The Bucknellian

By Jenni Whalen
Senior Writer

Three University students, Michelle Havrilla ’12, Jane Suglia ’14 and Alexa Widawsky ’14, qualified to compete in the national Phi Beta Lambda (PBL) conference in San Antonio, Texas on June 24-27, 2012. They secured their spots after successfully competing at the annual PBL Pennsylvania State Conference in Gettysburg, Pa. on March 30 – April 1.

“We had a great time at the conference and were really proud of everyone’s performances. It was great to listen to professionals share their ideas on topics ranging from project management to marketing, and we are looking forward to attending the fall conference in Philadelphia,” Suglia said. 

PBL is the collegiate division of Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), and is the nation’s largest student-run business organization. The organization works to prepare its members for success in business-related fields after school. As a first-year, Havrilla started a PBL chapter on campus. Now, four years later, many University students participate in PBL events like on-campus workshops, resume critiques, etiquette dinners, speaking events related to business topics and off-campus conferences.

Eight University PBL members attended the Gettysburg conference, which included competitions, speakers, workshops and networking opportunities with some of the top business professionals in the United States. At the conference, Suglia and Widawsky competed in a team event called Business Decision Making. The two students won second place and qualified for nationals. Havrilla competed in an Individual Public Speaking contest and won first place, securing her place at nationals as well.

“I am very excited and honored to have the opportunity to attend the PBL national conference this year! At the state level, I delivered a five-minute speech focusing on one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the 20th century, Walt Disney. Walt Disney’s determination, strength of character and commitment to making people happy are only a few of his many attributes that FBLA-PBL members should strive towards in their future endeavors,” Havrilla said.

After acting as president of PBL for three years, Havrilla has passed her position down to Alexa Widawsky ’14 this year. PBL continues to accept new members.

 

By Sara Blair Matthews
Assistant News Editor

Two University student groups have received a $10,000 Projects for Peace grant from the Davis Foundation. The grants will support the improvement of youth technology skills in Puerto Rico as well as a retreat aimed to empower youth through academic excellence and cultural awareness in Botswana. Both projects will be implemented starting in June.

Jose Saavedra ’13 and Stefan Ivanovski ’12 are the creators of the first program, “Puerto Rico Se Anima.” The program aims to teach creative thinking techniques and 2D animations to about 50 high school students from the Nuestra Escuela organization.

According to their website (http://www.latcreativa.org/prsa/), their goal is to “provide students with the necessary skills and tools so they can become active social agents of change within their immediate communities and the wider region of Latin America and the Carribean.”

Saavedra believes that the arts dignify the soul.

“For me the focus is a bit different. It’s all about giving back to people. I wanted to ground the arts in reality and further help [these kids] in the long run. [Hopefully, our project will] help foster a culture of teamwork, cooperation and leadership among the youth,” Ivanovski said.

The pair chose Puerto Rico for their project location because they believe life on islands is much more difficult because resources are not always readily available.

“There aren’t as many resources, shipping is difficult and [there is a shortage of technology available.] Also, Puerto Rico has the second biggest police force in the world. There is a lot of repressed violence,” Saavedra said.

Saavedra is selling his artwork for $5 a piece this week in the Elaine Langone Center Mall to raise more money for this project.

The second recipient of the Davis Foundation Projects for Peace grant is “Boloka Ngwao – Preserve Your Culture,” a program that aims to inspire tomorrow’s youth leaders from historical culture.

Lebo Letsie ’12 created the program. She came up with the idea through firsthand observation while living in Botswana.

“I saw this as an opportunity for positive change back home. [I hope] it will have long lasting effects and that it will inspire people to become leaders and do things for their community,” Letsie said. “[This program aims to] encourage youth to achieve more in life. We want to make them well-rounded individuals. Hopefully, [this program] will equip them with the skills to succeed in the future.”

As far as logistics go, the program is organized as a “retreat” that aims to “re-connect Botswana youth with their culture [and] equip them with basic leadership tools and skills that they will use as they transition into adulthood.” 

“Each day will have a past, present and a future component. There will be four groups of people with approximately 20 kids per group. Each of the four groups will go on a four-day retreat,” Letsie said.

Letsie believes it is important to give back to one’s community.

“I have been very fortunate because of other people’s kindness,” Letsie said.

More information about her program can be found at her website: http://www.lineofoundation.org/index.html

By Siobhan Murray

Writer

The results of the Bucknell Student Government Election are in. Voter turnout far exceeded that of the past several years and generated a group of elected students whose goals for student government focus on fundraising, class unity and visibility.

A total of 1,361 students turned out for elections, including 439 in the class of 2013, 357 in the class of 2014 and 565 in the class of 2015. The turnout may reflect BSG’s new strategy of emailing students to remind them to vote, rather than posting a reminder on the myBucknell webpage.

“I feel the new method of emailing students was more effective than the previous method. The overall turnout shows that students are concerned about having their voices heard and are exercising their democratic obligations,” President of BSG Executive Board Dotun Odewale said.

The elected class of 2013 president is Katie Golub, vice-president is Teddy Mottola and secretary/treasurer is Kenzie Raymond. The representatives for the upcoming senior class are Tim Bergen, Jennie Ciotti, Jesse Dondero, Jessica Gettel, Kamran Khan, Robert Kurtz, Sviatoslav Lesko, Rachel Litt and Mahilet Oluma.

“We will decide on a Senior Class Gift to donate to the University, as well as give the University recommendations on a Commencement speaker for our graduation. In addition, we will organize several ‘Senior Nights,’ which are fun events that serve as a great way to promote class unity,” Golub said.

Secretary/treasurer Raymond added that the “class congress has spent the last three years fundraising [for these goals].”

For the class of 2014, voters decided on Jeffery Finegan for president, Rachel Franz for vice-president and Julia Smith for Secretary/Treasurer. Kelsea Alderman, Daniel Bonilla, Kunga Dagpo, Ken Inoue, Ally Kebba, Maura McVeigh, Olesya Minina, Daniel Narvaez, Kyle Sullivan, Sophie Van Pelt and alternate Tyler Mclamb will make up the board of representatives.

“I plan on increasing the transparency of BSG and making it more effective in terms of being a voice of the student body,” Finegan said.

The class of 2015 elected Colin Hassell as president, Jen Lassen as vice-president and Will Persing as secretary/treasurer. Representatives for the class are Walker Brady, Chloe Drennen, Julia Goldman, Gloria Lee, Jared Lowenthal, Kevin Miller, CJ Moy, Carson Quigley, Michael Sahagian, Whitney Tatem and alternates Ben Garner and Kenia Lobo.

Hassell emphasizes the importance of fundraising for future senior year events.

“Our Class Congress is currently brainstorming ideas for a product, which we hope will be on sale by the early fall,” Hassell said.

The Congress also seeks to hold more class unity events such as another S’mores Night or class BBQs. “As far as visibility goes, I plan to continue to send out our class newsletter, the B15ON BRIEF,” Hassell said.

“I would like to increase student participation and interest in student government in order for students to have a stronger voice on campus,” Persing said.

“Many of the positions were uncontested, meaning that there was far fewer campaigning this year because there was less of a threat of people losing. There were also some very close races where a few candidate won by only a few votes which illustrates how important it is for students to vote and voice their opinions,” Vice-president of Administration of BSG Executive Board Clinton Kittrell said.

By Connor Small
Staff Writer

The creator of the “It Gets Better” Project spoke about his experiences growing up gay and his motivation for creating the video project in a speech on Monday.

Author Dan Savage founded the campaign with his husband Terry Miller in 2010 following the suicide of 15-year-old Billy Lucas as a result of homophobic bullying. Savage and Miller decided to create a YouTube video explaining their own personal struggles with growing up gay in hopes of reaching out to LBGT youth. The couple encouraged others to create their own testimonials describing how it got better for them and at the time, hoped for 100 videos. By January 2011, the project had over 5,000 user-created testimonials.

Savage is editorial director of Seattle newspaper The Stranger. He has written four books, appeared on numerous television networks and writes his own syndicated column called “Savage Love.” On Monday, he described growing up as a gay teen and explained in his own unique mix of blunt, crass humor and sharp intelligence the details of the project. Many times, he said, it is the teen’s own parents who bully and abuse children, and religion often plays a large role in the attempts to assist LGBT youth with their struggles.

 

Students found Savage’s words inspiring.

“I saw my first ‘It Gets Better’ video while I was abroad in London last fall. Then, coincidentally, Bucknell participated in the campaign last spring. I thought that there would be no better way to raise awareness about LGBT bullying and the ‘It Gets Better’ campaign then to have Dan Savage himself come and share his story! So working with Lambda and FLAGBT, I believe he came and gave a moving–and very open–talk about what it means to be gay and bullied, and why it needs to stop. His honesty coupled with a bit of humor, I think, was an excellent way for students to connect and engage with him,” Phil Kim ’12 said.

Other students appreciated Savage’s talk, but questioned whether he was preaching to the choir.

“It’s truly amazing how logical he was as he explained his motives and his success stories. However, the talk would have been more useful if more bigots had come,” Evan Kaufman ’12 said.

During the Q&A session, one student asked how we as students can get involved and help LGBT students on campus, to which Savage said: “You’re doing it by being here.”

For more information on the “It Gets Better” Project, go to www.itgetsbetter.org

 

By Amanda Ayers

News Editor

 

Randy Roberts Potts recounted his emotional story “Growing up Gay and Christian: How I Lived to Tell the Tale” in Trout Auditorium Wednesday night. Potts spoke about coping with being gay as the grandson of the first world-famous televangelist, Oral Roberts. He specifically delved into his quest to piece together the life of his gay and mysterious Uncle Ronnie, a tortured soul whose story mirrored Potts’ in every way except that Ronnie ultimately chose to commit suicide.

“[When I was young] I was told that God hates [people being gay] so much that he burned entire cities because of it. I knew this related to me but not how,” Potts said.

Potts told many stories of his childhood and explained the family dynamic. His grandfather was a worldwide celebrity, so well known that people from India could write only “Oral Roberts” on an envelope and the letter would miraculously get delivered to the family compound, one of their many homes.

“[My grandfather] was the kind of man that when he walked into the room, everyone knew he was there,” Potts said.

Potts’ parents made sure to instill their strict Christian values in their children from a young age. They sensed that Randy was gay early on, and because  they could not reconcile it with their religious beliefs, they  tried to eradicate any behaviors that reminded them of his deceased uncle’s.

“We were allowed to listen to the Beatles until after the album ‘Help’ where apparently, according to my parents, they went weird,” Potts said. 

Despite pressures from his family and self-denial, Potts admitted to being the “seventh-grade gay kid at an evangelical Christian school.” He had five crushes on boys in middle school. If he had felt this way about girls, he would have been welcomed and understood by his family. But to like the wrong gender was an “abomination.”

“Feelings is all they were. They were unasked for, unwelcome and unknown,” Potts said.

His parents got rid of Potts’ stuffed animals, for example, except one that Potts was able to hide and “keep in the closet,” and did everything they could to keep Potts from following in his uncle’s footsteps, which they could see he was unintentionally but undeniably doing. Potts did not know about his uncle’s sexuality until after the suicide. Both Potts and his uncle were married at 20, had children who they were terrified of leaving, became teachers, came out as being gay and then became suicidal. Their paths diverged when Potts made the decision not to end his life.

“I knew I wasn’t going to turn out like my uncle because I wanted to live,” Potts said. “I do not want to be wasted underground. This is not for me.”

Potts shared a letter that he wrote to his uncle and read aloud the night before he officially came out to his family. In it, he expressed his anger at his uncle for leaving him alone to cope with his sexuality and not considering the repercussions of his selfish decision to take a pistol to the heart.

“I would have held you in my arms if I had been a man at the time,” Potts read. “Why must that bullet be the only example you left me?”

After having officially come out six years ago, Potts is in a happy place in his life. He divorced his wife but still has custody of his children and gets to see them regularly. He has dated many men and will be officially married in May after a judge in New York signs his paperwork.

“I’m happy, I’m gay, but I’m not defined by my sexuality. I’m just another guy living his life, raising his kids, who happens to be gay.”

The talk was free and open to the public, and was sponsored by Chi Phi Fraternity, the Office of LGBT Awareness, the Office of Multicultural Student Services, the Dean of Students Office, Bucknell Protestant Ministries, Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council.

In addition, Potts has recently become involved in the “It Gets Better Project,” recording a video for the campaign and contributing to their recent book containing a compilation of successful coming out stories. He will be actively touring the country, starring in a new performance art piece entitled, “The Gay Agenda.”