Personality - The McKendree Review

13Apr

By The McKendree Review2 Comments

Personality

McKendree’s Most Interesting Man

By Zach Manion, Contributing Writer Lebanon, Ill. - On the surface, Christopher DiOrio seems no different the regular adjunct professor at McKendree University. Most faculty and students know him solely for his teaching. What most don’t know about DiOrio is his life before McKendree; a life full of simplicity and adventure. DiOrio was born in Pittsburgh, Pa. and spent his adolescent years there. After graduating from Dickinson College in 1992, he moved to Washington D.C. From there, he went on to move eight more times, not including short moves back to Pittsburgh, before finally landing in St. Louis in 2013. “I was moving once a year. I would call my parents every so often and say I was moving and they would ask if I was in trouble or trying to evade the police,” DiOrio said.” In his yea...

10Apr

By The McKendree Review5 Comments

Personality

A Boy and His Cows

By JT Russell, Contributing Writer Lebanon, Ill. - As the birds begin to chirp and the grass once again turns a vibrant green, college students can’t help but envision the imminent summer break. For most college kids, summer break means sleeping in until ten o’clock, road trips with your friends and consuming a few too many adult beverages in an activity that the music group Little Big Town characterizes as 'Day Drinking.' However, for 20-year-old Bradley Robert Wyss II, summer days consist of 5 A.M. alarms, immense amounts of Colombian dark roast coffee, Waylon Jennings radio on Pandora and a fair amount of cow excrement coating his Ariat work boots. Brad, a Junior at McKendree, is currently studying marketing. In addition to his studies, he is a defensive end on the football team and ...

28Feb

By The McKendree Review7 Comments

Personality

McKendree’s Biggest Fans

By J.T. Russell, Contributing Writer "We just love the people and the atmosphere. Everyone is so nice to us. I mean, who doesn’t like going to McKendree games? It’s our favorite thing to do.” This is a quote from 29 year old Mark Junior Reinacher. Mark is part of a tenacious tag team duo with his twin brother, Robert Lee Reinacher. Together, they are, (cue in John Williams’ Superman Score), McKendree’s Biggest Fans. Before Mark and Robert became widely recognized by the Lebanon community as McKendree super fans, the twins could be found roaming the halls of O’Fallon high school. “I loved high school.” says Mark. “Playing volleyball and basketball during P.E. was fun, but talking to all the girls was my favorite.” After high school, Mark and Robert moved down to Carbondale, IL, for a short...

The Musical Fusion of Quebec’s Le Vent du Nord: Melding the old with the new to create something unique

23Feb

By The McKendree Review1 Comment

Campus Events

The Musical Fusion of Quebec’s Le Vent du Nord: Melding the old with the new to create something unique

By Jack MacLean, Copy Editor Folk music serves as an expression of the people and era from which it originates. For Le Vent Du Nord, a folk band out of Quebec, Canada, delivering that expression to audiences is as exciting as it is daunting. The band, whose name translates literally to “The North Wind,” formed in 2002, when Olivier Demers, the fiddler/foot tapper/guitarist, was studying music in college. After some early mix-ups during its first 5 years, Le Vent landed with its current line-up – Olivier Demers, Rejean Brunet, Nicolas Boulerice, and Simon Beaudry. Today, the four-man band performs around 120 concerts annually, as well as a multitude of music festivals, in both Canada and the United States. “There’s a market for it,” said Réjean Brunet, the band’s resident accordionist, bas...

10Feb

By The McKendree Review2 Comments

Sports

Mike Babcock’s Relentless Pursuit

By Grant Riggs, Editor-in-Chief On Wednesday, February 1, at 6:30 a.m., Mike Babcock, 5th-year head football coach at McKendree University, walked into his office knowing the next five hours would determine the future of his program. The occasion? A day that would bring about the culmination of months of hard work - National Signing Day. For Babcock and his nine-man coaching staff, the current day's work began at 7 a.m., when high school seniors started faxing in their National Letters of Intent (NLI) to play football for McKendree. The preparation for this one day, however, required a countless amount of hours. “It’s not 8 to 5” Babcock said, “A lot of times, you’ll be up at 4:30 a.m. to be at a school at 7:30 a.m. because that’s the only time to talk to a kid. It’s a lot of hours for al...

McKendree’s sandwich artist, with a side of happiness

12Oct

By The McKendree Review1 Comment

Campus News, Personality

McKendree’s sandwich artist, with a side of happiness

BY AUSTIN LAGESSE Contributing Writer Most students know her simply as “the sandwich lady.” Others know her by her name, Stephani Stark. One thing is for sure: you are guaranteed to see her Monday through Friday at the deli station in Ames from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Being part of the Ames Dining Hall cooking staff for five years now, Stephani’s deli area has become her second home. “I want to make every kid feel like that is a place where they can come and be comfortable,” said Stark. The length of her lines during the rush hour lunch is a testament to her superior sandwich skills. A quickly extending line is no problem for the sandwich lady, who knows over 50 different sandwiches by heart. Stark’s journey that landed her at McKendree lends to her enthusiastic work spirit and compassion t...