The Impact of Moravian College's IMPACT

They’re the organization you see everywhere on campus. IMPACT is always hosting some event or another, but just what exactly is IMPACT?

For starters, IMPACT stands for Innovative Multi-cultural Programming of Activities for Campus Togetherness. It’s a mouthful, which is likely why they stick to their better-known acronym, IMPACT.

The club is run by five chair members (or officers) who help organize and sponsor the events. Their advisor is Holly Nonnemacher, the Director of Student Activities. 

IMPACT is the sort of organization you either love or hate, depending on your view of school spirit. That’s what they primarily focus on: encouraging school spirit and sponsoring activities that involve the whole campus. 

They are best known for the Campus Wide Movie Nights. Each Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday night they host a movie for the campus to see. They are typically popular or recently released movies like Transformers or Harry Potter (which I am personally looking forward to). They host a wide range of movies, from comedies to action thrillers. Sometime during the year, they will host a movie that you’re interested in. I can almost guarantee it.

IMPACT also hosts shopping trips to the Promenade or even to places farther away like New York City. Anyone who is a student or faculty knows this all too well, as emails are frequently sent out about these. 

A major part of IMPACT’s goal is to sponsor multi-cultural activities as well. They don’t just want to get the whole campus involved, they want to get the whole campus involved doing things they may have never done before. For example, they take weekly trips to the ArtsQuest Farmer’s Market along with booking trips to see comedians like Michael Dean Ester. They also host Bingo nights and had activities for Talk like a Pirate Day on Sept. 19. 

IMPACT is one of the busiest organizations on campus in terms of events. Every week they have something going on. The last major event they had was Spirit Week (aka Homecoming Week), which started Oct. 17. This is the part where you may dislike IMPACT, if you’re one of those grouches who resent school spirit of any kind. They hosted the Spirit Week events, which include the Pep Rally on Friday Oct. 21 and the Homecoming Parade on Saturday Oct. 22. 

If you’re interested in the club or their upcoming events, go over to their site at http://home.moravian.edu/students/org/impact/index.htm and check them out. The club accepts members at any point during the year.

Moravian College German Club Officers

I’ve written a fair amount about German Club events, but I realized I haven’t even profiled the club. 

As the title implies, the German Club is dedicated to promoting German culture on campus. Since the emphasis is on German culture as opposed to the German language, it is not a requirement for interested students to actually speak German. 

Each Wednesday the club has its weekly Kaffeeklatsch meetings at 4:30 p.m, where free coffee and cookies are served while the President runs the meeting.

Speaking of the President, here is a list of the club officers:

President – Gina Ambrosino: Gina is a senior and a Psychology major with German and History minors. She’s taken several semesters of German, and she even managed to take a German course taught by a person with a thick Irish accent (read as: she went to Ireland for a semester and took German there, too. Rather impressive).

Vice President – That’s me: I’m a senior and an English Writing Major. I also took a bunch of German in high school and a few courses at Moravian. I was in the German Club in high school as well, but the one here is way more fun and engaging.

Treasurer – Matt Scott: He’s a junior and an Environmental Science major. Matt’s also taken a fair amount of German in high school (I’m sensing a trend here…) but mostly spends his days in labs and making sure the United Student Government gives us money for all the free food at our events.

Secretary – Corey Creen: He’s also a junior and he’s a Math, Physics and German major. I personally think he’s rather crazy for taking on three majors, especially when he’s a club officer. However, he manages to get down the notes for every meeting and send out reminders to our club members.

Now you might be giving me a strange look through the computer monitor, since you can very clearly see we have only one German major. That’s okay though: it proves that we’re not a bunch of snooty German language academics. Rather, we’re a group who generally loves the German culture and wants everyone to enjoy it with us (and enjoy the yummy food).

So what do you guys think? Does it sound like anything you expected?

German Club Oktoberfest Draws Crowd of 53

The German Club's annual Oktoberfest had the best turnout that I’ve ever seen in my four years at Moravian.

The turnout varies each year, likely because of a combination of advertising, timing, and the weather. This year the weather wasn’t fantastic, but that didn’t stop the 53 people who came to Oktoberfest.

Yup, you read that right. 53 people. It might not sound like much, but considering Oktoberfest usually draws 25-30 people, we got almost double the usual turnout.

Of course, having more people turn up than you expected has its drawbacks. The German Club President and I were scrambling to keep cooking food for the guests. The bratwurst in particular was popular, and we went through all of what we bought. In the end we had to resort to making hot dogs.

The bratwurst was not the only smashing success. The other food items that did well included raspberry kuchen (basically a pastry with raspberry filling in the middle and topped with icing), apple strudel (a personal favorite), and spaezle (a kind of noodle that you can put salt, olive oil, or any other dressing on). They were all delicious and were gone in an hour and a half.

We also had sauerkraut to go along with the bratwurst, but not too many people ate that. I can’t blame them; I hate the smell of it, and it was hard cooking the bratwurst while I was inhaling ode de sauerkraut.

Interestingly enough, the usual chips and pretzels were hardly touched. Then again, the President and I forgot to bring them out until halfway through the party. Still, it was nice to see everyone enjoying the German-themed food.

As to the party itself, everyone seemed to be having a good time. We had background music playing while everyone was conversing (in English) and eating. It was a great chance for the officers to talk to the new members and for the German professors to talk to their students (there were some who came because they are taking German and heard about it) outside of class. It was also a chance to just sit back and relax a bit. Well, for everyone else. The President and I, not so much. But it’s a small price to pay for having such a good turnout.

The only notable thing that happened was the balloon fight. We had blown up some balloons and scattered them around the suite, along with some streamers we had put up. Some of the new members took the balloons and decided to start a volleyball-esque battle. Luckily it was contained in the living room and nothing was broken. It might have been slightly childish but it was fun to watch.

To anyone who attended, what did you think of Oktoberfest?

International Week Kicks Off

International Education Week, better known as just International Week, kicks off Oct 2 with a week of global-related activities.

If you’re a student interested in global topics, this is a great opportunity. This is also a chance for those interested in study abroad to get pertinent information and ask any questions at the study abroad seminar. I went abroad last semester to England and I attended a similar seminar in the previous fall; trust me, it helped quite a bit. Even though I went to a country where they (mainly) spoke the same language, it was still a new country and I could have easily gotten in over my head. These seminars are a great start to preparing yourself if you're going abroad.

The International Club and the Study Abroad office host this week-long event each year. The programs they host vary; many are unique to each year while a few are brought back each time.

So far they've had:

• An International Dinner with the Barynya Russian Dance Ensemble

• A talk on How to Travel Anywhere in the World on your Own
  

Coming up for the rest of the week:

Oct 4: Faculty Round Table: Blame Game and Xenophobia Under the Table at Global Crisis at 11:45 a.m in the UBC Room

Study Abroad Information Session at 4 p.m in the UBC Room

Film: To Feed A Girl (UNICEF) at 6:45 pm in Prosser Auditorium

In Honor of US Vets: Personal Experiences from Afghanistan and Iraq at 7 p.m in the UBC Room

Oct 5: Teach UNICEF at 11:15 a.m

Celebration of Cultures: Food and Music from Around the World at 7:30 p.m in the Pavilion

Oct 6: Study Abroad Information Session at 12 p.m

View of India Past and Present at 7 p.m

The list is all the confirmed programs and activities. There may be more contributed by the other clubs on campus. There is also a chance the times and locations of any of these events may be changed at the last minute. I will keep the blog updated if I hear of any changes. 

So, what do you guys think? Any of them sound like something you would go to?