Follow Spring Break Alternative from South Dakota
March 3, 2008
Welcome to the Spring Break Alternative (SBA) “SoDak” Blog. In the coming week, I will travel with, and report on a group of Saint Anselm College students who are volunteering with “Re-Member,” a group based in Pine Ridge, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Each year, Saint Anselm College, through the office of Campus Ministry, has been sending students to sites across the United States, and abroad to spend their spring break in an alternative fashion from the traditional warm and sunny beaches.
Students work with host organizations at each site, doing everything from building bunk beds to serving in soup kitchens. This year, groups are traveling to locations ranging from Costa Rica, to Maine, Louisiana and South Dakota. In full, some 200 Saint Anselm students will be participating in the program this year.
So sit back, and enjoy the experience of being an extended part of SBA: SoDak!
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An introduction to your reporter: A member of the Class of 2009 and a Politics major from Augusta, Maine, Cory True is a new media reporter for the Saint Anselm College Office of College Communications and Marketing.
In a first for Saint Anselm College, Cory will report on this SBA trip as an “embedded reporter.” Loaded down with eight bags of equipment, Cory will feature the day-to-day work of the group while capturing the broader experience via audio, video, photography and extensive blogging.
Jennifer Odell ‘96 on the Today Show
February 20, 2008
On February 12, the Today Show featured Saint Anselm alumna Jennifer Odell ‘96 in an interview with weather and feature reporter, Al Roker. Read more
Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) Win Big
January 23, 2008
The Saint Anselm College Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) Chapter won third place at the Boston College Duel on the Heights Competition on January 19. Read more
The Connections Between Hip-Hop and Social Justice
January 18, 2008
Hip-Hop music’s pounding beats and pumping lyrics have become highly regarded by nearly every student in the county. On a chilly January afternoon, Saint Anselm College students, staff, and faculty filled the Cushing Center to hear Dr. Erika Dalya Muhammad present a new spin on this popular topic.
Dr. Muhammad gave a lecture entitled “No Borders: Social Justice, Hip Hop, and Pop” in which she described the strong and enduring connections between hip hop and youth culture. She also discussed how the powerful relationship between them can translate into social activism among today’s youth. She credits her efforts to those who came before her, especially Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who himself often used contemporary cultural references in order to create change.
Calling herself a “cultural worker” and a “creative hybrid,” Muhammad has worked in the Mount Vernon, New York area for years. The town, located just north of the Bronx, has close ties to the hip-hop community; it saw the beginnings of hip-hop and pop culture legends such as Diddy, Mary J. Blige, and Denzel Washington. Therefore, it was the perfect location to “employ the arts as a catalyst for economic development in the area.” And so, the Mount Vernon Hip-Hop Arts Center was born.
Muhammad described her work at the center and her desire to use hip-hop as a medium to encourage more participation in the arts along with civic engagement. She stated that one of her goals is to show young people today that “the world is bigger than they can even imagine.”
600 Seconds, 1,000 People
January 6, 2008
ABC News’ Susan Mitchell has the formidable task of moving one 500-person audience into the Dana Center Theater while simultaneously moving another audience of the same size and energy level out, in under 10 minutes. Mitchell, along with a group of 24 Saint Anselm College students, will control these two exuberant crowds, playing a pivotal role in the success of these debates.
In this podcast, Mitchell gives an inside view of what it really takes to make such a seemingly impossible task come to life.
Chauffeurs, Actors, and Window Cleaners
January 6, 2008
Students have had the opportunity to experience first-hand, every detail that goes into putting together a production like the ABC/Facebook debates. The students have done everything, from chauffeuring news talent and candidates around the local communities, to acting as stand-ins for the debate rehearsals, to cleaning the Fox Box window so that it is pristine. This podcast follows Michael Perkins ‘10, Kate Giaquinto ‘10, and Jerry Cournoyer ‘09 as they experience what it is like to make this fascinating event come together.
