Personality - The McKendree Review

23Mar

By The McKendree Review5 Comments

Campus News, Personality, Profiles, Sports

One Leg, No Limits

By Alexis Porter, Contributing Writer I was walking back from the cafeteria at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center in the summer of 2017, carrying a to-go box of leftovers to enjoy later, when I first met Jacob Waters. He sped past me on his bike like a NASCAR driver and popped the longest wheelie I have ever witnessed in my life. My mouth dropped open in disbelief. I was instantly impressed and intrigued. “Hey, wait!” I called out after him. He circled back around and pulled up next to me. I glanced over his face quickly and then took a long look at his bike. It was bright green, rugged, with large treaded tires. I figured it had to be special if this kid could ride it on one wheel for so long. “Sorry didn’t mean to fly past you like that,” he said hopping off his bike...

19Mar

By The McKendree Review2 Comments

Campus News, Personality, Profiles

Wanderlust

By Magdalena Knapp, Editor “I got run over by a baby elephant, and wow, even a baby elephant is huge and powerful! […] But it was fun!” Whether she gets run over by a baby elephant in Thailand, detained at the Israelian border, invited by an American Jew in Jerusalem to join Shabbat dinner in a tiny room full of people, or snuck out from a Jewish hostel in Jerusalem to join a three-people Palestinian tour of Bethlehem and discuss political tensions – Professor Capron has done it all. Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, India, Israel, Mexico, Peru, Machu Picchu, Puerto Rico, Canada, Vancouver, Thailand, Jordan and more – the list is endless. There is hardly any place in the world that she has not stepped on and somewhat explored yet. Aurélie Capron is who I would consider a real Marco Po...

26Feb

By The McKendree Review3 Comments

Campus News, Entertainment, Personality, Profiles, Sports

For the Love of the Game

By Kaylee Fann “What distinguishes a great player is his presence. When he goes on to the court, his presence dominates the atmosphere” – Bill Russell Charismatic. Outgoing. Loving. Talented. Inspiring. Resilient. These are all words that can be used to describe 19 year old Winslow Martin, a basketball player for Southeastern Illinois College in Harrisburg, Illinois. Born and raised by a single mother in Centralia, Illinois, Martin fell in love with the game of basketball from a young age. His older brother and grandfather served as positive role models for a young Martin, teaching him everything he knows about the game. Once he started playing, he practiced with his brother nearly every day. His grandfather was actually a professional player overseas until an injury abruptly ended h...

20Feb

By The McKendree Review1 Comment

Personality, Profiles

A man has to BE something

From Editor, Zach Breeding Today marks the 13th anniversary of Hunter S. Thompson tragically taking his own life. There is, however, no sense wallowing in pity for a man who felt he lived 17 years too long, anyway. So, on this most auspicious of occasions I would like to present one of my favorite authors' take on a young man's life and what is truly important within it. Without further adieu, here is a letter from Thompson, then 17, to his friend who asked him for some advice: Dear Hume, You ask advice: ah, what a very human and very dangerous thing to do! For to give advice to a man who asks what to do with his life implies something very close to egomania. To presume to point a man to the right and ultimate goal—to point with a trembling finger in the RIGHT direction is somet...

Rob Watkins – Being More Than Just a Student

15Dec

By The McKendree ReviewNo Comments

Personality, Profiles

Rob Watkins – Being More Than Just a Student

By Shelby Procko, Contributing Writer McKendree Senior Robert Watkins is both the president and founder of the McKendree chapter of Sigma Alpha Phi, also known as The National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS). He is a business administration major with a minor in leadership studies. When asked what he planned to do with his degree after graduation in December he shrugged and said, "I have no idea, I am still trying to figure that out." Grinning, he added, "If you figure it out, let me know." Rob is active in numerous other roles on campus including student government president, peer mentor, a job working in the IT department, and an intern for the Student Success Center doing data organization. He used to play for the McKendree Men’s Volleyball team but decided to sit his last ye...

Almost a Quarter of a Century of Commitment – Our President Dr. James Dennis

8Dec

By The McKendree Review2 Comments

Personality, Profiles

Almost a Quarter of a Century of Commitment – Our President Dr. James Dennis

By Magdalena Knapp, Editor Many McKendree students only know Dr. Dennis as the person who stands in front of the Bearcat Statue and hands out a cool cone of ice cream on a hot spring or autumn day. However, our President is much more intimately involved in the everyday life of his students and the minute-by-minute running of the university than most could ever imagine. Working at McKendree University for him is not simply a job, it is his Lebenswerk: A mission he has successfully been working to fulfill since 1994. After growing up in Los Angeles, California, and getting a degree in Education, JD - a nickname Dr. Dennis received in college - worked for seven years at the University of Southern California. In 1994, he was offered a job in the beautiful and historical city of Lebanon, Ill...

29Nov

By The McKendree Review1 Comment

Personality

Stories behind our Scars

By Justin Blanks Millions of people have visible scars on their body that we may never know the story behind. A scar is a permanent patch of skin that grows over a wound that forms when your body heals itself after a cut, scrape, burn or sore. Scars can fade over time but never go away completely. Because McKendree is a university where the majority of the students play sports, scars are very easy to find. Caitlyn Lowry is a sophomore softball player here at McKendree and has a large, visible scar on her knee. She said, “How I got this scar is from sliding into bases and diving numerous times. It went away for one season but it always comes back because every game I slide/dive that skin always reopens.” Caitlyn is the starting shortstop for the softball team; therefore, she dives and sl...

The Person Behind the Poetry: Dr. Jenny Mueller

20Nov

By The McKendree ReviewNo Comments

Personality, Profiles

The Person Behind the Poetry: Dr. Jenny Mueller

By Elexis Baltimore, Contributing Writer Featured Picture: Courtesy of Dr. Jenny Mueller “Wow, your parents have a lot of books!” With a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet for a mother and a father who was deeply engrossed in the arts, Dr. Jenny Mueller heard this a number of times as a kid. She grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, where her parents would make the 45-minute commute to attend art events in the city including a number of poetry readings. Dr. Mueller recounts that in suburban life it was almost unheard of to go to the city for anything other than shopping and school field trips, which often made her feel different, “but in a good way.” She says. Years later, when Dr. Mueller became a poet herself, she did not have to deal with the typical pushback from her parents about ...

Soulaf Abas: When Art, Passion, Love, and Pain Collide

6Nov

By The McKendree ReviewNo Comments

Personality

Soulaf Abas: When Art, Passion, Love, and Pain Collide

By Shelby Procko All photos courtesy of (http://www.soulafabas.com) Soulaf (Soully) Abas is an incredibly talented woman from Damascus, Syria. She began her life as an artist as a young child, doodling on anything that she could find the space. At 16 she began to take art more seriously by starting art classes at the Russian Cultural Center. She always knew it was something that she wanted to pursue seriously. In the 5th grade Syrian students begin to learn English, and when asked what she wanted to do when she grew up, Soully said she wanted to be a designer. "I didn't know that a designer was different than an artist then, but I knew I wanted to do something with art, lots of colors, and a canvas," she said, "I know it's a cliché, but I never doubted that." As a third-year Art student...

Life and Kevin Zanelotti Through the Lens of Friedrich Nietzsche

17Oct

By The McKendree ReviewNo Comments

Entertainment, Personality, Profiles

Life and Kevin Zanelotti Through the Lens of Friedrich Nietzsche

In honor of National teacher’s day (which is when this article was written), I thought it fitting to post a piece covering not just some of the philosophy of McKendree’s favorite philosophy professor, but a bit of humanization for my favorite professor. Kevin Zanelotti grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended Archbishop Curly High School, a catholic high school in the center of Baltimore. This school however was a far shot from where Zanelotti would travel and eventually land. However, it was a necessary and one might even say an essential stepping stone. The priests at this high school were Franciscan and thus more accepting/aware of belief systems outside of their own. And it was one of these priests that gave a young Zanelotti his first look into the lens we are viewing this article...