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(02/13/18 2:35am)
Payton Schanen, a junior at Mercer, was recently named the 2017 Georgia State Golf Association Women's Player of the Year. She is the first from the Mercer golf program to receive this honor.
“I just really want to leave a legacy here. That's not just my goal but our team's goal,” Schanen said.
It all started when her father took her to a range more than 13 years ago. Schanen said she fell in love. As a young girl, golf came easily to Schanen.
“It sounds very conceited but it just did...I played other sports. I played soccer, basketball,” Schanen said, “But there's something about golf. You were never perfect at anything and if you were good at one thing you were probably bad at something so I just kept coming back to perfect it.”
In 2016, as a freshman, Schanen was named GSGA Girl’s Player of the Year. There was a different dynamic when Schanen joined the collegiate team as a freshman.
Schanen said golf was more of a team sport in college than in junior golf.
“[The team] is very competitive so we always push each other to get better,” Schanen said.
In the past year, Schanen has won several tournaments, including Idle Hour at home, and qualified for the Women’s Amateur Golf Tournament, one of the leading amateur golf tournaments in the United States.
The GSGA awards are determined using a point system based on tournaments.
The woman with the most points at the end of each year receives the designation of Women’s Player of the Year.
Since her freshman year, Schanen has been in the top 5 finalists each year. In early December, Schanen made it to number one with 600 points.
"I believe her best is yet to come and I'm excited about our team's future,” said Head Coach Michele Drinkard in a press release by Geritt W. Van Genderen.
(02/09/18 4:17pm)
Jittery Joe’s Coffee shop is a popular study spot for Mercer students and coffee lovers alike. But on Feb. 9, it will transform into a stage for budding artists.
Jit Jams, the campus open mic night, will be hosted at Jittery Joe’s Coffee shop in Mercer Village.
The event is hosted by Mercer Quadworks once a semester and can vary from open mic style to having a set performance list.
Quadworks already has several regular singers for the event and are hoping to have several more sign up.
“They’re regular students that we usually get and they usually get really good crowd feedback,” Sa’Haara Bryant, Mercer Live committee chair, said.
Mercer Live, a part of Quadworks, is in charge of several musical events throughout the year including Jit Jams and Bearstock.
These performances will be mostly cover songs with a few original acts.
“Be it spoken word, be it singing, whatever they want,” Kimberly Gessner, from the Mercer Live committee said, “It's really so that students can come together, have some coffee on [QuadWorks] and just kind of spend some time together and hear from each other.”
“It's kind of fun to get different groups of people in here. It's not just [students] staying to study,” Dustin Prater, general manager of Jittery Joe’s, said.
Quadworks has been hosting this event for several years now; featuring students from across different majors, backgrounds and talents. But the event isn’t just for performers, students and the general public can come out and enjoy the show.
“People come just to hang out and hear what other people are doing,” Gessner said.
While this is a beneficial event for the Mercer community, it also increases sales and exposure for Jittery Joe’s.
“A lot of people who may not come here, for a variety of reasons, now have a chance, an opportunity to come here and see what we're about,” Prater said.
Interested performers can either fill out an interest form online or simply sign up when they arrive. The event will take place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
(11/12/17 6:43pm)
One week ago I began an experiment to see what being a vegetarian on Mercer’s campus actually looks like. What I found was disappointing to say the least, but not at all surprising. If you are considering being vegetarian, here are a few things you should expect.
Ground Rules
I am on the $750 dining dollars meal plan and budget roughly $50 a month for groceries.
In my room I have a microwave, blender and mini fridge.
There are many types of vegetarian diets ranging from only fish (pescatarian), to no meat at all (vegetarian) to no animal products whatsoever (vegan). But all the websites I visited on how to start being a vegetarian agreed that a person should start with no meat and then work their way toward cutting out things like eggs and milk.
For the purposes of this experiment, I cut out chicken, pork, beef and yes, bacon. I did not cut out eggs or milk thus placing me inside the first ring of vegetarianism.
The Budget
I went to the grocery store about three days in and bought more fruits and vegetables than I have ever before and only spent $32. My shopping list included: tortillas, hummus, apples, pears, spinach, bell peppers, avocado, shredded cheese, canned vegetables, Greek yogurt, frozen fruit, and other meatless snacks like pretzels and candy.
I had always assumed that being vegetarian would be more expensive. And perhaps, if I were a more conscientious vegetarian I would buy organic products. But, again, for the sake of experimentation I stuck to the baseline of vegetarianism.
The Meals
The first three days before I went to the store, I ate on campus and in my room. I ate lots of bagels with peanut butter and cereal.
Once I went grocery shopping, a whole new world opened up to me. The first day I had a smoothie for breakfast and hummus veggie wraps for lunch and dinner. The second day was fairly similar except I made rice and beans with corn and other fun veggies like bell peppers and avocado.
These were my three go to meals for the week, fairly easy and gloriously colorful.
I did make eggs one morning and had coffee with creamer every day.
When I was not eating in my room I would venture out on campus to find vegetarian options, but there was very little to pick from especially since I have dining dollars instead of meal swipes.
The key was to find new ways to mix carbs (to fill me up) and protein sources (to keep me going).
Findings
As far as dining options go, I had the best luck at Einsteins. Bagels are certainly vegetarian, so ordering any of my favorites with peanut butter was easy.
I was most disappointed in the UC however. There are no full meals at Chick-fil-a that are vegetarian friendly—even the salads have chicken on them. Panda Express has one vegetarian option: a bowl with chow Mein and mixed veggies with spring rolls as the entree. I got this several times and was not disappointed.
I know the Fresh Food Company and Farmer’s Market have vegetarian options, but for someone using only dining dollars, those are expensive locations to find food and ultimately unrealistic. If I were to continue being vegetarian, I would need to upgrade my meal plan or eat primarily in my room in order to sustain myself.
As far as being hungry, switching from a meat-filled diet to a meatless diet left me constantly feeling hungry. I ended up snacking a lot outside of regular meals, as well as drinking more water to fill myself. However, I did feel more motivated, almost like an endorphin rush, and I slept better as well.
Reflection
One thing that surprised me during my vegetarian experiment was that I did not have to just eat fruits and vegetables for every meal. A common misconception about being vegetarian is that you must stop eating all junk food and carbs and only eat healthy. But that is not the case at all. I had popcorn, graham crackers, chocolate, etc. all week long!
Another thing that I did not foresee was how my friends responded to this change. I got a lot of questions asking me to defend why I wanted to be vegetarian. In one of my classes, we watched a documentary on the meat industry and its environmental effect on the world. Americans consume an insane amount of meat each day, and the mass consumption has detrimental effects on our Earth. I chose to experiment with being vegetarian to reduce my carbon footprint and contribution to mass consumption. After giving my explanation I got several responses to the effect of “Well, but that’s just how life is.”
Others were worried about me judging them for eating meat in front of me. When I went grocery shopping with one of my more supportive friends during this experiment she asked, “Are you judging me for how much meat I’m buying?”
The answer: no, not at all. This is a personal decision of mine, and I respect your decision to eat chicken too. Frankly, it did not bother me at all to see other people eating meat. I just knew that I did not want to eat meat myself.
After one week, I did quit being a vegetarian, and I do not think I would try it again. However, I have definitely decreased how much meat I consume each week. Although I had enough energy, I was constantly hungry. As a college student, running from classes to meetings to work, this diet just was not feasible for me. But, I loved the opportunity this gave me to find alternative meals and cook on my own.
I now have a newfound respect for those who are vegetarian, vegan, etc. Just because someone does something or believes something different from you does not mean they want you to do or be the same. We can all respect each other’s individual choices and beliefs without joining in.
(04/14/16 6:19am)
After hours of deliberation spread across several different meetings, the motion to remove the Campus Engagement Committee from the Student Government Association failed Monday, April 11.
The committee was introduced under the Harrison-Jolly administration after they received feedback during their campaign that “SGA seemed to be very removed,” said SGA President Austin Harrison.
Harrison said that they decided to create a committee to “facilitate that kind of discussion between the student body and SGA.”
In November, Campus Engagement was formally recognized by SGA and has since partnered with other organizations and held several “Coffee on Cruz” events.
Last Monday, Senator Aaron Scherf, chairman of the committee and vice president-elect, asked for a brief discussion on the place of the committee in the future of SGA.
This discussion continued into the executive meeting and culminated with a vote in senate this week.
[pullquote speaker="Timothy Lewis, Senator-at-Large" photo="" align="right" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Simply put, I want to make sure SGA has a culture of every senator making the act of campus engagement their utmost priority.[/pullquote]
The main arguments against the committee were that it overstepped on roles SGA as a whole should be fulfilling and that the bylaws surrounding the committee were too restrictive.
“Simply put, I want to make sure SGA has a culture of every senator making the act of campus engagement their utmost priority,” said Senator-at-Large Timothy Lewis in a Facebook message.
Several senators, including Scherf, found that section 3 of the bylaws pertaining to Campus Engagement was too restrictive.
Senator Rebekah Fulton suggested drastic changes to the layout and operation of the committee.
“It needs to be more a delegating role than an initiative role,” Fulton said.
Several senators agreed that Campus Engagement could work with other committees more closely.
“The committee can still exist, just not in this way that we’ve had it operating,” Fulton said.
About halfway through the discussion, Harrison opened the floor to the gallery for feedback.
Correspondent Tyler Nielson spoke up to address what he called a misunderstanding about the Campus Engagement committee and how it operates in relation to SGA.
[pullquote speaker="Tyler Nielson" photo="" align="left" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]What I’ve seen [Campus Engagement] do is a little more versatile, a lot more subtle.[/pullquote]
“You can look at SGA kind of like a mountainside or a huge mountain, it’s got this presence about it. It’s amazing. It’s magnificent, but it’s also really daunting,” Nielson said. “What I’ve seen [Campus Engagement] do is a little more versatile, a lot more subtle. It’s like a forest that expands around the mountain and reaches out.”
The original motion was to remove Campus Engagement from the bylaws, which would essentially leave the standing committee with no guidelines until senate could revise the structure.
However, at the end of the discussion, Lewis, who had originally brought the motion up explained that his intention was to get rid of the committee as well.
This was the final motion that was voted on.
The motion needed a two-thirds majority vote to pass, but senate was split 11 in favor, 10 opposed, so the motion failed.
“I’m very open to changes, and I was happy we were discussing ways to serve the student body better,” Scherf said.
He explained that this lengthy debate goes to show just how much campus engagement means to SGA.
Scherf anticipates changes to the committee in the future.
“If you have something you wanna come talk to us about, feel free to come talk to us,” Scherf said.
(03/02/16 4:58pm)
Autism Speaks U Mercer University is the newest student organization on campus.
The motion to formally recognize the group passed unanimously in the Student Government Association Senate Monday evening resulted in an applause.
Led by Sam Osakue, Autism Speaks U will focus on bringing the Mercer community together to help raise awareness of Autism both locally and globally.
It was also said by Sophomore Senator Reed Jones that there are not any other organizations on campus that address autism, or do anything similar to Autism Speaks' mission .
Osakue's constitution explains the purpose for Autism Speaks as “engaging the campus community and the local community through awareness, education and fundraising and in so doing, positively affect the lives of those struggling with autism spectrum disorders and their families.”
The motion to recognize the group as an official campus organization was brought up in November by SGA's Campus Engagement committee. Osakue discussed partnering with a bigger national organization like Autism Speaks U back November.
“Sam is a friend of mine,” said Senator-at-Large Aaron Scherf, head of the Campus Engagement Committee, “so I was one of the first to encourage him to formalize the organization.”
Jones said during senate discussion that he thinks it is important to have a group that focuses on something that affects so many Mercer students’ lives.
This new student organization is open to all students.
It will sponsor a few small fundraisers along with one bigger fundraiser each semester.
There will be an interest meeting some time after Spring Break.
“It’s just another way bears go above and beyond to make a difference,” Scherf said.
(02/25/16 5:28am)
“Give a man a fish, he’ll live for a day. Teach a man to fish, he’ll live for a lifetime,” the blonde-haired, bright-eyed junior Hannah Smith said as she discussed long-term growth in developing nations.
Smith is a student at Mercer University with a big heart for service and a love for international travel.
The environmental engineer has already been on two Mercer On Missions (MOM), but she has a long history of international service.
In 2008, her dad took Smith, her sister and a small church group to Honduras for a mission trip. They returned each summer until Smith graduated high school.
They started out just doing a bible study, playing with kids and giving away clothes. Now they build wooden houses. Smith explained that the more she gave away, the more she realized that while giving was “awesome,” there were long-term side effects.
“The more you give, the more they become dependent on you,” Smith said. “But rather than giving away something, you could build them a house, which is much more long-term. Get them off their feet, literally off their backs and feet, and give them a place to call home.”
On an engineering preview day visit before she chose Mercer, Smith recalls that there was a MOM room set up where Laura Lackey, an engineering professor, was talking about water filters in Kenya. She was passionate not just about the work but the people in Kenya, too.
Smith said she stayed in that room for a solid hour. She fell in love with the program and so did her parents.
Her first Mercer On Mission took her to Uganda with Lackey. Smith said this trip changed her mind about a lot of things.
She started out teaching at a school with some other engineers for the first week. She also got to work with water testing.
“Literally, all you do is dip some strips in the water. I don’t know why, but I was just really excited about that,” Smith said.
This past summer Smith was able to join Lackey on the Kenya trip that she had fallen in love with freshmen year. Smith said she could talk about the topic of biosand filters all day.
She also sat down with local families to discuss how the water changes affected their health, income and living situation.
“Engineering life basically consumes your life,” Smith said with a smile. But somehow she still finds time to be a Peer Advisor (PA), play intramural flag football and be involved with the Wesley Foundation of Macon.
Although many students begin working as a PA their junior year, Smith has been a PA for the past two years and is hoping to continue the tradition her senior year.
Smith explained that being a PA is one of her favorite things that she is involved in on campus. She talked especially fondly of summer orientations.
“[Summer orientations] are great even though they’re literally all day long and your feet hurt, but it’s completely worth it,” she said.
She likes seeing her O-groupers grow as they move through college. She has two former O-groupers — one from her sophomore year and one from junior year — in classes with her this semester.
Smith has also been involved in the Wesley Foundation. Last year she led a Bible study, and this year she transitioned into the encouragement team.
She is currently working on monthly birthday parties for Wesley “because, I mean, who doesn’t love birthday parties because birthday parties come with cake and fun music and dancing,” she said.
Part of the reason she is so invested in Wesley is because it has become her home. Her “squad” from freshmen O-group has stuck together and still go to Wesley together.
One of the things that really drew her to Wesley was the worship.
“Katelyn Herman, our worship leader, is always on point,” Smith said.
She added that worshipping together has created a bond that cannot be broken between her and her friends.
Smith will spend another two years at Mercer pursuing her master’s degree.
“As you get older, you have more serious questions like, ‘What are you going to do with your life?’ But as you get older in college, the answer to that question becomes, ‘I don’t know.’ You’re just flying by the seats of your pants,” she said.
Her dream is to jump on with an NGO and go overseas to do mission work, especially through energy or clean water.
“We’ll see where God takes me,” she said.
(11/05/15 10:48pm)
Campus Engagement Committee Amendment
Senator Aaron Scherf has been working for several weeks now to develop legislation to create the new Campus Engagement committee. The committee is designed to act as a dedicated middle man between SGA and students at Mercer. Already, the group has been working on highlighting diversity and getting more athletes involved on campus. The amendment proposed Monday night is intended to encourage the committee to “act on what it hears,” Scherf said. The changes to section 4 were meant to promote and unify student organizations, especially departmental organizations. One aspect of this that not only will various organizations come to SGA to update senators on what they are doing, but SGA representatives will also be going out to these organizations to update them on what SGA is doing. The amendment passed Monday night, making the committee official according to the SGA bylaws.
Conference & Lodging Requests
Mercer International Mock Conferences Association (MIMCA) has two Conference & Lodging requests passed Monday night that totaled $6,090. Nearly $1,780 of that is going towards their Charleston conference and $4,310 is for their national conference in Washington, D.C.
MViet requested $561.80 In Conference and Lodging funding for their leadership retreat in the spring. After the representative read the retreat itinerary, and a debate took place about what qualifies as a conference, the motion failed, because senators said that leadership conferences can happen on campus, which negates the need for lodging funding.
Mercer App
Downloads of Mercer app spiked during homecoming from an average of 3 per day to 19 per day, totaling 1,188 downloads. Senator Williams said that those numbers were good.
Upcoming SGA events
Senate is addressing squat rack in gym this week
Aramark Survey has been posted for students to fill out
Car Safety event: Nov. 11 (checking oil, tires, etc.)
Campus Safety Walk: Nov. 11
Dean’s Council Nov. 19
Upcoming campus events
Paint the Town Orange Business of the month is Lemongrass Thai Bistro
Make-end Festival is Nov. 14-15. It is a makers convention for local vendors and will feature attractions including a 30 ft. fire-breathing robot.
Heritage Life Committee Christmas Tree Lighting working to be a more cohesive and engaging event for student organizations. After an Informal vote in senate, it’s decided that the coffee mugs this year will be Mercer spirit themed..
Last Bear Forum of the semester will be the last senate of the semester.
Mercer Maniacs are still planning bus to Furman for Nov. 14th game