Photo by Britt Bublitz. Sarah Raeker performs “In Trutina” during last Sunday’s Oratorio concert.

Concordia’s large spring concert, Oratorio, was especially unique this year. Usually, professional soloists are featured, but for the first time in years, the concert of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana was performed entirely by students.

Rene Clausen, who conducted the Concordia Orchestra and the 350 member Oratorio choir, explained the basic concept of the concert.

“(Oratorio) is a large work, usually a half hour or more, (which is) considered to be for orchestra, chorus and solos,” he said. “Oratorio is that time when… we put all of our choirs together with the orchestra and do a major work.”

Though this is done every year, the concert had an added element to it this spring. Oratorio usually features faculty soloists for the production. Faculty did not partake in the concert this year.

“The vocal performance faculty all agrees that when we have the opportunity, it’s nice to give (the students) that professional engagement,” Clausen said. “We have decided to use students (this year) because we had such a high level of talent.”

Clausen said that the soloists give a professional dimension to the performance, and that the students are capable of the writing, even though it was written for professional vocalists. Thirteen solos were covered by eight students, including Erik Krohg, Chris Kenny, Anthony LaFrinier, Laura Pancoast, Jessie Braaten, Russell Wustenberg, Sarah Raeker and Justine Scarborough.

“I think they are incredible,” Dr. Clausen said. “It’s really something.”

The soloists, who all auditioned for the spots, likewise approve of the decision.

“I think it’s a really neat opportunity, especially for those students looking to go into vocal performance,” said junior Raeker. “A lot of students who got solos are looking to do that, so it’s a really neat opportunity to sing with a full orchestra.”

Photo by Britt Bublitz. Justine Scarbrough and Christopher Kenney sing “Tempus Est Locundum” in front of the orchestra during the performance.

Another soloist, senior Justine Scarborough, agreed.

“It’s a really special opportunity for all of us,” she said. “I haven’t had much opportunity for solos in the past, so I’m just grateful for another chance to sing a solo in choir.”

While it is a great opportunity, Carmina Burana poses a challenge to each soloist.

“I have to be really bold with my singing, especially since it’s in my lower range,” said Scarborough. “My solo is singing over the entire freshmen women’s choir. It wasn’t something that I thought I could do.”

Raeker also found the experience to be humbling. “The other girls that got (solos) are fantastic sopranos,” she said. “It was cool to even be able to audition for (a solo) and to get it was even more cool.”

Photo by Britt Bublitz. Anthony LaFrinier sings “Olim Lacus Colueram” during Oratorio.

The audition process was open to everyone, but certain students were recommended by the voice faculty due to their vocal tone and capabilities. Soloists are chosen not on a basis of age or personality. Each solo is given to the voice which fits it best, according to Clausen.

“It has to be the voice that fits the music the most,” said Dr. Clausen. “That’s always the fairest way. What’s best for the music? What are the demands of the solo and who best fits those demands?”

As the audition process confirmed that the students fit the solos well, the decision to not use faculty members in this year’s Oratorio was maintained.

“The unique thing about this concert is that it is all undergrad,” said Dr. Clausen. “Every player, every singer, every solo, everyone in the chorus (and) everyone is the orchestra (are undergraduates). This is an entirely homegrown production. I think that’s an attainment right there.”

Johnson’s interest in cooking and baking began as a way to spend time with her grandma Sonja. This interest has turned into a passion that was the inspiration for creating the “Cobber Cooking Show” on Concordia On Air.

Each summer, Johnson, from Alexander, Minn., spent time in Battle Lake, Minn., with her grandmother. Her grandma always had bars in the freezer for her visit.

“She was always prepared…even weeks in advance,” Johnson said. “She’s the master at baking.”

Grandma Johnson’s love for baking inspired Johnson. In 2011, the idea originated when Johnson wanted to connect her love of cooking to Concordia On Air. Johnson wanted to be more involved with On Air but wasn’t able to because choir rehearsal occurs during the same timeframe. However, Johnson proposed the idea to Executive Director Annie Pattison to get feedback. Pattison thought it would be a nice addition to the show.

When Johnson approached Pattison, there was a five-minute segment consistently open on the show, Pattison said.

“I told Hannah if she was responsible to get it done, I told her it would work perfectly,” Pattison said.

Johnson, a mass media communication studies major, talked to senior Paul Flessland, who agreed to help. Johnson’s had her first cooking segment in the fall of her junior year. In the show’s beginning, Flessland and Johnson got together every few weeks to tape the show. Flessland filmed and then edited the cooking show segments.

“At first, we had no idea what we were doing…but luckily it turned out pretty good,” Flessland said.

The show is taped in segments. Flessland and Johnson figure out what to say before each section is taped.

During each show, Johnson tries to make recipes that would work for college students. She sticks with easy recipes that are simple and affordable, she said.

“I don’t make elaborate recipes,” she said.

Johnson has made banana bread, cake cookies, beer bread and tortilla bites.

For Johnson, making recipes that relate to a wide range of students is the hardest part.

“Something I might really enjoy, others might hate,” she said.

Last fall, Johnson had a class with Tracy Briggs, a local reporter who now has a show called “The Great Indoors.” Briggs invited Johnson to do a few cooking shows on her video blog. Johnson was invited to choose recipes that had some significance to her or to others.

For the show, Johnson has made her personal favorite, grandma Sonja’s recipe called, “Peanut Butter Oat Bars.” She also made her grandpa’s recipe called, “Woody’s Spaghetti Sauce.”

“He is 88 or 89-years-old, so it meant a lot to him,” she said.

Johnson has enjoyed working with and getting to know Briggs.

“Tracy is a joy to work with and encourages me to have fun on camera. I hope to continue working with her,” she said.

When the show aired on the Forum website, Flessland saw it.

“I was surprised to see it,” he said. “It was a pleasant surprise.”

Although Johnson has focused her show on cooking, she says prefers baking.

“Sometimes, I have to bake every night,” she said. “It’s a stress reliever.”

Junior Sarah Raeker is one of Johnson’s roommates. To celebrate Raeker’s birthday last September, Johnson covered their apartment with streamers, strings and balloons. Raeker woke up to a half a dozen giant cupcakes, just for her.

Sometimes, Johnson feels the urge to bake. It usually happens when Johnson’s schedule begins to get full with commitments.

“Then I just start baking. I put everything else on hold. After I bake, the week always goes smoother. It helps me be more productive,” she said.

When Raeker comes home to an apartment full of baked goods, she’s not surprised any more.

“Then Hannah said, ‘I’m just in a baking mood,’” Raeker said.

Johnson has learned some lessons from doing the cooking show.

“Try something new and see if you can succeed. More importantly to use your talents and put yourself out there,” she said.

As the year comes to an end and her workload increases, Johnson says she regrets not being able to produce more shows.

Flessland and Johnson could see the “Cobber Cooking Show” turning into a career option. Johnson’s plans for next year are undetermined, but when she was younger she dreamed of having a cooking show on the Food Channel. Flessland would like to someday work in the video department of the Fargo Forum.

“It’s given us, both Hannah and I, future job experience,” Flessland said.

Career experience aside, Flessland said his favorite part is eating the food that Johnson has made.

The article was submitted by Kaia Lunde, a contributing writer. She can be contacted at klunde@cord.edu

Last Sunday three films from three groups of students came together to premiere at the Fargo Theatre downtown. The three films were “Contrition,” “The Birthmark” and “Techtonic Fates” based on the three short stories chosen by the groups.

Professor Dawn Duncan of the English Department taught this course for the second year and hopes it will stick around.

“I’ve never had a course before that takes students from the beginning theory to actually producing ‘that thing,’ you know?” Duncan said. “It does exactly what a core capstone is supposed to do.”

The students in the film and literature class start on the first day by talking about their strengths and are then split up into three teams in a way where each team has a diverse amount of talent. Once the teams are set, everyone on the team must find a story to pitch to the whole class picked from short stories that are in the public domain. The choice is limited to public domain because these stories are free to use, but the students found many winners to turn into films.

The short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe was transformed into “Contrition” produced by Matt Calvert, Marisa Jackels, Cady Mittlestadt, Sam Moheban and Kyle Thiele.

“The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne was produced, keeping the same name by Soren Poffenberger, Kayla Shanda, Christine Sommer, Niki Wagner and Tara Wegner.

Finally, an adaptation of Alan Cogan’s “In the Cards” was renamed “Techtonic Fates” for the group Brittni Hagberg, Nicole Lindor, Killashandra Link, Jessica Nanik, Tiffany Petru and Kablia Vang.

These groups worked all semester together to make films that will be stored in the library archives for anyone to see. The teams could also choose to put their films on YouTube or other online sources. Duncan wants the hype around these films to keep building over the years.

“Hopefully this will become something someday that goes on Concordia’s calendar and that students will know about,” Duncan said.

Although she thinks she herself could learn more about editing film, Duncan wants to always invite professionals to come into class and help the students learn.

“I really believed if I gave the students the opportunity and all the help I could that they would meet me there,” Duncan said. “Well, they go beyond.”

After the films’ debuts at the Fargo Theatre, there was a question and answer session for the audience to participate. The students were asked about what the hardest and most rewarding components of this project were. They all had their personal hurdles to get over throughout the semester, but one common theme occurred.

“The hardest thing was scheduling,” Calvert from “Contrition” said.

Petru from “Techtonic Fates” stressed how valuable that made the time her group had together.

“We did a lot of talking then so if someone had a problem we could try and work it out right away,” she said.

Both Jackles and Lindor noted how much they learned from this experience and how it has affected the way they see film.

“When I’m watching TV or movies now,” said Jackels, “I’m really hyperaware of the cuts and the angles and the lighting and everything you have to think about as an editor.”

Lindor now appreciates the skills it takes to become an editor.

“I watched a movie the other day with a friend and sat there thinking ‘Wow that was a seamless cut’ and ‘Oh wow, look at that angle,’” she said. “It takes an amazing amount of effort to make something that we can just enjoy at face-value.”

Photo by Beth Meemken. Senior artist Michaela Chorn’s self portrait with colorful eyes and oil on canvas.

This year’s Concordia seniors will soon be heading out the doors to fulfill their life goals. For those seniors majoring in art, the Senior Art Exhibit provides a last chance to display their works to the Concordia community.

This year’s Concordia College Senior Art Exhibit showcases from April 9 to May 5 in the Cyrus M. Running Gallery. The exhibit showcases works from those graduating this May, with an art, art education, graphic design, or art history major.

This exhibit is a chance for the Concordia seniors to display their works within their preferred subject matter. Works such as acrylic and watercolor paintings, ceramic works, sculptures and graphic design prints fill the gallery, and because of the great talent from these Concordia students, there is something for everyone to see and appreciate.

Michaela Chorn, a Concordia art major notes that more than 50 hours went into installing the exhibit because of the many works. She says that the exhibit is “jam-packed and there is so much stuff to look at.”

Photo by Beth Meemken. Senior artist Katie Weikle’s “The Horde” features her ceramic mugs.

The graphic design pieces display designs that have been used in everyday advertising, spoof ads, t-shirt designs and snowboard designs. The painting subjects range from sceneries to portraits to still-life works with sports themes to more abstract pieces.

Chorn, whose focus within her major is oil painting, concentrates on portrait paintings with the preferred subject matter of expression.

Art major Katie Weikle, whose focus is geared towards ceramics, also works with the subject matter of expression within many of her works displayed. However, Weikle is the only graduating senior currently with the focus of ceramics, so she does experiment with different subject matters and themes.

“The experience has been really fun,” Weikle said. “A lot of people have been walking through—a lot more than I expected.”

For these seniors, it is the last time they will be able to showcase all their hard work to their fellow Cobbers and community members. After this year, Chorn will be taking a year off to work on some pieces and hopes to attend grad school for museum studies and painting. Chorn also says that what she is really looking forward to is getting to exhibit in big galleries. She hopes one day to exhibit her works on either the east or west coast or maybe even New York because “it is like the mother-ship of all artists.”

Weikle will be working at a camp this summer where she will help kids with crafts and in September is going to a Germany Missions and Art School in for six months. There she will also be working with younger kids, knitting, origami and teaching other crafts.

Others, like Travis Klath, a senior graphic design major, do not have a definite plan yet. Klath is hoping to stay around the Fargo-Moorhead area and find graphic design work here.

The seniors really enjoy the experience to showcase their works one last time.

“It’s always fun,” Chorn said. “If I happen to be walking through the gallery and if people are looking at things—it doesn’t even have to be my works—it’s always fun to hear people in awe.”

The public reception will be held on May 4. Awards were also be announced in the Comstock Theater on April 18 during the Celebration of Student Scholarship, where students can view the Senior Art Exhibit following. The awards presented on April 18 included one $250 Patron Purchase Award, one $100 Graphic Design Prize, one $100 First Prize and three Merit Awards at $50 each.

Chorn, like all the other seniors, is hoping for an award this year, but she knows anyone might win.

“There’s a lot of really great talent in there—a lot of competition—so it’s really anyone’s game,” she said.

So far, there have been more people than any other show this year, Chorn said.

“I’m excited about the show and I hope a lot of people come and check it out,” she said.  “If they can’t make it to the reception then at least try and check it out a different day. There’s a lot of great talent in there.”

Last year, late on the night of April 19, 2012, a group of 20-some Concordia students lit up on Olin Hill.

At 11:55 p.m., two joints packed with marijuana in tow, they sat in a circle on the grassy hill and waited for April 20 to begin.

“The second it hit midnight we sparked ‘em,” said *Sam, one of the students there that night.

According to The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention, marijuana is the most frequently abused illicit drug in the U.S.  Marijuana is not legal in Minnesota or North Dakota but that doesn’t always stop area people from using it.

Earlier this school year, Sam said he had a “stoner party” in his garage.

“People would bring Bud and music and just get baked,” he said.

The group decided that day that they would relive the experience come April 20.

Dr. Susan Larson, a psychology professor at Concordia, said the social aspects of marijuana impact its prevalence on college campuses.

“I think the college culture results in some people using (marijuana) who didn’t in high school,” she said.

Sam guesses that at least 50 percent of Concordia students have used marijuana.

“Just a lot of people are better at hiding it than others,” he said.

*Anna, a Concordia student who has used marijuana since she was a freshman in high school, has a more conservative estimation.  She thinks that 20 percent of the student population has at least tried marijuana.

Sam’s estimation is consistent with what many Concordia students think about their peers’ use of marijuana.

Concordia puts out a health survey every other year to assess students’ attitudes towards and activity when it comes to things like marijuana and alcohol.  The American College Health Association National College Health Assessment was administered during the spring 2012 semester.

Jasi O’Connor, director of Residence Life at Concordia, said the survey asks students about their own marijuana use and the prevalence of marijuana among their peers.

The disparity between actual and perceived use is dramatic.

According to last year’s results, just under 7 percent of students reported using marijuana anywhere between one and nine days consecutively.  The perceived usage was 50 percent, just like Sam guessed.

This disconnect occurs in the actual versus perceived use of other substances, O’Connor said.  Students frequently assume that their peers are drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes more than they actually are.

People who use marijuana face the stigma that gets placed on the drug and the so-called “pothead” culture it has created.

Anna is well aware of this stigma.

She said the popular belief about marijuana is that people who use it are unmotivated and apathetic.  But Concordia students, even if they do use marijuana, tend to be very driven and motivated to succeed, she said.

Despite her disagreements with the way marijuana is perceived by society, Anna limits her use to every once in a while on the weekend.  She said her desire to succeed in college and having a major that requires a lot of time and dedication have both led her to cut back.

“I think the feeling of accomplishing something is way more rewarding than a quick fix,” she said.

While this stigma has led Sam to restrict his use, he has another, more pressing reason to quit.

In late October, Sam smoked with a couple friends.  Instead of experiencing a relaxing high, Sam’s heart began to race, and he felt dizzy.  His body temperature rose swiftly and plummeted in a succession of hot and cold flashes. A panic attack was nothing he had ever experienced as a result of smoking marijuana.

According to the Mayo Clinic, illicit drugs, among other things such as alcohol and caffeine, can cause or worsen panic attacks.

Since that experience, Sam said he has been trying to quit using marijuana.  He said it has helped to have friends who don’t smoke so that the temptation isn’t there.

“I’ve been trying to surround myself with positive influences,” he said.

Though the data suggests that a high percentage of students don’t use marijuana, O’Connor said she worries that students who use don’t fully understand the negative effects the drug can have on their well-being.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, marijuana can impact a person’s health in different areas.  Physically, the drug raises the heart rate and can increase the risk of having a heart attack.  Also, marijuana smoke irritates the lungs, causing respiratory problems in frequent smokers.  Studies have shown connections between chronic users and mental illness, although more research is needed to determine whether these are mere coincidences.

Students might not always recognize when getting high or drinking for that matter becomes an issue.

While she believes marijuana is a choice that each individual should be free to make, Anna said that marijuana can be abused.

“Marijuana isn’t addictive, but some people rely on it,” she said.

If students get the idea that this kind of behavior is normal while they are in college, it can easily carry on into post-college life, O’Connor said.

April 20 (commonly referred to as “4/20”) is a day devoted to the celebration of marijuana.  Different theories exist about its origin, but the saying got its start in the 70s with a group of high school students who met at 4:20 p.m. every day to smoke marijuana.  The phrase is now synonymous with getting high.

Despite the white scenery in Fargo-Moorhead, Concordia students may be seeing more green than expected this weekend.

Sam, on the other hand, will be breaking from “4/20” tradition.  He will not be having another get-together in his garage.  This year, Sam will be staying sober.

Any student enrolled at any one of the three area schools—North Dakota State University, Minnesota State University Moorhead, or Concordia College—can take part in a Tri-College program.

According to its website, Tri-College is a “partnership among the three higher education institutions in Fargo, N.D., and Moorhead, Minn.” Tri-College began in the 1960’s as a cooperative effort to enhance higher education in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

“By being a student and paying your tuition at your home campus, you are allowed to take a class not offered at your home institution,” said Sonia Mayo, Tri-College University’s communication coordinator.

Freshman Jacqueline Jeziorski is currently taking a survey course in speech, hearing, and learning sciences at MSUM. She is hoping to obtain a second degree through Tri-College.

“It’s what I want to do as a career and Concordia doesn’t offer that major,” Jeziorski said.

Jerziorski chooses to stay at Concordia, though, because she thinks it is a great school, and the scholarships she has makes being at Concordia cheaper than MSUM.

Tri-College isn’t all about taking classes at a different university. Tri-College also allows for students to take advantage of just about everything the other universities in the area offer.

“Other opportunities afforded to students from the cooperation are that students have access to libraries and their resources at the two partnering campuses,” Mayo said. “Students may attend speaker or cultural programs and seminars or other educational events.”

Some of the other options that Tri-College offers, and not many students know about, are the Gold Star Marching Band and Musical Theatre Troupe. Both of those programs are through NDSU.

Freshman Jaqueline Jeziorski says that taking advantage of these different programs is a great way to understand more about other colleges and their culture.

“The other opportunities are really cool,” Jeziorski said. “You get to see a different campus and meet different people. You get to see how they work things.”

One of the biggest reasons a student will take a class through one of the other Tri-College universities is when problems arise with a class that fulfills major requirements being offered at a certain time.

Senior Meagan McDougall ran into this problem with her final class to achieve her multimedia journalism degree.

“I was originally able to register, but they had to cancel the class due to low enrollment,” McDougall said.

A student can encounter more than just an educational experience through a Tri-College program; the opportunity can also be fun.

“You get to know other students and be in a different setting for classes,” Jeziorski said. “It’s refreshing.”

Although it may seem helpful to take more than one class through Tri-College a student is only allowed to take one at a time. Even if a student is working towards a minor, that doesn’t ensure he or she gets into the required class.

“Campuses do give preference to their own students first,” Mayo said. “Partnering campus students will then be admitted as a first-come, first-registered.”

Right now, Concordia has the lowest student population participating in Tri-College programs. According to Mayo, this has to do with the fact that Concordia’s population is much smaller than NDSU’s and MSUM’s. Concordia’s low participation also has been attributed to the fact that students don’t participate during the summer because most students go home.

Even with low Cobber participation, Tri-College has also seemed to bridge some of the gap between MSUM and Concordia since most Cobbers will take courses at MSUM rather than making the trek up north to NDSU.

“MSUM has the program that I was looking for,” Jeziorski said. “I would still choose MSUM over NDSU because it’s closer. It’s like a 10 minute walk away.”

Depending on a student’s situation, registering for Tri-College can be really simple or a lot of work. McDougall had a tougher time than most because she was trying to take a class that is normally only offered at Concordia and then had to deal with the class being cancelled.

McDougall had originally signed up for advanced reporting, but to her dismay under-enrollment got the class canceled. She then had to work with the registrar and the department head to find a class, either at Concordia or one of the two other area universities to fulfill the requirement.

The obstacles surrounding McDougall’s class didn’t deter her from trying to get what she needed to graduate. Faculty and the registrar finally decided that MSUM’s magazine writing class will be a good supplement to the advanced reporting class she was supposed to take.

“It was kind of a mucky process,” McDougall said

Jeziorski had a much simpler time working with the registrar and the department head at MSUM to take a class there. She simply met with her advisor and the department head at MSUM to talk about the class and what it could do for her. Then she got the paperwork from the registrar to make sure that she had everything taken care of to actually take the class and get the credits to transfer back.

There are a few things that each student should know when taking part in Tri-College. First, a student participating in Tri-College will get an ID number and an email from the school that they are taking classes from. McDougall said that having an extra email account from a different university to check is hard because she just isn’t used to having to do that.

While seminars and educational programs at the second university are both free, things like the wellness center are not. Because Concordia students aren’t paying NDSU or MSUM student fees, Cobbers can’t take advantage of their wellness centers.

One of the biggest difficulties that can arise from doing a Tri-College program is the fact that MSUM and NDSU, MSUM and Concordia all have major breaks starting at different times.

“It’s challenging coordinating the different schedules,” McDougall said.

To coordinate the schedules, McDougall attributes her success to creating an understanding with professors that when Concordia has breaks she will not be in class.

All of the challenges aside, McDougall has feels that Tri-College can enhance the college experience a student is already getting at Concordia.

“It’s a good experience to go to school with other students,” McDougall said. “It’s fun to learn about a different program and how they train their students to think and to work.”

Whether a student wants to take a class that doesn’t fit in their schedule, or he or she wants to add a little more fine arts into his or her life, Tri-College is one option that is easy for all Concordia students to be a part of.

“I think it’s too great of an opportunity to pass up,” Jeziorski said. “Even socially, getting to know some place other than Concordia is helpful.”

This article was submitted by Kelsey Drayton. She can be reached at kdrayton@cord.edu

Concordia College speech competitors placed fifteenth in the overall school competition at the American Forensic Association’s National Individual Events tournament hosted April 5-8 by Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kan. A total of 80 institutions qualified students for the national tournament.

Submitted photo. Members of the speech team pose after winning fifteenth place at the American Forensic Association national speech competition. The competition took place in Kansas over the past weekend.

Thirteen Concordia students qualified for the national tournament, and two students won individual awards. Senior Britt Aasmundstad, (Devil’s Lake, N.D.), and sophomore George Kueppers, (Spicer, Minn.) made the cut from the guaranteed preliminary round competition to single elimination finals. Aasmundstad reached the quarter-finals of the impromptu speaking event while Kueppers reached the quarter-finals of after dinner Speaking. Their quarter-final finish placed them among the top 24 competitors in the tournament.

As a school, Concordia placed fifteenth among all institutions participating at the tournament. The top three places were taken by Bradley University (Peoria, Ill.), Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green, Ky.), and George Mason University (Fairfax, Va).

“This award is a testament to the work of all our speech competitors,” says Concordia Director of Forensics, Fred Sternhagen, “The overall school award is determined from the combined performance by all of a school’s competitors—not just a school’s top finishers. This finish would not have been possible without the strong participation of all our students and without the contribution of our seniors who allowed us to get to this point.”

Other Concordia students who qualified for the national tournament were seniors Meg Henrickson, Cole Kantos and Jenna Nypan; juniors Colin Sullivan  and Joe Anderson; and sophomores Cristy Dougherty, Christiana Hennings, Amelia Hinkle, Krysta Hovendon, Quinn Maroney, and Amber Morgan. The students are coached by members of the Communication Studies and Theatre Art Department at Concordia—Joe Kennedy, Adam Knowlton and Megan Orcholski.

Photo by Beth Meemken. “Society’s Image,” a mixed media art piece by Kate Hammero.

The Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition is now showcasing student art through the end of March in Concordia’s Cyrus M. Running Gallery.

The showcase allows students to display their works made throughout the year, and it gives them valuable experience as working artists, said Susan Lee, director of the gallery. Travis Klath, senior graphic design major, has three of his works displayed in this exhibit, and he encouraged people to come check out the show. He said that there are a lot of talented students on campus, some perhaps unknown to others, and this is a great way to see what others around you can do.

The Student Exhibition Show is a longstanding Concordia tradition designed to showcase all the talented students on campus. Students who submit their works are often required to do so at least once as an art major in their college career.

This year, however, was a little different for the show.

“Previously, only artworks produced in the context of an art class taught at Concordia were eligible for submission,” Lee said. “We opened up the submission rules and any artwork produced by any Concordia student that was produced from January 2012 to present time was eligible.” Lee hopes that this will encourage all students to submit their works in the future.

Photo by Beth Meemken. “Scissor Spider,” a bronze cast art piece by Ashley Johnson that won best of show.

“Being an artist means sharing your creations with the public, engaging in a conversation of sorts with members of your community, society, and culture.” Lee said. “As students, this is difficult to do, but the juried student art exhibition offers a forum for not only art majors and minors but the entire campus community to publicly share their art.”

For the jury process, students were to submit their works with the piece’s name, the materials used, and if it was for sale or not. The works were then examined by the Executive Director of the Rourke Art Gallery Museum, Tania Blanich. Throughout the selection, Blanich also chose one “First Prize,” given to senior Katie Weikle; one “Best in Show,” given out to junior Ashley Johnson, and three “Honorary Awards,” given to Turi Anderson, Joshua Kilde and Rachel Meier.

“I actually had no idea I had placed at all,” said Ashley Johnson, junior art and psychology major with a concentration in studio art. “I was heading into the sculpture studio to work on my (National Conference on Undergraduate Research) project when Heidi Goldberg and Duane Mickelson congratulated me. I asked them what they were talking about and they sent me up to the gallery to look around, and there, by my “Scissor Spider,” was a cream colored card with “Best in Show” and a gold starburst sticker next to it. It was a pretty amazing feeling. I don’t think I was able to stop smiling all day.”

Freshman art education major Kate Hammero also had a great experience with the Art Show.

Photo by Beth Meemken. Octo-Beard,” a graphite pencil drawing by Michaela Chor.

“It was exciting,” she said. I entered not thinking I would make it because I am only a freshman, but it was just exciting to see that I could actually get my things in the show. It just makes me feel good for the years to come.”

Klath thinks the exhibition is a great opportunity to showcase the work that students have been working so diligently on all year. Most of the time, even other art students do not get to see their fellow classmates’ works because they are hidden away in some other art classroom. The show is both good for other students’ to see the works and for community members to come see the works, Klath said.

Johnson was grateful for the opportunity of the show also.

“I feel truly humbled,” she said. Thank you, everyone. I hope I can make Concordia proud as I move forward in my career in the years to come.”

The Cyrus M. Running Gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays.

Joy Navratil, student coordinator in the Global Studies Department, works with students who wish to study abroad. She points students in the right direction when they begin the long process of going to a foreign country.

The first step students must take is to meet with a program coordinator. Dan Albertson and Kristin Erber are the two program coordinators who help students that want to study for a semester or a year. Darin Stromstad is the program coordinator that works with students who are studying abroad during fall or spring break, on exploration seminars, and on May seminars.

“Students do not need to know where they want to go,” Navratil said. “The program coordinators are there for guidance.”

The process of studying abroad takes preparation. Students have to decide a year in advance for semester or yearlong trips. Short-term programs are decided less than a year in advance.

There are certain aspects in the planning process that require students to make decisions early on. When studying abroad for a semester or for a year, students apply early because there are deadlines that need to be met for Concordia as well as the cooperating universities, according to Angela Cant, the assistant director for budget and operations.

Students must also meet with programs coordinators to discuss traveling, their goals and the emotional aspect of living abroad.

Program coordinators walk through the application with students. Once students are accepted, coordinators work with advisors, the registrar and students in order to set up classes.

“We do a very mixed bag of advising,” Program Coordinator Kristen Erber said.

Students, who are studying abroad for a semester or a year, use the meetings to help them with the process. The program involves many faculty and staff members, which encourages collaborative interactions that prompt creativity and development.

Pre-departure orientation programs are meeting that are set with coordinators in order to talk about insurance, ways to stay safe, packing and finances.

“(It’s) the stuff your parents want to know about,” Erber said.

Meetings about cultural perspectives, the ups and downs of emotions also called the u-curve take place.

When students return, there is a dinner, allowing students to talk about their experiences. During reflection sessions, students learn about how the experience may have changed them, and how they can use that by putting it into words on a résumé and by continuing global learning opportunities, Erber said.

Applying, figuring out classes and attending meetings take up  a majority of the time before the airplane takes off.

The waiting process and not knowing is stressful, said Anna Saxon, who hopes to study abroad in Ireland during the spring of 2014. “It’s kind of like applying for college all over again,” Saxon said.

Classes must also be figured out so that students can effectively fit the courses into their degree.  Some classes are harder to take abroad than others, Cant said.

“It’s a big step. We don’t want students coming in at the last minute and thinking ‘Oh, I just want to go to Ireland next semester,’” Cant said. “We don’t want that being a quick decision. That’s part of the process… Even as freshman, start thinking about it.”

Transfer students and students with any major can study abroad. Coordinators are there to assist with finding a program that will fit your schedule, Erber said.

Collaboration between program coordinators, students, and faculty advisors make the process leading up to the trip successful.

“It’s a joint effort,” Navratil said.

Susan Lee, assistant professor of art, and Heidi Goldberg, associate professor of art, hand-selected each of the students to apply as a group for the Student-Faculty Fellows Program. The fellowship is set up in that each of the students will conducted their own separate research topics within the larger theme of the South Korean printmaking tradition and its current state.

Lee is a specialist in East Asian art history and a native South Korean, and Goldberg is a working print maker. During the end of last year, Lee said that she and Goldberg worked to familiarize the students with the work they could do through the fellowship relating to Asian studies, as per the ASIANetwork organization’s requirements, alongside their own specialty knowledge.

Throughout the year, the students worked on focusing their individual research questions and beginning research into the topics, to be continued throughout the summer. Lee said that over the summer, the students were asked to look around at the current state of art, specifically at what print makers here in the U.S. are interested in right now.

When class resumed last fall, group meetings started up again. The group met about once a month to stay focused on the research at hand and to work together on preparing the necessary written components for the fellowship application. The application was finally submitted in the fall, and the group had to wait until Feb. 15 to learn the results, the date that the ASIANetwork website stated that they would share the names of the fellowship recipients.

The group won a $41,000 grant to use over a three-week period this May, the maximum amount that they could have been given. The Concordia group was awarded the fellowship along with 13 other schools out of the 160 colleges associated with ASIANetwork, according to the ASIANetwork website.

Jenna Morris, a sophomore art education major, is one of the student fellows traveling to South Korea.

“There’s a decent amount of work involved, but it’s still so fun,” Morris said.

Just because they’ve won the fellowship and have been awarded a grant, doesn’t mean the work is over. Lee said that the students will all continue to do research on their chosen topics until they leave for South Korea May 6. Morris said that, while in Korea, each of the students will continue researching, writing papers and preparing presentations which will all be used to generate interest in Asian studies within Concordia’s student body next year.

Part of ASIANetwork’s mission is to support Asian studies in liberal arts colleges that aren’t large enough to support their own Asian studies concentrations. According to Lee, ASIANetwork hopes to inspire a “ripple effect” with their fellowships and grants, starting with the funded research of a few students that spreads throughout their home campus, inspiring more and more students to look into Asian studies. According to their website, ASIANetwork gave over $386,000 to groups in this year’s Student-Faculty Fellows Program.

The seven trips taken this year included destination cities of Pensacola, Fla., Mandeville, La., Wilmington, N.C., Johns Island, S.C., Denver, Colo., El Paso, Texas, and Taos, N.M.

Both Jennifer Glatt and Austin Keller, Habitat for Humanity Spring Break Co-Coordinators, agreed that this year was an excellent turnout.

“As a board we worked really hard this year to make the trips affordable for students,” Glatt said. It is such a wonderful experience, and we wanted to make it accessible to anyone interested.  We had great success with fundraising and hope to continue this strong representation of Concordia students through Habitat in the years to come.”

Sophomore Lindsay Jacobs attended the trip to Johns Island, S.C. She said they worked from 8:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. every day, for five straight days, working on tasks like insulation, caulking, siding, digging a foundation or hanging soffit.

“The Sea Island Habitat employees that we worked with were extremely friendly,” she said.  “We even played volleyball together after work and went to dinner at a local restaurant with them. During our free time our trip explored downtown Charleston, visited a southern plantation, went to the beach, and kayaked in the ocean.”

Jacobs encouraged all students to take advantage of this chance to put their faith into action and develop lifelong friendships. When asked about her favorite part of the trip, she was quick to say that it was the friendships that she and others around her made.

“It was amazing to see so many different personalities mesh so well together to accomplish something greater than ourselves,” she said.

Glatt also thinks these relationships are extremely valuable.

“A great aspect of Habitat trips is the relationships the students build with each other and the faculty advisor on the trip,” she said. “Not only was it a very humbling experience on my part, but I was able to make lasting relationships with fellow students, faculty and met so many wonderful people…It is an experience that I will remember for a lifetime.”

Hao Han, a Concordia international student from China, took the trip to Pensacola, Fla. His favorite part of the trip was getting to know people. He said that the 30 hour bus ride was long, but he also emphasized his appreciation for it as that was where he got to meet and talk to the 20 students that accompanied him.

Keller expressed his hope for students to gain a passion for service out of these trips.

“While it is great that students got the opportunity to go on a fun trip, I hope this is just the beginning of a lot more service to come,” he said.

Both Glatt and Keller want to remind Concordia students that there are more trips to come. This year, two students on the board are planning a May International trip to Costa Rica. There are also opportunities around the area to work because last year the group started having smaller local trips.

The Habitat board and other student organizations on campus also worked on a “Playhouse Project” this year where they came together to build playhouses for the Lake Agassiz Habitat Re-Store. In the future, they hope to further strengthen their connections with Lake Agassiz Habitat for Humanity and reach out into the Fargo-Moorhead community.

“We are so fortunate that Concordia supports Habitat,” Glatt said. “These trips truly exemplify Concordia’s mission and allow for students to become responsibly engaged in the world.  I feel so blessed to have had such a wonderful experience with Habitat at Concordia.”

For more information on Habitat for Humanity, email hfh@cord.edu. Glatt and Keller both encouraged students to check out different trip options.

Submitted by Lindsay Jacobs. Over mid-semester break, 138 Cobbers on seven buses traveled across the United States to help others in need for Habitat for Humanity projects. Above: A photo taken on the Charleston, S.C., group’s last day on site at Sea Island Habitat.

The season will begin in October with Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy of manners, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” a raucous romp of mistaken identity and high society. English gentlemen Jack and Algernon deceive the ladies they love, Gwendolyn and Cecily, by pretending to be the titular “earnest.” Wilde incorporates elements of farce and satire into witty dialogue, posing questions about the nature of marriage and the hypocrisy of the upper-class. Often considered to be Wilde’s greatest and most popular work, “The Importance of Being Earnest” is a delightfully well-made play full of colorful characters and sparkling language.

Imagine a world where a 20-year-drought has pulled the plug on private toilets. Public restrooms have become the only option and it suddenly becomes “a privilege to pee” when the megacorportation, The Urine Good Company demands money for all restroom activities. “Urinetown” is the musical tale of a terrifying dystopian society where one brave young man, Bobby Strong, dares to stand up to the UGC, starting a pee-for-free rebellion which sparks a revolution against corrupt cops and corporations. Does he succeed? Find out in Concordia Theatre’s production of this satirical comedy musical, to be performed in November. With a Tony Award-winning score and book by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis, “Urinetown” is one of the most original and creative musicals of the last twenty years. Appropriate for teenage audiences and older.

“The Long Christmas Ride Home” by Obie Award and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Paula Vogel is a humorous and emotional look at family, love, and how our childhood experiences impact our adult lives. Combining theatrical puppetry with an homage to several works of Thornton Wilder, “The Long Christmas Ride Home” tells the tale of a family driving home after a catastrophic Christmas dinner with their grandparents. The journey is filled with arguments, threats of sickness and much laughter. The third Concordia Theatre production of the season, “The Long Christmas Ride Home” will be performed in February in the Theatre Lab. Appropriate for teenage audiences and older.

Shakespeare’s comedic masterpiece “Much Ado About Nothing” will close the season in April. Originally performed to celebrate the marriage of Princess Elizabeth Stuart to Frederick V in late 1612, “Much Ado About Nothing” is bursting with honor, deception, and love. Following the war Don Pedro and his officers visit Leonato’s house.  At a masked ball, jealous Don John sets a plot in motion to upset the happiness of newly engaged Hero and Claudio. Meanwhile Beatrice and Benedick exchange quick-witted, sharp-tongued words defending the honor of their kinsfolk, all the while, falling in love with one another.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors and  free for Concordia students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

Photo by Meg Pittelko. Students will be able to enter to win door prizes and walk away with some cool stuff at the Health Fair on Friday March 8.

This year’s Health Fair will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday in the Centrum. The event’s purpose is to educate and inform students and community members.

More than 30 vendors will be on campus providing free information, answering questions and offering free massages.

Junior Meg Pittelko is the current Health Fair intern, and she has been planning the entire event since this fall. She said that the event will have representatives from every element of health, with vendors ranging from a chiropractic clinic to an interfaith center to a counseling service.

Each visitor will get at least one gift: a clear tumbler with a plastic straw. In addition to this, students can swipe their IDs at the door and be entered in a drawing for dozens of door prizes.

These prizes include gift cards from various restaurants and businesses, clothing from local businesses and Concordia, a month-long YMCA membership, tickets to Fargo Force games and Redhawks Games, a Kindle and more.

“We have a great representation from the community. We have some pretty kick butt prizes,” Pittelko said. “Then again, if no one comes, I guess I get a lot of sweet prizes,” she joked.

In addition to the vendors that will be in attendance, Jen Thomas, assistant professor of Theater and a team of students and faculty members will be performing pieces from their upcoming performance, “Bodies Alive.”

The group will be presenting poetry, spoken word, songs and other forms of media that speak to the way bodies are viewed in society. They will be performing “sneak peeks” in the Centrum at 12 p.m., 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. and will have their final performance in Jones 212 at 7 p.m. on Friday night.

Photo by Scott Olsen. Professor Scott Olsen and several members of The Concordian staff visited Paris and London for a Travel Writing Seminar over spring break. From left: Concordian editors Meg Pittelko and Sean Plemmons, Contributing Writer Marisa Jackels, Steph Ronning, Brooke Peterson, Web Editor Melisa Barish and Global Learning Student Coordinator Joy Navratil. The group spent approximately four days in London and three days in Paris.

This month, Concordia music students performed at Eventide and have another performance planned for 2 p.m. on March 16.

The first performance was titled “Concordia at Eventide” and was in early February. It featured singers and instrumentalists. The event was an idea originally planned by Nash, who is a first year voice instructor at Concordia.

“I thought of a way that students could be responsibly engaged in the world,” Nash said. “What a better idea than to perform at Eventide so we can practice what the college preaches.”

Amongst all of the faculty and student recitals at Concordia, it is hard for non-music majors to find additional performance opportunities. Nash said that the Eventide project was a low-pressure way for non-performance and non-music majors to get another shot at performing.

Many Concordia students performed at the show. Sophomore Aimee Mellenbruch sang “Pie Jesu” from Fauré’s “Requiem.” She said that the audience greatly appreciated the concert.

“It was nice to be in a performance where the audience is non-judgmental,” Mellenbruch said. “The low-pressure atmosphere helped me out because I usually get nervous with a performance.”

Mellenbruch said she is a lot more nervous for her jury, which is a performance-based test at the end of the semester and is in front of the voice faculty. The Eventide performance gave her a chance to perform for a welcoming audience. She said she enjoyed the performance and would do it again if given the opportunity.

Nash said that she was glad to see that students were so integrated with the residents of Eventide during the performance.

“I saw students that weren’t even performing in the show and that were there purely to watch,” Nash said. “They were talking with the residents and actually getting to know them. That was very heartwarming.”

Now that the first performance is over, Nash said that she hopes to expand the entire idea of performing in the community. She wants art and music students to collaborate with the business school to create an arts management and administration course. She believes that real world experience with non-profit performances and management are necessary to succeed.

“There is a need for arts in the community,” Nash said. “Students need to understand the business behind the concert and a non-profit can do so much to gain that knowledge.”

The class that Nash wants to create would focus on students doing the work to make a show happen. Nash believes that it is important for students to learn how to write grants, manage artists and write business proposals.

While she has not officially proposed the course, Nash said that within the next couple of years the class could be offered to students.

Nash encouraged her studio of voice students to perform another show for Eventide residents later this month.

So far, she said that there have been a variety of acts signed up, including various singers and a flute quartet, but she is still encouraging more students to join in.

The root of the Eventide project is to give back to the community and, for Nash, that is one of the most important parts.

“Sharing the gifts that you have is really what is important,” Nash said. “At Concordia, you give back what you get, and that is what this is all about.”

Submitted photo. The Chinese Club poses in the Centrum. Back: Sandra Schmidt, Matthew Burian, Matt Dale, Andrew Carlson, Will Merickel, Nicole Hunsicker, and John Georke. Middle: Erin Bjerke, Xao Vang, Joy Donovan. Front: Elise Woodwick, Briana Johnson, Andrea Akatsuka, Sarah Zhang, Iris Ming, Dr. Tao Ming, and Vivian Ming

Chinese New Year was brought to Concordia Saturday evening. Students and community members filled the Centrum Feb. 9 to celebrate.

About 400 people attended this year, according to Chinese professor Tao Ming. This number in- creased from the 350 in attendance last year.

This is the fifth year Concordia has celebrated Chinese New Year. It was originally celebrated in Jones, but because attendance has increased in recent years, the celebration was moved to the Centrum.

Concordia catered the event. Chinese food was provided and performances included Chines tongue twisters, songs, poetry, dances, comedy routines and martial arts. Students in the Taekwondo Club broke wood boards using their hands, feet and arms on stage.

Volunteers were challenged on stage to see how many beans they could place into a cup using chop- sticks; the winner placed 26 beans.

Chinese students from Moor- head High School and Fargo High School also performed at the event.

“I enjoyed seeing all the different shows,” said Sarah Zhang, one of the event emcees.

Students in the tri-college area and the community were all targeted when advertising for the event. Professor Ming wanted to attract a wide variety of people to the event.

“My hope is that this event will help Concordia College promote the Chinese program and make the

Chinese program more visible to people in this town,” Ming said.

The Chinese New Year lasts from Jan. 1 to Jan. 15. High school students and college students get one month off of school to celebrate. The celebration includes festivals, spending time with friends and family and attending parties. It is the most important festival in all of Asia, Ming said.

“It’s kind of like Christmas in America,” he said.

The Centrum was decorated in red because red is seen as the color of good luck and is a celebratory color.

“I would like to claim that the Chinese New Year event here is the best in the town,” Ming said. “We have the biggest of Chinese New Year celebration.”

The trip, an exciting opportunity for old pros as well as a few first-timers, was organized by the Alpine Skiing and Snow- boarding Club. Among those hitting the slopes for the first time was Garrett Lysford, a junior from North Dakota. He went with his friend Jordan Dahl, also a junior, who promised to teach him all the tricks of snowboarding.

“Are you nervous?” the other students asked Lysford as the vans drove under icy skies.

“I don’t know,” he said, smiling. “It’ll be fun.”

When the group arrived at Andes–which boasts 15 downhill runs ranging from beginner to expert–it was nearly empty. It did not take much time for the group to get their gear together, and soon everyone was splitting up to ride the lifts and test the snow.

After the first few runs it became very clear that the weather had no intentions of warming up. Riding up the lifts meant stinging faces and numb noses. By snowboarding and skiing standards, the snow was in poor condition–icy and hard to manage with a board. Even still, as the hill grew busier with families and friends flocking to the only snowboard and ski resort between Duluth and the Twin Cities, there were smiles on the wind-burnt faces. And warming up in the lodge felt that much better after a few good runs in the freezing cold.

Many club members found each other in this lodge around mid-day, thawing out and eating packed sandwiches from home or hot dogs and pizza from the Whispering Pines Grill. Junior Levi Bischof even claimed that the second helping of greasy pizza in his hand was “the best pizza in the world.” As they ate, the students filled each other in on how it felt out on the slopes.

“I’m scared out there,” said Evan Balko, who graduated from Concordia last year but joined the trip to do some skiing. “I just keep thinking, ‘When am I going to fall over on the ice and die?’”

Unashamedly, despite the small scale of the runs, there were more than a few times when someone would fall after hitting an icy patch. But there was success on the hill as well; Dahl was proud of first-timer Lysford, who said that al- though he fell quite a lot, he only fell once on his last run.

Also snowboarding for the first-time was Abdallah Shuhadeh, who is an international student from Jordan studying at Concordia. Being out on the slopes for the first time was tricky, he said, and he would not have made it down his first run without the help of his friends.

“It’s not easy,” he said with a laugh. “It’s hard to learn, but it’s fun when you learn it. Then it’s hard to stop. But you gotta learn it, it’s something new. You only live once!”

With the temperatures reading 2° (with a -13° windchill), the students hit the runs once again. This time they were met with an addition to the weather: snow. It continued to snow harder and harder, until the president of the club, Corbin Rapp, announced that the group would be leaving soon.

On one of the final runs, an intermediate track called “Paradise,” Lysford boarded smoothly down toward the lift and arrived without a fall, grinning with all the satisfaction of a good run and throwing the cheering group a thumbs up.

The snow was still coming down hard in the late afternoon and the temperature had risen to 3°. The group gradually reconvened back in the lodge, surrounded by the steam from cups of hot chocolate and coffee, listening to two Andes workers listing off trivia questions for all those toasting up indoors. Although nature seemed to be giving the group it’s worst, everyone returned from the slopes red-faced and smiling. Rental equipment was returned and 20 Cobbers piled into the vans to head back to Moorhead–cold, sore, and satisfied.

“This was a good warm-up for the Montana trip we’re taking over spring break,” said Vice President Paul Kulich. “Plus, we got people snowboarding for the first time, so that’s awesome.”

As for first-timer Lysford, he got in the van and said with a laugh, “I think my coccyx is broken.” He took a hard fall on his tailbone, which Jordan happened to catch on video. But when asked if he would want to go snowboarding again, he replied:

“After I heal, yeah.”

Submitted photo. Grant Strom and Meghan Olson act out a scene from the play “Boeing Boeing.” Showtimes are in Comstock Theatre Feb. 14-16 at 8:00 p.m. and Feb. 17 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are free for students, faculty and staff.

Alone on Valentine’s Day this year? Don’t worry about it. Grab some friends and head down to the Francis Frazier Comstock main stage production of “Boeing Boeing” to hear about Bernard’s romantic problems and you might feel better about your situation afterwards.

This play, originally written in French by Marc Camoletti, follows the hectic love life of Bernard, a journalist living in Paris, who is engaged to three stewardesses–Gloria, Gabriella, and Gretchen. Initially, Bernard finds himself able to juggle his relationships thanks to the differences in the stewardesses’ flight schedules. However, with Boeing’s invention of a faster plane, Bernard’s plot begins to get a bit more complicated, culminating in the intersection of his multiple private lives.

The cast is comprised of six freshmen and sophomores, led by Riley Peterson as Bernard.  Peterson is joined by Hannah Admundson as Berthe, Bernard’s housemaid, and Grant Strom as Robert, Bernard’s high school friend. Admundson and Strom’s characters try to help Bernard keep his secret from Meghan Olson, Margaret Wollenzein and Cristy Dougherty, who portray the three stewardesses.

“This is a dream cast for me,” director Christian Boy said.

This is Boy’s debut production at Concordia. He began teaching in the theater department at Concordia this year after 11 years of designing set, directing and teaching at a college in Atlanta.

Boy said that he rarely has cast members missing from rehearsals and is therefore able to work with each actor and actress individually.  The actors feel the advantages of being in a small cast and they work together to make the production the best it can be.

“You get on stage and you want to do your best because your cast is so good,” said Olson, who is portraying Gloria.

According to Boy, Concordia is lucky to be able to do this production.  For the past couple of years, “Boeing Boeing” has been touring the U.S. under the direction of Matthew Warchus, finishing with numerous Tony awards and nominations. “Boeing Boeing” has, therefore, just been made available to small production companies and colleges this year.

Showtimes are in Comstock Theatre Feb. 14-16 at 8:00 p.m. and Feb. 17 at 2:00 p.m.  The box office opens February 11. Tickets are free for students.

This flu season got off to its earliest start since 2003. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), it began in October. Officials saw numbers that were significantly higher in late November and in early December than what is typical for peaks during a normal flu season.

Kathy Benson, health service ddministrator of the Kjos Health Center on campus, said that not many students took advantage of the flu shots available on campus this year.

“I feel like the people here at Concordia have a personal and community responsibility to one another,” Benson said. “We are a community and we need to look out after each other so we don’t get sick.”

Benson said that students were able to receive shots on campus as early as October. She said that the Health Center administered between 450 to 470 flu shots but have since ran out.

“We had a big blitz to vaccinate students and faculty on campus in October,” Benson said. “We worked with the nursing students; and we ran out and had to order more, but since then, we do not have any more.”

According to Benson, the flu season on campus has been significant so far.

Junior Meg Pittelko knows this all too well and said she was crippled by the flu earlier this month.

“It hit me like a train,” Pittelko said. “It started with a sore throat, and the next day, I could barely move. I couldn’t sleep, and I could barely eat.”

She said her flu—including a fever over 100 degrees—lasted for at least seven days, and she can still feel the lingering effects. Benson believes that what happened to Pittelko could have been prevented if she had received a flu shot.

Benson said that some students do not get the shot because they either don’t believe the flu shot will last long enough, or the actual shot will give them the flu. She said that is an absolute myth.

According to the CDC, 135 million doses of the flu vaccine were produced this year. The flu vaccine is about 62 percent effective at catching all the strains of flu that people come across.

A nurse practitioner for the Health Center, Cheryl Ross, said that certain students are more susceptible to the flu than others. Specifically, people with asthma or those with compromised immune systems have a higher chance of getting the flu. Students who get little sleep or eat poorly are also at a higher risk.

“Students need to have a good diet and sleep at least 7 to 9 hours a night,” Ross said. “Because we are at a close proximity with one another, students need to do their best to stay healthy.”

Areas that contain a large amount of flu germs are computer keys, door handles and toilet handles.

Concordia orchestra director and music professor, Foster Beyers, said that he had the flu over winter break and that it took over two weeks for all of the symptoms to go away.

“I had the typical flu: fever, chills and a bad cough,” Beyers said. “I didn’t get out of bed for five days. I was dead to the world.”

Both Beyers and his wife had the flu at the same time, and both went to the doctor to get medication to try and alleviate their symptoms. He said that, if the flu hadn’t hit him over break, he wouldn’t have been able to come to work.

“If I had the flu during the semester, there would be no way I could teach,” Beyers said. “I haven’t been that sick for that long before. It was miserable.”

Like many others that contracted the flu this year, Beyers did not get a flu shot.

He said that he recommends sick students to stay home and away from classes. He takes students at their word, but if he starts to see a discernable pattern of students calling in sick, he will start to get concerned.

Once someone gets the flu there is not much they can do but rest and stay hydrated. Doctors can help by giving medications for the symptoms, but the flu is a virus and will not just go away.

Benson said that, if a student does get the flu, they are urged not to go to class or to extracurricular activities.

Ross added that students should still get the flu shot even during the middle of the season. Students who are traveling overseas are also strongly encouraged to get the flu shot.

“It is never too late to get the flu shot,” Ross said. “You can talk and talk about getting one, but you only are protected once you get one.”

Pittelko has advice for students who happen to get to flu this year:

“Just crawl into your bed,” she said, “and stay there.”

The on campus Career Center offers several 60-minute sessions and one-on-one appointments throughout the year to help students prepare to apply for an internship or co-op. Faculty in the Career Center help students decide where they would like to work and provide resources such as the Career Link website.

According to Jessica Osebold, the cooperative education assistant director, students must find something they are interested in to help their future career and gain valuable experience.

“Not all companies are going to post jobs,” Osebold said. “Sometimes they’ll have internships available but they don’t do a good job of advertising it.”

Students are advised to go out into the community and talk with employers face-to-face. Talking with employers is an important part of the process but, according to Osebold, career and internship fairs are good opportunities to meet future employers.

The most common mistake students make is being unprepared. Ways students can prepare, Osebold said, is to have their resumes and cover letters looked over.  She also said that students should match the language used in the job description to their resumes and cover letters, practice their interviewing skills and apply to more than one job or internship.

“Employers, especially if they’re posting jobs and there are quite a few people applying, they’re going to spend about 30 seconds looking over your resume,” Osebold said. “If it’s not perfect and doesn’t look appealing to the eye, they are going to put you in the no-go pile because that’s just the nature of it.”

Abby Vig, a current marketing and communications volunteer intern at the Jeremiah Program, manages social media and creates a plan for how volunteers are trained.

“Apply for a wide variety of things,” she said. “Internships are a great way to learn more about what you do, and don’t want to do in the future.”

The skills an internship or co-op help develop are ones that students will need for a full-time career.

“Internships are a great way to get that experience,” Osebold said, “to learn what you love and what you don’t love.”