Daily Deacon

NCAA Has Recent Growth in International Student Athletes//Karlee Spirit

When someone glances over any NCAA sports roster they can see hometowns of various different states, cities, towns, and most notably, countries. Germany. Australia. New Zealand. Spain. Ireland. England. Italy. France. Canada. Athletes come to the United States from all over the world to compete in NCAA Division I, II, and III sports.

The recent influx and growth in international student athletes has brought a new identity and created a new dynamic to college sports. The mixture of new ethnics, cultures, and languages have brought a large awareness to different lifestyles.

Wake Forest University athletics have a fair share of international student athletes. Some are attracted to Wake because of their sport, some are attracted to the education, and some simply are attracted to the opportunity it brings them.

Valerie Dahmen, a graduating senior on the field hockey team from Duisburg, Germany always wanted to live in the United States after high school graduation, but never wanted to give up playing field hockey.

“Receiving a college education while living and competing in the country of my dreams appeared too good to be true,” Dahmen said. “Wake was the perfect combination of challenging academics and competitive athletics.

Most recently, there has been a popular trend in recruiting international student-athletes within the National Collegiate Athletic Association to specific sports.

According to the University of Oregon blog written by Kadie Hueffner, there are currently 444,077 student athletes competing in the NCAA. While recent statistics from the NCAA indicate that of that 444,077 about 16,000 of those student athletes are foreign born.

To read more of Kadie Hueffner’s blog post, click here.

Ryan Bauder, a Wake Forest football alumni who now helps coach the Wake Forest women’s basketball team says every team they have played this past season had a least one international.

“It (recruiting international student athletes) is growing a ton in women’s basketball,” says Bauder. “We currently have two internationals, from Italy and France, and one incoming freshman from Australia.”

Eleven out of fifteen schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference for women’s basketball have at least one international student athlete on their roster.

Sophomore men’s golf player and Dublin, Ireland native Paul McBride is a fan of the growth of international athletes.

“I think it’s great to have different nationalities on different teams, as it makes the team more diverse and we learn more about one another and each other’s cultures,” McBride says.

Moving to a new country for four years means a large chunk of transitioning, evolving, and adjusting. Many foreigners must acclimate to the schooling, the athletics, and the American culture as a whole.

Academic advisor and counselor Brooke Taylor believes the most important thing with internationals is making sure they transition well.

“A lot of times with international students they don’t come on an official visit, so when they come to Wake in the fall it’s their first time on campus and at the school,” says Taylor. “With that, a smooth transition is crucial in order for them to be successful in college.”

McBride believes the hardest transition to the American culture was the “small stuff”.

“I think the toughest thing was things like the food and just acclimatizing myself to all other types of American culture,” McBride says.

Story #4 Reflection//Karlee Spirit

For this story, I used KnightLab to create a historical timeline of the Wake Forest Men’s Golf team. As a member of Wake Forest athletics and a huge fan of the men’s golf team, I aimed to not include any bias facts, thoughts or opinions throughout my timeline and stated strictly historical and current events. Upon doing research of the history of Wake Forest men’s golf, I chose a number of events I believed were the most significant to the program and to the growth of its prestigious reputation. I was even able to gather a few different perspectives and views towards some of the events and important victories (quote from Woody Woodward and athletic director Ron Whellman). Because I was not able to base this digital story off of anything I did before, I was unaware of the standards and expectations. Thankfully, Anna edited my story and was able to assist me in minimizing the length of my text and focus on the main point followed by the supporting facts. In all, I really liked preparing and putting together this digital story. It took me a lot longer than I had expected, but I sincerely enjoyed getting to know more about the significance and historical events of our golf program. It was interesting to learn about their past accomplishments and become knowledgeable on the current status of the team.

Digital Story: <iframe src=’https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1OCOuI5QGX0VqpywELdpP9Q1sptwBkYq3jeNUL0udpKk&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650′ width=’100%’ height=’650′ frameborder=’0′></iframe>

Wake Forest Men’s Golf Timeline//Karlee Spirit

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1OCOuI5QGX0VqpywELdpP9Q1sptwBkYq3jeNUL0udpKk&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650

Lede//Karlee Spirit

The Gallup-Healthways survey recently ranked Winston-Salem, North Carolina as the number one area to have the highest rate of food hardship in households with children.

B-Matter//Karlee Spirit

As the 2016 Presidential election continues, the front-runners, controversies, and voters opinions are quickly beginning to emerge and surface.

Previous primaries and caucuses have resulted in the clear distinction of Hillary Clinton leading the Democratic Party and Donald Trump in the lead for the Republican Party.

Even though the Republican Party is headed by Trump, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are still on the rise and trying to break the consistency of Trump’s victories. While despite Clinton’s strength with minority populations, Bernie Sanders is taking the votes of the youth population.

The South Carolina primaries held last week brought numerical statistics to support claims of leading candidates, following numerous polls and increasing amounts of voter turnouts.

Clinton collected 73 percent of the votes and left Sanders with 26 percent out of a near 367,000 ballots casts, according to the New York Times. Sanders decided to forgo competing in South Carolina to better his campaigning in the Midwest.

According to the New York Times, Trump received 32.5 percent of the Republican votes in South Carolina. Trump, Cruz, and Rubio all compiled for more than 750,000 votes.

In terms of voter turnout, the Republican Party had an increasingly more amount of casted ballots than the Democratic Party, according to the Post and Courier.

Beginning March 15th, the North Carolina primaries will begin. Registered voters in North Carolina are compiled of 17 percent of the 2.1 million actively registered Democrats. While 11 percent of the state’s 1.7 million are actively registered Republican voters, according to the Carolina Demography.

As of 2013, there has been new voter law provisions. Here’s what the law said: voters have to show a photo identification in order for them to cast their vote. Voters have the option of showing a North Carolina issued license, a current passport, a veteran’s ID card, a US military ID card, or a tribal ID card.

SC Primary Analysis–Karlee Spirit

This past weekend completed the South Carolina primary that left both Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton with another win under their belts.

In discussing the primary, the first article, “Trump wins SC Primary in a runaway”, was centered on Trump’s victory and his current lead with Rubio and Cruz coming in a close second and third place. The article brings up the fact that is has become a three-person race. While the candidates of that three-person race are described through current status, thoughts, and quotes within this article. The aftermath of the primary exposed some faulty thoughts from trailing candidates and exalting excitement from Trump upon winning. The article provides in depth information including facts about the history of South Carolina primaries, and the status of other trailing candidates including John Kashich, Ben Carson, and Jeb Bush. It provides further evidence of supporters and their momentum going into the next primary. Trump, Cruz, and Rubio all compiled for more than 750,000 voters.

The second article, “Black turnout boosts Clinton in a big way” focused on the other end of the spectrum and the Democratic primary in South Carolina. Emphasized around Hilary Clinton, the Democratic winner had a large number of votes from the party’s African-American base. The article also provides the reader with many numerical statistics including Bernie Sanders projected 14 of the 53 delegates and that over 12 percent of eligible South Carolina voters cast ballots (less than the GOP primary). This article had a great deal of background information on voter demographics and voter insights as opposed to quotes and opinions from the candidates following the primary. Clinton was not quoted but in fact spoken for and spoken about. This article was arranged to put emphasis on perspectives and viewpoints of the voters.

Both articles, however, covered standpoints on the respective Republican and Democratic South Carolina primaries that were “user friendly” and “voter friendly” for gaining information, facts, numerical statistics, and insights. The biggest difference between the two articles I believe, was the cover of each individual primary. The Republican primary article, concentrated on candidates reactions and feelings, and the Democratic primary article motivated by the voter demographics and voters visions.

Sage the Gemini and the Chainsmokers coming to WFU//Karlee Spirit

Come April 8^th, the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum will no longer resonate with the pounding of a basketball, screeching of sneakers and the cheering of fans. Instead, it will be filled with students, alumni, and interested administrators and faculty listening to the hammering of keys and mixing of beats.

Wake Forest University Headliner’s Committee of Student Union has introduced their 2016 Spring Concert with performances by Sage the Gemini and the highly anticipated American DJ duo the Chainsmokers.

Kate Hubbs, the Headliners Chair for Student Union, is the leader of the Headliners Committee and manages the Headliners budget in order to book one or more concerts for the academic year.

“I have to be aware of upcoming artists that have the potential to put on a good show, as well as be aware of what the student body wants as a concert,” Hubbs said. “I use the information I get from my spring concert survey in order to bring an act that will be most popular with the student body.”

The Student Union works closely with Babco Entertainment, a booking agency stationed in Virginia, when looking for music acts to bring to campus.

Babco Entertainment agents provide the Headliners Chair with a list of all the artists that are available for booking in the spring along with their typical price range for a performance.

Using this information, Hubbs and her committee go through the list of potential artists and narrow it down to about 30 artists within the Student Union’s budget. These 30 artists are the ones that get put on the survey that is sent out to the student body in order to see who the Wake Forest community is most interested in.

The Chainsmokers’ awaited performance has already sold about 1,000 tickets within the first two weeks of ticket sales, and has yet to be opened up to other schools or the general public.

Sarah King, the Vice President of Communications on the Executive Board for Student Union, manages social media platforms, weekly newsletters and creates graphics. She ensures that all of the Student Union events, especially the spring concert, are effectively marketed to the students. She has the important role of making sure everything is organized, planned and advertised to the community.

“When planning an event, I must consider venue, ticket prices, security, hospitality needs, marketing plans, etc., while all of this must be approved by the artist’s agency,” King says. “Once everything is approved, I can start to tell people and promote, promote, promote!”

WFU Student Union tweets a reminder to the Wake Forest community

McKenzie Ziegler, a senior and member of Student Government, says she can’t wait to attend the concert.

“I enjoy electronic music and the Chainsmokers have a good number of well-known songs,” Ziegler states. “I would like to attend simply because I’m a senior and it could be my last hurrah.”

Doors for the spring concert open at 7:00pm and the performances begin at 8:00pm. While all seating is general admission, tickets are priced at $20 for students, $25 for faculty, staff, alumni, other university students, and $35 to the general public.

To purchase tickets to see Sage the Gemini and the Chainsmokers, click here.

Digital Media Element//Karlee Spirit

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/02/23/like-talking-to-a-30-year-old-murderer-teen-charged-with-killing-his-little-sister/?tid=pm_pop_b

This article includes a video of the Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen discussing the incident of a 10-year-old girl that was fatally shot by her teen brother in Fountain, Florida. The article also includes hyperlinks that lead to photos of the victim as well as alternative articles with different opinions, information, photos and details. The article entitled “‘Like talking to a 30-year-old murderer’: Teen charged with killing his little sister”, also pictures a tweet tweeted by a reporter of the victims hometown and a school picture of the deceased.

WFU Beat//Karlee Spirit

Primary Sources:

President Nathan O’Hatch

Dean of Admissions Martha Blevins Allman

Athletic Director Dwight Lewis

Campus Ministry Reverend Joe Haynes

Registered Dietitian/ Nutritionist in Dining Services Kate Ruley

Information Sources:

WFU Admissions Page: http://admissions.wfu.edu/

WFU Athletics Homepage: http://www.wakeforestsports.com/

Old Gold & Black

WFU Christian Campus Ministry Page: http://chaplain.wfu.edu/home/christian-campus-ministry/

WFU Dining Services Homepage: http://wakeforest.campusdish.com/

Story Ideas:

1. Evaluate the religious involvement on campus… Interview and take notes on what clubs, services, and ministries students attend and are apart of.

2. Get students thoughts/opinions on WFU’s dining services and the food selection in dining areas.

3. Find out the students real thoughts about athletics at Wake Forest. Who’s the students favorite team? What sport is the most enjoyable to watch? Who advertises the best? Who is the least interesting team?

Reflection Paragraph//Karlee Spirit

I approached writing my first story with a grain of salt. Aiming to not include any bias thoughts or opinion, I wrote strictly on informational ideas and factual news. I picked my three sources based upon different perspectives and different views towards the event of Career Night and the way in which it benefited or impacted each source. For this story, I did not base my writing off of an already written piece but find that doing so might be helpful for my next story. In all, however, I sincerely enjoyed writing this piece. Career Night is one of my favorite events every year and I personally think it benefits every student-athletes with their future after Wake. It was interesting to interview athletes who attended and even outside forces who work with athletes and find many trends among them, specifically female student-athletes.

Katie Dickens edited my paper and helped me in soooooooo many ways. She contributed to helping me fix my structural problems as well as steering me in the right direction of the correct APA citations and using my quotes and sources properly. She also helped my fix small things within my paper like rewording and grammatical mistakes.