Blumenthal, administration lead first Student Senate meeting

By Anthony Sperando

COM 360

36-Hour Assignment

Student Body President Jason Blumenthal ran his first meeting on Monday

            The last Bradley University Student Senate meeting of the 2013-2014 school year on Monday, ended with celebration.

            A root beer keg was provided by the senate to all student body officers, senators and the public, along with ice cream to allow for root beer floats.

            The party did not continue for long, as there was business to be done. The student body officers were conducting their first meeting since their election on April 7 and 8. These officers included President Jason Blumenthal, Speaker of the Assembly Sarah Handler, Secretary of the Assembly Olga Krapivner and Secretary of Finance Hunter Vaughn.

            “It was the first time that I’ve been able to be in front of everyone and setting the agenda. I’ve always been someone that was handed the agenda. That’s a large change for me,” said Blumenthal.

           

 2014 Student Body Officers being sworn-in during the April 21 meeting

            Vice-President of Campus Affairs Emily Corona announced this would be her last meeting after serving 3 ½ years on senate.

            “No idea is too big to try to go after,” said Corona when giving advice to her fellow senators. 

            The university will be purchasing bike racks to be placed in front of Markin and Morgan Hall, according to Vice-President of Campus Safety Cody Lonigro. Vice-President Matthew Kern said the speed limit on University East was changed from 25 mph to 20 mph.

            The major discussion of the evening was about the engineering fees being raised from $5 to $50 per class. This is a 100 percent increase. Senator Mitch Ruopp said he received almost 30 complaints about the raise.

            “The equipment is very expensive, so that’s why it was raised,” said Handler.

            Vice-President of Technology Services Mitch Pericak said he was sent an email with the subject “Free Ice Cream” and then was informed about the fee increase. Vice-President of Diversity Affairs Jay Mehta recommended a forum should be created so that engineers can express their concerns to the department.

            The meeting concluded with many of the vice-presidents sarcastically welcoming all of the senators to come back next year. This provided the opportunity for all to look forward to next year.

            Blumenthal said he is extremely excited about what can occur from this new administration and he looks forward to working with Director of Student Activities and Student Senate Advisor Tom Coy, as well as the president of the university, Joanne Glasser.

            “[Glasser] is very excited with the goals I have created. She is willing to help in any way possible to achieve them,” said Blumenthal.

One of the goals Blumenthal’s administration has created is to keep promoting the Brave Life app, which was created earlier in the school year, by Pericek, for fellow students. The app currently has 1,230 downloads and is in the process of being promoted by the university through the marketing department.

“I’m ready for a brave, new future,” said Blumenthal.

           

        

ICC Student discerns the priesthood

By Anthony Sperando

COM 360

Profile Story Assignment

      

        Alex Miller, shown in front of a statue of Mary, is currently discerning the priesthood.

            Becoming a priest in today’s society is not an easy task. There are many different factors that could stop you from following the path you may feel God is calling you to. Alex Miller, a 20-year-old Illinois Central College student from Mendota, Ill., is attempting to go against the grain.

            After attending TEC, Teens Encounter Christ, a youth retreat in high school, Miller began to ask God what he wanted him to do now.

            “He lead me to the Church, so I became Catholic,” Miller said, who was raised as a Lutheran. This wasn’t the end of the road for Miller, though. He began to believe following a vocation into the priesthood, was the answer.

            “It feels like the natural next-step. I still don’t feel like I’m doing his will yet,” Miller said.

            When he came to his decision after much thought and prayer, Miller contacted his pastor, who then called Monsignor Brian Brownsey, the vocation director of the Diocese of Peoria. Miller was told he may receive a call from Brownsey in a week or so, but the call arrived the next day. Brownsey instructed Miller to come down to Peoria and have lunch with him.



 They decided Miller should wait an extra year, before joining the seminary, since he had just become Catholic not too long ago.

            “The whole point was for him to grow, mostly academically,” Brownsey said. “He’s been going to class and getting his work done.”

            Miller, now living in Peoria, is working on staff at the St. Joseph Newman Center on Bradley University’s campus and also at Mt. Hawley Country Club as a waiter, all while attending classes at ICC.

            Despite the consequences of this life choice, Miller said the decision has only made sense.

            “I’m more excited about my future than I was two years ago. I had no idea what I wanted to do. The idea of the priesthood was in the back of my mind the whole time, but I finally decided not to smother it with a pillow,” Miller said.
             Miller has had an effect on the students he has interacted with at Bradley, as well.
             "I think its really bold of him. For him to explore his faith that deeply and to willingly jump into what God has called him into. It has set a good example for others," Nick Maggiore, a Catholic sophomore Bradley student, said. 

            According to Miller, many other seminarians have found the choice to be very liberating. Miller says he barely gets stressed anymore.

            The path from here will be to attend the seminary once Miller gets accepted, which he will find out in August. Once he hears back from the Bishop, who makes the decision, he will travel to Winona, Minn. to attend the seminary located there for three years. After those years in Minnesota, he will then attend the seminary in Emmitsburg, Md. for four additional years.

            A seminary can be easily compared to a normal college university. The students attend typical classes and earn a degree. This is important because they will need to be able to speak to educated people when they become priests one day. The seminarians need to expand their intellectual capacity. Pastoral formation is provided through learning how to be a leader, how to reach out to people and how to make people feel at home.

            “These couple of men are in charge of 1,000 people at one time,” Miller said, when talking about a typical priest’s responsibility at their home parishes.

            Along with the academic and pastoral formations, there is a spiritual formation provided.

            “You need to pray and need to have a prayer life. If you’re not praying, eventually you’ll be a horrible priest,” Miller said. Lastly, there is a human formation. This includes having control over emotions and physical nature, such as maintaining diet and also having physical and emotional chastity.

            After this seven-year process, the seminarians are then invited into the priesthood and are assigned to parishes, dioceses or elsewhere in the world. There is also the possibility during the process that the seminarian decides this path is not right for him.

            “As long as I am doing God’s will, I will be at peace. I will be engaged in the parish wherever I go,” Miller said. “If I end up being called to the married life, I will do my best to raise my family and the best dad I can be. I never knew my dad, so that makes me want to be the best dad I can be. I want to be the best father figure for whoever I’m with.”

Bradley students receive Peruvian experience

By Anthony Sperando
COM 360
Feature Story Assignment

         

 FOCUS students take a group picture at the house they rebuilt in the shantytown. (Courtesy: Kristen Sharkey)

         
            Mudslides and earthquake damage are not a common occurrence that a Bradley student has to deal with. This was a different case for five students who traveled to Peru for their spring break, between March 15-22, in part of a FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, mission trip.

One of the five included sophomore public relations major Kristen Sharkey, who described the trip as “rewarding” and “incredible”. Her and the other students’ assignment of the week was to help a woman rebuild her home that was destroyed by a mudslide, in a shantytown about 30 minutes outside of Lima.

“I have a better understanding of the world. It renewed my desire to serve and experienced how I can affect someone’s life in just one week,” Sharkey said.

The underlying reason of why FOCUS sends missionaries to third-world countries is to help the poor in various ways, but also to spread the Gospel of the Catholic faith.

“(FOCUS sent us to) spread the love of Christ to everyone we met. They sent us to see Christ in the people were helping also,” Zach Taylor, an ICC freshman, said.

            The trip was beneficial not only to the people the students met, but also to their own faith lives.

            “I have a renewed confidence in my faith. On a college campus, it can be difficult sometimes," Sharkey said.

            Taylor agreed by saying he didn’t realize that he didn’t put God first in his life.

            “To be put in a situation where you don’t understand what people are saying 90 percent of the time, was very cool,” Taylor said.

            The task was very different from other Christian mission trips, being as 95 percentof Peru is already Catholic, according to Sharkey. The responsibility of the students was to show the people the sacraments of the Church.

            “I think they have the core beliefs of the faith, but they don’t have churches there. They understand the morals of the faith, but receiving sacraments, such as the Eucharist or the Holy Spirit at Confirmation, was all new to them,” Sharkey said.

Poverty hits everywhere in the world and Peru is certainly not exempt from this epidemic. The Bradley students first had to help build a retaining wall to keep the sand from falling onto the house again and destroying it once more.

“(Mud slides) are typically are a problem in Peru. Most of the poor live in the desert on top of sand dunes. Many leave their houses unfinished because they don’t have to pay taxes on them. This leads to the sand falling on and destroying these poorly built houses,” Maddie Conley, freshman psychology major, said.

The owner of the house, Senora Rosa, had three daughters: ages 11, 16 and 30. The 30 year-old-daughter had mental and physical handicaps, to top it off.

“(Rosa) was 4’9” and had a really soft voice. She was very kind and loving as you can get,” Taylor said.

The father of the daughters no longer wanted to be married to the woman and was nowhere to be seen.

“To my knowledge, she had no source of income. She would have nowhere to go (if she were to leave her current location),” Sharkey said.

The trip was not all work though, as the students on the trip were allowed to tour Lima for the first two days. Their stops included going to museums and visiting places where saints lived.

“We went to this awesome park (at Moraflores) where there was water coming out of the ground and an obstacle course,” Sharkey said.

A typical day for the students included: getting up at 7 a.m., Morning Prayer at 7:30 a.m., breakfast at 8 a.m., 30 minutes of travel to the location of the house and work for four hours. After a day of hard work, they students would travel back to the retreat house, shower, pray a Holy Hour, celebrate Mass, eat dinner and receive a spiritual talk. The talks included topics such as evangelization, looking at passages of the Gospel and answering the Lord’s call.

“We worked with contracted laymen, and they gave a lot of talks on humility, poverty and how to love our brothers and sisters in Christ,” Taylor said.

After the talk, the students were able to spend the rest of their night to themselves, which included “mostly chatting” according to Sharkey.

After a week of hard work, the students finally arrived back in Peoria on the Sunday before classes started. The experiences left the students hungry for more.

“I would definitely do it again. I would raise triple the money if I could do it again,” Taylor said.