on, talked about and discussed.  I wanted to conquer the role.  I wanted to because I didn’t really understand it at first.”

Conquering the role has turned out not only to be a challenge, but an eye-opening experience because of the complicated issues she has dealt with, she said.

“Before being student trustee, I could easily say, ‘This is crap – why can’t they fix it?’  But now, it’s a little more difficult for me because I do understand both sides, and there’s a lot more gray area than people are willing to admit.”

Sampson said she likes how much she’s learned, and that being able to see how such a large organization works interests her.  It’s something she wouldn’t have had the chance to fully understand had she not been written in for student trustee.

Fixing grinded gears

One of Sampson’s biggest projects this year was the creation of “The Student Concern – What Grinds Your Gears” binders, which were placed in various locations on campus for students to be able to write their concerns and suggestions about student life.

“I wanted students to feel like they were being heard – to feel like they had a place to put something.  Put a concern, put an issue.”

She admits the binders haven’t been as successful as she had hoped.

“I don’t get that much response, but when I do, I really, really do read them and consider them, and e-mail people and see what I can do about it.”

On her part, Sampson apologizes for not always getting back to students who have shared their concerns.  However, she said she really likes being able to stand up for students.

“It’s very easy to get caught up in numbers and percentages and dollar signs, and all the complicated things that go along with it,” she said.  “But, it’s important not to forget why you do it all.  So, my goal this whole year has been to do the best of my ability with this role and just to do Framingham State justice.  Which, I hope I am, and I think I do – stand for students.”

Meet Kendra

When she isn’t in her office, at SGA meetings, checking student concern binders, following up on concerns, dissecting a new agenda for the next Trustees meeting, or attending one, Sampson still manages to make time for regular school work and her own passions.

A typical day for the Peabody native and commuter can encompass any or all of the following: an internship in the office of Student Involvement and Leadership Development (SILD), going to class and doing homework, working for Alternative Spring Break (ASB) as the club’s operations and education trip leader and doing trustee work – which periodically includes meeting with the Dean of Students and the President.

“It’s a lot of various to-do lists, making sure I get things done, because I do hold a lot of roles with different responsibilities.  So, it’s quite challenging – it’s quite hectic.”

A sociology major with a concentration in human services, Sampson explained that ASB – her “heart and soul” – influenced her academic path at FSU and her future plans.

“I was an English major – I wanted to be a high school English teacher, and then I went on ASB and realized how many different ways you can influence and affect the world.  I wanted to do more hands-on work that would directly address the issues of poverty.  So, I decided to switch.”

Sampson got involved with ASB because she was excited about getting to work with Habitat for Humanity – something she’d always wanted to do, but wasn’t quite sure how.  She has been a trip leader for the past three years, and said that since the club is in its fourth year running, she’s really watched it grow.

She nostalgically described the club’s most recent trip to Joplin, Missouri with pride.

“It was incredible.  Every trip you do is very, very different, but there was just something about Joplin.”

She said it was a smaller community which had been impacted by a more recent storm than areas visited on previous trips.  Devastation was at a peak, and the people there were still very emotional – they cried when students spoke with them.

“And then, the group, the group of students that we had, there was something – something about them this year.  They’re all incredible people.”

Sampson says that’s part of why she stresses that students should join ASB – “because the people you meet are good people.  They’re people that want to do something good, who want to help others.  So, it’s really a great chance to meet people who are just inspiring and motivating.”

The trip was also important for Sampson because she was able to learn more about nonprofits, something which she said directly relates to her dream job: being a volunteer coordinator for a nonprofit that focuses specifically on rebuilding after natural disasters.

“I would love to live in a volunteer house and help volunteer groups get there, show them around, help them have the same experiences that I’ve been able to have as a volunteer and just sort of spread the good and further motivate people to help.”

Part of her inclination to help others was also inspired by the time she spent on the Human Rights Action Committee (HRAC).  The former vice president says the human rights issue she is most concerned about is poverty.

“It’s something that’s so widespread and the divide between the social classes is unreal.  It’s really disturbing, actually.”

To combat the issue, Sampson explained she would focus on helping low-income individuals affected by natural disasters in volunteer work.

“The interesting thing about natural disasters is that it sort of highlights all of the areas of poverty.  And after a storm hits, if you have the money you can rebuild.  However, if you don’t – if you don’t have money to rebuild, if you don’t have insurance – you’re down and out, and for who knows how long.”

Sampson is looking forward to being a second-year Wet Feet Retreat trip leader this coming fall.

After she graduates next December, she said she would ideally like to volunteer for AmeriCorps or with an organization like Habitat for Humanity.

Sampson said she is really going to miss FSU.

“I feel like I’ve really grown up here, I’ve really matured and become myself.  I’m going to miss the people. … There are people who will reach out to you, who will root for you, who will push for you.  And that’s something great about Framingham [State], which, I don’t think everyone takes as much advantage of as they could.”

Many of those people have made it clear that they are going to miss her just as much.

When the crowd of students attending this year’s Annual Awards and Recognition Ceremony broke into applause over Sampson’s acknowledgment from the Office of SILD, the evening’s moderator, Vice President of Enrollment and Student Development Susanne Conley said into her microphone, “You got fans, girl!”

SGA senator and vice president-elect Larry Liuzzo wanted to thank and congratulate the student trustee for her preparation of the organization’s annual State House Day event.

“For months, Kendra has worked tirelessly and spent many hours putting this event together so that we would be able to attend,” he said.  “Without her, we would not have been able to go to the State House to advocate for FSU and the rest of the state universities.  Kendra plays such a huge role on our campus and really dedicates the majority of her time to further benefit every student at FSU.  Her passion, motivation, dedication, among the many other great qualities that make her the person that she is, is truly inspiring.”

HRAC’s secretary Francis Rick said, “Kendra had an officer position in HRAC when I joined the club two years ago, and she made me feel welcome right away.  I was amazed at how she was involved in several extracurricular activities and still found the time to talk to everyone who wanted to run an idea by her, or just chat for a little bit.  Kendra has an engaging personality and unbelievable communication skills. I am sure she will be successful in whichever career path she chooses to pursue!”

Sitting with ASB’s mascot, Joplin, a stuffed elephant, on her desk, Sampson shares her message for future FSU student trustees.

“I would say, just continue to make sure that you get students’ opinions and continue to bring them up. … It’s very important for them to stand up for what’s right and not be intimidated simply because of age and power differences, but to stand up for what you believe.”

Staff Writer

Students Anthony Prieto and Jordan Bain perform at Playing for Change last Thursday

For those wondering what all the commotion was outside of the McCarthy Center last Thursday, April 26, it was this year’s Playing for Change event, which featured live musical performances from students and gave support and recognition to a meaningful cause.

With a wide variety of musicians, performances were never dull, and the event had a little bit of something for everyone. With styles of rock, indie, pop, acoustic and rap, these students entertained crowds in between classes and on their way to lunch.

Bands gave lively performances of their own music, as well as popular covers from bands such as The Cranberries, Stone Temple Pilots, Tool and Taking Back Sunday.

The event was sponsored by HRAC, and all proceeds this year were donated to the charity Horizons for Homeless Children, which aims to help improve the lives of homeless children and their families.

The organization is Massachuetts based, and connects with local parents to provide tools they need to for economic stability.

Horizons for the Homeless also advocates on behalf of homeless children and families, and seeks to inform policy makers about a better understanding and recognition of their needs.

One group performed an upbeat set with a skilled drummer and saxophonist. Their performance lured in a generous crowd with finely tuned music that could be heard from classrooms across the street.

Another group, consisting of a duo of aspiring rappers Anthony Prieto and Jordan Bain, provided a performance that combined unique lyrics about originality and acceptance, along with a background dub step and hip-hop beat. This group was one of the most interactive of the performances, and had even drawn in members of the crowd to join them in the MC Patio spotlight.

One student performed a cappella, enticing the crowd with his rendition of “Big Spender” from the musical “Sweet Charity.”

Freshman Kendra Lohr performed a soft acoustic set, which accompanied her soothing voice and original lyrics.

Another freshman student, Evan Kelley, was initially left with a disadvantage for the event when his band was unable to make the trip. Planning on having the event a week sooner, Kelley originally expected his bandmates from Cape Cod to join him for this event. However, because it was postponed for a week, Kelley was left as a one-man band.

Luckily, Kelley was able to perform with a few other FSU talents, seniors Tyler Guay and Mike Tansey, and the trio provided a provocative indie-rock experience.

“Performing was an incredible feeling,” said Kelley. “It’s just amazing to get up in front of people and play music. … Putting hours of effort in and having the crowd react well is a great feeling.”

Tables were also set up near the performers bearing interesting trinkets and crafts. Stands sold unique jewelry and hair pins made of old buttons and other recycled materials, bracelets made from past issues of The Gatepost, ashtrays made from Arizona cans and potholders and tote bags made from recycled articles of clothing.

Although there may were some minor microphone problems, making some sets sound a bit echoed, the performers provided energetic sets that left a good show for those who chose to stand around and watch the performances or those just passing by.

Arts & Features Editor

Ambruce Carter is following his dream. The sophomore business major, who is also known as A.M. Carter in the music world, can often be seen striding about campus, headphones on, head nodding, realizing his goal day by day, thinking up content that could someday be featured in a record store near you.

While growing up in Lowell, Mass., Carter’s parents divorced when he was only a few years old. Though his relationship with his father was somewhat strained due to his service as a staff Sargent in the Army, Carter learned many important life lessons from him, such as the values of responsibility, accountability, and loyalty.

“I view myself as a very loyal person,” Carter said. “If I believe in you and you believe in me, and we have a bond or connection, I’ll stay true to that.”

On the other side of his family life, Carter learned the value of hard work and education from his mother, who acted as an example through her own struggles and successes.

After first being laid off from her job in the field of computer science, she decided instead to pursue a career in healthcare – a course of study that would require a large dedication of time, which for Carter and his siblings meant less time with their mother. However, realizing the necessity for their mother to follow her ambitions, they gave their mother full support toward her endeavor, and some time later, she became a registered nurse.

“Even though you’re born into a certain situation, there’s always more that you can achieve than what you have,” Carter said, reflecting on the lessons he learned from his mother.

A mainstay of Carter’s life nowadays, balanced with his schoolwork, is his aspiration for a career as a hip-hop artist.

“My craft, my rap, my music – it means the world,” he said. “It’s a passion of mine, I love it. Just the fact that you can put together some words and tell a story and people can relate to that story…”

Rapping and creating music had been a hobby of Carter’s for years growing up, but it wasn’t until a year and a half ago, when he first attended a rave and witnessed the emotional impact that music had on people, that he decided to pursue it as a career. He also described how he identifies with hip-hop music and musicians since they share a common demographic and culture.

“I can identify with them – their background, their struggles are similar to mine,” he said. “They make hip-hop music, and it’s just something that came natural to me. … It ties into my city life and that lifestyle. It’s me.”

For the development of his own style, Carter lists essential artists like Biggie Smalls, 2Pac, Diddy, Kanye West and Jay-Z as major influences, but notes that perhaps his favorite artists to emulate are performers like Wiz Khalifa and Gucci Mane for their upbeat, high energy attitudes.

“I’m all about good vibes – positive stuff,” he said. “I don’t like songs that are so down. I hate that! I’m always positive. Every situation, even if it’s bad, I try to find a positive.”

Carter emphasized that the lyrical content of his music is, and has always been, relevant to his life, whether it be related to his aspirations, his friends, interesting things he learns in his classes or, of course, his love interests.

“I’m not going to lie, sometimes I talk about girls,” he said with a laugh. “But that’s what I live. What I’m saying about this girl is true – that’s relevant to me.”

Though his music is mainly traditional hip-hop at the moment, Carter enjoys a wider range of styles, and plans on expanding to many genres, including dubstep, techno and rock.

“I’m versatile as hell. If you give me a techno beat or a rock beat, I’ll find some way to put my spin on it,” he said. “I think of myself as an artist. I never say that I’m a rapper.”

Carter’s rap name, A.M. Carter, which primarily relates to his insomnious early-morning rhyme writing sessions, has helped Carter to create an online persona, where his music can be perused on media sites such as Soundcloud, YouTube and Facebook.

Although many of Carter’s peers and friends put aside the prospect of higher education to focus on their lives in the music industry, Carter described how he is dedicated to completing school not only as a backup plan behind his music, but for his own personal development.

“I need school,” he said. “I love this environment. … Right now in my life, this is something that I need to grow as a person, or definitely to grow as an artist. … Without it, my mind wouldn’t even be expanded to think about things that I think about now. I would still be stuck in that same mindset that people in my city are stuck in.”

Carter advised people to “keep doing what is real and relevant to yourself.

“Don’t try to strive for anything that’s not you, and don’t let anybody tell you what is you and isn’t you,” he said. “People are always going to have something to say, but as long as you stay true to yourself, and you do what you love, go for it. Don’t let the opposition bring you down.”

Staff Writer

Fifteen years ago, while tucked away inside London’s Public Records Office, now known as the National Archives, FSU History Professor Richard Allen stumbled upon a discovery that would alter the course his life and career would take. Allen would describe this moment as “a good example of how you can be searching for one subject and you end up doing something else.”

Allen had been fastidiously researching the island of Mauritius, located in the Indian Ocean, when he stumbled upon the recorded dispatches of a governor who was alarmed at the number of illegal slaves that were entering the island.

“My ears just immediately pricked up. Little did I expect that it would lead me to where I am right now,” he said.

Where Allen finds himself right now is in his small yet surprisingly well-kept office on the third floor of May Hall. He speaks fondly of that moment 15 years ago, a crucial moment in his life that has yet to become obfuscated by the passage of time. He speaks even more fondly of his being granted a fellowship from the National Endowments for the Humanities to continue his research on slave trading in the Indian Ocean. Past recipients include famed documentarian Ken Burns, creator of the award winning “The Civil

War” documentary. Unsurprisingly, receiving this tremendous fellowship would obviously overjoy anyone.

“I’m very pleased, it goes without saying,” he said with a smile, “but I’m also very comfortable.”

Allen has every reason to be comfortable and self-assured, as he was just one of 80 to be selected for a NEH fellowship – a fellowship that 1,339 others had applied for.

“I had asked for 12 months worth of funding … which is going to be $50,400,” he said.

Having never applied for a NEH fellowship before, Allen supposed he was chosen because of his lengthy and exhaustive studying on the topic of the Indian Ocean slave trade, saying, “I’ve been working on this project since 1995, and it’s reached the point now, it’s sort of critical mass, an intellectual critical mass.”

Allen has already completed the first two chapters of his manuscript, “European Slave Trading in the Indian Ocean, 1500-1850.” His fellowship could not have come at a better time, he said.

“I need the time to visit some archives that I haven’t had the chance to visit before. So that means I’ll be going to France, working with at least a couple of archives there. I’ll also probably spend some additional time in England.”

He plans on using the rest of the time to complete his manuscript, which he envisions being up to 500-600 pages long. Ultimately, Allen would like to publish a definitive account of the slave trade in the Indian Ocean.

Though born and raised in Illinois, Allen was introduced to the world at large, its many different countries and cultures, at an early, impressionable age. At the cusp of becoming nine years old, Allen would move to the other side of the world, living in countries such as Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. After coming back to his home country, he would attend and obtain his B.A, magna cum laude, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He’d also eventually receive his Ph.D. in History there as well.

Allen believes his time spent overseas at such a young age helped cultivate his thirst for history and other cultures.

“It was a very, very important formative period in my life,” he said.

His openness to the world and all its different inhabitants, and the imprint they left on him as a fellow human being is why accuracy in historical documentation is so vitally important to him. Allen sees the world beyond the limiting scope of a Westerner. He even describes himself as “very much the non-western historian.”

This might be why he is willing to defy the status quo of his fellow historians.

“One of the big problems, one of the issues that I’m trying to address here,” he said, “is that if you take a look at the work that’s been done on European slave trading, up to this point in time, it has been focused largely on the Atlantic [Ocean]. … We have one word in the English language, ‘slave,’ and it’s acquired the meaning that is most closely associated with this notion of ‘chattel’ – humans treated as chattel property – when, in fact, if you take a look at what’s happening in even some parts of Africa, definitely in Asia, Southeast Asia, slave status there is something which can be quite varied. It depends upon the time, depends upon the place, depends upon the context.”

When his manuscript is published, Allen, who has already published a book, “Slaves, Freedmen, and Indentured Laborers in Colonial Mauritius,” hopes to deprogram the way many historians have studied and taught the issue of the slave trades in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

The work that has been done on the topic has, he says, “remained within these geographically determined boundaries in which the Atlantic world is seen as something that exists in isolation. … It’s time for us to get beyond, what one of my colleagues has called, quote, ‘the tyranny of the Atlantic,’ so when we talk about the movement of slaves – African, Asian … that we begin to appreciate that this truly was a global phenomenon. What happened in the Indian Ocean clearly influenced what happened in the Atlantic, and vice versa.”

While Allen understands there are those who are resistant to his ideas, he chalks it up to their being uncomfortable to thinking outside the box.

“We all, ultimately, slip into our intellectual comfort zones, and what I’m proposing to do here is basically challenge these accepted comfort zones, and say, ‘We can no longer operate within in the conceptual frameworks with perimeters that have existed here for far too long.’”

Allen’s passion and dedication to challenging others’ comfort zones may serve as a warning for those that are willing to listen to him.

“I think that one of the major failings of Americans, in general,” he said, “and [FSU] in particular, is that we do not pay enough attention to the fact that there are people and societies and economies out there that intrude upon our lives in a very direct way, but about which we’re clueless.

“So if we don’t understand who we’re up against, then how can we possibly respond to the issues and the challenges that are going to face us? … Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is incredibly dangerous. … If we’re complacent, we ultimately pay the price, the price of that intellectual complacency.”

Though he considers his work serious, Allen does confess that he finds his work very exciting. When people ask him what he’ll be doing overseas for business, he often tells them, smiling, “I’m off to frolic in the archives.” Perhaps this mix of childish excitement and his serious commitment to, what he calls, “deepening our understanding of the human experience” is how Allen has persevered for 15 years in his study, and why he has been awarded such a prestigious fellowship.

Asst. Arts & Features Editor

On May 16, FSU will welcome Dr. Howard Gardner, eminent psychologist and Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Gardner is perhaps most widely known for his work in multiple intelligences, and will discuss one of his more recent publications, “Frames of Mind” to students and faculty.

Over the last three decades, Gardner’s work heavily influenced the field of education – from his research in multiple intelligences that changed the way that intelligence is viewed and measured – to his more recent theories on cultivating new ways of thinking while remaining ethical and respectful. Gardner’s work is even taught in FSU’s Psychology of Development class for future teachers.

Gardner discussed how his work in multiple intelligences began at Harvard University in 1979, when he was part of a research team that received a large grant from a Dutch foundation, Bernard Van Leer. The team was asked to summarize what was known about the “nature of human intellectual potential,” and Gardner knew then that the idea of an “IQ test” was not the only way to measure intelligence.

“The grant gave me several years of support to review and synthesize information from various disciplines about what is known about the nature and development of various intellectual capacities,” he said.

The end result of Gardner’s research was reported in the now celebrated “Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences,” which was published in 1983. Gardner said that he hadn’t anticipated the influence his work in multiple intelligences would have on the educational world.

“If you had asked me at the time, whether this work was more important than other lines of research that I had carried out and written about, I probably would have said no,” Gardner said, “but the reaction of the educational world – which had not been my primary audience – was very positive and I soon came to realize that, henceforth, whatever I did and wrote about, I would be known as the “MI man.”

In “Five Minds for the Future,” Gardner builds on his idea of multiple intelligences for the new generation. With wide-spread globalization and the advent of new technology, he advocates for new modes of thinking, including the “disciplined mind,” the “synthesizing mind,” the “creating mind,” the “respectful mind” and the “ethical mind.”

Psychology Professor and CELTSS director Dr. Bridgett Galvin said that after she read his book, she was very interested in getting him to speak at FSU, as she teaches his theories in her classes.

Galvin spoke of how the message in his book is so valuable to educators today.

“An undergraduate, after four years of studying just a few courses in a discipline, is not going to be a disciplined thinker in that field,” Galvin said. “But they are going to begin to discover the tools to become that way. … I read his book, and he talked about the idea that college, especially at the university level, is not about what the instructors know anymore – it’s about how well they can help their students to learn.”

Gardner spoke of the connection between teachers and leaders.

“We don’t usually think of teachers and leaders as being that similar,” Gardner said, “but in fact, I have often said that leaders are educators, and educators are leaders. And that is, both teachers and … leaders try to convince individuals to behave in different ways, to approach things differently, to think about the world in new ways.”

Gardner went on to describe how his definition of a leader applies to visionaries such as Abraham Lincoln or Nelson Mandela, as much as it applies to a third grade teacher or a college professor.

“My cognitive theory of leadership posits that ‘leaders tell powerful stories’ – and the most effective leaders are individuals who embody that story in their own lives and ways of being,” he said. “If you think back to the teachers who had the greatest positive influence on you, I think you’ll find that those teachers not only asked you to have a certain stance toward acquiring knowledge and interacting with others, but they also exemplified that ‘story’ – in the ways in which they behaved and interacted with others every day.”

While Gardner’s “Five Minds for the Future” does focus on the importance of acquiring knowledge and skillsets for success, Gardner believes that these alone are not enough.

“Of course, one needs to develop skills as well, but these should be broad – writing well, keeping up with the news, probing one area in depth – because the world is changing so quickly that one cannot anticipate what specific jobs will be available ten years from now,” he said. “But I am not interested primarily in individuals achieving money, fame, success – I am interested in people using their knowledge and skills to improve things in the world. And the individuals and groups that I admire can be described in that way.”

When asked if he had any advice for young people to “make it” in today’s professional environment, Gardner said he would rather focus on what makes a good person, rather than just a successful one.

“It may surprise you, but I don’t worry too much about whether young people will ‘make it’ in the literal sense of that phrase,” he said. “I do think a lot about what it means to have good character – not just to promote yourself, but rather to think about how you can use your knowledge, skills, and values to make a positive difference in the world.”

Asst. Arts & Features Editor

English professor Lisa Eck

Professor Lisa Eck gestured to her slide of a woman laborer in India with haunting eyes. “What is she thinking here? What is the content of her gaze? For one, she’s probably caught me taking my zoom-lens photo, and she’s wondering, why aren’t I photographing the monument itself? Why do I want a picture of her?”

In the Alumni Room on April 26th, Eck gave a Lyceum lecture, sponsored by CELTSS. The recipient of both a CELTSS grant and a Whitney Travel grant, Eck spent three weeks in Northern India last winter, preparing for her faculty-lead tour of the country over winter break with FSU students. Also during her sabbatical last year, she was invited to give lectures and workshops at Central China Normal University, which was supported by grants from CELTSS and the Chinese government.

In her lecture, Eck challenged common cultural assumptions by questioning the “right” and “wrong” ways to think about cultural difference.

“If we ‘other’ the other beyond recognition, we are simply not taking on the responsibility of being good cross-cultural readers,” she said. “What about our capacity for compassion?” Eck said. “Can the traveler, the outsider, be trusted to read faces, to read bodies, to understand the semiotics of a place? Can the traveler be trusted to even know what she’s looking at?”

When speaking of her time in India, Eck spoke about the assumptions people have about its traditionalist roots.

“India, it can be observed, is a conservative place when it comes to normative ideas about sexual modesty, and yet simultaneously, specific interpretations of Hindu teachings present a theory of sexuality that we might call progressive – or liberal – stripped of Judeo-Christian notions of original sin and a general fear of nudity,” Eck said.

One of Eck’s goals for the trip to India was to get her students to think in new ways.

“One of the core assumptions I wanted my students to think about was the unspoken notion that most anyone in the world, if given the chance to live in America, would want to trade places. Growing up in a superpower plants this assumption deep in our psyches, I think. As a result, there was a deliberate emphasis placed in the India ‘J-term’ on meeting individuals – authors, musicians, gurus, yogis, and others – whose rich lives wouldn’t be possible if they didn’t happen to live in India.

“Instead of imagining the world following you home,” Eck said, “the more interesting thought experiment is to try to follow the locals home – to imagine what it feels like to feel at home in India, as we did on our J-term, when India became our “new normal.”

Eck also addressed common stereotypes associated with India, such as “Islamaphobia” and the idea that “modern” nations are more secular, because “religion holds people back.”

“By visiting Khajuraho and Rishikesh, one known for its world heritage site temples, the other for its active ashrams, my students came to see religion as a resource, something that enhances one’s quality of life. Religion allows you to ask questions and theorize about the world, and perhaps most profoundly, it reminds us of the unknown, exactly what we don’t know – that there’s mystery in the world, and that not all answers can be Googled,” she said.

When speaking of her time in China, Eck professed that using the term “orientalism” was in fact another way of “othering.”

“In the three weeks I spent teaching at CCNU, I had the chance to give two public lectures. One of those lectures was on the competing claims of Cosmopolitanism versus Orientalism – two contrasting approaches to foreign culture. To talk about Orientalism to a room of, well, “Orientals,” was quite an experience, since it felt like an act of coming clean.

“We’re quick to deny the other his or her individuality, while slow to acknowledge the profound ways in which our own behaviors are culturally constructed and scripted,” Eck said. “While all westerners are probably guilty of holding some Orientalist misconceptions about the exotic East – is this the only way we can read?”

Eck closed with the idea that the terms “hostility” and “hospitality” share a root, giving the individual the choice in how to treat cultural difference. “What I make of it, is that every person who extended hospitality to us in India or in China had a choice – they could trust an unknown stranger and extend hospitality … or they could respond with an understandable hostility to the foreigners in their midst.”

Staff Writer

Dancers entertained the audience at BSU’s Culture Show.

Well over a hundred people filed into DPAC for the Black Student Union’s second annual culture show to celebrate diversity not only on campus, but in the greater MetroWest area on Friday April 20.

Performers brought a broad range of talent as diverse as the cultures they had come to represent. The sometimes solemn occasion of poetry and dance commemorating those who have suffered at the hands of racial intolerance was also a lively demonstration of the uniqueness of the peoples throughout the globe.

It was an all-encompassing message of acceptance brought together by the comical genius of the show’s emcee, Christine Umeh, a Northeastern University student.

While introducing Fitchburg State University’s dance group, Faces of Africa, Umeh called out to representatives of each ethnicity and took jabs at them individually.

“Where are my Caucasians?” Umeh yelled, who also addressed the people of Carribean, Haitian, Latino, African and Asian heritage present in the audience. After a response of only a few scattered applauses, Umeh replied, “Ah, come on Caucasians, we know you’re out there.  You don’t have to hide. We love you, too.”

 Faces of Africa, a group of about a dozen dancers from the Fitchburg State University, then treaded barefoot onto the stage. Their set began to the pacing of traditional African music as each dancer moved with the slow, powerful and sometimes anguished motions of rural life. It wasn’t long, however, until the somber drumbeats and acoustics gave way to a combination of salsa and Latin bebop, which then transitioned into a much more modern mixture of techno and reggae music. Each new generation of sound increased the briskness and complexity of the dancers’ rhythms, and caused the audience to cheer widely while gyrating in their seats.

Later in the evening, Marlboro’s Dance & Fight Cultural Center wowed the audience with a display of Capoeira, the Brazilian martial art known for its dance-like and acrobatic fighting techniques.

“Capoeira – you have to do a little research,” said Germano Lima, a junior and Brazilian Business Club member, who brought Capoeira instructor Marcus Magalhaes to the event. “There are many different traditions where Capoeira comes from. I understand it comes from Africa. All the slaves, when they tried to do a little fighting, their masters would stop them. They would fight and be stopped, so they introduced music to disguise their fighting.”

However, that’s not to suggest the Culture Show’s only interests were in styles of dance imported from abroad. Sophomores Chelsea Kelley and Heather Brien’s tap dancing rendition of the popular Dropkick Murphy’s song “Shipping off to Boston” reminded students of the long history the Irish have in the Bay State.

The atmosphere shifted dramatically as the show’s poets took the microphone and expressed both their praise and hard criticism of society today.

In her poem, Aaryn Chandler asked, “What’s the matter today in the world with all our minority boys and girls?” Chandler went on to say, “These kids no longer aspire to grow up and put out fires, but to be rappers and video vixens rather than somebody who makes a difference.”

Using a CD case with a scantily clad woman on its cover as an example, Chandler also had some harsh words for a popular culture that she sees as demeaning toward women.

“It’s pathetic, and I look at her with pity because she feels she has to show her titties in order to be accepted, but I’d rather be neglected and rejected,” Chandler declared to roaring applause.

Despite all the variations of tone, intensity and style, the message remained the same – there needs to be a greater effort toward transcending racial and cultural barriers.

Jacquelina Fontes, a senior and president of the Black Student Union, commended the show for being a fun way to celebrate diversity. But in light of recent national controversies and a revealing study conducted by the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, which found that FSU’s students of color felt that the university was an unwelcoming environment for them, Fontes said the Culture Show was just a first step in bridging the gap.

Fontes said that “a show alone is not going to create diversity. We need research and studies to get the people’s opinion. And these studies and national controversies let us know that we need more shows like the Culture Show that educate the students about different cultures and individual opinion. They reminded us of the importance of having this show, because whether race is socially constructed or not, it is alive and very prevalent in our country.”

Fontes asserted, “Don’t be scared to talk about race or racism because it is still an issue we need to conquer, not ignore.”

Kayla Person, in a poem, stated the best way to achieve homogeneity in America is simply to acknowledge that we are all human.

Person said, “He is a White American. He is an Asian American. I’m a Black American. In summer, we melt in the same sun. In winter, we shiver in the same cold. America is old. I am her child, and America is my style.”