On May 2, just six years ago, nearly a decade-long international man-hunt came to an end–Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was killed.

The 54-year-old leader of Al Qaeda was killed by United States Navy SEALs during a raid on his compound hideout in Pakistan, according to history.com.

Around 1 a.m. U.S. local time, 23 Navy SEALs in two Black Hawk helicopters landed at a tourist and military center near north of the capital of Pakistan. One of the choppers crash-landed into the compound, but nobody aboard was injured. The 40 minute raid killed five people, one of them being bin Laden, by U.S. gunfire, leaving no Americans injured.

After the attack, bin Laden’s body was immediately flown to Afghanistan by helicopter to be identified and then buried at an undisclosed location in the Arabian Sea within 24 hours of his death, to follow Islamic practices, as reported by history.com.

President Barack Obama oversaw the raid as it was occurring via drone footage and made a televised address from the White House in Washington, D.C. “Justice has been done,” he said, announcing bin Laden’s death. Following the announcement, crowds surrounded the White House, Times Square in New York City and the Ground Zero site.

When identifying and examining evidence and files the Navy SEALs obtained during the raid, they discovered bin Laden was eventually planning to assassinate President Obama and perform additional attacks against America, one included on the anniversary of the largest attack on U.S. grounds, September 11, 2001, which killed over 3,000 people.

Not long after the attack in 2001, President George W. Bush decided bin Laden would be captured dead or alive. This was not the first attempt made at capturing the terrorist, however. In December of 2011, American forces came close to capturing him in an Afghanistani cave, but he escaped before they were able to do so.

For much of the time before he was captured, the U.S. media reported he was thought to be hidden in a tribal area near the Afghan-Pakistani border. Little did many people know he had actually spent the final five years of his life less than one mile from an elite Pakistani military academy.

Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) analysts tracked bin Laden to be behind security walls in a residential neighborhood in the Abbottabad compound. For months, U.S. intelligence officials kept the compound under surveillance, although they were never positive as to whether he was actually hiding there or not until the raid occurred.

As told by history.com, the U.S. raided the compound without informing the Pakistani government in advance, and some American officials suspected Pakistani authorities of helping to hide bin Laden in Abbottabad, although there was never any concrete evidence found to reaffirm this.

On this day, many choose to remember the individuals who died in the 2001 attacks, as well as hope our country never sees an attack so catastrophic again.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

1966: The year “I’m a Believer” by The Monkees topped the Billboard chart, Vietnam protests were in full swing and the U.S. was racing the USSR to the moon. At Keene State, however, minimum wage for student labor increased from 85 cents to $1 an hour and Randall Hall was considered the newest dormitory.

In the April 29, 1966 issue of The Monadnock, the former name for The Equinox, the Board of Trustees had just approved the renaming of four new on-campus facilities.

Originally built to house 250 young women, Randall Hall was a newly finished $1.4 million building named for former Dean of Student Personnel Dorothy A. Randall, who was retiring at the time. Compared with KSC’s newest building as of 2016, the Living and Learning Commons cost about $30 million to build, according to a Sept. 7, 2016 article in The Equinox.

At the time, the “new” dining hall was named the Keene State College Commons, which was located in the current Media Arts Center building. Additionally, the “new maintenance building,” the J. E. Whitcomb Maintenance Shop, had just been completed and renamed for James Whitcomb, a veteran carpentry crew employee of the college.

Lastly, Parker Hall had just been renovated and designed to include the Sprague W. Drenan Auditorium, commemorating former KSC chair of the English Department and drama coach.

Name suggestions for the buildings came from a committee comprised of faculty, alumni and student representatives.

The year 1966 brought about rapid change for residential life at KSC and not much has changed. Come fall of 2018, Monadnock Hall will serve as a venue for the Greek community and students, faculty and staff welcomed a five-story residence hall to campus just last year.

The KSC campus is everchanging; who knows what changes are next to come.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

Built by the Soviet Union, the world’s worst nuclear incident to date occurred 31 years ago in Pripyat, Ukraine. On April 26, 1986, Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded, and although the full toll is still being calculated, thousands of people were killed and close to 70,000 were injured.

Chernobyl was located in and around land that expanded to about 18 miles, according to history.com, and contained the homes of 150,000 people. After the explosion, these people and families were permanently relocated and the land may not be livable for hundreds of years.

At the time of the explosion, Chernobyl was one of the oldest and most immense power plants in the world, containing four 1,000-watt reactors, according to history.com. To this day, the Soviet government prefers to keep information related to the incident a “secret.”

Initially, after the explosion, the Soviet government reported two deaths and began asking for advice on how to distinguish graphite fires. Soon thereafter, many people started to realize the intensity of this catastrophic incident, but the Soviet government hadn’t told their own people or those living in surrounding towns. Two days following the explosion, Swedish authorities measured concerningly high levels of radioactivity in the air.

Many years later, the full story surfaced, revealing a system test had gone wrong, very wrong. While tests were being performed on the system, emergency safety systems and cooling systems were shut off, which was against the rules and regulations put in place.

Dangerous overheating became present, but workers refused to stop any tests. At 1:23 a.m., the first explosion sent the 1,000-ton steel top into the air, causing fireballs to fly and shoot 1,000-foot flames into the air for two days straight. The entire plant began to melt down and Pripyat’s residents were not evacuated until 36 hours after the explosion.

If the Soviet government were to have told it’s residents of the incident much earlier, a state of emergency could have been issued and more preventative measures could have been taken, as reported by ready.com. People could have educated themselves on proper measures, taken cover, prepared for the worst or planned out a more effective evacuation system. Because the Soviet government was keeping their people in the dark, the events didn’t quite play out as they should have. Quite honestly, the explosion shouldn’t have even occurred in the first place.

Hans Blix from the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that 200 people were directly affected by the explosion and 31 died immediately on contact. Four-thousand clean-up workers have died from radiation poisoning thus far and clean-up of the area is still incomplete.

In terms of the surrounding area, birth defects have drastically increased and thyroid cancer has become a common disease in the country since the explosion.

Right here at Keene State College, the Safety and Occupational Health Applied Science program “prepares students to protect the health and safety of workers in all kinds of situations,” per the KSC website. In our own backyard, we have students studying to prevent situations like Chernobyl from occurring again in the future.

This week in history, we can remember those who lost their lives or encountered injury from this catastrophic accident and hope similar situations never see the light of day.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

1967 was the year the first calculator was invented, “I Love Lucy” was in its prime and “Bonnie and Clyde” was a blockbuster.

However, in 1967, The Nature Conservancy of New Hampshire gifted Keene State College (KSC) a 400-acre plot of land called the Louis Cabot Preserve to use as an outdoor conservation laboratory.

At this time, KSC President Roman J. Zorn said this was the biggest single endowment the college had ever seen.

The Louis Cabot Preserve is a one and a half mile peninsula lying between the Nubansit and Spoonwood Lakes in the towns of Nelson and Hancock. This endowment was acquired by the Nature Conservancy in 1961 for $100,000.

This site was to be used for physical education,  as well as research for faculty and students for studies of soil, water, climate and others.

It was formally accepted and approved on March 18, 1967 by the board of trustees after President Zorn recommended the University of New Hampshire trustees accept the deed after faculty had studied the range of utilization.

Currently, on the KSC website, “Keene State College is fortunate to own 400 acres of pristine wilderness on Lake Nubanusit in the towns of Nelson and Hancock, NH; a quick 25 minute car ride from campus. This property, which sits on a peninsula surrounded by Lake Nubanusit and Spoonwood Pond, is called the Louis Cabot Preserve. The property was acquired by the College in the early 1960s from the Nature Conservancy of N.H… In the future, this land hopefully will become an outdoor learning laboratory for KSC classes. What a great get-away to enjoy a gorgeous N.H. day!”

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

Mary Curtin can be contacted at mcurtin@kscequinox.com

A mere 15 runners inspired thousands when they first conquered the 24.5 mile Boston Marathon on Patriot’s Day in 1897.

For nearly 70 years, the Boston Marathon was held on Patriot’s Day, April 19, which was recognized only in Massachusetts and Maine and commemorated the start of the Revolutionary War. In 1969, the holiday was moved to the third Monday in April and since then, the race followed suit.

On April 19, 1897, after experiencing the energy of the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) member and U.S. Olympic Team Manager John Graham conducted the first Boston Marathon. From Metcalf’s Mill in Ashland to the Irvington Oval in Boston, 10 runners ran the full 24.5 mile race and crossed the finish line. John J. McDermott of New York secured the first winning title, according to the B.A.A. website.

Samantha Moore / Art Director

In 1924, in order to align with Olympic standards, the marathon course was extended to 26.2 miles and the starting line moved to Hopkinton.

The Boston Marathon did not permit women to run until the fall of 1971. However, this rule didn’t stop Roberta Gibb, who hid in bushes near the starting line for three years and became the first woman to run the full Boston Marathon in 1966.

In 1967, Kathrine Switzer registered as a male under the name “K.V. Switzer,” and was given a bib number. After she was identified as a woman, officials attempted to physically remove her from the race, but she persisted and finished anyway. When women were finally allowed to run in 1972, eight women registered, eight started and all eight crossed the finish line.

In 1975, the Boston Marathon became the first to include a wheelchair division and officially recognized Bob Hall as the first participant. He was promised an official B.A.A. Finisher’s certificate only if he was able to finish the race in less than three hours. He claimed his certificate after achieving a time just two minutes shy of the time limit and popularized the race for other American wheelchair competitors to come.

Former Keene resident and Industrial Engineering professor at Keene Normal School, now Keene State College, Clarence DeMar won his first of seven Boston Marathon titles in 1911. Nobody has ever broken his record of Boston wins, according to the DeMar Marathon website. Beginning in 1978, the Clarence DeMar Marathon was established in Keene to honor him and his passion for running and still does to this day.

Just four years ago, on an unforgettable day in 2013 for many New Englanders, two bombs went off at the finish line at 2:49 p.m.. A day meant for celebrations and accomplishments turned to that of destruction and terror when three people died, 260 were injured and 16 lost limbs. Each year since, many participants run the Boston Marathon to honor and remember those affected in 2013.

Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya grasped the record for the fastest marathon time ever when he ran the Boston Marathon in 2011. Bezunesh Deba of Ethiopia holds the women’s course record after she ran in 2014.

According to the B.A.A. website, participants must qualify for the event by meeting time requirements corresponding to age and gender. This year, the 121st Boston Marathon will be held on Monday, April 17 with heats beginning at 8:50 a.m..

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

What better way to spend a blizzard-filled weekend than in the heart of Boston? On Friday, Feb. 10, eight Keene State College students, including myself, left Keene to engage in community service opportunities in the big city through the Alternative Break (AB) program.

Emma Hamilton / Student Life Editor

Our team of eight came from a variety of different grades and majors, and you never would have known that many of us had never met before we embarked on our road trip. Prior to leaving, the team, which consisted of two first-years, three sophomores, two juniors and one senior, was chosen in an application-based process. Amy Richo and I, the team leaders, chose the team based on a series of questions related to community service and social justice.

The eight of us arrived at a hostel in Boston around 7:30 p.m. and were welcomed by people staying there from all over the world. Right when we got there, we attended the Hostel Welcome Party, which consisted of food, drinks and various activities. For most of the night, we created and decorated cards which would be put in children’s backpacks, motivating them to do well in school.

Emma Hamilton / Student Life Editor

As Saturday approached, we got started on our service activities. We spent most of the morning making dog toys out of old t-shirts, as well as dog treats for those at the Boston Animal Rescue. Later on that day, we were able to bring our donation items to the animal shelter and even bond with some dogs and cats. Although many of us thought about taking them back to Keene with us, we said our goodbyes and hoped our toys and treats made their day even the slightest bit better.

After lunch, we traveled to the Yawkey Family Inn, which is a home for the patients and families of Boston Children’s Hospital. We made Valentine’s Day cards with children over the course of a few hours, but there was one child who touched all of our hearts in a special way. One five-year-old  boy was staying at the house all the way from Texas and had the most contagious and upbeat personality. He made a variety of Valentine’s Day cards with us, while also teaching us about all 45 presidents of the United States. Although many of us were embarrassed to admit it, he knew more about the presidents than we did. Despite his medical conditions, he was so positive, happy and most definitely could have talked our ears off for hours.

Photo contributed by Devon Nicole House Staff

On Sunday, we traveled to another house affiliated with Boston Children’s Hospital called the Devon Nicole House. This home also houses families and patients at the hospital, but was set up a little differently than the other house we went to the day before. We got there around 8:30 a.m. and spent an hour making eggs, bacon, three types of muffins (chocolate chip, banana nut and blueberry) and fruit salad for the families staying there. Although we didn’t see and interact with as many families at this house, we were told that leaving the breakfast for families to help themselves to later on in the day is more appreciated than we may realize. Additionally, we left child-friendly and adult coloring pages for all to use as well.

Overall, the trip was a short, but it was an amazing experience. Eight strangers have now become such good friends, and I think almost all of us have AB fever, motivating us to want to participate in even more AB trips in the future. The families, children and animals we met touched our hearts in many different ways, and the bonds we made as a team are like no other. I wish the weekend could have been longer so we had even more time to build relationships and participate in more service opportunities in and around the Boston area.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

Education majors on campus may be looking at more limited options in terms of graduate programs at KSC; the master’s of education graduate program in school counseling, as well as the post-master’s certification program in school counseling have been placed on administrative hold for review.

The administrative hold was placed for a few different reasons.

Education Department Chair and Professor of Education Dr. Ellen Nuffer said they had one faculty member, Dr. Karen Haas, who taught in the school counseling program full-time, as well as coordinated it, meaning she made sure students were meeting all the requirements and made sure the program itself was meeting the accreditation requirements.

Nuffer said Haas resigned over the summer to take a position at a different university, and only two students inquired about admission into the school counseling program this past year; both students didn’t actually matriculate into the program, so no new students entered the program for the 2016-2017 school year.

At the same time, Nuffer said Plymouth State University (PSU) received a grant where they were able to offer every student in their school counseling program a significant scholarship.

In order to be eligible for this grant, the program must be approved by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs (CACREP). CACREP approval requires a school to have three full-time faculty members teaching in the program, which PSU has.

Keene State only had one when Haas was here, which now leaves the school with no current full-time faculty members teaching in the school counseling program.

KSC follows CACREP standards, but is not CACREP approved for that reason.

Samantha Moore / Art Director

“So here we had a rival not too far away that offered a really significant scholarship to students [and] had this CACREP approval….we knew that we would never be able to have that CACREP approval, so [with] all of those factors coming together, we said now is a good time for us to just pump the brakes and [talk] about what do we want to see for this program for the future,” Nuffer said.

Assistant Dean for the School of Professional and Graduate Studies Stephen Bigaj agreed that enrollment has been a primary motivator in initiating the hold, but staffing has also been another factor.

“We had two failed searches for the school counselor position over the last five years, so we’ve had to back fill with clinical faculty, and last year we hired a faculty member to take on school counseling, but the faculty member resigned this summer,” he said.

“Then, coupled with that and the fact that we only had two students in the pipeline for courses this fall, we had to make a decision [as to] whether we were going to move forward with the administrative hold.”

According to Bigaj, the program is not closed completely, but on hold for review.

“There’s a graduate task force that’s meeting on campus and they’re going to be looking at graduate education as a whole, so what they come up with is going to have a lot of impact on where we move in the program.

The hold is to reevaluate the program and figure out where we want to go,” he said.

Bigaj continued, “In the larger context of all our education masters degrees right now, we’re looking at them in a variety of different ways to serve the education community, so we’re also trying to explore some collaborations and things too.”

The past and future of the school counseling program

In talking about the future, Nuffer said, “In the meantime, we’ll be trying to pull together a group of people to do some brainstorming about this.”

She continued, “We know we’ve got to do some brainstorming about where do we want to go with this and put all of that together and hopefully come up with a really good solution, but I feel very confident in saying that the students who are currently in the program are being taken care of. They are being squared away.”

In previous years, Nuffer said the program had between 12 and 15 students in it, but more recently the numbers have been consistent between five and eight.

After a lot of outreach to graduating seniors and other local schools, Nuffer said the numbers just haven’t been where they want them to be.

In comparison to the master’s program in special education and the other master’s program in curriculum instruction, Nuffer said these programs are “very healthy in terms of their numbers and healthy in terms of their faculty who are teaching in those programs.”

She also said the decision to put a hold on the school counseling program was a mutual decision.

“This was very much a mutual decision among the people who are involved in the program. The faculty and the deans and [I] all thought that was really best, not only for the department and institution, but for students, both our current and our future students.

We want to make sure we are able to deliver a good program, so this was really a mutual decision,” Nuffer said.

Provost Seigh said the hold on the graduate program was “unofficial” for quite some time. Seigh said, “When I stepped into this position, there was already, in my understanding, an unofficial hold on the education graduate courses. I just made it official.”

A graduate student in the school counseling program didn’t respond for comment.

Student enrollment

In terms of how the holds would affect enrollment, Provost Seigh said he doesn’t think it will. “I think students come to Keene State College because it’s a really incredible place to come…and it’s an institution that allows people to come and discover,” Seigh said.

He continued, “I think one of the reasons it’s wonderful is that we’re very careful and intentional in the way that we look at student need, look at student education and how we offer the best programs possible and I think this is an example of just taking the time to figure out what’s best for the next group of students coming through.”

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

Article in This Featured Series:

“Four programs on academic hold: Geology & earth science programs”

With the previous worry of the KSC geology program going “extinct,” future students may now be faced with that reality for a few years, but not just in that program alone.

As of Oct. 24, the geology program (major and minor), the earth and space science program for secondary school teaching (major), the master of education graduate program in school counseling and the post-master’s certification program in school counseling have been labeled “under administrative review.”

For the geology and the earth and space science program, the KSC website states, “Effective 10/24/16 This program is under administrative review. There will be no admission to the program for newly admitted students (i.e. 2017SP) while on administrative hold.”

For the master’s program in education for school counseling, the KSC website states the same message, but there will be no admission to the program for both current and prospective students while the program is on administrative hold.

All current students, however, will finish out in both programs.

Samantha Moore / Art Director

Why was the hold placed in geology?

In an article published by The Equinox on Oct. 6 titled “KSC puts a dent in geology program,” the geology program was described as being one of concern when looking at student enrollment numbers and full-time faculty members who teach within the major.

KSC Provost William Seigh said the conversation about the geology program itself has been going on for quite some time, especially in terms of how the program can best serve KSC students now and in the future.

“I think the program has an opportunity to become stronger, to become whatever it needs to become to best serve our students. So I think that in the case of geology and also in the case of the graduate programs, we’re on administrative hold; we’re looking at the programs, evaluating what kind of curriculum will best serve our students and what faculty we may want to hire if we need to hire and then when we’ll be able to hire. So we’re kind of looking at, in both of these cases, what’s going to be the best way to serve our students,” Seigh explained.

Dean of the School of Sciences and Social Sciences Dr. Gordon Leversee said there are a few reasons for the hold.

“The hold is just that we had seen a history of very low enrollments and low interest of incoming students, one or two or three a year…but geology has consistently had the smallest number of declared majors of students that graduate,” he said. Leversee continued and said,“We’ve had retirement of one of our senior faculty a year ago and our other remaining senior faculty is approaching retirement…but we just felt it was time to say to [incoming] students…[that they] should come understanding that at this time of transition and change, we’re not going to open the opportunity for you to declare the major.”

Leversee said geology students who are currently at KSC will confidently be served over the next four years as they graduate, but he doesn’t want to have new students come in until they are clearer about where they want to go in the future.

What will the hold do for the program?

In terms of what the hold means for the program, Seigh said it allows the deans and faculty members time to talk about how the program wants to evolve.

“I don’t know if any changes and, if so, what changes would happen in the curriculum in either program. I think that what the administrative hold does is it gives us time; it gives the faculty, the deans and the associate deans and so on in the sciences [time] to have an opportunity to sit down and talk about what does a geology program want to look like at our college in the next few years?”

According to Seigh, the realization of the geology program needing more focused attention largely came from discussions with Dean Leversee about staffing within the program.

Seigh said, “There have been retirements, there will be retirements and when there are retirements, there’s a tremendous time for us to sort of step back and…say, ‘Okay, so this is where we are today. Where do we want to be down the road?’ So I can’t help but believe that retirement or potential retirements plays a part in the necessity or the opportunity to ask a question.”

Do budget cuts have an impact?

The campus-wide budget cuts are not a leading factor in placing the administrative holds, but Seigh said at the moment, the college is not hiring as many faculty as they have in the past with retirements.

He said, “My hope would be that as faculty we’re retiring, with or without a budget constraint, that we would still take the time and say, ‘What’s the best choice for this program now?’”

Before the decision for the administrative holds was made official, Seigh said he went to the college senate to share his intentions with the group.

He said there was “some significant discussion” about what this would mean and why it was occurring, but Seigh emphasized that “we were focusing on serving the needs of the students in the best way possible.”

The future of the geology program 

In the future, Leversee said there will be geology at KSC, whether it’s called geology or potentially placed under a new umbrella such as earth sciences or geosciences.

“There’s some obvious overlap in student’s interest, in faculty interest and ability in geography and [the] environmental studies program in particular,” he said.

“That’s a conversation that faculty will need to be having and that takes a while, maybe probably a year to have a conversation and then assuming that goes well and supposedly comes through and approved in our curriculum process and then it’s implemented.

So it could be a couple years probably before we’d see a new version of the geology program,” Leversee said.

Geology Professor Dr. Steven Bill stated he wants to make it very clear to students that those admitted under the 2016-17 catalog year and prior to that will be allowed to declare geology as a major or minor, as well as earth and space science as a major.

He said the college will work to make sure students get all the necessary courses they need.

In terms of the hold for incoming students, Bill stated in an e-mail that himself and other geology faculty members are very disappointed in the decision and hope to have further conversations with the administration about the matter.

Senior geology student Andrew Michaud stated in an e-mail that he wasn’t “particularly happy with [the decision],” but at this point feels they need to wait for further meetings with the provost for more information.

Although the website states the earth and space science program is on administrative hold, KSC Provost William Seigh said, “The administrative hold in geology is an administrative hold in geology major and minor, not earth sciences, not the other programs, it’s just the major in geology and the minor in geology [that] are on administrative hold for entering students.”

Dean Leversee said the two programs overlap 50 to 60 percent and the earth and space science program was placed on hold for similar reasons the geology major was.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com 

Article in This Featured Series:

“Four programs on administrative hold: School counseling programs”

If reading to young children, assisting in an early childhood classroom or simply being around kids sounds appealing, Keene State College has an opportunity.

The college’s KSC Reads Program is seeking volunteer tutors to assist at various schooling sites in and around Keene and Swanzey.

KSC Reads Coordinator and sophomore Maddie Chavez typically explains KSC Reads as a group on campus where students interested in working with kids go out into the community and read with young children, which is the program’s main focus, as well as hang out with them in the classroom.

Depending on the student’s schedule and availability, Chavez said the tutors are placed at Keene Day Care Center, Keene Head Start, Keene Housing Kids Collaborative or Swanzey Head Start.

Health science major and spanish minor Chavez said she first heard about the program as an incoming first-year student through the PreServe program and knew she wanted to apply.

She then said she was a KSC Reads tutor all of last year as a first-year at Keene Day Care Center and loved it.

Courtney Bethel/ Equinox staff

While many jobs require 15 to 20 hours per week as a commitment, Chavez said KSC reads usually only requires five.

She said each week, the shifts end up being two different two-hour shifts at the student’s given site.

Additionally, Chavez said, “They [the tutors] go to their sites and every week they fill out a tutor progress report, just kind of checking in with us in the office and telling us what things are going well, what things are challenging for them and any suggestions or questions they have going on just so we keep in touch. Also, we have meetings for all the tutors once a month where we invite professionals in and work on their skills and professional development.”

As far as volunteers go, Chavez said there are many sites that would love tutors, so the program has plenty of spots open and she would love to see it expand.

As the program coordinator, Chavez said she isn’t really looking for anything specific.

“You don’t have to be an ed[ucation] major or anything, you just have to want to work with kids and like working with kids… [be] open to volunteering and you just have to be able to communicate with us and stay on top of it and balance it out with your schoolwork because it is a priority too,” she said.

Sophomore nursing major Hilmarie Javier has been tutoring at Keene Head Start for two years and said at first she didn’t really know how to act around the children, for it was her first time being around kids that young.

“I’ve definitely grown more patient with the kids, so that definitely will help me in the future because I think you really need patience with certain careers, especially nursing. I also learned communication skills…” Javier said.

As far as her duties within the classroom, Javier said she gets there around 10 a.m. while the children are out on the playground.

She said there are only two classroom teachers and a lot of kids, so she helps with setting out the food and other classroom activities.

Javier said, “During choice time, I sit at the literacy table and I either do literacy activities, like have them spell out horse or cat or something like that…pick out what letter each animal starts with [for example] or I read a book to them and do little activities with that.”

Sophomore early childhood education and dance major Ashley Hoffer just began tutoring this year at Keene Day Care.

She said she had heard about it from a friend when talking about how to get more involved on campus, specifically in the community service aspect.

Hoffer said her mom and aunt are both teachers, so she’s had previous experience in going into their classrooms and reading to children there, but has never experienced consistently going into a classroom twice a week.

Considering she just began at the beginning of the semester, she said, “I definitely was more timid when I first got there. I didn’t really know the kids as well. They’re younger, so some of them are really shy. I think I got better at working one-on-one with them and building that connection and relationship with them, gaining their trust.”

Currently, Hoffer works with two and three-year-olds in the classroom.

“They get so excited when they see you and they want to pull you over to see a toy or they bring you a book and you read it to them. They love pointing out the new things in the classroom… My favorite part is definitely them being really excited to see you and recognize you in the classroom because at first they’re like ‘Who are you? You’re a stranger,’ but once they know you and know your name, they want to talk to you,” Hoffer said.

According to the America Reads website, the program was proposed by the Clinton Administration in 1996 as a “national literacy campaign that would enlist ‘one million volunteer tutors ready and able to give children the personal attention they need to catch up and get ahead.’”

The overall mission of the program stated by the KSC website is that “KSC Reads supports the mission of having all children reading well and independently by the end of the third grade.”

If you’re interested in tutoring for the KSC Reads program, e-mail Madolyn.Chavez@ksc.keene.edu.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

At the start of this new school year, some Keene State students would say they are returning from a jam-packed summer full of beach days, adventures and relaxation, but the vast majority have been laser-focused on one thing: working.

Working for what you may ask? In a study done by Sallie Mae in 2014, 31 percent of families didn’t contribute or borrow any funds to help pay for their child’s college tuition.

This leaves the student entirely responsible for frontin g their tuition bill. So while some students were able to fully enjoy their summer relaxing, many were trying to balance the much needed time with saving to pay for the semester.

KSC junior and elementary education and math major Kelsi Woodard said she worked three jobs last semester and two jobs this past summer in order to pay her bill.

This semester, she got rid of her meal plan and chose to live off campus in order to save money.

“I pay for school pretty much myself. I rely mostly on whatever I can get for scholarship money and grants. From there, I take out loans, as many as I can, and then the rest I pay out of pocket,” Woodard said. “I’m pretty sure the financial aid people know me by name because I like to be on top of everything and I like to know why I’m being charged for this and how this loan is going to cover that.”

Woodard said some of her expenses include tuition, textbooks, food, rent, internet, car insurance and taking a dance class, which is one of her only outlets away from school and working. Aside from all this, she said her social life is actually pretty decent.

“Surprisingly I do have a social life, but I definitely find that it has to be something that I plan in advance because even on school nights I’m like, ‘Yeah guys, can’t hang out I got to go to bed. I’m really tired.’ My friends go out on the weekends and party and I’m like, ‘Yeah, got to get up for work in the morning.’ Sometimes I’ll go, but usually by 11 o’clock I need to go to bed,” Woodard said.

KSC junior and elementary education and psychology major Rachel McCosker said she tends to put work before everything else. McCosker said, “On weekends, I don’t have a social life because all I do is work. I’ve definitely put work over almost everything else like family events, social events and everything.”

Differently from Woodard, McCosker doesn’t pay anything out of pocket for school. She pays entirely with student loans and scholarships, although she doesn’t get many because she commutes from home.

“I applied for the scholarships through Keene and then I also applied to different scholarships through the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, but I didn’t get any because my parents are seen as the middle class who make a good amount, but it’s all before taxes so I don’t get much. I don’t get work study. I don’t get any of that,” McCosker said.

Overall, McCosker doesn’t believe college is affordable, especially if you choose to take out student loans. Once interest accrues, her $10,000 loan will turn into a $40,000 loan. “It makes me cringe,” McCosker said.

KSC junior and psychology major Adam Geddis agreed that especially for working class families, college is absolutely not affordable by any means.

“In no way does it make sense to me to handicap students before they’re even in the work force because those fifty [or] hundred thousand dollar debts that they have, they’re going to have to pay that before they can even put money into the economy. It doesn’t make any sense,” Geddis said. 

KSC junior and early childhood education and women and gender studies major Emily Kreidler worked three jobs this past summer and will be working in the Child Development Center on campus this semester, even though college expenses aren’t her responsibility.

“Both my brother and I work in the summers and we contribute to our books and all of our spending during the year, but our parents contribute to our tuition, meal plan, dorm, all that,” Kreidler said.

Although she isn’t paying for college on her own, she still works and said she puts half her summer earnings in savings and uses the rest for spending during the school year.

Kreidler said, “I just think I’m very very lucky because I don’t know what I would do if I had to pay for it on my own because I do have jobs, but they’re not anything that would be able to pay for my tuition.”

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com.