By Jessica Skaggs

Tips to better cope with stress

Exams, financial woes, familial obligations, cultural expectations, job demands, school requirements. These are just some examples of day to day events that can create feelings of stress for college students. However sometimes the ways in which individuals cope with these day to day stressors, can cause more stress, rather than to relieve it.

Running on highly caffeinated beverages and little to no sleep is often how students deal with stressful situations, however there are other options. The counseling center is one place students can go to learn how to better cope with academic and personal stress.

“From about midterm on, we certainly in the counseling center start to see a lot of students coming in with the question of, ‘I want to drop a class,’” said Alicia Bredehoeft, faculty chair of Counseling.

Counselors are willing to sit and help those students who are feeling overwhelmed, by equipping them with what Bredehoeft called “tools” or skills to cope with life’s stresses.

“Some of the things we encourage them to do is, we sit down and help them with some time management, because if you haven’t done that from the beginning of the semester its really okay just to stop and do it now,” she said.

Bredehoeft said stress for students can become a “downward spiral” of being overwhelmed. Sleep is a way students can dial back their anxiety.

Even if a student isn’t able to get the recommended eight hours of sleep a night, she said students should establish a basic concept of rest in order to feel more rejuvenated to complete the tasks that need to be done.

“At this time of the year we deal with a lot of student depression, even if a student has never experienced it before, or they don’t know what it is sometimes, why they’re feeling that way,” she said. “So some of the tips that we work […] and we talk about [is] scheduling in sleep, because some people think they just don’t need to rest, and so really rest is the number one thing.”

In addition to managing time and scheduling sleep, she also recommended students stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water.

“We talk to students about drinking lots of water,” she said. “It’s so easy to go to Starbucks or grab that fancy cup of coffee that costs too much anyway, drinking a lot of water and those wonderful hydration stations around the college can really encourage students to do that.”

While managing time efficiently, resting and drinking water are all great methods to curb stress levels, she additionally recommended students seek out support systems and create gratitude journals. Students can get additional support by scheduling an appointment with any of the counselors on campus.

“I think the other thing too is knowing where your support systems are, who you can talk to, who can help you through some of this, whether it’s a peer group where you all can complain together about how crazy life is,” she said. “What I tell students to do is to create a gratitude journal, […] I think empowering students with hope of what is good in their life and what is going well can help put in perspective the things that may seem overwhelming.”

Student Makalya Lewis said listening to music and taking time for herself is one way she handles stress.

“Usually when I feel stressed out or I have like a lot of homework or if I have [to] work a lot, I usually try to go somewhere else,” she said. “Sometimes I drive to Lawrence and listen to music like indie or things like that, that help me stress less, and usually when I get there I get some ice cream or something, but I think it’s just being away and having that chance to think by yourself. “

Student Francisco Mora understands feeling overwhelmed, as he is juggling school and two jobs. His advice to fellow stressed students is to keep on pushing through.

“Stay positive. Try not to think about the difficulty of it, and do your best and manage your time. I’m struggling right now with work, I work two jobs, and school. So I’ll go to school in the morning, then go to work […] and I’ll work from three to one, two a.m. So time management is key.”

Bredehoeft said the best thing for students to remember when they feel overwhelmed, is to take college one day at a time.

“I think the best philosophy for a college student is to look at things one semester at a time,” she said. “Once you get through this in December, you get a fresh start again in the next semester so you do have to be aware of what’s going on and stay as focused as you can, but there is a beginning and end in college. I think that empowers students to know that okay, there is an end in sight, and then there is a new beginning.”

Contact Jessica Skaggs, managing editor, at jskaggs4@jccc.edu.

By Katelyn Larson

College theatre department to perform Dead Man’s Cell Phone

What would you do if the cell phone of the person beside you goes off, and that person is dead? Would you answer it? That is the premise of the play “Dead Man’s Cell Phone”, written by Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award nominee Sarah Ruhl, which is currently being put on by the college’s theatre department.

The play was chosen by Beate Pettigrew, artistic coordinator for the theatre department and director of this play. According to Pettigrew, she chooses shows that will provide a challenge for the students. She explained “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” is not easy to do because it’s not a realistic play, rather than a contemporary drama which according to her, is the easiest thing for young people to do.

“There’s this sense of old Hollywood about it,” Pettigrew said. “The style of acting is so important and bigger than life and that’s what makes it challenging for the student actors, to find that style.”

“Dead Man’s Cell Phone” is one of many plays performed this year at the college. The theatre department does five shows a year, three of which are held in the Black Box and two that are in the Polksy Theatre. The college has a small program with about 20 scholarship students and about 30 more that are the core of the department. According to Pettigrew, the small size of the program may be due to a lack of awareness at the college.

“It’s amazing to me that so many people on campus don’t even know that we have a theatre department,” Pettigrew said.

The theatre department offers several classes, allowing students to gain experience in both sides of theatre: performing and technical.

“I want to be a working professional actor but I do a lot of tech stuff too so that way I have more to offer,” said Koki Sabatés, student who plays Mrs. Gottlieb in “Dead Man’s Cell Phone”. “You have a more harmonious relationship with everyone once you do both sides of it.”

Not only does the theatre department teach a wide range of theatre production and performance skills, but it also helps the students get a leg up in future theatre endeavors. According to Austen Hanley, a student who plays Dwight Gottlieb in “Dead Man’s Cell Phone”, theatre students from the college that go on to theatre departments at four-year universities soar above the competition.

“My high school teacher went to K-State and told me that everyone in the theatre department there that came from JCCC really stood out from the everyone else,” Hanley said.

Sabatés has also valued her time in the college’s theatre department.

“All the professors have professional experience, and they really expect us to act like professionals. When we compete, people automatically know that we’re Johnson County Community College and we are a force to be reckoned with,” Sabatés said. “I feel like I’m in a place where I say ‘I want to be a professional theater person,’ and they take me seriously and give me opportunities to do that.”

Unfortunately, according to Pettigrew, they average only about 100 people per show, which she said is mostly made up of theatre students and friends and family. According to Hadley, the department is wonderful and he wishes more people at the college knew about it.

“The experience of seeing a live theatre production is unmatched,” Pettigrew said. “It’s so exciting because it’s right in your face, and if they do a good job of transporting you to another time and place, I think that experience is so much more worthwhile than a movie.”

All performances are free and open to the public. You can watch “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” next weekend in the Polsky Theatre of the Carlsen Center. The performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 22-23, and at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 23-24. Seating is available on a first-come, first-seated basis.

In addition to the theatre students, play auditions are open to any students at the college, as well as community members. For more information on how to get involved with the college’s theatre department, contact Beate Pettigrew at bpettigr@jccc.edu.

Contact Katelyn Larson, reporting correspondent, at klarso27@jccc.edu.

By Stephen Cook

Student veterans discuss the transition from service to school

After serving in the armed forces, some veterans choose to go back to school. Here at the college, there are a number of students – and faculty – who been a part of the armed forces.

The college is the first school in Kansas to have its own VA worker on campus.

As a part of Veterans Week, the college hosted a panel on Nov. 13 featuring a number of various students and faculty who have served in the armed forces.

Panel speaker Billy Tope, who was in the United States Navy from December 1997 to July 2008, said due to the number of years he had served, it became more of a lifestyle than just a job. He currently works in admissions and is a student at the college.

Now, having a simple conversation can be difficult mainly because you become accustomed to the way you address certain individuals, communicating and not using acronyms – it was a different way of thinking, he said.

However, transitioning into the college lifestyle, working at the school and being a student, wasn’t a very big change for Tope.

“In the military everyone is a trainer and a trainee all the time,” Tope said. “You’re constantly training for something.”

Also present at the panel was John Russell, student, who was in active navy duty for about six years. He said he now has a different approach and an attention to detail in the classroom.

“Compared to a long time ago, when I tried going to college the first time, I’m definitely a lot more focused this time — a lot more motivated than I used to be,” Russell said.

With his background as experience abroad, he encourages getting to know veterans in the classroom. Just don’t assume anything and don’t be concerned about talking to veterans, Russell said.

“If anybody ever has a question or just wants to talk, don’t ever feel like you should be afraid to walk up to one of us,” he said. “We’re not going to rip your head off.”

The right way to ask a question or knowing the questions not to ask at all, is something Chris Hines, student and veteran, said he would like for his classmates to know about. Hines, who served in the Army for four years as well as the National Guard for two years, has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan during his service.

“I’ve had two or three kids come up and ask if I’d ever killed anybody,” Hines said. “For me that would be equivalent to asking if anybody in here had gotten raped when they were a child. It’s that detrimental to me.”

Having come to the college after his time in service, 35 year-old student Josh Young, an Air Force veteran who served for 14 years, said he now has a different perspective in the classroom.

“I see a lot of younger people straight out of high school, they’re sleeping in class or whatever, they don’t appreciate the luxury of an education,” Young said. “When I see younger folks not appreciate what we have here in America that kind of upsets me a little bit, but then I have to realize that they haven’t seen the things that we’ve seen, so maybe they just don’t understand that.”

The topic of age in the classroom and workplace is another issue student veterans have to consider.

Coming back to civilian life, Tope has now had to deal with being older than both instructors and employers. In the work environment, he has had to remind himself that age doesn’t matter. In his first civilian job, his boss was almost 10 full years older than him.

“I always kind of had to tell myself that regardless of age, age really has absolutely nothing to do with experience or capability,” Tope said. “I always had to remind myself that I was the subordinate now.”

In addition to acclimating to age differences, Tope said his perspective on the world has been changed by his time serving.

The disciplines learned in the armed forces are an advantage that his military background has given him in the academic world. Additionally, his new world outlook has affected the way he thinks.

“There’s a whole world out there of cultures,” Tope said. “Just understanding how other people think and live and seeing just how terrible other places can be or how good they might be and everything in between.”

Additionally, for Young, what changed his outlook the most was the realization that stereotypes of Middle Eastern people did not hold true.

“I actually went over there and I got to meet the local everyday Middle Eastern people; they’re just like us.” Young said. “Even though they may be different culturally, we’re all the same as far as human beings and we just can’t have stereotypes on people. We’re all human beings.”

In addition to a changed worldview, the veterans present at the panel also had a different way of thinking about perceived problems.

Young said you should never take anything for granted.

It is important to remember that things can always get a lot worse, Tope said.

“If I work a nine or 10 hour day, I just continuously tell myself I’m going home everyday. I go home to my wife and my son every single day of the week,” he said. “I’m not on a ship in the middle of the Persian Gulf for seven or eight months […] It definitely helps make my life better just knowing how bad it really could be.”

For information about services available to veterans on campus, as well as details about the Veterans Club, visit: http://www.jccc.edu/veterans/

Contact Stephen Cook, editor-in-chief, at scook35@jccc.edu.

What were some of the events that led up to you being homeless? 

“I’ve been homeless three times in the past three years I’ve been here. Starting from the beginning, once I left my high school to come up here for college, I was staying with my grandfather for a while, and during that […] time our aunt decided to move in with her six kids and her boyfriend and it was a two-bedroom house. So you can see where this is kind of going and it kind of drove my grandpa bonkers, so he moved into an old-folks home and then I come home that night, and my aunt saying she was moving out the next day and I hopefully have a place to stay. Yeah, it was kind of a bummer. So that’s what started the first homeless streak. And during that time, it was like a month before I got my own place .

Second time, it was about this time again, my job cut my hours severely, and it was like the last month of my lease, and I was in a small apartment by myself, $650 for rent, actually it was like $584 but after bills it was like $650 all by myself and I was doing it well, until they cut my hours. So that fell through so I lost my house on my last month of my lease. Yeah. It was literally like the week before the lease was over. It was horrible. And so that was the second time.

So from there I was homeless until about Jan. 23, where I moved to Lawrence, and I was living with a friend’s friend. And stayed there till like July 17, my roommate burnt down my house. He was smoking in his bed and he put it on the head stand, it caught his mattress on fire. It caught the rest of the house on fire, and I lost everything. So homeless again, until this year of Aug. 28, like two days after school started. I live over in Olathe now.”

What did you do during those times? 

“Well a lot of people were like, ‘come stay with me, come stay with me,’ I really don’t like being a burden on other people, so I was like, ‘oh I got a place to stay, I got a place to say,’ when truth was I was just walking around at night, and finding things to do. Like I lost a lot of weight in the period of time I’ve been up here because I spent a lot of time just walking around at night.”

Where did you sleep? 

“I didn’t. I kind of didn’t sleep at night. I walked around, kept moving so I didn’t feel like a bum, or a hobo or a homeless person. It was all about the mind thing for me. If I can feel like I’m not just hopeless on the street, that I can keep going on and moving forward. So I took my naps here at the school in the morning. I had people keep my clothes before my house burnt down, like the first two times, people had like I kept my clothes at someone’s house and like I would go there in the morning and change clothes and take a shower so I didn’t smell super bad, because that’s part of not being a hobo. Not smelling or looking the part. So after that, like that’s how I slept, and managed my time during time off. So I’m not saying it was like, ‘oh yeah I was happy to be homeless,’ because it stinks. But, you got to do what you got to do.”

Where were you working while you were homeless? 

“I had a job at the Boston Market, right across the street before like the first time I was homeless, and the reason why I was homeless the second time was because my job didn’t give me enough money, and that’s before I started working here at the college. So […] that was the second time it was like a transition between that job and this job and now I have this job when my house burned down in Lawrence, and it’s been a really big help here.”

What made you want to get involved with working on campus? 

“I love it here. I specifically chose to come here because we have a community college back in Hutchinson Kansas, and it didn’t have any culinary or anything of that sort that I wanted. But I was also thinking of becoming a teaching major, which they have a pretty okay program there for that also, but I came up here, I saw the way it looked, I saw how people treated me, and I was like, ‘man I like this place, so that’s why. I wanted to become more involved. I want to be the reason why people are like, ‘Hey, I like this place.'”

What would you say you learned the most from being homeless? 

“The most, keep your head up, because even though things, like bumpy things come along, if you like, keep a good enough attitude, it won’t destroy you. Just if you keep going for the goal you have in mind, that nothing should be able to stay in your way.”

Were there any specific resources that were available to you, did you go to any shelters, or food pantries? 

“Sometimes I would browse for food from the food pantry up here, but I felt bad. I still was making money at the time, so I could buy my own food, and I felt that, it was for people who really couldn’t afford it, or anything like that. Because me, yeah I was homeless, but I was still okay. While some people can’t even afford the food, can’t get the food so I just let that be. And I didn’t go to a shelter, because I’m a hard head, and I didn’t want to feel like I was homeless. I would have never thought I would’ve been homeless, it’s just like me and my family have been uprooted a lot since we were young, so I’m used to moving around like that. But never thought I would’ve been homeless. But when it happens, it happens, and if you just panic and crumble, then you become like some of the other guys on the street you see today. There the guys who lost hope. Who didn’t see they had a future, so, you can’t be one of those guys. I got to make something out of myself.”

What would you say to people who are struggling? 

“Well for my fellow strugglers out there, like I said before, the storm doesn’t last always, so just ride it through. That’s all I got to say.”

Compiled by Jessica Skaggs, managing editor, jskaggs4@jccc.edu.

By Stephen Cook

Not content to just sit quietly and let life pass him by, science professor, Doug Patterson enthusiastically enjoys both his time in the classroom and on the track.

Patterson has been at the college since 1993 and teaches astronomy and physics courses. In addition to teaching his classes, Patterson also spends time doing research for Fundamental Technologies, LLC. As a part of the group, Patterson writes software that can analyze data collected from outer space so it can be understood and used practically. Patterson is compensated for his work with the group.

“It’s my racing money,” Patterson said. “Teaching pays the bills and pays the rent and research pays for the fun.”

Originally, he thought he would only teach at the college for a little bit and then move on to another institution. Instead, he compared where he was already to where he wanted to be. Patterson has a Master’s degree from Ball State University and received his Ph.D from KU in 2002.

“This is it, this is the Disneyland of academic positions,” Patterson said. “I have a community of like-minded pedagogics, people who value the craft of teaching and learning.”

Patterson believes in learning through working hands-on in the classroom.

“The ideal thing is to get one’s hands dirty, I try to bring in as much of the real science world as I possibly can, not the glossy stuff in the textbooks,” Patterson said. “I prefer to teach science by having them do science.”

His interest in the field began at an early age.

“As a kid I was always fascinated by space and science and rocketships and all that,” Patterson said. “I mean what are the two coolest things ever? Rocket ships and race cars, right?”

In high school, Patterson at first thought he was going to become a commercial artist. Then, he took a physics class and it all changed. However, Patterson still is an active photographer, running Patterson Prints LLC with his wife as well as writing and taking photos for OpenPaddock.net, a website covering motorsport.

Patterson began contributing to the site in early 2009, shortly after really getting back into photography in 2008. Now he is able to attend and cover events with media credentials.

As with science, Patterson has also been interested in motorsports since a young age.

“I was born in Indiana, therefore I’m a motorsports fan,” Patterson said. “Motorsports, basketball and corn; those are your three loves in Indiana.”

Now Patterson is a member of the local Sports Car Club of America group and he races in various events throughout the year.

Patterson said he first went out to an SCCA solo event to take photos for OpenPaddock and then realized how “awesome” the event was.

One of the things that also got Patterson to come back was when somebody asked if he was selling prints.

“Of course that lure of the almighty dollar got me back out, right?,” Patterson said. “Plus, it was a super cool event and I really enjoyed being out there and the people were amazing.”

Last year Patterson went ahead and became a member of the local SCCA club. So far, Patterson has competed in around 20 events with his Ford Focus SVT.

Patterson said his favorite cars are ones that helped shape automotive history through engineering and innovation, such as the Ford GT40 or the Tyrrell Project 34 F1 car.

“I like those cars that showed engineering creativity,” Patterson said. “This is something I try to share with my students: is that scientists and engineers, we are creative people, we have to be to come up with some of the crazy ways that we find out how the universe works, who builds something like the space shuttle in all of its complexity without being creative?”

In addition to his interests in science, photography and motorsports, Patterson is also an anime fan and is the faculty advisor for the anime club.

Paul Decelles, professor of science, first met Patterson in 1993, the two formed a good friendship that has persisted ever since.

“From what I’ve seen he’s really enthusiastic about what he does and he inspires that in other people,” Decelles said. “So even though I’m not particularly interested in motorsports, for example, I get interested from hearing him talk about it and that sort of thing.”

Joe Tasler, regional executive for the Kansas city region SCCA has known Patterson for about three years and has seen him participate in a number of events. He also appreciates the photography and website work he does for the club.

“He’s a real enthusiastic guy, he steps up and does a lot of work,” Tasler said. “Doug’s always there to help.”

Patterson said his favorite part about being involved with the Kansas City Region SCCA group is the people.

“The same is true about science,” Patterson said. “Whether it’s talking about motorsports or whether it’s talking about science and the history of science it’s the people’s stories, the stories behind what was going on. […] It’s always the people that make stories interesting.”

Contact Stephen Cook, editor-in-chief, at scook35@jccc.edu.

By David Hurtado

In the modern age, where terms like “yolo” and “swag” are commonplace amongst the younger generation, older Americans might feel like the language is slowly being unraveled. Members of the college’s debate team, however, are hardly such lazy speakers. Armed with research and rhetoric, they engage their opponents with a silver tongue and arsenal of words befitting college level students.

Justin Stanley, debate team coach, said he was “very excited” at how the season is starting, noting the debaters have advanced to the elimination round at every tournament they’ve been to. The only challenges he said the team has encountered so far involve familiarizing themselves with this year’s topic, the restriction of Presidential war powers, and being able to answer the arguments other people make throughout the seasons as they hear them.

“Each year is a new topic, so it brings a whole new set of challenges in terms of getting everybody on board with knowledge surrounding that topic, the research you have to do to construct the arguments and learning how other teams are going to read against you and preparing for those,” Stanley said.

Over the Oct. 18-21 weekend, the team had a strong showing at the tournament championship at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Debaters Jesse Nation and Brenden Bower-Freeman finished 7-0 in the preliminaries and 3-0 in the semifinals. Tabi Narrelle and Blaire Warren finished 5-2 in the prelims and 2-1 in their semifinal round. Both teams advanced to the final round; but, since they were from the same school, they couldn’t debate each other and were thus named co-champions.

Warren, a second year debater on the team, said one of the most important qualities for a debater to possess is self-confidence.

“If you’re confident, then the judges believe you a whole lot more and you’ll believe your own arguments,” Warren said. “It also helps if you enjoy speaking. Debate can bring you out of your shell, but if you don’t at least have an interest in it, then it’s going to kind of drag.”

Daniel Stout, Debate Team coach, said on off-weekends, the team generally meets for at least four or five hours with a coach working on different arguments, adapting them and working on specific scenarios that could play out at the next tournament.

“During the week, we have a lot of discussions about strategies and what we’re going to be doing at the upcoming tournaments,” Stout said. “We’ll do practice speeches during the week as well. On an average week, our top three or four teams probably spend 20 to 30 hours at a minimum, working on different debate stuff, whether it be on their own time, reading and researching, or doing speaking drills.”

At the college level, each tournament is typically comprised of six or eight rounds over a three day period of time. The first two days of competition are the preliminary rounds. Each of these rounds consist of various affirmative and negative speeches that either argue a change should take place or a change should be rejected. At the end, the judge has to make a decision about which team had the better argument. The final day is reserved for out-rounds.

Nation, also a second year debater, said his favorite part of the season so far was taking first at the Vegas tournament. He comes from a background in high school debate, having three years of experience on his high school team.

“Me and my partner, we plan on clearing at CEDA, which is the giant national tournament at the end of the year,” Nation said. “It won’t be the first time, last year we had a team do it and we kind of want to keep that tradition alive of Johnson County always having a team that clears at the biggest national tournament at the end of the year. When you clear, that means you get to go to out rounds, which less than half the teams are able to do.”

Contact David Hurtado, features editor, at dhurtado@jccc.edu.