News

Newly elected UPUA President Courtney Lennartz (right), a junior majoring in health policy and administration, embraces her running mate and new UPUA Vice President Katelyn Mullen, a sophomore majoring in marketing and public relations, after the announcement of their campaign win at The Hintz Family Alumni Center in State College, PA, Wednesday, March 28,  2012.

Penn State RAM Squad dancer, Terrance Dowell, a sophomore majoring in security research analysis, takes center stage dancing with other students in Alumni Hall Friday night, March 30, 2012, during intermission of The Professional Drag Show in State College. PA. The Professional Drag Show was the final event on campus for Penn State's Pride Week.

Sports

At this year's Red Bull Buttercup 2012 Contest Series, Clint Cooper wins the Pro Division, with Steven Weatherly taking second place and Kevin Breen taking third.

Felix Aronovich, a junior from the Penn State Men's Gymnastics team, competes on the high bar against Temple University on Saturday, March 24, 2012, in Recreation Hall at University Park, State College, PA. Penn State won 360.600 to 342.200 against Temple.

Tony Beck, a junior  from Penn State Men's Gymnastics team, performs on the high bar against Temple University with fellow teammates watching, Saturday, March 24, 2012, in Recreation Hall at University Park, State College, PA. Penn State won 360.600 to 342. 200 against Temple.

Charlie the Barber

89, going on 90, is the age of well-known Bellefonte barber Charlie Fletemake. Owning his barber shop "Charlie's Barber Shop," the walls are covered in newspaper articles from Pennsylvania and New York and feature stories throughout his career all about him and his achievements. While cutting his regular customer and friend Joe Furfaro, Charlie talked about how his shop used to look like in the 1920s. Originally his shop had about four billard tables and locals would use his shop as social hot spot. But with a installed wall cutting right in the middle of the shop, the billard tables were removed and only a single chair being the center of the shop. 

After listening to his life story, it made me depressed to think that this barber shop used to be full of young people just  hanging out having a good time but is now bland, white and cold. Charlie was more than happy to show us each and everyone of his photographs that his said photojournalists have traveled to shoot that were later published in newspapers and magazines. The only thought running through my mind was that this nice old man is all alone in this cold barber shop that is literally underground. He has so much history to offer and I feel like many people don't get to hear it. Out of all the people in Bellefonte that I met on today, Charlie was by far the most interesting one.

THON Weekend 2012

Even though I had certain schedules set up with Onward State, Webcast Volunteers and COMM 469 for 2012 THON weekend, I decided to go all out and spend my entire weekend at the Bryce Jordan Certain. For all 46 hours, plus 10 hours more of no sleep, I ran around the BJC for photographs and to record live feed for the THON webcast. Since it would be my last THON weekend as a Penn State student, I didn't want to miss a minute of it. But as a photojournalist putting herself through intense conditions while still producing work, it took its toll on me and my work.
I cheated when compared to what the dancers had to endure. I had a seat at Onward State's press row and had enough Red Bull to last me the weekend. But I was just as delusional as the dancers. I will admit that the lack of sleep effected my work by making me less alert and performed slower. I still was able to give myself boosts of energy and followed the dancers' method of keeping energy by constantly moving. I learned this lesson the hard way when recording live feed for the THON Webcast Saturday at 5 a.m. where I stood working a video camera on a tripod for six hours straight. At some points, I even carried the ten pound camera on my shoulder as I recorded interviews and food being served to dancers. The amount of pain in my heels to my back was unbearable.
As my shift came for my COMM 469 class, Sunday morning at 8 a.m., I was completely delusional. I was able to photograph mail call and the memorial tribute to Courtney O'Brien that were both emotional. I don't know if it was the lack of sleep or having friends dancing on the floor, but I was just as emotional as they were. I was very honored when I was told that one of my photos from the memorium was going to be published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette. It was a first time that any of my work has been published in a newspaper and when the total amount was reveal at the end, my photograph became extremely popular on the internet. This was my last THON weekend as a Penn State student and I didn't want to miss a moment of it. But in professional terms, I would never put myself through that position of sleep deprivation with multiple responsibilities again.

Artist with a Needle

Like a painter creating art on a canvas, tattoo artist Adam Zimmer at Steam Punk Ink Tattoo and Art Studio on Calder Way in State College, PA, creates work of art on the skin of his customers. Monday evening, February 13, Joe Donofry (Computer Science, Sophomore) gets his first tattoo of gears underneath torn skin on his right arm. This permanent art has been noticed as a generational craze, especially among college students.

There's really no explanation to why anyone would find tattoos beautiful other than as personal preference. As a girl with size 2g gauges, I have been given mixed reviews from peers ranging from disgust and complimentary. Despite the negative comments, I still love my gauges and they were worth the pain through the stretching process. There's no surprise that my parents don't approve of tattoos, nor gauges, but this art form of changing the appearance of your body comes as beauty for me. But tattooing does have it's limits. Several synchronized with each other and have meaning behind them is attractive. Getting a bunch of random ones that look more like bumper stickers and creating an obsession with covering the entire body isn't. With this extent of extreme body decoration, it is always best to keep it simple. I honestly cannot wait to see what this generation will look like in their senior years, as old civilians covered in tattoos and piercings.  

People Helping People

At the Penn State Learning Center in the Boucke Building on Pollock Road offers free tutoring sessions to students by students. Parth Ashar (Chemical Engineer, junior) helps Ali Parks (Film/Communications, freshman) with her Math 110 Business Calculus homework during open tutoring session on Monday, February 6.

Joe Paterno Memorial at the Bryce Jordan Center

On Thursday, January 26, the memorial of Coach Joe Paterno was held in the Bryce Jordan Center to be witnessed and attending by the public. In the span of 40 seconds, 17,000 tickets for the memorial were sold out by the general public. Fortunately for me, I was guaranteed a press pass to take photographs for Onward State. I dressed respectable for the ceremony in black trousers and a black v-neck t-shirt. I imagined as a photographer, the dress code wouldn't really pertain to me, but as a fan of Joe Paterno, I figured it wouldn't do me harm.  But with the rain and high traffic of students trying to make their way to the BJC, I only wished I left three hours prior.
The press who were not stationary were only granted access to the left and right side of the court floor; not really giving many photo opportunities, especially with the Paterno family sitting dead center up front. Sue Paterno was the first to walk onto the court floor to be greeted with a thunderous applause by the audience. I was on the right side of the floor, squeezing my way through other photographers with their telephoto lens trying to get an image of Sue. I took about ten images of Sue and only one came out in focus. My initial reaction to seeing this photograph of Sue Paterno concealing her tears in a crowd of standing friends was "I got my money shot." It wasn't a second later that I was overcome by sadness to realized that Sue Paterno crying was my money shot. I was conflicted with cheering as any photojournalist would capturing the moment by the Penn State student who wanted to grieve with her. Either way, I knew this emotional image had to be shared with others.
Once uploaded onto the Onward State facebook page, "likes" kept streaming in and the photo flooded everybody's homepage. Never would I have imagined that this photograph would gather over 3,000 "likes" in the span of twelve hours. I have received various comments from fans thanking me for sharing this touching moment with them to people calling me a cold-hearted scumbag and demanded the photo to be taken down. But what those people who had negative feedback don't understand is that the Paterno's allowed the media access to the memorial, therefore, knew that multiple images would be taken of them. I was just the one of many trying to get this one shot. As far as I know, I am the only photographer with this shot. The reason for that is because I was surrounded by tall men; I was short and thin enough to squeeze in between them. One woman commented on this photo saying that the only reason I posted this was to get my name out there and that I was sick for doing it. With over 3,000 "likes," over 280 "shares," and about 40 retweets when I posted this on Twitter, I can only say that this honestly did get my name noticed.