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CAPS – The Panther’s First Semester

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Whether this is the first semester of your freshman year of college or your final “first” semester of graduate school, the start of a new academic year can come with so many new and different things.

Some might be exciting, like meeting new roommates; while others might be challenging, like repairing a suffering GPA.

Regardless of what experiences come your way, it is important to find a balance between school, work and your social and personal life.

A great way to start the new academic year is to establish a daily routine.

While classes naturally create a routine, there are many other areas of your life that could benefit from some structure.

Setting aside certain days or times for things, like hanging out with friends or catching up with family, can be just as important as scheduling time for studying.

Having an exercise routine can also be helpful and more than just managing weight.

Regular exercise can help manage stress, anxiety and depression.

Eating regular, well-balanced meals at around the same time each day can further help with overall physical and mental health.

Additionally, taking time to relax can help balance out the stress of studying, working or dealing with social/ extra-curricular demands.

Give yourself the gift of setting limits on where and how you spend your time.

It might seem like extra work now, but it will pay off when October hits and you find yourself not wondering where all your time went.

If you find yourself having difficulties that cannot be resolved with setting routines and engaging in self-care, reach out to someone for support.

You can also visit Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), where a variety of mental health and wellness services are available to assist students so they can successfully reach their own personal, academic and career goals.

We also offer weekly counseling groups, including Mood Matters on Mondays, a group on managing depression and anxiety; Let’s Talk on Tuesdays, which explores ways to improve relationship skills; Proud To Be Me on Wednesdays, which provides support for LGBTQ+ concerns; Understanding Self & Others on Thursdays, which explores personal identity and interpersonal success; and Emotional Flexibility on Fridays, which provides a variety of stress management techniques.

More information regarding CAPS’ services and support can be found by visiting: www.fit.edu/counseling-and-psychological-services/

We are here to help you achieve your goals and be the happiest and healthiest Panther you can be.

Women’s ex-golf team continues collegiate career

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In the spring semester of 2019, the Florida Tech Athletic Department dismissed three of its sports programs: the men’s and women’s tennis team, and the women’s golf team.

“In a five-minute meeting, the athletic director told us we were being cut because we weren’t competitive enough,” said Noelle Beijer, one of the eight women on the women’s golf team.

Instead of wearing Panther apparel this season, Beijer will be sporting Tiger attire at the University of Missouri.

She is one of three from the women’s golf team to transfer to another university to continue her collegiate golf career.

A key player for the Panthers, The Dutch native has an impressive golf career, scoring an average of 76.33 during her time at Florida Tech, as well as being a medalist honors at the 2018 World Golf Invitational.

Continuing her education path and majoring in global management and finance, Beijer is excited for her future at Mizzou but is saddened that she will no longer be playing on the field with her best friends and old teammates.

“The fact that I don’t even know when I will see them all again makes me sad,” Beijer said.

According to Florida Tech’s athletic director, Bill Jurgens, there were multiple factors that led to the team being cut, including a lack of competitive edge, facilities, the size of the team and the number of athletes that would be affected by the cut.

“We knew the team had not performed well in the fall, but by no means were we poor performers,” said Lauren Watson, a senior and member of the women’s golf team.

Although the women did not start off strong at the beginning of their season, they proved to leave their mark by the end of the season.

“The day we were cut, February 7, we were ranked 21 in the nation,” Watson said. “By March 26, we were fourth.”

The Scotland native described the news of being cut as giving her a sense of “betrayal” and leaving her feeling “undervalued.”

“Why us?” Watson said. “Why now?”

Refusing to go down silently, Watson challenged what she saw as discrimination with the backing of Title IX by talking to coaches and NCAA compliance directors.

After doing so, the NCAA ruled that she, as well as another woman, on the golf team could play and compete with the men.

“I know playing on the men’s team will be far more challenging due to the length of courses they play and the lack of strength and power I have in comparison,” Watson said. “It’s going to be a big adjustment because as I much as I love the guys, I’ll really miss the girls.”

Even though the news of the cut came in the middle of their season, the women persevered in the wake of what Watson described as disappointment, confusion and anger.

By mid May, the women’s determination and competitiveness led them to bring home a gold trophy with the label NCAA Division II Champions.

“Winning nationals was simply the best thing we could do,” Beijer said.

One key player that helped the Panthers take home a massive win was Megan Dennis.

Dennis had five top 10 finishes in the 2018-19 season for the Panthers, and was also a 2018 Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholar.

Additionally, she made the Sunshine State Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll.

After the initial shock, Dennis said she immediately began to wonder what her future would look like.

“My first thoughts were complete sadness, but also panic because I knew I was going to have to transfer,” Dennis said.

Hence, The U.K. native made the decision to transfer to Pepperdine University in California to continue her degree in sports psychology for her remaining two years of undergraduate schooling.

Like the others, Dennis said replacing her previous Florida Tech teammates is impossible and she will never forget her time with them.

“I’m mostly going to miss the great atmosphere at Florida Tech,” Dennis said. “We worked hard, we were competitive, and we all shared the same passion.”

Welcome to the Crimson 2019 – The voice of the students

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Welcome to Florida Tech, whether it’s your first or your final year here!

We hope you enjoy your stay here, and during your time you’ll pick up a few copies of our paper, The Crimson.

The Crimson is Florida Tech’s student-run newspaper, offering our community the scoop on campus events, local, national and international news, opinion pieces, reviews and more.

We hold the First Amendment in high regard, which states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

While Florida Tech is a private institution, it has no rules in place censoring the media, meaning we can freely exercise our First Amendment rights.

We take this responsibility very seriously at The Crimson and seek to report the truth accurately and fully.

Being the voice of the students is our number one priority.

This means we want to hear from you.

If you have a story and want it published or need help telling it, let us know.

Not only do we want to report, but we want to share your perspective and help inspire change through our paper.

More than anything, we want you to join us this semester to help get as many voices as possible out to Florida Tech.

Don’t think you’re a good writer?

That’s okay–we have a team of editors who can work with you to make your work shine.

We can also need photographers and students interested in design, creating comics, planning events and managing advertising.

This year, we are working hard to have a great variety of stories.

We want The Crimson to obtain everything from updates on building renovations to reviews on new music to your opinion on the quality of education in your degree program.

Another platform we are going to be focusing heavily on this year is our social media and online presence.

We will be posting daily updates on Facebook and Instagram, with stories, questions, meeting times and a peek into what goes on behind the scenes while we edit.

Additionally, we will use fitforum to send out reminders regarding meeting times and campus events, as well as questionnaires.

Finally, we have a website! You can visit it for all our articles at crimson.fit.edu.

We hope to see you this semester. We meet at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday evenings in Grissom Hall’s basement.

To contact us, please email us at crimson@fit.edu.

CAPS – The Panther Gives Back

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Panthers are often thought to be dangerous and fierce creatures who only care for their own survival.

However, Dr. Mark Elbroch, lead scientist for Panthera’s Puma Program and ecologist who spent 15 years studying panthers, found that there is actually a compassionate side to big, carnivorous cats.

There is even an instance in which one of these fierce animals helped raise a baby baboon after its mother died!

The point is, we Panthers like to help each other out.

We care about each other.

Altruistic acts, doing things for others simply out of a desire to help, have been shown to activate important reward centers in the brain and relive negative thoughts and feelings within ourselves.

We often attempt to be empathetic and help each other out when we can, but sometimes we may not know exactly what can be done, or how our efforts can benefit most people.

With Earth Day on our minds, there are many simple ways to help both our environment and those around us.

Here are some ideas for expressing our gratitude for Mother Earth and our fellow Panthers:

Keep Our Beaches Clean!

We at Florida Tech are lucky to have beautiful beaches so close to us! Let’s do our part to keep it that way! Whether you volunteer for the many local “Adopt a Beach” cleanup efforts, or even just pick up that empty bottle from the sand and place it in a proper recycling bin, we can help make our beaches that much cleaner and safer for ourselves and the lovely creatures that call the beach home.

Be an Environmentally Conscious Consumer!

There are a number of ways we can help our environment just by changing our day-to-day consumer behaviors. For example, consider reducing your plastic use as many animals can die as a result of getting entangled or starve by consuming plastic they mistake for food. Cutting the plastic rings around soda bottles and cans before throwing them out and using paper bags or bringing your own reusable bag to your local grocery store, are some ways to help keep our environment safe just by slightly shifting your daily routine!

Simple Acts of Kindness!

Helping out our neighbors doesn’t have to be a grand gesture; even small, random acts of kindness can be something that immensely brightens someone’s day. Paying for the car behind you in the drive thru is a simple act that can help make someone’s morning just a little bit better. The best part is that these efforts are often contagious! When we offer a helping hand, it inspires others to do the same. Some other examples include leaving change in a vending machine, letting someone in front of you in line, or even just giving a nice compliment to a someone you know or a stranger!

Whether it’s something large or small, simple or more challenging, every act of kindness can help you better our world in your own way.

Caring about each other and the world around us makes everyone feel better, including ourselves.

The more people who choose to partake in this kindness, the more benefit for our world as a whole.

We at CAPS and the overall Florida Tech community want to make the world a better place, so let’s work together and be the change we wish to see!

Men’s lacrosse overcomes hot start by Rollins

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In the largest comeback in program history, Florida Tech men’s lacrosse fought back from an 8-0 deficit to hand the Rollins College Tars a 17-16 defeat.

This was the Panthers’ first game of the season against a fellow Sunshine State Conference opponent.

They improved to a 5-1 score on the season and 1-0 in the conference play.

Midfielder Reid Chaconas led the way for Florida Tech with four goals and an assist.

Three other midfielders, Brett Pohlmeyer, Logan Sweeney and Justin Williams, each added two goals and an assist.

Midfielder Tommy Bowser added a goal and two assists of his own, as Attacker Brad Schillinger tacked on another two goals.

Rollins started the scoring early, giving the Tars a 1-0 lead just 49 seconds into the game.

They continued their scoring barrage with seven more unanswered goals, giving them an eight-goal cushion with 9:35 to go in the second quarter.

The Panthers finally responded with 8:52 left in the second quarter, as Schillinger scored his ninth goal of the season.

The Tars reacted quickly, though, making the score 9-1 and pushing the lead back to eight.

After back-to-back goals by Chaconas, the Panthers narrowed the Tars lead to six.

Before halftime, the Panthers scored three straight goals by Pohlmeyer, midfielder Bryce Johnson and defensive midfielder Tyler Oblong.

Rollins responded with a goal, making the score 10-7 heading into halftime.

Schillinger started the scoring in the second half, followed by another goal by Pohlmeyer, making the score 10-9.

After the Tars and Panthers traded goals for most of the second half, Florida Tech was able to build a three-point lead.

This was soon reduced to just a one-point difference after the Tars scored consecutive goals.

The score now stood at 16-15 in the Panthers’ favor with 5:42 to go.

Chaconas then scored his fourth goal of the game, but a little over two minutes later, Rollins was able to counter attack.

It ultimately proved to be too little too late for the Tars, as Florida Tech retained their lead for the last 1:32 of the game, securing their fifth victory of the season.

The Panthers take on another SSC opponent Wednesday, March 27, against the University of Tampa Spartans.

Start time is set for 8 p.m. at the Naimoli Family Athletic Complex in Tampa, Florida.

CAPS – The Panther Sees Its Reflection

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Who are you? How do you define yourself?

These questions are often asked of us as part of a “meet and greet” for class or other activities.

When we are asked questions like this, we might be caught by surprise at how difficult these questions are to answer.

While we sometimes get lost in the lives of others and readily offer advice in times of need, it seems more difficult to look inward at ourselves.

We may offer the common advice of, “You cannot expect others to love you without loving yourself first,” while not taking time to carefully consider what this phrase really means to us.

How do we love ourselves? Perhaps part of this is taking time to determine the aspects that influence who we are and matter the most to us.

Here is a quick, 3-step exercise to explore what we value in life and, in turn, what influences who we are and who we want to become:

Values Exploration Exercise

  1. Review the list of sample value words and phrases below. As you look at them, identify the ones that are most important to you and those you connect with the most.
    If you know of additional words or phrases that also fit you, be sure to add them to the list!
    Consider not selecting values because they are socially acceptable or desirable, but instead listen to your intuition and gut instinct to identify those that truly apply to you.
    After your initial review, revisit your choices and narrow them down to 8 to 10 that are most important to you.
  2. Once you have finalized your value choices, list them in order, with 1 being most important and 10 being least important.
    Save this list to refer to in the future.
  3. Get specific about what your top values mean and how you will honor them in your life.
    For example, a value of creativity might mean spending time painting or making music regularly.
    What would your top three values look like if they were present in your world?
    How would you know if you were living in accordance to them?
    What steps could you take to honor them more?
  4. Consider the statements/questions below to further guide you in exploring this.
    – I value ____. This means I ____, _____, and _____. Do I perceive there is a gap in how I am honoring this value? If so, how do I plan to close the gap?

Sample Value Words and Phrases:

Accomplishment; Accuracy; Achievement; Acknowledgment; Action; Adventure; Aesthetics; Affluence; Authenticity; Authority; Balance; Beauty; Collaboration; Community; Connectedness; Contribution; Courage; Creativity; Curiosity; Elegance; Empowerment; Excellence; Fame; Fitness; Focus; Forward the Action; Free Spirit; Freedom to Choose; Full Self-Expression; Fun; Growth; Harmony; Honesty; Humor; Independence; Innovation; Integrity; Intimacy; Joy; Lack of Pretense; Leadership; Learning; Loyalty; Nature; Nurturing; Orderliness; Participation; Partnership; Peace; Performance; Personal Power; Play; Precision; Productivity; Recognition; Risk Taking; Romance; Self Reliance; Service; Spirituality; Success; To Be Known; Tradition; Trust; Unique; Vitality; Zest

Looking inward and exploring our identity is often a challenging journey.

There are entire philosophies dedicated to the questions of “Who am I?” and “What is my purpose?”

These are lifelong quandaries, and the journey of discovering them may be just as important as the answers you come to.

Please join us at our “How to Explore Like a Panther” event taking place on Wednesday, April 3rd from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. in Evans Hall, Room 202 to discuss the exploration of your identity with other inquisitive students like yourselves, and begin your own personal journey of self-discovery.