Elizabeth Nielson

The Greek letters Delta Gamma influenced Delta Gamma members to do good every day. Doing good in the community, doing good in school, and just being good. In the Delta Gamma Sorority, the rituals and lifestyle is sacred to the individual’s that participate in Delta Gamma’s sisterhood.

“People told me to try and rush so I definitely did and I loved it right then, it was fun and I loved having people be so nice to me,” Hagen said.
After going through rush Haugen decided to be apart of the Delta Gamma sisterhood.

“I choose Delta Gamma because it felt like the right decision, and I felt good intentions with all the active members of Delta Gamma, and I can’t wait to find a special bond with these amazing individuals,” Hagen said.
As for Delta Gamma, it was founded in 1873, in Oxford, Mississippi. The sorority’s traditions and rituals haven’t changed. Every Monday, Delta Gamma meetings are held in the Chapter room in its their house at 5 p.m., right after dinner. Members receive fliers of information about upcoming events and read sections of their ritual book together to remember the sacred sisterhood of Delta Gamma. Reading through the Ritual Delta Gamma handbook every week helps the community to remember the important information that Delta Gamma was established on, on December 25, 1873. This literature is shared only with Delta Gamma members, with the intent of creating a closed sisterhood bond.

“The special bond that we get to share with each other is lifetime and a memorable experience that you get to be apart of,” Kelsey Routh, a Delta Gamma an alumnus explained.

The Delta Gamma’s philanthropy is service for sight; Friends for Sight is the business that members work with. Monica Daly works for Friends for Sight. She emails the Delta Gamma members sign-up sheets weekly for them to help her do eye screenings across Utah, mainly for glaucoma.

“It makes me frustrated and despondent when people that aren’t apart of greek life think we only party, but we do much more than that,” Tera Mahoney said.

“Someone would rather read about the rape charges and the underage sorority girl that had to go to the hospital for drinking too much than the stories of the group of sorority girls that raise money annually for their local or national philanthropy,” Routh said. This certain reputation is brought upon Delta Gamma members because of stereotypes. The stereotype of a sorority girl on Hubpages is: a beautiful girl that is uneducated whom has no morals, and is an alcoholic, daddy’s girl, super self-centered, dramatic, and classless.

“ I have gained confidence throughout my years, and also I have a support system through out the rest of my life, Routh said. Through these negative reputations and stereotypes sororities never have the opportunity to pronounce the good in what they do, Routh said.”

“So I haven’t been initiated yet, I will get initiated in a couple of weeks and I’m so excited, but it wasn’t what I expected at all. I was expecting people partying, girls not being to nice, but it was opposite, I seriously love all the girls and it’s awesome,” Hagen said.

Statistics have shown at Association of America Universities public research, that fraternity and sorority members manage to be more involved, allowing the involvement to be positively related to student learning and intellectual development.

“As a result, it would be reasonable to expect higher, not lower levels of learning and development for greek members,” Gary R Pike, said in his study.

“ I don’t want to be referred as a sorority girl, that’s why I never paid for friends while I am in college, but, I, mean let people do what they want to do,” said University of Utah Hilary Soter, who has never joined a sorority.
Delta Gamma has impacted several lives. Through sisters, Greek members, and students at the University of Utah, several have interacted with each other, not even realizing if they are apart of greek life. Should people express to their peers that they are apart of this community or should it be kept a secret? Being in a sorority over all has given me the chance to be me and meet people whether they are in DG or in the community and I wouldn’t change my experience for the world, “Routh said. “I’m a proud Delta Gamma.”

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My Stories:

Blog:

As I gathered information to create my enterprise story, I tried to create a scenario to where the reader can feel as if they were student athletes going through a daily schedule.  I first developed my story idea because of my own personal experience in playing collegiate football and the trials that weighed heavily for the majority of student athletes throughout the country. It surprised me to think that the students that I did interview in fact actually agreed that student athletes had a more challenging schedule instead of debating the issue.  I was able to locate my sources through local football players of the University of Utah.  The starting right defensive end, Jason Fanaika, happens to be my first cousin, so I had no trouble reaching out to him and a few other close friends of mine who are on the team.   As for normal students, I asked a few people that I knew in a few of my classes and their responses were more than what I expected.   In reality, I expected negative responses and input on how unfair regular students are treated compared to student athletes, but in fact I received positive feedback and support from local students.  It was pretty cool to see how supportive the University of Utah students were towards their fellow student athlete classmates.  In the end, this was a fun experience being able interview students and get feedback about how Utah students felt and so far everything was nothing but positive.

Bio:

Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Attended East High School from freshman through Jr years of high school but graduated from Pleasant Grove High School.  Played football at Southern Virginia University for one year straight out of high school followed by serving a two-year, full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in San Diego, California from 2011-2013.  Returned home and attended Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kansas and continued to play football there for two more years.  Recently moved back home to Salt Lake City in June of 2015.  Currently attending the University of Utah working toward a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree majoring in Strategic Communications.

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MY STORIES :

BLOG: Never Stop Learning

Before taking Comm 1610, I never thought about the differences within writing.  I had always assumed that the writing I would do would either be essays or personal writing like email or letter writing. I never thought about news writing or a way to tell a story or event.  I have never really enjoyed writing, and for me it was hard to find the voices in my head to write in a different way.

Part of what has helped me to finally do some news writing  is actually reading newspaper articles.  As an intern at Beans & Brews, I was able to get The Salt Lake Tribune daily for free.  I would read just a few articles about three times a week during my lunch break.  It seems like something that is silly, but it go the story telling voices moving.  I know I still have a long way to go regardless of my career choice, but reading articles helped me to write news stories.

I wanted to do my best at writing about things that I cared about.  That being said, it was very hard for me to stay neutral, I show my colors pretty frequently and easily.  Part of being a good journalist is caring about the stories you’re covering but also being able to see and report on both sides of the story.  One of the main things I have learned so far in this class is there is always more than one side or one way to tell a story.  Events can be different in the eyes of the beholder.  That, to me, is one of the main reasons that journalists are so important in society today.

Writing is still not my strong suit and probably never will be. But through this class, I have learned and improved my overall writing skills. At least I hope that is the truth, I know I am paying more attention to my writing. In my stories, I have tried my best to really listen and try to get to know those that I interview. It was important for me to get as much information as possible from the teachers, students and professionals that I have interviewed writing my stories. I cannot write an accurate or relate to the audience if I am not paying attention or giving my all to those I ask open ended questions of.

Making sure that the research you did was appropriate and important to the story I am trying to write helps me to do a better job. The contacts that I reach out to is beneficial for me to be able to write about subjects that are important to me but in areas that I may lack knowledge of. I still continue to struggle with being biased, but with some hard work and practice, I really think I can improve on this area more than about any other area.

BIO:

My name is Matthew Sullivan a 24 year-old college senior who is lucky enough to have recently married my best friend.

I was born in Seattle on Dec. 10, 1990 and am a huge Seattle sports fan.  A lot of my life has revolved around soccer: I have played, coached and been a referee.  I played at the University of Utah for five years and enjoyed every year that I was able to play.  If you’re not skiing at Snowbird you’re missing out on what Utah has to offer.

I am currently working as an intern at Beans & Brews and am learning so much. There is no way I thought I would be able to enjoy this job as much as I have.  In the past, I worked for a number of years at Diamond Wireless, one of the largest Verizon Wireless retailers.  I learned a ton of lessons there, including how to deal with and interact with people in a way that is not only about making sales but also making personal connections.

I want one day to work on the revenue side of a company, I love making sales and interacting face-to-face with people.  For me sales isn’t about just making money, it is all about creating an experience between myself and another human being.  If I think the sale isn’t right for them, I am not going to push it.  I hope that I can have a reputation for being a great salesman but also being a person that looks out for the well being of others.  I hope to improve in areas that are not my strengths. I am the kind of person that will work hard to improve areas of my life that are not strengths.

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By: Tina Sissoko

Donal Antoine finally fulfilled his childhood dream of being a police officer, and he loves every aspect of it so far. To Antoine, being a police officer was the best decision he has ever made.

Antoine is originally from a little village in Haiti. His family moved to the United States when he was 15 years old. After working multiple customer service jobs, Antoine decided to join the Salt Lake City Police Department.

Before joining the Salt Lake City Police Department, Antoine’s mother, Claudine Baguette, did not agree to him being a part of a group that she says has earned a bad image from the media.

“I kept hearing a lot of talking on TV about these policemen killing innocent people, I don’t want Kozy to be a part of that, I didn’t want him being one of them,” she said, calling Antoine by his nickname.

Antoine also took the police brutality aspect into consideration before making his decision to join the SLCPD. To him, if everyone learned to respect a law officer and simply follow directions without being confrontational, there will not be as much tension between citizens and officers.

“Police officers actually are under a lot of risks throughout the day. We have to be in situations that we don’t know if we are going to come out of alive or dead. People need to understand that we are humans, too, and that we are trained to do a job and protect our communities,” Antoine said.

Antoine mentioned an article by Holly Campeau from the department of Sociology at the University of Toronto that stated, “Robert Reiner (1985) famously summarized the ‘core characteristics’ of police culture. These include descriptors such as conservative, mission-oriented, isolated, masculine, pessimistic and suspicious—and ideal type that has withstood the test of time. Within police studies more broadly, the ‘police culture’ concept is duly invoked to describe both an overarching occupational ethos (e.g. cop code of silence, ‘us versus them’ mentality and the thin blue line) and individual officer typologies (e.g. enforcers, optimists and dirty-harrys).”

When it comes to arresting someone or simply giving a person a ticket, Antoine said there is a lot more that goes into to making the decision as a police officer.

“Before being a police officer, I thought if you didn’t comply or if the officer wanted to prove a point, they can just take you in. Now I see the difference,” he said.

An example Antoine gave was the following: Let’s say someone was stopped for a traffic violation. The officer then takes the driver’s information such as a driver license. The officer then runs the person’s plate to see if the information matches. Antoine says it is somewhat of a “mini” background check.

If the officer sees that you have several traffic tickets, he or she can decide to give you another ticket or give you a simple warning. If the person has a warrant out for any reason, the officer can take the person into the station for processing. A person can also be detained if they are intoxicated, under the influence of any type of drug or if they are out-of-control in public.

Antoine does not plan to leave the Salt Lake City Police Department anytime soon. He would like to eventually move up from his police officer tittle. His ultimate goal is to be a crime investigator.

“I work with an amazing group of people. They are all resourceful, and we look out for one another; this is like a second family to me,” Antoine said. “We are here to protect the community.”
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MY STORIES:

The fine art of fitness

Police officer: It’s time to talk about the good

Josie VanBaest: student-athlete and so much more

Multimedia jornalism

MY BLOG:

The way I like to collect my stories is from the people I meet. I find myself people-watching and wondering what another person’s life is like. I can get myself more involved in a story if I have some sort of personal connection to it.

I got into aerial fitness when a coworker was talking to my friend and me about it. At first, I was skeptical. I thought the same thing that most people think, the only person that would use this skill is a stripper. It took me a long time to try it for myself, but when I did, I realized that it is, in its simplest form, a fun fitness routine.

This is why I chose it as a topic for one of my stories. Finding sources was easy – the best people to source for this story were the girls I go to the studio with. Every single person I have talked to has received some sort of judgment from a family member about this type of fitness. Heck, I even get it myself.

My focus for this story was to write about the positive, to explain why they dress the way they do, and why it’s OK. All of the information I gathered is based on how people feel about the topic. How strongly they feel, how accomplished they feel, and how their family members feel about this hobby. You can find facts almost anywhere on the Internet, but I want to know how people feel about a topic.

The most interesting and easiest way to write about something is if you have an interest in it. And for me, my interest is in people and their daily lives. I want to know why someone loves their workout routine. I want to know why this student drives instead of taking public transportation. I want to know what motivates people to do the things they do every day. That is my type of journalism.

ABOUT ME:

My name is Hailey Fernelius, and I am currently a student at the
University of Utah. I am the typical student who goes to school, works to support myself, and has a hobby. In my spare time, I participate in aerial fitness. This includes silks, hammock hoop and pole dancing. I love it because I can now say that I have some sort of beautiful skill that also keeps my body in shape. Being a student, employee and aerialist keeps my life exciting.

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By Sarah Mecham

SALT LAKE CITY— A location tracker on stolen money led the hunt for an aggravated bank robber to the University of Utah campus on Tuesday, Sept. 17.

After the U.S. Bank was robbed on 2300 East and 2100 South at 5:30 p.m., tracker information on the stolen money located the robber near the Eccles Broadcasting Center on the University of Utah campus.

The University of Utah Police and Eccles Broadcasting Center employees assisted the Salt Lake City Police Department securing campus safety. Because the robber threatened using explosives during the bank robbery, police units immediately secured upper campus and began searching the Eccles Broadcasting Center using K-9 units. According to Salt Lake City Police Detective Richard Chipping, officers cleared the building, searching room-by-room, looking for the suspect and explosives.

Philip Tipus, director of Broadcast Engineering at the Eccles Broadcasting Center, quickly reviewed security camera footage with police.

“I watched him walk around the building, but [he] never entered. But he set something down outside the building. Footage showed the suspect walking southeast toward the TRAX station,” said Tipus.

Chipping stated the police discovered the money-tracking device outside the Eccles Broadcasting Center.

Employees inside the Eccles Broadcasting Center were not initially informed of the situation, but they were rather surprised when armed police “stormed the building,” Tipus said. Employees were concerned for their safety when police officers entered the building with K-9s and visible weapons. Police officers did not respond to questions from Eccles Broadcasting Center employees.

“There is no good answer on what to do each time you enter a room when something is happening. There is no time to stop and communicate when officers are focused on tactics and safety,” Chipping said.

Campus employees and students were notified about the situation via Twitter and a campus safety alert at 6:03 p.m., alerting them of police activity at the Eccles Broadcasting Center “as very dynamic and to avoid the area if possible or secure in place until further notice.” Police released a description of the bank robber as a “white male, dark hair, straw hat with a fake mustache and beard; last seen wearing a black shirt with a tan vest, blue jeans and a fanny pack.”

Student athlete James Barker sat in biology when the campus alert came through. His biology professor proceeded with class, telling her students they were safer sitting on the third floor in Presidents Circle, so they should continue on with class. Shortly after, Barker received a text that all practices and intramural games for the night were cancelled due to the police activity on campus. The McCarthy Athletic field is located directly west of Eccles Broadcasting Center.

 At 7:55 p.m., campus police lifted restrictions to upper campus after they believed the bank robber was no longer on campus and no explosives were found on the premises.

“We located his abandoned car in the Eccles Broadcasting Center parking lot and assumed suspect fled the scene on TRAX,” Chipping said.

Police identified items in the car associated with the bank robbery and then identified the car’s owner as Curtis Crosby.

The next day the suspect, Crosby, age 30, was located in Layton by Layton Police, and transported to the Salt Lake City Police Department for questioning.

Sgt. Garth Smith with the University Police encourages staff and students to immediately call 911 if they see any suspicious or potentially dangerous activities on campus.

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By: Elizabeth Nielson

The secrets of patrolling the Taylorsville community

By: Elizabeth Nielson

Taylorsville has a variety of criminal activity, but the officers in Taylorsville attempt to have their community under control for a safer environment. “I just want to make a change, some for the good and some for the bad,” an officer from the Taylorsville Police Department said. He was granted anonymity because he feared professional repercussions for speaking to the media. It is his duty 24/7 to keep the individuals in Taylorsville safe and comfortable.

The officer was able to talk about his career as a police officer. He explained, “Now, if I get a critical dispatch I will have to leave this conversation without fair warning,” he said. Eleven years ago he decided to pack up his belongings in California and begin his journey as a freshman student at the University of Utah. He graduated within four years with his bachelor’s degree with the anticipation of becoming a police officer.

Becoming a police officer changed his life. The stress and misery led to divorce and leaving behind his two children. His decision left a negative, sorrowful relationship with his kids, but he enjoyed his career more than anything, creating a drastic family separation. Having family problems and regulating citizens to obey the law, he has much to deal with everyday.

According to Police Chief Magazine, law enforcement careers have a higher rate in divorce than any other career. Citizen’s who serve their country and societies are at a higher risk for divorce. Domestic stress, working unusual hours, missing out on family activities, and putting their life at risk are just some reasons for an unhappy marriage. Being in an unhappy marriage may effect how the child is raised. In the officer’s case his child is affected by the divorce and it may have significant influence on the rest of his life. This is an example of a problematic situation for a child, but issues of child rearing can become more severe.

An ongoing investigation in Taylorsville had this officer mortified by the way a 5-year-old boy was treated. The parents of this 5-year-old boy became aggravated by the way he was acting and beat him to death. The officer explaining this horrifying story said, “This is why we don’t like to share stories.” Through personal and social experiences he emotionally and psychically copes by exercising the pain away.

Several topics in the news are related to guns and policemen abusing the system. By having negative standpoints in the media, it didn’t affect the way he considered gun control and officers abusing the system. He expressed that things happen and it’s your own responsibility to learn from them. It doesn’t matter about your race, gender, age or ethnicity. When breaking the law, consequences do happen, said. Once you are in the system, they know who you are and it’s easier to find you.

This officer has had a difficult life so far dealing with an ever-demanding need of protecting his community and tried having a family while doing this.

Work Cited

Westphal, G. (2009). Police Chief Magazine: Enforcement Healthy Marriage and Family Project. Retrieved October 1, 2015

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