Sophomore Katie Mattie has loved writing for years, but recently took her passion to a new level. Mattie wrote a young adult fantasy novel that brings different stories from ancient Greek mythology to the context of modern day life. She currently has a literary agent and is working on getting her novel published. “It is going to be a trilogy,” she said. “I’ve completed the rough draft for the second book, and I am working on the third.” Mattie, who is from Ypsilanti, Mich., said she began writing the book in December 2007, when she was just a sophomore in high school. “When I first started writing, I had the beginning and ending in mind. So [I] just [needed] to fill in the middle,” she said. “I needed to figure out what happened to make the characters get to where they did.” In Mattie’s novel, a great war occurs between the Olympians and the Titans. The Olympians are banished from Earth because of an ancient curse, and live on Mount Olympus on planet Jupiter. Their arch enemy, the Titans, were imprisoned in the underworld — Pluto — for 3,000 years, but have just escaped back to Earth. When the Titans arrive on Earth, they try to take over the planet. Since the Olympians can’t come down to Earth because of the curse, they send their powers to five humans — Melanie who has “super speed” power, Alice who can generate a force field, Jenn who is “super smart,” Izzy who can fly and turn invisible and Colleen who is “super strong.” The first letters of the five main characters’ names create the acronym, MAGIC. Members of MAGIC go on a quest through different dimensions of the universe, completing tasks to unleash a secret weapon that will destroy the Titans. Mattie said the seventh Harry Potter book inspired her to begin writing her own story. “The seventh Harry Potter book came out in July 2007 and I didn’t want to pick up another book because I loved Harry Potter so much,” she said. “I thought I could entertain myself by writing my own book.” Mattie said she did not let anyone read her first draft, but after doing some editing, she allowed her father and a few friends to read it. “There were times when I didn’t feel like I wanted to continue writing the book, but I [had] told 50 friends I was writing a book and I had to finish it,” she said. Eventually, Mattie said, everything in her story fell into place. She sent out query letters to 50 literary agents, but only four of them showed interest. “Writers House, a huge literary agency in New York, [sent a] rejection letter, but said I had potential,” Mattie said. “I knew I was close.” Publishing groups like Little Brown and Company and Bloomsbury USA looked at Mattie’s manuscript, but turned it down. Mattie said the key to success in the publishing world is not to take rejections personally. “Persistence is the key when it comes to getting books published,” Mattie said. “I just had to find someone who believed in [the story] as much as I did.” She said the manuscript is currently ready to be published, and she will continue sending her work out. Mattie said she has enjoyed the writing and publishing process thus far, despite the letdowns, and will continue working to get her novel published. “What stuck out to me the most was how fun it was,” she said. “Writing it, I felt like it was in the characters’ hands to unfold the story. I needed to get to know who they were to tell the story the right way.”
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ROTC honors Saint Mary’s cadet
Saint Mary’s senior Cassandra Jerkovic was named Wing Commander of the Air Force ROTC Detachment 225, marking the first time in the College’s history that a student was given this honor. The award signifies that Jerkovic has reached the highest cadet rank possible, and her new responsibilities will include taking charge of the ROTC members from Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s, Holy Cross College, Bethel College, Indiana University South Bend, Trine, and Valpariaso. She was chosen for this position during the last week of the fall semester after submitting her application and résumé to the cadre. Jerkovic said her next task was to create the Master Plan for the spring semester, which dictates the activities that the wing performs weekly. “I put together the Master Plan that correlates with what the Air Force headquarters wants,” Jerkovic said. “It is like running an organization, and I am grateful for the help of my Wing Staff.” Jerkovic also is in charge of overseeing all the objectives assigned to the cadets, and reports this information in weekly meetings with the cadre. “Coordinating is difficult, but with the diversity I have in my Wing Staff, objectives are accomplished smoothly,” Jerkovic said. Jerkovic said she will be able to commission as 2nd lieutenant upon graduation, continuing with the United States Air Force as an acquisitions manager at Maxwell-Gunter AFB in Alabama. “I feel that my position as Wing Commander is going to help me with my career in the Air Force, because it is teaching me how to lead and still follow,” Jerkovic said. Jerkovic is the only senior from Saint Mary’s who has remained with the Air Force ROTC program through her four years. Within the program, she also participated on the Honor Guard Team, Drill Team, and Arnold Air Society. She said she hopes the award will set a precedent for future members of the community in ROTC and beyond. “I hope that this will be empowering to not only other women entering Saint Mary’s, but to anyone who wants to accomplish his or her dreams,” Jerkovic said. “I want to reach my potential because I have been blessed with so much.” Saint Mary’s sophomore Lexi Pearl, a member of the detachment, said Jerkovic is a well-respected leader in the program. “She is making sure we are all prepared, and she is doing a great job this spring,” Pearl said. “Everyone listens to her and respects her, and I know the underclassmen really look up to her as our leader.”
RLAC raffles balloon ride
Students looking for off-campus housing may have extra incentive to do so now. Rent Like a Champion is raffling off a hot air balloon ride for anyone who signs a lease prior to May 1. “Essentially anyone who signs a lease with us from now until the end of the school year will be put in a drawing,” Mike Doyle, Vice President of Business Development, said. “The winner gets a free hot air balloon ride around Notre Dame with two friends.” Doyle said the company wanted a unique promotion students would find attractive, finding it in Michiana Balloon Rides. “A lot of companies do promotions where they’ll give you cash or an object if you sign a lease, but we were trying to think of something that would be a cool experience that we could provide that students might not otherwise have the opportunity to do,” Doyle said. The idea for Rent Like a Champion took shape under the leadership of three 2001 Notre Dame graduates, he said. “It started out with them buying properties within a mile of campus,” he said. “They’d renovate them and rent them out to students.” While most properties were rented to students, several remained untaken. Doyle said the business decided to offer those empty properties for rental to fans coming into town on football weekends. “[The houses] were sitting empty, and we rented them out for football weekends, and that idea kind of caught on, and other people started asking us to help rent out their houses as well,” he said. Doyle said the business now has two sides: renting properties to students and weekend rentals for events like home football games. “We have about 15 student properties that we own and that we rent out on a yearly basis to students,” he said. “On the other side, we have about 150 properties to rent for football weekends and graduation.” The company now owns furnished homes which range from two-bedroom to six-bedroom properties . “We have places right by campus and places a little farther out, really anything that people could want,” he said. “A lot of them come with really cool stuff in them like TVs or pool tables. Those are really popular, especially for larger groups.” In order to improve the rental properties, Doyle said the company often renovates its properties and hires Notre Dame students throughout the school year to better understand what appeals to students. “We try to have our houses have really big common spaces, big, fenced-in yards, so that the houses get better and better every year,” he said. The company hopes to expand the number of properties available to rent around campus. He said Rent Like a Champion is now in the process of expanding football-weekend rentals to other schools like Alabama and Florida State. Those who live around those campuses will have the opportunity to list their residences for rent on the Rent Like a Champion website. “We don’t own those homes; we’re more of a listing service website. People will list with us, and we’ll help them rent,” Doyle said. “That side is expanding very fast, and that’s definitely exciting.” Contact Catherine Owers at cowers@nd.edu
Spin-A-Thon supports breast cancer awareness
From noon Friday until noon Saturday, the cycling studio in the Knute Rockne Memorial Gymnasium will be filled with students, staff and community members cycling and raising money for breast cancer research and treatment as part of the third annual 24 Hour Pink Zone Spin-A-Thon.Jennie Phillips, assistant director of fitness and fitness facilities for RecSports and one of the event’s organizers, said it is a 24-hour fundraising effort for local breast cancer support.“It’s 24 hours of indoor cycling, which takes place over in our cycling studio at the Rock,” Phillips said. “We start at noon on Friday the 7th and end at noon on Saturday. People are simply riding bikes in support of breast cancer patients, survivors or in memory of someone.”The event, which is sponsored by the Notre Dame women’s basketball team and the College of Science, is part of the Pink Zone initiative, a national women’s basketball breast cancer fundraising campaign.“The Pink Zone games are part of a national campaign amongst women’s collegiate basketball teams, and we’ve been doing the Pink Zone on campus for probably five or six years,” Phillips said.Phillips said the past two years’ events raised several thousands of dollars for breast cancer research and gave more than 200 people the chance to participate in the event.“The first year we did [the Spin-A-Thon]… we filled up about 85 percent of our time and raised about $13,000,” Phillips said. “Last year we did the donations a little differently, so we only raised $2,600 and we had 275 riders. So this year we ask that the minimum donation is $10.”Tabbitha Ashford, the fitness and instructional program coordinator for RecSports, also helped organize the Spin-A-Thon. She said 273 riders had registered for the event, and they had raised $1,575, a total that will rise throughout the course of the event.Phillips said they ask for donations from riders in support of local breast cancer treatment initiatives.“Out of the Pink Zone efforts, a lot of the money stays local and helps with local efforts for women to get mammograms, support groups and local research,” Phillips said.Ashford said each hour of the event will feature different themes, ranging from the Winter Olympics to the television show “The Big Bang Theory.”“We do a variety of different themed hours. We’ll have cycling classes, which is a great opportunity to enjoy a cheaper cycling class compared to the ones we offer normally,” Ashford said. “We’ll have music-themed hours, so we’ll do an 80s hour, and we’ll have a Valentine’s hour where we encourage people to wear red gear and play some cheesy love songs and have fun with that.”Phillips said they will give away prizes throughout the event as well to keep the cyclists involved throughout the 24-hour effort.“We’ll have giveaways, too. Everybody who rides gets a t-shirt and a water bottle, and then we’ll do giveaways throughout the night,” Phillips said. “We’ll keep people engaged and entertained while they’re there.”Phillips said in years past, the initiative has received tremendous support from the entire Notre Dame community.“The people that come have fun. It’s really awesome that a lot of our club sports teams come and participate,” Phillips said. “Rugby has been really great because they come from about two to five in the morning. The first year they came, we watched the movie ‘Rudy’ and by the end of the movie, you could hear them all throughout the Rock chanting.”Ashford also said the event will focus on the survivors and patients that the money helps.“We’ll be updating the mileage we’ve gone throughout the event and the money that’s being raised, as well as bringing it back home and showing videos of survivors’ stories,” Ashford said. “We normally put up different pictures and biographies of different survivors from around the community, just to bring it back to why we are having this event.”Phillips said the event is a testament to the Notre Dame community and its willingness to help those in need.“One of things I am always impressed by at Notre Dame is how people step up for a cause. They come out and put forth the effort, and around here you get to have a little fun while you do that, but also really affect people’s lives,” Phillips said.“On Sunday at the basketball game at halftime, we’ll bring current patients and survivors down on the floor, and they are so touched by the reception that the crowd gives them and the fact that we honor them in their fight. It’s a really special thing.”Tags: breast cancer, Cancer research, RecSports, Rockne Memorial, The Rock, women’s basketball
Panel provides perspective on domestic violence
Caitlyn Jordan The symposium on domestic violence and intersectionality concluded Thursday with a panel discussion featuring Saint Mary’s students, faculty and staff examining ways to speak up against domestic violence.Professor of communications Marne Austin, who spoke about advocacy and relationships, said in her experience, the most difficult thing is naming the abuse.“It’s so important to be able to name it for what it is,” she said. “I’m a Gender and Women’s Studies professor, and I couldn’t name it. We live in these contradictions, but we need to be able to talk about these issues in an honest forum.”Austin said she faced an additional obstacle, which stemmed from the stigma surrounding her same-sex relationship. Austin said she stayed in her relationship because she didn’t want to become another reason for people to say homosexuality is not okay.“’I told you so’ is not helpful,” she said.Listening and not judging are the most important ways friends can support victims, Austin said. As a professor, she said she tries to create a safe space for students, but she herself feels broken.“I try to create this safe space for students, but so much of my identity is gone,” she said. “I don’t know who I am anymore.”Senior Meredith Mersits said while she was in an abusive relationship, she always put the blame on herself.It’s a job every day when you’re in a violent relationship, Mersits said. It consumes your thoughts and affects you mentally.“I was in a relationship where I wasn’t myself,” she said. “I had lost my voice.”As a social work major, Mersits said she knows firsthand the signs of domestic violence, but she was still unable to define her relationships as such.“I’m an advocate for sexual assault and domestic violence victims, but I was in one myself,” she said. “I was embarrassed and didn’t want to see my relationship as abusive.”There are no stereotypes for domestic violence situations, Mersits said, and it’s something that is often undetectable on the surface.“You can’t look at someone and know they are in a domestic violence situation,” she said.Support is crucial, but Mersits said the pain that accompanies domestic violence is not fixable.“So often we want to fix things, but this is not something that is easily fixable,” she said. “It takes one day at time, and my friends helped me get my voice back.”Laura Brandenburg, director of advancement services, said she left an abusive marriage after many years, but it wasn’t until later that she realized her relationship was abusive.Brandenburg said her husband would get angry and expect her to get over his rage quickly. Mentally, it was exhausting, she said.Brandenburg referenced a weekend during her marriage when she planned to attend a scrapbooking weekend with a church group. She said she had boxes of supplies lined up at the door, and her husband hid the boxes as a way of telling her she couldn’t go.“[Domestic violence] makes you feel so little and taken advantage of and controlled, and you don’t know what to do from there,” she said.Brandenburg reiterated the message of constant support from friends.“It’s helpful to have friends that are there to listen,” she said. “My friends help me feel validated and like I’m not crazy.”Austin said support is a lifelong need for victims of domestic violence.“I feel like a shell of what I used to be, but I ask that you understand support needs to be continuing even long after the relationships is terminated,” she said.Tags: abusive relationship, domestic violence, Symposium on domestic violence and intersectionality, victims
Congress requests information about University endowment
The Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees have requested information on the endowments of the 56 universities with the highest endowments in the country, Bloomberg Business reported last week.With an endowment of $10.5 billion, Notre Dame remains among the wealthiest universities: Bloomberg lists the University’s endowment as the sixth-largest in the country.Vice President and Chief Investment Officer Scott Malpass said the inquiry was not unusual.“Congress from time to time in exercising its duties seeks information from various parties, both public and private, in order to better inform themselves on policy issues,” Malpass said in an email. “Notre Dame, like many other organizations around the country, often contributes to a better understanding of particular issues that are of interest to Congress.”The letter received by Harvard University president Drew Gilpin Faust obtained by the Chronicle of Higher Education included 13 questions related to endowment management, endowment spending and use, donations and conflicts of interest.Malpass said the University will supply the information sought in the letter by the two committees.“In this case, Congress is requesting information that relates to the development of tax policy, and we will assist fully in that discussion,” he said. “These are private inquiries by Congress so the content of any such responses are not made public.”Tags: Congress, Notre Dame endowment
Faculty and students gather to watch solar eclipse
Starting at 11 a.m., students, faculty and their families congregated in front of Jordan Hall to watch the first total solar eclipse the United States has seen since 1979. The event, hosted by the physics department and officially running from noon to 4 p.m., offered visitors views of the sun from three telescopes, and organizers passed out free specialized sunglasses for safely watching the eclipse. The first “contact” of the moon with the sun at Notre Dame was at 12:57 p.m., and the eclipse lasted until 3:44 p.m., according to the College of Science’s website. ANDREW CAMERON | The Observer While Notre Dame’s campus was over 200 miles north of the eclipse’s path of totality (where the sun is completely obscured by the moon), spectators were able to see roughly 89 percent coverage as the eclipse reached its “totality” (maximum coverage for the area) at 2:22 p.m. Additionally, two of the classrooms in Jordan held viewings of NASA’s live stream of the eclipse, and physics professor Grant Mathews gave a short lecture on the phenomenon and its importance as the eclipse neared totality.Among the many volunteers present, helping with the telescopes, handing out glasses and answering questions about the eclipse, Ben Rose, a sixth-year physics Ph.D. student, expressed his satisfaction with the event.“It’s a little bigger than we were expecting,” he said. “Some people were proposing some incredible numbers, and we haven’t quite reached those yet, but it’s definitely up there on the higher levels of what we were expecting. I would call it a great success, because we were able to engage all these people and talk to them about the eclipse.”Rose said that hosting an event for such a rare astronomical phenomenon was important for multiple reasons.“One is getting the community to interact with scientists — getting them to understand what they do and what they think and who they are,” Rose said. “Because scientists are trying to learn new things and communicate with people, and if you don’t trust the people who are doing the investigations, then you can’t trust the results, so I think it’s just always a good thing to get scientists out of the labs and into the community. “The eclipse in particular is great for our country, because it’s going coast to coast and everyone will get to see something. Because of something that universal, I think we really need to do something with it — it’s something everyone is going to experience, and it’s a great way to explain scientific techniques, and a great way to explain with a practical thing you can see.”Sophomore Amanda Ferraro came to the event early to get glasses. She said she came because she is “really interested in science and astronomy, so it’s really cool to experience something that only happens once in such a long time.”Fortunately, the weather proved not to be a major issue, and the large crowd applauded as the sun became visible just as a cloud passed. Many viewers lingered for some time after totality passed, but the large crowd quickly thinned. After the event, physics professor and one of the primary organizers of the event, Grant Mathews, said the event exceeded his expectations.“We set up the telescopes behind Jordan Hall, and handed out as many eclipse glasses as we had, which wasn’t quite enough for the crowd,” he said. “We had a little more people than we thought we would — between three and four thousand people. Personally, I thought a thousand, maybe two thousand, but it was great … It’s just beautiful to see the sun and the machinery of the heavens. One of the telescopes wasn’t working, and so I spent a long time trying to get it working. It had kind of a festive atmosphere, and we even had a cheer right when the cloud passed right when totality hit.”Tags: College of Science, Physics department, solar eclipse
NDVotes outlines plans for year
With the 2016 election a thing of the past, NDVotes will shift its focus to encouraging voter education and civic engagement amongst the University’s student body.Coming off of a presidential election year, NDVotes is looking for new ways to keep students engaged in the political process, NDVotes co-chair and junior Kylie Ruscheinski said.“Voter registration is what founded NDVotes, but at its core, it’s also about voter education,” she said. Past iterations of the club existed during the 2008 and 2012 elections, Ruscheinski said, but weren’t active in the years in between. This time, the group will be sticking around. NDVotes will aim to keep students consistently engaged in the political world, as opposed to only during major elections, Ruscheinski said. “Being an educated voter and an active citizen is not a cycle,” she said. “It doesn’t stop.”This year, NDVotes will continue to focus on its mission of helping students become registered voters, Ruscheinski said. In 2016, from November through January, nearly 3,500 people signed up through the NDTurbovote portal, either to register to vote or to request an absentee ballot. The group also ran a competition between dorms to register the highest percentage of voters and helped first-year students register to vote during Welcome Weekend. NDVotes will continue to frequently set up a table in the LaFortune Student Center in order to provide assistance with the voter registration process, Ruscheinski said. In addition to voter registration, NDVotes seeks to encourage non-partisan political discussion, education and civic engagement. Ruscheinski said possible discussion topics for future events include foreign policy, nuclear policy, voter apathy and the role of religion in politics. “This past election in particular sparked a new interest [in politics] in our age group,” she said. “ … A lot of key issues that affect 20-year-olds on a regular basis were overlooked.” These topics could be a place where the group helps fill the gap, providing a forum for students to discuss and learn about the issues which impact their lives the most, senior and NDVotes co-chair Andrew Pott said.“Another focus is getting more variety in speakers,” he said. The majority of speakers at past NDVotes events have been from the department of political science. Bringing in professors and other faculty speakers from departments in areas such as business, engineering, science and law could attract “totally different audiences,” than the more politically-oriented speakers, Pott said.Another plan NDVotes has for this year is to set up spaces in which students can gain experience having conversations about political topics, Pott said. These spaces would give students a stress-free, non-partisan environment in which they could practice engaging in political discourse.“There are a lot of people that generally want to know more about politics, but don’t know where to start or how to talk about it,” he said.Tags: NDVotes, political discourse, voter registration
Jamestown BPU Sets Fall Water Main Flushing
WNYNewsNow Stock Image.JAMESTOWN — The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities will flush water mains throughout the system starting in early October, weather permitting.Pre-flushing in Falconer will start at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, in the areas of Aldren, Mapleshade, Ralph and Valmeere. The complete Village of Falconer will be flushed from 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 3, overnight into Sunday, Oct. 4, until Falconer is entirely flushed. During Falconer flushing, water may be discolored on the north side of Jamestown as well as in the Village.Flushing of the remainder of the BPU Water Division system will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, Oct. 5 through 9; and Monday-Wednesday, Oct. 12-14.The exception will be Wednesday, Oct. 7, when flushing will take place from 5:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. to accommodate any downtown and Fairmount Avenue businesses and restaurants. Flushing that day could affect streets directly off Fairmount Avenue and Route 394, even though their streets are not flushed that day. Flushing can discolor water, especially when water line cleaning takes place in the customers’ immediate areas near their scheduled flushing days. Customers may see discolored water at any time during flushing, even on days other than their scheduled flushing days.The BPU’s September customer newsletter contains a two-page color-coded map section showing which areas will be flushed on specific days. The maps also are posted on www.jamestownbpu.com.The BPU website, FACEBOOK and Twitter pages will show daily flushing locations. The BPU recently informed commercial and industrial customers of their flushing dates by automatic calls. Residential customers, whose phone numbers are current on their accounts, can expect to receive such calls two days in advance of their flushing days.Customers with questions about flushing and their flushing dates may call the Flushing Hotline at 661-1688 or Communications at 661-1680.BPU Communications Coordinator Becky Robbins says, “If you receive voicemail when calling, please leave your address, the names of the streets at the end of your block and your phone number. BPU employees will return calls with flushing location dates and with answers to anyquestions.”The main precaution that customers may take during water main flushing is to check for discolored water before doing laundry and to avoid pulling discolored water into their hot water tanks. The BPU also suggests putting aside water for cooking or drinking a day or so ahead of their flushing days because the discolored water is unattractive in appearance. Share:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
New York’s Governor Talks Future Of Recreational Marijuana Legalization
Cropped Paxson Woelber / The Alaska Landmine / CC BY 2.0 ALBANY – New York’s Governor this week discussed what the future of legalizing recreational marijuana, this after neighboring New Jersey approved a similar measure.“New Jersey did it on the ballot, which, in retrospect, I think was probably, turned out to be the faster way to do it,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said during an interview on WAMC Radio’s The Roundtable with Alan Chartock.Medical use of marijuana was already legal in the Garden State, but the legislature was unable to pass a bill to fully legalize cannabis.Instead, state lawmakers decided to put the question directly to voters in the form of a referendum. Under the ballot measure approved by voters, marijuana would be legal for personal use by adults 21 and older.The commission that currently regulates the medical marijuana market in the state would also manage the recreational use market.The Governor, who supports legalizing marijuana for recreational use, said he thinks the state will “get there” in 2021, called it the “right policy,” and said “the state is going to be desperate for funding.”“The question becomes about the money, about the distribution, and the power… who gets the licenses and who gets the money,” he said.Last year, New York decriminalized recreational marijuana but stopped short of legalizing, regulating and taxing it.New York State enacted its medical marijuana program in 2014.Arizona and South Dakota also voted to legalize recreational marijuana. Share:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)