The Pine Log

              CMYK
TODAY
H 78 L TUESDAY
H 74 L 47
WEDNESDAY
H 78 L 54
Volume 91
Issue 17
Next Publication:
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Visit us online at
www.thepinelog.com
Debt might be
the only thing
students get
from college
Page 4
SFA Soccer
loses the SLC
tournament
championship
game
Inside
Kappa Delta
Pi has been
assisting with
the Boys Ranch
Page 3
Open House
at the
Nacogdoches
Airport
Page 7
SFA Soccer
falls to Texas
State at the SLC
tournament
Page 8
The Pine Log’s Sudoku
Look for this
addictive number
game on page 3
every Monday
and Thursday
Opinions
Page 4
Columns
Zoe Riemer
talks about
Christmas before
Thanksgiving
SFA students
discuss major
issues in Jacks
Speak
Entertainment
Page 5
Closer look at
the SFA Football
head coach
Page 6
Monday, November 7, 2011 PINE LOG
The
The Independent Voice of Stephen F. Austin State University
65
By Alyssa Tenorio
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
More than 200 students, faculty
and community members attended
the third annual ODK Leadership
Conference on Saturday in the
BPSC. Participants heard speeches
by both Arun Gandhi, grandson
of Mahatma Gandhi, and Karen
Walrond, author of “The Beauty of
Different” and the popular blog,
Chookooloonks, as well as attended
breakout sessions, all in an effort to
learn more about what they can do
to bring change to their society.
Shelby Pearman, biology senior
and ODK president, explained why
the leadership society chose Gandhi
to headline the conference.
“The Office of Student Affairs’
theme this year is ‘Be the Change,’”
Pearman said. “We wanted to bring
a more well-known speaker to at-tract
as many people as possible to
the conference.”
Gandhi, who founded the M.K.
Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
in New York, retold stories from his
childhood, including lessons his fa-mous
grandfather taught him. He
also explained the control and de-termination
it takes for a person to
live a non-violent life.
“Be a better human being today
than you were yesterday,” Gandhi
told attendees.
Walrond, an immigrant from
Trinidad and Tobago, told the audi-ence
about her struggles to under-stand
herself and her differences.
She discussed five different steps
each person can take to
appreciate his or her own
uniqueness.
“Your job is to help make
the world a better place,”
the award-winning blogger
said.
The 30-minute breakout
sessions were facilitated
by community members,
faculty and student lead-ers.
Themes ranged from
money management to a
student’s legacy and vari-ous
leadership styles.
“The breakout sessions
went so well due to the fact
we have many different
speakers and many differ-ent
topics,” Pearman said.
John Fontenot, reha-bilitation
ser-vices
senior
and Leadership
Conference co-ordinator,
said
the number of at-tendees
exceed-ed
expectation.
“This was a
step above last
year’s (leader-ship
conference,)
and we are very
proud of that
fact,” he said.
ODK members worked
for months to plan the
conference in order to
give students an oppor-tunity
to enhance their
leadership skills.
“We incorporated stu-dents,
faculty and staff to
make this conference an
experience for everyone,”
Pearman explained. “We provided
many different topics that many
other conferences don’t.”
“The speakers discussed colorful
situations and ideas about moving
forward in peace and harmony with
others,” Fontenot said, “and that’s
what made me excited about this
conference.”
By Tinesha Mix
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
During the week of Nov. 14-18, the of-fice
of International Programs will host
the yearly International Education Week,
featuring multiple events to help educate
students and faculty about global educa-tion
and its benefits.
The program will kick off on Monday
with the “International Education Week
Kick-Off Reception” from 2 to 4 p. m. in
Regents Suite B, BPSC. This event will
be the opening social event for all inter-ested.
Refreshment will be available.
Tuesday will feature the International
Student Organization fair where profes-sors
will discuss new Study Abroad op-portunities.
It will be held from 2 to 3:30
p.m. in the Wyatt Room of Steen Library.
Students can talk with the professors
about studying abroad, meet representa-tives
and view the winners of the 2011
Study Abroad Photo Contest.
Wednesday, at 7 p.m. in the BPSC
Movie Theatre, the Office of International
Programs will show“Crossing Borders,”
a movie about eight Moroccan and
American college students travelling
through Morocco, discussing the “clash
of civilizations” between Islam and the
West.
The movie also discusses breaking
away from stereotypes.
Thursday will be the “Global Gateway
Presentation—China” at 2 p.m. in
the Wyatt Room, located in the Steen
Library. This event will be presented by
an American SFA student who studied
abroad in Shanghai, China, this past
semester. The student will be presenting
his views about life in China, what it’s
like to try and learn Chinese, and how it
was to skateboard on the Great Wall of
China.
Friday, the program will come to a
close with a bang on International Sports
Day, where students can learn to play
cricket. Time and place is undetermined,
but interested students can check with
the Office of International Programs to
find out when it will take place.
Students who are looking for some-thing
to do, who want to learn about
other cultures, to play cricket or to study
abroad for the 2012 school year, they can
find out what the Office of International
Programs has to offer. For more infor-mation,
you contact Heather Catton at
hcatton@sfasu.edu or by phone at 936-
468-5597.
tmix@thepinelog.com
By Andreya Stephenson
MANAGING EDITOR
On Friday the Center for a Livable World
at SFA and Austin Heights Baptist Church of
Nacogdoches hosted the Faith & Trauma: Light
in Darkness Conference on the second floor of
the BPSC. This was the second time this event
has been held.
It was an all-day conference intended to bring
educators, pastors, social scientists, health and
social service professionals, public officials, civic
leaders, and researchers to discuss faith and
trauma and the interaction between the two.
Professionals from various fields came together
to talk about how faith impacts trauma and vice
versa. They also explored how art can be used as
a healing method and a way to open the dialogue
to stop patterns of trauma.
Various artworks were scattered throughout
the student center, the cast from the play “Rabbit
Hole” performed a scene, and a documentary
was shown in one of the sessions.
One of the speakers at this conference is an
SFA alumna. Shannon Deitz got her bachelor’s
degree in PR and journalism. While at SFA, Deitz
was very involved as a member of Chi Omega, the
vice president of SAA and an Orientation Leader.
Deitz later got her master’s degree in
creative writing at the University of
Houston. She is now an author and
the spokesperson for the Maria Goretti
Network.
Deitz is a three-time rape survivor.
This was a secret she carried with her,
afraid to tell people what had hap-pened
to her. She saw a counselor her
freshman year at SFA who helped her to
begin to heal and to have the courage to
tell her parents what happened. Once
she began to open up, her mom and
sister began to talk about similar expe-riences
that they had also been hiding.
It was still a long journey from speak-ing
out with those first courageous
words to getting to where she is today.
Deitz talked about how she battled de-pression
and lived her life as a victim.
She said she was perpetually angry and
was starting to take this anger out on
her family. One experience with her
young son caused her to evaluate the
way she had been living. She simply said, “I can’t
be this person anymore,” and sought God’s di-rection
for her life.
“I suddenly had this drive to be that person,”
said Deitz. She chose to live as a survivor rather
than as a victim.
Deitz said this wasn’t an immediate change,
ODK Leadership Conference focuses on change
Keynote speakers Arun Gandhi continues grandfather’s work toward peace
MARK RHOUDES/THE PINE LOG
Karen Wakrind, author of “The Beauty of Different” signed copies of her book after
her closing speech at the ODK leadership Conference this last Saturday.
ODK CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
HARDY MEREDITH/PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Arun Gandhi, the grandson to Mahatma Gandhi,
was the keynote speaker at the ODK leadership
conference.
Benefits of global education
focus of special week’s activities
Conference features discussion on interaction between faith, trauma
ANDREYA STEPHENSON/THE PINE LOG
Shannon Deitz, a SFA alumna and a rape survivor, talks about
how to help someone you may know who has been raped, about
how to help someone pull through.
FAITH CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
Flag Football at SFA
Two San Angelo State teams, New ER and Wolf Pac, made
it to the championship game in the largest flag football
tournament in the country. The tourney was held on SFA’s
Intramural Fields this weekend.
JENNIFER ROGERS/THE PINE LOG
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