activities

Florida Tech introduces new esports director

March 1, 2021 by theCrimson Leave a Comment

Arianna Schuck | Staff Writer

Dana Hustedt, the new director of esports at Florida Tech, will be coming to campus in March.

She was first introduced to the world of esports in 2014, and worked at Grand View University as the esports director for the past four years.

Hustedt said her friend group in college was big on gaming, and from that experience, she saw it as a business opportunity.

“I know how to run events and tournament management, and was able to apply those skills to the esports industry,” Hustedt said.

Hustedt started the Grand View esports program in 2017 with about four students. The program grew to include nearly 50 students in 2020, where they competed in five different game titles.

“I have been pioneering a lot of the collegiate scene for a few years now, and I’m very excited to get to Florida Tech,” Hustedt said.

Hustedt recalls having a conversation about building a strong foundation for esports with Florida Tech back in 2019.

Hustedt said that there will be a gaming facility for campus and community engagement, which can hopefully be an esport destination for Florida and beyond.

“It’s going to be a great tool to help current students build their gaming passion and career path,” Hustedt said. “I am very passionate about that and making sure everybody gets into the community and helps give back.”

The main objective is to first establish varsity, JV, and supported titles for the program, which can lead to building club and community engagement. Hustedt explained that this will foster K12 inclusion.

Photo by **Soumil Kumar** from **Pexels**

William Branca is the student director of esports at Florida Tech.

“I want to build us into the destination for esports in the southeast,” Branca said. “With our new facility opening in the near future, and our new director of esports, Dana, I have no doubt that we can accomplish this.”

According to Bino Campanini, the senior vice president of Student Life, the esports program first started off as a small organization. After conversations with administration and SGA, Student Life came to realize that there was more interest than what was expected.

“My next step was to see if we could actually facilitate a better place to do this, and that’s why we secured the Ruth Funk Center,” Campanini said.

According to Campanini, the original plan to renovate a few rooms in Evans Hall for esports was no longer feasible because the spaces would not be large enough. The Ruth Funk Center would have more space, allowing the program to grow.

Gaming will, for the most part, take place on the second floor until the first floor is cleared out. Once that is complete, the first floor will be for competitive, varsity esports and the second floor will be for club and recreational gaming.

Campanini explained that prior to Hustedt being hired, he met her at esports conferences where she was one of the featured speakers, and he thought that she’d be a good fit for the program at Florida Tech.

“The long term goal is to create an esports program that is going to be first class; one of the best in the country,” Campanini said.

Exam Jam and study habits

April 23, 2019 by Stephen Pickrom Leave a Comment

CAB booth along with a bouncy house set up for Exam Jam on the Crawford greens. Picture by Stephen Pickrom.

Final exams are a consistent source of stress for college students across the nation. Students can sometimes begin preparing for final exams several weeks in advance.

One of the stressors is the unknown elements of final exams: the possibility that there may be material on the exam that wasn’t covered during the course.

Kenika Bouchelle, business marketing and aviation major, experienced this going into finals week.

“I always think that professors expect us to know more than what they’ve taught us during the semester,” Bouchelle said.

National trends show that students who repeatedly reviewed their course material and tested themselves regularly performed better overall in their course and on their final exams.

Indiah Cornish, a sophomore studying astrobiology, prepares for finals by reviewing past material for mistakes.

“I go through all of my past quizzes, all of my past tests, correct what I got wrong, and have all of those corrections down on a sheet, and then I go over them [separately],” Cornish said,

In addition, taking regular breaks is crucial to the way that Cornish studies.

“My breaks usually involve texting my friends and being like, ‘Oh my god, studying is so hard,’ and you get your encouragement back,” Cornish said. “Like ‘you can do it!’ Get yourself a support system that’ll cheer you on when you feel like you’re dying.”

Cornish said that she usually loses a considerable amount of sleep while studying for finals.

As one might guess, however, national trends sometimes don’t tell the whole story, as there can more unconventional methods of exam preparation.

For instance, Kourtnee Fernalld, a junior in computer science, has two very different ways of handling overwhelming work and studying.

“I have literally take my Adderall at 10 p.m. to stay up and finish code for an assignment and stayed up until 3 a.m.,” she said. “One time I was overwhelmed with my workload that I went to sleep instead of doing any of the work, because I couldn’t handle it.”

It’s evident that final exams put stress on all students in some way, Florida Tech provides a way to help.

On Saturday, April 20th, tents, students and inflatables dotted the grass of Crawford Greens as Florida Tech held its Exams Jam, sponsored by C.A.B.

Exam Jam is an event that helps students destress before final exams that featured several activities, food trucks and music. Exam Jam has been run annually for six years and has a similar but smaller counterpart, known as Test Fest, in the fall semesters.

Several tents were set up on Crawford Greens offering activities such as small arts and crafts. An inflatable bounce house and a rocking surfboard, similar to a mechanical bull ride, were also present.

Students looking to blow off some steam before finals should set a reminder for next spring, when Exam Jam make its return, or for Test Fest this fall.

A small, yet good turnout for Florida Tech’s first pride week

April 9, 2019 by Khemari Howard Leave a Comment

Spectrum members and friends at the brunch on Saturday. Picture by Khemari Howard.

The small turnout for Florida Tech’s first Pride Week encouraged better planning for the event in the future, Spectrum members said.

Pride Week is a week-long celebration of the LGBTQ+ community at Florida Tech hosted by Spectrum, Florida Tech’s group for members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies on campus.

Jacob Chesslo, a junior physics major and the president of Spectrum, said Pride Week, in its first iteration, had lower attendance numbers than expected.

He said the lack of attendance could be due in part to the organization not being able to advertise the event effectively.

Participants at the drag show hosted by SPECTRUM.

He also said the group didn’t take advantage of other resources on campus such as Greek life, residence life or athletics to advertise events like sex ed boot camp.

Chesslo said another factor that could have led to low attendance numbers was the week the group chose.

Chesslo said one of the common calculus tests coincided with sex ed boot camp, which he said he believed led to a small turnout.

Hannah Blackburn, a senior astrobiology major, said along with many people she knew falling ill in the past week, the senior design showcase was approaching, which may have consumed time for her and her colleagues.

She also said starting the event on April 1 probably wasn’t the best idea.

“In retrospect, we probably should have gone for a different day,” Blackburn said. “Maybe we’ll go for earlier in the year next time.”

Chesslo said the idea of Pride Week was pitched as early as the beginning of last semester, but planning didn’t start until January.

He said the low attendance numbers didn’t discourage him from trying to do better for next year’s event.

“There were probably only about a dozen people at each event,” Chesslo said. “But the experience of all of those who have attended has been amazing.”

Pride Week at Florida Tech took place during the week of April 1.

“Pride is knowing who you are and being happy that that’s who you are. And also, being happy to let other people know that’s who you are,” Blackburn said.

Blackburn was the former president of the Spectrum.

She assisted Chesslo with most of the planning for the week.

She said the group was inspired by the efforts of similar groups on other campuses around Florida.

The idea to host Pride Week was originally Chesslo’s idea.

Each night featured a different event hosted by the group.

The week started with a movie night on Monday, April 1, followed by the president of Space Coast Pride, Cortney Thompson, as the keynote speaker on Tuesday.

A game night was held on the second floor of the SUB Café on Wednesday. Thursday saw sex ed boot camp in the Hartley Room.

The event scheduled for Friday, Pride Celebration, was canceled due to the increased lighting that came with the weather.

Saturday morning, the group hosted brunch in the Harley Room catered by Panther Dining, and a drag show in the evening at the Rathskeller.

Sunday was a spa day on the second floor of the SUB Café in the morning followed by a beach outing later in the afternoon.

Chesslo said he and the rest of the group are already planning for next year’s event.

He said this event was something he dreamed up and he never thought he’d see it come to fruition.

Chesslo said he believes this is a step in the right direction for the increased awareness and inclusion for the people of the LGBTQ+ community.