“Protest was really all anyone wanted to talk about—these particular ones, distant ones in the past, why they were happening, and how people felt about them,” says Metcalf, an anthropology major from Seattle, Washington.

The first demonstration she saw, Metcalf explains, was meant to highlight the lack of affordable housing on the university campus for poor black students. “I just started asking questions, and that sort of blossomed into me doing broader research.”

In early May, about a year after returning from South Africa, Metcalf, presented her senior honors thesis —“Death of a Dream: Race, Colonialism, and the Politics of Space on University Campuses in South Africa”—as a culmination of her anthropological fieldwork.

Each year as their final semester at the University comes to a close, seniors across disciplines pull together their final research projects and honors theses.��Many students in the social sciences and humanities have spent much of their senior year pursuing intensive semester- and year-long research projects on domestic as well as global issues.

“The seniors explore topics for which they have an intellectual passion, then face down problems that are less defined than what they have typically found in the classroom,” says Steven Manly, a professor of physics who serves as the director of undergraduate research in the College. “In that way, the senior projects are the pinnacle of the students’ education at the URochester.”

Nina Baek ’17, a major also from Seattle, pursued a senior honors thesis in linguistics focusing on dialect discrimination in the American criminal justice system. Specifically, she looked at how African American Vernacular English (AAVE), a dialect spoken in many black communities, was interpreted by white juries.

“People have a generally negative perception of the dialect, and it leads a lot of juries to dismiss witness testimony or to have negative biases towards people that they’re judging,” Baek says, explaining her findings.

In addition to researching the scholarly literature, Baek recruited a participant from Rochester’s 19th Ward who spoke AAVE. Baek recorded their 16-minute conversation, transcribed it, and asked University undergraduates who were not familiar with AAVE to transcribe the interviews themselves. She found that the students didn’t recognize certain elements of AAVE grammar—likely, she concluded, because their own dialect didn’t have these elements.

“There are a lot of racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and not only do we have a disproportionate amount of minorities going through the system, but the actual process of criminal trials is making it even worse,” says Baek, who plans to continue to pursue this research following her year as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Belgium next year.

While Metcalf and Baek performed mostly qualitative analyses, other social science students relied more on quantitative methods. Max Eber ’17, a and dual major from Brooklyn, New York, started his economics honors thesis with the premise that income inequality in the United States has been persistent. Wanting to explain why, he designed a study of income inequality in different congressional districts, comparing voter turnout and income bias in voter turnout.

“The idea is that, theoretically, if we vote in our own [economic] self-interest, the candidates that wealthy people support would most likely represent pro-wealthy interests,” Eber explains. “So my thinking was, are those people representing pro-wealthy interests actually wealthy themselves?”

Alex Crawford ’17 completed a study on Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission, the 2010 Supreme Court decision that overturned certain limitations on corporate political spending used to sway voters to support candidates.

“I was interested in trying to capture why corporations spend money on politics,” says Crawford, a and financial economics double major from Webster, New York.

He thought that because corporations could spend on political campaigns after the decision, he could show an effect on taxation. After analyzing corporate tax revenues and policy data from the US Census Bureau, he didn’t find evidence of a direct relationship. But he was excited to be able to contribute to a growing debate on Citizens United.

“The decision itself has kind of morphed into a buzzword of just money and politics in general, and there’s still a lot of debate over the decision itself,” he says.

“I think we have the talent, the energy, and the enthusiasm to knock out some really great teams and show that Rochester Mock Trial is a top organization,” says Mock Trial President Jason Altabet ’17, who was the top ranked attorney in the national qualifiers.

At the national qualifying Opening Round Championship Series (ORCS) in March, Rochester took on top-ranked University of Maryland and the reigning national champions from Yale University. The team won both rounds, sending them to compete with some of the best teams in the country. The national championships will be held April 21–23 at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. Rochester is one of only six schools in the nation to have two teams qualify at the national level.

“I’m really looking forward to competing in a place with so much history,” says Matthew Hoffner ’19, a history major from Patterson, New York, who received an individual award for his performance at ORCS. “This is the same courthouse where O.J. Simpson’s trial took place,” Hoffner notes.

Altabet, a political science and economics major from Scarsdale, New York, says mock trial is “essentially a competitive sport.” It’s structured just like a trial in a professional court of law, and each trial begins with opening statements by both the plaintiff and the defense. The plaintiff and defense are then given the opportunity to call three witnesses, conduct a direct examination, and then observe as their opponent does a cross-examination of their witness before presenting closing statements.

“Basically, each case is a story, and that story is told through your witnesses and through crossing their witnesses,” Hoffner says. “There’s a lot of stuff going on.”

Going into each trial, the team doesn’t know if it will be playing the defense or the plaintiff so members need to be prepared for either position. At nationals, as in most tournaments, they will compete in four trials against different teams, alternating between being defense and plaintiff.

“The hardest part is putting everything together,” says Altabet. “You have to be ready for a lot of contingencies; anything can happen in a trial.”.

During the regular season, the team practices twice a week for two hours to break down the 100-plus pages of materials that explain all the details of the case. While preparing for nationals, the teams would meet three to four times a week, for a total of about 12 hours of practice per week—in addition to schoolwork and other extracurricular commitments.

“I don’t want to be a lawyer, but it’s just fun competing, and I’ve met some extraordinary people doing Mock Trial,” Hoffner says. “It’s a really good sense of community.”

“Many people just enjoy the analytical aspect, enjoy the competitive aspect, or enjoy the acting aspect,” Altabet adds.

Apart from being intellectual and time intensive, a large portion of mock trial can be quite theatrical and light-hearted.

“Acting is definitely a part of it, especially if you’re a witness,” Altabet says. In a past tournament, Kristen Webster ’17, played an old woman who was fired because of age discrimination. Webster wore a pink pantsuit and large, pointed glasses with a chain to embody her character. For nationals, Sam Callis ’17 will play a big New York CEO with a heavy Brooklyn accent.

“This year, I think we’re really good and our trick is that we have amazing witnesses—they are so fun and entertaining, and that’s a big boost for us,” Altabet says.

Going into nationals, Altabet and Hoffner are confident that the teams will do well.

“When we faced Yale and beat the national champs, it really showed that we have two teams who can perform very well at nationals,” Altabet says. “I would love to place at least one team in the top 10, because it is a really great honor and leads to a lot of opportunities in the future.”

As a part of on Tuesday, April 4, the will host its annual pay day panel discussion from 5:30-7 pm in Morey Hall 321.

“Equal Pay Day marks the day that the average woman has to work until she earns what a male counterpart would have earned in 2016 for comparable work. However, women of color have to work longer, demonstrating the intersectionality of these issues,” says Catherine Cerulli, director of the Susan B. Anthony Center. “On Equal Pay Day, Ģ����ý professors and community professionals will provide insight into the problem and what we can do about it.”

The panelists will discuss how the pay gap continues to affect gender and labor dynamics, and address how members of the University community can work to combat inequity.

Speakers include women activists from the University and the Rochester area. Keynote speaker Lauren Deutsch, executive director of the Healthy Baby Network, will address the relationship between pay, poverty, pregnancy, and education. Panel members are University psychology professor Marie-Joelle Estrada, the University’s director of equal opportunity compliance and Title IX coordinator Morgan Levy, and Elizabeth Sciavolino, a member of the Coalition for Pay Equity (COPE).

The event is co-sponsored by COPE, the , the , the , the Simon Women in Business, Women’s Rugby, College Feminists, Sigma Nu, Alpha Delta Phi, and Theta Chi.

Entry is free, and light refreshments will be served.

So, too, will the River Campus’s Wilson Quad.

As part of the , individuals and national monuments alike will shut off their lights in a global effort to create awareness of both climate change and light pollution.

“We want to promote light pollution awareness and increase energy efficiency that will benefit astronomers and general public health,” says Ryan Rubenzahl ’18, president of the and one of the organizers of the University’s Earth Hour. “We want to bring light pollution and climate change into focus.”

During the , the non-essential lights of the Wilson Commons porch, Hirst Lounge, Bridge Lounge, Wilson Quad, and Rettner Atrium will be shut off for one hour. The Astronomy Club will facilitate a stargazing event on the quad, and nine student groups including , , and will present their own perspectives on environmentalism through demonstrations and posters in Hirst Lounge. The student band Juicy Connotation will perform throughout the night.

“The idea is to plant the seeds in the minds of the undergraduate population that issues as simple as basic lighting of the sidewalks and buildings are important and are key parts of sustainability, energy conservation, safety, and light pollution,” says professor of physics and astronomy Dan Watson, who serves as faculty advisor for the Astronomy Club.

Similar events have had far reaching impacts around the globe since Earth Hour began with WWF Australia in 2007. During the 2016 Earth Hour, there were more than 6,600 Earth Hour events in 178 countries—including one at the University—and more than 400 iconic international landmarks became dark. Small groups and big companies alike host their own event by , enabling each one to pursue its own local interests.

Rubenzahl, a physics and astronomy major from Lowville, New York, began participating in Earth Hour when he was in middle school. His mother learned about the event and decided that for one hour, his family would go completely free of electronics.

“As a kid, I did not like that at all, and I completely forgot about it until it came up last year [at] the University,” Rubenzahl says. “But here, we are able to reach so many more people and increase that kind of awareness.”

Members of the Astronomy Club hope that this awareness will translate into change on campus. The club was recently awarded the by the for Earth Hour’s success last year and planning for this year.

Bo Peng ’18, vice president of the club and co-organizer of the event alongside Rubenzahl, and president of the Society of Physics Students Tanveer Karim ’17, says that the club is hoping to encourage the University to switch to more sustainable, dimmer outdoor lighting systems on campus.

“WWF is promoting legislation towards environmentalism, but since many of us at Rochester are ‘astronomers,’ we care about light pollution—it’s more of a local goal where we can make an impact,” says Peng, a physics and astronomy major from Beijing.

Wearing a NASA shirt imprinted with the galaxy and the words “IT’S ROCKET SCIENCE!” Rubenzahl explains that he understands that this event alone is not going to alter the state of climate change.

“Not using lights for one hour isn’t going to make a big difference environmentally” he says, “but it’s the symbolic impact that it has and really raising awareness of how we can make a change that matters.”

Crystal Colon ’17 has been awarded the Independent Sector Student Community Service Award for her commitment to community service and positive impacts on the local community. Colon—an English major with a focus in language, media, and communication—is one of 10 recipients from New York state to receive recognition by the . She will accept the award at a reception in Albany on March 6, accompanied by Dean of Students Matthew Burns, her mother, and her aunt.

“Everything I do is geared toward education and youth, education and youth—that’s where my passion lies” says Colon, who graduated from after moving to Rochester from New Jersey during her junior year. “It’s really cool to feel like you’re making an impact in the lives of kids in the community around you.”

Colon has committed her college career to improving the education system in the Rochester area through activities both on and off campus. Since her sophomore year, she has dedicated more than 600 hours as a tutor for LEAP (Learning and Exploring at Play), a University early childhood literacy program run through the Rochester Center for Community Leadership. With the University’s Urban Fellows program, Colon spent a summer coordinating the Summer Safe Haven program at Cameron Community Ministries, helping to keep urban children safe, occupied, and learning during the summer months.

In addition, she holds leadership roles as the youth leader and youth counselor at her church, Overflow Christian Ministries, and the administrative assistant for Rochester Youth Association, where she has organized collaborative events with other youth leaders from churches around the city.

“Younger students need to see that there are people that went through the city school district who are minorities and are now in college and accomplishing things,” Colon says. “They can do it as well.”

For all of her passion and dedication, Colon has received multiple awards and scholarships from the University including the David T. Kearns Scholarship, the Brady Scholarship, and the Dean Ruth A. Merrill Award from the for her extensive engagement and service in the Rochester community. Next year, she will enroll in the Warner School to pursue her master’s degree in teaching and curriculum as she works to become a high school English teacher, and eventually, she hopes, a superintendent of schools in Rochester.

“Crystal has proven herself to be dedicated, reliable, caring, conscientious and persistent in her community service activities,” says Glenn Cerosaletti, assistant dean of students and director of the Rochester Center for Community Leadership. “Her service has prepared her to achieve great things as a leader in our community.”

‘I’d never considered myself a political person.’

Caryl English ’18
President, Black Students’ Union
Majors: Health, behavior, and society; African and African-American studies
Hometown: Bronx, New York

On the day before Labor Day of her freshman year, Caryl English ’18 entered Rush Rhees Library with dozens of other first-year students of color, all dressed in black business casual attire. It was the “Blackout,” an annual event designed to introduce freshmen to an array of organizations on campus. Upon hearing a BSU member’s elevator speech, she was hooked.

“I had never been a part of an organization that focused on black culture,” says English, a health, behavior and society and African and African-American studies dual major from Bronx, New York. “So I thought, where else to go but the Black Students’ Union? And it took off after that.”

Rochester’s BSU is one of hundreds of chapters of the National Black Students Union that emerged after the first Black Students Union was founded as a civil rights organization at San Francisco State University in 1966. Established in 1968, Rochester’s BSU today articulates the goals of promoting social and cultural awareness and diversity. Since English joined the group, BSU has played a key role in organizing such events as the Joint Collegiate Black Student Summit; a demonstration aligned with the Black Lives Matter movement and the November 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri; and initiatives to improve the racial climate on campus.

A first-generation college student, English didn’t know what to expect, or whom to look to for advice, when she arrived at Rochester as a freshman. But she quickly found that BSU helped fill that void.

“The first meeting you come to, they see a new face and they want to learn everything about you,” English says. “They say ‘hey, do you want to get food after this? What classes are you in? Do you need help?’ It was something that came naturally. It wasn’t forced.”

By the start of her sophomore year, she had also joined the , the staff of the , and the phone team at the Admissions Office. Meanwhile, her peers in the BSU encouraged her to take up her first major campus leadership position as the group’s educational and political chair.

“I’d never considered myself a political person before college,” English says. “I feel like black people in college just become political, especially at PWIs,” she adds, using an acronym for predominantly white institutions.

Now, as president of the organization, she says, “It’s a lot more responsibility. It’s about being diplomatic, and that’s something I’m still learning now,” she says. She laughs, adding, “It’s a challenge, because I’m really strong in what I believe in.

“As a leader, when I’m working with friends, I try to be friendly. But I will admit, when things aren’t going well”—she smiles, and cocks her head to the side as she pounds the table with her fist.

Her experience in the BSU will help her move forward with her career goal of opening her own non-profit health center back in her home city. She hopes to create a resourceful and welcoming health community in the Bronx—similar to the type of community she has been a part of with BSU.

“I want to create a place where people can say, ‘this is somewhere you can count on to get resources, to get information, and where you can just go to talk about what’s happening to you.’ ”

‘I always felt called to do this work.’

Delvin Moody ’18
President, Minority Student Advisory Board
Founder/organizer, Joint Collegiate Black Student Summit
Majors: Political science; religion
Hometown: Utica, New York

Delvin Moody ’18 calls his passion for social justice “a lifetime in the making,” and he’s not kidding.

Growing up in Utica, New York, Moody and his family attended House of God, an historic, Pentecostal denominational church. Moody would hear messages of peace, hope, empowerment, and success.

“I came to believe that I could make a difference, and I could change people’s lives,” the political science and religion double major says. “It was inspirational.”

By 10, Moody was speaking regularly to the congregation, which earned him a front-page Sunday story in the Utica Observer-Dispatch. That article led to invitations to speak at churches across New York and as far away as Indiana and Florida. His mother and grandmother accompanied Moody, as he delivered messages of “hope and unity.”

At 11, he gave the keynote speech at Utica’s NAACP Black History Month celebration. At 12, he organized a four-day youth conference through his church. At 16, he attended the United Nations as a youth delegate. And at 17, as a junior at Thomas R. Proctor High School, he helped form Utica’s first Youth Common Council, a legislative body that could make recommendations to the city council and pass its own resolutions.

Moody brought to Rochester the same kind of leadership he brought to his church and hometown. Last year, he envisioned and organized the Joint Collegiate Black Student Summit, a national forum to discuss and develop viable solutions to problems facing the African-American community. Around 300 college students attended, coming from as far away as New Mexico and Indiana. A second summit will take place this year, on Friday, March 3 on the River Campus, with Moody serving as chairman.

He is also president of the , a network of nine campus organizations focused on black, African, Latino, and Native American cultures; and chairman of the Students’ Association auditing task force, which analyzes organizational trends and tries to better support student clubs.

Moody calls himself an “advocate” rather than an “activist.”

“My church background taught me to help and support others,” he says. “I see needs in our community and remedies to fix things by making systematic changes. Being a youth minister in my church, I always felt called to do this work, but that call was beyond the church.”

Moody’s mentor was his maternal grandmother, Mary Hawkins.

“She had no formal education, but she kept me centered when it came to love and selflessness,” he says. “She’s still my go-to person.”

His idol is Barack Obama. Moody says Obama’s eight-year run as the nation’s first black president “meant everything” to him.

“The way he carried himself, his grace, his political mind . . . He didn’t always get things right. I didn’t always agree with him. But there’s no doubt, I feel he’s the personification of Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision.”

Moody believes racism is prevalent in America and has been magnified through social media and 24/7 news channels.

“It’s being pulled up from under the rug,” he says. “It’s a cancer that America hasn’t fully dealt with, something that’s ingrained in our society. And we need to deal with it.”

He says his message of hope is for everyone.

“Sometimes I don’t even mention that I’m a young black leader,” he says. “I’m a leader, fighting for justice for all people.”

Moody plans to return to Utica and fight for the less fortunate in his community. He would like to run for political office someday but wonders how accepted he would be.

“It’s an old industrial city,” he says. “It’s rough. When you’re a minority who is running, you wonder, could you put a majority coalition together?”

On campus, he leads a full life even outside academics and advocacy. He enjoys playing drums as well as steel guitar—“a weird instrument that no one plays,” he says.

He’s also working on a self-help book he hopes to publish.

“It’s from a Christian perspective and discusses how people don’t realize they are made to be winners,” he says. “We’re not as purposeful as we’re supposed to be. Sometimes, we just live. But we can do more.”

‘It’s tough work. But it’s motivating.’

Charlisa Goodlet ’17
President, Douglass Leadership House
Majors: Political science; African and African-American studies
Hometown: Rochester, New York

Charlisa Goodlet ‘17 is clear about what interests her. “Nothing excites me more than reading articles about black culture, race, and ethnic politics,” she says. “These are the foundations of our society.”

Goodlet is finishing up her second term as the president of the . DLH, founded in 2012 and named for the abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass, “aims to celebrate and raise awareness of the many facets of the black experience, including its culture, politics, history, and Diasporic roots.”

Goodlet attended a general interest meeting at DLH as a freshman, in the hopes of finding a space on campus where she felt at home. She was hooked, and her commitment to the organization grew stronger under the mentorships of the organization’s first two presidents, Amber-Danielle Baldie ’15 and Sade Richardson ’15.

Baldie and Richardson were key organizers of peaceful demonstrations on campus in fall 2014. The demonstrations took place in the aftermath of a Ferguson, Missouri, grand jury’s decision not to indict the police officer who killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. Similar events took place at campuses and in cities around the nation.

“It’s tough work,” Goodlet says of the kind of activism DLH and other campus organizations undertook that year. “But it’s motivating because there are many people before me who have done the work that has allowed me to be here today, and long after I’m dead and gone there’s going to be someone else.”

At the end of that academic year, she decided to run for DLH president. She’s honored her mentors by continuing to move the group forward.

“I saw DLH in another light, extending beyond from where they had taken the organization,” she says.

A priority for Goodlet is helping to strengthen ties between University students and the greater Rochester community. In particular, she would like to see a closer relationship with the 19th Ward, the racially and economically diverse city neighborhood just across the Genesee from the River Campus. A native of Rochester, Goodlet moved with her family to the ward in 2013.

“There’s a lot of beauty in the 19th Ward, in the home-structures and in the culture,” she says. “Many people feel the Ward is a place of violence and negativity, but every section of Rochester has its own issues with crime.” She believes that if students had a more complete picture of the neighborhood, they would see it as more integral to their lives as students.

Goodlet laments that discussion sometimes turns to gentrification or other efforts to raise property values. She believes instead that a successful integration between University students and local residents ultimately rests on community programming. She cites community gardens, neighborhood forums, and initiatives such as —a Rochester organization that advertises itself as an “art and community intervention project”—as examples.

Goodlet works hard to balance her role as DLH president with her academic work. “We’re here for school, but the house is bigger than school,” she says. “It’s a contribution to society in a way, which is why it’s so damn stressful to be in a leadership role, but it’s worth every minute.”

“My dream job would combine being a political scientist, lawyer, and writer,” she adds. In the interim, she supplements her coursework with work as a research assistant at the David T. Kearns Center for Leadership and Diversity.

“I’ve looked at 10 years of data for the University and tried to figure out how we can increase faculty diversity,” she says. “We know that the number of minority students going into faculty work is low, so how can we get students of color to actually pursue the pipeline of becoming a faculty member?”

She’ll present her research at DLH next week.

Kiara Martinez ’19
Home: Boston, Massachusetts
Major: economics

As soon as Kiara Martinez ’19 steps out of the airport in her home city of Boston, she knows exactly where she’ll be headed: a local Colombian restaurant to pick up some lulo juice.

Lulo, a citrus similar to passion fruit, is native to Ecuador, where Martinez was born. She says that lulo juice reminds her of her childhood, when her family would pick lulo off a tree in her backyard.

“The fruit isn’t grown here, but there’s one place in Boston that makes [lulo juice]; so my mom will always take me there when I arrive,” she says.

When Martinez is away at school, there’s one thing in particular that she misses about her family’s home cooking, and that’s the seasoning. On Thanksgiving, her family’s turkey is sprinkled with Goya spices and always flavored with her dad’s favorite Chilean and Costa Rican sauces. Her mother’s cooking has become a fusion of Ecuadorian cuisine—natural, organic, and spiced—and Colombian cuisine, which she describes as “food fried twice.” Her favorite meal is her mother’s , deep fried crescents stuffed with beef, tomato, and cilantro.

“It doesn’t even matter what we’re eating,” she says. “It’s honestly the seasoning aspect that I miss most.”

Jenny Jun ’18
Home: Fullerton, California
Major: health policy

When Jenny Jun ’18 returns to Southern California for the holidays, she’s doesn’t expect to be eating at restaurants too often. Jun says her mother doesn’t like eating out, and she’s a very talented cook.

Jun’s mother and father both emigrated to the United States from South Korea. She says her family often experiments with American dishes, but they tend to eat a lot of Korean food.

“It’s really nice to just go home and eat the meals that I grew up eating,” Jun says.

The dish she looks forward to the most while she’s home is , a Korean stew that her mother prepares from scratch. Kimchi is fermented cabbage. Preparing it can be a time-consuming process that involves finding the perfect blend of salt and spices.

“I’ve watched my mom make the kimchi since I was young,” Jun says. “Now every time I go home, I actually try to learn how to make it myself.”

Shreya Patel ’17
Home: Jonesboro, Alabama
Major: general engineering

After a long day of travel home to Alabama, Shreya Patel ’17 knows she’ll be heading straight from the airport to indulge in Chick-fil-A. Going to school in the northeast, she finds that she really misses southern-style cooking.

“My favorite home-cooked meal is definitely, and ,” she says.

Patel says being home allows her to have a more balanced diet, and, free from her busy school schedule, she enjoys being able to eat dinner at an earlier hour.

Although her family doesn’t often cook, when they do, her aunt usually takes the lead, alternating between Indian, Mexican, and American dishes.

“When I’m at school, I really miss my aunt’s homemade tacos,” Patel says. “They’re hard-shelled, and packed with beans, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, fried tortilla, and taco sauce.”

Chris Horgan ’17
Home: Medina, New York
Majors: political science and creative writing

Although the place Chris Horgan ’17 calls home is only an hour’s drive from Rochester, he usually only sees his family during breaks and holidays.

But each time he makes the trip from the University to Medina, located just outside of Buffalo, he knows that a warm dish of will be waiting for him.

“I just feel like the food from home has more soul and love,” Horgan says. Smiling, he adds, “Maybe that’s not fair to say—they put a lot of love in the food here, but it’s just the variation at home that I miss.”

Even though he knows that his first meal home will be Italian, both his parents are actually of Irish descent. His favorite meal, without a doubt, is with potatoes.

“The Irish part of our meals is that they always seem to have potatoes involved,” Horgan says. “My mom is a wonderful cook. You’re making me miss her food as we speak.”

Home cooked—and home grown

By Lindsey Valich

“One of the main values of growing and cooking your own food is that this gives you control and awareness about where your food is coming from,” says Leila Nadir, a lecturer in sustainability and environmental humanities at Rochester. “The more we can take control over what we put in our bodies, the more awareness we can have of our own health.”

According to Nadir, increased consumption of processed foods and mass-produced meals not only means people often don’t know what they’re eating, but it also denotes a break from basic, do-it-yourself food preparation skills such as preserving, pickling, and slow cooking.

She’s partnered with Cary Peppermint, an associate professor of art and art history at Rochester, to help people rediscover endangered food and environmental practices. Their project, part of the ongoing initiative EcoArtTech, is designed to eliminate what they deem “industrial amnesia”—a neglect of do-it-yourself practices of growing and preparing food, caused by industrialization.

The project includes workshops on the process of fermenting, such as ; communal meal preparation and dining experiences; and work with , which invites youths in the city of Rochester to practice urban farming at sites throughout the city.

Nadir further lauds the environmental benefits of growing your own food, buying locally sourced ingredients, and eating fruits and vegetables that are in season. Such practices help reduce resources used to package and transport food from distant locations and decrease the use of pesticides.

In addition to the benefits of home-cooked meals, Nadir says many people believe that the emotions of the person cooking your food are manifested in the actual meal.

“When food is made by a machine, you possibly might not have the same experience as you would if someone who loves you creates your food,” Nadir says. “Our culture has a saying that food tastes better when it’s made with love. We laugh about it and joke about it, but maybe it’s more real than we’d like to admit.”

The drama, directed by guest artist Pirronne Yousefzadeh and set in small-town Vermont, chronicles the interactions, emotions, and desires of five people in an acting class. Through theater games and acting exercises, the characters reveal their unique stories and form relationships with one another. With its pinpoint focus on a single classroom, the play allows the audience to become intimately connected to the characters and their inner turmoils.

The student cast and crew, a mixture of rookies and veterans, share some of the insights they’ve gained in working on the production.��

Ian E.W. Von Fange ’17 as Schultz

Ian E.W. Von Fange ’17 says his life as a student at Rochester has gone well. A creative writing major who has been acting for more than 14 years, he has performed in three productions at Todd Union, plays drums, and writes poetry.

Von Fange’s character, Schultz, is much older—and he’s had a rough time of late. He’s in his late forties, and after being married for more than 20 years, has recently gone through a divorce. Schultz is, as Von Fange describes him, “a really genuinely good-hearted guy who just has a lot of problems.”

Von Fange says that portraying a character who has undergone experiences far beyond what he can personally comprehend has been one of the challenges and benefits of performing in��Circle Mirror Transformation.

“That’s what has made discovering and shaping Schultz’s character so rewarding,” he says. “He’s human, and sometimes he triumphs and sometimes he fails.”

Von Fange hopes to pursue a career in acting and writing in New York City. The playwright Annie Baker has made a deep impression on him in ��Circle Mirror Transformation.��

“Every line so precisely imitates natural speech,” he says. “The characters become vivid and real through their words.”

��Andria Rabenold ’18 as Theresa

Andria Rabenold ’18, like her character, Theresa, is a seasoned actress. But while Rabenold has yet to experience any serious setbacks, Theresa, 35, struggled to find work in New York City before picking up and moving to Vermont.

Rabenold says that she and Theresa share a drive to perform and an enthusiasm to work—and that one of the biggest challenges of portraying Theresa is discovering the ways they are different. She overcomes that challenge by drawing on Theresa’s past.

“Theresa is older than I am and has more life experience to draw on,” Rabenold says. “So inventing all the things she has gone through over the years is a big part of my process.”

Since beginning at the University, Rabenold, a double major in mathematics and political science, has performed in four International Theatre productions, and with The Opposite of People (TOOP), a River Campus theater company that’s entirely student run. She is also involved in the Students’ Association, Ballet Performance Group, and Kappa Alpha Theta. ����

Murie Gillett ’20 as Marty

Murie Gillett ‘20 plays the role of a teacher not only through her character, Marty, but in her own life as well. Marty is the encouraging, caring instructor of the acting class that’s at the center of Circle Mirror Transformation. Gillet is a history and English double major working towards her certificates in English secondary education and Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at the Warner School of Education.

The theater has helped her become not only a stronger actress, but a better teacher.

“I have become more able to command a room and create and execute engaging lessons,” she says. “As an English and TESOL teacher, I think that incorporating theater into my classroom will help my students to develop better communication skills.”

Gillett has participated in four International Theatre productions. She’s also acted in four plays with the student-run theater company, The Opposite of People, and is the group’s artistic director; and has served as a writing fellow in the Writing, Speaking, and Argument program.

Carrie Daniela Shapiro ’20 as Lauren

Freshman Carrie Daniela Shapiro ’20 sees herself as a clear reflection of her character, Lauren. Just as Shapiro is making her debut on the Ģ����ý stage, her character, Lauren, 16, is a young actress excited about developing her acting skills. ��

Lauren—whom Shapiro views as a younger version of April Ludgate from the comedy television show Parks and Recreation—is by far the youngest student in the acting class at the center of Circle Mirror Transformation. Similarly, Shapiro says she’s been more than 30 years younger than some of her peers in her own improv classes.��

“What I love about Circle Mirror Transformation is how much goes on that is never said or written in the script,” she says. “It’s a very ‘feely’ play.”

Shapiro is ��a member of the Student Association of Vegan and Vegetarian Youth (SAVVY) and the pan-African dance team,��Ma’Frisah. She also plays intramural soccer.

Casey Brentnall ’20 as James

Like Von Fange, freshman Casey Brentnall ’20 has had the difficult task of portraying a character whose life experience is vastly different from his own.��

His character, James, is divorced, middle-aged, and has been remarried, to Marty. He has a daughter from his previous marriage from whom he’s become estranged. He’s moved from place to place, and simply desires “to have the people he wants back in his life,” says Brentnall.

Brentnall says the role has been a challenge in multiple domains. He’s had to learn��to hold himself in a way that makes him appear much more mature and experienced than he feels. He’s had to bring James to life through words and symbolic gestures.��

“The show is incredibly realistic and minute, and so much of the story is told through simple acting exercises and tiny details,” Brentnall says. “It makes it feel very life-like, but also creates a big challenge for me as an actor.”

Like Rabenold and Gillett, Brentnall is a member of the student-run theater company, The Opposite of People. When asked about what role he hopes theater will play in his life, he says, “I plan to continue acting at least as a hobby. But obviously, the dream is to be able to support yourself with your passion. We’ll see.”

DeeDee Krupkin ’18, assistant��director

Although DeeDee Krupkin ’18 is not under the lights on stage with the cast, she plays an integral role in the play. As the student director, Krupkin, a theatre major, is what she describes as “a second pair of eyes for the director.” In addition to helping and advising the cast, she spends much of her time working on dramaturgy, compiling resources and information about the play to ensure its historical and situational accuracy.

“I started acting when I was 11 back home in New Hampshire at a place called Andy’s Summer Playhouse, and I’ve had the theater bug ever since,” she says. “My interest in directing really blossomed after I stage managed there for two years.”

Krupkin says each actor plays a unique part and offers a different mood to the stage. She’s enjoyed watching each performer evolve throughout the rehearsal process, becoming more and more connected to their characters.

Ceremony recognizes University veterans

Faculty and staff who have served in the U.S.��armed forces will be recognized for their service to the country and their contributions to the University at a pinning ceremony, hosted by the Equal Opportunity Office, starting at 7:30 a.m. Friday, November 11, in the Hawkins-Carlson Room, Rush Rhees Library.

Bells will toll for those who serve

The University Carillon Society presents two concerts on the Hopeman Memorial Carillon in honor of Veterans Day: at 5 p.m. on �� and�� . Friday’s concert��will be .

Hundreds of veterans, students, and community members are expected to join the Ģ����ý Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) and RIT’s Army and Air Force ROTC Battalions for the 16th annual Veterans Day Joint Service Run.

In the spirit of ROTC and NROTC training, the three-mile run will begin before sunrise, at 5:45 a.m. Runners will follow a route from Fauver Stadium to the Greater Rochester Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Highland Park, by way of Mt. Hope Avenue.

“Having all three ROTC units there—Navy, Army, and Air Force—supporting our veterans feels great,” says Jean-Marc Boullianne ’17, a midshipman first class in NROTC. “There’s typically some competition between the branches, but having us all there as one team supporting a cause, it means something.”

More veterans will be gathered at the finish line.

“Many of the veterans [who will be] waiting at the memorial cannot walk today, but they carry themselves with a venerable sense of pride,” says Scott Clyde ’03, a graduate of NROTC and current executive director of college enrollment.

After finishing his studies and training at the University with a degree in biology, Clyde was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, serving on active duty for 10 years as an F/A-18 Hornet fighter pilot before becoming a flight instructor in California.

Although current ROTC and NROTC members are preparing for their futures, an important purpose of the event is to reflect on the past. Participants will walk silently down the memorial’s paved path, where the names and the schools attended by local veterans are displayed.

“You can’t help but notice the veterans’ unspoken reflections of untold stories and peers that didn’t make it back,” Clyde says. “This creates an air of respect and camaraderie that is rare and exceptional.”

Unsurprisingly, the 2014 midterm elections elicited far less involvement, with a 13 percent student participation��rate as compared to 18 percent nationally.

“It’s important for students to be politically engaged every year, because most Ģ����ý students are of an age when they have only recently become eligible to vote and are forming their political opinions,” says Glenn Cerosaletti, assistant dean of students and director of the Rochester Center for Community Leadership. ��“Their active participation in the democratic process is important for setting the stage for a lifetime of civic involvement.”

Several University students have shared stories about their experiences with the political system and why they think it’s important to be politically engaged.

Alexis Wallace ’18
Hometown: Fort Drum,��NY
Majors: Russian and political science

Growing up, Alexis Wallace never remained in one location for very long. Both her parents are family practice physicians in the military. She was born in the state of Georgia, and has lived in Germany, Washington state, Texas, and New York. Wallace says that because she was never truly connected to one place, she was constantly exposed to different political perspectives.

Even though Wallace now serves as the president of the College Democrats, she has never stepped into a polling center.

“My parents always voted absentee because we moved around so much,” she says. “I’ve never actually seen my parents go to vote.”

Wallace works in the Rochester office of , and is now considering registering to vote in Monroe County, as opposed to her current hometown.

“It was such a great experience to work for Congresswoman Slaughter–I wish I could cast my vote for her,” Wallace says. “But then, my vote may matter more where my parents are. It’s a very, very conservative area.”

Scott Onestak ’17
Hometown: New Wilmington,��PA
Majors: Economics and data science

Like the majority of undergraduates, Scott Onestak has never voted in a presidential election. But he has taken every opportunity to participate in the political process.

Each year at Rochester, he has diligently filled out his absentee voter ballot. This past spring, he was home during the presidential primaries and was able to place his vote at his local polling center.

Onestak is the president of the .��For the first time in its history, the group chose not to endorse the party’s nominee, Donald Trump. Onestak says the nature of this election has brought up important conversations.

“The dichotomy is quite stark, seeing that we have the two most unliked candidates ever,” he says. “I think the interesting thing is going to be how many people don’t vote for one of the major parties.”

Onestak has been exposed to conflicting political viewpoints since he was young—his family is split along ��party lines. His father is a Republican and his mother is a Democrat. But studying diverse topics and getting involved at the University has helped refine his political perspective.

“I think college makes you look more critically at issues, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to move one way or another.”

Riva Yeo ’18
Hometown: Chino Hills, CA
Majors: Economics and political science

One issue that drives Riva Yeo’s political activism is feminism.

When she began studying at the University, she got involved in . She says it has given her an entirely different perspective on why voting is important.

“As students, we’re told ‘you need to vote because it’s your right and you need to exercise it,’ but there are so many more dimensions that come into play in politics,” Yeo says.

Feminism was important to Yeo even before beginning at the University. When Yeo’s mother was in her late 20s, she immigrated to the United States from China. She’s faced challenges as an immigrant woman, and has been working hard to establish herself ever since.

“Watching my mother has reinforced my commitment to advocating for feminist issues and for political engagement,” Yeo says.

Now, as a member of the Committee for Political Engagement, she hopes to inspire other students to get involved with political issues.

“Talking with people of different viewpoints and learning more about progressive causes like reproductive rights, economic freedoms, and the gender gap are all things that have really resonated with me,” she says. “I think that’s what has shaped and solidified my desire to become active in the political process.”

Alphonse Mugisha ’17
Hometown: Syracuse, NY
Major: Electrical and computer engineering

Alphonse Mugisha immigrated to the U.S. with his family when he was 11 years old. He was born in Burundi, a small, east African nation, but grew up in a refugee camp in Tanzania. After years of applying, his family was resettled in Syracuse, New York. He attended middle and high school in Syracuse, learning English along the way. Just under two years ago, he was finally able to apply for citizenship.

Even though he has not yet voted, Mugisha has been politically aware for a number of years.

“In 2008 I was in eighth grade, and I had only been in the U.S. for a year,” Mugisha says. “I just remember it was the first time a black person was running for president. When he won, it was really interesting to me that it was such a big deal.”

Now, he’s looking forward to being able to participate in the election as a voting citizen–especially in a year when the candidates represent such distinct political and personal perspectives.

“I think it’s very important to go out and vote even if it may seem that it doesn’t count,” Mugisha says. “You’re making your voice heard.”