What Happens Off The Air

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Jesseca Can Work, Play, and Survive.

 

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Jesseca Ormond comes from the Caribbean island of Antigua and her journey to the United States has provided her with many new experiences. From the food to the way we dress, everything seems different.

Food is a universal language amongst cultures and Ormond helps provide that service here on campus. She works at two venues here on campus. One is Buck’s in the basement of the student center while the other is the Spoonholder Café located in the library. Twenty hours each week she helps serve food, coffee, smoothies and more to the students and staff of Morningside College.

Mary Scholl, Ormond’s boss at the Spoonholder, says that she is a hard worker with a bubbly personality that is always aiming to see everyone smile even if they aren’t stopping for coffee.

Ormond does a lot more on campus than just working for Buck’s and the Spoonholder. She is an active participant in several campus groups including the campus radio station, KMSC, and Morningside Student Government. Student Advocate Alex Sullivan says Ormond is dedicated to her position as Freshman Representative and isn’t afraid to bring new ideas to the table or support existing ideas.

On KMSC Ormond goes by the name King JO and hosts a couple of shows throughout the week. Her name is constantly on the sign up board for the production room and she is almost always working on something for the station. Her dedication and hard work have allowed her to get the opportunity to become a KMSC staff member in starting in the Spring Semester. She really enjoys being on air and has fun in the station and with members of KMSC outside of the studio as well. The station is a way to free oneself from the bounds of the college campus and be heard even when no one else is around.

Ormond is definitely a long ways from home. Approximately 2684 miles to be more precise. She can’t believe that people residing on the same floor of the residence hall she lives on go home every weekend. “You might as well just live at home,” she said. She understands if it is during breaks but Ormond doesn’t even get that luxury. She remains on campus as many students return home.

This past Thanksgiving she went over to an African family’s home for the feast and got to enjoy singing, dancing, football (or American Rugby as she thinks it should be called) and, of course, more food than one needs to consume in one sitting. She won’t be returning to Antigua again until summer break begins. Once home, however, she said she will spend a week lying on one of Antigua’s 300+ beaches just to finish thawing out after her first Midwestern winter.

Ormond finally got to experience her first snowfall recently. Then she spun and laughed, taking snapchat videos of the white crystals falling for the world to see. She was more than excited that day. Now she has realized that with snow comes ice and for her she knows that her own clumsiness literally bring about her own downfall. She says it is pretty when it falls but evil in the days that follow and doesn’t look forward to future snowfalls as much as she did before.

With the snow comes cold and the Antigua native is still trying to figure out how to stay warm. Ormond has been wearing a jacket since early October and the layers continue to stack up as it gets colder. When we spoke Ormond was wearing three long sleeve layers, all rather warm layers, while I dressed in just a sweatshirt. She told me I was crazy, along with all the students on campus she’s seen in shorts, and can’t fathom how I can be warm with hardly any form of winter gear. I just said it’s the Minnesotan in me. She commented on how “you can’t be warm and fashionable” during winter. At least she has realized that in winter nobody care what you look like because we all are just trying to stay warm. She knows she isn’t the worst at handling the cold as some students from other warm climates have bundled up tighter.

Ormond has integrated herself into campus life here at Morningside even if she is a long way from home. Her first semester is almost over and she’s keeping a positive outlook while giving the same sigh of relief many students have as each class ends. She’s made a few friends that have survive her transition to life here in Iowa and the twenty two year old freshman is ready for the adventure even if that means sun, rain, or snow (even if it all happens on the same day).

 

 

A Short Broadcast

 

Winter is here. The first named winter storm of the season was named Ajax by the weather channel on Monday. The storm is or will be producing blizzard conditions in the Rocky Mountains and High Plains areas of the United States. The Denver area was in a blizzard warning from Monday night Tuesday Afternoon. It is predicted that the Denver area could end up with as much as two feet of snow. Alex Sullivan, a student at Morningside College from Colorado describes what the snow is usually like in that area. [Interview]  Not to worry though, so far, the storm has been turning to rain as it reaches the Sioux City area.

 

Imagine a dot 20,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair. Those dots are called quantum dots and a new start-up company is looking to use them to revolutionize cell phone cameras next year. InVasage Technologies will be releasing the QuantumFilm Image sensor chip in the opening quarter of 2016. This sensor will be integrated into cell phone cameras and allow for a higher dynamic range in pictures. It also will have a fast-acting global shutter in the chip that avoids the Jello-wobble effect of cell phone videos.

 

Skol Vikings. The Minnesota Vikings have taken the number one place in the NFC North on Sunday with their victory over the Oakland Raiders. Vikings fan Derek Krayenhagen gives one of the main reasons many fans are excited.  [Interview]  This is the first time they’ve led the division since 2009 when Brett Farve was their quarterback. Now with Adrian Peterson leading the NFL in rushing yards and Teddy Bridgewater proving his worth at quarterback, the Vikings have won five straight games. The well designed offense has allowed them to play to the team’s strengths and their defense has also been up to the task and is currently the number one defense in the NFL. Their next matchup is on Nov 22 against the Green Bay Packers.

A Job Can Teach

There are plenty of ways to spend free time in college but some students believe the most productive is to work.

Morningside students are lucky to have the opportunity to work a variety of jobs on campus. These jobs can be anything from making phone calls to managing equipment for a department or even working at the campus coffee shop, the Spoonholder.

But off campus jobs can be a little harder to find since companies aren’t specifically looking for students to fill these positions. There are jobs available though. Places like McDonalds and Dairy Queen are almost always hiring while other companies such as Target or FedEx hire seasonal help during the holidays for those aren’t looking for a year long commitment.

Joining the workforce early can be beneficial for students. Joining the workforce gives a person the real life experience and skills a lot of potential employers look for. Some of these key skills are communication, interpersonal skills, problem solving, reliability, and teamwork.

Tom Schoenecker of Odds & Ends Handyman, LLC has had some issues hiring people recently. He gives people a chance to work with him but he has found that the last couple of people he hired have been unreliable and as a result he hasn’t kept them on his crew. He has also had issues with employees being able to solve problems on their own has made him reluctant to have them continue to work for him.

These skills can be attained from even the simplest of jobs. Take a Dairy Queen employee for example. They must interact with the customers then relay that information to the other employees. Then the employees work together to complete an order efficiently for the customer. If anything goes wrong they must react quickly and move past the problem.

These basic skills are exactly what the next employer for that Dairy Queen employee might be looking for. The longer that employee is there will also help them get hired for their next job.

One example is Bradley Davis, a junior at Morningside College, who recently quit his job at Pizza Ranch and has taken a job at FedEx Ground where he will start on October 23rd. Davis is looking forward to a new job that not only pays better but also provides tuition reimbursement for college students.

So while finding a job might seem like a waste of time while you’re working on your studies one must remember that even an ordinary job can be a learning experience.

 

Are YouTubers Celebrities?

 

A new breed of celebrity has arisen in today’s society in the form of YouTubers and they have more influence than many A-list celebrities.

With all the influential people in today’s world it’s no surprise that A-list celebrities and YouTubers have a lot of pull on teens. A recent survey among took the top 10 A-list celebrities (by Q score) and the top ten YouTubers (by subscribers) teens rated five YouTubers as the most popular of the twenty. So what makes them so popular?

According to mediakix.com YouTubers are “more relatable because of their perceived authenticity and approachability.” Approachability is a major difference between YouTubers and A-list celebrities. YouTubers are generally seen as ordinary, even with millions of subscribers, while A-list celebrities are definitely not seen in that same light. Huffington Post quoted a teen saying that “YouTubers are more interesting because they ‘show everyone who they are.’” What makes them popular isn’t movie appearances or wealth. It is the fact that they are ordinary people just being themselves for the world to see.

This connection with viewers has allowed them to both influence and motivate their audience, especially teens and young adults. More than half of their audience believes they could eventually become YouTube stars while only forty percent thought they could become movie stars.

Merriam Webster defines a celebrity as a famous or celebrated person. By this definition, popular YouTubers are celebrities. But every person has their own definition as to what it means to be a celebrity. Being a celebrity and being famous correlate but there is a difference between the two.

Live Mag UK states that “Fame isn’t always a good thing because you can be famous for all the wrong reasons. Whereas, as a celebrity, you’re almost expected to meet so many unrealistic expectations which can be beneficial when it comes to bettering your career.” Using this definition of fame and celebrity leaves the argument open for debate.

Whatever your definition, YouTubers are here to stay and their influence is spreading like wildfire.

 

Sources: http://mediakix.com/2014/09/youtube-influencers-vs-celebrities-whos-popular-teens/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/04/teens-prefer-youtubers-over celebrities_n_6801792.html

http://www.livemaguk.com/are-youtubers-celebrities/

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/celebrity

Iowa Highway Patrol Bans Hand-Held Radar Guns

The Iowa Highway patrol banned hand-held radar guns yesterday because of possible cancer risks.

The Iowa Highway patrol is shifting its method of checking people’s speed as they travel. The ban will pull 70 hand-held units from service. They will now focus on using radar units mounted outside the patrol car rather than hand-held units.

Recently, three officers from Cedar Rapids, IA filed for compensation claiming that use of the hand-held units caused them to develop cancer. A study is being conducted to determine if long term exposure to radiation emitted by these devices can be linked to cancer.

Spokesman Adam Berluti said, “The feeling here is to err on the side of caution until the more is known about the issue.”

This move is considered the first of its kind by a state agency.

Welcome Kyle Kardell (Again)

On the campus of Morningside College students have returned to class. A young man named Kyle Kardell is among them. Kardell is a twenty year old Junior from Laurel, Nebraska studying Advertising and Corporate Communications. His class schedule for this semester includes Fundamentals of Journalism, Media Management, and Video Production. All students want to know what instructors are like before classes start but sometimes that isn’t always the case. When asked about Ross Fuglsang, the instructor for Fundamentals of Journalism, Kardell said Fuglsang is “fair and has no favorites but I’ve only had him for two days so I really shouldn’t judge.”

Outside of the classroom Kardell works for the Hard Rock in Sioux City as a bellman. He says that he really enjoys his job. For the past two years he was a football player but has decided not to pursue that activity this year. He claims to not really have any hobbies and isn’t a part of any campus organizations. He attributes this mostly to not having much time. Part of his free time, when it occurs, is spent watching his favorite television show, The Office. His personal favorite season is autumn.

Kyle Kardell is an autumn loving, twenty year old Junior at Morningside College and I wish him the best of luck in this semester.

 

 

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