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(11/01/17 2:04pm)
On Oct. 14, around 60 people gathered for a silent walk in Tattnall Square Park. On the same day thousands of people gathered for 700 silent walks around the world.
Walk for Freedom is a worldwide event hosted by A21--an anti-human trafficking organization founded in 2008. Walks took place all over the world on Oct. 14 to raise awareness and money in order to fight human trafficking.
Clark Myers, junior biochemistry and molecular biology major and Senator-At-Large, organized a local Walk for Freedom here in Macon in partnership with A21. Myers said he likes working with A21.
“Their success is very, very tangible for us.... It’s not just money going to an organization and you don’t know what’s happening. That’s a really big concern of mine,” Myers said.
This was the first large-scale event Myers said he’s planned, and he did it by himself. He’s been planning since June.
Myers said he also planned to raise $5,000 dollars by the event, but it proved to be difficult.
“I couldn’t organize both the event and do all the fundraising myself. So the fundraising is going to be a semester long project that we’re going to be doing,” he said. “We’re partnering with Traffick Jam on the fundraising portion.”
The money collected will go to A21.
Myers has been involved with anti-human trafficking organizations since 2013, most notably The End It Movement, a coalition of the top anti-human trafficking organizations. Myers said it’s something he’s passionate about, and the walk is an opportunity to educate people.
“So [people] might know ‘okay I don’t like human trafficking, how real is human trafficking?’ It’s an opportunity for us to discuss human trafficking to them, to give them statistics, show them how successful of an industry it is,” Myers said.
According to humanrights.org, human-trafficking brings in $150 billion dollars every year. While Atlanta has been named one of the top human-trafficking hubs in the United States according to FBI statistics, Myers hopes people realize human-trafficking happens in Macon too.
“If you ask anyone that’s from Macon, they will fully tell that they see it regularly,” Myers said. “I heard that and it just absolutely broke my heart.”
Among the attendees of the event was Mercer’s volleyball team. Senior volleyball player Morgan MacGilvary is also a member of Traffick Jam.
“We just really want to bring awareness to the community, because any of us could be affected by it, and anyone in the community can, so we just really wanted to be a part of something that could help change the community,” MacGilvary said.
In the future, Myers hopes to continue to partner with Traffick Jam, as well as 1 in 4, an initiative started to bring light to sexual violence. He said he’s also concerned with the lack of statistics on human trafficking in Macon.
“Data collection is also something I’m interested in. I don’t know how to go about getting that setup, but maybe talking with the QEP office and partnering with them,” Myers said.
Myers said he wants to cause an outrage against human-trafficking.
“I really want the Macon community to know that we don’t stand for injustice. We don’t stand for human trafficking, we’re not okay with it,” Myers said. “It’s just a way for us to stand in totality and push against it.”
(10/15/17 7:04pm)
Quirisa Mauga has been surrounded by softball her entire life. She’s played the sport since the age of 10. Her dad coaches three softball teams, and her older sister plays softball professionally.
“I knew that I really wanted to play college softball. However, it actually coming true wasn’t something that I expected, especially here at Mercer, a high-quality institution,” Mauga said.
Now in her senior year, Mauga said leaving Mercer’s softball team hasn’t hit her yet.
“With all the work, I still feel I have another year or so left. Once it gets to springtime, I think it might hit me a little more…. I just know it’s another year, another time to come out and play hard and get a ring,” Mauga said.
Mauga is from San Diego, California. She is one of the team’s top bats and starts at third base, according to the Mercer Bears’ website. She’s also a psychology major.
Head Coach Stephanie Defeo said she transferred to Mercer spring semester of her freshman year.
“[Mauga] has had to go through some things just because she was always so far away from home. She’s been able to adjust, which has helped us with our success for sure. She’s got an amazing personality,” DeFeo said.
Three years later, Mauga said both Mercer Softball and her parents shaped her into the leader she is today.
“Just being able to implement what they’ve taught me in this setting, on this team, is a dream come true,” Mauga said.
Mauga said to be on the team you have to be a great teammate.
“There’s 23 people on this team, so there’s different personalities here and there. You have to be able to overcome all different personalities and diversity,” Mauga said.
Her favorite memories are of competing with top Division I programs, including the University of Minnesota, who they won against 5-2 in 2016. This year she hopes herself and the team can work on their consistency.
“I’m very hard on myself when it comes to softball and me being my own coach in my head,” Mauga said.
Mauga said she views softball as her sanctuary.
“Whether I’m having a bad day, whether I just got a bad test grade, I kind of leave that outside the gate and get in there and work out with my teammates,” Mauga said.
Although she plans to get her master’s in psychology, Mauga said softball will always be in her life.
“She’s a very driven individual,” DeFeo said. “I think that no matter what she does or decides to do professionally she’s gonna be amazing. I hope that she’s happy and finds something that will get her to a place successfully.”
(10/05/17 1:53pm)
Mary Pinson has had her business, Mary Pinson Designs, for 15 years. Now she’s finally got a studio to call her own.
Pinson is a floral designer, event planner and event designer. Her studio in downtown Macon opened on Sept. 7 and serves as the new workplace for her creativity. Before, she was working out of her house.
“My business started to grow. It started to take over my life and my house. So it’s nice to have a separation,” she said.
Jaclyn Ramkissoon
The studio is located on Washington Avenue in the old Joshua Cup Coffee building. It’s designed with high ceilings, white walls, plenty of windows and a chandelier. Pinson has even uncovered the original floors.
“This has been a vacant space for a long time. So I think people are thrilled to see it be occupied and just’ve been really supportive. I’m really appreciative of that.”
Pinson’s personality shines through the new space and her work. She said she’s always trying to do something a little different.
Jaclyn Ramkissoon
Jaclyn Ramkissoon
“My style is very loose, and I like large-scale arrangements. I don’t worry about them too much and try to make them perfect,” Pinson said. “I just try to make them as creative as I possibly can, by using lights and things like that.”
Pinson graduated from the University of Alabama with a major in fashion design and a minor in art. She got into flowers after moving to Macon. She’s lived here for 25 years now with her husband and two kids.
Pinson said that her job allows her to balance work and family.
“It’s not a nine to five job…. I get the events ready, but I don’t necessarily work the events at night. I can still go to my son’s games and all of that stuff,” Pinson said.
According to Pinson, it’s been easy to grow her business through social media. She said people find her through Facebook, Instagram and her website. But Pinson said the hardest part of her job is time management.
“It’s a very time-constrained job. Everything’s got to be ready when the event starts, or when the bride walks down the aisle. And it’s all got to be perfect,” Pinson said. “Temperature matters. Flowers definitely behave differently in different temperatures. They have to have water; there’s all sorts of variable like that.”
Jaclyn Ramkissoon
Though time-constraining, Pinson said she loves being in the event industry.
“I did flowers for someone who asked their girlfriend to marry them the other night. I do engagement parties, I do anniversary parties, I do corporate events. It’s always normally a party. And it’s fun to be a part of people’s celebrations they have in their lives,” said Pinson.
Pinson has done flowers for Mercer’s own McDuffie Center for Strings.
Carol Williams, Associate Vice President of the Office of University Advancement, has worked with Pinson on these events.
“Her creative talents have equaled those of the world class students she has helped us showcase,” Williams said. “Creativity and east of interaction don’t always go together, but with Mary, I always know I will get a first-class result.”
Pinson said her new studio space has attracted a lot of visitors and has helped her business grow. She hopes to start teaching floral classes in October, and eventually wants to travel and do events outside of Macon.
“I just work hard, I never give up. I try to stay motivated and I love what I do so it’s not even like working for me,” she said.
(01/22/14 9:00pm)
College, for most young adults, is the first step out of the home. It signifies the start of the transition between adolescence to adulthood. However, at Mercer’s freshmen dorms, certain rules exist that suggest students are not ready for adulthood. Between Mary Erin Porter, Plunkett and Roberts Hall, they all have a rule that states: (1) a student cannot be in the opposite sex’s dorm past 12:00 a.m. on weekdays (2:00 a.m. on weekends) and (2) while in the opposite sex’s dorm, the student must be escorted by a member of that dorm at all times.
While the escort rule seems reasonable— seeing as its purpose is to ensure protection of dorms from potentially harmful outsiders—this rule can be taken to the extreme.
An example from my personal experience—the opposite sex must be escorted to their designated bathroom in the hall—reflects as an insignificant circumstance to be written up for. A simple check of a Mercer ID should be enough to establish a person is not a threat. If the person does not appear to be suspicious, the need to enforce this rule is not needed. As for non-Mercer visitors, a short process of checking in with an RA or the printing of a visitor’s pass to prove their visitation should suffice.
As for the curfew rule, it is not reasonable and is not enforced in the other dorms used to accommodate upperclassmen. Shorter, Sherwood and Mercer Halls do not have this rule and even further, are co-ed. Since this year’s freshmen class is the largest class Mercer University has ever taken under its wing, MEP, Plunkett and Roberts Halls are not large enough to hold every single freshmen. As a result, there is an overflow of freshmen into these upperclassmen dorms that again, do not have that particular rule. It is not fair some members of the freshmen class must abide by this rule while others do not.
What is exactly the purpose of the curfew rule? If sex is the answer, people have got it all wrong. When putting more than 700 freshmen in one concentrated place just a hop and a skip away from each other, sex is going to happen, whether it’s inside or outside the designated times. Also, there is no justification for sophomores, juniors and seniors living in the upperclassmen dorms to be able to participate in such “extra-curricular” activities while freshmen are forbidden.
Given that most students enter the uni- versity as adults, anyone who is having sex presumably chooses to, and that should not be anyone’s business but theirs. Aside from that, there is a population of freshmen that would just like to hang out or study with each other past the curfew. This seems perfectly reasonable, as long as they are not disturbing other residents in the hall. Many of my friends have been kicked out just for hanging out past the time the curfew designates.
All in all, the escort rule should be upheld, but more as a loose guideline than a heavily enforced rule. Instead, students should be educated about keeping our campus safe from outside threats that may try to infiltrate the dormitories. A student should be able to produce a Mercer ID if asked when wandering the halls alone, and for non-Mercer visitors, a visitor’s pass or clearance from an RA. The curfew rule should be done away with. If members of the opposite sex are causing a disturbance in the dorm, then by all means, take action and stop such disturbances. Most of the freshmen class are legal adults. It should not be necessary to abide by rules telling us what time and for how long we are allowed to fellowship with our friends, no matter what gender they are.