Freshman Comes Home

WENHAM, MA - When most think of college, they think about going away from home. Cole Pooler grew up in Southern California, as a member of a family that was firmly rooted in the East Coast. So instead of following the trend of going away from home, he decided the East Coast was calling him back.

For Cole Pooler, a freshman from Orange, CA, the college picking experience wasn't the most difficult. "I went online," said Pooler. "It was the first Christian college that came up on the list. I looked up more information about it, and loved it." After doing some legwork, he decided that he would come and visit. "I really liked what I saw. The people were nice and the campus was great," said Pooler.

Since being at Gordon, He has noticed some very positive things about the campus and the people in it. "I like how easy it is to make friends. People are so nice here," says Pooler, 18. "Back home things are different. It's a little hostile over there, and difficult to make friends."

There is only one thing that is very foreign to Pooler. "I'm a catholic kid, so all this Christian stuff is a little weird for me. It's not necessarily bad, but it is definitely going to take some time to get used to," says Pooler. "I've never really been involved with anything outside of Catholicism. We'll see how it works out."

Another thing that has been a little difficult for him is the workload. "The workload is pretty tough, but I'm getting used to it," said Pooler. This sentiment is not surprising, as his roommate agreed. "Everything that Cole is saying is true, especially the stuff about the workload," chuckled Freshman Tyler Ostrander. "The workload is definitely crazy."

Cole Pooler is also an athlete, and he will be playing baseball here at Gordon. He is an outfielder.

Filmmaker Makes More Than Just Film

By Ricky Marte

Wenham, MA - When it was announced that filmmaker Jody Hassett Sanchez was coming to speak at Gordon, at first it just seemed that we were getting another relatively well-known speaker who would come and preach to us about some cause that we were supposed to suddenly become interested about. I had my own expectations.

However, the second I met Hassett Sanchez, all of that went out the window. She was educated, and funny. She's a mom to one of the cutest baby boys I've ever seen. I was running sound in convocation that day, so I was one of the first to meet her that day. She has been all over the news and journalism business, working for CNN and ABC, so I was walking on coals for the first few minutes. I quickly realized how down to earth she was. She was very cooperative during the mic checks, and the following dialogue was very interesting and refreshing to hear, especially being a journalism student.

Jody Hassett Sanchez has so many great things to say during her dialogue with those who attended convocation last Friday. Most interesting to me was her mission to differentiate film making from making a documentary. There were a few things that she pointed out specifically. They were:

• the audience has to trust the filmmaker.
• the documentary must be real.
• that even while the director brings his/her own perspective, that he/she must be careful to check their own persepective as well.
• documentarists have to "draw line in sand."
• story must shed light on truth
• storytelling allows people to make own decisions in regards to subject matter
• that the main goal is to make a story that is well told and inspiring

It was very interesting to hear these things as a journalist. It has taught me to have diverse perspective on writing. After listening to Hassett Sanchez, what can be most easily and concretely taken away from this convocation, is that as a writer, you need to be real. No matter what the circumstance.

Classic Book on Writing Remains Relevant for Modern Writers

By Ricky Marte

Wenham, MA - During a time when it is so easy to just get lost in the world of instant messaging, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and blogging, and where it has become commonplace to replace phrases like "talk to you later" with "ttyl" and "laugh out loud" with "lol," it is increasingly difficult to make a case for the old fashioned. But take one step into the newsroom, and you'll see just the opposite.

William Zinsser, author of On Writing Well has a very profound influence on the writers of this generation. "I find Zinsser's book really helpful," says sophomore Amber Fiedler, 18. "It's simple and basic, which makes the text easy to understand. The book is a good turn to when trying to better one's writing skills." It is extremely vital in this society of "tweets" and "status updates" to remember how exactly to write correctly. Zinsser wrote On Writing Well over thirty years ago, but it remains completely relevant and timeless. The reason it will forever remain relevant is not necessarily anything that blows you away in the book. More so, it is that good writing is just that. The world will always need good writers, and Zinsser teaches how to write well.

"After reading Zinsser I feel like I am allowed to be myself more when I write," says Junior Jon Knudtson, 20. "This makes writing much easier in general and helps me stay more relaxed." As a writer it is important to be yourself and to add your own little flair to anything you write. Zinsser seems to agree. "Sell yourself, and your subject will exert its own appeal. Believe in your own identity and your own opinions." Zinsser really hammers the point that you should write for yourself and not for others. At the end of the day, it's really up to the writer what the want to write about. Zinsser says to "Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it."

Wenham’s Gordon Community Uses Web to find news

Wenham, MA – At a time where the use of the internet for everything is prevalent, it was an fascinating task to see where Gordon students, professors and faculty were getting their news. It was a fascinating mission to see whether people were using the internet for their news, or whether they were using print journalism to get their information.

Four members of the Gordon community were interviewed. Two current Gordon students, Junior Daniel Perednia and Senior German Disla had great opinions on news and where they get their news. Perednia, 20 of Granby, Connecticut admitted that he didn’t really check the news much, except for when he wanted to know more about sports. However, he did say that when he did happen to check news, he used CNN.com to get his news fix. However, Perednia spends most of his time getting sports news from ESPN.com.

Disla, a music major at Gordon, had a slightly different view on the news. He also loves sports, but he does try to make sure he stays up on the current news. He feels that it is very important, especially when you spend months in the bubble that is the Gordon community. Disla gets his news from Yahoo.com, Google.com, and surprisingly enough, his local print newspaper, when he can get his hands on it.

Also interviewed was a valued member of Gordon’s faculty, Chris Imming, 29, Director of Media Services. It was awesome to see the contrast between Imming and the students, as he got almost no sports news. When Imming needs news, he always visits drudgereport.com. Drudge Report is a very interesting news aggregator where headlines are collected and placed on this one page, with links to their creators. Imming stated that it is just plain easier to use Drudge report for his news.

Also interviewed was Dr. Michael Monroe, 47, Associate Professor of Music. Dr. Monroe only uses online news sources. He stated that he simply does not have time to find and read printed newspapers. Online news is easy and can be read on the fly using a cell phone or a laptop computer. Dr. Monroe gets most of his news from BostonGlobe.com, which is a local newspaper, and iGoogle.com.