https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/6b39160362269016a4f21fd1d257d4b1.pdf 1694d30868ce2ec73b0cf8ae8db8f1d9 PDF Text Text April 1, 2023 Casper College’s Student Voice Since 1945 Food Pantry fights food insecurity Jacob Klaudt Chinook Writer JacobKlaudt/Chinook The Student Senate Food Pantry, located in room 409 of the Union/University buidling on CC's campus, opens its doors from 12-8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 1-5 p.m. The Student Senate Food Pantry at Casper College provides nourishment and other necessities for students who may be battling food insecurity or just can’t find the time to sit down and have a meal. The US Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways. Inversely, access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life characterizes food security. Given how grocery store prices rise all the time and the stereotypical college kids' financial situation, it's no wonder so many students scramble to find their next meals. “The purpose of our food pantry is to provide busy and overwhelmed students with meals, so they don’t have to choose between the phone bill or gas for their car and food,” said Devin Fulton, current Student Life Coordinator and Student Senate advisor at CC. Even though statistically Wyoming holds the title of one of the most food-secure states in the nation per the April 2021 issue of Agricultural Sciences, the March 2020 issue of Advances in Nutrition journal says that an estimated 41% of U.S. college students reported experiences of food insecurity. Food insecurity can present itself in multiple ways including trading food quality for quantity, skipping meals, and possessing insufficient funds and resources to buy healthy foods. “The food pantry has had sort of an avalanche effect by fighting food insecurity, which makes healthier students, which improves grades and academic performance and inevitably impacts the kind of community we have here at Casper College,” said Fulton. The CC website says that the pantry, located in room 409 of the Union/University building on campus, opens its doors from 12-8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 1-5 p.m. on Fridays. The pantry welcomes all students once a week to grab eight food items and two personal hygiene products. The food pantry started when a CC alumnus approached Student Senate late in the fall of 2019. She gave a presentation on food insecurity and included information on how other colleges and universities around the country possess a pantry for food-deprived students. CC maintained no resources concerning food insecurity at that time, and student senators knew some action must take place. “The Student Senate that year was really won over by that presentation and wanted to help in any way that they could,” said Corey Peacock, former Student Senate advisor and current dean of students. — See Food Pantry Page 3 Rodeo and ag weather harsh winter Garrett Grochowski Chinook Writer Garrett Grochowskii/Chinook Frank Hodnett, a CC agriculture instructor, stands on a small snow drift while touring the Chinook around the college's ranch in Mills. Snow drifts blocked access to barns and roads, making this winter particularly challenging for faculty and students. Casper College’s rodeo team and agriculture department battled a particularly brutal winter at the off-campus ranch facility over winter break and beyond. The combined strength of students and faculty overcame the snow drifts blocking access to important roads and barns, and normal operations resumed. Trouble began at the ranch about a mile out of Mills around winter break. While most students were resting at home, the Casper College Rodeo Team was at its busiest. “In the summer, you know, kids leave and my end is more recruiting and seeing new talent and different things like that,” said Jhett Johnson, world champion team roper and CC’s head rodeo coach. “For the winter months here, we have our own indoor facility that we practice at -- 5 days a week we practice.” Access to the training facilities is vital for the rodeo team to maintain an edge over competition. However, practice wasn’t the only thing at stake for the students who depend on the facility. According to Johnson, the ranch houses many animals, including animals owned by students themselves. “There's roughly 50 calves between breakaway and calf-roping practice. There’s 40-head of team roping steers, and we keep some 50-head of bucking horses,” said Johnson. CC’s Agriculture Department also houses animals at the Mills location. “We also have a sheep flock out there that belongs to the ranch, but we use them in our programs. So, we’d feed the ewes and we were lambing during a lot of that time,” said Frank Hodnett, veteran ag instructor but new to the harsh winters of Wyoming. Hodnett, who began teaching his first year at CC in 2022, is no stranger to the world of agriculture. He taught for many years at New Mexico State University and worked with 4-H in the state as well, but Wyoming brings unique challenges. “I learned an important lesson,” said Hodnett. “It’s better to put up snow fence before the snow comes than it is to go out there and put it up after it’s here.” When the weather began to turn as the new year approached, fast winds and cold temperatures brought high volumes of snow that put a halt to many of the day-to-day activities on the ranch and temporarily kept students from feeding their animals. “It’s the first year we’ve ever had to battle it at all. I mean, it snows every winter but not like this. We’ve set records in the state of Wyoming, and with that did come challenges,” Johnson said. “We haven’t had a major snow for a while and there’s still some drifts.” And while snow drifts — See Snow Page 3 The friendly face behind the counter Kaley Pieper Chinook Writer Frank Fraker is a friendly face recognized by many Casper College students who frequent the Sub Connection and coffee carts on campus. But not many people know that Fraker is an alumnus of the college himself! Born and raised in Casper, Wyo., Frank graduated from Natrona County High School in 1970. Then, he attended CC for two years and majored in engineering. When reflecting on his time at CC, Fraker said, “The world is very different from what it was then. At that point, there was no internet, no cell phones, (and) no personal computers. Life has changed drastically since then. For one thing there’s a whole lot more buildings. When I was going to school here, the cafeteria was in the Strausner Building.” After Casper, he went on to University of Wyoming and graduated with his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. Work then led him to southern Louisiana where he lived for over 20 years. Fraker said he enjoyed his time in Louisiana, but it took him a while to get his bearings. “Here in Wyoming you can look up and see the mountains, and if you know the state you can figure out which way is north and figure out where you’re looking just by looking around you. But Southern Louisiana is so flat. The highest points are the bridges over the bayous. And there’s lots and lots of trees, so you can’t figure out north and south,” Fraker said. Compared to his home in Wyoming, Louisiana is different in many ways. But Fraker said he actually benefited from experiencing new ideas and landscapes. “It’s such a different culture down there, and I was lost for a while. It’s different but interesting. I highly recommend that everyone at some point moves away and lives in a different part of the country where there are different cultures and lifestyles,” said Fraker. “You don’t appreciate where you came from unless you’ve been someplace else. You don’t appreciate other places either until you’ve been there and experienced it. People who stay in their hometown their whole life are really missing something.” While living in Louisiana, Fraker didn’t necessarily spend his time putting his engineering degree to use. He instead did entrepreneurial work and jobs working in other industries. He sometimes worked jobs that were offshore and over odd hours. During this time, he developed a love for coffee. In New Orleans, there were many unique little coffee houses, which inspired him to open his own coffee shop when his mother’s declining health brought him back to the state of Wyoming. Their coffee house was called Coffee Shaman and was located in downtown Casper. “It was a combination Pieper/Chinook — See Fraker, Page 3 Frank Fraker serves students at CC's Sub Connection. Fraker is an alumnus Kaley of the college. �Page 2 Chinook Stance Divine's Intervention: Learn a second language Garrett Grochowski Growing With Grochowski The bane of many high school and college students is the dreaded required foreign language credit. Students spend long hours grueling over verb conjugations and vocab in preparation for a test, only to abandon all of that information as soon as the semester ends -- at least I hope I wasn’t alone in that feeling because it made many classes miserable for me. I took French in middle school and Russian in high school. And in college, I’m currently taking Spanish. I believe that gives me some degree of authority in talking about the benefits and pitfalls of language acquisition in a school setting. What I can’t tell you is how and why Spanish clicked for me so well when the other languages passed by me in a blur. I understand to an extent why Russian is likely difficult for everyone; even its alphabet is completely distinct from our own. But French, well French is just Spanish with more guttural throat punching. Perhaps studying a language seems more worthy of my attention now because I understand the values of learning a second. What are the potential benefits of learning a second language, and why is it worth your time? Well, I think for the average person, the positives outweigh the costs tenfold. In putting in the effort and time to learn, one creates access to a whole branch of culture, bulks up the resume, and cultivates a unique community of helpful friends. As my grasp of understanding the world around me expanded with age, I’ve realized that English– more specifically my dependency on it as my sole form of communication– puts me in a box. The influence of the English language in different parts of the world is vast, but reliance on it may limit the experiences a person can have traveling. For example, it would be much easier to get around certain parts of Africa if you knew how to speak French or Swahili than it would to just know English. There are aspects of cuisine, tradition, celebration, and other forms of culture unaccessible to the monolingual, and it's my belief that it's potentially disrespectful to rely on other people’s ability to translate for you to get around. In a more practical sense, being bilingual opens up avenues for career opportunities that aren’t afforded to purely English speakers. I can’t speak much to this because I’m only a college student, but I’ve been poking around Indeed.com, and the water is looking fine. Especially for me, a journalism major, having the ability to communicate in another language is very handy. I think most importantly, and what I can attest to being the most important benefit of learning a second language, is the community in which you entrench yourself. The value of learning a second language doesn’t lie only in being able to communicate with people who have lived lives completely different than yours in a vastly different place. Being able to form connections with your fellow learners is what makes the process of learning a second language so very special to me. I think there's something beautiful about not knowing what you’re doing, and relying on the person next to you to know even though they don't know either. Of course, they’re relying on you for the same reason – that’s community. I think it's different from learning other skills because, for the most part, when you are learning something you have some basic knowledge to start. Basic knowledge gives everyone a different starting point that disrupts the sensation of true unity. Maybe you know some basic phrases at the beginning of whatever language you’re learning, but you nor anyone around you is ready to be left alone in a conversation with a native speaker. I look back on the few months I’ve been in college– how I’ve grown, how my values have changed, the friends I’ve made– and I can say with certainty that Spanish played the biggest role in changing me the past year. I’m not especially great at making friends. I think I could count on two hands the amount of friends I’ve made since August. The majority of those people and the bonds I cherish most have been a result of learning a second language. Being a part of the same process, wishing so hard that you just had all the concepts down, and being there for each other when you don’t is, to me, why learning a second language is so great. For the college student in a whole new community far away from home, I think this is your ticket to social prosperity. April 1, 2023 CHINOOK “ Well…. It is finally here, at least by the calendar…. Spring! Even though it has been a long, cold, and snowy winter, I assure you the end of the semester will be here before you know it. The close of the semester signifies the end of one period of time and the beginning of another. For some of us that transition is simply from one calendar season to another while for others the change is more significant; involving the movement from one season of life to another. No matter the magnitude of change you will be experiencing, I urge you to embrace the experi- ences on both sides of the transition. Be sure to cherish the final moments of your current experience, and then welcome and embrace the new events yet to come. All too often we find ourselves “wishing away” our lives; either wishing winter would end, summer would arrive, the semester will end, etc.. Unfortunately, such wishing is simply impatience in disguise and prohibits living in the moment, and thus robbing us of the full experience of our daily lives. My reminder to you, and my plea: Life is short – hold every minute dear and experience all you can! Unfortunately, such wishing is simply impatience in disguise and prohibts living in the moment, thus robbing us of the full experience of our daily lives. — Darren Divine, Ph.D., Casper College President Embrace Differences My whole life revolves around the livestock industry. Since my youth, my one true passion in this world has been beef cattle and things like their nutrition, how to breed them, their physiology, etc. This passion does not make me unique, but my background certainly does. I did not grow up on a farm or ranch and have no familial ties to the industry. My father mines coal, and my mother organizes trips for air travelers. My closest links to agriculture include my grandpa’s past career as a custom combiner and my grandma who barrel raced in high school. Despite all of this, I’ve known from a young age that running my own set of cows embodies what I want to do with my life. I recognize this goal seems lofty and maybe even unattainable given start-up costs, but I am still extremely optimistic even with people’s doubts and resentments directed toward me. My first experiences with cattle were with my dad. Lots of his coworkers not only held down jobs at the mines but also managed their own commercial cow/calf operations, so we received invitations to help out quite often. I distinctly remember pushing cattle up alleyways, helping gather big groups of cows on the four-wheeler, wrestling calves during brandings in the spring, and riding shotgun while hauling pairs to summer grass. These experiences legitimately make up some of my fondest childhood memories. Eventually, my journey with cattle evolved and I got involved in 4-H and FFA where I was introduced to livestock judging. Livestock judging tasks contestants with placing four animals of the same species from best to worst and then defending that placing through a formal set of oral reasons. My early experiences in judging inevitably started deepening my understanding of the cattle industry as a whole. After my first practice as a junior 4-Her, I felt hooked. It seemed like the only thing in my life that came naturally and didn’t require a ton of initial practice like football, cornhole, or really anything athletic. Judging instilled a high degree of newfound confidence in not only my ability to speak in front of others but in myself as a whole. I became so happy to be good at something that involved my one, true passion. I also got involved with a purebred Simmental producer from my community who took me under her wing and gave me all sorts of opportunities to gain experience and even more understanding. I made the 20-minute drive to her place almost every day throughout middle and high school to simply learn more by doing. Even outside of my time on her ranch, I turned into a sponge and couldn’t read enough articles, watch enough videos, or talk to enough local producers about their different cattle philosophies. This fresh confidence and deepened interest that was celebrated by my parents and ag teachers inversely soured Ella Meyer Ella's Elaborations Wyoming boasts a rich history of ranching and rodeos. From cowboys, to livestock showers, and farmers, Wyoming houses a large community of people involved in agriculture. This includes the rodeos and horse shows that go on year around. Many people travel miles just to compete in a rodeo or horse show, and many others travel farther just to come and witness such an event. But, with growing modernization and the rise of animal rights groups, many people think that rodeos should be a thing of the past. Organizations like People for Ethical Treatment of Animals and American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals fight against rodeos and say that the events are a breeding ground for animal mistreatment and cruelty. The Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association is going to great lengths to disprove such accusations, but rodeos have been banned in California, Rhode Island, and in parts of Nevada. Though this fight is not new, I don’t think that it will be over soon. Growing up on a ranch gave me plenty of insight into rodeos, horse shows, and the ins and outs of horse training. My dad, being a horse trainer himself, often entered horse shows for fun, or just to see how far along the horse he had trained had come. He, along with many other cowboys, have some exasperated arguments against the some of my peers. Ag kids who I considered friends or thought were at least good buddies confused my beaming self-assurance for arrogance and undeserving vanity. The fact that I did not grow up on a ranch amplified my lack of credibility in their eyes when talking about cattle, even in passing conversations. Consequently, those people gossiped about and ostracized me from their group. This experience hurt me a lot. I couldn’t understand for the longest time why it mattered so much that I was not like them. I didn’t get why my passion, as an “outsider”, was so wrong to them. I struggled with selfacceptance. I questioned my whole life and passion up to this point. I put up a wall and vowed I would never resent someone who cared about the industry as much as I do, no matter their background. In high school and even early parts of my college experience, I looked past, overthought, and turned down opportunities that seemed to be for people who weren’t like me and that had a “regular” start in the cattle industry. I almost skipped out on attending Casper College because my mind told me that people like myself fail. I felt like a huge fraud until I actually got to school and interacted with kids who assumed we shared the same upbringing. It felt amazing when some people couldn’t believe I came from a non-agricultural environment originally. I still sometimes let thoughts of self-doubt into my Jacob Klaudt Keepin' Up With Klaudt head but am always battling those notions through a pretty awesome support network consisting of my family, friend group, and significant other, all of whom constantly remind me of my value. It also helps hearing stories of livestock industry legends, like Tyson Rule, who worked his way from being a copier machine salesman to being the breeder of the world’s highestselling buck lamb. To make a long story short, never hate on someone’s excitement or passion just because their origin story differs from the norm. Don’t feel threatened by their enthusiasm. Instead, answer their questions and encourage their success. Society is plenty progressive in recent times in terms of breaking down harmful norms and accepting others for who they are. I think now is the time to start genuinely evaluating a person’s character and value solely on the skills and knowledge they possess rather than where they come from. Culture or Cruelty? accusation that rodeos are a cruel environment for animals. PETA’s main arguments against rodeos is the use of spurs and how sharp and dangerous they are for the animal below them. However, any horse trainer worth his salt would tell you that the regulation spurs used in shows are rendered useless when used to condition a horse. These spurs are so dull, that some children even use them on their playmates when they ride each other around. Most of the sharp spurs that the people from PETA see are the ones used in movies, or in Hollywood. These are obviously dramatized for the big screen and in no world would anyone use those spurs on a horse they planned to keep around for long. Another complaint is the use of bucking straps and electronic prods in the shoots. For those who do not know, a bucking strap is used in the bronc riding and bull riding events. This tool is simply put on the horse or bull to make them kick higher into the air. In no way does this hurt them, though their manic bucking and honking would give off the impression that they are hurt. However, if these animals so wished, they could kill the rider on their back at any time. They also talk of the use of electronic prods, which are used to get battle out of shoots. But these tools need the consent of the livestock owner to use, confirmation from the vet that the animal is healthy enough to take the shock, and consent from the fairgrounds president to use it on the animal. This is simply a way to make sure that the cow it’s being used on is not hurt or maimed in the process. But oftentimes, if they are stuck in the shoot and not getting out, it could be dangerous for them to try and back up or hop out. Most of the rules and regulations set in place at rodeos are for the animals’ safety and well-being. ASPCA claims the animals used in rodeos are mistreated and malnourished. This is simply not true. The broncs that the PRCA uses are fed the highest quality hay and grain, and over the course of the year, they are in the ring for seven minutes of their life. Eight second rides are not long, and those rides the animals are “forced to suffer through” add up to seven minutes of their rather pampered lives. Often these horses are set out to pasture and never touched again until it comes time to put them in the ring. The same principle applies to the cows used for the bull riding events, as they too are pampered for the majority of their adult lives. If you are still not convinced rodeos are not inherently cruel, here are a few statistics to ease your red-hot rage. According to AVMA.org, in 2022 an article titled Welfare of animal rights integral part of professional rodeos says that out of 26,584 performances, only 15 animals have been injured -- a 0.00041% rate. Additionally, the PRCA has had animal welfare regulations since 1947. The organization constantly updates and changes the rules to fit the times and the people watching rodeos. Taking away rodeos from the contestants and spectators is a poor decision. Rodeos make $3 billion annually, which funds many jobs and animal welfare. Many people make a living in rodeo, and you would be taking away a way of life. Either way, taking away rodeo’s from Wyoming specifically would be taking away a part of the heritage and culture of the state, and many would miss out on the opportunity to witness it. And if you think that they are unsafe now, wait until the illegal ones start up. Rodeos with no regulation to keep the animal safe, would lead to many more problems and injuries. Legal, and well-regulated rodeos are better for all involved. All in all -- no -- rodeos are not cruel. Rodeos feature a rich part of our history in the west, and it will continue to be part of the culture behind the cowboy way of life. �April 1, 2023 Page 3 CHINOOK Food Pantry........................................... With no physical space available for the pantry, the Student Senate president's office became the designated room. Then COVID hit. While students were sent home for quarantine in March of 2020, Peacock and other Student Life staff dedicated many hours to clearing the room, building shelves, and preparing the office for food storage. The pantry opened in the fall of 2020, running off of initial donations from the community and multiple CC staff lead food drives. Food drives serve as an integral part of food procurement for the pantry. CC requires that clubs on campus participate in either a student-based activity or a food drive. Most organizations choose the latter. Fulton said, “We’ve already received so many canned goods from these drives, which is great, but canned vegetables are hard to fuel up on for the student who is on the go.” The pantry also offers a wide array of food choices including cups of noodles to granola bars and even fresh pheasant meat. Personal hygiene supplies include menstrual products, deodorant, toothpaste, and even toilet paper. “Popular items that are quick and of need include pasta, macaroni and cheese, hot pockets, and instant rice,” Fulton said. The food pantry is staffed by Student Life work-study students that help stock the shelves and show students how to utilize the resource. These work studies have witnessed, firsthand, the kind of impact the pantry is having on other CC attendees. “A lot of the kids who come from on-campus just get the snack type stuff,” said McKinley Kessler, Student Life work-study and sophomore at CC. “But the people I see, usually every week, are off-campus students that come and get stuff for their actual meals. For many of those people, I think it's part of what they eat primarily throughout the week.” Peacock can also recall times of helping non-traditional students take advantage continued from page 1 of the resource to not only benefit themselves but their families as well. “It can be difficult for those students to make ends meet while they’re going to school and working and still having to balance a family in the mix,” Peacock said. “Having just a little bit of help in the food, grocery, and toiletry item department truly made a big difference for them.” Still, some students seem reluctant to make use of the pantry due to potential judgment from their peers. “That kind of stigma can be a big issue with any resource that the campus offers,” said Kessler. “Try it once and even if you don’t like your experience, no one is going to judge you.” The Student Senate Food Pantry at CC continues to impact students for the better. Whether someone needs a quick snack between classes or questions where their next meal is coming from, the pantry functions to supply all T-Birds with even the most basic item of human need: food. Snow........................................................ continued from page 1 Fraker...................................................... continued from page 1 may seem like a minor inconvenience in town, Johnson and Hodnett insisted that the drifts out at the ranch were indomitable. According to Hodnett, the entirety of the south road leading to the ranch had to be abandoned because the snow piled up along lines of trees. They utilized snow blowers and a tractor with a bucket and thankfully the north road remained functional. The north road became the sole way students and faculty accessed the ranch. Along the road turning into the ranch, the drift was especially prominent. Johnson said, “I suppose that drift was – well it was way taller than me, and I’m 6’ 4”! I’m betting it was eight feet.” But battling the snow was critical. Buried behind the piles of snow were the sole entry points to animals that needed to be fed and kept warm. “When it’s really, really cold, if you're lambing or calving, there’s opportunity to lose your animals because they froze to death,” Hodnett said. After birth, newborn animals are at risk of getting frostbite and losing extremities such as ears, Hodnett said. He feels lucky that there is ample indoor space to lamb and keep the animals warm. Despite the challenges imposed by eight-foot drifts and high winds, the labor of students and staff kept the facility running. “They’re all country kids,” said Johnson. “This has been an unbearable winter, but all these kids have lived through it before. They grew up in ranching and farming communities. They’ve seen snow and drought and hardship, and so it’s amazing how they handle it… they just took a hold and did it.” Hodnett reflected on the help the agriculture program and rodeo teams received from the college fondly. coffee expresso bar and new age books. It was a great experience. I met lots of great people. It was fun. We lasted a couple years, we just didn’t make it. Casper can be hard to start a small business, and I applaud those people still doing it. Especially with all the big chains moving in. It also gave me basic coffee experience, which helped prepare me for working here for Sodexo.” After the closing of the Coffee Shaman, Fraker worked a few jobs in customer service, shipping and receiving, and for Sodexo. But after officially “retiring” at 65, he took “We are really blessed to be a part of Casper College because the maintenance crews were out there, and they busted through it, and they kept a dump truck out there so they could keep the roads open for us,” said Hodnett. In the tough and wild worlds of rodeo and agriculture, no day is the same and being prepared for anything is a must. Moving snow, as simple as it may seem, may be an important real-world experience to better prepare students for the world. “When those kinds of things happen, really it’s kind of a life lesson in a lot of things, you know? Don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today, ‘cause you don’t know what kind of storm you’re gonna get that next day,” said Hodnett. "I think they’re all lessons that they (students) can learn and adapt to their everyday lives, really. There's education in more than books and sitting in Garrett Grochowski/Chinook A snow drift buries a fence at Casper College’s off-campus ranch facility near Mills. a classroom.” some time off before deciding to come back to work for Sodexo. “I decided I really should be doing something to keep me active, both mentally and physically. So, I came back to Sodexo. I’m not full time, haven’t been for several years, but it works. I live close so I can walk to and from work and always stay busy,” Fraker said. Many students refer to Fraker as “sub shop Frank” and appreciate his positive, upbeat attitude while working behind the counter. A CC alumni visiting the campus even remembered Fraker asking, “Is Frank still working in the sub shop?” But Frank’s goal in the position isn’t to move up the chain of command and make a career out of Sodexo. He likes to think of it more as a service to the college. “I try to be really upbeat and say hello to everybody -- say thank you as they check out and things like that. It can be tiring some days, but I still try," Fraker said. I’m just here helping, trying to keep things flowing, and trying to keep people, a little happy. Whether it’s getting them food or saying something silly to get them to crack a smile. Life is stressful. You don’t need a grouchy person trying to sell you your sandwich.” Frank’s time at Casper and in Louisiana helped prepare him for his current role. Through his different jobs, he says he has learned to build flexibility into himself. He’s not doing what he ever dreamed he would be doing. Where he ended up isn’t where he thought he would go. “In my parent’s generation, they got a job and stayed there their whole life. That’s not where we are now. For most people, they’re going to move on and be in different places, jobs, and experiences. Which I think is good. You really get a more rounded appreciation of what others are going through, and how other people live, and just the broadness and diversity.” His steps in life have been diverse, and he wanted to give students some advice from his years of experiencing different jobs and areas. Fraker said, “If I would offer any advice to current students, it would be to be ready for the change. I am sure in the next 50 years, there will be as much change as there was in the last 50. Life has a way of ebbing and flowing. Things change, but then again they don’t." www.caspercollege.edu/chinook �Page 4 April 1, 2023 Hit and runs on campus dent student plans Carlos Fandal III Chinook Writer Casper College is being hit by a string of hit and run incidents, leaving students and staff concerned about the safety of their vehicles on campus. Over the past year, several incidents of vehicles hitting parked cars and fleeing the scene occurred, leaving the owners of the damaged cars with no recourse. Adrianna Sutton, a CC student and hit and run victim, unfortunately felt the sting of the crime. Despite following standard practice of reporting the crime to campus security and Casper PD, Sutton’s perpetrator, like many others, was never identified. “It was really surprising to me that there were no cameras that could see what happened, I feel like there should be more cameras around campus.” Sutton said. Installing more cameras around campus, particularly in parking lots, could effectively prevent and catch hit-and-run incidents. CC’s Campus Safety and Security Coordinator, John CHINOOK Becker, a former law enforcement agent of 35 years, shared valuable information with the Chinook. “In 2022, we had eight crash reports on campus. And four of them were hit and runs. This year, we've had five (crash) reports so far, and one of them was a hit and run” said Becker, who’d prepared reports for the interview. Becker listed a handful of ideas on why CC is prone to the odd hit and run. “I think a lot of it is the driver not paying attention to surroundings. We have very small parking areas, you know, we have a lot of them. We try to cram a lot of cars in their workspaces and everything else,” said Becker. When a car gets hit and the other driver leaves the scene, it can be a very stressful and confusing situation for the victim. The victim may experience a range of problems, such as having to pay for repairs out of pocket and/or having to navigate the legal system on their own. Becker detailed what steps one should take if involved in a hit and run. “The easiest thing is to call security. We will do everything we can to do a report and get the information we can for you. If we have a camera in the area, we work well with (the) Casper Police Department and local law enforcement agencies. We will give them any information we have on the suspect vehicle that took off. If we can read a plate or get a model or anything else, we will document that report through what we call a ‘maximum report’. We tell the students to get the Casper Police Department to file a crash report with them.” Additionally, Becker wanted to remind students to be mindful when driving. “The speed limit on campus is 20. And you'll see cars that are traveling, you know, well over the 20 mile limit in the lower campus. Be aware of that -- be aware of your speed -- don't text and drive. You would be surprised how many students get in their cars, they're getting out of there, and they're looking at their phone. Because ‘I haven't been on my phone for an hour,’ or, whatever it may be. Don't text Carlos Fandal III/Chinook Hit and runs can be an overwhelming headache for all involved. Incidents seem to be on the rise on Casper College's Campus. and drive, pay attention to your driving and know your surroundings, know what's going on, (and) drive defensively.” The hit and run incidents at Casper College are a cause for concern among students and staff, who rightfully expect a safe and secure campus envi- ronment. As Becker pointed out, it is essential to take steps to prevent such incidents from occurring, including paying attention to surroundings, following speed limits, and not texting while driving. Additionally, victims of a hit and run need to report the inci- dent to campus security and law enforcement agencies as soon as possible. By working together to prevent these incidents and holding perpetrators accountable, Casper College will be a safe and secure place for all who study and work here. �April 1, 2023 Page 5 CHINOOK Laughter the best medicine? Ella Meyer Chinook Writer Dr. Chontelle Gray started laughter yoga a little over four years ago, and she never looked back. It started during COVID - 19, when she found herself bored during lockdown. Gray’s interest began when she first took a yoga class through her college. Since then, she’s practiced and instructed yoga for 20 years, and she just recently found her passion for Medan Kataria’s ‘laughter yoga.’ The practice of laughter yoga started around the 1960’s, and Kataria wrote a book on his studies in 2002. Gray, having been raised Hindu, said she found no problem in getting into such practice and found herself joining laughter clubs at 6:45 in the morning Monday through Thursday. She said she takes the time to gather with the people in her club and laugh. The concept of ‘laughter yoga’ is foreign to most. To many the term sounds strange and out of place. When the majority of people think of yoga, they think of a quiet practice with soft music of the instructor’s choosing. But, Kataria’s studies found that laughter truly is the best medicine. Gray noted that when someone laughs, the act is proven to release endorphins and reduce cortisol. “It’s good to let that crap go,” she said. Gray also talked about how adults are inherently serious, and they don’t like to have fun anymore. They often think they are too grown for laughter and fun, so they keep everything in until it does harm to their body. Laughter yoga has provided a way for those who have forgotten to let go, an opportunity to find their inner child once again. Gray explained that humans hold all of our stress in our body. It is also described in Kataria’s exploration of laughter, that 10 minutes of straight laughing is the best way to get any real health benefits out of it. When such knowledge spread, ‘laughter clubs’ started popping up around the world. At the very beginning members would tell jokes to make one another laugh, though the strategy proved ineffective after a short time due to differences in humor. Kataria found another way to get through a session in one of his post grad classes. An improvisation class that provided the necessary exercises to make everyone laugh for the whole session paved the way to laughter yoga’s success today. Gray praised the effectiveness of the yoga, talking about one of her first experiences with the therapeutic properties of laughter. During the Tarzan show during Covid-19 at Casper College, the actor playing Turk caught coronavirus. Upon being told that the actor was out, Gray said her first instinct was to panic and freak out. But, she took five minutes to go out on stage and laugh to herself about the problem. Once she calmed down, she broke the news to everyone else. Before they could freak out and lose their minds, she had them all laugh for five minutes at the situation. “Laughter helps ground you in a state of panic,” Gray said. This is proven by the state of calm that she experienced after the Tarzan incident. This is also backed up by the 53 country’s that practice laughter yoga regularly. It helps to be able to laugh at the situation when facing it head on, because it's a reminder that it’s not as serious as it might seem. And she hasn’t looked back since that experience. Gray reminisced on the first time she discovered laughter yoga. She talked about how she had watched many videos explaining and going through the exercises to laugh, but she never tried to laugh out loud before joining a session. She talked about how she was never someone who laughed out loud, no matter how funny she found something. But, laughter yoga seemed to turn that around for her. Gray explained her growth in the practice of laughter yoga. “Through laughter yoga, I have embraced my natural laugh, though I am still not a loud laughter.” Now, she leads her own classes of laughter yoga and continues to expand her knowledge in other types of movement, such as chair yoga and meditation. However, there are some students at Casper College who took a laughter yoga session, and did not agree with the effectiveness of the session. Alex Brus, a musical theater major at CC, took part in a laughter yoga session in the fall semester of 2022. He talked about expressing an interest in meditation, but this was out of his comfort zone. Though he had previously tried meditation, he hadn’t done any yoga classes leading up to the experience, and he was going in having no idea what was going to happen. Beforehand, he was informed that the class was going to partake in a session, but this was all he knew before he was taken into the yoga classroom and instructed through the process. “It was very off-putting, and not everyone was participating, so it was a very weird experience,” said Brus. Brus talked about how most in the class were not sure how to take Ella Meyer/Chinook it all in, some laughing more Dr. Chontelle Gray leads laughter yoga at Casper College. because they felt awkward Grey says that laughter relaeses stress in the body. rather than they were compelled to. Though he only par- session, she is less stressed and new people. She discovered ticipated in one of the laughter burdened, and she feels lighter laughter yoga after joining the yoga sessions, he said he thinks than before. Davis participates theater department, and has he could try it again to see if he in the theater at CC, and often tried to join every one after might eventually like it. Brus the theater provides some that. said he recognizes the health stress that needs a place to go. “If more professors knew properties of laughter and real- She also expressed that she the benefits of it, they would izes that it helps many people, feels closer to her peers after take their classes to do it … but overall the experience was a session. it’s a nice way to boost mental not for him. “It’s kind of hard to put up health.” Davis recommends Not everyone who took part a wall when everyone gets to laugh yoga to anyone feeling in a session shares the same see you laugh,” Davis said. stressed and overwhelmed, sentiments. Rebecca Davis, an Though she does feel closer even going as far as to recASL major at CC participated with her classmates after a ommend that professors take in three laughter yoga classes session, it did not always feel their classes to a session. This in the last two years. Davis that way. Her first laughter would also help to alleviate has an interest in yoga, and session helped break the classroom tension and stress. she even does morning yoga in ice after she had moved to A chance to try out laughter the summer when she has the Wyoming from Oregon, com- yoga is on April 5 at 5 p.m. in time. Davis pelled to change her lifestyle the theater building on the main spoke highly about the ses- after living in Oregon for 21 stage of the theater. There is no sions Gray offered. She talked years. This helped connect need for any special clothes or about how after a laughter yoga her with her peers, and meet a yoga mat. Day in the life of CC dancers William G Eastin Chinook Writer William G Eastin/Chinook CC dancers Abigale Lipson holds Mckenzi Pieper while dancing in the Krampert Center for Theatre and Dance. Mckenzi Pieper and Abigale Lipson are both students majoring in dance at Casper College. Between dance classes, general education courses, rehearsals and shows, CC dancers live a drastically different life than that of a typical student. Starting bright and early, Pieper and Lipson wake up to the sound of their alarm at 7 a.m. In the short hour they have before class, both dancers' morning routine usually consists of getting dressed, eating a quick and easy breakfast, as well as stretching and using a massage ball to prepare their bodies for the physically enduring day ahead of them. “The purpose for stretching and using my massage ball is both to combat soreness from the physicality of dance, as well as to prepare for the day by opening up all of my muscles,” stated Lipson. By 8 a.m. the dancers are already in their first dance class, composition. Pieper stated, “We get two to three projects per week where we must choreograph our own dance off of a prompt from our teacher”. Nearing 10 a.m. both leave the dance studio to attend one of their general education courses before they head back to the studio by 11 a.m. for ballet. Balancing dance classes with general education courses is a big struggle many dancers face. “Dance is overall very strenuous both physically and mentally, so with the short amount of time we have off, we are either catching up in one of our classes or we are so tired we just want to go to bed,” stated Lipson. Ballet is a course that all dancers are required to take every semester. This form of dance promotes an increase in flexibility, muscle growth, and balance (Lipson). With Ballet ending at 1 p.m., Pieper and Lipson use the time they have before their next class to eat lunch, as well as practice their choreography from their morning composition class. Their final class of the day, ensemble, starts at 3:30 p.m. Ensemble consists of both dancing and classroom work, with an emphasis on group collaboration (Lipson). On the rare occasion when neither have rehearsal or an actual dance show, both spend the majority of their night, “catching up on schoolwork, relaxing and reflecting on the day, and then thinking what we need to do tomorrow and preparing for that,” said Pieper. However, the majority of their time after school is spent rehearsing for a show or performing said show. This takes around two to four hours of their night away, and the dancers usually don’t get home until 10 p.m. (Pieper). Pieper and Lipson only have a small amount of time to balance schoolwork and self-care during their nightly routines. “Using exercises like affirmations, I find self-care to be very important because dance can take a toll on your mental health,” Lipson said. In order to be physically and mentally prepared for the day ahead, both dancers try to be in bed around midnight, which allows them to get enough needed sleep to start the day again. Join our staff this Fall! Practice interviewing & writing Take photos & design Learn sales & advertising Explore social media & promotion The Chinook is a one credit class titled Independent Publications. Contact our faculty advisor Bri Weigel for more information brianne.weigel@caspercollege.edu �Page 6 April 1, 2023 CHINOOK HYA shapes students and future educators Kaylee Davis Chinook Writer The HYA also known as the Help Yourself Academy hosted its annual third to fifth grade showcase on March 22. The showcase offers a time for students selected by their teachers who show a desire in math and science to present their skills and demonstrate to their parents, friends, and faculty members from Casper College their projects they have completed. Over 200 students and family members attended, in addition to several CC administrators and faculty members. Casper College President Dr. Divine, Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences Dr. Pete Van Houten, and Education Instructors Renee Griffith,and Jenny Johnson, all attended along with, HYA mentors, and the founder, Mr. John Wold. With only two HYA programs in the United States - one in Casper and one in New York- the program gave students an opportunity to “be engaged with math and science and encourage learning through hands on applications and project-based learning while encouraging those students to study and be excited about it.” stated Renee Griffith. The HYA program runs in the fall and spring semester, helping an average of 60-70 students per semester for eight weeks. Eligible students come from the Natrona County School District and are nominated by their teacher, whether or not they are gifted in math and science does not play a role in who is eligible to come. However, those students chosen show an interest in those fields and strive to learn more. Every Tuesday and Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 p.m. the third and fifth grade students are bussed to the physical science building on the CC Campus. From there, they participate in STEM activities, and work in the math and science department with project-based learning. Once they begin their lessons at the college, they are split between their current grades in school, and each classroom of students has a current or former elementary education instructor. In addition to the instructor, education degree seeking students are encouraged to volunteer or can participate for 1 credit per semester which is paid for by the Wold Family Foundation. To earn the credit, college students come in the classrooms and help guide the students, as well as learn hands on how to manage a classroom, lessons, and more. Jenny Johnson, an educator instructor at CC is also in charge of running the HYA program. She spoke of the impact the elementary students and the program has on the college students. According to Johnson, “College kids have made comments like ‘I didn’t really know I wanted to be in education until I went there and fell in love.’ Not only that, but I see a lot of difference from interaction in students I’ve had come in from beginning of the fall to spring, and they have had to build that relationship with the kids. And I can see their interactions with them and in the classroom change.” Along with learning math and science, the elementary students can learn coding, but in an unplugged way. With this method, students can follow a pattern, or code, to create something such as a bracelet. This version of coding allows other elementary students the option to learn while being away from technology, explained Johnson. Another goal of the program is the ability to track students after they graduate the program in fifth grade and see how involved they stay in their interests. Johnson said that former participants who are now college mentors share that they were once a child in the program. The hope is to one day take the information to see what students were interested in the most, (math or science), what electives they took in high school, and what their career choice will be. While the HYA program gives the elementary students a great opportunity to learn and be more hands on, it teaches our world’s future educators as well. Any student majoring in K-12 education are welcome to become mentors, and along with them, students majoring in math can come to teach lessons, which count as service learning time. Lastly, anyone who is not an education major but is interested in working with students or finding out if they would like to become a future educator is welcome to join, even for a day! The goal of having college students’ mentor is that it allows them to be “engaged, question, and guide the children, observe how they learn and how strategies are used to manage classroom behavior. Casper students serve as mentors for the elementary students but are still learning from the teachers,” Griffith said. This gives these students the hands-on opportunities to see what all goes into teaching, while learning from the students and having firsthand advice from the main classroom teachers. Winter Leywis, a college mentor shared what she liked about participating in the program. “One teacher here is retired and other teachers have different experiences, along with Jenny, and all have different inputs for how they handle things from lessons to management. Not everyone pays attention to what goes on behind the scenes and I feel teachers need more credit than they do. I had an observation teacher put it as: doctors and lawyers rule the world, but everyone neglects to see who teaches these kids. Where would the world be without teachers?” Along with her, Madison Allen, a first-time mentor, and Charisma Gallagher who has participated for two semesters, also had positive things to say about the impact HYA and the students have had on them and their future. Allen explained what she enjoys about the program. Allen said, “For me, I enjoyed working with kids that don’t understand science or math as well, but they are able to incorporate it into their Submitted Photos Above, CC student Hayley Tennant works with elementary kids. To the right, mentor Sarah Denton helps with an HYA activity. lesson for the day. Such as when they are hands on when building a marble track. They don’t realize that there’s math to it, but they understand the process.” Allen also explained that being in the classroom has helped her learn how to “redirect focus, work on and figure out classroom management skills, and learned how to ask engaging questions that get the kids to think and engage with us.” Gallagher’s future includes being a high school math instructor. “This program has solidi- fied me being a teacher, even though I wanted to change at first, but I realized this is what I want to do.” Not only does it help her in the classroom, but she also has an appreciation for how hard teachers work in the classroom now that she has worked from their point of view. While Leywis knew she always wanted to do elementary education, she first thought kindergarten would be her specialty. Then, the relationships that she built with the students, the humor they bring, and the interactions between her and the students in the upper classes shed light to her decision to now do K-4th grade, because as she said, “you are able to learn from those kids every day.” For college students interested in helping at HYA, the program will begin again in the fall of 2023. HYA offers a chance to not only learn from the instructors, but the students themselves. Join in on one of the nation’s two John Wold Help Yourself Academy and work on helping to shape yourself, educators, and future society a more knowledgeable and hands on world. Anxiety Workshop Presented by the Casper College Wellness Center Learn more about the nature of anxiety, along with both physical and cognitive strategies to help you manage your symptoms and reduce the impact that anxiety has in your life, especially in the testing environment. Wednesday, April 5 1 - 2 p.m. UU 212 Snacks will be provided! Email Kelly Green at kelly.green@caspercollege.edu to sign up! �April 1, 2023 Page 7 CHINOOK Mammoth Day At Tate Geological Museum Kaley Pieper/ Chinook On Saturday, March 11, “Dee” the Mammoth was star of the show for the event held to promote Tate Geological Museum. Casper College staff and community members alike brought their kids and families for a fun day of learning. JP Cavigelli, museum collections specialist, and Russell Hawley, education specialist helped teach kids about the discovery of Dee. Director of the museum, Dalene Hodnett, helped organize the event, and gave each kid a poster of Dee before they left. In addition to learning about the discovery of Dee, attendees toured the museum gallery. This free event open to the public was held from 10 am - 2 pm. The kids above had a great time learning about Dee, and they worked together to assemble this puzzle of his skeleton. �Page 8 CHINOOK ‘Little steps to the big picture’ April 1, 2023 CC student shares her struggle with bulimia and her path to recovery Lucy Jane Crimm Chinook Writer Between 10% and 20% of women and 4% and 10% of men in college suffer from an eating disorder, according to the National Eating Disorders Association. Casper College Fire Science Major McKinsey Jerrel is one of many college students who battled with an eating disorder. Jerrel developed Bulimia her freshman year of high school, and she started recovery her freshman year of college. “I am in recovery from Bulimia, I would eat and then make myself throw up,” Jerrel said. “Eventually it got to the point where my body couldn’t handle food, so it would automatically throw up [after eating].” According to the Mayo Clinic, Bulimia nervosa is a diagnosable eating disorder characterized by eating food followed by purging with the goal to lose the calories gained. Purging to lose calories comes in different forms: intentionally throwing up, misusing laxatives, dietary supplements and diuretics. Other common diagnosable eating disorders include anorexia nervosa and binge eating. Anorexia is when a person intentionally restricts calorie intake to control body weight. A binge eating disorder is when someone regularly consumes large amounts of food and feels unable to stop. “There are diagnosable disorders like anorexia and bulimia, then there’s a huge range of what we call disordered eating behaviors that would fit the majority of college students,” Director of Counseling Erin Ford said. “I would say a lower percentage [of college students] have diagnosable eating disorders, but a much larger percentage falls under the spectrum of disordered eating behaviors” Disordered eating develops into an eating disorder when unhealthy diets and exercise occur over a long period of time and start to disrupt the health and lifestyle of a person. “It really stems around somebody’s need or desire to control their body, body image [and] how they feel about themselves,” Ford said. “It can look so many different ways. It can look like restricting eating, obsessing over numbers, or restricting eating over a long period of time and then binge eating. There’s a lot of different things that it can incorporate, and it really is on an individual basis.” In Jerrel’s case, she developed an eating disorder after years of bullying lowered her self-image to the point where she felt the only way she would fit in and get people to leave her alone was by changing her body. “I would get told that I was a fat cow and didn’t deserve to live. I was told that I was too big and I’ll never be enough. ‘Looking the way you do, I don’t know how anyone would want to be your friend’ or ‘Your family doesn’t love you.’ Someone once said ‘Looking like that no wonder why your brother shot himself,’” Jerrel recalled. “There was this one person who every day I would walk through the hall… and they would moo at me like a cow and say ‘Oh look the cow’s back,’ ‘Oh look the heifer’s back,’ ‘Take them to the slaughter house and get some meat.’ It was really stupid stuff like that.” Jerrel’s brother passed away her freshman year of high school and the following year is when her eating disorder really took a turn for the worst. She said bullying, friend groups and relationships all contributed, but social media played a large role in her worsening disorder. “Social media had a really big impact along with bullying,” Jerrel said. “Opening up Instagram and seeing all of these tiny, tiny people in the smallest clothes like crop tops, miniskirts and bikinis with no stomach whatsoever-- these people who had the ‘ideal body.’ Then people doing plastic surgeries and not telling anyone about it, but then coming out years later and saying they had it done. I just felt like why can't I? A lot of it had to do with influencers [showing off] their body… and that idea of this is how the ideal body is supposed to look…thin waist, big butt and big boobs.” Along with the stress, anxiety and depression that bulimia brought Jerrel, she dealt with serious physical consequences, especially because Jerrel has diabetes. “A lot of [physical symptoms] would be with my blood sugars being really out of control,” Jerrel said. “I wasn’t taking care of myself. My body got to a point where it was essentially eating itself and my blood sugars were so high because I was sick. I was so tired, I was lethargic, I had no energy, no motivation to do anything and I was just tired all the time because I wasn't getting what I needed.” Jerrel was participating in something called diabetic bulimia, or “diabulimia.” Diabulimia is when someone with type 1 diabetes purposely skips insulin doses with the goal of losing weight. If Jerrel doesn’t take insulin, it results in a high blood sugar. This leads to diabetic ketoacidosis, which shuts down organs and can lead to death. “I hated that I was being picked on for being diabetic and that also played into the whole diabulimia thing,” Jerrel explained. “I was going into diabetic ketoacidosis, and I was in ICU for a week and a half. They had me monitored, and they thought my insulin pump wasn’t working, but I just wasn’t giving myself insulin. I wasn’t giving myself the medication I needed.” Jerrel’s freshman year of college is when she realized how bad her bulimia had gotten and how it was impacting her quality of life. She decided to start her path to recovery. “I realized that I was trying to live up to these standards that are outrageous… and WRITING CENTER The Writing Center at Casper College is here to help our students and members of the community. Brainstorm possible paper topics Craft an essay Gain writing strategies And so much more! Visit us in Strausner Hall, room 215 or visit the Writing Center Moodle site for additional resources and appointment scheduling! Contact: 307-268-2610 wco@caspercollege.edu Lucy Jane Crimm/Chinook Casper College Fire Science Major McKinsey Jerral battled bulimia. She shared her story and road to recovery with the Chinook. finally I was sick and tired of being sick so much. I was sick and tired of feeling alone, sad and feeling like I wasn’t worth anything. That’s when I decided [I’m] going to get on top of this,” Jarrel said. “In the beginning it was difficult, I’m going to be honest it was really hard to stomach things, but a month or two after I started I realized ‘Oh my gosh, I just ate a whole meal, then a desert and I’m not feeling so bad. This is awesome.’” Ford said part of preventing eating disorders or recovering from them is the friend groups people surround themselves with and a big part of recovery and prevention is finding friends that accept your authentic self. Jerrel’s recovery journey included just that. “When I first went into college, I met an amazing group of people, and they were the ones who told me ‘Hey we’re here and we love you’ and they showed it in any situation… they would always take me out and say ‘little steps to get to the big picture,’” Jerrel recalled. “They would encourage me, even if it was a small bowl of soup to eat. I wouldn’t want to eat, but… they would sit there for an hour and a half at a restaurant just so that I wouldn’t have that temptation to get up and leave.” Ford said teens and young adults in college are more at risk for eating disorders, which can stem from social media, friend groups, disordered eating and a need for control. Ford explained, “This phase of life is called emerging adulthood. The primary need in this phase of life is belonging and connection. I think so often students are just starting to develop their identity and who they are, so something more external like body image can really be something we try to control and hold on to.” CC provides resources for college students suffering from disordered eating, eating disorders and body dysmorphia. One resource is the group therapy Ford holds called Body Positive. Body Positive aims to help redefine how people see themselves through five components: reclaiming health, practicing intuitive self-care, cultivating self-love, declaring authentic beauty and building community. “Body Positive is so cool because it is really less about actual body image and more about relating to ourselves differently,” Ford said. “We really focus on our own authentic beauty. Not honoring what someone else says what we need to look like… but identifying the beauty that is natural to who we are, our genetics and where we came from.” Body Positive group therapy meets at the Wellness Center (UU202A) once a week for six weeks during the fall semester and is available on an individual basis during the spring semester. “I get feedback from members each time, a lot of people have said it really helped them to think differently about themselves and about their body. Just learn to love themselves in a different way,” Ford said. The solution for lowering the amount of college students who develop eating disorders starts with one main component– be kind. Be kind to others and be kind to yourself. “In the beginning, it was ‘Why can’t I be pretty enough? Why can’t I be skinny enough? Why can’t people like me? How much will it take for these guys to quit saying all these things?’ and ‘What did I do wrong? Why am I not good enough?’ But now I’ve gotten to a point where I can see I didn’t do anything wrong, I didn’t deserve what they said, I was perfectly fine then and I didn’t even realize it. My body is my body. I was beautiful the way I was and I didn’t deserve any of that,” Jerrel said. Added Ford, “I can’t more highly recommend working with a counselor to work on identity, on self love [and] on self compassion because really that is the core to all of it, that is the ultimate solution… loving ourselves, honoring ourselves, feeling confident in who we are and what we are authentically.” Another big solution to the problem is being more aware of content consumed on social media. Social media is the main contributor to eating disorders in young adults because a lot of content feeds off of insecurities to try and push products. “The biggest [solution] is to really really identify how social media is impacting the way you think,” Ford says. “So much social media we aren’t even aware of what we’re being fed, but if you go in and count the number of ads and posts you see about diets, before and after and beauty products… it’s all just being fed to us in order to get us to buy things, right? It’s being fed to us that who we are and what we are is not enough. So really bring so intentional to really audit social media and follow people who are body positive, body natural and in support of who we are authentically ourselves versus trying to make ourselves one specific mold of something” The path to recovery is not an easy one, but the best method is to prevent oneself and loved ones from developing eating disorders in the first place. Be kind to yourself and others, learn to listen to what your body tells you, love and embrace your body, and support others. Jerrel’s message to others who are struggling with an eating disorder is “It’s okay to be different. It’s okay to feel uncomfortable with yourself sometimes, but do not overthink it to the point that you don’t love yourself. Self love is a difficult journey, especially when you start on it… Do things you enjoy because the more little things you can do– well the baby steps get you to the bigger picture essentially.” www.caspercollege.edu/chinook �April 1, 2023 Page 9 CHINOOK Academics and extracurriculars: All about balance Jonna McCullough Chinook Contributor Casper College students competing in extracurricular activities dedicate their time to balancing school, extracurriculars, and other responsibilities year round while still being absent and traveling for their beloved pastimes. Attending class and devoting extra time for homework and other needs, keeps the students up to standards of maintaining good grades and being a responsible student athlete. Anne Wood, originally from Derby, NY, Kadyn Braaten from Townsend, Mont. and Clay Helm from Miles City, Mont. are all familiar faces around Casper College’s Werner Ag Pavilion and the Casper College Ranch. Helm, a team roper, and Braaten, a member of the livestock judging team, take a class from Wood, the agriculture economics professor for CC. Both Helm and Braaten are on very time consuming, traveling, competitive, teams here at CC, causing them to both be absent more times than present in Wood’s class. Because both students grew up roping and judging they know how to balance their academics and extracurricular activities, and so does Wood based on her agriculture background. Wood says she doesn’t mind when students are gone because it’s their education and money being spent. She said this is college and every student is treated like an adult in her classroom no matter the circumstances. “If you're not going to come to class, you are not going to get the inclass discussion and content, but you are still held accountable for turning in the work, whether your absence is excused or not,'' said Wood. If the traveling students contact Wood ahead of time they may be given an extension, “however you can lead a horse to water, but cannot make them drink,” said Wood. Wood expects every student in her class to pass, as long as the work and diligence is put forth. Helm is a 19-year-old freshman that said he balances school and rodeo ever since he first got on a horse. Helm said, “Because I miss so much school, I take my classes online to help myself stay caught up and organized to keep my grades up”. On average Helm misses thirty to forty days of school for his passion and family legacy to rodeo. “I grew up on a horse in eastern Montana team roping with my older brothers. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t rodeo,” said Helm. Even though rodeo heavily impacts Helm’s way of living, school is still very important to him. Balancing rodeo and school is an extracurricular activity on its own. He said he dedicates time to school but definitely gets overwhelmed with practice and chores while still trying to be an A student in the short hours of the day. But Helm finds a way to get it all done. Much like Helm, twenty-year-old Braaten has been livestock judging for thirteen years and puts forth effort in the classroom to being the best she can be for every class and instructor while still managing to impress outside of the classroom. This past January, Braaten set a record at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver, Colo. for having the lowest contest drop in all of the NWSS&R Livestock Judging Contests to date. To this day and to many more the class of Hereford bulls will forever be remembered by her, because that is the only class she misplaced, according to officials. “My dad was our county livestock judging coach, and I started going to practice and just grew an interest in it ever since. From going to practice and being the youngest kid to being the oldest kid taking over the practices and teaching the younger kids,” said Braaten. Taking every piece of advice and looking at livestock judging from a teaching perspective gave Braaten an inside look at every class knowing that there is logic to correct placing. She said she just had to find it. Braaten traveled for every livestock judging trip the last two years at CC, forcing her to balance school and dedicate time before leaving to get every assignment done ahead of time, which is how she kept her name on the President's Honor Roll. Because she competed in livestock judging in high school and other activities, she knew what she was getting into come collegiate judging. However, Braaton said she did not expect to be gone almost every other week from the beginning of the school year to spring break. “All through high school I maintained a 3.9 GPA, between showing and raising livestock, livestock judging, basketball, and school. If I wasn’t at school or at practice you could find me in the barn until dark or even past dark. It was difficult, but setting the time aside to get my homework done was very important to me,” said Braaten. Missing as much school as she did this past year, Braaton said she worked twice as hard than what she had to do in high school. Braaten said she wishes she was able to set more time aside for school the last two years, but she was initially drawn to CC to be a part of a competitive livestock judging team and work towards an associate’s degree in Animal Science. Braaten will graduate with honors and an animal science degree in May. Knowing that both students were going to be gone as much as they were over the year, Wood said she was still pleased and even impressed with their dedication to maintaining good grades and following their passions at a successful rate. According to Wood, “It’s not easy to decide between being the best to your ability at the sport you love and school, but both Helm and Braaten have shown me, their coaches, and fellow students that it is possible to balance both tasks and be successful.” Submitted Photos Clay Helm, a member of the Casper College Rodeo Team, practices roping. Kadyn Braaten, a member of the Casper College Livestock Judging Team, judges at an event. Taking online or hybrid courses? Students: We make sure you are able to access online learning resources needed to learn in your classes. We will also help you learn to utilize the digital tools available to you for all your classwork. Examples of items we can help with: 1. MyCCMoodle — including how to submit assignments, participate in forums, etc. 2. ZOOM – help you learn to access and use Zoom for your remote course meetings and collaborations 3. Google Suite — Google Docs, Drive, GMail, etc. 4. Accessing Office 365 .- such as MS Word and PowerPoint 5. Online tutoring — How and where to get extra help as you need it, using NetTutor. Plus a lot more! Contact us. Don’t wait! Get your Questions answered now. Teresa Pat Mike Tyler For help or more information stop by Liesinger Hall, room 132 or contact us at 307-268-3882, dlc@caspercollege.edu, and av@caspercollege.edu. Dave Camille � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Chinook Student Newspaper Online Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2019-2026 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text; image Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Casper College Chinook Student Staff Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chinook Student Newspaper, CCA 08.i.2023.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 08.iii.2023.01_Chinook_Digital Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Online Chinook Newspaper 2023-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2023-04 Description An account of the resource This is a copy of the online Chinook Newspaper from April 2023. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text; image Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Casper College Chinook Student Staff Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chinook Student Newspaper, CCA 08.i.2023.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA_08.i.2023.01_2023-04 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF