Story and Photo by Kaitlin Vonderschmitt

A chorus of “Woman Warrior” began as the rookie from Western Kentucky’s Women’s Rugby team touched down the ball, scoring a try during a rough game of eight man rugby.

Woman Warrior is exactly who freshman photojournalism major Chyna Boykin, 18, of Clarksville, Tenn., said she aspires to be.

This rugby player started out on ballet and tap shoes instead of cleats, and took modeling and acting classes instead of going to rugby practice.

However, she said she gladly traded her make-up in for a plethora of sports equipment, including tennis rackets, softballs, basketballs, and running shoes.

“I love rugby I didn’t think I could ever play because girls can’t play football,” she said.

Boykin said rugby is a newly discovered passion. This is her second semester on the team.

She plays lock, a vital part of the scrum, which occurs when each team binds together forming a tunnel for the ball. The lock is often referred to as the engine room, and provides stability and power to the scrum, according to rugbyrugby.com.

Boykin said this is a position that she was familiar playing at home as well. Especially since her parents divorced when she was 12, leaving her mother to take care of six children.

“I have always been the tough one in the family, and tried to be the support and muscle to show that I can be the man,” Boykin said.

Boykin said she hopes this passion and muscle will come in handy in her goal of becoming a National Geographic photographer.

She said she loves to be outside and to travel, and if she could, right now she would be hiking in a rainforest, rather than stuffed in a classroom all day.

Chyna Boykin

Photojournalist Rugby Warrior

While she does not have a hero at National Geographic, because of her “I can do better” attitude, she said her mom is her biggest hero.

Boykin said she has seen her mother get a lot of stuff thrown at her as a single mother, health teacher, and tennis coach.

“She is the strongest woman I know,” Boykin said, adding that she would like to be as strong as her mom one day.

“My mom always says, ‘When you’re sick and tired and tired of being sick and tired, you’ll do something about it,’ so I live my life by it. I get up and do something about it,” Boykin said.

After graduating from Western, Boykin said she wants to travel to China and Japan in search of something new.

“If dinosaurs are alive, I’m gonna find them,” she joked.

Student: Kaitlin Vonderschmitt

Professor: Dr. Paula Quinn

Course: JOURN202: Intro into Media Writing

“It’s not about my happiness, it’s about other people’s,” Amber Plunkett said.  “I believe volunteering really does make a difference.”

Plunkett, a freshman from Clarksville, Tenn., said she has been volunteering ever since she was a child.

“I remember visiting nursing homes when I was in first grade with my Girl Scout troop.  Some of the older residents reminded me so much of my granny,” Plunkett explained.

“Later, I found out some of them had the devastating Alzheimer’s disease, and ever since then I have supported and helped out Alzheimer’s Research in any way that I can,” she recalled.

She also supports the Salvation Army, American Red Cross and Habitat-for-Humanity.

Her favorite volunteer opportunity comes once a year: the American Cancer Society’s Relay-for-Life.

Plunkett said she wholeheartedly believes that one day a cure will be found for cancer.

“Several close people in my life have died from the awful disease,” she said, naming her uncle, a friend from high school, and her boyfriend’s mother. “There’s just no reason for that.”

Her positive attitude and optimism towards a brighter future cannot be ignored by those around her.

Amber Plunkett

Real Tennessee Volunteer

“Amber is the definition of selfless and always puts others first,” Plunkett’s childhood friend, Allison Miller, said.  “She has already impacted the world greatly through her donations of time and resources to others.”

Plunkett’s classmate, Casey Banister, also had positive things to say about the volunteer’s personality.

“She is so dedicated to everything that she does,” Banister said.  “I wish I could be more like her and manage my time so well while still being able to give back to the community.”

Plunkett said she strives to maintain her morals, along with a high GPA and hopes of being a successful journalist one day.

“I really want to work for a magazine, particularly a fashion one,” she said. “I want to help others and I want to be successful.  I can’t imagine partaking in anything that could possibly ruin my future.”

What’s the worst thing she’s ever done?

She laughed.

“I once checked out twelve books from my local library, and almost a year later I received a notice saying I owed them $90 in fines. I had completely forgotten to return them.”

Despite this small lapse in memory, Plunkett is very organized and maintains a balance between her academics, her job at Old Navy, her social life, and of course, her volunteering.

“She is time efficient and does not procrastinate,” Plunkett’s current teacher, Jessica McClanahan, said.  “Because of this, she excels and will go far in life.”

Student: Bethany Riggs

Professor: Dr. Paula Quinn

Course: JOUNR202: Intro into Media Writing

STORY AND PHOTO BY: Natasha A. Simmons

BOWLING GREEN, Ky.–The Bible Belt is less Baptist and The Rust Belt is less Catholic, but more people have dug into spiritual frontiers or fallen off the faith ladder.

Is the lack of faith in the American household the cause?

The American Religious Identification Survey found the percentage of people who identify themselves as Christian has dropped more than 11 percent, while 12 percent of contemporary Americans believe in a deist or pagan concept of the Divine as a higher power.

Western Kentucky University sophomore Kaitlin Vonderschmitt, 19, of Louisville, says she follows a pagan religion called Norse.

Norse paganism is a religious tradition that originated in the Nordic countries during Christianization in Northern Europe toward the end of the Viking Age.

The goddess of love and fertility, Lady Freya, is the main divine figure in the Norse religion, and it is to the goddess that Vonderschmitt prays.

“I’ am just in the pursuit of being a high priestess under her, which basically means being a leader,” she said of Lady Freya.

When she was finishing her senior year in high school, she said she found strength from Lady Freya.

“I had to deal with leaving my twin brother and the rest of my family coming to a strange new place,” Vonderschmitt said.

Vonderschmitt was introduced to Norse by her oldest brother who she says is an Odinist–a person of the Norse religion who prays to Odin, an Aesir god, and the head of the Norse temple.

Vonderschmitt says she is not Christian and her family isn’t religious. They didn’t go to church when she and her three brothers, Benjamin, 22, her twin, Kenny, and Timmy, 18, were younger.

“I never really had a connection with God.  I tried, because my mom was upset because I didn’t choose Christianity as my religion.   I am a baptized Lutheran, but I never had that connection,” Vonderschmitt stated.

She said that her biggest influence in her life is her oldest brother.

“He’s helped me through religious stuff….helped me find another path,” Vonderschmitt said.

Vonderschmitt is part of a nuclear family-a family with a mom, dad, and children.

Nuclear families are more likely to attend church than single-parent families, according to Amy Argue, David R. Johnson and Lynn K. White in “Age of Religiosity: Evidence from a Three-Wave Panel Analysis” in the Journal from the Scientific Study of Religion.

Rather than going to church on Sundays, Vonderschmitt said that Sundays for her family were a day of rest from their busy schedules.

“We have school, soccer practice, or whatever scouting event we had.  It was always kind of like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to sleep in,’ “ Vonderschmitt said.

Kaitlin Vonderschmitt

Follower of Lady Freya

Vonderschmitt added that she shopped around before finding the Norse religion.

A group of seven to 11 of Vonderschmitt’s friends come together to celebrate the Norse holidays every two months, she said.

They only meet every two months instead of weekly.

She said the group meets, talks about things in their lives, and then gives thanks for the food on the table.

“It’s more of a focus on the old ways….” Vonderschmitt noted.

Student: Natasha Simmons

Professor: Dr. Paula Quinn

Course: JOURN202: Intro into Media Writing

Story and picture

By Chyna Boykin

Bowling Green, Ky. — a 19,year old freshman at Western Kentucky University has made it her lifelong dream to impact the media world, with her sights set high on showing the pop culture world that there is more to life then what Britney spears did with her hair.

Natasha Simmons, a news-editorial journalism major who is fascinated with the pop culture scene, has started making her life journey at WKU.

Simmons’ fascination with writing started after she made it a game with her friends in the 5^th grade. Simmons would take the drawings her friends did and write stories to go along with them.

“I knew then that I would have a job one day writing in magazines like Seventeen and Rolling Stone,” Simmons said.

Simmons grew up with her divorced mother, Ronalyn C. Simmons, and her grandmother, Josephine Richardson.

“My grandmother actually told me about the program here at WKU,” Simmons said. “She worked here at WKU before she passed away my junior year in high school.”

Simmons recalled how close she and her grandmother were.

“I remember we use to order a pizza and have our own movie night,” she said. “She was my best friend.”

After her grandmother died, Simmons said that going to WKU was like living in memory of her grandmother.

Simmons said she hopes to take her media-writing dream and raise it to levels higher than she has ever imagined.

“I want my writing profession to also take me toward my other interest, like dance or acting,” Simmons said.

She gives credit for her positive attitude and strong will to her mother.

“If it wasn’t for her and how strong her faith is, I wouldn’t have the strong faith I have now,” she said

Natasha Simmons, would love to meet Jesus, but said the Jonas Brothers will do just fine

Student: Chyna Boykin

Professor: Dr. Paula Quinn

Course: JOURN202: Intro into Media Writing

Story and Photo by Chelsea Moulden

Many people dream of becoming an actor, but few people are courageous enough to take the risk like Western Kentucky University sophomore Liz Floore.

Floore’s passion for the stage flourished in Sacred Heart Academy’s theater and choir programs and Trinity High School’s theater program in Louisville.

She attended the University of Kentucky during the 2008-2009 academic year with plans to become a dietician, but quickly realized she wanted something different.

“It just hit me that I didn’t want to be that 40-year-old mom that is watching a musical and wishing I had done that,” she said.

She made the change to Western Kentucky University’s theater program in 2009, choosing a double major in musical theater and public relations.

“My parents are really supporting me.  They are behind me 100 percent,” she said.

Floore had her first singing performance in 7^th grade.  She played Glinda in a production of The Wizard of Oz and sang “If you Believe” from the hit musical The Wiz.

“Being on stage is where I feel the most at home,” she said. “It scares the crap out of me, but the thrill gets me every time I do it.”

Floore’s passion for performing also includes singing.

“When I am on vocal rest I’m not myself at all.  When I can’t sing I’m not happy,” she explained.

Since starting at WKU, Floore has acted in Steel Pier as Rita Racine, a professional marathon dancer, and sang a solo in Putting it Together.  Most recently, she played Celia Duke in Like You Like It.

She also helped to write The Eros Complex, an original work written and produced by WKU students, and acted in it as herself.

“Acting is a lot harder than I originally ever could imagine.  It’s something that doesn’t come easy to me, but I want to get better at it,” she said.

It is really easy to act out emotions, Floore said, but it is harder to figure out the motivations and behavior of some characters.

After graduating, Floore said her dream is to move to New York City and become the quintessential starving artist.

“I’ve never been so excited to be poor in my entire life,” she said.

She is hoping to perform on Broadway, acting in her favorite musicals: [title of show] and The Last Five Years.

Floore is realistic, though.  She knows the financial challenges those in her chosen profession can face.

“It’s one of the things I had to come to terms with,” she admitted, and it is part of the reason why she had chosen to major in public relations as well.

Floore doesn’t want to waste her time as a student, and knows how to balance her time.

Her public speaking professor, Jenna Haugen, said Floore is an “exceptional student” who is “well prepared” and “always the first to volunteer.”

“She is very passionate about acting and that talent shows when she gives her speeches,” Haugen said.

Floore’s roommate, Ali Edelstein, calls living with her a daily adventure.

“Some days she’s super happy, sometimes super sad, but she always expresses all of her emotions well. It’s like living with a character in a play; it’s always entertaining,” she explains.

Most of all, Floore said she is just happy to be acting.

“How often,” she pondered, “do you get to do what you love every single day?”

Student: Chelsea Moulden

Professor: Dr. Paula Quinn

Course: JOURN202: Intro into Media Writing

“Somehow all this scribbling below turned into a portrait. I wrote it all before I ever made a phone call to set things up.”

After completing his probational first year as a City of Bowling Green firefighter, Andy Shultz, 25, admits that he still loves jumping on the truck and going for runs. “I don’t want to wish bad on anyone, but I love doing my job,” said Shultz. Not going home at the end of the day has been the hardest part of becoming a firefighter for Shultz. “It throws a wrench into your normal life,” Shultz said. “Living with ten guys is… different,” he said while laughing.

Student: Daniel Houghton www.danielhoughton.com

Professor: Jeanie Adams-Smith

Course: Journalism 436: Advanced Studio Lighting

By: Lauren White

Trying to let people see what they wouldn’t see otherwise is the driving factor of an internationally recognized photojournalist who presented Wednesday at Western Kentucky University.
David Hume Kennerly, who showcased his work and told stories to a full house of about 200 students and faculty in the Mass Media and Technology Hall auditorium, said that this driving factor has been a motivation for him throughout his career.
“Great photos are great photos. It’s the eye behind the lens, really, that counts,” he said.
The audience burst into laughter at a few of Kennerly’s comments about his more humorous pictures.
“People didn’t really think Nixon had much of a humor. Actually he didn’t. Pictures can be deceiving,” he said about his picture of the former president making a funny face as he played the piano.
Other photographs have also been his motivation, Kennerly said.
The Roseburg, Ore., native has accomplished much during his career, including winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for his photographs from the Vietnam War, becoming President Ford’s personal photographer in 1974 and winning an Emmy for his NBC production of “Shooter.”
Most recently Kennerly co-produced with Bob McNeely, “Barack Obama: The Official Inaugural Book.”
His works range widely from photos of the Supremes in 1966 to First Lady Betty Ford dancing on the Cabinet table in the White House where officials make decisions that affect people worldwide, to shots during the Vietnam War, where he spent two and a half years.
When talking about his photos of soldiers in Vietnam among tanks and guns, Kennerly said he was “showing the loneliness and desolation of war.”
MORE

After the speech, Richard Weigel, a professor in the history department at WKU, shared his most memorable moment from the speech.
“I remembered most from the speech the photo of President Sadat with the pyramids,” he said about Kennerly’s profile picture of the former president of Egypt.
Rebecca Ferguson, a freshman from Woodburn, Ky., who is majoring in advertising, was also in attendance.
“I thought he was very helpful and gave good advice for photojournalism majors,” she said.
After the Canon Inc.-sponsored speech, posters of one of Kennerly’s Vietnam photographs of a lone soldier went on sale with the proceeds going to the 9/11 Scholarship Fund.
The scholarship fund will receive about $250 after the sales are complete, according to James Kenney, the photojournalism program coordinator at WKU.
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Student: Lauren White

Professor: Dr. Paula Quinn

Course: Journalism 202: Introduction to Media Writing

By Bethany Riggs

An expert businessman said that communication is vital for crises that occur in the business world, in a lecture at Russell Miller Theater in Ivan Wilson’s Fine Arts Center on March 18^th, 2010.

President and CEO  Stan Bikulege, of Hilex Poly Co. in North Vernon, In., told a group of almost 200 students, faculty and staff about the importance of communication.

“You have to get the problem out there. Let everyone know about it,” he said.  “Without communication how else is it ever going to be resolved?”

Bikulege has held a number of executive positions for both public and private companies in various industries, such as Exopack LLC, Pliant Corp., Arsenal Capital and Renaissance Mark. He said he has pulled many of them out of debt and saved thousands of jobs.

“One of the most important keys in turning a leverage company around is to be prepared for anything,” Bikulege said.  “If you don’t prepare yourself, you fail. Then you have no one to blame but yourself.”

He also said that leadership is necessary for communication, and that there are certain characteristics a good leader must have to run an effective company like integrity, fairness, the

ability to listen, work with people and make decisions, and to create an environment where people can have fun.

Bikulege closed his speech with the life principles he lives by.

“Listen with your heart,” he said. “Treat others the way you want to be treated. Communicate. Repeat.”

The highlight of the speech for Whitney Churchman, a communication studies major from Cecilia, Ky., was about the views of Bikulege on leadership.

“His emphasis on integrity really impacted me,” she said, “because I realized how important it is to treat everyone equally. You really can’t differentiate based on social status or employee level.”

Justin Pile, a sophomore from Bardstown, Ky., enjoyed the speech as well and said he agrees with Bikulege that if people would confront their problems as they came, many bad situations could be avoided.

The presentation was sponsored by the Department of Communication, the Student Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators, and the Communication Ambassadors.

Student: Bethany Riggs

Professor: Dr. Paula Quinn

Course: Journalism 202: Introduction to Media Writing

Founded in spring 2004, Imagewest is housed in WKU’s Mass Media and Technology Hall and provides services such as consulting, graphic design, Web site development, research, focus groups, image building, press releases and event planning. Since its inception, Imagewest has worked with more than 150 clients, including international organizations in Malaysia and Spain.

Imagewest is about more than just awards and prestige, however. It’s about giving students a hands-on experience and enhancing what they learn in the classroom. Each semester, 10-12 interns are selected for the agency. They work as a team on projects from conception to completion.

If you’re looking to stand out from the crowd, look no further than Imagewest. The agency is now accepting applications for the spring 2010 semester. If you think you have what it takes, learn more and download an application at www.wku.edu/imagewest. Although the agency accepts applications year-round, the deadline for the spring 2010 semester is November 3.

Get ready. Your future is calling.

By Emily Frankenburger

Trapagnier suggests that we increase our racial awareness, meaning that we pay closer attention to how the minorities around us may be feeling and also keeping in mind that “racism has a connection to everybody’s life.” There has been a shift in paradigm about racism. Racism as we consider it is blatant and brash, like the pre-civil rights era, loaded with KKK and third reich symbolism. Instead, the racism that we predominantly deal with today is very silent and subtle. Trepagnier suggests that this is normal and it plays into our awareness of racial reality but that it is still our responsibility to interrupt racism when we come across it. The moment that we consider ourselves and our communities above racism, we risk ignoring race all-together, which, in an idealized world, would eradicate racism, but in reality only heightens it. Check out the short video above to watch Trapagnier’s discussion about