Have you ever had that sensation in the pit of your stomach that feels like a mixture of excitement, ner-vousness, and anxiety, for no apparent reason? While it is one of the most energizing feelings in the world, it has the potential to make any person completely sick to their stomach. This is exactly the feeling that I found rushing through my veins as I paced back and forth on the second floor of Holy Family Hall, each time glaring at the small plastic sign that read ‘President’s Suite.’

“Do I walk right in, or do I have to knock? Is there a secretary in there? I’m going to fumble this entire interview if I mess this up from the start.” After a good 5 minutes of mentally scolding myself for not preparing for this exact situation, I con-vinced myself to knock on the door, and from beyond it, a voice quickly answered, “Come in!”

After a sigh of relief, I walked into the quiet office, and was greeted by Patti McAnany, the President’s secretary, who smiled as we exchanged the standard “nice-to-meet-yous.” She walked around her desk to the large wooden door, and lightly knocked on it before poking her head through. From behind the door, a soft, muffled replied with a few words that I barely chance to make out before Ms. McAneny turned to me and said, “Sister Maureen is ready to see you now.”

As I walked into the room, the first thing that I noticed was that Sister Maureen’s office looked very much like the living room of a small, quaint home. The light green carpet that spread across the floor sat below a pair of flower-patterned couches, and a set of obviously well-crafted wooden table and chairs that I could not help but to take a split second to admire. To the left was a dark, polished desk that matched the other furniture, and as my eyes turned to scan the rest of the room, I realized that Sister Maureen was already making her way from behind her desk to greet me.

Not having met her, nor seen her in person any time before, I immediately noticed how tall she stood. A tuft of white hair hung down from beneath her habit. She looked me directly in the eyes from behind her thin glasses, with a wide smile on her face. In a soft, yet strikingly confident voice, she said, “It’s very nice to meet you,” and extended to me one

of the firmest handshakes I’d ever felt. “Where do you want to sit? It doesn’t matter to

me,” she laughed, before looking to her desk. “This works,” she said, still smiling.

As I took a seat, and we began to chat about the purpose of our meeting, I realized that I was speak-ing to one of the kindest people that I’ve ever had the privilege of interviewing. Instantly, every feeling of

any anxiety or ner-vousness was gone, as Sister Maureen started describing her time as President.

“It’s going really well. Of course, I was happy to take over,” she smiles. “While Sister Francesca was here for 32 years, I’ve actually been at the University for 36 years now. I got to see the tail-end of the previous administra-tion, as well as Sister’s entire administration. Following someone whose tenure was that long, I think you need someone who has a history of experience at the University for this position.”

In those 36 years, Sister Maureen has held a number of positions at Holy

Family, from associate professor, to depart-ment chair, provost, dean, and just about everything in between. She started her time here as a biologist, but over the years, more and more opportunities presented themselves until she came into her current role. Being the President, however, is much different than any other position she has held.

“I think what’s different from the CEO’s role is this whole other side of the house that deals with the financial responsibilities. Everything that has to do with business comes to the President’s Office. While I had dealt with some of the business that involved academics before, this is an entirely different type of business responsibility. I think that the President’s Office requires a lot more external visibility. At any given time, I could be interacting with the Chamber of Commerce, the Mayor’s Office or with the Presi-dents of other universities, so I think that visibility is incredibly important.”

Holy Family has recently adopted the tagline “The Value of Family.” As Sister Maureen reflected on the fundamental idea behind the simple phrase, she could not help but smile at the potential that the University has at its disposal.

http://issuu.com/holyfamilyuniversitytrilite

The student voice of Holy Family University since 1954Vol. 61, Issue 1November 2014

Flip To... The Image of holy famIly: geTTIng To Know Sr. maureen mcgarrITy

By Richard Haldis

Page 4Fall Fun

Page 3The Volleyball

Team

Page 6Student

Spotlight

Photo by Michael Branscom

Page 1HFU’s Baseball

Team

Continued on pg 2

“I think there’s a certain simplicity about Holy Family, that makes me love it here. No matter who you meet here, they’re approach-able. They’re open, you know? It’s a humble-ness, among everyone here, and I think that’s what makes us truly unique. To me, it means that it’s a special type of environment. We thought about the value of family long and hard. The nature of ‘family’ has changed drasti-cally, and for many people nowadays, ‘fam-ily’ could be a difficult word. But, for anyone, family can be an environment when you really have a spirit of hope and trust, it doesn’t have to be a biological relationship, and that’s what I love about Holy Family. Students come here and they feel that environment. Some people may not understand their true worth, but I’ve met some of the brightest people I’ve ever met right here at this school. Everyone here has so much potential, but they don’t realize it, so after you instill that idea of humble-ness inside them, they really understand that they are simply great people. A lot of schools build up the idea of becoming a leader, but how can everyone be a leader if there are no contributors? If you’ve got all Chiefs and no Indians, it’s never going to work!”

In a press release when Sister Maureen was announced President, she made a statement about how she has seen the academic rigor and holistic learning environment at Holy Fam-ily transform individuals and families. When asked to take a second to elaborate on that notion, she reflected on a specific instance in which she saw this idea become reality.

“We’ve trained a good number of physicians. One of them came in,” she pauses. “He grew up in the projects, so he wasn’t quite a wealthy fel-low, and didn’t quite realize how smart he was. A faculty member took him under their wing and built him up, so now he is an Emergency Room technician, and teaches Emergency Medicine, and has written a number of medi-cal journals. It’s amazing because that was all done just because one faculty member realized his full potential, and helped him bring it out. Now he lives in Florida and flies his own plane back up here when he has to. In fact, he just came back to speak with our pre-med students recently.”

When stepping into the highest position at a University, one must certainly have a checklist of goals in their head that they wish to achieve in the time that they spend there. Sister Mau-reen is no exception, and was more than willing to share some insight into her personal thoughts.

“I want us to achieve a stable environment, in terms of processes and programs, and I want to identify them strategically in a way that Holy Family is best suited. I want this to be a place of engagement. There’s always room to strengthen school spirit between the faculty,

administrators and students. Sometimes that’s difficult because we’re a commuter school, but I want this place to become a cult of engage-ment for everyone that sets foot on campus. I want it to remain accessible to students and to have the resources it takes to be success-ful. Most of all, I want the focus of everyone to remain of the students. There’s something to be learned from everything that happens here. There are positive messages and negative messages, but the negative ones aren’t always bad. It’s all about how the message is delivered, so those negative ones can become something positive.”

Considering that Sister Maureen has spent 36 year of her life at Holy Family, she has un-doubtedly grown to love the school and every-thing it represents. After taking a few moments to pinpoint where her passion comes from, she eagerly explained exactly what makes Holy Family special to her.

“What I think I love most is that it’s a minis-try. It’s not just a school or a place of work, but it’s a ministry as well. It gives all of us here an opportunity to participate in it.” She pauses in

thought, before an expression of honest sincer-ity sinks across her face. “It not only deals with the here-and-now, but also gives us the oppor-tunity to extend this ministry to a world that needs the reinstatement of family as an impor-tant unit of society.”

In all, my conversation with Sister Maureen lasted about half an hour. As I thanked Sister Maureen, and exited her office, I realized that I had inherited an entirely new perspective regarding Holy Family in its entirety. While many schools strive to achieve the image of creating a family, Holy Family seems to do it effortlessly. As I made my way across campus, I took notice to how the people here interact,

and was actually quite humbled. Sister Maureen was absolutely correct: we are one large, diverse family, plain and simple. With this new perspective in mind, it is worth noting that our time spent here should not be taken for granted, especially at a time when a new visionary has taken over as our President, with so many people filled with so much potential surrounding us every single day. With so much oppor-tunity waiting behind every corner and in every crevasse of our campus, there has never been a better time to take pride in saying that you are, and will always be, a

part of Holy Family University.

Article continuedPage 2 The Tri-Lite

For anyone, family can be an environment when you really have a spirit of hope and trust, it doesn’t have to be a biological relationship, and that’s what I love about

Holy Family.

As the spring semester gets underway, so does the inaugural season for Holy Family’s baseball team. Team founder and president, Dan Conard has spent a year trying to create the baseball team for Holy Family University. Co-nard’s thoughts about taking on such a project: “I figured that I could lead the project and hope-fully make the team a part of the University.”

So far, the team has 14-16 committed players. The inaugural season looks promising for the baseball team. Their first scrimmage is sched-uled for Sunday, October, 26 against Neumann University. Beyond that, the baseball team will play 14-20 games this season, beginning around February or March.

The team practices at Mitchell Playground, 3700 Whitehall Lane, on Thursdays from 6:00-7:30. On Tuesdays, in the Holy Family gym, the team has conditioning from 3:00-4:30.

Anybody interested in playing base-ball for Holy Family University can

contact Dan Conard at dconard@holyfamily.edu.

Batter Up! Plans for Holy Family’s Inaugural Baseball SeasonBy Kevin Branigan

Sr. Maureen McGarrity at her October 13th Inauguration.Source: Holy Family University Facebook page.

By: Richard Haldis“I started playing volleyball when I was in

fourth grade. I was probably about ten, I think. Both of my parents played, so they were the ones who got me into it. They became my first coaches and taught me everything that I knew.”

Rachel Johnson, a junior here at Holy Family, is one of the captains of the volleyball team, and will be the first to admit that volleyball is nothing short of her way of life. Her ea-gerness to discuss her sport is evident in her voice, and the wide grin that is spread across her face as she speaks. However, to her, volleyball is very obviously much more than just a sport. Anyone who’s had the opportunity to stop and chat with Rachel knows that it truly is her life’s sole passion (aside from her avid love of Dis-ney movies).

“I have been playing volleyball for so long that it is honestly a way of life for me now. I have made endless friends and met so many people along the way that my volleyball teams have been my families,” she explains, in the thick, charismatic Chicagoan accent that she is known for. “My dream is to go pro in beach vol-leyball. I remember watching the 2004 Summer Olympics. They were in Greece, I think.” She stops herself to think.” Any-way, that year, the US Women’s team took the gold. That was a pretty awesome moment, and I think that kind of stuck with me.”

Anyone who’s ever taken part in a team sport can agree that it requires a respectable amount of devotion to make any sort of respectable progress. The Holy Family Tigers, however, take that level of commitment to a whole new dimension. “A typical day in the life is literally getting up, having breakfast, going to class, then grabbing lunch and going to practice afterwards. After practice, it’s come home, do homework,

sleep, and get up the next day and repeat! Our only “off ” day is Sunday. Then in the off-season, it’s class, workout, homework, sleep, repeat. Un-less we have a 6am workout, that is!”

As she reflects on her fondest memories of her career in volleyball, Rachel looks around the room, as the same eager grin returning to her face. “There are just so many,” she smiles.

“Well, of course there was the day that I signed up to play college volleyball. Aside from that, when I was 12, my team played at the Junior Olympics in Atlanta, in the same place where they hold the actual Olympics. Four years later, I got the chance to go back, and actually came in 4th place out of like 160 teams. It was one of the most exciting things, but it was also really heartbreaking because we missed getting a medal by one place!”

It’s clear that Johnson wants to leave a lasting impression on her school as she looks forward

to this year’s Central Atlantic Collegiate Confer-ence, or CACC, for short. “We look forward to the CACC every year, but I really want to get a banner. We don’t have any for volleyball at Holy Family, and if we win a banner, we get to play in the NCAA. That’s definitely a goal for me at this point, and there is really no way to describe the feeling of pushing yourself to the limit.”

While, she has played on numerous teams, taken part in countless games, and has spent about half her life train-ing, Rachel undoubtedly admits that Holy Family has become her home over the past few years. “The difference between Holy Family and any other volleyball team is that we just spend so much time together here. Between practicing together, traveling together, playing together, and even going to class together, we’re really like one big family. It means the world to me to be able to come into the middle of the court and either enjoy the success or embrace the next challenge with my team.” She pauses. “Even though it sounds incredibly cheesy, I’m on a team with my 10 sisters.”

Be sure to check out the Holy Family Tigers’ schedule in the Athletics Sec-tion at www.holyfamily.edu, and help cheer them on as they work their way

to victory.

Rachel Johnson: Spiking it to Success!

Green living, building up your campus life and the world around you

By Francis Bitting

The environment in itself is an issue every-where in the world. Whether it is the redwoods of California, or the detrimental water crisis of Ethiopia, we as a global civilization, are being affected. A question, which I, at times ask myself is “how does one person, a college student, help or even make a difference?” Well, luckily for me I attend a University that is steadily going green. A few ecofriendly hot spots on campus are: the Environmental Club, the Campus Bookstore, and even the Library. The environmental club works with tremendous effort to fight the battle of sustainability and going green. Whether it is something as simple as putting up waste con-tainer signs, or something as large as paring with the Philadelphia Phillies with “Phillies Red goes Green” which took place on September 26th.

The Environmental Club is working on other various projects that will lead into bigger events, like festivities for “Earth Day” and “Green Week”. Be sure to contact Dr. Mary Huber ( mhuber@holyfamily.edu) who is the head of the organization for more information about the club, as well as how you can become a member.Aside from the environmental club, another

green “go getter” is the Holy Family bookstore, as well as the company, Barnes & Noble. Our University offers electronic book purchases and rental options known as “E-Books”. This elec-tronic option has greatly affected paper usage both on a large scale, and even our local Holy Family campus. Another interesting sustainable accommodation our bookstore offers is reus-able water bottles. Each year the US consumes roughly 1500 water bottles, so think to yourself, how often do you drink bottled water? Now once you realize the large number you alone may be contributing, think how much you could help by only using one reusable bottle. Pretty crazy, huh? If you do feel the need to change your plastic bottle usage, stop in the University book store, and pick up a reusable bottle. Trust me, you will be amazed at not only how much you help the environment, but how much you save.

Lastly, as a University we use a lot of paper. Whether it is students, faculty, staff, or anyone on campus for that matter, we are all guilty of this. The Library is the place where most of this “dirty work” goes down. With that being said, the library noticed this and has taken efforts to change. One Major way is offering the double

sided option when printing, as well as label-ing each computer to a set printer to avoid the “Where did I print? I have to print it again” fiasco. If you have any questions or concerns re-garding double sided printing options, feel free to ask a librarian, they will be glad to assist you. I hope this information was helpful, but if this is not enough to satisfy your hunger for going green.

Some ways to go about getting yourself in-volved in more green projects are:

1) Ask a Resident Advisor to possibly have your green activity as a program on campus.

2) Talk to Activities Director Mike Ulrich about some possible activities to promote and educate yourself and the university on sustainability

3) Google ideas, local committees, projects, that you can become a part of and educate the University on your experiences. There are many ways to go out and become an acting part in the change you want to be, so go out there and get started!

Page 3 The Tri-Lite

Page 4 The Tri-Lite

Money Magazine Ranks are in, and Holy Family is Found on Top!

By Gabrielle Fabioneri

Money Magazine, which is published by Time Magazine, is the go-to place to look for infor-mation and advice on personal finance topics such as taxes, saving, investing and anything else related to money and how to save it. Money Magazine recently put out a collection of reports in relation to private and public colleges in the United States. Among them were reports such as “the 25 Most Expensive Colleges” and “25 Best Liberal Arts Colleges”, but the most important ones had Holy Family University ranked highly on their list. According to Money Magazine, Holy Family University ranked # 4 for “The 25 Colleges That Add the Most Value” and #6 for “The 25 Best Colleges You Can Actually Get Into”.

So what does this mean? Money Magazine took a lot of factors into account when making these conclusions, and out of about 1500 colleg-es in the United States, 25 were chosen based on educational quality, affordability, and career out-comes. Holy Family was outstandingly placed within the top ranks based on those factors out of so many schools. According to Money Maga-zine, the “25 Colleges That Add the Most Value” rankings were decided by high graduation rates and how much money alumni tend to earn after graduation. The facts show that Holy Family outperforms rival schools by 16% in terms of graduation rate, and $12, 150 in relation to earn-ings after graduation. Money Magazine, with the caption “Who Needs

Ivy League?”, also believes that Holy Family be-longs at the top at #6 for “The Best Colleges You Can Actually Get Into”. The top-ranked schools within this list accept 50% of applicants and were B average students. With all this phenomenal information, Holy Family really has something to be proud of and students have chimed in with their opinions af-ter hearing where we rank. Mary Jane McBride, 21, senior at Holy Family absolutely agrees with the ratings, stating

“I think it’s fantastic that HF has gotten the credit that it deserves! The staff and my fellow peers are so kind and welcoming; I know I’m on the right track with all their help! I realized I chose the right school for me right from the start! The environment of holy family is rare to find, of course there have been obstacles, but that comes with any endeavor. I’m glad I wound up here and I would recommend my school to anyone who is looking for a place to feel like home!”

With that said, many other students feel the same way, that Holy Family really gives students the best learning experience possible, and is still able to keep its tuition rate so low at about 13,755 for full time students. It is really the best bang for your buck. Mary Jane mentions that she has experienced many obstacles, but with the support and dedication of all the faculty and staff at Holy Family, students are given the resources to climb right over them and keep

running even further. Essentially, students are given a foundation for success at Holy Family. Angel Lawrynkiewicz, 24, is a recent transfer from Bucks County Community College, and found the application process very simple. She needed a letter of recommendation, as well as had to send over her grades, and before she knew it she received her acceptance letter in the mail. Holy Family believes in rewarding students for their academic achievements, and gives about 95% of its students some form of financial aid. Lawrynkiewicz explains that she was given the Presidential Scholarship, which covers a good portion of her tuition costs. Even though she has only been at Holy Family for about a month now, she is certain that she made the right choice. She loves that night classes are available to accommodate her busy schedule, and is happy that she can continue her educa-tion as a Communications major here at Holy Family.

With the hard work and dedication of every teacher, faculty member, alumni and student, Holy Family was able to humbly receive these ratings and further continue their reputation of success and quality private education in Phila-delphia.

Disclaimer: all information taken from HFU website and time.com/money

Apartments vs. Dorms? The Choice is Yours!By Rachel Everman

Are you stumped between the choice of living in an apartment or a dorm?

Making the decision to move into an apart-ment is a big step. When starting college, for most students, it is their first real experience on their own in dealing with real-life respon-sibilities. Dorms are meant be a much easier transition from life at home with your parents to living on your own. Moving into an apart-ment may be in your plans for next year, but it’s important to know the details before doing so.

Most colleges only permit upperclassman to move into apartments, but at Holy Family University, sophomores have the option as long as there is still availability once the Juniors and Seniors have chosen.

Rachel Johnson, a junior at Holy Family University, moved into an apartment her sopho-more year. Rachel now lives in The Gardens apartment complex provided by the University. According to Holy Family’s website, The Gar-dens is “located on the edge of campus, which holds approximately 45 students in apartment style living. There is a kitchen, two bathrooms, a living area and a washer and dryer in each unit. Apartments either have two double rooms, or one double room and two single rooms.”

Most students living in dorms are on a meal plan, because they aren’t able to make food for themselves at their own convenience. They do have common room kitchens, but it doesn’t of-fer much compatibility since there isn’t a lot of space to store food in a refrigerator or freezer.

Rachel states that having her own kitchen, washer, and dryer makes all the difference in the world. She exclaims, “I make my own food in my kitchen and I absolutely love that! I also love being out of the dorms because I used to have to walk my laundry down to the first floor, but now it’s all right there in my apartment.”” Rachel stat-ed that she feels she is saving a decent amount of money by making her own food, too.“The meal plan here is VERY expensive,” and it doesn’t of-fer many different options if you don’t like what’s on the menu for the night.

If the main concern regarding where you live is the distance to and from classes, then you should stick with the dorms. Parking can be tight at The Gardens and in the University’s lot; therefore, many students prefer to walk to class. Students claim that living in an apartment lengthens the walking commute by an extra 10 minutes, which is the biggest negative compo-nent for them.

Apartment life is also the more expensive out of the two. To live in Stevenson Lane Residence Hall, the better of the two dormitory options, according to most students, it costs $3,990.00 per semester. To live in The Gardens, it costs $4,148.00 per student per semester, which isn’t too much more; however, with the dorms, your utilities are all included along with unlimited cable and internet access.

The Gardens is the only dorm or apartment at Holy Family University that doesn’t have a door man; therefore, if security is a big component for you, The Gardens wouldn’t be your best option.

Regardless of what you may be looking for, Holy Family offers many accommodations to suite your needs. Whether you would rather live in a dormitory, where there is constant secu-rity, two cafeteria’s and all of your class rooms minutes away, or live more independently in an apartment, Holy Family provides a comfort-able living environment for your first real-world experience.

The choice is yours!

Source: Holy Family Website

Page 5 The Tri-Lite

Student Spotlight!By Mary Jane McBride

Hey there! My name is MJ (Yes like Spi-derman!) and I am currently a senior at Holy Family, attending for my dual major in General Education Pre-K through 4th grade and Spe-cial Education, Pre-K through 8th grade. Contrary to popular belief, as an early childhood education major, we are not just coloring, cutting and pasting… although we do enjoy a good Disney sing-a-long every now and then (but who doesn’t). Like everyone else, we are presented with our fair share of stress. Our checklist includes, 3 pre-academic performance assessments (PAPA), as well as 5 additional test modules for our certification areas, countless hours of personal time spent observing other classrooms, two practicum (or pre-student teaching) placements, a full year student teaching placement, and a seemingly end-less supply of classes including topics such as: teaching procedures, classroom instruc-tion, laws and regulations, planning, ethics, preparation, classroom design, and many, many more. However, with all the stress presented, there comes a time to celebrate. The very first time you set foot in a class-room, with an actual teaching role, your world gets turned upside down. The stress of everything you encountered up to this point is all worth it. Suddenly you have this little com-munity of children who mean everything to you. You’re a guest in their classroom during your placement, but in most cases it starts to feel

like home. In your multiple placements you fi-nally get to put all the information you absorbed during your education into action. My second practicum placement co-op had me running

her primary instruction by the second week! The countless drawings and “love letters” from my students only made my journey so much sweeter. Just for kicks I decided to make my way to Dictionary.com and enter in the word “teacher.”

This is the definition that I was given: “noun. A person who teaches or instructs, especially as a profession; instructor.” Immediately this caused me to reflect on my own experiences. Is a

teacher really just a teacher? My answer for you: Absolutely not. I was not just a teacher when one of my students took a spill down a small flight of stairs; I was a nurse. I was not just a teacher when one of my art students splashed green t-shirt dye up onto their face, resembling a miniature Hulk; I was a caregiver, washing away the mess and the tears. I certainly was not just a teacher the time one of my students “made a run for it” during recess, I… was out of breath! Teachers are not just teachers. Their job is to be any given person at any given time; educator, janitor, food service per-son, interior decorator, coach, therapist, librarian, nurse, caregiver, comedian, and even a runner in my own case.If you’re struggling to get by, no matter what your major is, I urge you to push through. There was some days where I felt totally defeated. However, I used my stumbling blocks as stepping stones and

now I’m just a few months away from having my bachelor’s degree. My time to celebrate is almost here and yours will be too...

Believe you can and you’re halfway there!

Ways to be a College CheapskateBy Rachel McAnany

Ah, your student ID. That little rectangular piece of plastic. You’ve got your student bucks on it. You swipe it to get your meals and to get into buildings on campus. It has your picture from freshman year on it, when you were bright eyed and bushy tailed, young and naive about the struggles that awaited you. That insignificant piece of plastic identifies you as a member of your college or university. It identifies you as a young college student who, if you’re anything like me, is poor.

College is hard. We all know it. Most likely, you have more classes than you can handle. You’re probably involved with at least one club on campus. Many of you might play sports. With all this going on, it’s hard to find time to work, let alone have a job at all. This is where that little piece of plastic comes in handy. I’m always looking for deals and sales. I try to save money wherever I can. Being a passionate shop-per, I was already aware that my student ID got me 10% off at Charlotte Russe. And this got me thinking: are there any other perks that my student ID can get me? I did a little snooping and found a bunch of places that give special discounts with a student ID and I’ve compiled a little list here.

Just flash your student ID and all these deals will be yours. You can

thank me later.

Food1. Arby’s- 10% discount2. Buffalo Wild Wings- 10% discount3. Burger King- 10% discount4. Chik-fil-a: free small drink with pur-chase of a meal5. Chipotle- free small drink with your meal6. Subway- 10% discount

Clothes1. Banana Republic- 15% off purchase2. Juicy Couture- 15% off purchase3. Kenneth Cole- 20% off purchase4. Charlotte Russe- 10% off purchase

Entertainment1. AMC Theaters- students get a lower ticket price on Thursdays2. Many professional sports teams offer cheaper tickets with a student ID; as a fan of the Philadelphia Flyers, I know they offer tickets as cheap as $20 to students. Check with your local team. 3.Broadway Musicals- most musicals offer Student Rush Tickets; arrive at the show’s box office the day you want to see the show, present your student ID, and you could get tickets as cheap as $20 or

$30 (tickets are subject to availability)

Technology and Electronics1. Apple Stores- up to $200 off a Mac2. Sprint- 10% off your monthly bill3. RadioShack- 10% off4. Sony- 10% off

These are just some stores that offer discounts for students; I’m sure there are even more that do but don’t broadcast it. Don’t be afraid to ask a store or event if they offer student discounts. The worst they can say is no. And if they say yes, well then you’ve gotten a great deal that you weren’t even expecting! So, bottom line: carry that little piece of plastic everywhere.

Page 6 The Tri-Lite

Welcome to the HumanitiesBy Jazmine Babuch

“The arts and humanities are vastly more important in troubled times.”- Jim LeachAt Holy Family, there a multitude of clubs and organizations that one can join. Some include Student Government Association (SGA), Habi-tat for Humanity, Folio, Campus Ministry, and intramural sports. The list of clubs to sign up for are endless. But one club that is fairly new to Holy Family and just started last semester is the Humanities Society.

The Humanities Society is a club that focuses on english, history, arts, and other related topics. The club is not limited to those in humanities related majors, any major is more than welcome to join. The club has planned to take various trips around Philadelphia like the Poe House and Mütter Museum. A trip to see an upcoming show is also in the making.

The club is planning different events on cam-pus. Events include Poe Night (a night dedicated to Edgar Allen Poe and his writings and will take place around Halloween), Dickens Christ-mas Village, British Invasion Week (a week

dedicated to everything British and some of the many exciting events include British Comedy Night, Trivia Night, a day dedicated to Dr. Who, a chance to try your skills at Quidditch, Brit-ish delicacies such as tea), and much more! All events are open to the entire campus commu-nity.

The Humanities Society has volunteer work planned. An upcoming volunteer event that the club plans to do is volunteer for the screening of “Girl Rising” on Saturday, October 4 at the Northeast campus in the ETC auditorium. The club will be there escorting people to their seats and making sure that the event runs smoothly. The group will also be volunteering their time at the Walnut Street Theater. They will be ushering viewers to their seats while being able to watch the show for free. This occasion is planned for either October or November.

The club is more than just a club that meets every week and discusses future events. Co-president Stephanie Mendes puts it best when she says, “The humanities society may be a club

that focuses on arts, English, and history but it is more than that. It is a club where everyone of all majors are welcome and are able to meet and make friends, enjoy the local area of Philadel-phia, and become more involved with Pennsyl-vania’s society and culture. Being a part of the club has brought joy to my life and has given me another reason to enjoy the college life at Holy family. The humanities society is not just an-other club, it is a second family.”

Interested in being a part of the Humanities Society and what is has to offer? You can contact either Stephanie Mendes (smendes@holyfamily.edu) or Margaret DeFelice (mdefelice@holyfam-ily.edu) or simply stop by ETC 411 on Monday’s during the common hour. Come out and join the Humanities Society for a good time. Hope to see you there!

“The calling of the humanities is to make us truly human in the best sense of the word.”- J. Irwin Miller

Can’t decide on a minor? Social Media is the best new option!By Rachel Everman

Social Media has taken the world by storm; therefore, it only makes sense that careers are beginning to form in this field. Holy Family University has added a social media minor that pairs well with majors in communications, busi-ness, management-marketing, and psychology.

The classes a student must take for this minor include; Social Media, Branding, Digital Mar-keting, and Principles of Marketing. Students must also choose two classes from a long list of options that vary from Journalism 1 to Digital Media. For communications majors, this is a very simple minor to incorporate into their edu-cation, because many of the classes are already required for them to take.

Dr. Amanda McClain, head of the commu-nications department at Holy Family, explained the inspiration behind the new minor, “Dr. Xu and I were discussing emerging media trends and how we could incorporate them into classes; we decided social media was important enough to warrant its own program.” She continues,

“This is an innovative, fresh program -- not many other schools have this program, yet. I think there’s a definite need for it, as social media is so pervasive and a sought after skill by employers.”

Many companies have recently added posi-tions for social media coordinators, who run all their social media sites. Some of their duties may include; writing blogs and promotional posts, analyzing which advertising strategies work best for their company, and deciphering what time of the day to post content to ensure it reachers the most users.

Rachel Johnson, a Junior and Public Relations major at Holy Family, recently declared a minor in social media. She spoke to me about the ben-efits of this minor, “I think it will help me land a job in my field because social media is such a big part of PR today, and so the more background knowledge I have on social media, the more qualified I’ll be!”

Combining the users of Facebook and Twit-ter, the top two social networking sites, there are over 1 billion “active monthly users.” This shows just how many people you can reach through a post, if you know the correct way to do so. Yesterday, guest speakers spoke to the Desktop Publishing class about their most effective ways to promote their company. All four of the speak-ers agreed that social media is the best and most influential way to reach an audience. Imagine how much more success they would have if they could reach even half of those users!

Social Media is a growing field and businesses are realizing that there is a need for a social media coordinator. Having some type of educa-tion in this field, along with being young and full of fresh ideas, can make all the difference in world when a company is deciding between you and another applicant. It may be an entry level position and not your long-term goal, but hey, it’s a start!

Movie Review: The EqualizerBy Joseph Valerino

You cannot talk or text your friends during The Equalizer: You will find that your eyes are glued to the screen every minute of this motion picture. That is exactly what happens when you watch this phenomenal film. The witty and clever jokes in the dialogue, as well as produc-ing the suspenseful, creative action sequences is what makes this movie stand out remarkably. If somebody told me what Denzel Washington was going to do next, I would buy that person dinner. The audience was on the edge of their seat waiting to see what kind of crazy move Denzel Washington was going to pull. These are not just any typical combat moves that you see in an action movie. The thrill that the audi-ence got from watching Denzel Washington take out five men in thirty seconds was price-less. The credit cannot all go to Antoine Fuqua for directing such mesmerizing action scenes. The actors and actresses in this movie delivered

A+ performances. The legendary Denzel Wash-ington gives a memorable performance and a character that is too hard to forget. Seeing Den-zel’s warm hearted nature, as well as becoming

an expert fighter and spy when he needed to was just absolutely fun to watch. The acting not only made this movie amazing to watch but it also showed how their characters can become differ-

ent people in a day. For example, Denzel Wash-ington’s character is college-educated, works at a home improvement store, and helps out any town folk when he has a chance, but he can turn

the switch from your average Joe to a knight in shining armor who unleashes incredible fighting skills and gun play in order to protect his loved ones. To cover all the ground on this review, I have to ask myself “What is the Equalizer?” The Equalizer is not just a movie. It is a film. A film is what entertains an audi-ence and calls for acknowledgement. The key word here is “entertains.” The equalizer did exactly that. It entertained the audience. I give The Equalizer four out of five stars.

Page 7 The Tri-Lite

What can we do for fun that won’t empty our wallets?By Katelynn McGovern

The price of attending college is sky high. When it comes time for students to relax and let loose, they need to be mindful of their spend-ing cash. Going to a movie today is out of the question for a money conscience student. The price of an adult movie ticket is around $11; add in popcorn and a drink and you are easily up to $25 for one person. So a movie date would be roughly $50. That is a large amount of cash to drop for three hours of entertainment. The question for students quickly becomes “What can we do for fun that won’t empty our wallets?”

The answer is right under their noses. In this huge, prosperous city of Philadelphia, there is a plethora of cheap, or in many cases even free, entertainment. Philadelphia is consistently host-ing free concerts and shows. It is always a good idea to browse the newspaper or check online for local listings of free entertainment. Many of the city landmarks are free to visit. Taking a tour of the city could cost less than the bus fare downtown! It is free to visit Independence Hall,

The Liberty Bell, The Edgar Allen Poe House, and Franklin Square. If you take the day to do visit all of these locations, you have had a fun, educational day without dabbling into your pockets.

There is also entertainment that may not be free, but is very low cost. The Philadelphia Art Museum offers a donation entrance fee on the first Sunday of every month. This means that you give what you can for admission instead of paying full price. If you have a dollar, you can look at beautiful, cultured art. Another cheap night out could be to the casino; but not to gam-ble. Many local casinos offer concert series for a cheap admission. Parx Casino hosts live bands every weekend with a five-dollar entrance free. Sugarhouse Casino also hosts live entertainment on a low budget cost.

If you really want to get a feel for a strong Philadelphian tradition on a budget, you could go visit the Mummer’s Museum. Admission is a very low cost of $3.50 for an adult. Take a walk

on the wild side at the Philadelphia Zoo! It is only $20 (in season) or $16 (in the winter) for an adult admission into the Zoo. Philadelphia is also the home of the Eastern State Penitentiary. And adult price is $14 but as a student admission would only cost $10. This is for a tour of the penitentiary in a historical sense. Many believe the old prison is haunted and the Penitentiary caters to that audience dur-ing the Halloween season by hosting a ‘haunted house’ for a higher admission price.

This city offers an abundance of free or cheap local entertainment. College students can chose from a list of options to keep their days off fun and enjoyable while still maintaining money for pizza and Roman Noodles.

Being a student is expensive; so cutting costs can become vitally important to struggling

college student.

Bring on the Clubs!By Vimal Koruth

It’s a Wednesday afternoon and all of your classes are done for the day which leaves you with a whole lot of down time. Taking a nap, catching up on homework, reading books, or watching television are all viable ways to spend your free time. These activities however, are not very stimulating and then it dawns on you that there is an element missing on Holy Fam-ily’s campus. You know that it is there, but it is not make itself known enough to everyone on campus and the question becomes, where are the clubs at? Holy Family offers a multitude of clubs for students to join and participate in a variety of roles which help students develop new skills as well as developing new relationships with other members of the clubs. According to the Holy Family website there are many clubs to get involved in on campus in addition to the intramural sports clubs and the honor societies. The student population has a variety of different clubs and organizations to choose from to be a member of and all of the clubs reflect the Holy Family core mission values which are family, respect, integrity, service and responsibility, learning, and of course vision.

There are a number of different clubs to join on Holy Family’s campus which include the Business Society, Campus Ministry, Drama Club, Humanities Society, Students At Your Service (S.A.Y.S.), Student Government As-sociation, the Tri-Lite, etc. Each club is unique in terms of what their goal to reach is and what they want the students who join the clubs to get a significant experience out of it to help them along later on in their lives. It is an experience that is worth a shot and if one does not like it, the club would never force a person to stay. It is honestly up to the student whether or not the club fits their criteria and whether or not they will get something out of being there. Steve Smith, a recent graduate of Holy Fam-ily, was a part of the Business Society for three years and loved every second of it. “There were so many activities that the Busi-ness Society would go out and participate in. I was fortunate enough to go along with the group to see different sport facilities and stadi-ums such as Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Park, and going multiple times to the Wells Fargo Center. It was all an awesome expe-rience,” says Steve.

Mark Bennett, a junior currently at Holy Family, commented about how great the Habitat for Humanity mission trip was. “Habitat for Humanity did so many different activities that benefitted communities, that it totally had me at a loss for words. The fundrais-ing and the house building made for a great time and showed me a couple of new skills for example I now know how to lead a small team to accomplish some tasks and I also learned how to use a power saw along with a nail gun,” says Mark. The clubs at Holy Family teach students vari-ous lessons and allows them to come out of their comfort zone and try something new. Students should look into joining these clubs because you never know what type of experiences wait and for the most part they end up becoming positive experiences. It’s time to get out there on Holy Family’s campus and join a club for your benefit. Make the most of the time that you have because there will not be much of it later. Wake up from that nap, get off that phone turn off that television, and bring on the clubs!

By: Katelynn McGovernThe holiday season is the beautiful time of

year when customers will gladly push, trample, and punch to get the last hot toy or big screen TV that is marked down to a shockingly now affordable price. The holidays, Thanksgiving in particular, have become less about family and more about shopping. This has caused a huge ridge amongst Americans. Some are pledging to avoid the massive sales and gimmicks of the Black Friday shopping explosion to spend the quality time with their families and loved ones.

For the past few years, main Black Friday stores such as Target, Walmart, and Kmart have begun their mark downs on thanksgiving night, changing the way the holiday is celebrated by families. Instead of passing mom the pumpkin pie, you are passing her a purse and car keys. Rather than helping dad carve the turkey, you

are helping him slice out coupons. The dynam-ic of the holiday has changed so drastically that people are using a day to be thankful as a day to bully their way to a good deal. This raises the question: Is it worth it?

Most American families are busy ones. Par-ents work, kids go to school, extra-curricular activities take over weekends. When does a family get to sit down, all together, and relax over a good meal and conversation? Thanks-giving is supposed to do just that. Yet, now not only are people leaving their families to go shopping; but some are being pulled away to work. All the stores that open up early need a staff to operate them. Is it fair to those employ-ees and their families to have to sacrifice their day together for a sale?

This has become a hot topic on social media. A pledge is circulating face book asking people to stay at home this year and resist the temp-tation of Black Friday. People are responding to this. Shoppers are promising to ignore the luring price tags in place of the turkey.

In this economy the need for a sale is un-derstandable. Penny pinching is a common practice in any given household. Still, family is something you cannot put a price on. Spend-ing quality time with the ones you love is not something you can find in the clearance bin. It is a gift given only a handful of times a year and these times are dwindling at a quickening pace. Sacrificing this special holiday to bargain shop is a waste of time. Saving a few dollars is not worth losing the memories.

The True Purpose of Thanksgiving

students were given unlimited access to laptops and others were asked to shut them. The student who were forced to shut them performed better on a post-class quiz. Princeton University and the University of California did more thorough investigations. Their investigations revealed that while the typists generally had a lot more words down, the note takers who used pencil tended to remember more and therefore performed better.

Despite the many arguments against com-puters in classrooms, there are some instruc-tors who believe them to be beneficial. While writing down notes tends to be more helpful to memorize things, people can generally type a lot more than they can write, so if the notes are typed in class and used properly outside class, they can be quite beneficial to students. There are also many classes on college campuses that are taught in computer labs. These classes range from Writing courses where the use of word processors are important, to Statistics courses that require the use of math programs.

Former Writing professor Janice Showler used to teach classes in the computer lab, but was constantly worried that students would spend more time searching the web as opposed

to doing assigned work. Showler taught for several years at Holy Family University, and several of her classes met in a computer lab. Showler was always concerned about the level of effort her students put in during class, and her concerns were often warranted, as a look around the classroom would often show students doing everything but the tasks assigned.

“I use my computer to look at the teachers powerpoints in class,” said Holy Family student David Pirolli. When Pirolli was asked if the laptop distracted him, he replied, “It depends on the class.” Despite the occasional distraction, Pirolli argued that his laptop was beneficial to his overall learning experience.“I think they should be allowed,” said Holy Family student Julie Porter. “You can go green, it’s easy to save everything, more accessible, you can look something up. It could be distracting, but anything could be a distraction.” “M.I.T considers themselves an internet univer-sity,” pointed out Francis Bitting.

There is a big divide between people who think computers should be allowed in class and people who don’t. It seems that a majority of students think they should be allowed, while many professors are divided on the subject. There are many pieces of evidence that suggest that computers are distracting, including many studies. However, there is also evidence that, if used properly, computers can be great tools of learning. The debate over the usefulness of computers in the classroom may never end, so its safe to assume university professors will con-tinue to be wary of their use.

Do computers really contribute as much to education as we think they do? Many people say yes, but many say no, and there is research that may support them. The debate includes profes-sors who want to ban computers, allow them, and some who are trying to find some middle ground. There are also many students who use computers regularly in class and would be upset if they are taken away. Many studies have investigated the claims made by individuals on computer use.

According to a Canadian study, students who bring laptops to class see significant drops in their grades. For the study, students were told to take notes and complete tasks. Some students were given laptops, while the others were given pencils. Not only did the laptop users perform much worse overall, but students who used pencils but sat near laptop users also suffered worse grades. This was attributed to the distrac-tions caused by the laptops. Students who used the laptops were distracted by the option to use other sites, while students who sat near them would often peek over to look at the laptop.

“We really didn’t think the effects would be this huge,” said researcher Faria Sana, who co-authored the study. “It can change your grade from a B+ to a B-.”

Some instructors question the value of computers to the learning experience overall. They argue that the machines are not yet so-phisticated enough to help much in math and science related classes, but too distracting to be seen as useful to take notes. This was sup-ported in a Cornell study in 2003, where some

Should Computers be Allowed in Classrooms?By Vinny Lewis

Page 8 The Tri-Lite

Faculty AdvisorDr. Amanda McClain

The Tri-LiTeEditor-in-ChiefRichard Haldis ‘16

Gabrielle Fabioneri ‘15

Assistant EditorsKevin Branigan ‘15

Layout EditorKayla Cummons ‘15

Staff Writers

Francis BittingVimal KoruthVinny Lewis

Adam Lee PriceKatelynn McGovern

Joseph ValerinoRachel EvermanJazmine Babuch

Mary Jane McBride

Do you have

creative ideas?

Want a place to display your

work or get your message out to

the campus community?

Then join our team and write for the Tri-Lite!

There are no require-ments and absolutely no experience neces-

sary!Please contact Gabri-

elle Fabioneri or Rich-ard Haldis at hfutri-

lite@gmail.com

CALLING ALL HOLY FAMILY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS!