Jack Kuyper Sports editor jlkuyper@willamette.edu Four Bearcats scored a goal to shut out Howard Payne University on Saturday, Aug. 31, on Trinity University’s field in San Antonio, TX. The victory marked Willamette University’s men’s soccer team’s first win of the 2019 season. On Sunday, Sept. 1, Willamette tied with Trinity University, 1-1. Both WU and Trinity are 1-0-1 this season. Against Howard Payne University, Junior Carter McCleary started the scoring with a goal at 29:48. Sophomore Yushiro Shiomi passed the ball to junior Mack Van Der Velde by the left post. Van Der Velde passed the ball to McCleary, who took the shot at the penalty shot mark and sent it into the upper-center area of the net. Strong defense from both sides closed out the first half, allowing WU to take their 1-0 lead into the break. WU padded their lead early in the second half. The Bearcats raised their score to 2-0 at 47:36 on a goal that came from senior Nicholas Ballenger. Shiomi registered his second assist of the day with a cross over from the left side to the end line. Ballenger then headed the ball into the net from four yards out. The lead grew to 3-0 after Ballenger passed the ball to Shiomi, who tapped the ball into the left post at 69:45. First-year Ryan Sato completed the scoring with an impressive 33-yard long-shot for a goal at 81:46.  10 minutes into the game against Trinity, a lightning warning paused play for 50 minutes. After the delay, Ballenger scored the first goal of the game at 27:11, only seconds after the Bearcats stopped Trinity from scoring in the penalty area. Junior Max Berner-Hays tackled the ball and sent it flying 30 yards upfield. Sophomore Tam Proctor received the pass and quickly passed it to Ballenger. Ballenger dribbled until he was a few yards past the midfield stripe and then took a chip shot over Trinity goalie, Blake Lieberman. Lieberman was too far forward to prevent the goal. The Tigers quickly regrouped and struck back at WU on a penalty kick at 53:39.  Neither team scored a goal in either of the two 10-minute overtime periods. The Bearcats had more shots on goal than Trinity in overtime, achieving a 3-2 edge in the first overtime and a 5-2 margin in the second. The game finished three hours and nine minutes after it started due, to the overtime period and thunder delays. The Bearcats will be returning to WU’s Sparks Field to take on Corban University on Friday, Sept. 6 at 7 p.m.

Elizabeth Hyde Staff writer eghyde@willamette.edu Willamette’s First-Year Experience program is taking a holistic approach towards fostering collegiate success with the introduction upperclassmen student assistants known as Colloquium Associates (CAs).  “The First-Year Experience is a culmination of the best parts of previous first-year programs at Willamette as well as best practices across the U.S.,” said Professor Sarah Kirk, Director of the First-Year Experience and a key player in implementing the new CA position.  Colloquium is a Latin derivative meaning “talk together.” Colloquium classes are small in size and taught by experienced faculty that double as academic advisors. “What we’ve added to colloquium is the ‘fourth-hour,’” said Kirk. While each respective colloquium has different content, the fourth-hour has the same content for every colloquium group.  The fourth-hour meets once a week and is taught by campus experts who cover a broad swath of topics, like “What is a Liberal Arts Education?” or “What is a Healthy Relationship?” Discussions on the topics are then facilitated by CAs.  Before beginning their role as facilitators, CAs are required to complete a leadership course titled “Colloquium Leadership”, led by Kirk and Kelvin Clark, director of Academic Support. CA students receive half credit for this class, in which they study transferable skills such as student development theory, community building and active listening. After completing the leadership training, CAs are paid for their participation in the program. In addition to discussion facilitation, Colloquium Associates attend colloquium classes and hold their own office hours. First-year students can utilize these office hours for academic or social support.  Opening Days leaders are partnered with CAs for a smooth transition from Opening Days to the start of the academic year.  Some Colloquium Associates were recruited based on their experience with subjects being considered in a specific Colloquium class. Such was the case for Jay Hadfield (’20) and Kelly Ewing (’20). Russian major and English minor Jay Hadfield is working as a Colloquium Assistant for Professor Randall Havas’s “Existentialism in Literature: Dostoevsky’s ‘Crime and Punishment’” class. Hadfield spent a semester studying in St. Petersburg and also received a Carson Grant for research on Russian poetry titled, “Spirit of Exile: Queer Identity and Romantic Tradition in Lermontov’s ‘Demon.’”  “I think if I had taken on a role like this when I was 19, I would have done an awful job and led students quite astray. Now, though, I feel secure enough in my own self and my own life that I feel like I have earned some right to offer guidance,” said Hadfield.  Another CA with experience in the field is Kelly Ewing, an environmental science major and Carson Grant recipient. As part of her Carson Grant, Ewing spent the summer researching regenerative agricultural practices in New Zealand by interviewing local farmers. After returning to Willamette, Ewing was recruited as a Colloquium Associate for Professor Katja Meyer’s class titled “Taming the Angry Beast: Climate Solutions”.  “I hope that the CA position turns into something lasting at Willamette,” said Ewing. “I think it has a lot of potential to connect people personally and provide academic support.”  Rising juniors and seniors interested in supporting first-year students and bolstering their own leadership experience can apply to be CAs in the next academic year. The application will be posted on Handshake and sent through email.  “The biggest strength of the First-Year Experience program is empowering students towards their own success,” said Kirk.

Alexandra Bless Contributor akbless@willamette.edu Something that makes Willamette University stand out from other schools is its student-directed and led orientation program, known to students and faculty as Opening Days. Every Willamette student can recall the experience: moving into their residence hall and then attending a group session and their first colloquium class just a few hours later. The rest of the week remains equally as busy, right up until the first day of classes. While many people might question why Opening Days is designed to be such a busy week for first-years, students involved in organizing Opening Days, as well as the students who recently went through the program, agree that the program, despite its hectic schedule, is critical to the first-year experience at Willamette. To Jaelin Sonoda (’20), the 2019 Opening Days Coordinator, Opening Days is much more than just an orientation program. In her experiences as coordinator, Opening Days isn’t a typical ‘Welcome to campus!’ event, which is a common theme of other college orientations. Instead, the program is designed for new students to recognize that “Willamette is a liberal arts college, where you’re going to be a student, but also an activist and leader.” This notion is reflected in the Opening Days program Bearcats Give Back, in which leaders and new students volunteer their time by providing service at a variety of organizations around the Salem area, allowing new students to exercise Willamette’s motto of “Not Unto Ourselves Alone Are We Born” and find what activism and leadership mean to them. Another critical part of Opening Days is Reality Check, a show directed and performed by Opening Days students that covers topics including sexual assault, stress and anxiety, racial and gender-based discrimination and eating disorders. Opening Days leaders and students alike view the show as effective due to its incorporation of humor and ability to offer solutions to a variety of scenarios associated with these situations. In essence, Reality Check is an essential introduction to the first-year experience because it introduces situations that students may encounter throughout their time at Willamette and shares the resources available to them if they need them. Opening Days also helps students find their place on campus and meet a wide variety of people. Cate Leach (‘23), who completed the Opening Days program this fall said, “[I] felt a sense of community building so quickly. Opening Days made it so easy to make friends.” The College Colloquium program allows students to continue building this sense of community and place. Not only do students get a taste of the typical Willamette course structure before the regular academic year commences, but they quickly grow close to their fellow group members by spending significant time with them in and out of an academic setting. Leach can attest to this: “The connection in this class wouldn’t have happened if all our classes had started right away. It would have been a wildly different story if our Colloquium groups hadn’t been the same as our Opening Days groups because we wouldn’t have been able to grow as close.” After three years of being associated with the Opening Days program and assisting in the process of continuously improving it, Sonoda concludes that “Opening Days serves as an introduction not only to campus and resources but also to Willamette’s culture. It’s an interactive experience that shows how Willamette functions as a community. The experiences of this week are much more than being introduced to college and contain lifelong takeaways.”