Ball State University is one of the more well known colleges known in Indiana. It is not as prestigious as IU or Norte Dame University, but is is a well respected college that has several famous alumni, such as David Letterman. Because of how well known it is, it attracts several intentional student from around the globe to attend it. The countries that these intentional students are from various parts of the globe, but the main countries that these students come from are China, Saudi Arabia, and India.
However, over a period from 2013 to 2018, it showed that the amount of intentional students has been steadily decreasing. From 2014 to 2015, there was a big drop in the number of international students attending. This drop continued to 2017 where the number students was now slightly below 500. This drop off in a number of international students is alarming.
It is once again the time of year for Ball State University annual art show, this one being the 85th one in a row. Students who focus on their majors on art get the chance to show off their labors of love in the art gallery located in Ball State’s Art and Journalism building. These range from metalwork to paintings and drawings, to even animation.
“It serves as a great showcase for our students upcoming talent,” says Andy Beane, who serves as the Interim Director of the School of Art. “We have a lot of different students here with different passions, and this allows them to get wider recognition of their talent.”
However, a trade off for the free publicity of the student’s art work is that Ball State University now owns it in a non-exclusive royalty free license. The University has the right to duplicate it or send it off to another museum or gallery. However, some believe that this is a fair deal.
“I personally believe that the University owning it makes sense,” says Bob Jankins, a guest at the opening night of the gallery. “The artists get the free publicity and some recognition. And it’s just their early works of art. They serve as stepping stones for something bigger.
The 85th Annual Art Show will be held from February 8th to March 22nd at the Griner Art Gallery, located in AJ 101 in the Ball State Arts and Journalism building.
It is the time of the year that the Academy Awards are now being hosted. And the 92nd Academy Awards is rather surprising when it comes to the nominations. Joker is the first comic book movie to receive 11 nominations. And in a nice surprise, the Korean film Parasite nominations outside of Best Foreign Feature in the forms of Best Picture and Best Director for Bong Joon Ho. However, many people are unsatisfied with these nominations.
Many people this year are frustrated with the nominations that the Academy ignored and brushed women’s contributions for film this year. Greta Gerwig, who directed the exceptional adaptation of Little Women, did not receive a Best Director nomination. This is the in spite of the fact that it received nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress (for Saoirse Ronan), Best Supporting Actress (for Florence Pugh), and Best Adapted Screenplay. Many people also cited that The Farewell not getting nominated, as it is a movie that is directed by and stars Chinese Americans (specifically director Lulu Wang and star Awkwafina). Another film that felt snubbed was Hustlers, a film about strippers conning Wall Street. Certain groups feel like these movies should have gotten nominations.
However, others have argued that the quality of the works nominated should matter more than the diversity of those nominated. They argue that the quality of the films released in 2019 has been more than exceptional, and that supersedes any diversity in the nominations that have been made. However, both sides of these arguments have valid points.
I personally believe that both sides of this argument have their good points. I do believe that there are many great performances by both women and people of color that should have gotten some award recognition. However, I also agree that the overall quality of the nominated film’s work should matter more than any notion of diversity. And giving into the demands more diversity always runs the chance of coming across as insincere. And in some respects, choosing some of these choices that people say should be nominated makes it feel like they are being tokenized.
In downtown Muncie, there is a hotel located in between the Children’s Museum and a local restaurant called Three Wise Men. The hotel is the Marriott Muncie at the Horizon Convention Center. Like the many Marriott hotels across the country, it is very nice and fancy, complete with its own bar. However, what makes this Marriott hotel special is not the building itself, but the program that it sponsors: the Erskine Green Training Institute.
Operating primarily out of Muncie, the goal of the Erskine Green Training Institute is to help those who are disadvantaged from a physical or mental disability, which affects that their academic, social, or communication skills. This primarily takes the form of training in job skills, namely in the fields of food service and hospitality. Along with the job skills, they gain a certificate, resume, and a list of positions in the area that they live in. While these job skills can come across as menial, the are essential to helping the disabled, as it gives them the tools for a better life and future.
The Daily Training of Erskine Green
A participant of te Erskine Green program starts their training every day at 8 a.m., spreading out across three different locations for their training. They either do their work at the Muncie Marriott, the restaurant Thr3e Wise Men, or the IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital. While it seems like training the students under one building would be more manageable, instructor Zach Runyan says that diversifying where the students do their training is for the best.
“We have our participants train in different areas, in order to help them find which job skills are best suited for them,” Runyan explains. “one student may prefer to wash dishes while another prefers to do and fold laundry. We want them to find the skills that they are the most comfortable with.”
The training that Erskine Green students go under can be divided up into three different kinds of categories. The first is food and restaurant service, which focuses on job skills that are needed in the aforementioned industries. The specific job skills that are focused on are dishwashers, hosts, and servers. The second category is healthcare support, which focuses on jobs in hospitals. Said jobs include the transportation of patients, housekeeping patient rooms, and working in the dishroom of a hospital. The last category is hospitality, which is focused upon gaining job skills for working in a hotel. One section of the training is focused on being a front desk worker, who provides efficient and friendly service to hotels guests. The other section of the training focuses on housekeeping the hotel. This includes working the laundry, running linens, cleaning the public areas of the hotel, and working as a room attendant.
The students of the Erskine Green program stay at rooms in the Muncie Marriott, and when they are not doing their training, they usually get to know each other and hanf out. This ranges from playing board games with each other in the break room, or visiting various sights in the Muncie area such as Ball State, or even taking in a movie. Grace Clark, a specialist who works directly with the students of the program, believes that students interacting and making friends with one another is a vital part of the Erskine Green experience.
“They need to know that there are people like them out there,” she explains. “It lets them connect with one another. It’s nice to see them have fun and get to know each other.”
The Muncie Marriott is not the only place that allows the students to have fun with one another. Nearby the hotel is the esteemed Ball State University, which provides several events for the Erskine Green students to attend to on their down time. These range from football and basketball games, plays and movies showed at the Prius Hall, and Saturday’s Late Nights, a student-hosted get together that provides fun activities and deliscious food. The campus provides plenty of fun activities to alleviate bordem for Erskine Green students.
Once the students have completed their training, they move onto internships with the Erskine Green staff, where they show that they can apply the job skills that they have learned and picked up. After they have completed their internships, the students have earned their degrees, and are ready to graduate.
“It’s honestly always a great to see the students we’ve gotten to known over the training period graduate,” says Zach Runyan. “We get to make a real difference in their lives, and help them get ahead in life.”
The Erskine Green Training Program helps change and improve the lives of the disadvantaged and disabled for the better. And one person who can definitely attest to this is Larry O’Connell.
Larry O’Connell: An Erskine Green Success Story
Laurence “Larry” O’Connell is like any other person his age. He loves putting together puzzles and reading maps, watching Disney movies, and possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of the Presidents of the United States. He has the energy and grace of a wild stallion. However, there is one thing that seperates him from everyone else: he is a high-functioning autistic. And this has affected his life in a lot of ways.
“People would make fun of me sometimes,” Larry says as he reflects back on his childhood. “They would say that I was stupid. But I had friends that I made in Boy Scouts, and my brothers. They always supported me.”
Due to certain events, Larry never properly graduated high school, only receiving his diploma, but not attending the graduation ceremony. After graduation, Larry would work at various small time jobs, such as a janitor at Wal-Mart. In his down time, he would attend cycling classes at the YMCA, or go and spend time with Mary Willey, a nursing home employee who does community work with disadvantaged children.
“Larry is a really fun and sweet person,” Willey eleaborates, having worked with Larry ever since he was in Junior High. “He’s capable of doing much more, he just needs the chance to prove it.”
And Larry did receive that chance when he was invited to participate in the Erskine Green Training Program in Spring of 2016. From late March to early June of that year, Larry partook in the Erskine Green training program, working on how to operate in the dishroom of a hospital. After his training, he interned at the Ball Memorial Hospital, showing that he had picked up the necessary job skills he needed.
Asides from the job skills that he got, Larry also made friends at the program, most notably with two of the employees, Grace Clark and Daniel Gurulé. They spoke of fond memories of their time with Larry.
“He’s always had a lot of energy to him,” Gurulé recounts. “He always talked a lot about stuff that interested him and he wanted to share what he knew with everyone around him. Larry was just fun to hang around with and get to know.”
After graduating from the Erskine Greene Training Program, Larry got a job as a cafetaria dishwasher at Greenbriar Elementary School. He has held this position for over three years now. He has a stable source of income and a steady-paying job thanks to Erskine Greene.
“I’m really happy that I went to Erskine Green,” Larry says. “I now have a better job because of them, and I’m now a lot of happy in my life.”
Larry’s success story is just one of many that are a result of the Erskine Green Training Program. The program takes in the disadvangated and disabled, and helps them learn the skills necessary to gain better oppurtunities and lead better lives. They form happy memories and friendships within the program, and leave it as better people. And all of this positive change is coming from a simple hotel in downtown Muncie.
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