Holy Family Tri-Lite Vol 59, Issue 3

http://www.issuu.com/holyfamilyuniversitytrilite

The student voice of Holy Family University since 1954Vol. 59, Issue 3February 2013

Technology in EducationBy Allison Jenkins, Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Paul Sillahttp://gatorball.wordpress.com/

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Technology’s effect on education in the past two decades has been

tremendous. In school districts and universities where computers were once few and far between, smart boards and projector screens are now installed in nearly every classroom and high-end graphing calculators and iPads are issued to students. Computer labs are more abundant than they have ever been. Professors and teachers use social media sites like Twitter and learning management systems like Blackboard to promote social learning. This helps to improve the efficiency of the educator, and to foster collaboration and engagement in students. Many have questioned the adverse effects of technology, as many believe that tech-nological advance-ment leads to eroding of certain classical skill sets. For in-stance, many proponents of restricted technological use in classrooms argue that the loss of penmanship classes (and the absence of cursive in modern classrooms) is just one way that tech-nology is destroying academic rigor. Similarly, advocates of restricted technological use argue that the integration of such technology in classrooms widens the gap between social classes. Because technology is introduced in classrooms based on the school district’s ability to afford it, lower-funded schools are less likely to introduce technology at the same rate as better-funded schools. Therefore, low-income students are less likely to emerge from their education with the skills they need in order to escape a low-income lifestyle. However, the integration of tech-nology in education has certainly

The Road to Independence

Recently, the Pennsylvania His-torical and Museum Commis-

sion dedicated a historic marker for the Pennypack Creek Bridge, located minutes from Holy Family’s cam-pus. This bridge was once utilized by American and French troops in 1781 on their journey to victory at York-town, Virginia during the Revolution-ary War. This route was known as the Washington-Rochambeau Route and it has been revealed that the grounds of Holy Family University once served as a campsite for these troops. Dr. Johansen, American History profes-sor at Holy Family, commented about this news by stating, “Dr. Robert A. Selig, consultant to the National Park Service, has done much to research the Washington-Rochambeau Route, which included Frankford Ave….but more can be done to study soldiers’ campsites and the experiences that common soldiers had as they marched quickly south from New York to meet the British at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781.” As part of Dr. Johansen’s Revolution-ary America class, students will be visiting the David Library in Washing-ton’s Crossing, PA to further research this route through Philadelphia. Based on my research thus far, the Wash-ington-Rochambeau route originated in Newport, Rhode Island, which is where French troops joined forces with the Revolutionary Army in 1781. A few months later, troops were ap-proaching Philadelphia, which was es-sentially the midpoint of this journey. These troops chose to rest for a few days before entering Center City and they camped on the grounds where Holy Family University currently stands. Both armies needed to rest and resupply with food, clothes and a variety of other materials. Philadel-phia native and entrepreneur Robert Morris provided the troops with gun powder that he smuggled in and he also used his connections to provide money and other supplies to Ameri-can troops. Historians are convinced that Morris served as Washington’s financer and supplier. He may have been specifically responsible for send-ing food to this campsite by way of the Delaware River. The French also had a stake in providing for both armies. Unlike the American government, the French had a surplus of hard currency that could be used to pay for neces-sities along the route. So American troops sometimes benefitted from this and were provided additional arms, ammunition, cannons, uniforms and saddles by the French. France, therefore, basically contributed to the overall success of the campaign.

By Michael McDonnell, Staff Writer

had many positive results as well. At Holy Family’s Center for Academic Enhancement (the university’s free tutoring center), sophomore math-ematics and physics tutor, Jared Deleo, frequently uses his school-distributed iPad in order to tutor students. Deleo uses many different applications in order to demonstrate three-dimen-sional graphs, to explain mathematical proofs or equations, to explain geo-metric, algebraic, and trigonometric ideas, and even to save paper. Deleo states that his iPad is an invaluable re-source in teaching students who learn more visually or kinetically. Studies have consistently shown that the earlier on in a child’s life that he or she is introduced to technology, the better the results. Because children

are so malleable, the earlier that they are given instruction on how to handle the technology that

will govern their adult lives, the better. On a comparable note, having techno-logical aptitude gives children a better chance of success in the professional world (as they are able to type and use basic computer functions which are expected at most jobs today) while simultaneously giving them superior skill and confidence in pursuing on-line education university options. Ultimately, it is clear that, as tech-nology continues to expand and to shape all aspects of our day-to-day agendas, the way that students learn and the way that educators teach will continue to change as well. In order to keep up with the fast-paced tech-nological world which changes daily, education must continue to blend new styles of educating with classical ideas and philosophies in order to benefit the students and, in turn, benefit the nation.

IntramuralBasketball

The spring semester has started and so has another season of

intramural sports. Intramural basket-ball is now underway. Basketball has the greatest amount of participants at Holy Family. Around ten teams, which include close to fifty players, compete for the chance to play in the championship game. The games are played during the common hours on Mondays and Wednesdays starting at 12:45pm. The games are twenty minutes long and are played three versus three on a half court. Every team has the chance to play at once since all of the games are half court and there are six different rims in the gym. The rules fluctuate from game to game as the two teams that are playing get to decide on fouls, scoring, and possession. Each team will play close to eight games total during the intramural basketball season. Games will be played up until mid-March. The competitive nature of intramural basketball cannot be rivaled by any of the other intramural sports here at Holy Family. The games are usually in-tense and heated as teams have to call their own fouls. Rivalries start early in the season and usually last up until the championship game. “Every game seems like game 7 of the NBA finals,” remarked Kevin Brannigan, a junior here at Holy Family. Frank Pepe, a senior and member of the intramural council, agrees. “I actually say that it is more competitive than football because football has fewer teams. In basketball, you get good players play-ing on more teams. It is very competi-tive, especially in the playoffs.” Ernesto Trouillot, captain of the team known as the All-Stars, has been to the championship each year that he has played. This year he believes that his team is good enough to win the championship. “I feel bad for the other teams. My team is full of all-stars. We are going to probably blow out every team. We are going to make it to the finals and win for the first time. We are going to do it and nobody is going to stop us,” commented a confident Ernesto on this upcoming season.

By William Leifholtz, Assistant Editor

Photo courtesy of HomeTeamsOnline

“having technological aptitude gives children a better chance of success in the professional world”

Page The Tri-Lite2

Mission Matters:A Family’s Struggle for Success

To be Green or Not to be Green, why is this a question?

By Gerald Wutkowski, Staff Writer

By Francis Bitting, Staff Writer

While many changes have af-fected all of us during the past

years and months, it is difficult to understand the will of God with our decisions. While we can always justify our decision with challenging facts and votes, but can we really justify what God has planned for us before we were born? Our future leads us all in many different directions forcing us to decide where we will make a stand. Will we just worry about our own future and ourselves? Or will we care for our neighbor and support them in their time of struggle? Our Univer-sity Fam-ily and our personal families have been hit with many challenges in the past weeks with many questioning our overall picture. While the decisions are hard to change, we are told that we must accept and move together into the future as a family once again. But how could we move into the future with hurt feelings and many more questions? We must look at every deci-sion in our life as blessings. Recently in the past years God has challenged my family with many health concerns with my parents and recently with my sister who continues to wait for a deci-sion of her overall health condition. While I sit in my apartment question-ing God with memories playing in my head, I struggle to understand how our family can accept the challenges that face us. As I always look for message through a spiritual, Laura Story sings the words in her song titled Blessings “What if your blessings come through raindrops, what if your healing comes through tears … What if trials of this life are your mercies in disguise?”

When things happen in our life, we always look to blame others and ques-tion God “How could this happen?” or “Why are you doing this to me, God?” and we look to justify our current situ-ation with doubt. But in the end after we give our doubt or blame we are still in the same position without any movement in the future. In the end I question why do we all pass blame and worry on tomorrow’s actions? We cannot continue to worry about our tomorrow. We must take today’s blessings and enjoy them to the fullest,

for tomor-row is never a guarantee. The blessings today are a gift from God that should be

shared with everyone, not to be saved for another day. Moving forward we must look for the bigger picture that God has given us. We may not understand the deci-sion now, but in time God will give us his answer with a reason why many decisions happen to all of us. You must never give up just because of one decision. One decision does not determine your success or your failure; one decision challenges you to look through the door to a new life and a new beginning. The way to success is through the blessings we receive, even if these blessings are not what we really wanted. God never gives us anything we cannot handle. We are all part of a strong family that has lots of love for one another. Chal-lenge yourself to show that love to a stranger, to an old friend, or to your own personal betrayer. A Family’s love and understanding is the key to all of our success. Remember We Are ONE.

“Moving forward, we must look for the bigger picture that God has given us.”

Albert Einstein once said, if the bee disappeared off the face of the

earth, man would only have four years left to live. This is not meant to scare anyone reading this nor is it meant to start a “Save the Bees” campaign to occupy the hives across America, but merely to shed some light on some-thing many people may overlook. The bee may be small and have the ability to fly without being seen, but do not let that fool you. Just because it is not large, loud, or doesn’t draw much at-tention, does not mean the bee is not important. Like many of our environmental related issues that fly under the radar of the average person, and like the bee, these small things have a grand impor-tance. That is why I am here to help students, teachers, and anyone read-ing this to recognize the small things; those things that may seem insig-nificant. My hope is that together we can make a large impact and promote positive social change. At this point you are probably think-ing, “how can I make a difference?” And that is a very good question. Usu-ally when people think of going green or think about helping the environ-ment, they think of people protesting and lying down in front of bull dozers. Although I applaud those who do these things, there are much less extreme and safer ways to make a difference. One way we can help is by purchas-ing a reusable water bottle. According to TreeHuggers.com, 50 billion plastic bottles of water are bought each year, and in spite of the various recycling programs in existance, 80% of these

bottles end up in a landfill. That is an astronomical number, consider-ing the average person uses over 1000 bottles annually. If we could get a few students, teachers, family, friends, and co-workers to do this simple thing we can make a dent in the problems we face today. Additionally, take notice to pieces of trash while walking to class or work, and if you see a piece of trash just stop for a second and pick it up. You will be surprised how something as small as stopping and picking up trash can not only help with environ-mental issues, but will also help with the general appearance of your neigh-borhood. So for those of you reading this I give you a challenge, simply help the Earth. Do so in any way you can, whenever you can. I am not asking you to quit your job and move into a tree fort, but to pick up trash and try not to use so many plastic bottles. It may not seem like much, thus the basis of its appeal, the effort to help is really not that much work at all and the benefits out-weigh the time and energy. Think of being green not as a hero or a vigilante but a PowerBall ticket, like a lottery ticket, you pay very little for a chance to receive a lot; however, unlike the Powerball, you have much better odds of reaping the benefits. In conclusion of this article…you my reader, as you return to your everyday activity whatever it may be, try to no-tice any small way to help and do not be afraid to just do it. And remember, like the bee; do not overlook some-thing little because it may have a great importance in your everyday life.

October 2011 Page 3

FEATURESPublic Relations II Class goes to Philly Auto ShowBy Lauren Hutchins, Staff Writer

On Sunday, Jan. 27th, students from Professor Janice Xu’s Public Rela-

tions class ventured to the Philadelphia Auto Show. The car exhibit was held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center located on 11th and Arch across from the Reading Terminal Market. The exhibit started on Saturday, Jan. 19th and concluded on Sunday, January 27th. Professor Xu created this event to let her students understand the ins and outs of media relations outside the classroom. The Philly Auto Show has been known to showcase over 700 vehicles from a wide variety of manufactur-ers. Domestic brands such as Ford, Chevrolet, Buick, Chrysler, and also foreign makes of Volkswagen, Volvo, Mercedes Benz, and BMW fill 630,000 sq. feet of the convention center floor The exhibit was sectioned off by their makes, also their specialty. One part of the exhibit showcased older clas-sics, while another showcased modern, high-priced, luxury sports cars, such as Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Bugatti. “I think that the Philadelphia Auto Show was a well-organized event that was an enjoyable way to spend my Sunday afternoon. It was cool how they had one room filled with Camaros and another room filled with Mustangs from throughout the years. I think that it is a very good event for people

who are looking into buying a new car. The main room was filled with many different dealers with a lot of different car models in each section. If people were looking into buying a car they would have been able to actually sit in a prospective car and also read all of the car facts on that certain model,” said Rachel Johnson, a student at Holy Family. Many car lovers at the event en-joyed the indoor and outdoors Ride and Drive events. Jeep and Toyota welcomed visitors to come and test out their 2013 models. Jeep’s Ride and Drive allowed visitors to choose whether they wanted to test-drive the Jeep Wran-gler Unlim-ited, Wrangler, Rubicon, or Grand Chero-kee. Their indoor obstacle test track cre-ated curiosity to spectators while also showing off all Jeep models 4x4 capability. Jr. Chris Kovaks commented after rid-ing the test track: “My favorite part of the show was, without a doubt, Jeep’s indoor test track. The company really goes all out to give potential customers a chance

to see the sturdy craftsmanship that goes into mak-ing a Jeep, as well as proving their durability in all types of terrain and weather.” Outdoor Ride and Drive include models from Kia, Cadillac, Chevy, Buick, GMC, and Subaru. Visitors that wanted to participate had to register at the front of each car exhibit. The Philadelphia Auto Show offered a brand new feature this year, “Philadelphia Auto Show Face-off.” Local Mustang and Camaro clubs were asked to display the best cars to show off to spectators. Specta-

tors were al-lowed to vote for their fa-vorite display. The winner is still to be an-nounced. Also, in-cluded in the show was a display of pro athletes’ cus-tom vehicles by DUB Show

Tour. Dub Show Tour offers the largest custom car selection to car lovers ev-erywhere. Philadelphia Eagles’ quar-terback Michael Vick’s 2012 Audi A8 was in the display among other Eagles’ players: Jason Babin, Trent Cole, and

Jeremy Maclin. Professor Xu continues to search for more outside classroom events for her students to explore similar to the Philly Car Show. She believes the event was a success for both the city of Philadelphia and her students. While traveling through the exhibit, she commented that exhibits like this one create successful turnouts, and really shines a spotlight on the city of Brotherly Love. Students were asked to dissect the media relations planning of this event for extra credit. Professor Xu concludes: “I think the Philly Car Show is an ex-cellent chance for our public relations majors to experience state-of-the-art event planning and communication marketing that targets a multicultural consumer group. I also want to remind my students that they live in a city with fabulous resources for preparing for a career in professional communication, and they should definitely take advan-tage of it!”

Photo by William Leifholtz, Assistant Editor

“I think the Philly Car Show is an excellent chance for our public relations majors to ex-perience state-of-the-art event planning and communication marketing that targets a mul-ticultural consumer group.”

Career Corner

Career Center’s goal is to help all students develop a successful vocational plan. We are the only office on campus that you can come back after graduation and get free career guidance.

February 20132/25, Criminal Justice Employer Panel Discussion - 12:50PM, Campus Center room 115 (Open for all students, but necessary for Junior and Senior Crimi-nal Justice majors to attend)

2/27, Guide to Graduate School Workshop- 12:50PM - 1:50PM, ETC Audi-torium 122 (Open for all students, but necessary for Juniors and Seniors to attend)

March 20133/11, Resume/Cover Letter Workshop - 12:50PM Campus Center room 115(Open for all students, but necessary for Juniors and Seniors to attend)

3/13, Holy Family University Spring Career Fair - 12:50PM - 3:00PM, Campus Center Lobbies (Open for all students, but necessary for Juniors and Seniors to attend)

April 20134/03, What Can You Do With A Major In…- 12:50PM, Campus Center room 115 (Open for all students, but necessary for Juniors and Seniors)

4/10, Nurses Employer Panel Discussion - 12:50PM, Campus Center room 115 (Open for all students, but necessary for Junior and Senior Nursing ma-jors to attend)

4/24, Biology/Bio-Chem Employer Panel Discussion - 12:50PM, Campus Center room 115 (Open for all students, but necessary for Junior and Senior Biology/Bio-Chem majors to attend)

INTERVIEWING TIP:

Use an ICE BREAKER in the beginning of an interview to establish rapport with the employer. Remember an interview should be a smooth flow of conversation

between two par-ties. You never want to be caught up in question answer – question answer type of interview. Identifying some-thing the employer has on their wall or windowsill that you can relate to and elaborate on will be-gin the interview on a positive note. Also, never comment on personal pictures, how their desk looks, or irrelevant

things that could make the ICE BREAKER back fire on you. Usually degrees and pictures of vacation areas are good places to mention in the first conversation. Remember the longer you are in an interview, the better chance you have of get-ting the job.

To attend any workshop or panel event,please RSVP Don Brom, Careers Center Director

At 267-341-3224 or via email: [email protected]

Photo courtsey of mysticMundanehttp://mysticmundane.blogspot.com/2012/09/on-interviewing-project-managers-notes.html

By Don Brom, Career Center Director

February 2013

Page The Tri-Lite4

TECHNOLOGY & ENTERTAINMENT

Listening Locally

Bad Gamer Ally’s Digest:Dead Space

By Jazmine Babuch, Staff Writer

By Alisitie Holman, Staff Writer

Do you know who One Direction or Taylor Swift is? How about

Maroon 5 or The Beatles? Of course you do, who doesn’t? Well, how about “Forever is Fleeting,” a band started by one of Holy Family’s very own stu-dents? It is one of the multiple bands that were started by our community and Holy Family University students. There are a multitude of bands out there that are just waiting to be heard and recognized and if we take the time to find and get a chance to listen to, we not only support them, but also our local com-munity. If we know about them, then we can easily support them and make sure that they receive the recognition that they deserve. Junior, Jon Salamak, along with long-time band mate, Jim Lorino, who both are in “Forever is Fleeting,” got their start when Jon “saw Billie Joe Arm-strong, front man for Green Day and was awestruck at how he commanded the stage” and “wanted to be just like him. I have always been into music for as long as I can remember,” states Jon about how he got his start and interest in music. Not having the voice to carry out the band, he started out as lead guitarist and along the way, trained his voice to co-lead his second and cur-rent band “Work to Win.” What advice does Jon have to give to anyone that wants to start a band and go into the music industry someday? “You have to surround yourself with people who share the same passion

as you. If you are on the same page with your band mates, it will definitely show in your music. Also, support your fellow local bands. They are all in it for the same reason as you, and naturally you would want them to sup-port you. Do the same for them and you will start making connections.” With words of wisdom like these, you should have no problem finding your start and someday playing in local, and hopefully well-known venues one day.

Jon and his band play in any local venue, many of which are located in Philadelphia and include Oxford Valley

Mall, The Trocadero Balcony, and St. Paul’s in Levittown, some of the many places they have performed. They “pretty much play anywhere that al-lows us to play.” Watch out for any of their upcoming shows. When questioned if any new shows were coming up, Jon replied saying, “We have been taking some time off to focus on our individual lives, so we do not have much planned, but you can count on seeing us play at the Class of 2013’s Coffee House Night on March 22.” If you want to come out and sup-port your fellow classmates and check out an awesome rising band, attend the Coffee House and check out For-ever is Fleeting’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/forverisfleeting and also on YouTube by checking out their page at forever is fleeting. Check it out and show some love to your HFU peers.

“You have to surround your-self with people who share the same passion as you.”

This is the story of a bad gamer that ended her very first game in years.

The first game she ended? Dead Space! Dead Space is my favorite and boy, did it scare me! The main character is an engineer named Issac Clarke (who is named after science fiction authors Issac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke just in case you all wanted to know) who, answers a distress call from the abandoned spaceship Ishimura. Upon boarding the Ishimura, he and the team discover that the ship is cov-ered in blood and there is no one on board. That turns out to not be the case as Ishimura is overrun by alien-like creatures (not ones you see in some movies with big heads and giant black eyes) called Necromorphs and your job, as the gamer, is to not only outsmart these intelligent and deadly monsters that run amok but stay alive long enough to get Ishimura up and run-ning so Issac can get the heck out of there! I have failed Issac over 85 times during my entire time playing Dead Space. But that was due to my first time playing a game that involved us-ing various weapons such as Plasma Cutter, Pulse Rifle, Kinesis, Stasis, etc. and it relied heavily on aiming. If you missed, it cost you either some of Issac’s health or his life. Yet, if you are also like me, you would have to con-stantly change guns because I was-still am-a very bad shot and wasted ammo every time a Necromorph appeared. I prefer using the big guns that blasted every monster away and made sure they never got back up, however, it took a very long time for it to load, which made it very difficult to protect

Issac against a horde of Necromorphs that relentlessly charged at him. Mov-ing around and reloading is the best option but if you were running with an empty gun trying to reload or switch weapons in the dark, nothing can prepare you for slamming into walls or tables and just getting beat mercilessly until the reload or rearming is success-ful. It could throw anyone off completely and create the ultimate panic in which the only form of defense comes in; the melee (swinging until there is an opening for escape). My least favorite thing overall about the game (and it

was done in Dead Space 2 as well) is the part where Issac’s profession as an engineer comes in; fixing what is

broken. There are absolutely no hints whether you are doing something right or wrong! If one method works, it works. If it didn’t, try again. Not only was it time consuming, it was annoy-ing and it was stressful! I called it the annoying puzzle game because that’s exactly what it was, a puzzle. You had to turn, twist, pull, even discard a few things in order to complete that task so you could go onto finish the actual objective! Overall, regardless of the annoying puzzles, the darkness, the lack of some clues and aggravation of trying to aim accurately (unless you are a master shooter then this is not a problem for you at all), I must say to those interest-ed that it is worth it and hope you give it a try. It is suspenseful, entertaining and pretty scary. I would know, I was seventeen when I played it and my twenty-one year old uncle jumped in the air from fright!

“I have failed Issac over 85 times during my entire time playing Dead Space.”

http://www.puzzles.ca/sudoku_puzzles/sudoku_easy_001.html

Editor-in-ChiefJenna Spadaccino ’13

Assistant EditorWilliam Leifholtz ’14

Layout EditorSara Szymendera ’13

Assistant Layout EditorSamantha Kiger ’14

Staff WritersMichael McDonnell ‘13, Gerald Wutkowski ’13,

Lauren Hutchins ’14, Allison Jenkins ’14,Jazmine Babuch ’16, Francis Bitting ’16,

Alisitie Holman ’16

ContributorsDon Brom

Co-Faculty AdvisorsDenise Avellino

Dr. Amanda McClain