VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1

FALL 2010

The

The

AdvisorTiffany Olson

EditorMolly Lumley

Design/Photo EditorsJeff Fiebig

Loni Warner

ContributorsAndres Ballesteros

Kenny BrownEvan Griffith

Kellie GrunzkeTyler Hill

Alex MarquisMatthew Maxfield

Desirée NguyenMatthew Pellino

Mamisoa RanaivosonMorgan Rushford

Christina Watkinson

Editorial OfficesWaldorf College

106 South Sixth StreetForest City, IA 50436

ColophonThe Torch magazine is

produced in Adode InDesign and Photoshop on Apple

Macintosh G5 computers.

Department headlines and Feature headlines vary by story. Body text is set in

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SEPT. - OCT. 2010

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1

contents

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letterfromtheeditor

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finearts

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studentlife

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The very first day of senior year in high school students can’t wait for graduation and

moving off to college. I was the same way. I couldn’t wait to be on my own. What I didn’t

anticipate was trying to balance being in college and still having fun with friends.

Some people don’t think that having a social life and getting good grades is possible. I have dis-

covered that you still can balance the two; you just might not be getting as much sleep as you are

used to.

What you can do is be very organized and have a set time to do homework. Having a larger plan-

ner that has tons of room for extra writing has helped me a lot. And this should help you so that

you don’t procrastinate. Procrastination is one thing that will make or break you while you are

here. I know that it sounds like a better idea when you push something back, but it really isn’t.

Forest City is small and it may seem like nothing goes on here, but one thing that I wish I took

more advantage of are the on campus events. There are band and choir concerts and sporting

events. Student Warrior Activities Team (SWAT) offers numerous events that are free. These

events are fun and it gives you the opportunity to meet new people, plus a sometimes needed

break from homework.

Another thing that I find very important is to get involved. College is what you make it. You have to

be willing to be yourself and just try new things that can open up a lot of doors for you. Plus being

involved is going to get you out of your room and will help you not to be homesick.

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With a great year ahead and the welcoming of our new president, Joseph Manjone, Waldorf College is expanding its roots with not only academic additions but in athlet-ics as well. The Warrior spirit embarks the 2010-2011 season with fresh talented athletes in its newest competitive programs. Introducing a new campaign with teams in Women’s Wrestling, Men and Women’s Cross Country, in addition to Men and Women’s Bowling, the Warriors seek to achieve success and glory in the upcoming months. Take a peek at some of the newest Warrior athletic programs!

by Andres Ballesteros | photography provided by the Athletic Department

The Newest Warriors

Q: Can you tell me about the team?A: “The team is great! We have a re-ally good group of guys. I feel like the group has the right idea and attitude which is essential with long distance running. Having the right mindset when running long distances is key.”Q: What are some goals you have?A: “Well with every runner it is impor-tant to have a great attitude, to create and maintain a positive atmosphere so that every obstacle can be suc-ceeded. I as well have expectations for my group such as a good effort not

just while running but in their lifestyles as well.”Q: Where did you coach before?A: “I was an assistant coach at the University of Rio Grande, where I gained experience and now I came to Waldorf as an extension of that.”Q: How was the team put together?A: “My team consists of mostly if not all walk-ons. Many of the runners are wrestlers and that makes it easier to work with because they know what hard work is all about.”

Cross Country | Coach Matt Boyles

Q: Tell me a little bit about the Women’s Wrestling Program…A: “These girls are highly motivated athletes and very competitive just like the guys. They work extra hard and have a great attitude.”Q: What are your goals?A: “Well to us it is very important to get the best in every girl from the program. We want to get them to where they are technically proficient and most importantly, we want to get them up to par with other female wrestlers from all over the country.”

Women’s Wrestling | Coach Tyler Brandt

Q: As of right now I am aware that you are in charge of both programs, but what is the situation in hiring a women’s coach?A: “The women’s coach has actually been hired, his name is Dustin Baynes. He is coming to us from Cleveland State University which is an NCAA division I school. We are very excited to have him work with us. He’s had experience working with world Olympic medalists, and so we know he’ll be a great addition to the program.”Q: How does this compare to other female sports in popularity?

A: “Women’s wrestling is actually pretty big. There are about 8,000 female wrestlers nationwide andincreasing. It is also a world champion-ship sport so there is no doubt that women’s wrestling is pretty popular.”Q: Right now, what’s the turn out like?A: “As of right now, we have five girls on campus, and seven more coming at the semester. We havealso about 60 other girls who have requested information and showed interest in the program.”

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studentlife

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Waldorf’s Communications Depart-ment took a group of students on an overseas trips to give students an op-portunity to travel. This past summer the department took 16 students on a trip to visit Italy, France and England.

Professor Dave Damm planned the trip based on places students wanted to go. They met for six Sundays before the trip to learn about things there and what they were going to see.

“The purpose of the trip was not only give them a chance to travel, but also expose them to Western civilization, art, culture and history,” Damm said.

They spent a total of three weeks visit-ing six different cities. Their first des-tination was Italy. They spent twelve days there visiting Rome, Florence, Venice and the Italian Riviera.

While in Rome they saw the ruins of the Roman Empire and the Colosse-um. In Florence they visited Michelan-

gelo’s statue of David. Then in Venice they got to experience the city’s famous canal system.

Finally their last stop was to the Italian Riviera, where they all just sat back and relaxed on the beaches for a few days and soaked in everything they’d experienced so far.

Their next destination was France. They spent four days in Paris where they visited two famous museums, the Louvre and the Orsay. And they couldn’t miss out on the Eiffel Tower.

“One of my many favorite moments of the this trip would have to be sitting at the park café’s in Paris and watching the Eiffel Tower light up every night with all the students, while sipping on delicious French drinks,” Damm said.

Their last destination of the trip was London, England. They spent four days there, visited the House of Parliament and saw the musical, “Wicked.”

“It was amazing to go watch the musi-cal “Wicked” and be in London. We even got pictures and autographs from the cast. It was just a great expe-rience,” student Abbie Wibe said.

The three weeks in Europe went by quickly, but Damm thought the trip went well. “It was an outstanding trip. Trying all the different cuisines and getting to see the look of excitement on their faces was great,” Damm said. “It was my fourth time and it was just amazing; life changing for students, memories they will have forever.”

“It was a really great experience. You see all these places on TV and in books, but to actually get to see and experience them in person was just very surreal,” Wibe said.

The Communications Department takes students on overseas trips every two years, so students will be prepar-ing to embark on another adventure in May of 2012.

This year, once again BASH

arrived back on campus. It

took a break when KZOW

decided to stop funding

the event and let the Student Warrior

Activities Team (SWAT) present Open

Air last year. BASH is always a treat

marking the beginning of the year.

After months and months of planning

from Junior Tad Venzke, on September

2, all of his hard work finally paid off.

Students could hear music from around

campus, which encouraged a lot of

them to attend the event.

“I was debating on staying in and being

a good student and do my homework

but when I heard the music from Breen

I knew I had to go,” Sophomore Nichole

Grisham said.

“The best was seeing the final product

take place and being able to talk and

meet with bands. You can learn so

much from them,” Venzke said.

The Phoenix Philosophy started the

show off with a set of their own music.

The band is based out of Minneapolis.

The members mingled with the crowd

after the set, sold their merchandise

and talked students.

“The crowd here is great. We love com-

ing here to play because of that and we

get a chance to play with other great

bands,” lead singer Jesse Weber said.

Next in line came Love Sick Radio based

out of Columbus, Ohio. They played

pop hits including “Bedrock” by Young

Money. They also dazzled the audience

with some of their original music.

Vaudeville played the third set of the

evening. Waldorf’s own 2009 gradu-

ate Sam Pleggenkuhle plays guitar and

sings backup vocal for the band.

“It’s awesome coming back and play-

ing here. It’s always a good show and

it’s nice to come back and see people,”

Pleggenkuhle said.

Pleeggenkuhle started playing in high

school just as a hobby. He started play-

ing music, got into a band and realized

he could do this.

“You have to work hard. Nothing will

be given to you. You always have to be

working and pushing your band. Being

in a band is a full time job,” Pleggen-

kuhle said.

Game Rebellion finished off the night

with a bang. The band shot confetti

canons before their set , jumped around

stage and kicked microphones down.

Game Rebellion, a rap group, is based

out of New York.

“Music is a huge part of everyone. It

brings students together. With some

people it’s the only thing we have in

common with each other,” Venzke said.

“Next year I want it to be bigger and

better, it might be hard to top that one

right away.”

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Homecoming is one of the flashiest, highly publicized, yet most traditional events of the academic year; it is also one with the most student involvement in the overall event planning. Almost an entire month of planning goes into one week-end’s events, which may seem like a poor pay-off, but the traditions of Homecoming weekend are ones that continue to enrich the campus community. Although many homecoming traditions continue from decades ago, the evolution of technology has allowed the event to be-come more of a multimedia experience. Students from Joy Newcom’s Public Relations Skills class, Mark Newcom’s Electronic Field Production class and Tiffany Olson’s Publication Design class designed, filmed, wrote, decorated, spent long hours working on projects and put together many of the elements seen at Candidate Review on October 8.

Student Aaron Olson, who is in the Public Relations Skills class, said that the class started their planning and work the sec-ond week of school.

“We’re planning all of the publicity, prizes and decorations,” Olson said. “After we figured out who the candidates were, we were able to do a lot more planning.”

Olson, who was in charge of voting at the Candidate Review, said that each student in the class was assigned to a group, such as budgeting, decorations and overall event planning. He also said that they were hoping for around 200 student votes this year, which is more than last year’s tally of around 160.

Student Marrisa Hopper, who is in both the Electronic Field Production and the Publication Design classes, said that making the videos of each Homecoming candidate gave the EFP class a challenge.

“Our class had to think of a vision for what the videos would look like,” said Hopper. “And then [we organized] filming each candidate in eight different places to capture eight different aspects.”

Hopper was also partially in charge of the backdrop decorations for the stage, along with the rest of the Publication Design class with designing graphics, posters and buttons.

Along with the Communications Depart-ment, staff from Student Life, Alumni Affairs, and the members of SWAT and Student Senate also worked very hard to contribute and make Candidate Review a yearly success.

Director of Student Activities & Orienta-tion Amy Scott said that the Candidate Review, along with many other Home-coming events were funded by SWAT. This year’s Homecoming events, along with the traditional parade and football game, included a new element: A bonfire and Pep Rally by the Hanson Fieldhouse after Candidate Review.

“We’ve never [had a pep rally] before. It’s been a challenge to put that on,” said Scott. “ And the parade is a big deal because of the coordination between the school and businesses downtown,”

As always, the events of Homecoming

week-end will al-ways be a huge part of Waldorf’s traditions, but it would not be able to happen without the hard work of students and staff. Each year presents new challenges, but working through them makes each new Homecoming something to remember.

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sports

With two platters and a variety of drinks, Senate kicked off their first

meeting with President Adam Herrick behind the podium proclaiming Senate back for another year.

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studentlife

“The Majority of the student body knows Student Senate as the group that gives money to different campus organiza-tions,” said senior Christine Wellendorf.

Student Senate, simply referred to as Senate, does so much more than that. And the bulk of what they do is behind the scenes. This year, Senate’s student officers are President Adam Herrick, Vice President Jeremy Padilla, Treasurer Nadeen Kruger and Secretary Ashlee Lutrick. No organization runs well without its dedicated advisers: Jason Ramaker, Scott Searcy and Andrew Saeger.

This organization is not limited to those seven people. Senate is also comprised of students from each grade and other students who want their voices heard. What other things does Senate do around campus besides handling money? Student Senate’s existence is “to be the voice of students, to be a venue where students can address concerns and be heard by administration on how life is go-ing for them,” Ramaker said.

But they do so much more than that. Senate helps to fund and run Warrior Cup and Winterfest, two of the major school spirit-boosting activities on cam-pus. They also host community service opportunitites such as the annual Rake-a-thon which gives students and faculty the opportunity to rake community yards.

Another event is Pennies for Pups which turns raising money into an amusing task by having residence floors compete to raise money one penny at a time to help fund training for lead dogs.

As an enticement, Senate provides food, such as subs, at their first meeting or

at Pizza or Pancakes with the Prez, which is held about twice a semester. Pizza or Pancakes with the Prez is a forum where students can come eat and ask Presi-dent Joe Manjone questions about the school and how it’s developing. One major event Senate hosts second semester is the SEAL Awards, a prestigious red carpet ceremony where students are recognized for their service on campus through six major awards. Along with this, orgainizations have the opportunity to honor their own members.

In addition to all of this, Sen-ate still does more. At the end of each year, the money that is leftover and hasn’t been given to student organizations is put into projects to better the campus.

“Summer improvements you see when you come back in the fall is done by Senate,” said Herrick.

Some of the summer improvements by Senate that are noticeable on campus are the adding of big screen TVs, getting change machines in the Campus Center and residence halls and co-sponsoring major events such as BASH.

Even though Senate does a lot, sometimes the organization goes unrecognized.

“Publicity is definitely an issue,” said Her-rick. “The formality of not only what Sen-ate does but how their meetings run can scare students away, but we are working on ways to make students not only attend and be apart of Senate, but also make it comfortable and not as formal.”

Senate is always looking for more people to join their ranks. Students interested in getting involved in campus activities and building their resume can attend a meet-ing. Senate meets in the Breen class-room on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m.

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On October 9 the Wind Symphony, Wal-dorf Choir, Sangkor and St. Christopher Chorale performed their annual Home-coming Concert. The Waldorf Wind Symphony, under the direction of Dr. Brent Dodson, started off the concert.

They started with “Florentiner March” by Julius Fucik. The trumpets started the tune and the rest of the band joined later. The second song, “Irish Tune from County Derry,” by Percy Grainger is one that people might recognize as the tune of “Danny Boy.” This was a slower pace that contrasted the previous tune.

The third song they performed was “Shenandoah” by Frank Ticheli, a well know song that the Wind Symphony per-formed last year. During both “Irish Tune” and “Shenandoah” several alumni played with the Wind Symphony.

The last song that the Wind Symphony performed was the favorite tune of many Wind Symphony members and audience members, “Godzilla Eats Las Vegas.”Saxophonist William Eilts said his favorite song of the concert was “Godzilla” be-

cause “…we worked really hard on it and it turned out as good as it could have.”

During “Godzilla” the Wind Symphony played accompanied by a slide show explaining how Godzilla ate Las Vegas. Members of the band had to do some unusual techniques, such as screaming, barking like a dog or taking their instru-ments apart and playing them in pieces. At the very end of the song, Dr. Dodson’s son came out in a Godzilla costume and toppled over some cardboard bricks.

The 13 member St. Christopher Chorale was the next ensemble to perform for the concert. They performed two songs: “Weep, O Mine Eyes” by John Bennet, and “Agnus Dei” by Thomas Morley. Both of these songs were done A Capella.

The Chorale stayed in tune with each other. They are a unique group because they have no director.

The next ensemble to perform was Sang-kor, Waldorf’s 12 member all women’s choir. This ensemble is under the direc-tion of Mr. Travis Beck. This ensemble

performed two songs: “Poor Man Laz-rus,” and “For the Beauty of the Earth.”

The Waldorf Choir, directed by Professor Blair Buffington, was the last ensemble to perform. This ensemble performed four piece that included: “Dixit Dominus,” “O Lord God,” “The Sweetheart of the Sun” and a Swahili piece, “Wana Baraka.”

Wana Baraka seemed like the most fun for the Waldorf Choir to perform. The choir moved back and forth during this song. The audience also got into this piece. There was a portion of the song where they suddenly started to look at each other, which made the song unique.

After the Waldorf Choir sang, Sangkor joined them. They sang three songs together: “Blow Ye the Trumpet,” “The Awakening” and “Beautiful Savior.” Dur-ing “Beautiful Savior,” the song that the choirs always end the Homecoming concert with, Buffington had the alumni come up and sing along.

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finearts

The Waldorf Concert Choir presented their Alumni Sing-a-Long on October 9. There were so many alumni that the Concert Choir was outnumbered two to one. “I wish we could have a choir this size all the time,” Britt Banks, a member of the Waldorf Choir said.

Nancy Farndale played along with some of the songs and they sang some songs that she composed.

They sang a total of six songs. They started with “A Can-terbury Prayer” composed by Nancy Farndale followed by “Our Father” by Alexander Gretchainoff and “Pilgrims’ Chorus” by Richard Wagner.

“God’s Son Has Made Me Free” was next. One of the Waldorf Choir’s former directors, Adrian Johnson, di-

rected this song and the next, “O Day Full Of Grace.”

Johnson shared with the choir an experience he had while directing the song while on tour with the choir in Norway. He said that the audience kept getting on their feet while the choir sang the song, and learned soon af-ter that is was because “O Day Full of Grace” is Norway’s national hymn.

The last song the choir sang was “Beautiful Savior,” a traditional piece of the Waldorf Choir’s repertoire. Many of the current members of the choir and alumni got emotional. Professor Blair Buffington had all the previous soloists from this song sing the solo part, which made the solo stand out from the rest of the song.

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studentlife

The Social Warriors Activities Team (SWAT) is a student organized program which plans a variety of different activities for Waldorf students over the weekends. Previous activities included: BASH (music festival with live bands), Apples to Apples tournament, Mall of America trip, comedian Dan Cummings and Cosmic Bowling.

SWAT provides a way for Waldorf students to meet their classmates and also pro-vides on-campus entertainment.

“SWAT is student organized therefore students provide entertainment for other students,” Director of Student Activities & Orientation Amy Scott said. “This concept is nice because those students organizing the activities know what other Waldorf students like to do.”

SWAT members pride themselves on offering many types of activities to cater to many types of student preferences.

“A lot of different activities are offered, it’s free and it’s a good way to get involved,” Breen Assistant Hall Direc-tor Jessica Fiebig said. “There has been a great turn out to the events because of the variety of different activities for varieties of students.”

“SWAT has been getting participation due to all the fun, new acts this year,” SWAT President Christina Watkin-son said.

According to many people on campus, SWAT is an integral and needed part of campus.

“Campus would suffer because there’s not much to do and SWAT provides activities for students,” Fiebig said. “It’s good because we come together as one unit to all of the activities and get to know each other, share ideas and most importantly, have fun.”

“It’s a great opportunity to meet other people, help pro-vide activities for campus, for students to have a voice on what they would like to bring to Waldorf other than just homework and classes,” Watkinson said. “ Anybody interested can join and it’s very fun to get involved in this organization.”

Upcoming events in SWAT are: assisting with Home-coming activities, another Mall of America trip, Hallow-een movie on campus, comedians, singers, and other student oriented games and activities.

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106 S. 6th Street - Forest City, IA 50436(800) 292-1903(641) 585-2450www.waldorf.edu