Humans of Summerville
“I’m an IT major. I'm from Atlanta, GA. I ended up here because I didn't want to stay where I was before, which was Georgia Military College in Milledgeville. I wanted to come here to experience a new city, plus it is closer to Atlanta.
I love to draw. I'm not sure where I want to go with my IT major, but I'm leaning towards cyber security or Web design. My favorite sport is baseball. I love country music. I'm a junior at Augusta University.
So far, my school experience has been quite an adventure. I switched majors 3 times since coming here, trying to figure out what I want to do. But I think I've found it now.”
-- Chandler Worthen
See You At The Pole (Campus Event)
The flagpole on Augusta University’s Summerville campus was the destination of a National Prayer Event was hosted that happens yearly. It occurs on the 4th Wednesday of each month. It began in 1990 with 10 students at a high school. But today marks the first time occurring on a college campus entirely, with its first being here at Augusta University
“The purpose of it is to provide education about what we have at campus ministries at AU & help be a resource for counseling for all kinds of things.” Alecia Stewart, the event supervisor, stated. Millions of students & thousands of schools partake in this event yearly. There are 12 campus ministries available throughout Summerville.
“Wesley Foundation is just starting this semester. We're going to start up with meet up opportunities at the Dorm Oak Hall & of course we are looking for more students to be involved. Our goal for January is to begin bible studies. Our main effort is to reach out and try to help kids feel more connected.” Nicole Muns of the Wesley Foundation said. The event is sponsored by YoungLife, Wesley Foundation & Every Nation Campus (ENC).
There were about an estimate of twenty to thirty students partaking in the event. They all gathered in prayer around the flagpole, accompanied by music from students with musical instruments.
Bianca Fortis Profile Story
Bianca Fortis is an experienced journalist from New York who came into my narrative reporting class to discuss her experience with journalism and how it’s impacted not only her but those she has worked with. Fortis is also a former Augusta University student. She began to go on about the documentary she and others had worked on, stating, “So I got involved with this project with some friends of mine, that we’ve been working on for about two years now. It’s about Mexican veterans who end up getting deported in their later years after service.”
“To me, the issue is that in the military, you don’t have to be a citizen,” Fortis states during the subject of her documentary project. “There’s no requirement to be a citizen to join the military. So what happens with these individuals is that they go overseas, do what is required in the military, they come back and face legal trouble.” The legal trouble that these veterans face is deportation.
“Most commonly for these vets are that they still suffer from PTSD and other related issues after service, so they would possibly turn to theft and whatever, which is not okay but it is common.” She continues. The documentary project focuses on these vets who were deported due to not having citizenship, despite their past military service. To us, the viewers, that is unacceptable. It’s extremely unfair. The documentary is not only to discuss the downsides of these vets, who face deportation, but to spread the awareness and make it stop. It is a well worked project that is still in progress, but has made a minor impact on my class.
Public Reactions to Presidential Election Results
I was asked by my research class to interview the public about their reactions to the results of this year’s presidential election. Each person interviewed discussed both political parties and how they feel impacted the results. It was an election that turned tides for both major parties.
“Honestly, I wasn't too surprised when I learned that Donald Trump won, mainly because of all the publicity that he received during his campaign. Mass media repeatedly pumped the same message throughout every outlet into the homes of millions of Americans until they start thinking the way that they want them to think. Trump's outrageous statements and misdeeds definitely grabbed people's attention, and that was all he could've asked for. Not only that, but also with all of Hillary's misdeeds coming to light, that just gave him another leg to stand on, but that doesn't mean she was completely right. What she did was awful, but Trump knew how to play the game, and he played it well. I didn't support him, but I didn't support Hillary Clinton either. I voted third party mainly as a protest against the two-party system because I don't believe that it works. I don't believe in thinking that choosing between the lesser of two evils should be acceptable.”
- Heather Guay, AU student
“I'm disappointed. I'm not really against some of Trump’s ideas, but I was against many of Hillary's ideas. I believe she was an insider & I was content with him being an outsider, despite his behavior. We elected a president, not a saint. I think America could have done better with the primaries. The choices that we had weren't great on either side. I would've liked to seen some more progressive choices. I would choose a progressive choice because we need to move forward instead of focusing on old ideas. We should be precautionary about what we do but we still need to move forward. The way we stay right now makes us further behind other countries, and that's a problem we need to fix.”
- Joseph Theriault, AU Student
“I wasn't really a fan of either option, but I leaned more towards Hillary. I wasn't expecting the results to be close than it actually was. It was more widespread. But it's only four years.”
- Eric Franklin, AU Student
"It was relatively close. My guy, Berne Sanders, lost a long time ago. So it was like watching a freak show going on. So there's nothing you can do, so there's a chance you can give them. That's all we can do and I can only hope for the best for Trump.”
- Sean Rogers, AU Student
The results did not come to their favors, so it seems. But they are willing to give our president-elect a chance at seeing what he plans to do with this position. Regardless, we can only hope for the best!