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BY WILL BASLER Sports Editor After a fairly successful 2014 campaign, the Cardinals fell in the National League Championship Series, falling just short of the World Series. The departure of key contributors Joe Kelly and Allen Craig gave the team a much different crew looking forward to the 2015 season. However, Cardinals management surprised many throughout the sports world when the swapped young starting pitcher Shelby Miller for Braves outfielder Jason Heyward. The Redbirds had a surplus of good, young arms, and a lineup that was starving for runs. This trade took care of that, and the improved Cardinals are ready to compete for their twelfth world championship. However, other teams in the NL Central have upgraded as well. The most notable of these upgrades came from the Chicago Cub...

  Vol. 93, Iss. 11 Editors Emily Lucia Editor-in-Chief Taquisha Drisdell Assistant Editor  Lauren Apetz Media Editor Will Basler Sports Editor Editing Team Emily Lucia Taquisha Drisdell In This Issue Eric Abrolat Cheyenne Autry Donna Bick Will Basler Jennifer Blumberg Kendra Brackman Rebecca McKee Malie Mills Ashly Schmitt Spencer Sweetin Mileena Tomasek Natalie Van Booven The McKendree Review is a student-run organization of McKendree University. The mission of The McKendree Review is to give students the opportunity to learn the news process and publish articles pertaining to their opinions and ideas. The staff does not agree with all statements and opinions, which rightfully belong to their writers. The McKendree Review Office can be found in Eisenmayer 208 on the McKendree C...

EMILY LUCIA Editor in Chief Well here it is. The first print issue for the semester. I have to be honest, I was a little worried we would not have gotten many articles. But as people sent them in, the less worried I felt. I want to thank all of the writers who appeared in this edition for submitting your stories. A school paper would be nothing without the students, so thank you. In addition, I would also like to thank McKendree’s faculty for supporting The Review. Without the support of people who constantly inspire the students on this campus, this paper would not be half of what it is. It is a truly beautiful thing to see students show so much interest in sending in articles. As a writer and someone who loves reading, it excites me to see such interest. It shows a willingness to learn...

By Emily Lucia Editor in Chief   It all began with the planning of a peace walk, inspired by the events in Ferguson, Mo. The walk was meant to bring the students of all nationalities and ethnicities together. It was to show that McKendree is one, united by learning. On Oct. 29, 2014, what was meant to be something completely harmless, turned into something that would cause a rift among students on campus. Rhoda Warner, a junior at McKendree University, had found her car vandalized. The walk was originally planned as an interfaith event, but Warner had another idea for this school year’s walk. “Years before we had done the walk on an interfaith level, we just gathered with people of different faiths. And I thought, why don’t we just open it up to the community?” Inspired by the rac...

By Donna Bick Staff Writer Martha Patterson, Ph.D. is an English professor at McKendree University and has been teaching on campus since 2004. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Carleton College in Northfield, Minn.; her Master of Arts degree in literary studies and her Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa. Her teaching and research interests include American late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century studies, women’s studies and African American literature and culture. Along with her impressive teaching credentials, Dr. Patterson is a talented, skillful author. She has penned a monograph titled, Beyond the Gibson Girl: Reimagining the American New Woman. Her monograph was a revision of her dissertation, a requirement for the Ph.D. It is showcased in the...

By Ashly Schmitt Contributing Writer The problems in Ferguson, Mo. have yet to die down since the Michael Brown incident took place on Aug. 9, 2014.  The news has been filled with endless stories of riots and disturbances that have dispersed attention throughout the United States.  The shooting has been such a popular topic since then, to the point where you have to live under a rock not to hear about it.  Everybody has their different opinions about how the Ferguson Police Department handled the situation; the officer, Darren Wilson, stated it was self-defense against a criminal.  Throughout the months there has been protesters setting fires and protests in other major cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis, Boston and more.  Of course most of us saw these protests on the new...

By Lauren Apetz Contributing Writer A piano has 88 keys. You could play these keys in chopsticks style, or you could learn how to master the art of playing the piano. Dr. Joseph Welch could get you there. Dr. Welch has been an adjunct faculty member for two years at McKendree, but his experience as a pianist has gone on much longer than that. Dr. Welch has more than 15 years under his belt. His piano career began with conducting his stuffed animal orchestra in elementary school. Welch would putz around on the keyboard for a while before his parents finally got him professional training. As soon as he began playing, he knew he wanted to be a pianist. He has dabbled with other instruments, but he says, laughing at himself, “You don’t want me to play those.” Listening to Dr. Welch play ...

By Spencer Sweetin Contributing Writer Every foundation has a base - something that holds it in place so it does not give way. To the McKendree men’s and women’s volleyball teams, that base is Ben Duckworth. Assistant coach to Nickie Sanlin, Duckworth brings a sizeable amount of volleyball knowledge to the program from coaching the St. Louis High Performance Volleyball Club since 2006. The expertise that he brought has strengthened me and my teammate’s talents greatly. Duckworth started playing volleyball at the age of 15 at the suggestion of a senior varsity men’s volleyball team player at Oakville Senior High School. He told him to play on a club team so he could start playing at a more competitive level. Little did that senior know that Ben would go on to be player of the year in M...

  By Eric Abrolat Contributing Writer The road to a student’s future career may have a few curves or bends, but it tends to straighten out, allowing him or her to move forward with one goal in mind. However, for Devon VanNote, a sophomore at McKendree University, his road continues to fork off into two directions – a musical direction and an academic direction. VanNote is an avid gamer, a passionate guitarist and a dedicated computer science undergrad. There is not a moment of his week that isn’t filled with homework, gaming or playing in his band. When thinking about his future, he still doesn’t know what he will end up doing. VanNote’s interest in computer science originally stemmed from his love for video games. Not a day goes by where he doesn’t read about or play a videogam...

By Malie Mills Contributing Writer Compared to searching for your undergraduate degree school of choice, venturing into the world of graduate school for terminal degrees is an entirely different beast. All of your worries of reference letters, your resume, transcripts and application fees are relived when applying for graduate school. On top of all of that, music majors like myself have to prepare not only several selections of solo literature but also orchestral excerpts, etudes, scales and even prepare for sight reading pieces. Everything intimidating about auditioning - being in that very vulnerable spotlight - is brought back more intensely than ever before, and interviewing for those few studio spots is nerve-racking. Personally, however, I have found the journey of searching for th...