Stonehill Student & World Ranked Fiddle Player

By: Christopher Confrey

She picked up her first fiddle at the age of five and by 11 she became the under 12 world champion fiddle player.
Maeve Flanagan, now an 18 year – old sophomore at Stonehill College, has been surrounded by music her entire life. “My mom and dad play the fiddle, they met through music,” Flanagan, a Pearl River, New York native said.
“The fiddle has always been there for me. Whenever my life gets stressful or I am feeling down, I know I can always turn to music,” Flanagan said. “I have met my best friends and have had the greatest experiences through music.”
“A fiddle and a violin are the same instrument,” Flanagan said. She explained that fiddle is a slang word for violin and refers to a more interpretative type of music as opposed to classical music.
“I hated playing at first. I put the fiddle up to my neck and I thought it was choking me,” she said.
With practice, though, Flanagan became more comfortable. “My mom would tape record tunes for me to learn and I would practice in my room for an hour a day,” she said.
By the time summer came, Flanagan, then six, became tired of the demands fiddling took on her time. “I learned to beat the system,” she said. “I would record myself playing the tunes I needed to practice and put them on repeat by the door to my room. My mom heard the tape and thought I was practicing away!”
“My mother caught on and I told her I wanted to quit and would rather go swimming with my friends,” Flanagan said.
For the rest of the summer, Flanagan kept her violin in its case. “I did not push her that first summer,” Rose, Flanagan’s mother said. “She was young and I understood she wanted to play with her friends.”
Like her daughter, Rose Conway-Flanagan came from a family of music. “My father played, but he never taught me or my brother,” she said. “My mother had heard some other children play and then decided she wanted us to play too.”
By the end of that summer, Flanagan decided she would give fiddling a second change. “The summer had ended and I was giving all of her friends’ lessons, so she wanted to come back,” Flanagan’s mother said.
At the age of 8, Flanagan began taking group lessons with her uncle, Brian Conway. The lessons were once a week for 45 minutes. “He was a tough teacher,” Flanagan said. “One girl started crying at the beginning of every class is anticipation of the upcoming lesson.”
Each week, Flanagan’s uncle taught the group a new tune. “He would teach us bit by bit, and then we would have to repeat it over and over until we memorized it,” Flanagan said.
Flanagan began fiddling competitions at the age of nine.
Her first competition was at Manhattan College. Flanagan placed third in the under twelve competition. “I played a waltz, and I played it wrong,” she said with a smile.
The next year, Flanagan, then ten, played first at the Manhattan College competition which meant she advanced to the Fleadh Cheoil na Eireann or Music Competition of Ireland.
“I went with my dad and my best friend Deirdre who also played the fiddle,” Flanagan said.
The competition in Ireland was like nothing Flanagan had ever seen in the United Sates.
“There were competitors from Ireland, Australia, Scotland and Saudi Arabia,” Flanagan said.
She did not place at the competition, but was not disappointed. “I didn’t really care, I was just having fun in Ireland with Deirdre,” she said.
The next year, Flanagan began taking her fiddling more seriously. “I practiced a lot more, and this time I knew what to expect” she said.
That year, Flanagan, 11, once again qualified for the Music Competition of Ireland. “I was not nervous because I had nothing to lose,” she said.
“I played two tunes, a real called Bonnie Kate and a jig called Keys to The Convent,” Flanagan said.
“After I played I heard an old Irish man say, ‘if that wee Yankee girl doesn’t win there is something wrong here,’” Flanagan said.
“I played my heart out and placed first,” Flanagan said. “I clearly remember winning. I had beaten an Irish boy who was favored to win. They called me by name and gave me a trophy with Eileen Ivers’, the most famous Irish musician’s, name on it. Then I played an encore,” Flanagan said.
“After a year I had to give the trophy back. My mother arranged for me to take professional pictures with my violin and my trophy which was so embarrassing,” she said.
Following her win, making her the top ranked under 12 fiddler in the world, playing the fiddle changed for Flanagan. “Before I won, no one knew who I was, there was no pressure, after though, it became so much harder,” she said.
At the age of 18, before returning to Stonehill College for her sophomore year, Flanagan competed in the senior competition in Ireland, the winner of which would be named the best fiddler in the world. Though extremely nervous, Flanagan placed third.
Today, Flanagan plays at venues all across the Northeast. “I have played at weddings, Irish Dancing competitions, Ellis Island, and in bars, a lot of bars,” Flanagan said.
Now a sophomore, Flanagan plays for her peers at Stonehill’s Concert Coffeehouse.
Her fellow students admire her talent. “I think it’s refreshing to see such a young person be so dedicated and not ashamed of it,” Megan Cross, Flanagan’s friend and roommate said.
Others recognize her rare gifts. “It’s a very unique talent that you don’t see too often and it’s great to be exposed to it,” fellow student Nicole Brisbois said. “She does a great office theme song,” friend Kevin Gill said.
Flanagan says her ultimate goal would be to win seniors at the Music Competition of Ireland. “I’ll never stop playing the fiddle,” Flanagan said. “I am going to make my kids play the fiddle because my mom made me and now I’m obsessed with it.”
“I don’t know where my life is going to take me but I know music is going to be a huge part of my life,” Flanagan said.

Balancing School, Sports, and Sleep

Published Dec. 27, 2008, The Taunton Daily Gazette

tauntongazette.com

By Hannah Anderson

EASTON—It can be tough to balance sports, school and sleep.
Just ask Ashley Langlois, who plays varsity softball at Stonehill College.
“During season you really need to be organized in order to get big projects and papers done. It’s hard when you have away games, we play double headers so there are away games when we won’t even get back to school until 11-12 at night. By the time you eat and shower you’re so tired you don’t want to write a paper,” said Langlois.
Playing a varsity sport in college involves hours of practices a week as well as lifting, conditioning, games, and travel. Add to getting involved in other school acitivites, Langlois said sleep can sometimes be the first to go.
This is not unusual among college athletes.
One study found that college students who are involved in extracurricular activities are more likely to be sleep deprived and be sleepy during the day. This can affect their academic performance, according to a research abstract presented at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).
Eddie Vachon, a sophomore on the varsity football team at Stonehill College.
Eddie devotes hours per week to football while trying to balance his schoolwork.
“During the season we have meetings, lifting, conditioning, practice, and games. It’s hard to find time, let alone energy to get all of your work done,” said Vachon.
One study, “Learning and Earning: Working in College,” by Jonathan Orszag, found that a student who was involved more than 10 hours of extracurricular activities a week was more likely to have what is called “non-restorative sleep” which is less than six hours per night and results in excessive daytime sleepiness.
Another study by Fred Danner, found the amount of hours of sleep on a school night were tied to how high or low a student’s grade point average was and how motiviated he or she was.
Anthony Tomasz, a sophomore on the varsity football team at Stonehill, said he sometimes spreads himself thin during football season as he tries to balance sports and school work.
“My GPA during football season was a 1.5 last year, my GPA out of season was a 3.2. Enough said,” said Tomasz.
Student athletes reported more stress than non-athletes in areas such as: having a boyfriend or girlfriend, finding enough time for sleep, having a lot of responsibilities, and having heavy demands from extracurricular activities, Gregory Wilson and Mary Pritchard wrote in "Comparing Sources of Stress in College Student Athletes and Non-Athletes."
Diana Rojas, a sophomore at Stonehill College keeps busy on campus as a representative for Spirit Committee, programming committee, and class committee in Student Government Association. She also participates in Swim Club, Dance Club, Education Society and Hall Council.
“Being so involved helps me get my work done because it gives me less time to procrastinate. When I stay busy I know I only have limited time for my work, so I know I have to do it during that free time,” said Rojas. “It also depends on who you surround yourself with. If the people in your organization or sport are motivated and competitive in their studies, it encourages you to focus on your studies as well.”
Lauren Swett, a sophomore at Stonehill, participates in Dance Club, Art Club, Swim Club, and also plays intramural volleyball in the spring and the fall.
“My extracurricular activities help give me a time limit on when I need to get everything done,” said Swett. “Plus it just gives me something else to do besides work. If I didn’t do any activities I would get overwhelmed by school.

Texting Not Driving: 20 percent of drivers aren't watching the road

By Sean Powell
Jeff Duggan used to be like a large number of teenagers who admit to texting while driving. He was cruising down Interstate 93 and sending a text to his friend about plans for later that night.

“I was trying to text him directions,” Duggan said. “I had just gotten the street name to come out right when I felt a jolt and realized I had bumped into a car in the next lane.” Duggan said he grabbed the wheel and pulled to the left and he separated from the car without any damage.

“Aside from the paint scratch, which cost me some serious cash to fix before my dad saw, the car was fine. I got really lucky,” Duggan said.

According to a recent study, Duggan is not alone. Over one million vehicles on the road are being driven by someone using a hand-held phone at any given daylight moment according to the annually conducted 2007 National Occupant Protection Use Survey.

The study is conducted annually by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The survey also found that 1 percent of drivers 16 to 24 were visibly manipulating hand held devices and that 46 percent of teens admit to texting while driving.

A recent study by Nationwide Insurance found that 20 percent of drivers are texting while driving.

Stonehill College Police Chief Peter L. Carnes was Wenham’s Chief of Police from 1984 to 1995 and served as Yarmouth’s Chief of Police from 1995 to his retirement in 2007 when he came to be Chief of Police for Stonehill College. Carnes said the raw data is not complete yet because of the newness of the technology but we can already see the trends.

Carnes said texting is more hazardous than talking on the phone while driving.

“Texting for some reason requires a different level of concentration because, you know, people start reading the message and then they star thinking about the message and when you’re deep in thought about the message you’re definitely not paying attention to the road,” Carnes said.

Curtis Crocker, 21, is a senior at Bridgewater State College and commutes to school. Crocker said he is a chronic user of text messaging while driving.

“I know it’s dangerous but I am just so used to texting after having a girlfriend for so long,” Crocker said. “It’s just easier.” He said he text messages at least once every time he drives.

“I had a few close calls, actually. I almost hit a truck once on the highway. It stopped and I wasn’t watching the road,” Crocker said. “I probably should stop.”

Shawn Torres, 21, of Stonehill College is a senior, said he can text and drive without a problem.

“Phone calls are longer and more distracting than shooting a text to someone,” Torres said.

Matthew Salerno, 21, Torres’ roommate, disagrees.

“Texting and driving are both pretty hard. You can’t be looking at what you’re texting and watch the road at the same time,” Salerno said.

He said he has had too many close calls driving to attempt a text while driving.

Alexandra Gordon, 18, freshman at Stonehill College, said texting while driving is a bad practice.

“It’s just stupid and dangerous,” Gordon said. “I couldn’t risk it.”

Gordon said she has never been in an accident or gotten a ticket and does not want to break her streak.


Police Chief Carnes said this sort of incident was not uncommon.

“You’ll be driving down the highway and see someone drifting across the lane and you think ‘This guy must be drunk,’” Carnes said. “Come to find out it’s just a kid texting his girlfriend. You’re operating a motor vehicle at excess of 60 miles per hour and don’t feel like you need to watch the road. It’s scary.”

Carnes said cell phones can cause problems on the road but they can also help highway safety.

“People talking on the phone now are usually using a Bluetooth or a headset. We’re seeing progress there at least,” Carnes said.

The Facebook Domination

By Leah Weiss

The ultimate social networking site, Facebook, has taken over the Internet in only a few short years, and is beginning its takeover of social lives across the globe.

“I spend about an hour and a half everyday, generally looking for bumper stickers (an application) or looking through my friends pictures and profiles. It becomes very addicting,” Stonehill College freshman Katherine Healey said.

That is what the millions of Facebook users worldwide are finding.

According to statistics from the Facebook.com pressroom, the social networking site now has 120 million active users with an average of 250,000 new registrations per day. Needless to say, there are plenty of profiles to peruse on a daily basis.

“Sometimes it keeps me from getting work done, it’s a good form of procrastination, but I do try really hard not to let it get in the way,” Healey said.

People spent an average of 20 minutes on Facebook daily, according to comScore Inc. in 2007.

With over 55,000 regional, work-related, collegiate, and high school networks, it is easy to reconnect with long lost friends and family by just clicking a button.

"I love the way Facebook keeps me interacted and connected with all of my friends, I use it at least 30 minutes daily," University of Virginia freshman Peter Szeremeta said.

Facebook has become the new way to stay involved in the lives of friends and family that are further than a phone call away.

Just below Internet giants Google and YouTube, Facebook is now the sixth most trafficked site in the United States, according to statistics from comScore. However, still above Facebook in the ranks, is Myspace, another social networking site.

Myspace may have slightly more visitors per day, but Facebook is all the rage on college campuses.

“Myspace became too creepy with the older people and the more sexual nature that just doesn’t exist on Facebook. I have my Facebook set to specific privacy settings so only my friends can see my pictures and profile, so I just feel safer on it,” Healey said.

There’s always a risk when posting personal information on any website, but Facebook has found a way to make its users feel more protection from predators that roam the World Wide Web.

A common term among Facebook users is “creeping,” Healey said. It is looking through someone’s profile without his or her knowledge, and viewing who has written on the wall or what pictures they have been tagged in.

It is the norm among today’s Facebook users.

There are different reasons why people are drawn to social networking sites like Facebook, Stonehill College psychology professor Rita DeOliveira said.

“At first, people tend to go on because they are curious or they want to see what everyone else is talking about, then they get persuaded by others to stay on the site and create their own profile. This gives them a sense of belonging and importance. It's an easy way to communicate with many people; especially people one would never have communicated with were it not for Facebook or any other site,” DeOliveira said.

Communicating with people on Facebook is not as personal as sending a text message, and much less confrontational, Stonehill freshman Shannon Clancy said.

Facebook breaks down social barriers and allows users to converse freely with “friends”, usually acquaintances, that they have acquired on the site.

“In some cases, people have social anxiety and interacting via the computer is more comfortable and not as anxiety provoking, people feel more at ease to express themselves. For some people, it then becomes an addiction where they feel compelled to be social networking,” DeOliveira said.

Maine Youth Exodus

By Lindsey Pinkham

Andria LaRoche, a junior at Wheaton College hopes to make a career out of motivational speaking and athletics when she graduates in the spring of 2010.

She left her home in rural Skowhegan, Maine for Wheaton College in Norton hoping it would offer her more opportunity.

“There is a lot more opportunity in the Boston area than at home,” LaRoche said.
The search for better opportunity is what is sending most of Maine’s educated youth out of state and many are coming to Massachusetts.

Around 50 percent of Maine’s high school graduates are leaving the state in search of better higher education and job opportunities, according to a study by the Finance Authority of Maine and the Center for Education Policy at the University of Southern Maine.

This outpour of educated youth has provoked the theory of the “brain drain,” which could leave the state with a mass of uneducated and unskilled workers, drastically stunting the economy.

According to a study done by the University of Maine, 50,000 people aged 15-25 years have left the state over the past two decades. That’s almost a quarter of the youth population.

Brad Beauregard is a junior at the University of Maine from Skowhegan who hopes to leave the state upon graduation.

“I want to leave mostly because opportunities, in any real form, don’t exist in Maine,” Beauregard said.

In Aroostook County, Maine’s largest and most northern county, almost a third of students surveyed by the Maine Leadership Consortium in grades 6-12 believe they will need to leave the state in order to be successful.

There has been much evidence suggesting that Maine’s educated youth is leaving the state, resulting in a “brain drain.” This theory hasn’t been backed by sufficient facts but there is certainly evidence of the brain drain found in rural areas of the state.

Michelle Pinkham, an employee at Redington Fairview General Hospital in rural Skowhegan, Maine, says it’s been difficult to find qualified people to fill positions.

“A lot of these students coming out of medical school have high student loans to pay. They can’t make the money here that they could make in the bigger cities to pay off these loans and this is important while they’re thinking about starting a family,” Pinkham said.

A graduate of Skowhegan High School, Zara Saydjari, decided to leave the state and attend the University of Michigan to study pre-medicine. Her father was one of the two surgeons in the Skowhegan area for twenty years. Saydjari says she left Maine and doesn’t plan to go back after medical school.

“[The Maine] economy is weak. It’s hard for a doctor in a rural area. I plan on going to a bigger city to start my career,” Saydjari said.

A study by the Finance Authority of Maine found the youth exodus to be much less a threat than previously thought.

Although the youth exodus, especially of educated youth, is alarming to Maine citizens, the actual migration across the state is normal compared to the rest of the nation. Young people are leaving the rural areas, such as Skowhegan, at an alarming rate, but some of them are going to Maine cities like Portland and even Bangor.

The study found also that 50 percent of college graduates chose to stay in Maine, while much of the half that chose not to stay were originally from out of state. Graduates in the study said family, cultural and social ties were reasons to stay in state while opportunities, pay and benefits lured them elsewhere.

One participant reported that staying in Maine was not affordable because the high cost of paying back student loans.

The Finance Authority of Maine concluded that a plan which would persuade the graduates to stay in Maine and fill spots in the work force, resulting in a boost of Maine’s economy.

Such a plan has since been drawn out and was implemented this year. The plan took the form of a program called Opportunity Maine after it began as a citizen’s initiative before it was passed unanimously by the state legislature.

Through Opportunity Maine, Maine college graduates are eligible for a tax credit on their student loans as long as they live and work in Maine.

“The number one reason that businesses expand is the education of workers. It points you in the direction if you’re trying to develop a state’s economy,” Rob Brown, director of Opportunity Maine, said.

The program offers incentive to work in Maine after graduation which will increase the number of educated workers, a vital ingredient to expanding businesses. With a better work force comes a better economy in the long haul.

For those that leave the state to find higher paying jobs with better benefits, being able to claim an income tax credit will alleviate the burden of debt and allow them to stay in Maine.

“It means as much for the low income single mom as it does for the laid-off mill worker as it does for the high school graduate,” Brown said.

Guitar Based Video Games A Double Edged Sword

By Greg Kerekes

Guitar Hero, a video game utilizing a guitar shaped controller which is popular among college students, is responsible for not only increasing record sales, but also increasing video games sales, although it may be hurting guitar sales.

Ryan McLaughlin, a resident of New York City and a guitar player for six years, thinks that Guitar Hero is fine as long as its players realize that it’s just a game.

“I actually used to work in a guitar shop and we got a lot of kids coming in that wanted to learn guitar because of it,” McLaughlin said. “The problem was that the only songs they knew were from the game and those songs which they wanted to learn were way too hard. So we'd start them on easier songs and they'd get bored and quit after three months.”

Released in 2005, Guitar Hero is a North American recreation of a Japanese game called GuitarFreaks. Since its release it has become widely popular among college students because of its large soundtrack of popular music.

“It has the songs I like,” Dan Newton, a student at Stonehill College, said. “The songs I like usually include copious guitar. An example would be Metallica. I have also learned that there were songs that I didn’t know about, which I had heard on the radio, and found in Guitar Hero and had fun playing.”

DragonForce, a speed metal band, became widely popular after a song of theirs was featured in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Digital sales of their song Through the Fire and Flames which was included in the game rose from 2,000 to 37,825 in a week.

“Guitar Hero introduced me to DragonForce,” Mike Dally, another student at Stonehill College, said. “Since then I’ve bought their albums and seen them in concert.”
According to the Music Trades Online Annual Census of the Music Industries, guitar sales in 2006, the year following Guitar Hero’s release, dropped 9.6 percent.

Jason Chapentier, an employee of Guitar Center in Warwick, RI, said that most newcomers choose to play Guitar Hero instead of a real guitar.

“They’re just wasting their time with [Guitar Hero],” Charpentier said. “You can’t do anything besides what the game tells you to do, so there’s no actual talent needed.”

Courtney Earle, also a student at Stonehill College and Guitar Hero player, said that she plays Guitar Hero because she can’t play the real guitar.

“I think it’s the fact that people can’t play the real guitar that they play Guitar Hero,” Earle said.
Anthony Noto, a resident of New York City and a guitar player for six and a half months, does not think that players of Guitar Hero are wasting their time not learning how to play a real guitar.

“I don’t think they’re wasting their time because it’s fun, plus it’s a lot cheaper,” Noto said.
Earle agrees with Noto that Guitar Hero players are not wasting their time.

“It’s the same as playing other video games,” Earle said. “If they weren’t playing that they’d just play another game.”

A guitar player for four years and resident of Warwick, RI, Robert Edwards, said that skill in Guitar Hero does not equate to skill on a real guitar.

“I don’t think [Guitar Hero] makes it easier,” Edwards said. “It just improves your coordination.”

Both McLaughlin and Edwards agree that Guitar Hero is good because it promotes an interest in the instrument.

“I'm all for getting people interested in the instrument,” McLaughlin said. “That's how new music is made. The problems always arise when people play the game and expect the instrument to be just as easy.”

Edwards’s support of Guitar Hero is a bit more Machiavellian.

“It’s a great thing,” Edwards said. “Anything that takes away from the rap community.”