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1. A Crowning Achievement: Melissa Meyer Named Winter Carnival Queen |
by Kara Sokol, integrated marketing specialist/editor
When gowns sparkle, piano keys tickle, and extraterrestrials take over the Keweenaw for a nibble of pasty, it can mean only one thing--the 2009 Winter Carnival Queen Coronation has commenced.
The eight women vying for this year's title were seemingly as different as they come—one a soft-spoken electrical engineering major with a gift for playing the piano, another a marketing student with a penchant for cooking.
But different as they may have been, one similarity was clear: the desire to represent Michigan Tech in a friendly, positive light. Battling nerves and sky-high heels, the women smiled, joked and laughed their way through question-and-answer sessions, evening wear displays, and talent performances.
"They were great," said contestant Melissa Meyer of her fellow competitors. "We all laughed so much."
Meyer's enthusiasm for her fellow queen candidates was not lost on the judges--the evening's coronation ended with her being crowned this year's Winter Carnival Queen.
"It's more than just a contest," Meyer said. "The winner is an ambassador for Winter Carnival and for the University. I'm very excited."
Meyer won the judges over with her poise, casual sense of humor during the question-and-answer session, and stylized "acrojazz" dance performance.
First runner-up Samantha Hendricks impressed with a stunning vocal rendition of "Bella Luna" performed on a smoky stage. Audience members voted her "Audience Favorite."
Second runner-up Laurilee Kroll brought a unusual talent to the mix—-cooking. During her presentation, "Three-Minute Meals with Laurilee Kroll," she prepared a pasta dinner—-dessert moon pies included-—in under three minutes.
"Rachael Ray can't do it that fast," Kroll laughed at the start of her presentation.
Kaitlyn Reed was another of the evening's big winners, taking home the title of Miss Congeniality for her "friendly attitude and willingness to help others."
"They were all so great to work with," Reed said of her competitors.
While the women were also judged on evening wear and question-and-answer responses, the talent portion was easily the audience's favorite portion of the event. Competitor Aimee Beauchamp performed a hilarious futuristic musical dance routine, while Jessica Mariano and Marcella Campione cracked people up with humorous monologues about alien invasions. Reed and Andrea Taglione performed piano renditions of two sweeping melodies: "Life on Mars" and "Across the Stars." |
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2. Warm Weather, Cold Fishing |
by Dennis Walikainen, senior editor
The Winter Carnival Ice Fishing Tournament was held Saturday on Chassell Bay under warm conditions (28 degrees), and that’s what we are blaming our lack of success on.
As they say, the fishing was great, but the catching was not, at least for our team. Tom Suchenek of Chassell was my host, and after a quick snowmobile ride out about a mile from shore, we joined a shanty-town of anglers, none of whom seemed to be having any luck.
The fish had been finicky as of late, and the buzz was that no amount of "Swedish pimple" or "Weasel" lures with minnow attached would give rise to the northern pike or walleye that we sought.
Other anglers had other stories to tell.
Kenny Barnt of the second-place DaWgs (Pep Band) team used minnows and had "four or five tip-up lines going, starting at about 9 a.m.," he said. "It was the first time we caught anything in quite awhile." (Tip-ups are lines rigged to fish without handling and have a flag that tips up when one is caught.)
The DaWGs fish, a 27-inch, 4-5/8-pound northern pike was caught around 10:30. The team, "all tubas and bass-line players who just go out to have fun," had a tough time finding their spot, and once they had the fish weighed, they put it back in the water, and it got off the stringer.
"So, our winning fish was also the one that got away," laughed Barnt, a fourth-year computer network and system administration major.
And even those who didn't catch any had a story or two. Tiffany Wilson of Alpha Gamma Delta was part of a three-woman team that fished from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. They dragged their shanty out by hand and were thankful for the warmth and storage it provided. And, they did have a near catch.
"Someone had driven over an old tip-up," she said. "They asked if it was ours, and we said 'no,' and when we tried to fix it, we had a fish on it! But, just as we got it up to the top, it fell off."
Wilson, a fifth-year biomed major, blamed their lack of luck on the wax worms they used instead of fresh bait.
Finally, Ben Brusch, a biological sciences senior who is heading to medical school at Wisconsin in May, said they had a "secret rig" with minnows that worked for the Sigma Phi Epsilon winning team.
"We headed out at 6:30 a.m. and drilled about 20 holes," he said. "We were ready to go at 8 a.m. If one hole didn't work, we just moved our tip-up to another."
Seven Sig Eps took turns during the day, and they tried many different depths. They landed three northern pike. Brusch also said it was "slow overall. Maybe it was the changing weather." Intense winds buffeted the Keweenaw all that night.
The fraternity boys had plenty of food, Frisbees and snowmobile jumps to keep them occupied. Brusch hopes to pass on the winning tradition (it was the Sig Eps second straight win) to younger brothers before he moves on to Madison and fishes Lake Mendota.
Back in the Shack
Meanwhile, back in shantytown, we had some unique tools to use. A fish-finder would give a color-bar hint when the fish were rising off the bottom, about 16 feet down, including the two-foot-thick ice on top. A small propane gas heater kept us warm enough to shed our coats, and a two-way radio kept us in touch with the other shacks in our group.
The fishing spot was not chosen by chance. The area had been mapped with depth finders to discover rises off the bottom, where pike prefer to catch minnows. And GPS would help locate the same spot every year.
Although our day and evening was clear, there were tales of sudden blow-ups that had fishermen headed in the wrong direction, toward Torch Lake, in the middle of a whiteout. Suchenek kept the snowmobile pointed toward Chassell to make sure that didn't happen.
The tranquility of sitting in the 50-degree shack amid quiet conversation was occasionally broken by the muffled buzz of snowmobiles going back and forth to their shacks.
After bobbing our lure/minnow combos for a couple of hours, Suchenek did get a nice walleye up to the top, only to have it flop off the lure by banging off the bottom of the ice.
The experience, my first, reminded me of the silence of a deer blind, where I had spent many quiet hours only to come home empty-handed.
The difference, of course, was sitting on "hard water," walking on slush, and the outside temperature permeating my toes.
And I didn't go home empty handed. Suchenek had some nice walleye fillets, caught earlier this winter from the same shack, for me to take home and share with my family.
In ice fishing, it seems, you have to know how to choose your days and your partners.
The first-place winners and categories:
Student Organization Division
Concrete Canoe
Community Division
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Women’s Groups Division--no one caught a fish
Fraternity Division
Sigma Phi Epsilon
Residence Halls
Mama's Boys
The largest fish was a 14-1/2-pound northern pike caught by Jason Kneibel.
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3. Call for Student Proposals: DeVlieg Foundation Research Awards |
The DeVlieg Foundation is accepting both undergraduate- and graduate-student proposals for the DeVlieg Research Awards in Wildlife and Environmental Studies. These proposals should be related to wildlife or environmental research that will be conducted either in summer 2009 or during the 2009-10 academic year (beginning in the fall semester). These grants, ranging from $1,500 to $5,000, are administered by Michigan Tech.
Proposals--no more than two pages in length--should describe the scope of work and include a general budget. Students must be American citizens to qualify.
Proposals and transmittal forms with signatures should be submitted electronically for processing no later than Feb. 16 to Priscilla Khoury at pjkhoury@mtu.edu . Questions should be directed to Khoury by email or at 487-1608.
Please inform your students of this opportunity. |
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4. Student Affairs Winter Carnival Newsletter Now Online |
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The Winter Carnival 2009 issue of the Student Affairs newsletter, Instant Messages--Notes and News from Student Affairs, is available online at www.sa.mtu.edu/vp/newsletter.html . |
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5. Michigan Tech Sports in Brief |
What's Happening This Week
Wednesday, Feb. 4
Huskies Drive Time, 7:30-8 a.m. on Mix 93.5 FM Radio
Thursday, Feb. 5
No. 10 Women's Basketball at Tiffin, 6 p.m. (Live Radio, Mix 93.5 FM)
Men's Basketball at Tiffin, 8 p.m. (Live Radio, Mix 93.5 FM)
Friday, Feb. 6
Blue Line Club Luncheon, noon (Grant Hockey Ed Center)
Hockey hosts #17 Colorado College, 7:07 p.m. (Live Radio, Mix 93.5 FM)
Saturday, Feb. 7
No. 10 Women's Basketball at Ashland, 1 p.m. (Live Radio, Mix 93.5 FM)
Men's Basketball at Ashland, 3 p.m. (Live Radio, Mix 93.5 FM)
Men's Tennis at St. Scholastica, 5 p.m.
Hockey hosts #17 Colorado College, 5:07 p.m. (Live Radio, Mix 93.5 FM)
All times Eastern
News of the Week
WOMEN WIN NINTH STRAIGHT; COULD ASSUME NO. 1 SPOT IN MIDWEST REGION
The Michigan Tech women's basketball team will shoot for its 15th straight win when it travels to Ohio for a pair of GLIAC games this week against Tiffin and Ashland. Tech posted wins over No. 20 Grand Valley State (74-63) and Ferris State (80-70) this past week. Tech entered the week ranked No. 2 in the Midwest Region but could take over the top spot after No. 1 Northern Kentucky went 1-1 on the weekend.
HOCKEY GEARS UP FOR WINTER CARNIVAL
After enjoying a weekend off, the Michigan Tech hockey team will host Colorado College for Winter Carnival. The Huskies look to avenge a pair of losses earlier in the season to the Tigers in Colorado Springs. Sophomore Jordan Baker and freshman Brett Olson are currently tied for the team lead with 17 points. Tech is 3-4-4 in its last 11 games.
NORDIC PLACES THIRD AT SUPER TOUR
Junior Liz Quinley was the top finisher for the Huskies after finishing third in the five-kilometer classic in 17:57.6 at the Central Super Tour over the weekend (Jan. 31-Feb. 1). Junior Jenna Klein was the most consistent skier, finishing sixth in the five-kilometer classic (18:19.7) and seventh in the 10-kilometer freestyle. Junior Oskar Lund enjoyed a solid weekend for the men, finishing sixth in the 10-kilometer classic (31:39.5) and seventh in the 15-kilometer freestyle (34:26.1).
Last Week's Results
Hockey (5-18-5, 1-14-5 WCHA)
Did not compete
Women's Basketball (17-2, 14-0 GLIAC)
Jan. 29--at No. 10 Michigan Tech 74, No. 20 Grand Valley State 63
Jan. 31--at No. 10 Michigan Tech 80, Ferris State 70
Men's Basketball (9-10, 6-8 GLIAC)
Jan. 29--Grand Valley State 79, at Michigan Tech 77
Jan. 31--Ferris State 86, at Michigan Tech 80
Nordic Skiing
Jan. 31-Feb. 1--Michigan Tech 3rd of 11 teams at Central Super Tour (at Telemark, Wis.) |
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6. Learn How to Go Green at Home and Elsewhere: Presentation Wednesday |
The Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative is hosting a Dinner and Dialogue from 6 to 8:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 4, in the atrium of the U. J. Noblet Forestry Building. The topic is "Going Green at Home, School, Office and Community--What Can We Do?"
The program is free and open to the community. It is coordinated by the Western UP Center for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education.
The following panelists will describe how they implement green practices:
* School--Brad Wickstrom, Horizons High School
* Home--Mike Abbott, Michigan Tech
* Office--Dr. Jill Kalcich, private medical practice
* Community--Susan Burack, Keweenaw Sustainability Project
Please register in advance with Loret Roberts at 482-0331 or loret@copperisd.org if you'd like to attend. Dinner starts at 6 p.m., with the panel presentations at 6:45 p.m. followed by general discussion at 7:45 p.m.
For more information, contact Joan Chadde at 487-3341 or jchadde@mtu.edu . |
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7. Tech-Talks Careers: "Networking and Entrepreneurship with Faculty and Staff Partners" Feb. 11 |
by Assistant Provost Donna Michalek
The popular Tech-Talks series is expanding yet again this semester with the launch of Tech-Talks Careers. The first Tech-Talks Careers session will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 4-5 p.m. in Memorial Union Ballroom A1. There will be a cash bar with the first pop, wine or beer on the house, and munchies will also be provided.
As part of the University's effort to address dual career challenges, this Tech-Talks Careers session invites faculty and staff partners to share their professional interests with potential Michigan Tech and local community partners. The goal is to assist in connecting faculty and staff partners with individuals, groups or employers who have similar research or business interests and to encourage entrepreneurial collaborations. Representatives from Human Resources, the academic departments and the University's external Dual Career Committee (SmartZone, Keweenaw Economic Development Association, local hospitals and the Copper Country Intermediate School District) are invited to be part of the audience.
Interested in participating? Please prepare a two-page presentation describing your areas of expertise and the type of professional opportunities you are seeking. A sample template can be obtained by emailing donna@mtu.edu . Please send slides to Assistant Provost Donna J. Michalek, donna@mtu.edu, by Tuesday, Feb. 10.
If you have questions, contact Chris S. Anderson at 487-2474 or csanders@mtu.edu . All faculty and staff members who want to learn more about this readily available source of intellectual capacity in our community should attend.
The Tech-Talks series is sponsored by the Provost's Office and the Office for Institutional Diversity. |
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8. In the News |
Research by Professor Iosif Pinelis (Mathematical Sciences), on probability and the origin of species, and Professor W. Charles Kerfoot (Biological Sciences), on resurrection ecology, was picked up by a number of science-related websites last week. So was work by Associate Professor John Gierke and his former master's student Jill Bruning, on using satellite remote-sensing data to search for groundwater in Nicaragua.
And, the Weather Channel highlighted Michigan Tech's Winter Carnival doings as part of a lead-in to a forecast on the latest snowstorm.
Read about it here.
Professor Donna Michalek (MEEM), assistant provost, was profiled in "ASME Federal Fellows: Engineering the Greater Good," a publication of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. She recalls her internship in the office of Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), where she served in 2002 as an ASME Federal Fellow. |
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