By Michael Zechella In a mockumentary-style film, the students in Journalism demonstrate the activities that occur on an average week at GSP. Video recorded by Tyler Wayman, Makayla Mastin, Cameron McCullough, Noah Cameron, and Michael Zechella. Video edited by Michael Zechella.
0 Comments
By Amelia Lanier For the past few weeks, scholars have rarely been able to escape the watchful, T.J Eckleburg-esque eyes displayed on posters reading the now infamous line, “Centre is the Styx, coursing with knowledge.” Since almost the beginning of GSP, these posters have been popping up in every building on campus, pinned bulletin boards, taped behind doors, and even stuck inside of dorm bathrooms. All the while, the person(s) behind it all had yet to come forward, leaving scholars to speculate, thoerize, and investigate.
It has been clear from the beginning that in order to successfully create and hang up posters on the scale that we have seen, a group effort would be necessary, leading to the likelihood that these were the actions of a focus area, general studies, or club. Earlier theories have accused multiple focus areas, most notably the creative writing focus area, which would be a reasonable conclusion considering the poetic nature of the posters. However, no clear evidence came to support this theory, and like many possibilities that scholars discussed, it never left the realm of speculation. Scholars Ethan Hutchcraft and Brenna Lamburt were not satisfied with simple speculation. “If you saw us running around campus with posters, we weren’t insane, we were just investigating,” stated Brenna, when recalling their investment in uncovering the poster’s source. Ethan’s first investigation focused on the eyes located on the bottom of the poster, which strongly resemble the eyes of Dr. T.J Eckleburg, from the classic novel The Great Gatsby. Unfortunately, Ethan was unable to find anything in the Centre’s library copy of The Great Gatsby, but after discussing his search with other scholars, received a note under his door the next day, written on the back of yet another poster. In a dramatic moment, both Ethan and Meg [], a scholar who found another note inside her backpack, came forward to share their writing at GSPs poetry night, on Thursday, July 6th. These mysterious notes contained the same spirit of the original--cyriptic poetry focusing on the idea of Centre, “the water,” and “the land.” After these events, both Ethan and Brenna became fully invested in finding out the identity of the people behind the posters. Brenna and Ethan searched for more posters containing notes that could be used as clues in their investigation, and it soon became clear that whoever was responsible was aware of this. The first notable red herring Brenna and Ethan were challenged with came in the form of a poem referencing a penny, which they immediately related to the statue of Abe Lincoln located infront of Crowne. After thoroughly searching the statue, and dropping multiple pennies into its pockets, Brenna and Ethan had to acknowledge that what they believed to be their next lead was actually a dead end. At this point, Brenna and Ethan had to acknowledge they were being played. Things took a turn, however, when Brenna noticed a member of their hall walking out of Northside, and found another poster on the inside of their suite’s door immediately after. After confronting this person, Brenna received a confession that the source of the posters and the mystery surrounding them is the general studies group: Going Viral. Another admission later came from scholar and member of Going Viral, Maddie Dooley. In Going Viral, scholars have been reading Now is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson, a book about two teens who spread mysterious posters throughout their town. This general studies class has been examining how pieces of media go viral, and wanted to see if they could achieve the same level of popularity within GSP. The poem displayed on the poster’s front is not as deep or cryptic as some scholars may have thought, but was created by a combination of individual messages written by each scholar in Going Viral. Despite the poster’s more sinister appearance, its true message is hopeful and reminiscent of GSP’s core purpose. When describing this message, Maddie stated, “As scholars, we are the water that is going to help the world.” Essentially, the poster communicates that after leaving GSP, scholars will become a part of what brings change and improvement to the world. Individual notes on the back did not contain the same message, and were mostly used to confuse scholars who were invested in uncovering Going Viral’s secret. Maddie explained that, “[the poems] were a way to get people to be more interactive with the posters by picking them up and seeing if there’s something on the back, or trying to decode it even if there's nothing to decode.” Maddie elaborated on this, explaining that once the group had discovered Ethan and Brenna’s interest in the posters, they “wanted to give them attention to keep them interested, but also throw them off.” Maddie also described the logistics of distributing posters while protecting Going Viral’s secret. Surprisingly, no posters were put up during classtime in order to avoid being spotted in a situation that they couldn’t talk themselves out of. Going Viral scholars also had to protect their secret in conversation. “We didn’t tell anyone what it was, because we wanted to let the imagination run wild, but if someone were to say that it was a general studies, we would try to redirect them to something else,” Maddie explained. This “something else'' was usually a focus area class in order to distract scholars from the possibility that a general studies class such as Going Viral could be responsible. The majority of focus area theories are rooted in these misdirections. Overall, Maddie felt that her classes work in Going Viral made her connections with her classmates special. “It was almost an ice breaker… We didn’t really bond as a group until after the poster was starting to come to life, we started hanging them up and creating this big puzzle that everyone was so psyched about…It was fun to be part of a little secret, and it made our class closer.” Whether you were on the inside of this mystery or the outside, an investigator or someone who threw away every poster you saw, we all got to experience the intrigue that Going Viral brought to Centre GSP. By Libby Clifton Greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, exhaustion of natural resources, and soil depletion. These are just a few issues that arise from modern farming techniques and food production. How do we even begin to solve these problems? That starts with the Biological and Environmental Issues focus area here at Centre GSP.
This year’s biology class, led by Thomas Reed, has been exploring sustainable and regenerative farming practices, and how they can benefit our lives. When I had the opportunity to sit in on the class, scholars worked on posters that showcase beneficial farming techniques that could be implemented in their own communities. For example, one team’s project displayed the idea of creating a community garden in Chickasaw Park in Louisville, Kentucky. This garden would increase participation and awareness of the agriculture industry in urban areas, as well as create a healthier, more sustainable method of food production. This focus area also created their own aquaponics system. Aquaponics is a mode of aquaculture in which the waste of fish supplies nutrients to plants grown hydroponically, which in turn purifies the water. This method is a perfect example of regenerative farming, as each component is beneficial and supportive of one another. The scholars in the Biological and Environmental Issues focus area are challenging ideas and breaking down barriers within the agriculture industry and I am so excited to see them change the world for the better. By Brennen Adams
Below are photos taken during the Happiness Day event put on by the Psychology Focus Area scholars. Photos credit Brennen Adams. By Brennen Adams
Below are photos taken at the University of Kentucky on the Journalism Focus Area field trip. Photos credit Brennen Adams. By Brennen Adams
Below are photos of the Geography of Genius General Studies Field Trip to Furnace Mountain. Photos credit Brennen Adams. By Yessenia Barajas In Marie Price’s general studies class, we have been studying how to survive on an island if we were ever shipwrecked, inspired by the 1960’s sitcom, Gilligan’s Island. We learned about skills ranging from purifying water to harnessing wind for electrical power. For example, one class we went to the library to research things like where freshwater sources could be found, and later that day we were developing and testing a makeshift filter. We were given a cut-open water bottle to use as the main filter, and we had access to various other materials, including cloths, face masks and coffee filters to pour clean water through. And when we were done, we tested them by placing dirty rocks at the top of the filter to see how clean the water could come out at the end. After all the experiments, we began our final project in Week 4 -- Boats! Out of just cardboard, packing, and duct tape, every group has a fully functioning boat that will be paddled across the on-campus pool with oars. In the beginning of this project, everyone traded their designs individually and then combined ideas with our group members. We then used scaled pieces of cardstock to have handheld models of our boats to use for reference during the real construction. In our last class this Thursday, we will see which classmates escape the island! Marie’s class was a phenomenal time. Throughout my time in this class, I have learned that the often dreaded science experiments in school do not have to be that way! This connected to a big theme at GSP that I love -- learning just for the sake of it.
By Hayley Hoffman
This week in the Journalism/Mass Media focus area, we...
We are so proud of our fourth edition of the GSPost, though not as proud as we are of each other's work. We hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as we've enjoyed producing it each week. By Jack Jurjans “I wish there was a way to know you were in the ‘good old days,’ before you’ve actually left them.” - The Office
To ignore that our time at GSP is coming to a close is to ignore reality. We’ve been told since the very beginning to cherish the five weeks we had together because time would go quickly. And yet, even though we acknowledged that we were in some of the best weeks of our lives, we couldn’t stop them from passing us by. No matter how mentally prepared you may be, the sands of time still sink through the cracks of your hand faster than you can realize. It’s simply a fact of life. A proper piece of journalism wouldn’t use personal pronouns, but ironically, the most GSP-centric piece I’ve published yet will be the least academic. This one is personal. So, hi. I’m Jack. I’m the guy behind the words you’ll read here, but as for the most wise and insightful words in this piece, I am simply the one collecting and documenting them. Endings are a time for reflection because without reflection, it was all simply a strand of time removed from the rest of your life with nothing to gain from. It may not be academic to reflect, because personal life is all very interpretive and mysterious, but it is intellectual. It is this that inspires my confidence that all scholars have the capacity to look back on GSP in a meaningful way. I have been around campus pulling scholars aside and asking them the same singular, introspective question: “What is one thing you’ve learned about yourself at GSP?” The purpose of this piece is to give you some of those answers, individual thoughts that might inspire some reflection of your own with enough marination and rumination. So, without further eggheadery, here are some scholarly answers: Q: “What is one thing you’ve learned about yourself at GSP?” “Being around all these different people for five weeks has taught me a very valuable lesson about how to value someone else’s life. It’s very important that we don’t shut each other off because, at the end of the day, we’re all in this together.” - Tyler Wayman “I’m more than I can be at home. I go to a small school, and I’ve felt very limited because of that my entire life. So being here and getting to forge a new identity of myself, it’s helped my self esteem because I know I’m more than what people can find me as.” -Janelle Pitmon “I don’t fit into a small little box. I can be a lot of things all at once and I can be friends with a lot of different people, and I think that really changes my life and gives me a lot more opportunities.” -Ben Falk “That’s a tough question to throw at me in the middle of a party event, Jack! [...] Most of all I’m learning how to stand on my own. I’m old enough within myself to be my own person, to be resilient on my own without always having to rely on people for validation and for something to look to. I can be successful within my own right, I can make a name for myself, I can wake up and be there for myself.” -Noah Cameron “There’s more people around who are like me than I thought.” -Anonymous “People really aren’t that different from each other. All things considered, we’re all the same” -Felix Rogers “I have the ability to be social, like, for example, I’ve been to all three dances. I’ve never been to a dance in high school. I skipped Prom, skipped Homecoming, skipped everything. But, if I talk to people, I have the ability to be social and make new friends like I have here. So when I go, I’ll try being more outgoing and make more friends back home.” -Michael Zechella “While I’m an introvert, I can still enjoy being around people if they’re people who bring me joy.” -Anonymous Scholar We all learned a lot in this shared experience, and what speaks to that is that so many of our reflections overlap. There’s a running theme that there are people like us out there. There’s a place for us here at Centre, and we’re about to leave it behind. We’ll search for another place like it for the rest of our lives and while some of us may find it, others may not. But it doesn’t really matter because either way, we’ll always have Danville. But that truth coexists with another layer, something I learned. There really are opportunities to meet like-minded people, and those people do exist. But “like-minded” is not “same-minded.” There is no magical place where everyone will think like I do. No matter where I go, no matter how much the setting fits me and allows me to thrive, my quirks will still be quirks and I’ll still have plenty of traits that set me apart. Remaining different among people who are supposedly just like you really does make a universal truth set in. Nobody is the same, and once you really swallow that pill, it's a beautiful truth. As we accept the rougher truth, that GSP is coming to a close, we can ease the pain by remembering what we’ve learned here. After all, if we don’t retain gained knowledge, why did we ever come here? Happy trails, Jack Jurjans By Hayley Hoffman
This week in the Journalism/Mass Media focus area, we...
We are so proud of our third edition of the GSPost and hope you enjoy reading it as much as we did producing it. |
|