Journalism

SUNY Purchase: Gamers Club

Posted on by Nicole DiGiose

Immersion article, November 2010.

I sat in on SUNY Purchase’s Gamers Club to see what it’s all about, and even joined in on the fun myself.

As I opened the heavy door to SUNY Purchase’s lounge located in The Olde, I was welcomed by a rush of cool air and bright lights. The yellow walls surrounded members of the gamers club, who sat hunched over in sweatshirts on the scattered red, blue, and green armchairs.

The wide eyes of the gamers focused on the 36 inch Toshiba flat screen TV on the wall as their thumbs jabbed buttons on their white Wii controllers. The clicking of the buttons and the jolts of the controllers blended in with the epic music of the club’s most popular game, Super Smash Brothers Brawl.

Vice president and junior journalist major, Jason Kuang, sat on a three seated red couch.

“We play Halo sometimes,” Kuang said. He looked up from his laptop and adjusted his glasses. “We once had a ‘Retro Day.’ We played games like GoldenEye, but it just didn’t work out.” He pulled back his sleeves on his red and black striped sweatshirt. He wore an old pair of mismatched gloves—his fingers stuck out of the tops. “We’ve played Street Fighter, Mario Kart. But Super Smash Brothers is the most popular game. Everyone likes it,” he said.

The four gamers who fought at Hyrule Temple, one of the largest stages, that includes a castle and plenty of levels to fight on, all sat on the couch in front of the TV. After an exchange of “That’s what she said” jokes, they told each other to “eat it” and threatened to kill each other. Threats like “Zelda’s a bitch”, “God damn it, Diddy Kong, kill yourself already!” and “No, Mr. Saturn, you piece of crap” bounced off of the walls.

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The Purchase Independent

Posted on by Nicole DiGiose

An article I wrote for my journalism class in February 2010.

Students on the Purchase College campus have recently noticed a change in their weekly newspaper, The Purchase Independent. It hasn’t been as satisfying to them as many of the previous issues have been.

From the seniors who have been flipping through The Purchase Independent every Thursday to the curious crowds of freshmen, their talk about the beloved college publication is the same: The Indy is lacking material to write about.

Editor-in-chief, Mariel Loveland, a senior Creative Writing major from New Jersey says that it isn’t only The Purchase Independent that is struggling for stories to cover, but the college’s online news source, The Brick, also does not have much to write about. She says it’s because many Purchase students do not want to be involved in campus activities, and therefore, nothing much happens on campus.

“There also aren’t many people who are interested in writing for the newspapers here. Everybody would rather be drinking and partying,” Loveland says. “The Purchase Independent is like a community, we’re all really close and very accepting. People don’t understand that you don’t have to write.” She says that there are also layout positions, and that you don’t have to be a part of the newspaper to submit your articles, comics, or anything else that is considered intriguing to the student body. Read More

Nerdy Jock

Posted on by Nicole DiGiose

An interview of a classmate in my journalism class (February 2010).

Scott Duwe, a 21-year-old journalism major is half jock and half geek. He’s come a long way to stand where he is, being that SUNY Purchase is the third college the Long Islander has attended.

Compared to SUNY Farmingdale and University at Buffalo, Duwe says, “Purchase is really chill, really small. That’s why I like it.” He also says that unlike his previous schools, Purchase offers great Journalism classes, and pursuing a career in Journalism was always something he was drawn to do.

“Sports are my life and my passion,” Duwe says. “I’ve been a ticket plan holder for the Yankees for years. I go to about 10 to 15 games a year.” He dreams of one day being a sports broadcaster. Although he has no specific favorite sport, he says, “Baseball is my favorite sport to play, and I’d like to cover it.” Remaining a true sports fan to his state, he says that his three favorite sports teams are the New York Yankees, the New York Rangers, and the New York Jets. “I live and die with my teams,” he says.

“I’m a jock when it comes to sports, but I really am a nerd. I’m just a big geek.” He shares that the first word he had spoken wasn’t the typical “mama” or “daddy,” but instead, “turtle.” As a toddler, Duwe was a fan of the cartoon that aired on television in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He says that Raphael is still his favorite character from the show. Next to the turtles, he also enjoyed Power Rangers. To this day, he still catches some episodes by downloading them off of the internet. Read More