One of our students, Keith McHugh, is doing an internship this summer in Montana at the America Prairie Reserve. Keith’s keeping a blog and he is posting lots of great photos. He’s also keeping a visual check list of the species he encounters as part of his research.
Keith is thinking ahead too. He’s already working to build a strong relationship with American Prairie Reserve in hopes that additional Roanoke students can follow in his footsteps and do internships and research with this agency.
Andrew Cullen is one of the students who helped with the College’s rejected mascot videos. He’s the main character in the Roanoke Roleplayer. Cullen portrayed some of the mascots in other videos too — using his own costumes. He’s the moonwalking chicken in the Rappers video. He does some freelance mascot work himself and is therefore one of the few experienced mascots on our campus!
Roanoke’s “Rationalist” isn’t all that rational – at least when it comes to talk of a College mascot.
The “star” of the campy video that pretends to promote the rationalist as a mascot really has a different idea. Paul Millard, a senior English major who grew up in College Park, Md., laughs and says he thinks the mascot should be a skunk. It would be white and maroon – the Roanoke College color – and spray just water into the crowds.
“But no one likes that idea,” he says, grinning. “No one wants to be ‘the smelly skunks.’”
Well, that’s true – and luckily, Millard has plenty of other things to keep him busy. This summer, he’s working on campus in the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Come fall, he’ll again be a head RA and continue volunteering with the Student Conduct Board, Lambda Alliance and Omicron Delta Kappa National Honor Society.
These days, though, Millard is still a star and getting plenty of attention for his video. In it, he’s dressed a bit like the guy in the popular “berries and cream” Starburst video – and he even does a song and dance at the end that mimics that piece but promotes Roanoke as “learning and fun.”
“I’ve been asked to perform ‘berries and cream’ so many times,” he says, laughing. “I don’t know what it is about it, but people really seem to love it.”
Betsy Foster, a rising senior from Salem, played our “peace and love person” and impressed everyone with her many talents. Her character was the one least developed by the team that put together the audition scenarios. Betsy was basically told to come dressed as a hippie and that she would likely sing some sort of song about peace and love.
When she arrived, our team was initially impressed with her costume. However, they were bowled over with her talent as she began to sing! She made up the song on her own–no script or music was provided.
The most amazing part of Betsy’s story is that she is deaf! She is fluent at lipreading, so most people don’t know that she can’t hear. Of her audition, Betsy says, “I used to be very musical - thus the reason I could pull off the guitar chords. Even I’m surprised at the song that came out of my mouth when I sat down though!”
Despite his acclaimed role in the Agatha Princes of the Night audition, the Roanoke Raider is not only known for his entertaining side, but also for his involvement in several student organizations on campus.
Joe Bauer is a rising senior from Roswell, Georgia who is pursuing a major in biology.He has always loved entertaining others and enjoys doing acting on the side.However, Joe also finds time to participate in many different student organizations, including leading the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity as their president.He is also a member of both the Omicron Delta Kappa honor society as well as Alpha Psi Omega, the National Theatre Honor Society.When Joe heard about the mascot auditions, he was more than willing to help out, but it turned out being more demanding than he had expected.Not only did Joe have to wear a pair of bright red bicycling shorts, he also faced a minor mishap at the end of the video shoot when he crashed into the camera and was left with a black eye!Ouch!
Despite poor Agatha’s spotlight being stolen by a crazed streaker, her evil looks and glares will always stay in viewer’s minds. Theatre major, Meghan Corsnitzplays the gothic princess who seems to have nothing to say to the judges.Ironically, Meghan is actually quite the opposite of her character and is known to be extremely friendly and talkative.
“The Roanoke Redneck” has a real sense of humor. You’d get that from watching his pitch for a mascot – but it’s even funnier if you know who he is.
Trent Thompson, the actor, is a recent and very accomplished graduate of Roanoke College. He’s actually from Roanoke, and despite the way he talks in the video, he is very academic. Trent graduated magna cum laude this spring and was honored with memberships in the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa honor society as well as those for Alpha Chi and Omicron Delta Kappa.
Most surprising, however, is probably his major. The “redneck” earned his B.A. in theology! He was even honored as the senior scholar in theology at the college’s year-end Academic Awards Dinner. As the redneck would say, “yee-ha!”
Alex Munro played the Roanoke Techno Dude in this video. Alex wasn’t so sure about all the technology he was supposedly using, but everyone was impressed with how quickly he learned his lines and how convincing he was in asking the panel, “You guys don’t mind if I live-blog this, do you?”
Alex is from Hayes, Va and is a rising senior at Roanoke. He’s live-blogging this!
Our mascot contest is completely under way now and we’ve had lots of great ideas. One of the more questionable ideas was a Klingon. What?!?! Trekkies of the galaxy unite!
So, here’s some behind the scenes information on this video:
The student playing the Klingon is M.D. Espinosa
His hair is actually a Hannah Montana wig
His forehead (or whatever) is made from a football and was painted up nice
To promote Roanoke’s mascot contest, we created a series of “rejected” mascot audition videos. One is the Rassler, performed by Cory Lawson. Videographer Steve Mason, who filmed the auditions and is a Roanoke College alumnus himself, was so impressed by Cory’s performance that he is interested in using him on other projects.
It’s almost May and that means it’s time for our seniors to graduate! It’s a bittersweet time for those of us who have watched these students grow and mature during their years as a Roanoke student. We have several students who work in the PR office and it’s hard to let them go. Just as they become well trained and productive employees, then they graduate on us! Of course, that’s always been the goal but still we don’t want them to go just yet. Employers, take note. Grab these Roanoke graduates while you still can. You will not be sorry!
Commencement always brings a certain excitement to campus. The commencement speaker is always a big deal and this year Roanoke graduate John McAfee returns to his alma mater as our featured speaker. He will also receive an honorary degree during the ceremony. McAfee’s name will forever be associated with the virus protection company he founded. He was a math major at Roanoke. Wonder if he ever imagined back then where his career would go? He’s worked for some of the world’s biggest technology companies, then founded several companies himself. Looking forward to hearing his commencement address.
