Christina Bauert, Jack Kirk
Features Reporter

photos by Christina Bauert & Malissa Smithey

STUDENT AMBASSADORS FOUND FAMILY AT CMU

Unlike most of their peers, Tess Matsukawa and Tad Schrader will graduate from CMU Saturday, May 17, without the burden of college debt.

For the past four years, the two have served as student ambassadors in CMU’s Ambassador Program, a commitment that has completely covered Matsukawa and Schrader’s tuition and fees. They were recruited in the program as incoming freshmen while still in high school.

“The amazing experience I got from this program I will carry for the rest of my life,” Matsukawa, a native of Southern California, said. “I made so many friends in this program because we are all in this for four years. We became a family.”

As ambassadors, it was their duty to give tours across campus to prospective students and their parents. In addition, they have worked in the Admissions Office to help with recruitment and outreach. One of the everyday tasks in the office was making initial calls to future students. Besides giving tours and working in the office, student ambassadors also mentor fellow students.

“We have definitely grown into mentorship roles,” Matsukawa said.

Although student ambassadors have the same obligations for the most part, many take on special tasks within different committees.

Matsukawa, a mass communication major with a minor in business, has served as chairwoman for CMU’s Programming Activities Council (PAC). She also recently traveled to New Mexico where she and other ambassadors helped provide dental care to people who cannot afford it, creating flippers (or filler teeth) for people with missing teeth. Matsukawa commented that it was absolutely amazing to see people smile for the first time.

“As ambassadors, we stay connected with the community, doing a lot of community events, like Adopt Our Family,” Schrader said.

Despite the obvious perks, Schrader, a president ambassador and an exercise science major, says being an ambassador is a serious commitment, one requiring time and energy.

“The freshman year is the most time-consuming, but after that it gets easier,” he said. “We have formed strong bonds with professors and faculty because we are the bridge between them and the students.”

After graduation, Matsukawa will be moving to downtown Seattle to attend Seattle University in pursuit of a master’s in Student Development Administration.

Meanwhile, Schrader plans on running a painting business with his brother over the summer. His future plans include pursuing a degree as a physician’s assistant. However, he has not yet decided what college or university he will apply to.

To both, being an ambassador has meant learning important communication skills and interacting with people from different backgrounds.

To become a student ambassador, incoming freshmen need to apply in their senior year in high school. They must have a minimum GPA of 3.3 and include two letters of recommendation and an essay. After each year of service, an ambassador goes for a review, and it is decided whether he or she is wanted for next year. For more information, prospective ambassadors can contact Paige Cadman, an advisor for the program.

cbauert@mavs.coloradomesa.edu

 

THEATRE MAJORS TAKE THE FINAL BOW

Clinging to a ladder in the Mesa Experimental Theatre on Saturday, Hazel Gibson exclaimed, “Trousers, ladies, are the future!”

Gibson, a senior acting/directing/design tech major spent Saturday morning on an expedition to discover a strange land never before seen by civilization, especially men. The performance was just a small section of the larger play “On the Verge; or, the Geography of Learning” and was part of Gibson’s senior capstone performance for the Theatre Department.

“I have lines here, a character. I’m trying to be myself, but I sort of have a script. I’m in actor mode,” Gibson said.

Ten other seniors with concentrations in acting/directing, music theatre, technical design and dance presented their senior capstones Saturday, May 3. Performances appropriately included scenes taken from larger plays, dance performances, music theater cabarets and design tech presentations.

“For maybe a month we’ve been working two to three hours a day,” Auburn Ashley, an acting/directing major, said.

Later in the day, Gibson performed an account of her experience as a stage manager for the production of Eurydice.

“I’m the stage manager, I’m the order giver,” Gibson said.

According to the showcase program, “Stage managers are tasked with interpreting the script and creation of a prompt book for a production. Next, they are to create and apply appropriate forms, technology and etiquette for the successful management and calling of said production.”

Each of the performers had to direct a longer scene, influencing each of their actors and adjusting their piece to look how they interpret it.

“[Directing is] another form of communication using vocabulary to make the actors see your point of view, emotional state and what motivates their next line,” Gibson said.

During the productions, the audience was silent, not just quiet, eagerly listening to every word that each of these now experienced actors had to say.

“The bird will eat them. Our city is dead,” Emily Lackner, an acting/directing major, said while crying over her destroyed city in “The Trojan Women.”

“You’re scandalous cause was given rise to in the bleakest of terms, I’m afraid,” Alyssa Preston, also an acting/directing major, replied while her character, Hecuba, wallowed in her own sorrow.

Now that these students have worked hard to earn their degrees in acting and theater, each one will go out into the acting world and try to begin their careers. For Gibson specifically, this means finishing classes in the fall and then looking for a job or internship.

jkirk@mavs.coloradomesa.edu