Siouxland Life Magazine - May 2011

a guide for living in siouxland

Friend or foe? Morningsider’s thesis focuses on video games

it’sgraduation

EvErything to know about this timE of yEar

easy home fixesfivE gEt-rEady projEcts

Emergency room keeps busy with alcohol poisoning cases

Nursing student learns to live with rheumatoid arthritis

SiouxlaNd liFE iS oN thE wEb! Visit www.siouxcityjournal.com/siouxlandlife

May 2011

2 May 2011 Siouxland life

Contents May 2011

22

PubliSher steve griffith editor Bruce Millereditorial Joanne fox, Tim gallagher, earl Horlyk, nick Hytrek, Marcia Poole, John Quinlan

PhotograPhy Tim Hynds, Jim lee, Jerry Mennenga PreSentation editor amy HyndsadvertiSing SaleS nancy gevik advertiSing deSign stacy Pajl, Jill Bisenius

©2011 The sioux City Journal. siouxland life is published monthly by The sioux City Journal. for advertising information, please call (712) 224-6275. for editorial information, please call (712) 293-4218.

4 little Maroon ColleCtionThe Castle on the Hill gift shop preserves former Central High school memorabilia.

32 College reCruitingBriar Cliff university vice president of enrollment management Brian eben uses technology to communicate with students looking to the university.

30 SPeeCh, SPeeCh!Commence-ment address-es may drone on for more than 10 minutes or sum it up in less than one.

on the Coversergeant Bluff-luton graduating seniors and best friends abbey Johnston, left, and Kayla Par-rett will wear school choir robes for their graduation ceremony. Photograph by Jerry Mennenga

featureS4 Collections: little Maroon6 food: Catering for graduation8 Products: gifts for grads10 Home: five get-ready projects14 graduation: Parties 16 graduation: Home schools19 graduation: apparel20 graduation: valedictorian22 graduation: gowns24 graduation: announcements26 20 Questions: High school counselor

29 graduation: Permanent record30 graduation: speeches32 graduation: College recruiting34 graduation: advice for college36 Health: video games39 Health: alcohol poisoning42 Health: rheumatoid arthritis44 Medical answers from the doctor45 out & about47 Parting shot: The whys of life

Siouxland life May 2011 3

ColleCtion Central High School

1967 homecom-ing badge.

The high school has been closed for almost four decades, but that doesn’t mean its alumni’s al-legiance is gone.

Former students of Sioux City’s Central High School have dug into their closets and found memora-bilia any museum would be proud to house.

And in a way, the Castle on the Hill Gift Shop, 610 13th St., serves as a testament to the glory that went along with being a Little Ma-roon.

The former Sioux City Central High School – south side built in 1892, north side built in 1913, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 – closed as a school in 1972.

In 1976, the Castle on the Hill Association, a not-for-profit organization, was formed to preserve the history and physical uniqueness of the

structure.Since 2003, the former Central

High classrooms, chemistry labs and turrets have served as apart-ments on the near northside of Sioux City. At the same time the Castle on the Hill (the name given the building for its architecture) Association took over responsibil-ity of the auditorium and dungeon and began restoring and renovat-ing both areas.

Shirley McLeod, gift shop man-ager, recalled it was the brainchild of alumna Lois Little to encourage classmates to start looking for items connected with Central High School so they could be displayed and perhaps sold at the gift shop, which opened in 2003.

“We didn’t want the memory to

text by Joanne Fox | Photographs by Tim Hynds

Castle on the hillgift shop inCludes substantial

maroon ColleCtion


a 1954 sioux City relays trophy is one of the items on display at the Castle on the Hill gift shop and Central High school museum. The Castle on the Hill, now an apartment complex is the former Central High school building.


shirley Mcleod displays part of a complete listing of graduates of Central High school.

got Maroon Stuff?Castle on the Hill gift shop manager shirley Mcleod welcomes memora-bilia that was in any way connected to Central High school and the little Maroons.although they have one complete set of yearbooks, Mcleod would like to get annuals from 1940, 1955, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1970, and 1972 to have a second complete set.They would also welcome old newslet-ters that preceded the annuals, from 18 92-1898.

hourS of oPerationThe gift shop, 610 13th st., is open from noon to 4 p.m., saturday and sunday from april to october and from noon to 4 p.m. saturday from november to March. during the Christ-mas season, the hours are from noon to 4 p.m. the second saturday and sunday.Contact Mcleod at [email protected] or write Castle on the Hill association, Po Box 1776, sioux City, ia 51102 or call the gift shop at 258-0626. for more details visit castleon-thehill.org.

die,” insisted Caroline Conkey, president of the Castle on the Hill Association.

It won’t anytime soon, as walking into the gift shop is like a trip down memory lane, even if you weren’t a Little Maroon.

Lining the walls are about 100 photos of Central graduates who have done well. Mirroring each other are Esther Pauline Friedman and Pauline Esther Friedman, better known to the nation as advice columnists Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren, respectively.

“They would probably be our most famous,” McLeod acknowledged. “But we also have Macdonald Carey, who most know from (the soap opera) ‘Days of Our Lives.’”

Hanging on a rack are warm-up and letterman jackets from former ath-

letes and band uniforms with furry hats.

“I’m always surprised what people discover in their clos-ets that might be gathering dust that they bring in to us,” McLeod said. “We got the band uniforms from Diane

(Widner) at the Dowry after their move from KD Station.”

Most of the memorabilia is not for sale; however, there are commemorative mugs, sweatshirts, magnet ribbons and books by Central grads. You could even own your own Castle on the Hill cookie jar.

“I always wanted one,” McLeod con-fessed. “So I had Steve Kammerer create 50 of them, all numbered, in 2008. There’s only about 20 left, and the mold’s been broken.”

Perhaps most eye-catching is a 5-foot high, colorful Native American, who is

identified as Central’s Little Ma-roon.

“A custodian found it in a Dumpster and its eyes and shorts were yellowed,” McLeod explained. “Then, we found a student newspaper article that reported how Jerry Munson had created the carv-ing for a woodshop class. He came in and refurbished it for us the year before he died of cancer in 2008.”

McLeod thought the most prized pos-session is an almost 3-foot tall clock, located on the counter.

“It was the time clock that the teach-ers punched into,” she said, gesturing to the base where a card could be inserted. “It’s not working and we’re not sure how old it is, but we got it in 2005.”

McLeod and Conkey anticipate receiv-ing more items, as the organization is in the midst of getting ready for Central’s All-School Reunion, Sept. 9-11.

And although they enjoy receiving new items, both insisted monetary dona-tions are what the Castle on the Hill As-sociation would like to see more of.

“We’d really like to buy the building back,” McLeod said.

Homecoming badge from 1954.


Caterers ease graduation

food

food Catering

From Top aggies serves cocktail club sandwiches and brownies at a number of events. Right aggies co-owner Cathy Bishop says brisket sandwiches are a siouxland favorite.

text by Marcia PoolePhotographs by Jerry Mennenga

More inforMationfor more information about The venue at aggies visit: www.aggiesbbq.com


Caterers ease graduation

food Throwing a parTy for your high

school or college graduate? There’s enough to worry about without obsess-ing over the food.

But menu planning, food preparation, serving and tending to all the assorted details and possible complications can absorb the lion’s share of time associated with the big event. High anxiety can rule the day if hosts have little experience entertaining big crowds. And let’s face it: many of us don’t have that kind of expe-rience.

“A lot of people just don’t have time to entertain for large events anymore. So they tend to be nervous about where to even start,” says Cathy Bishop, veteran Siouxland caterer at The Venue at Aggies in Sergeant Bluff. “Remember that this day should be fun for everybody. There should be good memories of it.”

Investing in a catering service can ease the stress and up the fun. Caterers can help create a winning menu and then handle the preparation, delivery and set-up. They can supply serving trays, utensils and ways to keep hot foods safely hot and cold foods safely cold. They can serve the food. They can even handle the clean-up.

“Some people want us to do it all – and we will. Others call in favors and en-list family members and friends for good help. Either way can work. But you have to have help,” says Bishop.

Making sure the once-in-a-lifetime event produces plenty of great memories begins with planning, says Bishop. Top on the list of details? Check out the land-scape for other parties and possible con-flicts on times and dates so guests don’t have to choose one party over another.

Next, determine your food budget. Bishop encourages Siouxlanders to be clear at the outset about how much money they want to spend. This saves time, frustration and helps planning move along smoothly toward the big event.

“If you’re on a tight budget, don’t plan

a party at noon. Plan it at 3 in the after-noon. We can do all sorts of things that can go a long way for that time of day,” says Bishop who decided to close her full-service Aggies restaurant in favor of full-service catering two years ago.

The mid-afternoon party can go simple yet satisfying with cocktail-sized sandwiches, pretty fruit kabobs and perhaps colorful veggie trays with a dip. Chili con queso is a budget-friendly op-tion. So is spinach-artichoke dip. Or how about a dessert buffet?

Aggie’s does cheesecake, lemon bars and other goodies, including the Aggies-famous brownies, as “bites.” The scaled-down portions are presented in pretty papers for a portable treat just right with coffee, tea, water or soft drinks. An ice cream bar is another popular budget friendly option that’s easy to plan, set up and maintain. It can be loads of fun for graduates and guests.

Hosts who want to move closer to mealtime have a wide variety of options, from side dishes that range from pasta salads to baked beans. As for quantities: order enough of each side dish to serve about half the number of guests.

For the main attraction, many request an Aggies’ specialty: barbecued beef brisket. What makes it so popular? The caterer’s long, slow cooking approach deepens flavor and brings the meat to fork-friendly tenderness.

Many customers ask for the meat to be sliced and served on platters, buffet-style. Guests assemble their own cocktail bun-sized sandwiches for a neat portable food that’s not overly filling.

Hosts should figure about 1.5 ounces of meat per sandwich. Most guests eat no more than two sandwiches, particu-larly if they’re making the graduation party rounds that day.

“We figure about 3 ounces of meat per person or about one to one-and-a-half or two sandwiches per guest,” says Bishop. “Remember, the goal is to run out of food – not right away, of course. But you don’t

want a lot of leftovers to deal with.”The Venue at Aggies’ menu is by no

means limited to popular brisket. In fact, it seems there’s no limit at all. Pork loin, a nacho bar, chicken satay with a spicy sauce, French dips and other sandwiches are among the many favorites.

Yet, the most fun often comes when hosts request the graduate’s favorite dish. Aggies will make it, using the host’s recipe if requested. If the host doesn’t have a recipe, Aggies will come up with one everybody can agree on.

“The funnest parties we’ve ever done are when we have the kids’ favorite foods,” says Bishop. “For instance, one family asked for sesame chicken and fried rice – the graduate’s favorite. We want people to know that we cook in all languages.”

Whatever the language, the cook-ing’s always done from scratch rather than relying on heat-and-serve products. The caterer prizes fresh ingredients and looks forward to the opening of Sioux City’s Farmer’s Market for optimal home-grown quality.

Bishop and her business partner Jone Kent welcome customers who want to taste test before deciding on which foods to order for the graduation party. The discussion extends to the party site, set-up and selection of plates, napkins and other details.

All of this is work “that’s gotten to be a passion for me,” says Bishop. While she enjoyed running the popular Aggies res-taurant for 14 years, she now finds her days packed with the pleasure of cater-ing events small and large.

Influenced in childhood and adoles-cence by family members, particularly her maternal grandfather, Bishop has a firm philosophy when it comes to food.

“I’ve always known what I wanted and what I liked. I don’t want to serve anything that’s pre-made. I want it all made from scratch.”

party CrunCh


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from serious to whimsical, Book People has numerous gifts for graduates including words of wisdom to practical advice for life. Book People is located at 2923 Hamilton Blvd., in the Marketplace shopping Cen-tre. Call 712-258-1471 for more information.

Wise Wordsshare the widsom of others with a Quotable Canvas, $25, “Wisdom” by andrew Zuckerman, $16.95, Quot-able cards, $2.95 or a Quot-able mug, $12.95.

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Your house can shine this spring

Tony drake demonstrates power washing.

The Trees May be green and the sun might be bright. But why is the outside of your house still looking dirty and dingy, this spring?

The reason, according to Tony Drake, owner of Tony’s Mobile Pressure Services, is because people pay more at-tention to their home’s inte-rior than they do its exterior.

“The exterior of your home should represent what you want people to think of you,” he suggested. “Not only will a good power washing increase the property value of your home, it will show that you’re

a conscientious neighbor.”After all, what looks worse

than mold and mildew on the siding, wood or brick of your home?

“All of that stuff makes your home look much older than it actually is,” Drake insisted. “A good power wash-ing, every couple of years, will really make your home look brand-new.”

Here is what you need to make your house shine with pride this springtime:

PreSSure waShing MaChine

Although they may be purchased at stores for a fairly inexpensive price, Drake

suggests people who are in-experienced with powerful pressure washers can end up doing irreparable harm to their homes or worse, to themselves.

“Pressure washers can burn up your grass and destroy greenery,” he said. “It can leave gashes on your house and on you if you’re not careful.”

That’s why Drake recom-mends getting a feel of the equipment before attempting it on your house.

“Power washing your home need not be difficult,” Drake said. “But once you’ve mas-tered it, you will notice your house has never looked bet-ter.”

aerating laWns importanttext by Joanne Fox

Photograph by Tim Hynds

text by Earl Horlyk Photograph by Jerry Mennenga

home Getting ready

easy fixes for your home5

experTs suggesT aeraT-ing your lawn because the dethatching process opens up the surface and allow nu-trients, water and air to pen-etrate the root systems.

Thatch is a layer of par-tially decomposed stems and roots at the soil surface, explained Margaret Murphy, horticulture educator, Iowa State University Extension, of Rock Rapids, Iowa.

“It’s normal to have a small amount of thatch, less than one-half inch thick is actu-ally considered desirable,” she

said. “But excessive thatch, which can build up via im-proper fertilization, watering and mowing, can decrease the vigor of the turfgrass.”

As research “unearths” more about lawn care over the years, the practice of aerating one’s lawn to keep it healthy has become more common, Murphy said.

“Aeration relieves soil com-paction,” she said. “Additional benefits include increased root growth and enhanced fertilizer uptake.”

Aerators can be rented at most hardware, home im-provement or lawn and gar-den stores. Most professional

lawn care companies will also offer this service, Murphy said.

“Aerate lawns with a core aerator, which have hollow metal tubes or tines that remove plugs of soil,” she recommended. “There are spiked-type aerators that just punch holes in the ground. These devices may open the

surface but do very little to reduce compaction and may actually make the problem worse.”

It doesn’t matter where you live. All lawns can benefit by aeration though the fre-quency of aerating depends largely on the type of soil you have, Murphy clarified.

“Aerating once a year is usually sufficient for lawns that are established on well-drained soils with less foot traffic,” she said. “Fall and spring are the best times to aerate the lawn – generally, September and April. The soil should be fairly moist for best results.”


Pruning depends on type of shrub

fixing the CraCKs

text by John Quinlaneasy fixes for your home

sooner or laTer, More often sooner in Siouxland, considering the weather, most driveways and sidewalks will need repairs. Especially in spring when the change from snow to warmth causes beveling, said Tyson Nawanna of Sioux City’s Nawanna Construction.

The freeze-thaw cycles lift sidewalks and driveways and ice forms in expan-sion joints, pulling the material apart. Rock salt can also break apart the top layer of concrete, causing even more damage.

Fixing the cracks or replacing the con-crete can be done on a do-it-yourself ba-sis, or you may need to hire professionals if it is a big project.

“Your first step is identifying what caused the crack,” Nawanna said. “It can be foundation causing it. It can be weath-er, accumulation from snow to warmer weather. After identifying the cause, then you can pinpoint the remedy.”

If it isn’t a major crack, the homeown-er can go with MP1 caulk or an NR-201 caulk, “just a sealer,” he said. The sealant is pretty much for temporary use, but it could hold for several years.

“If it’s a major crack, you should seek professional help. Get it cut-lined, pull her out, replaced with extra concrete,” Nawanna said.

If it is a smaller crack, you still need to blow out the crack, making sure it’s clean so the sealant can actually grip onto the concrete, he said. “I would take an air compressor and blow it out, or a water hose. You could wash it out, let it dry out and then take your NR-201 or your MP1 and place it in there. Those two agents are self-leveling.”

If undertaking a major concrete replacement on your own, Nawanna advises you make sure your foundation underneath the concrete is packed well to keep water from getting underneath and possibly creating a sinkhole.

“If you’re going to tear out one sec-tion by yourself, what you would need is a hand tamper, masonry tools such as a float, a shovel, a mixing bucket and some concrete,” he said.

Probably the best way to deal with sidewalk cracks is to simply avoid them. Seal your driveway once a year, and if cracks are forming, fill them in immedi-ately before the condition gets worse.

iowa state extension agent Mimi shanahan demonstrates pruning dead winter kill (brown leaves) on a shrub.

If it’s May, you might want to put down those pruning shears and wait be-fore you work on your shrubs.

Prime pruning time for many shrubs that flower in the summer has already passed, said Mimi Shanahan, Iowa State University Extension horticulturist.

The best time to prune those bushes is late winter or early spring so that the new growth can flower this summer. Pruning after that is too late because any new growth after pruning may not be hardy enough to withstand winter.

You also need to put off your plans to prune shrubs such as lilacs that bloom in the spring, Shanahan said. The best time

to prune those shrubs is right after they bloom.

If you haven’t checked your shrubs yet for signs of winter damage, get outside and do it. Any broken branches should be removed, Shanahan said.

When pruning, how much you trim depends on what you’re trying to achieve. You’ll probably prune less if you’re just shaping the shrub. If it has become overgrown, more pruning will be needed.

If you’re not sure about when and how to prune your shrub, Shanahan sug-gested calling the ISU Extension office or look up information on the Internet.

“You just need to know what kind of plant you have and what its needs are,” Shanahan said.

text by Nick HytrekPhotograph by Jerry Mennenga


afTer a winTer’s worTh of snow, ice and various ill winds, now is the time to examine the trim around your win-dows.

“Yes, this is the time,” said Jim Wolcott, owner of Sioux City Paint & Decorating. “Get through the rainy part of April and do this in May and June. By July and August it gets a little hot.”

Temperature and humidity are key factors when it comes to paint, especially paint around those window areas where mois-ture collects.

Ideally, temperatures must stay above 45 degrees for at least 24 hours after window trim is painted. The humidity must be in the 30- to 60-percent range.

A few years ago, paint companies introduced exterior paint products that allowed homeowners to paint at temperatures below freezing. Environmental factors and regulations have asked manufactures to strip products of various compounds that allowed painting to go on during a typical Siouxland win-ter.

“So now they’re saying 45 to 50 degrees would be the

minimum temperature for the first 24 hours after it’s been painted,” Wolcott said.

Follow these tips for window areas:1. Scrape the area down to the wood surface, eliminating all

old paint.2. Apply a primer on bare areas. If the trim is colored, Wol-

cott suggest adding a colorate to the primer. This reduces the number of coats of paint needed.

3. Use an angular brush when applying a coat of paint. A brush like this allows the homeowner to paint at an angle, meaning you’ll get to those sharp corners. An angular brush often eliminates the need to spend time taping windows.

“If you happen to splatter a little paint on the window, wipe it off quickly,” Wolcott advised.

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graduaTion announceMenTs for Jared and Alex Bogue of Ida Grove contained a theme: “Boogie With The Bogues.”

Yes, their graduation parties centered on a dance. And a band.

The Bogues are the sons of Mark and Jacki Bogue.

“Jacki and I travel a lot and we’ve never heard of anyone having a band for a graduation,” Mark said.

Graduation parties weren’t a big thing in Urbandale, Iowa, where Jacki was raised.

They’re pretty standard around Mark’s hometown, Ida Grove. Basically, parents around Siouxland get the home ready for a short reception featuring punch, pop, chips and cake. Most graduates stand at the door to greet those toting cards and well-wishes.

“We moved to Ida Grove and found that graduations are big things you end up remodeling your home for,” said Mark. “People put all this hard work into what amounts to a Sunday afternoon.

“Jacki and I tried to get from one graduation party to another on those Sundays,” he said. “We ended up having one piece of cake at each place and then flying out of there to get to the next.”

They promised things would change when their oldest son, Jared, graduated from BCIG High School in 2006. The couple contacted an Okoboji-area band to see if it might head south to play a graduation gig.

The band had a prior commitment. So, the band recommended the local group, 2 Drunk 2 Fish. The name made the couple cringe a bit for a graduation party. The band’s act, however, didn’t dis-appoint. Musicians Scott Jendersee and Brad Burkholder, both of Sioux Falls, S.D., said they base their music in the Jimmy Buffett realm, while adding country and pop when requested.

“We don’t come with a set list,” Jen-dersee said. “We come with guitars and play what the crowd wants to hear.”

The band played for three hours at the Bogue home, a residence just beyond Ida Grove’s city limits, on that May night in 2006. The crowd: 300.

“We had a great time,” Mark said, add-ing the band and dance took place on the eve of the commencement exercise. That

fact helped keep behavior in check.“We want to have fun, but there are

constraints. We’re sensitive to that,” said Mark, who is a member of the OA-BCIG school board.

“We thought that with family coming to Ida Grove, we could make a graduation more of a celebration,” Mark said.

“Jared had participated in sports, mu-sic and lots of things during high school,” Jacki added. “Plus, his grades were always good. We thought this would kind of be a reward for him.”

Jared ended up studying engineering at the University of Iowa, selecting the school over Vanderbilt University and Duke University. He’s graduating this spring from the master’s program at Duke.

The crowd swelled to 400 two years later for graduate Alex, who, like his older brother, was a good student who took part in a number of school activities. The band returned and played under a tent that was tied down with vehicles. A friend provided portable heaters to keep the crowd toasty during a cool May night.

It was another graduation hit, the Bogues said. “The first time (2006), the band said they had fun,” Mark com-mented. “The second time (2008), they said they had a blast. This time (2011) the band said we’re coming whether you want us to or not!”

“This will be our third party with them,” Jendersee said. “We hoped they’d have more kids so we could have more gigs! They’re a great family with great kids. We’ve lucked into playing for a fam-ily that likes to have fun.”

The party expands this month as the Bogues’ baby of the family, daughter Taylor Bogue, graduates from OA-BCIG. Like her brothers, she’s heading to the University of Iowa. Unlike her brothers, she’s sharing her graduation dance with neighbor Nicole Patera, daughter of Di-ane and the late Dr. Daniel Patera, who died in 2003.

Nicole Patera is the youngest of six Patera children. The families live within a softball throw of each other at Ida Grove.

“The girls have basically been insepa-rable since they were little,” Jacki said of Nicole and Taylor. “And I don’t know if they’ve ever gotten in a fight.”

They were at the Patera home playing,

in fact, when Nicole’s father collapsed on that day eight years ago. Mark rushed to the home and drove Diane and Nicole to the hospital.

“Those are the kinds of experiences that draw families close,” Mark said. “We’ll be great friends forever.”

The girls have had fun traveling with their parents. They even went with one another while researching college op-tions. Taylor settled on Iowa, Nicole is headed to De Paul University in Chicago.

Planning a joint graduation bash al-lowed the girls to work on another big project together. Jacki noticed some ef-ficiencies in scale while going over the lists.

“We went to a friend’s home in Cedar Rapids (Iowa) and they had a co-family reception,” Jacki said. “It’s been a cost-ef-ficient move (sharing supplies, etc.) and lots of fun to plan.”

The Bogue boys will be back with their friends to help set up the tent, etc. In planning their graduation receptions, several families of 2011 OA-BCIG grads steered clear of Saturday night. Seems that’s reserved for this “Boogie With The Bogues (and Pateras).”

“It’s fun as some families are now spreading their graduation receptions out over a two-week period,” Mark said. “You can now go and spend time at one and not feel guilty.”

The Bogues will have a smaller recep-tion for Taylor prior to the dance. Diane Patera will host a reception for Nicole af-ter the OA-BCIG commencement May 22.

As far as remodeling portions of a home for a graduation reception? Diane Patera seems to have taken neighbor Mark Bogue up on this notion, and then some. She’s building a new home adja-cent to her old one.

“We hope to be moved in by gradua-tion,” she said.

pomp, CirCumstanCe … and Jimmy buffett


graduation Parties

oa-BCig High school seniors Taylor Bogue, left, and nicole Patera will celebrate their high school graduation in May with a band playing between their homes just outside of ida grove, iowa.

text by Tim Gallagher | Photograph courtesy Christina Kjar Photography

pomp, CirCumstanCe … and Jimmy buffett



high school graduaTion is an important moment for a student who attends a traditional school. However, for home-schooled students, there is no pageantry involved with earning a high school diploma.

“Home-schooled students do indeed graduate from high school,” explained Joni Vondrak, home school visiting teacher with the Sioux City Community School District Home School Assistance Program. “However, they are not part of the Sioux City Community School District system; so, therefore, they do not participate in graduation ceremonies.”

Home-schooled students may also subscribe to different programs not under the auspices of the Home School Assis-tance program, Vondrak clarified.

“We had approached the school board to investigate if home-schooled students could participate in graduation cer-emonies,” she said. “But to further complicate their situation, many home-schooled students don’t complete studies in May like traditional students. Some may ‘graduate’ in February or June. So, the decision was made to not include them in com-mencement ceremonies.”

Dr. Stephen and Laura Kahanic celebrated the graduation of their home-schooled twin daughters – Sarah and Jennifer – with an open house in late May 2010.

“True, we didn’t have a commencement ceremony with cap and gown, although inexpensive ones can be purchased off the Internet if it’s important for you to have that special graduation picture,” said Laura Kahanic. “But we did have a fun celebration of their accomplishments.”

Kahanic acknowledged that when parents home school through high school, children miss out on some of the “rites of passage,” but insisted there were many other blessings that are far more important than a ceremony.

“My daughters didn’t actually expect to hold a graduation open house, especially since they had actually finished their high school program eight months earlier,” she said. “But they clearly enjoyed having an ‘official’ celebration at the same time in May as all their friends who just graduated had their open houses. It was a fun two weekends for the girls as they went from open house to open house celebrating with their friends, and then having them come to our open house.”

Former home-schooled student Dylan Kraayenbrink hosted a graduation party May 15, 2010.

“It didn’t matter too much to me (to have a party),” con-fessed the son of Duane and Jodie Kraayenbrink. “There was a ceremony I could have attended for Iowa home-schoolers held in Des Moines, but I didn’t care to go to that, although I know of some other kids that did. I don’t like ceremonies too much so I was actually glad to be able to avoid another one.”

For Kraayenbrink, other accomplishments might be more important than a commencement.

“I think actually graduating high school is the point of high

school, so just doing that is probably the most important thing,” he mused. “And the after that, getting good grades is important so you can be hired at a good job or be able to go to a good col-lege.”

In fact, college seems to be more important.“As a family, we look forward to our girls’ college gradua-

tions,” Kahanic said. “We will finally get that official graduation photo or DVD and enjoy the whole experience of watching each one walk across the stage and collect her diploma. But if they missed the ceremony due to illness or some other con-flict, it wouldn’t change how proud we will be or diminish their achievements. It would all still be there, just without the ‘trap-pings.’”

“I didn’t see high school as an end in itself; it was just a step-ping stone to college and then to a career,” Kraayenbrink said. “Because of that mentality, a big celebration wasn’t important to me. But I still enjoyed my graduation party, and I’m glad that I had it and that lots of people came.”

The student at Cornerstone University, Grand Rapids, Mich., added, “I know that graduating high school was a big event in my life, but I was so focused on going to college the next school year that it wasn’t perhaps as big of a deal that I might have made of it otherwise. High school was pretty good for me, but so far, college is better.”

text by Joanne Fox | Photograph submitted

graduation Home Schooling

home sChoolingneeds different graduation parties

dylan Kraayenbrink, who was home-schooled, celebrated his graduation on May 15, 2010 with friends and relatives.


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delaney MordhorsT was feel-ing melancholy as she stood in line to pick up the gown and mortarboard she will be wearing for graduation.

“This is the end of an era,” the North High School senior said while paying for her graduation day attire. “There’s no go-ing back anymore.”

On the other hand, Mordhorst’s class-mate Cody Kubik was ecstatic to be so close to graduation.

“Graduating from high school is just a rite of passage,” Kubik, who will going to Western Iowa Tech Community College to study photography, explained. “I am ready to move on.”

Kubik and Mordhorst were among the students who were picking up orders placed with Jostens, a Minneapolis-based company that provides yearbooks and class rings in addition to graduation gowns and hats.

According to the company’s com-munications director Rich Stoebe, gradu-ation gowns and caps have retained a sense of formality over the years.

“People still enjoy the pomp and cir-cumstances of graduation,” he observed.

But Stoebe reasoned people also want to go green. That’s why Jostens intro-duced its Elements Collection graduation gowns.

“Back when I was in school, gradua-tion gowns were made from polyester and not very nice-looking,” Stoebe said with a laugh. “Nowadays, the fabric fiber for our Elements Collection is made with wood sourced exclusively from renew-able, managed forests.”

Based on scientific research, Stoebe said, the fabric used for the Elements Collection has proven to decompose in soil in one year.

Which is a good thing since graduates tend to hang onto their gowns and mor-tarboards for years.

“Graduates may never wear ’em again, but once they have ‘em, they wanna keep ‘em,” he said.

This is also true of class rings, which many seniors purchase when they are in their junior year.

“Class rings used to all look alike,” Stoebe said. “Now, they truly reflect the individual personality of its wearer.”

With that in mind, Jostens allows stu-dent to go on its website to design a ring of their choosing. Some prefer something traditional, like their school’s colors.

Others incorporate a personal interest, like music or sports.

Kathleen Garcia said her class ring will be on her finger long after she gradu-ates from North High School while class-mate Rosa Estrada, showing off a class necklace which shows off her love of music, will be close to her heart forever.

“As much as I will miss my friends, I will always have my memories,” Estrada said, tugging on her necklace. “This will be a reminder of the good times I had in high school.”

text by Earl Horlyk | Photograph by Hemera Technologies

graduation Apparel

Graduation apparelcelebrates rite of passage and

personality


when caMeron oakley walked across the stage last May to accept her diploma, the North High School Class of 2010 graduate said it was one of the proudest moments of her life.

Despite tying (with Kate Kollars) for the first-place position in her class, Oak-ley didn’t become valedictorian.

Instead, with her 4.3 GPA, Oakley was honored with approximately 14 other graduating seniors who represented the top-ranked 5 percent known as “Best of Class.”

“My older brother, who was at the top of his class when he graduated North a year earlier, got to be class valedictorian, yet I wasn’t when I graduated,” Oakley, now a Morningside College political sci-ence and English double major, said less than a year later. “After all of the hard work I put in, it sorta sucked not being

valedictorian.”That’s because the Sioux City Com-

munity School District changed the way classes were weighted during Oakley’s junior year.

In 2004, the district adopted a class ranking formula based on a grade point average, which went into effect after Oakley’s brother graduated in 2009.

When Oakley graduated the following year, more challenging classes, such as Advanced Placement (AP) courses, were given more weight.

But, at the start of 2010-11 school year, the district decided that both class rankings based solely on GPA and those based solely on weighted course work were unfair to some students.

“Let’s say a student took only five advanced placement (AP) classes and a got an A in each,” LuAnn Haase, the

district’s director of secondary education, explained. “That student would receive a higher class ranking because the classes he took were all heavily weighted.

“Another student, taking and getting an A in five AP classes while also partici-pating in band and chorus would be at a disadvantage because the two latter classes are not weighted,” she continued. “The student would receive a lower class ranking even though he was more ambi-tious.”

Beginning in 2014, class rankings will, instead, be based on “quality grade points,” which encourage students to not only take more academically rigorous courses but also more courses in general.

Which was good news for Mallory Sea, a North High School junior who participated in a committee made up of administrators, parents and students to

text by Earl Horlyk | Photograph by Jerry Mennenga

graduation Valedictorian

valediCtorian status

Class ranking changes leave

up in the air


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Morningside College freshman Cameron oakley was one of north High school’s top students in 2010 when she graduated.

make the class ranking formula more equitable.

“I take as many AP classes as I can but I participate in musicals,” she said. “I think both are equally important in my overall experience and both should be weighted accordingly.”

As for naming a graduating valedicto-rian and salutatorian, the district is leav-ing it up to each high school.

“Each of our three high schools is unique and so are their graduation cer-emonies,” Haase said. “We feel it is best for them to determine what is best for each school.”

Yet if Oakley had a vote, she’d say re-instate the role of valedictorian.

“Don’t get me wrong, because my graduation was wonderful,” she said. “Each member of the ‘Best of Class’ was allowed to say a few lines from a speech and it worked out fine.”

While tugging at her bookbag as she made it to her next college class Oakley said: “But it sure would have been nice to acknowledge the person who ranked at the very top of her high school class.”


for years, franciscan sisTer Ramona Colling dutifully measured stu-dents at Bishop Heelan Catholic High School for their graduations gowns.

“It was a very important responsibil-ity,” insisted the former instructor who retired to the Sisters of St. Francis moth-erhouse in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1998 after teaching 22 years at Heelan. “A gradua-tion has to be beautiful and professional and correct.”

But like many other rites of passage, schools storing graduation gowns has become a thing of the past.

According to Director of Communica-tions Alison Benson, the Sioux City Com-munity School District uses Jostens, a company that specializes in graduation items, for acquiring the gowns.

“Each school places its own order,” she explained. “The registrars start working

text by Joanne FoxPhotographs by Tim Hynds and Jerry Mennenga

graduation Gowns

storing graduation

goWns

most sChoolsnot


with the students in the late fall to place the initial order. Each student pays for their own cap/gown.”

Heelan hasn’t stored gowns since 2007, explained school counselor Marla Pluim who coordinates graduation activi-ties with instructor Jeri Sturges.

“We order new ones for students ev-ery year,” she said. “They pay for them and are theirs to keep.”

In fact, phone calls to a dozen schools in the Tri-State area unearthed only one school that had gowns on site for the students.

Sergeant Bluff-Luton vocal music in-structor Christine Massey handles the 115 choir robes that pull double duty as graduation gowns.

“Eventually, we may look at another approach, but for now, this works well for us,” she explained. “I’m not sure when

this started, but I’ve been handling it for the past 11 years.”

About a week before graduation, Massey will alert seniors that gown mea-surements and fittings will take place over the lunch period.

“It really only takes a couple of min-utes per person,” she confessed of the 108 students. “And the seniors who are in choir already have their gowns.”

Sizes range from small to XXL with varying sleeve lengths, and students enjoy modeling the gowns before their peers, Massey said.

“They’ll try a couple on and show off,” she added. “It’s a joyful time for them.”

The SB-L seniors can take possession of the gowns a week prior to gradua-tion, to accommodate church services or baccalaureates and, at $110 per gown, students must return them after the

commencement ceremony, Massey said.“I warn them they’ll have to meet

with the principal if they don’t return them,” she added. “I can think of only one instance when a student didn’t, then left immediately for the military. It took a year, but I tracked it down.”

Neither Massey nor Colling could recall having gowns that would not fit a student because of height or girth.

“If a gown is a bit longer on a petite girl, I suggest a higher heel for them,” Massey said. “We also can reassign gowns to ensure a correct fitting.”

“We made sure we had a variety of sizes,” recalled Colling, who celebrated her 90th birthday in January. “Graduation is a very special occasion. These students have finished their work and are going on. It’s all about pride.”

Far left sergeant Bluff-luton graduating seniors wear school choir robes for their graduation ceremony, as graduating seniors sarah Kinzey, left and Jacob linton dem-onstrate in the music room at the school.Left Heelan teacher sister ramona Colling hands a graduation gown to senior erin Cosgrove in this May 25, 1998 Journal file photo. Colling retired in 1998, after many years at the school.

“A graduation has to be beautiful and professional and correct.”

sister ramona Colling


Jade ellenbecker loves soccer, Bruno Mars and the friends that she’s made during her four years at West High School.

As a senior who prepares to gradu-ate this month, she has plenty of things weighing on her mind.

Specifically, Jade’s struggling with what college to attend (an aspiring on-cology student she has narrowed it down to two schools) and coping with her par-ents’ desire to leave Sioux City shortly after she graduates.

The last thing Jade wants to worry about is the type of announcements she’ll be sending to friends and family, inviting them to a brunch celebrating her graduation from West High School.

“I should have made a decision on graduation announcements a long time ago,” Jade said in early April, “but other things just got in the way.”

With graduation looming closer, she decides to have professionally printed cards – complete with her senior photo – made up and distributed to immediate and long-distance family members.

For her personal circle of friends, Jade

has decided to go the social network route: announcing her graduation party plans, via her Facebook page.

“My family would appreciate a more formal announcement because they would keep it as a keepsake for their scrapbooks,” she said. “I know I love get-ting formal invites and taping them to my mirror or storing them away in a box.”

But Jade also enjoys the immediacy of Facebook as a way to communicate with a wider array of friends.

“With a click of a mouse, I can tell everybody that I know to be at my party,” she said.

Going both the traditional and social media route with graduation invitations is very common, according to Lizzie Post, an author and spokesperson with the Emily Post Institute as well as the great-great-granddaughter of etiquette expert Emily Post.

“A formal, printed invitation is a way to go for family, former teachers and out-of-town guests,” Post said. “After all, graduating from high school is a ma-jor milestone for everyone and having

a keepsake, announcing the event, is something people will always cherish.”

Yet nothing can beat Facebook for get-ting the word out fast.

“That’s the way many teenagers com-municate, via social networking,” Post said. “Grandma may not always be on Facebook but chances are, your child’s friends are.”

As she reflects upon her four years of high school, Jade remembers it was “a battle for the first couple of years.”

“When I got to high school, I was still struggling with what I wanted to be,” she said. “As I get ready to graduate, I now know who I really am.”

This is why Jade wants her graduation to be special for herself, her family and all of the friends she’s made along the way.

“I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished in high school,” she said with a smile, “and I’m looking forward to the future.”

West High school senior Jade ellenbecker is consider-ing printing traditional graduation invitations for family members as well as posting an informal invitation for friends on her facebook page.

graduation announCements

embraCe tradition and soCial media

text by Earl HorlykPhotograph by Tim Hynds

graduation Announcements


graduation Party tiPS froM lizzie PoStyour child’s graduation from high school marks a major milestone not only for him or her, but also you as his or her parent.as memorable as the graduation ceremony will be, so should the graduation party.and what better source of gradu-ation party etiquette is there than lizzie Post, the great-great-grand-daughter of etiquette expert emily Post?an author and a spokesperson for the emily Post institute, Post has tips every graduating senior should know before planning a party.q: if a person is invited to a grad-uation ceremony or a graduation party, is a gift necessary?a: “yes, it is,” Post said. “even if it’s just a card or note of congratula-tions, it will be greatly appreciated.”q: What sort of graduation gifts are appropriate?a: “anything that reflects the per-sonality of the graduate will do,” she said. “some may splurge to reflect a person’s rite of passage; others may choose a gift of lasting importance like a book or a piece of luggage; while some may go whimsical. When i graduated, a family friend gave me a pair of giant sunglasses that spelled out ‘Class of 2001,’ which i still cherish.”q: how should a graduate act at his graduation party?a: “Make sure he’s a good host, spending time with all of the at-tendees.” Post said. “after all, they’ve all come to see him and wish to celebrate this milestone in his life.”q: how do i get my graduate to write thank you notes to all of his guestsa: “appeal to his empathy,” she suggests. “ask him if he had put forth an effort into choosing a gift for someone and never received a response. remind him that a handwritten note is warmer than an email, so make it easier by having stationery and stamps available for him. also be a good role model, saying, ‘How about we both sit down and work on note writing tonight?’”

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20 questions with a high school counselor

stephanie Hames

1. you’re a school counselor. has the title evolved from guidance counselor?

That’s what we’re called here. In some schools we’re called guidance counsel-ors. It usually just depends on the school district or what college you went to.

2. what all does a guidance coun-selor do?

We wear many hats, from scheduling to scholarships to personal issues to fi-nancial aid to college admissions.

3. how has that changed over the years? do you wear more hats?

We have added more hats. The high-est change is technology.

4. are there any common misconcep-tions people have about what you do?

I think a lot of people believe that we’re not really trained to deal with family and personal issues, but we are trained to deal with that. We hear people say “I’d like to talk to a real counselor.”

5. how has the internet affected the job of guidance counselor?

In a sense, it has made it easier for not only us, but a lot of students, and it has really gotten rid of a lot of paper. Every-thing is online.

6. is part of your job to make sure students are on track to graduate?

Yes.7. do you deal with many panicked

students toward the end of their senior year?

Many? No. There’s a handful. When they start hearing their friends talking about this scholarship or that scholar-ship, then they panic a little bit.

8. what challenges do you encounter making sure students get all the classes they need?

Basically, how do they fit in our mas-ter schedule? We need to make sure the required classes are offered a lot in our master schedule.

9. how do you overcome these is-sues?

We just have to make it happen. We do have a lot of options. We may of-fer students summer school to get a required class out of the way or take another class. We offer credit recovery where they take an additional class after school.

10. do you generally accept students’ class choices or steer them into classes that better fit their academic abilities?

Both. We meet with our students once a year for preregistration. We steer them to their required classes, look at what they want to take and talk to them about their career goals. Then we look at all three areas and see if we are on the right track.

11. what is the most common con-cern students come to you with?

One of the top ones is, “How am I go-ing to pass this class?” or “I’m struggling with this class. What can I do?”

12. what do you do to help students with their college choice?

We push the college visit first of all. One of our first questions is “Have you visited?” When you step on that campus in August or September is not the time to find out you don’t like it. We really push that college visit.

13. how many colleges are you in contact with during the year?

I can’t even say it’s limited to the tri-state area. I don’t even know how to put a number to it. I suppose 75-100 probably.

14. with the internet, are students nowadays better prepared to make a college choice or does access to all that information make it harder?

I think they’re better informed. There’s more information out there, so they’re better informed.

15. how often do you see students and their parents disagree on college choice?

Not very often, really.16. in those cases, who usually wins

the disagreement?It’s probably 50-50, I’d say. A lot of

times it depends on where the funding’s coming from. If the parents are doing a majority of the funding, they usually win out.

17. how many scholarships are out there? is it limitless?

That’s a good word. There are local scholarships, state scholarships, college scholarships, national scholarships, or-ganizational scholarships and business scholarships.

18. is it possible to find a scholarship for just about anyone?

Yes. There you go back to the Internet. Even on Google, just put in “scholarships” and see what you get.

19. what are some resources you rec-ommend for students and parents?

EducationQuest – that is specific to Nebraska, but it has information that’s helpful for anyone. We have students go to FastWeb a lot.

20. what’s the most important thing underclassmen can do to prepare for graduation and beyond?

Take challenging classes. Don’t take the easy way out.

here’s a question students may ask: what does a counselor do? Nick hytrek caught up with Stephanie hames, school counselor, South Sioux City high School.

profile Q&A

text by Nick Hytrek | Photograph by Tim Hynds


“We wear many hats, from scheduling to scholarships to personal issues to financial aid to college admissions.”


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where are Sioux City’S reCordS kePt?graduates of sioux City’s three public high schools since 1972 have it easy – their records can be found at the high school from which they graduated.Because east High existed long before north and West, its records go back to the 1930s.West’s records also include graduates of riverside High school and a few from Central High. north’s records include leeds High school graduates and some from Central High.Central High student records for gradu-ates from 1970 back to the early 1900s are on microfilm at the district’s educational service Center at 627 fourth st.records for those who graduated from Central in 1971 are located in all three schools. it’s suggested that graduates from that year seeking their records go to the present-day high school located in the section of town in which they lived.

worried ThaT a record of the lit-tle run-in you had with your high school principal might someday come back to haunt you as part of your permanent school record?

Unless you had a particularly vindic-tive principal, it likely won’t.

Your permanent school record is just that – permanent. But schools don’t keep every piece of paper associated with your time there.

Marcy Delperdang, a financial secre-tary at South Sioux City High School, has helped compile and file the permanent records of the school’s graduates for 25 years. When she’s taking out the papers from the files to be scanned onto com-pact disc, what information is kept and what isn’t?

Most of what’s included is what you’d expect: the student’s date of birth, ad-dress and names of parents or guardians. A class transcript. Medical information such as immunization records. Any cop-ies of a birth certificate that are on file. ACT scores.

“Those are the only things we are required to keep as permanent,” Delper-dang said.

Hinton High School principal Sue Martens said her school keeps that same information, plus attendance records and information about any special-needs programs the student may have been in.

Notice what’s not in the record: dis-ciplinary actions. So if you were ever suspended from school, relax. It’s most likely that years down the road, no one will find any evidence of it.

Not that you have to worry about that, because only a few people have access to your permanent file.

Delperdang and Martens both said access to permanent student records is limited to school staff, the student and his or her parents. Delperdang said information has also been released to spouses.

In South Sioux City, anyone else seek-ing access must get a transcript release signed by that student or a parent. That’s a common practice when a student wants to have a transcript sent to a po-tential employer, military recruiter or

college admissions office, Delperdang said.

Martens said potential employers usually aren’t interested in seeing the student’s record, they just want to verify that he or she graduated.

As might be expected, permanent records don’t get thrown out. At South Sioux City, small boxes of index cards containing student records dating back to 1909 are stored in a file cabinet. Each card contains a handwritten record of each student’s grades.

Martens said she’s not sure how far back Hinton’s records go. All of the school’s records are kept on paper. While more recent ones are all computer-gen-erated, the old ones contain hand-en-tered information that sometimes can be a little hard to read. The student records fit in four fireproof four-drawer cabinets.

Being a much larger school, South Sioux City wouldn’t have room for the records if they were all still on paper, Delperdang said. Years ago, the district began scanning records to microfilm. Now, they’re scanned electronically onto CDs. The microfilmed records have been scanned to disc, too. All the records fit easily inside a file room in the school’s main office.

Does there come a point when it’s OK for schools to clear out the oldest

records? Neither Delperdang nor Mar-tens was sure. They’ve never really looked into it.

“As far as I know, we’ve never gone back and cleaned them out,” Martens said.

south sioux City High school’s Marcy delperdang keeps tracks of students with file drawers holding their permanent records.

text by Nick HytrekPhotograph by Tim Hynds

permanent student

reCord is Just that

graduation Permanent record

Jared weaver began preparing his commencement speech at Bishop Heelan High School during his sopho-more year.

Samuel Lundt wrote his address at River Valley High School in Correction-ville, Iowa, during a 10-minute break

during study hall.Both speeches entertained, reflected

and got the job done.It’s a fluid concept, graduation

speeches. There’s pressure on a student to wrap up more than a decade of edu-cation while challenging peers to make

the following decades productive.Most school districts ask the valedictorian and the

salutatorian to take the podium for this

task. Speakers are often limited

to five to seven min-utes. Senior classes in the Sioux City public high schools select speakers from the top five percent of the class. The speakers might not be the

valedictorians or salutatori-ans. Those students are asked

to stand during a recognition period.

“Our students are pretty free to cover anything,” said Chris Bork, high school principal at Bishop Heelan. “Most cover moving forward and talk about what they’ve taken from class or the hallways here. The speeches are pre-approved by the guidance counselor and the admin-istration.”

Bork and his staff gave the green light to Weaver, a standout linebacker who now plays football at Iowa State Univer-sity. He thanked God, his family, teachers, staff and classmates.

“Thank you for taking the time, for being there when others chose not to be, for showing me a way guided by values and making sure I followed that path as I grew up,” he said. “I owe all that I am to the people who have been around me and supported me for the last 18 years, and I cannot thank you enough.”

Weaver began thinking about the speech two years earlier when his older brother, Chase, graduated from Hee-lan. “I sat there at Chase’s graduation and watched the speeches,” he said. “I thought that someday it might be me.”

Playing football paled in comparison to the nerves that shook his stomach

text and photograph by Tim Gallagher

graduation Speeches

samuel lundt, a senior at river valley High school in Correctionville, iowa, gave a 50-second commence-ment address last May. it was all of 141 words.

graduation speeChes: from 13 minutes to a tWeet

Jared Weaver, a 2010 Bishop Heelan High school graduate, began thinking about the speech during his sophomore year, the year his older brother, Chase graduated. The speech lasted about 13 minutes. (Cour-tesy photo)



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on graduation day. “Yes, I was VERY ner-vous,” said Weaver, the son of Brian and Debi Weaver of rural Anthon, Iowa. “But I took a lot of time to write it as I thought it was so important. Even in a class of 150 students, I knew this might be the last time I’d see some of these people.”

Administrators wanted Weaver’s ad-dress to take no more than eight min-utes. It lasted about 13. He practiced his talk before a mirror at home, making sure he spoke slowly and clearly.

Weaver focused on a state playoff football game, one in which the Crusad-ers trailed for much of the game. Losing, he noted, would dash years worth of work and sacrifice. As hard as Heelan’s gridders would play that night at Harlan, they would come up short.

Weaver learned some valuable les-sons that evening and shared them from the podium.

“We all know there are times in life when we can do everything right, exhibit our very best and give absolutely every-thing we have to accomplish something, but when one little thing doesn’t go our way our success is lost,” he said. “On Nov. 6, I learned that failure is a fact of life, but not even the most disappointing failure can defeat you without your permission. Our success lies in our will to keep fight-ing, keep working, keep trying, no matter what is thrown at us; no matter how hopeless a situation may seem.”

He added: “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.”

Lundt, the son of Bruce and Renee Lundt of rural Correctionville, Iowa, took a different approach. The four-sport ath-lete who won 15 varsity letters for the Wolverines always dreamed of making an impact from the podium – for his brevity.

Lundt, who finished second in the River Valley Class of 2010 (the school doesn’t name a valedictorian or saluta-torian), presented a 10-second speech to counselor Don Belson at River Valley High School. He planned on walking to the podium with a bottle of water and taking a sip. He would then tell the crowd he’s a man of few words, and take a second sip. And that would be it.

Belson told Lundt to work up a little more. A graduation ceremony, he noted, deserved it.

“The Gettysburg Address,” one of the most famous speeches in American his-tory, took President Abraham Lincoln two minutes to recite.

Lundt’s was shorter, and not as memorable. The address amounted to a “Graduation Tweet” of sorts. But it struck

upon the right themes. Here are the 141 words Lundt, now a freshman at Simp-son College in Indianola, Iowa, shared with 40 classmates.

“U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch once said, ‘Graduation is where a commencement speaker tells rows and rows of graduates, all dressed exactly the same, that indi-viduality is what makes the world tick.’

“In many ways this is true for our class, we all look alike right now, but we are a very diverse class,” Lundt said. “Our interests range from fixing lawn mowers

to singing in the choir. From planning to participate in collegiate athletics to a couple of us donning dresses in this year’s spring play.

“Despite these differences, we are a relatively close class. We all get along with each other pretty well. Hopefully we will all be able to stay in touch because with the characters we have in this class, we might not have to adjust to the real world, the real world might have to ad-just to us.”

It was his first and only draft.

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Briar Cliff university vice President of en-rollment Manage-ment Brian eben, left, said technology has changed the way he communicates with students, like Bishop Heelan senior nate ruehle, who uses tex-ting and phone calls to stay in touch.

text by Nick Hytrek | Photograph by Jerry Mennenga

graduation College recruiting

naTe ruehle doesn’T have to worry about whether he’s missing any college application deadlines.

The Bishop Heelan High School senior will attend Briar Cliff University in the fall and if he has any questions about the enrollment process, all he has to do is send a quick text to Brian Eben, the col-lege’s assistant vice president for enroll-ment who has been in touch with Ruehle for more than a year.

Eben can usually get an answer to Ruehle in a matter of minutes.

“It’s been really nice,” Ruehle said. “I know I’ve texted Brian a lot with scholar-ship questions.”

Welcome to college recruiting in the instant-information age, where the days of receiving a large envelope full of bro-chures, catalogs and application forms from colleges are long gone.

Nowadays, admissions counselors are only a text message away.

“It’s today’s generation. They want in-stant results,” said Eben, now in his 10th year of recruiting high school kids.

It wasn’t that long ago when student recruitment wasn’t so instant, said Jim Braunschweig, sophomore/junior admis-sions counselor and electronic commu-nications manager at Morningside Col-lege. He’s been recruiting future students for five years.

“When I began, we were just using email and phone calls,” he said.

Not cellphone calls.Calls to landlines at the potential stu-

dents’ homes.Of course, contacting busy high school

seniors in the evening was hit and miss.“You’d have to hope they’re home,”

Eben said.

As more high school kids got their own cellphones, college recruiters quick-ly took advantage. With the students’ personal phone numbers in hand, re-cruiters could call then directly or send a text message to tell them about upcom-ing campus events, invite them to visit campus or just wish them good luck at that night’s game.

“That was the best way to get ahold of kids,” Braunschweig said. “It’s so much more instant. You can contact kids faster.”

Then came Facebook. The social net-working website gave college recruiters another avenue to contact high school students. Many recruiters have their own personal Facebook pages on which they post messages on their wall or send personal messages to potential students who have friended them.

College reCruitinggoes eleCtroniC


what’S next?Text messaging and facebook have drastically changed how colleges contact and recruit high school seniors. What other technologies may change that even more?Jim Braunschweig, sophomore/junior admissions counselor and electronic communica-tions manager at Morningside College, said his school is looking into having brochures and other printed materials affixed with bar codes that students can scan with a smartphone and go directly to Morningside’s website and easily get more information.at Briar Cliff university, all incoming freshmen next year will receive an iPad. Brian eben, as-sistant vice president for enrollment, said that as iPads and other tablet computers become more widespread, recruiters will develop ways to use them to communicate with high school kids.Braunschweig and eben both said they could envision using computer applications such as skype to give video tours and have live video conversations with interested students who live in other states or countries that recruiters can’t visit.

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Those new types of technology make it easier to get a school’s name out, Braunschweig said. If a high school se-nior posts something about a college on his or her Facebook page, all their friends can see it, or it can be forwarded to even more kids, some of whom may become interested enough in the college to make an inquiry.

Using that media has allowed colleges to cut down on the mass mailings sent to prospective students. But not all of them.

“At this point there’s still a need for traditional media, and I think there al-ways will be,” Braunschweig said.

Texting or Facebooking a student means that the student is probably the only one who sees the information. If the college sends a postcard or letter, Braun-schweig said, parents are more apt to see it and be aware of their senior’s college selection process.

Texting and Facebook may be quick and easy, but Eben said recruiters still must rely on personal skills to build a relationship with each potential student. Technology makes that a little tougher.

“I think today it’s harder to build that relationship with students,” he said. “Students these days would rather send

a text message than having a 10- to-15-minute phone conversation. It’s not any easier to build rapport. You have to get them on campus.”

That campus visit remains the most important part in recruiting, and it’s something that technology can’t entirely replace.

“The campus visit is the biggest thing, but this can be used to encourage it,” Braunschweig said.

That’s not to say technology can’t ap-proximate it. It’s possible to email a video of campus attractions to students. Virtual campus tours are available on many col-lege websites.

To some, especially older generations,

communicating via text message rather than phone or handwritten note may make the college recruiting process seem impersonal.

It doesn’t seem to bother kids, who are accustomed to and maybe even pre-fer to communicate through text and Facebook messages. Ruehle appreciates the instant access he’s had with Eben and Briar Cliff.

“I think it’s a lot more personal,” he said. “I feel like I’m not just a number.”

And all he and other seniors decid-ing on a college have to do is press a few numbers on a cellphone, and they can instantly get the information they need.


htext by Joanne Fox

Photographs by Jerry Mennenga

hindsighT is beTTer Than foresight.With age comes wisdom.If I only knew then what I know now.Call them maxims, call them fortune

cookie insights or call them words of wisdom, for four students, those pithy sayings speak volumes as they ruminate over what they discovered after being enrolled in college.

For many it’s the first time away from parents and friends. For others it’s an adjustment to a completely different way of life. Here are the insights of four college students to the question: “What do you wish someone had told you about college?” and their advice to incoming freshmen.

Chris humphriesomaha, neb.2007 graduate of benson high School

I would recommend all incoming freshman get involved in any clubs and activities that are related to their major or simply ones that spark their interest. Clubs and organizations are an excellent opportunity for students to meet new friends and establish networking opportunities with the school’s faculty and administration. I have gained many friendships and opportunities to better my leadership skills.

One of the biggest surprises I faced when coming to Briar Cliff University was the realization that the career path I had planned on pursuing turned out to be not be the right one for me. By tak-ing different types of classes I was able to pinpoint an area that fits my personal skill sets.

In high school most students believe that they can blow off an assignment here and there and be all right when grades come out at the end of the term. In college that is much more difficult to do. I would advise incoming freshman to take notes during class and make sure to write down anything their teachers touch on more than once because it will most likely end up on the next test.

I believe my best piece of advice for incoming freshman is to take advantage of every day and opportunity presented to them. College is a time that will feel like a blink of an eye once it’s all said and done. Make it so when you look back on these years that you have no regrets and used this time to best prepare yourself for whatever you aspire to be.

students share

CollegeseCrets

graduation Advice


Jacquelyn Petersfonda, iowa2010 graduate of newell-fonda high School

When I came to Morningside College I was surprised how fast I spent my money. Coming from a small town I never had the chance to just go shopping whenever I wanted or go out to eat because we wanted a night out with the girls. When I came to college, I didn’t have a job for the first month and a half, but I still spent loads of money. My friends were doing it so “Why can’t I?” was the approach I took. Then my first monthly statement came and I was a little more than shocked.

My advice would be to limit the amount of money you directly have access to and keep a balancing book, especially for debit cards.

I also wish someone would have stressed the importance of balanc-ing your studies with your social life. A few really late nights and loads of homework taught me this lesson the hard way.

I also wish someone (besides my mother who already thinks I have too much stuff) would have told me to only bring clothes and things you use at least two to three times a week. Pictures are the worst, I think most everyone would agree that a few frames are enough. If you can’t tape them to the wall or hang the frame, don’t bring it. Picture frames waste too much space. I got a digital picture frame for Christmas and I love it! All my pictures fit in one spot, and you’re not stuck staring at the same picture day after day.

Nicholas Putnamdow City, iowa2010 graduate of boyer valley Community School

One of the main things that surprised me about Morningside College was the amount of dedication it takes to be a good stu-dent. In high school I found it relatively easy to walk through classes without prep. work. It was easy to get the “A” if you turned things in on time and put forth a little effort on the assignments. In college, however, the amount of homework and reading per class is much more intense. It caught me off guard how active I was going to actually have to be in my studies and how much more of my time was going to be needed to maintain a good grade.

In order to compensate for these realizations I’ve come to, I keep a planner. It allows me to see a couple weeks ahead of time what is coming up and what needs to be done first. Time man-agement is the biggest key that I use, and am still learning how to utilize. This way, “What I need?” or “Where is it at?” is not a question I need to ask. The only question I have to ask myself is, “What needs to be done?”

Another thing that I thought I knew coming into college, but didn’t really get hit with until I got here, was the whole concept that YOU, yourself, are responsible for yourself. It sounds easy enough but I didn’t realize how much I was babied along. I got to college and it was just like, “Wow, I have to do all of this?”Charlotte Schumacher

kenesaw, neb.2008 graduate of kenesaw Public School

Coffee is a college student’s best friend. Interestingly, I didn’t even like coffee before I came to Briar Cliff University, just couldn’t stand it. It didn’t take long for me to develop a taste for it, though. Then when I got hired at Java City in the spring of my freshman year … the habit was locked in.

I am a barista at the coffee shop on campus so I usually get my coffee there. Often I work in the morning before class and get my coffee fix in then. On the weekends when Java City isn’t open, I have to find an al-ternative, which usually means going to Caribou just down the hill or sometimes I’ll mix it up and go to the Daily Grind or Panera. I like the coffeehouses because I can justify my habit by doing homework there, too.

Also, when I came to college, I was surprised by how quickly professors go through the class material. In college, most classes are structured so a whole chapter is covered in only one class time. Before each class, professors typically expect their students have read the material and comprehend enough of it to engage in class discussion. With these expectations for multiple classes, I was often overwhelmed with a list of reading. It took me some time to adjust to the new accelerated classroom pace. I had to learn how to skim while still absorbing the material.


do video gaMes hurT or help short-term memory?

That’s the question which nagged Morningside College senior Andrew Gerodias, a counseling psychology major from Laurens, Iowa.

It served as the foundation for his se-nior thesis.

“I wanted to know if video games could be used as an educational aid,” said Gerodias, an avid gamer who has worked for three years in the college’s VGIER pro-gram, a unit that’s more formally called the Video Game Institution of Educa-tional Research.

“We’ve done aggression vs. non-aggression studies at VGIER and how behavior relates to various games (like ‘Grand Theft Auto’),” he said.

To begin his thesis work, Gerodias brought 22 volunteers together, 17 men and five women. He assembled three lists of 20 common nouns, words like fog, shirt and stone.

He recorded these words and played an audio recording of the words to his first group, a group that had no distrac-tions. This group listened to the words

and wrote them down in a five-minute period. The group then did a short unre-lated word find and was then asked to recall the 20 common nouns.

“Our short-term memory can typically hold seven items,” he said.

The second group heard a recording of 20 nouns as it played a video game called “Little Big Planet.” Again, this group did a word find and was then asked to recall the nouns.

The final group played a stage of a video game called “Little Big Planet,” a stage that Gerodias created. Within the game, he inserted those 20 com-mon nouns which matched the audio recording. Like the other groups, these “gamers” did an unrelated word find for a couple of minutes before they were asked to write the common nouns they could recall.

The findings?People who played the video game

with nouns inserted did just as well in recalling those words as the people who listened to the list of words without any distraction.

The most? Subjects in these subsets

andrew gerodias, a Morningside College senior from laurens, iowa, cuts a portion of his senior thesis display at the Morningside College Print shop in sioux City. gerodias’ thesis centers on video games and their use as a memory aid and/or distraction.

text and photographs by Tim Gallagher

health Video games

friend or foe?grad’s thesis foCuses on video games:


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recalled up to 14 of the 20 words.The group that performed poorly

was the group that played a video game which didn’t feature these words.

“People who had the video game as a distraction recalled far fewer words than the other groups,” he said.

Broadly speaking, the thesis leads Gerodias to believe video games can – and maybe should – be used to enhance learning at home and in the classroom. He’s anxious to study this phenomenon more closely at graduate school at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, S.D.

Video games have stereotypes among adults and educators. The games also have stereotypes among students, Gero-dias said. Gerodias bristles when violent acts are quickly attached to the influence of video games. There are many people Gerodias knows who have played violent video games for years. None of them have acted violently.

“I am put off by how often researchers use media as a scapegoat for violence,” he said. “What happened at Columbine High School, for example, was blamed on Marilyn Manson music. Recent mass killings in Arizona and at Virginia Tech University were blamed, in part, on video games or movies.

“‘Old Boy’ is a Korean movie that was blamed for the Virginia Tech shootings,” Gerodias said. “I watched the movie when I heard that. There is violence in the movie, but it sure didn’t make me want to run out and shoot.”

A person’s mental state and any of a number of environmental factors have an overriding effect on these atrocities, he contended.

Interestingly, one word that seemed to show up even though it wasn’t on the list of common nouns was “gun.”

“The video game they watched did feature a paint-ball gun,” Gerodias said. “And that became a recurring word that people listed even though it wasn’t on the list. It’s odd people picked up on that word.”

On the flip side, students attach a negative connotation in most situations where the word “education” is intro-duced in the video game field. Students seem to dismiss the fact that games can be tailored to boost learning and aca-demic performance.

“As a kid, I played some video games for math,” he said. “I think you could ex-pand upon this for middle school, high school and college learning. It is such a large media now.”

Gerodias laughed while recalling ar-ticles from researchers years ago who

figured radio would ruin children. Same goes for the influence of television and the Internet.

“You can find video games now in al-most every household that has children,” Gerodias said. “I’m wondering if there’s a way they can be used to enhance learn-ing. I think my general idea is solid: We can take a popular media and transform it into something educational.”

Gerodias presented his findings re-cently during a seminar at Briar Cliff University. He also did a presentation

during the eighth annual Palmer Student Research Symposium at Morningside College. He will spend a few days in Washington, D.C., this spring taking part in three presentations based on his work at Morningside.

This wasn’t all that Gerodias did dur-ing his final semester at Morningside. He and Amanda Plemel were wed March 19 at Grace United Methodist Church in Sioux City.


aska professionalA: How you sleep at nigHt can directly affect How you feel during tHe day: Certain sleeping positions are more likely to lead to aches and pains than others. Sleeping on your back is actually the best possible position for your body. If you use a correct cervical pillow, it will allow your spine to rest with its natural curves in place. If you use a pillow which is too thick, it can actually pull your head and neck forward and affect your breathing. This does

not allow for good night’s sleep you were looking for. If sleeping on your back feels un-natural for you, or if you have pain with this, you can lie on your back, get a rolled up towel and place under your shoulder blades, and just lay there for about 2 minutes. You can work your way up to 10 minutes. It's incredibly relaxing while re-educating the head and neck to stay back.Stomach sleeping is the worst position of all, affecting your lower back, neck and potentially your lungs. Sleeping on your stomach flattens the natural curve in the lower back and keeps your head turned to one side all night, which distorts the alignment of the spine in your neck. Stomach sleepers should buy and use a body pillow to help train them to sleep on their sides. If you are a side sleeper who likes to roll toward their stomach, you should also use a body pillow (not 2 pillows) to also prevent rotation of your spine while sleeping.For side sleepers, the big problems are tucking your chin towards your chest and putting your arm under your head while you are on your side. Tucking your chin towards your chest reduces the normal curve in your neck while sleeping. Try taking a deep breath with your chin touching your chest, now try it with your chin slightly elevated…it’s easier isn’t it. Therefore look straight ahead when lying on your side and keep your chin away from your chest. Resting your head (which weighs about 10 pounds) on your arm for hours at a time stresses the body. This impinges on the nerves that run through the top of the shoulder and down the arm which can result in numb fingers. The shoulder you sleep on also gets hiked up toward your ear, which constricts your shoulder and neck muscles. Side sleepers therefore should do a simple shoulder stretch. While reaching behind our back, relax while you pull your wrist straight down with your opposite hand and tilt your ear to the opposite shoulder for a good stretch. I hope you were on the winning end of this argument…Happy Sleeping!

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dr. Travis Brownell, an emergency room physician at Mercy Medical Center-sioux City, sees a lot of alcohol poisoning cases in the emergency room.

text by John QuinlanPhotograph by Tim Hynds

health Alcohol poisoning

alCohol poisoningKeeps e.r. busy

ripped froM The headlines, as in R.I.P.Such is the never-ending story of alcohol

poisoning in the United States, as described in those real newspaper headlines above. The last one is the exception, sort of. Some form of it is repeated somewhere every year. Usually many times.

“You could literally have permanent brain damage from a single alcohol poisoning episode and never be the same,” said Dr. Travis Brownell, an emergency room physician at Mercy Medi-cal Center – Sioux City, where the E.R. sees an alcohol-related case every day and “just straight alcohol poisoning” every Friday and Saturday night.

Alcohol poisoning cases are also seen every night people have something to celebrate, from

a St. Patrick’s Day party to a Sugarland concert or a Midwest Regional Pool Championship, he noted.

“You may see 5 or 10 people in an eight-hour period,” he added.

Some people make a stupid mistake and go out with their friends on their 21st birthday. They’ve never had a drink before and they’ll never drink again, he said. But they say, “Oh, I’m 21. I’m going to drink today.” Feeling young and invincible, they tie one on, say they’re never go-ing to drink again – and they don’t.

“But the majority of people who come to the E.R. with alcohol poisoning and have con-sequences from alcohol poisoning tend to be recurring customers,” Brownell said, “and people who have long-term problems. And the

Child of 4 dies of alcohol poisoning (1924)Alcohol poisoning kills 5 men (1941)

30 die in Bowery alcohol poisoning (1963)Country music’s Keith Whitley dies of alcohol poisoning (1989)

Three charged in alcohol death of teen (2011)College student dies of alcohol poisoning (pick a year)


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younger the age when they have their first problems or encounters with it, then the more likely they are to become alco-holics, too. I mean I had a pre-teen with alcohol poisoning this year (a 12-year-old). That person is very likely to be at a very high risk to develop alcoholism and all kinds of problems.”

what iS it?Alcohol poisoning is basically when

an individual consumes enough alcohol for it to become toxic. “And that level is different for everybody,” Brownell said.

Alcohol poisoning can also hit at a much lower level for a first-time drinker, which is why the news is full of so many stories of college students found passed out from alcohol poisoning, he said. A 19-year-old college freshman his or her first time out could drink 10 beers and have alcohol poisoning, while a “sea-soned drinker” or an alcoholic could drink a case of beer every day and be walking and barely slurring speech, Brownell said.

There is also a distinction between al-cohol poisoning and alcohol intoxication.

“I mean, really, any time you’re

buzzed, you have alcohol poisoning. It’s just a term: People used to say that this person had way too much alcohol and put himself in danger,” he said. “If I was going to think of a non-medical way to describe it, that would be a person who was so intoxicated he or she risked vom-iting ... and aspirating on his or her own vomit. Those people are so intoxicated they put themselves in a position to be assaulted physically or sexually or emo-tionally by other people, and that would more likely be in all kinds of bad situa-tions.”

In nearly every story about college students who lose consciousness from alcohol poisoning, friends later say they wish they would have sought medical treatment for them. And that’s the ticket, Brownell said, because the myths about sobering someone up with black coffee, a cold shower or walking it off remain myths. Standing a drunk up can simply cause more problems for both of you, he added.

what not to doJust leaving them alone to sleep it off

is the worst thing you can do. In many

such cases, sleepers die, maybe choking on their own vomit. Sometimes their hearts stop or they have seizures from too little blood sugar. Untreated severe dehydration from vomiting can cause seizures, permanent brain damage or death. Hypothermia can lead to cardiac arrest. And even if they live, there is the possibility of permanent brain damage.

When alcohol poisoning patients ar-rive at the E.R., he noted, letting them sleep it off, under close observation, is often the best remedy. But a physical examination is required to determine if patients are breathing on their own and their vital signs are OK. The patients may be kept in the E.R. for four, six or eight hours, just to make sure they are OK “be-cause one of the risks with people with alcohol poisoning is unrecognized co-ingestions and other injuries.”

This is because these patients gener-ally can’t explain why they might have a head injury, or what medications or other substances they may have taken, making it impossible for the physician to get their story. While dead drunks don’t talk, living drunks can be just as hard to understand.


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health Arthritis

one nighT lasT noveMber, Taylor Cameron awoke to severe pain through-out her body.

“While attempting to get up out of bed, I fell to the floor,” she recalled. “Every joint in my body was screaming.”

Cameron made it to where her cell phone was charging but could not pick it up or dial it.

“At this point I was terrified. I had no idea what was going on and my children were sleeping. What if they woke up? What was I going to do?” she asked.

Finally Cameron was able to call the father of her children. He came to her house, loaded everybody into the car and took Cameron to the emergency room.

After hours of evaluation, lab tests,

X-rays and large amounts of Demerol, Cameron was diagnosed with rheumatic fever, an autoimmune disorder that causes inflammation to joints, skin and the heart.

“It is usually caused by strep bacteria, which tricks your body by mimicking your joint cells,” she explained. “The im-mune system then goes into overdrive attacking real joint cells instead of the strep bacteria.”

What Cameron didn’t realize, but soon discovered, was rheumatic fever of-ten develops into rheumatoid arthritis.

“Every joint in my body was bright red, hot, swollen and, extremely pain-ful,” she said. “To put a pill into my own mouth was excruciating.”

Cameron, a single mother with two toddlers – Gabrielle Howard, 3 and Isa-belle Howard, 1 1/2 – was pretty much helpless.

“I was put on huge doses of steroids, anti-inflammatories, pain medicine and penicillin and ordered to stay in bed and do absolutely nothing for two weeks,” she said. “I don’t remember a lot from the first few days as I was drugged into a coma.”

Cameron could not perform the basic activities of daily living – using the bath-room, showering, brushing teeth and hair, and getting dressed. All required as-sistance from someone.

“I hope I never have to depend on someone like that again,” she confessed.

rheumatoid

arthritis doesn’t deter nursing student


what’S the differenCe?rheumatism is an old-school term for any kind of arthritis.rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease where the body makes anti-bodies to joint tissues.osteoarthritis is good old “wear & tear” joint dysfunction. Most of us get a little of this if we live long enough.Source, Dr. Michael Jurgens, St. Luke’s Sergeant Bluff Family Medicine Clinic

Taylor Cameron with her daugh-ters gaby Howard, 3, and izzy Howard, 1, is a young mother who was shocked to discover the aches in her hands were due to arthritis.

“It’s especially hard when you are used to being very independent and not relying on anyone for anything.”

Cameron’s rheumatoid arthritis de-veloped shortly after the rheumatic fever started to go into remission.

“My doctors don’t want to put me on immunosuppressive drugs as I am only 28 and have small children in daycare, which could be dangerous for a person with a suppressed immune system,” she explained of her treatment.

Dr. Michael Jurgens of St. Luke’s Ser-geant Bluff Family Medicine Clinic (not Cameron’s doctor) acknowledged every-one has aches and/or pains, but often people put off identifying what’s wrong until the pain has advanced so far it’s too late to turn it around.

“You should be concerned enough to contact a health care provider if these symptoms last more than six weeks,” he said, “especially in the hands and wrists, because those could lead to a serious situation.”

Jurgens stressed postponing tests and evaluations could lead to consequences.

“Early detection and treatment will help prevent permanent joint damage,” he said.

As the population ages, there may come a day when physicians routinely order lab tests to pick up early signs of arthritis. What happened to Cameron is not a common scenario, Jurgens said.

“In fact, it’s pretty rare,” he admitted. “We don’t see rheumatic fever much anymore with the advent of antibiotics.”

The illness took over Cameron’s life during her first semester back to college in almost 10 years.

“I have to say that my professors were absolutely amazing. They let me work from home, emailing assignments back and forth and didn’t penalize me for missing class,” said the 2001 graduate of East High School and current nursing student at Western Iowa Tech Communi-ty College. “I honestly don’t think I would have made it through if they hadn’t been so understanding and accommodating.”

Optimistically, Cameron believes the worst is behind her, as she has set her sights on earning a bachelor’s degree in nursing by 2013.

“The bad thing is I never know where it’s going to strike; most of the time my hands are affected,” she said. “But my flare-ups are intermittent and usually last one to two weeks.”


‘doC, i’ve got a question …’answers to your medical questions

adviCe Medical Answers

Meet the doCdr. amanda schoenherr dan-nenbring is a resident physician at the siouxland Medical education foundation, a fam-ily medicine resi-dency program.

what kindS of health queStionS do you have?submit your questions and they may be used in this monthly feature. Write to siouxland life at 515 Pavonia st., sioux City, iowa 51102.

i have a grandmother who has an allergy to bees. She has to carry a syringe with her in case she’s stung. is this hereditary? Should i worry about it? or how do you get this?

Bee sting venom contains certain proteins that affect skin and immune system causing, in most cases, a local reaction of pain, swelling and irritation around the site of the sting. These symp-toms will resolve within a few hours. About 10 percent of people who are stung by a bee will have a larger local re-action that involves severe redness, sig-nificant swelling to the area. It may take up to a week for these symptoms to go away. Having one type of reaction doesn’t mean you’ll always have the same reac-tion every time you’re stung. If you get stung numerous times, you may develop a more serious reaction that requires emergent treatment.

About three percent of people who are stung by a bee or other venomous insects (hornets, wasps, fire ants, etc.) develop a severe allergic reaction (ana-phylaxis). This is a potentially life-threat-ening event and requires emergency treatment. If you have had a severe al-lergic reaction in the past, talk with your doctor about the signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis. You should also carry an epinephrine auto-injector pen, accom-panied by clear instructions on how and when to use it. This is available with a doctor’s prescription.

It may be of reassurance to you that having a family member who has an al-lergy to bee stings does not mean that you will have an allergic reaction to them. You are not at an increased risk despite a family history of reactions. If you are still nervous about having an al-lergy, skin testing can be performed by an allergist/immunologist who has train-ing and experience in the diagnosis and treatment of insect allergies.

do doctors still use tongue depres-sors? or has something else replaced them?

The old “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”

quote fits well regarding tongue blades. We doctors still use tongue blades on a daily basis to look in the back of the throat when the tongue is obstructing our view. This tool is easy to use, afford-able and disposable. What more can we ask for?

what are the signs of food poison-ing? what can you do for something like that?

Food poisoning is certainly something you want to avoid. It is caused by con-tamination of food by bacteria, viruses and/or parasites. However, eating con-taminated food does not mean that you are going to become seriously ill. Symp-toms depend on the degree of contami-nation as well as a person’s age and over-all health. If you have a healthy immune system, you may get lucky and avoid the dreadful symptoms which include: nau-sea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, stomach cramping, fever, fatigue and, of course, loss of appetite.

Treatment depends on the amount and type of contamination. For most people, symptoms will resolve on their own within a few days. If you have severe dehydration from vomiting or diarrhea, fluid and electrolyte replacement is im-portant and you should see your doctor. Your doctor may prescribe antibiotics if the source of the food poisoning can be confirmed bacterial. This does not mean that everyone with a food-borne illness needs antibiotics.

The key is to prevent it from happen-ing in the first place! Prevention of illness requires proper hand washing while pre-paring foods, washing cooking utensils and surfaces properly and frequently, storing and cooking foods at appropriate temperatures and further confinement of already contaminated food. When in doubt, throw the food out!

at the health club, i’ll frequently get

a sign on the treadmill that says, “Cau-tion: heart rate high.” don’t i want a higher heart rate? how do you bring it down?

For healthy individuals, a normal heart rate ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute. Heart rate is influenced by several factors including: overall health, body size, activity level, fitness level, emotions such as anxiety or panic at-tacks and use of medications. If you have a resting heart rate outside of this range it may mean that you have an un-derlying medical condition and should consult your physician before starting any exercise regimen. If not done, people with unknown heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes or respiratory condi-tions such as asthma or chronic obstruc-tive lung disease (COPD) could face life-threatening complications.

Target heart rates while exercising should be discussed with your doctor. Healthy adults (not taking medications affecting heart rate) should stay within 50-85 percent of their target heart rate. An alternative to using a “target heart rate approach,” you can use a “conversa-tional pace.” If you can easily carry out a conversation, you are probably not work-ing hard enough. If you frequently have to stop and catch your breath, you are probably overexerting yourself and need to decrease your pace. If you fall in the category of “working too hard,” decrease your exercise level slowly to bring down your heart rate rather than stopping abruptly. Again, your doctor can help you plan a safe yet effective exercise regimen to achieve and maintain good health.


As the weather begins to warm and thoughts turn to open windows and time spent outdoors, many families undertake the time-honored ritual of spring cleaning. It can involve anything from clearing winter’s debris from your lawn to major renovations, but it is important to remember to work safely during all of your spring cleaning activities.

There are some simple steps you can take to ensure that you are protecting yourself, your family, and the environment.

Ladders can be hazardous when not used properly. In many cases, accidents and injuries occur while using ladders because they are improperly placed, not secured, not the right size for the job, or the user overreaches.

When working with ladders always remember to: • Read and follow all warning labels that

are on the ladder• Use ladders only on solid, stable and level

surfaces• Keep your body centered on the ladder;

never let your belly button pass either side rail

• Never stand on the top two rungs of a step ladder

• Only use a step ladder in a fully opened and locked position; never use it while it is closed, partially opened or leaning on a structure

• Protect yourself from electrical hazards and do not work within 10 feet of overhead power linesSpring cleaning often involves moving

heavy objects such as couches, tables, entertainment consoles and bookcases—a situation where a serious injury can occur. In order to eliminate the risk of objects falling and to lift items safely, always have another person help you.

More tips for lifting heavy objects include: • Get close to the load • Maintain an upright posture from the

waist up• Lift with your legs, not your arms or

back• Pivot on your feet, don’t twist from your

waist Using chemicals during cleaning can

post a hazard to not only yourself, but also the environment. Read the labels of all chemicals you are using and follow all the recommended safety practices. These

may include: wearing protective gear such as gloves and goggles, not mixing the substance with other cleaners, opening windows for ventilation, and following proper disposal guidelines.

Finally, before you use any tools or equipment while cleaning up your yard, make sure you have maintained them in proper working condition and in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations. Have your lawnmower serviced yearly, never remove guards or safety devices, and wear appropriate eye, body and hearing protection.

For more information on home maintenance, visit www.nahb.org.

Spring Cleaning Safety

Doug ConradPresident

Heritage Homes of Siouxland

712-255-3852www.hbags.com

snap shots Fundraisers

diane Pojar, left, sioux City and Marty schmith, sioux City, attending the Power of the little Black dress event March 24 at the Marina inn, south sioux City, neb.

out & about

Photographs by Jerry Mennenga

laugh your hat off Above attending the laugh your Hat off dinner and “fun” raiser for the Community action agency of siouxland at the Banquet and Convention Center at Bev’s on the river is diane sorensen, sioux City, who didn’t mind being called a pot head for the cause.Below Pat Johnson and debbie leigh.

poWer of the little blaCK dressfrom left, amanda McCaf-frey, Molly Horn-beck, Brooke flynn-Miller and Patty stapleton attend the Pow-er of the little Black dress event honoring women who have experi-enced and sur-vived cancer.

your PiCture hereHave a fundraiser or event that should be featured in this section? Call (712) 293-4234 or e-mail [email protected].


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1. Why do people drive with handicapped parking passes hanging from their mirrors?

2. Why are there different amounts of facial tissue in the same-sized box?

3. Why do the slowest hymns have the most verses?4. Why do movie previews show everything that’s worth-

while?5. Why are some manhole covers so low they seem like pot-

holes?6. Why does my team always lose the night I go to the

game?7. Why do people throw

entire rolls of toilet paper in toilets?

8. Why are store-brand groceries always at eye level?

9. Why do my neighbors’ leaves always collect in my lawn?

10. Why do people forget to send thank you notes?

11. Why are good TV shows scheduled against good TV shows?

12. Why do people text in movies?

13. Why do gas prices rise the day I need to fill?

14. Why do ministers choose to read the longest passages when there’s a per-fectly acceptable shorter ver-sion available?

15. Why do I always get be-hind somebody in the drive-thru who has five separate orders?

16. Why do some people go out of their way to be mean?

17. Why do birds crap on newly washed cars?

18. Why do I leave grocery lists and coupons at home?

19. Why do kids cry in mo-ments of silence?

20. Why do moms give kids snacks in church? (Oh, wait. See No. 19.)

21. Why do I get the popcorn with all the Old Maids?22. Why do cars slow down just as I’m about to make the

yellow light?23. Why do my keys always decide to hide just as I’m rush-

ing out of the house?24. Why does the computer crash before I’ve saved my docu-

ment?25. Why do scales weigh “heavy”?26. Why do restaurants run out of specials?

27. Why do cops hang in neighborhoods where I might be going one or two miles over the speed limit?

28. Why do telemarketers call just as they’re going to reveal the winner on my favorite reality show?

29. Why do bills come on Fridays, yet they’re due before Monday?

30. Why do bad-hair days strike at will?31. Why does the camera act up when I’m trying to take an

important, once-in-a-lifetime picture?32. Why does the phone ring when I’m trying to nap?33. Why does my house look the messiest just before some-

one comes over?34. Why do “important” pa-

pers multiply, but never find a permanent home?

35. Why is Facebook such a time sucker?

36. Why do lists of “things to do” never get finished?

37. Why do diet foods taste so awful?

38. Why don’t all pants have those expandable sides like tuxedo pants?

39. Why does it rain when I’m in the mood to mow?

40. Why do friends sit on the juiciest gossip they know?

41. Why is there so much indoor work on the most beautiful day of the year?

42. Why does it take three weeks to adapt to Daylight Savings Time?

43. why do receipts dis-appear just when it’s time to do taxes?

44. Why do people who look like terrorists get through airport security but I practi-cally have to strip?

45. Why do potato chip bags include “number of serv-ings” when, really, it’s just “one”?

46. Why do dog owners say, “He likes you,” when the pooch has just pinned you to the ground?

47. Why do companies say they’re “going green” when they insist you fax them information?

48. Why do you have to buy tires when you can least afford them?

49. Why do the loudest people have the least interesting things to say?

50. Why don’t I have more room for my list?

parting shot By Bruce Miller

the Whys of life

Comstock

715 East N

inth StreetSouth Sioux C

ity, NE

68776

402-494-5411

Connoisseur

Refl

ect your own

personal style.

Siouxland Life Magazine - May 2011

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Transcript of Siouxland Life Magazine - May 2011