Organized by the Center for Student Success, F1rst Generation Week brought together offices across Oberlin’s campus to host a variety of resource-sharing and community-building events. The office of Career Exploration and Development offered a professional clothing closet, the Allen Memorial Art Museum hosted a first-generation scavenger hunt with prizes, the Multicultural Resource Center hosted a letter-writing event, and the CSS offered a discussion on mental health needs of first-generation students and a community dinner, among other activities.

Oberlin offers a variety of support systems for first-generation students. The Peer Mentor program pairs returning first-generation students with a group of first-generation or Pell Grant-eligible first-year students to help ease their transition into college and connect them with resources they may not know are available. 

Natalia Alvarado, a third-year peer mentor, reported feeling supported by the different Oberlin offices during F1st Generation Week.”

“I’m really excited seeing a lot of offices come together to support first-gen [students] because I feel like a lot of times, it’s kind of hard to navigate the mumbo-jumbo of these offices, and them showing their support this week is really important,” Alvarado said.  “But it’s also important to emphasize that it’s more than just a week. This is my life every day.” 

Colllege third-year Daniel Cruz, who is a peer mentor, talked about how as a first-year, the Peer Mentor program and first-generation community allowed him to feel more at home in Oberlin.  

“Coming here, being a first-generation student, I didn’t know anything about what college life would be like,” Cruz said. “It was easy to feel a sense of isolation from everybody else, so I think being able to connect and interact with other students … really helped me get rid of that feeling of isolation.” 

Cruz said that his Peer Mentors inspired him to become a peer mentor himself. 

Alvarado also talked about feeling supported by the peer mentor program.

“The entire aim for the Center for Student Success is to help first-generation, low-income students,” Alvarado said. “Peer mentors who were mentors at the time played a big role in my success here at Oberlin. I didn’t think I was going to major in Comparative American Studies until I met one of the peer mentors as a first-year, and I’ve been on that path ever since.” 

First-generation students also emphasized the importance of F1rst Generation Week as a way to gather and celebrate the first-generation community at Oberlin. 

“It’s hard to find community on campus, especially in the first-gen, low-income community,” third-year Peer Mentor Melissa Nova said. “I’m just excited to see what community we can foster this year.” 

Cruz mentioned a similar feeling. In particular, Cruz was excited about the community dinner, which brought together first-generation students, faculty, and staff to socialize and applaud each other’s successes. 

“I think that’s a really good place for the community to gather and just celebrate F1rst Generation week,” Cruz said. “I want to meet other first-generation students and other students in general.” 

Director of Student Success Operations Amanda Shelnutt worked closely with the Center for Student Success’ peer mentors to plan the event. She said that in addition to resource-sharing, one of the primary goals of F1rst Generation Week was “really celebrating the community on campus that’s here, whether you’re faculty, staff, or student, and helping that community build relationships with each other.” 

Many resources available to first-generation students center the goal of community-building and resource-sharing. Shelnutt discussed how she views the importance of these communities and support systems. 

“Because first-gen students don’t typically have someone at home who understands the collegiate life, it’s really important to have people here that understand you and can help support you in that way,” she said. “Having people that understand where you’re coming from in one aspect of your life and helping encourage you and push you forward and build you up and celebrate your successes is incredibly important.” 

Another thing that many first-gen students mentioned was the desire to bring what they learned and discovered at Oberlin back to their communities at home. 

“I came here not only for myself, but to better my situation as well as spread knowledge back to my family and peers,” Nova said. “Being first-gen means being able to bring back the knowledge I learned to my community and share it in that way, so I have a lot of pride in being the first [and] also just being able to share my knowledge.” 

Alvarado mentioned a similar feeling. 

“There just came a point where my parents couldn’t help me academically anymore,” Alvarado said. “So I applied to colleges all by myself, I did all of the financial aid documents by myself, I did everything by myself. I can bring back something really special to my community in Chicago, coming from a low-income household and a single-parent household.” 

Both Alvarado and Nova also mentioned that considering themselves first-generation wasn’t something that they ever thought about until arriving in Oberlin. 

“I didn’t really feel any different until I got here, and I realized that I was in a different situation than everyone else,” Nova said. “Other people may have known how to … navigate around campus while I didn’t, just because I didn’t have that exposure.” 

Alvarado added that having other people perceive her as a first-generation student was a new experience. 

“I didn’t really know what it meant to be first-gen until late in my life,” Alvarado said. “I think it’s interesting that a lot of other people perceived me as first-gen before I even knew what it meant to be first-gen. … I didn’t really feel that pride until well into my time at Oberlin.” 

Shelnutt emphasized the importance of recognizing and appreciating first-generation students, both through F1rst Generation Week and also more broadly in the Oberlin community. 

“It takes a lot of grit and strength and perseverance and big dreams to be a first-generation student,” Shelnutt said. “This is really geared toward spreading awareness on campus of first-gen needs and also having them tell their stories, because until you hear someone’s story from a variety of viewpoints, you don’t really understand what you need to do to change to serve that population.” 

Nova, Cruz, and Alvarado all agree that celebrating first-generation students is needed and important for the community. 

“I think the first-generation community is a large part of what makes Oberlin a safe space for students to come in,” Cruz said. “I think that community here is one of the reasons that I like Oberlin. It’s all of the people here.”

This meet will not be the first time that track and field athletes have hit the road to lend support to the cross country team. Because most cross country athletes are also part of the track and field team in the spring, the two teams are very closely tied. According to Reese Hyatt, a third-year sprinter on the track team, athletes who compete exclusively in track frequently take time out of their weekends to travel to cross country meets to support their teammates. 

“If there is a meet that is close enough, we try to gather some track folks to go and watch,” Hyatt said. “I try to travel to support as much as possible.”

Kambi Obioha, another third-year sprinter on the track team, added that attending cross country meets can be important for team spirit. 

“We go to cross country meets to just run around and support and just to get the whole team hyped for competition,” Obioha said. 

Obioha also mentioned that, when the cross country team competed in Granville earlier in the season, he was able to attend. 

“It was very competitive, and they’ll be doing the same race,” Obioha said. “I’m excited to come out and support again.”

Amber Borofsky, a second-year on the cross country and track and field teams, said that cross country athletes appreciate the support and energy that the track athletes bring.

“I love being able to hear our Oberlin cheers, like the ‘Yeo Baby,’” Borofsky said. “It’s also really exciting when you’re looking around and seeing teammates or other people from Oberlin to know that you have that broad support.” 

While the two teams are separated during the fall, athletes mentioned that, when cross country athletes compete alongside track and field in the spring, the separation doesn’t affect them or the team’s chemistry. 

“I think that the track and cross country team could be described as a big family,” Hyatt said. “Towards the beginning of the year, it may feel a bit separated or disconnected due to us practicing and meeting separately. … Once we join together for indoor season, the team becomes much more connected and feels a lot more like a family.” 

Obioha mentioned that, despite the differences in their individual events, the athletes who compete exclusively on the cross country or track and field teams never waver in their support for one another. 

“We operate like one big family, so regardless of whether somebody runs longer than another person or not, or we’re not in the same events, we stick together as one unit,” Obioha said. “We mainly do it for the purpose of supporting each others’ goals and getting them through challenges together.” 

According to Borofsky, part of the unity that the teams feel is due to the continued support of the cross country team from the track and field athletes who don’t compete in the fall.

“We come together on track and bring the energy for each other, and likewise, they bring the energy for us,” Borofsky said. 

Hyatt added that supporting the cross country team in the fall is essential for creating a healthy team environment once the two teams merge together in the spring. 

“I think it’s really important to have a good relationship with the cross country team because, at the end of the day, we are all the same team,” Hyatt said. “Making good connections with the team in the beginning of the year will ensure success towards the end of the year once we are all competing together and cheering each other on.” 

Obioha echoed the sentiment and added that the cross country athletes also add a lot of energy and support to the track team during the spring season. 

“Regardless of whether you’re alone or not in your event, you’re always going to have people from the cross country team, or really good friends who are in your same events, come out and support you,” Obioha said. “You’re never alone when it comes to competing.”

Both Smith and Cornwell played football growing up, despite the lack of women’s teams available to them. 

“Starting in middle school, I told everyone I could how much I loved football and wanted to play,” Smith wrote in an email to the Review. “Every time I did, everyone would give me a weird look or shoot down the idea. My parents were passively supportive … no one in our family had ever played football …  At first, I was just testing myself — was I strong enough to do it? And then I wanted to be good.” 

Smith ended up becoming the first woman to ever achieve a varsity letter in football at her high school. In college, she played with the Iowa Courage, a women’s club team. She eventually moved to Atlanta where she played with the Atlanta Xplosion for five years as part of the Independent Women’s Football Team, during which she collected two national championships. In 2010, Smith was called up for the very first United States National Women’s Tackle team. There, she played center and earned second-team All-World All-Star accolades during their gold-medal performance at the first-ever International Federation of American Football Women’s World Championship. 

Cornwell also played football, although as she got older and her fellow players got larger, she realized her size would make it difficult for her to continue in the sport. 

“As everyone started getting really big, and I was 5’4’’ and going against a 6’2’’ [defensive back], that wasn’t fun anymore,” Cornwell said. “But coaching was a way for me to stay in the game because I loved how it pushed me mentally and physically.” 

Cornwell began coaching in high school and continued through college. In 2022, she was selected for the NFL Bill Walsh Diversity Fellowship, where she was able to work with the Tennessee Titans and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She was also selected for the NFL International Player Pathway Program where she coached four international players, two of whom were selected to NFL teams for the 2023 season. 

Cornwell and Smith have both managed to have successful careers in professional football, even though it is still a largely male-dominated field. In the 2022–23 NFL season, there were 15 female coaches out of the roughly 400 total NFL coaches, which is the highest number achieved in the league for any season. In general, the number of female coaches has been on the rise in the NFL, partly in response to the League’s diversity initiatives, such as the Bill Walsh Diversity Fellowships and initiatives requiring teams to have a woman or a member of an ethnic or racial minority on their offensive coaching staff.

Smith noted that the increase in opportunities for women in professional coaching roles has been impactful. 

“Over my lifetime, I went from being one of the few girls to play high school football to seeing girls represented in Super Bowl Commercials to working at a school where there are two female position coaches,” Smith wrote. “Every woman in those roles has continued the legacy required when you are the first to accomplish a milestone: not to be the last. I love that each woman has a different story of making their own path.”

Cornwell also mentioned the benefits of the NFL’s diversity initiatives. 

“I think the accelerator programs are awesome,” Cornwell said, in reference to programs from the NFL which bring together existing head coaches and new coaches of marginalized identities. “It’s doing a good job getting people who are qualified and who are a minority in an area where they can be seen, and it’s just continuing the whole mindset of, ‘Don’t hire them because they’re a minority. Hire them because they are also qualified.’” 

Both Cornwell and Smith agreed that the new opportunities which allowed them to build their careers and end up coaching at a college level exceeded what they had ever imagined was possible at a young age. 

“It was once unusual or uncommon for girls and women to be involved in football — that has changed dramatically,” Smith wrote. “Becoming a college football coach was beyond any dream I had growing up, but I love that it can be for girls now.” 

Despite the opportunities and success she’s had, however, Cornwell also noted that her gender, particularly in combination with her age, caused some people to initially write her off. 

“There’s always some hesitancy from some coaches because I’m so young. I’m 22, and I’m a female, so they’re always like, ‘Why are you doing an NFL internship?’” Cornwell said. “That part is hard, but how I overcome it is I know my stuff. I’m on my game. I impress people by my work ethic and my knowledge of the game, especially for my age.” 

Cornwell also noted that despite some of the initial hesitancy, once people and players started to work with her, they realized that her gender doesn’t impact her ability to coach. 

“Good leadership and great leadership qualities don’t really differ by gender,” Cornwell said. “I think at the end of the day, almost every single player that I’ve ever worked with, … if they did have any worry about having a girl coach them, at the end of the day, I’ve realized as long as you’re getting them better and you know what you’re talking about and you show up and you show that you care, they do not care that they’re being coached by a female. They just care that they have a good coach.” 

Smith agreed, mentioning that the most important aspect of coaching is building relationships with the players. 

“I was some of my players’ first female coach,” Smith wrote. “I take my role seriously to first make sure they know I care about them as people … and next, to make them as prepared as I can for anything they might encounter.”

There were many notable performances during the tournament among Oberlin’s athletes. With 95 assists over the course of the weekend, fourth-year setter Taylor Gwynne was named the tournament MVP and the North Coast Athletic Conference player of the week. Third-year outside hitter Andréa Jones was also named to the all-tournament team, totalling 22 kills throughout the weekend. As a team, the Yeowomen hit .311 average over the course of the tournament.

Gwynne said that the support from her teammates was a major factor toward the team’s success over the weekend.  

“One of the things that I’m most proud of is how the team worked together this weekend,” Gwynne said. “I think we were all super supportive of each other. We picked each other up, we celebrated each other’s wins really well, and we all were working to make sure that each one of us could shine.” 

Second-year outside hitter Zeynep Kaya, who totaled seven aces over the weekend, agreed with Gwynne that the energy on the court allowed everyone to play well. 

“Everyone was so positive. I think that is the most important factor,” Kaya said. “When I looked around, I only saw smiling faces, and I just couldn’t help but smile all the time and feel the energy.” 

Head Coach Erica Rau wrote  in an email to the Review that team spirit combined with technical play were the main aspects that helped guide them to success. 

“We served really tough, our hitters stayed aggressive, and our team chemistry and energy were phenomenal,” Rau wrote. “The team found their ideal performance state, and they were grooving!”

According to Kaya, the team has been particularly intentional about their energy this year. “Solar Energy” is one of their team values, which represents an “unlimited, renewable” spirit. 

“Solar energy is one of our core values, and I think that’s the real factor that makes us successful this year. We put an extra effort to be a team in and outside of the court,” Kaya said. “[Solar energy] stands for always trying to be positive and support everyone on the team with our energy.” 

In addition, Kaya pointed out that the team’s training on strategic aspects of the game also contributed to their wins. 

“As a team, I think we put an extra effort on our serve receiving this year, and it was reflected on the court a lot,” Kaya said. “Since we were good at serve receiving, we were able to narrate the game.” 

Moving forward, the Yeowomen are looking to further improve both technical and mental aspects of their game. 

“We want to keep improving each day at practice and during each match,” Rau wrote. “We need to keep up our consistency and keep pushing forward.” 

Kaya said that the most important thing for the team is to refine their skills and keep their momentum going. 

“We really want to focus on our serve receiving and serving at practices,” Kaya said. “We want to continue to play like this, and most importantly, we just want to keep the energy like this all the time.” 

Gwynne mentioned that the team is aiming to improve communication and strategy moving forward. 

“This year we’re still working on our communication and our chemistry. There’s some practical things that we’re working on in terms of our defense and our offensive strategy,” she said. “Every day we go into practice, we have new things to work on and we’re constantly getting better.” 

Gwynne was also careful to note that despite the success, the team is not complacent.

“I’m excited to continue to get better as a team throughout the season,” she said. “We definitely haven’t peaked yet.” 

The Yeowomen are set to face off against the Kenyon Owls on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Philips Gymnasium. All home matches can be streamed on the Oberlin Sports Network. 

In the past, students have had the option to choose from three meal plans depending on class year. Now, students can choose from two top-priced plans (GoYeo or Gold) or one lower-priced meal plan (Cardinal), only available to students who have completed three or more years or who live in Village Housing. The GoYeo plan includes 420 meal swipes and 200 Flex Dollars. The Gold plan, which costs the same as the GoYeo includes 315 meal swipes and 600 Flex Dollars. The Cardinal plan, the cheapest option, provides 100 meal swipes and 100 Flex Dollars. 

Mark Zeno, assistant vice president and dean of Residence Life and Auxiliary Services, discussed the reasons the meal plans have changed in an email to the Review.

“There needed to be another plan that upper-class students could elect into, which is why the Gold plan (usually [third-years and fourth-years]) could elect into without having the highest priced plan option only,” Zeno wrote. “Now, GoYeo and Gold have a similar pricing structure, but the Gold plan has fewer swipe options but a significantly higher flex dollar allotment.” 

Students also now have the option to purchase additional “Block Plans,” which allow them to buy an additional 20 or 50 meal swipes should they run out before the end of the semester. 

Zeno said the Block Plans were developed when administration learned that students were running out of swipes towards the end of the semester. 

“Since many of the students who faced swipe shortages were between 20–50 swipe deficient, it made more sense to come up with smaller blocks for students to purchase than to move them to a more costly plan,” Zeno wrote. 

Zeno also said that Block Plans allowed employees and staff to access dining without having to pay at the door or pay for an entire meal plan. 

Another major change for students in these meal plans is the option to swipe seven times per day. In previous years, the top meal plan capped daily meal swipes at four.  

College fourth-years Claire Vallely and Amelia Bronfman agreed that the flexibility of the new plan was something they both enjoyed. 

“It’s nice to have flexibility of when you use it,” Bronfman said. “With [the tennis] team, we go away for the weekend a lot, so I don’t use any meals, and I can save those for another time, so that’s nice.” 

Vallely felt similarly. 

“Personally, I like being able to use up to seven meal swipes a day because often on weekends, I will make food at home, so I don’t use all four meals,” Vallely said. “Now, during the week, I can restock on snacks and not have to worry about running out when something unexpectedly uses more than one swipe.” 

Biggs GoYeo, a smoothie bar located underneath Stevenson Dining Hall, has been shut down permanently. According to Sarirose Hyldahl, director of operations for AVI Oberlin, this was due to lack of office space. She said that AVI Foodsystems is looking for a new home for Biggs in the future.

“It ultimately came down to the need for office space for ResLife,” she said. “It was not a decision that we had really any part in. We’ve been trying to have smoothies in Stevie, and we do have plans for smoothie pop ups and other beverage-centered popups around campus as the school year goes on.” 

Another change to campus dining is the implementation of mobile ordering at the Rathskeller, Umami, and Azariah’s Café. Mobile ordering has completley replaced kiosks at The Rathskeller and has been added to Umami and Azzie’s as a supplement. The option to place mobile orders was first rolled out during the Spring 2023 semester.

According to Hyldahl,  mobile ordering originally came about through a system update. 

“We were transitioning to the new system … and they had mobile ordering, which seemed like a great idea,” Hyldahl said. “We have lines and lines of students everywhere, so we thought it’s going to eliminate that and eliminate all that wait time.” 

According to Hyldahl, the system has been a success so far. 

“We’ve had positive feedback so far from everyone. Our employees like it, the students like it for the most part,” she said. “I feel like most students appreciate not having to stand and wait in line.”

Rathskeller employee Sherri Albright mentioned the benefits of mobile ordering over a past system which required staff to call out student names.

“You’re not calling names, you’re not calling anything,” Albright said. “You’re just making the order, setting it up, and they come and look for it, so I like it.” 

However, some students have encountered certain drawbacks from the system. Vallely noted that the timer which notifies students when their food will be ready has been somewhat glitchy, undercutting some of the efficiency that the system provides. Bronfman mentioned disliking how mobile ordering has decreased the human interaction needed for getting food. 

“I used to go in the Rat and have a whole conversation with the people working there every single day,” Bronfman said. “Now, because everything is more streamlined, that doesn’t really happen anymore, so I think it takes that moment of connection away.” 

Additionally, the Rathskeller no longer provides seating for students to eat in the dining hall. According to Hyldahl, this was changed in order to accommodate a lack of storage space. 

“It kind of made sense because mobile ordering is really geared for to-go kind of stuff,” she said. “With the new meal plan that has all that Flex, we were concerned about storage space in general for the volume that we were going to start to see.”

Albright mentioned that, despite the lack of seating and fully-mobile ordering, she’s been hearing positive feedback about the service all around. 

“We still get that positive vibe,” Albright said. “[The students] love our food, they love our service, so we’ll take it.”

Despite the early losses, athletes and coaches agreed that there were several positives from the team’s showing over the weekend.

“I am happy with the team,” Head Coach Jess West said. “I’m happy with their presence — how they came in, how they were positive throughout the weekend. As a team, they do gel well. They have a lot of skills that work with each other.”

First-year forward Ava Leone, who picked up her first collegiate starts over the weekend, agreed that the team’s attitude and mentality were highlights from the tournament.

“I think everyone wants to be there,” Leone said. “Everyone’s excited, so there’s no doubt in commitment. Everyone works very hard as a team, we just need to be able to glue it together.”

Susan Robinson-Cloete, a fourth-year forward who has started 19 out of her 20 career matches, enjoyed the team’s showing over the weekend. She was impressed by the team’s spirit and resolve through the toughfought matches.

“I was just really proud of the way that everybody held their own,” she said. “I think there’s a lot of good determination on our team. Now we just need to start focusing in.”

Robinson-Cloete was also pleased with the attacking momentum she saw from the team in the first part of the match against Concordia.

“It was the most offensive movement we’ve seen this early in the season from our team,” Robinson-Cloete said. “The last time I played [Concordia] was one of the worst losses in our program’s history, and to have been competing with them the entire time yesterday and convert on a corner was just awesome.”

First-year defender Zoe Eisen also mentioned that the beginning of the Concordia game was a highlight for the team. “The beginning of the second game, we did really well, and we scored the first goal for that game,” Eisen said. The team is looking forward to improving communication and positioning in order to ensure the most success in upcoming matches.

“Our biggest thing is just continued communication,” West said. “Communication is something that has to be practiced. If you don’t practice it, it’s always going to be difficult.”

Leone also discussed how productive conversations on the field will help the team improve their connectedness and speed of play.

“I think [our] growth as a team is that we have to communicate more,” she said. “We have to figure out where is the ball, where is the split, open up our eyes and just see the field because we have the potential. It’s all in front of us. We just have to use it.”

Leone was also sure to mention how the team’s bond and support of one another has helped her individually transition to college, in spite of the challenges on the field.

“I fit right in in a way, and I feel like the players and the seniors are all so welcoming, and they make you feel like you’re at home,” Leone said. “I think our chemistry as a team is great. We have a good sense of who can play what and who does what, but it’s just the fact of connecting it all together that we need to work on.”

Robinson-Cloete agreed, adding that the first-year class also brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the team.

“They are so amazing and just really well-rounded,” she said. “I think each of them has individual strengths in terms of skills or how they are as teammates or the energy they bring to the team, and they all complement each other really well.”

Robinson-Cloete mentioned that since it was early in the season, the team is still getting used to positioning and working off one another. She was confident that as the season progresses, the positioning and chemistry of the team will improve, leading to positive outcomes.

“It’s pretty clear that everybody’s really intelligent and sees the moves they should be making,” she said. “Now it just comes to making sure we have enough practice playing in our positions.”

Altogether, West was confident that the team can overcome the challenges they faced over the weekend.

“It was simple little things that caused the goals that we can absolutely fix and move forward,” she said. “We just have some simple positional things that we need to continue to work on, which is to be expected.”

Robinson-Cloete talked about how the team has harnessed the underdog mentality this season.

“We’re underdogs in whatever space we step into. Whatever game we go into, we’re written off as an easy win,” Robinson-Cloete said. “It felt really good this weekend to score the first goal and have that mentality. If they want to write us off, it’ll just make the wins all that sweeter.”

Undeterred by the losses, the team is looking forward to competing in conference play. The team will take at Kenyon College Sept. 13 at Bailey Field at 7 p.m. The game can be streamed on Oberlin Sports Network.

On a cold Wednesday night in October, 12 Oberlin students, dressed in various forms of athletic attire, circle around in the dusty basement of First United Methodist Church. After a few minutes of chattering about their week, classes, and favorite kinds of soup, one of them looks around the circle and asks, “Ready?”

The group proceeds to complete a plethora of jumping jacks, arm circles, push-ups, planks, and Russian twists. It’s important for the students to be prepared, as this is one of three two-and-a-half hour weekly practices required to excel at their craft. However, they aren’t getting their bodies prepared for a sport, but rather to rehearse for an upcoming show as members of Oberlin College Taiko.

A style of Japanese drumming, taiko combines aspects of dance, music, martial arts, and theater. It has evolved into an art form, a pathway for self expression, and, what may be surprising to some, a type of athleticism.

Before an actual taiko practice can begin, 12 drums, approximately 30 pounds each, need to be brought down from a storage closet to the basement, carried precariously down three narrow flights of stairs. In order to hit the drums, players need to stay in a lunge position for the entirety of the piece, gripping wooden bachi, or drumsticks. Bachi are held in various positions such as overhead, at a 45-degree angle, or even with both arms making counterclockwise circles.

Different pieces can require even more extreme positions. O-daiko, a drum the size of a hay bale, has players consistently raising their arms above their heads in order to hit the drum with incredible amounts of force. To play “Tatsumaki,” players must switch between 90-degree side lunges for six minutes of the rapid-fire song. And the notoriously challenging “Yatai” requires players to go from laying on the ground to the curl up position multiple times.

Harper Ross, OC ’22, noted the unexpected physical demand taiko had on them.

“When you start learning how to stand properly in taiko, it’s kind of like doing an extended wall sit for hours each weekend,” Ross said. “It definitely adds up … I know for me personally, the shape that I’m in at the beginning of the semester is vastly different than the shape I’m in at the end of the semester.”

In addition to physicality, players must tell a story through their movement just like dancers narrate with their bodies. Taiko pieces are stories of time, identity, celebration, and change. For instance, “Noon” has players raise both hands up at the end of the piece to signify the hour and minute hand on the clock, and “Matsuri,” a festival piece, slowly builds up tempo, with everyone joyfully shouting “Matsuri Daiko!” before the speed-up. Every song features kiais, various shouts that build energy and demonstrate power.

College second-year Bennett Elder commented on how fitness is required to narrate such stories with care.

“You have to produce a sound that really reverberates,” he said. “[There’s] really dramatic and energetic movements that you try to make as graceful as possible, [really emphasized by] the shape that our arms trace.”

OCT also has a history of supporting Oberlin athletes. So far, the group has performed at two athletics events this year: the women’s soccer game against Denison University on Homecoming Weekend and the cross country Inter-Regional Rumble. For both performances, OCT played various songs and backbeats to motivate players and excite the crowd.

College fourth-year Megan Reilly, who also serves as an OCT co-chair and co-instructor for the Introduction to Taiko ExCo, said that the Rumble specifically was a memorable experience and hopes to perform more for athletics in the future.

“There’s a lot more interaction with the crowd because the runners can come up to you and talk to you about it,” Reilly said. “It’s a lot less formal, but also a lot more rewarding in that we’re doing something impactful for them. … It’s a lot of fun to feed off of the energy of the players and the crowd and just do whatever comes to mind that we think would hype everyone up.”

Taiko is an extreme example of music overlapping with athletics because of the dedication, memory, and physical and mental demands required. For College second-year Ollie Elgison, finding the delicate balance between the two is something that makes taiko invaluable to them.

“I’ve never really considered myself an athletic person,” they said. “I’ve tried a bunch of different sports, and I’ve just never really enjoyed any of them that much. … I feel like something almost clicked when I did [taiko] … Putting that movement into sound and making it something productive is kind of the thing that I was missing from the different sports and something that formed meaning for me.”

Because of the disparate aspects it embodies, taiko itself has a bit of an identity crisis. Not included as a club sport or in traditional Conservatory pedagogy, it’s hard to sort it into one group and define its players. For instance, Elder noted that while taiko is a physically taxing activity, he does not consider himself to be an athlete.

“I would say [I’m] more of a performer because performance is still a term that encompasses activity and athleticism,” he said. “But I feel that [the term] performer connects more with the idea of art.”

Additionally, taiko has been historically reported in the Arts & Culture Section of the Review, whether that be about involvement through Colors of Rhythm or Asian Night Market. While this coverage is important, physical movement and strength is also an integral yet underrepresented component of taiko. Taiko’s relationship to athleticism can give insight into how we define an athlete or artist and the subjectivity behind those terms.

In the previous model of Junior Practicum, students were required to enroll in a two-credit LEAD course that would provide them with information and skills to help them explore their chosen professional field. The new model has replaced this class with a series of workshops and panel discussions spread throughout the semester. 

According to Executive Director of Career Exploration and Development Anthony Pernell-McGee, this change was made in order to decrease the burden on students, as well as to make the resources it offers more accessible to student-athletes. 

“I felt as if it was putting more burden and pressure on the students,” Pernell-McGee said. “The program is more flexible and we’re going to be offering workshops and career panels at 7:30 [p.m.] so that the athletes will be able to attend as well.” 

While students will now have to select and apply for their own internship over the summer, they will have the opportunity to browse internships posted by employers, many of whom are Oberlin alumni, on a new online platform. The program will continue to offer funding for unpaid or low-paying summer internships. 

According to Pernell-McGee, having students proactively seek out internships will create a stronger and more engaged partnership. 

“It’s making sure that the alum has a student who is interested in what they’re doing,” Pernell-McGee said. “And to me, the only way to do that is to really interview the student so that the student and the alum are in alignment in that this is the best match.” 

He also hopes that this change will help students build critical cover letter writing and interviewing skills. 

“I do believe that having students apply for internships that they’re interested in and then having them sit for an interview, which helps them hone their interview skills — I think that is the best practice, so I’m excited to see the results this year,” Pernell-McGee said. 

Rami Puangkam, OC ’22, worked as a peer-to-peer career advisor during last year’s Junior Practicum. She agreed that the matching system had challenges that the new system might alleviate. 

“I think one of the things that was very big last year was that if you get a job or internship, you have to be a good representative of Oberlin so that in the future, students can get the same position or more opportunities,” Puangkam said. “I feel like if they’re not actually engaged or don’t actually want the internship in the first place, they might not act in the best interest they could have.” 

She also believes that the new system will force students to be more proactive about their internships and lend them greater agency in the process, though she recognizes that the previous system had some benefits that this year’s version will miss out on. 

“I feel like the matching is kind of nice because it helps students to find jobs, especially for international students, which is hard sometimes for landing your own internship,” Puangkam said. 

She also mentioned that with the lack of a required weekly course, the Career Center will have to be more proactive in getting the information out to students. 

College third-year Jessie Goldberg applied for the new version of the Junior Practicum. She noted that  while the new internship process might be more challenging, it is also more realistic.  

“It sounds like it might require more effort from me to actually get an internship this summer, but I think that mirrors more the reality of getting a job,” Goldberg said. “It’s good and bad, I guess, because you don’t really have that built-in safety net.” 

While some of the specifics have changed within the Junior Practicum, Pernell-McGee noted that the core values are still the same. 

“Internships are important to the student’s development and career exploration,” Pernell-McGee said. “You are developing those core skills that employers are looking for. You are evaluating and assessing  if this internship is the right fit for you, for your career. You are just making yourself more marketable and you are developing those core skills that you can’t get in the classroom.” 

Applications for the Junior Practicum are due Oct. 14.

Located outside the northern entrance to the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies, the workstation is equipped with six 120V outlets, five dual-port USB/USB-C outlets, and two Qi Wireless Chargers. It also employs LED lighting for nighttime use and connects to the College’s public Wi-Fi to boost the signal for users.

The workstation project was originally proposed by Justin Lee, OC ’22, a former member of the Green EDGE Fund board. Over the summer semester of 2021, when students were on campus but primarily attending classes virtually, Lee noticed that many students faced difficulties doing online schoolwork outside. 

“Ohio in the summer is beautiful, so I’d seen a lot of students outside doing work over the summer semester,” Lee said. “[There were] a lot of frustrations coming from the students, whether it be the lack of internet or really shoddy internet connections — especially in Wilder Bowl — and if you had to charge your laptop, you had to go back inside.” 

Over the same summer semester, the Green EDGE Fund had also been working with community members to brainstorm potential new structures and spaces across campus that would serve as shared spaces where students and community members could interact in order to strengthen town-gown relations.

Lee’s workstation proposal served as a solution to both problems, and Lee worked with the Green EDGE Fund board as well as Facilities Operations to initiate the project. 

“The Green EDGE Fund took it one step further and asked ‘How can we incorporate sustainability into this? How can we also tackle other problems that we’ve been having?’” Lee said. 

Sionainn Rudek, College fourth-year and current chair of the Green EDGE Fund board, was involved with the approval and research process of the workstation project. They noted that the project proposal was well-received by students and College staff.

“I think that it was met with a lot of positivity with everyone involved, so it kind of got pushed along really fast, which was great,” Rudek said. 

Ben Hobbs, AJLC facilities manager and community outreach coordinator, also participated in the planning of the workstation, particularly when it came to finalizing the station’s location.

“I worked with Becky Bode of Grounds [Service] to determine the best location that would also allow for delivery and enough sun to keep the batteries charged,” Hobbs wrote in an email to the Review. “Originally, I had hoped that somewhere with a wide open, south facing location on Wilder Bowl would be the best location, but those spaces would have impeded access and were rejected as initial sites.” 

Lee mentioned wanting the location of the table to be more central to campus to increase accessibility. According to Rudek, however, the table is still getting plenty of use at its current location.

“I’ve only walked by it a couple times, but every time I’ve walked by, somebody’s been sitting at it,” Rudek said. “It’s been faculty members, a student and another student, so it’s already been a group of different people using it, which is really amazing to me.”

In addition to serving as a functional workstation, Lee explained that the workstation is an important structure on campus to shape students’ view of sustainability at the College, especially when considered within the context of the four-year Sustainable Infrastructure Project.

“While the [SIP] is a great thing, it’s very underground,” Lee said. “Nothing that you see there is visible or tangible. We also wanted to provide something … that you can interact with, something that is tangible for students to use, … and we decided to do that through a solar table. They can charge their devices on all renewable energy, which I think is pretty nifty.”

According to Hobbs, if the workstation is popular, there’s a chance that Facilities will install more across the campus.

“[Bode] … is evaluating their use as well as the ease of ordering, delivery, branding, and how they are received by the campus community to decide how many more to purchase and place around campus,” Hobbs said. “If it is popular, I’d expect to see more soon.”

Although Lee graduated before the workstation was officially installed, he emphasized how much he learned from working with the Green EDGE Fund Board in the project’s planning process.

“[Installing the table] was a great learning experience, and I hope that it inspires other students to realize that if they wanted to do a sustainable project, the Green EDGE Fund is a huge resource,” Lee said. “That table was just a dream of me and a community member, and we made it a reality.”

The Green EDGE Fund is currently accepting applications for future sustainability projects. In particular, the board is encouraging applications for non-traditional and interdisciplinary approaches to sustainability.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

In a previous interview, you said you started doing comedy in high school with the speech team. How did you get from there to here, where you’re doing all these shows and going to all these open mics?                                                                                                                                            I started standup specifically a little over a year ago. It was like June of 2021 — I’d been meaning to go to open mics, but COVID happened right after high school, so I couldn’t immediately. I did my first open mic at this place called The Comedy Shrine, which is now closed, sadly, but I was like, “Oh this is really fun.” So then I just kept going. I used to only go once or twice a week, and now I go to open mics pretty much every day of the week.

Have you gained anything in particular from your experience in standup or in comedy in general?
Yeah, I would say it’s definitely helped me. It’s helped me socially a lot. I used to be super shy and nervous about talking to new people, and standup has definitely helped me get to know new people. It’s definitely helped me learn also how to interact with adults. I’m the youngest one in most scenes — in Cleveland, I’m the youngest that I’ve met at least — so I’ve definitely learned how to interact more with adults, specifically men, which is interesting. Like kind of asserting myself in social situations.

Seeing that this is typically a somewhat older field, have there been specific challenges or benefits of
being younger?
Yeah, there’s been a couple challenges. Specifically with being a young woman, you have to prove yourself more. You can’t just be funny, you have to be significantly funnier than other people or otherwise people wouldn’t take you seriously. A lot of the time, people are very excited with a young
comedian. They either get excited or competitive. Thankfully, I’ve interacted more with the excited people.

Comedy is really tied to identity in some regards because it’s revealing your personal experience, and I know that some artists and comedians like to use performance as a way to express themselves or to process things. Would you say that comedy functions in that way at all for you?
It is a thousand percent me kind of coming to terms with things. A lot of people joke, and a lot of people were saying this on YikYak too — they were like, “That comedy show was just a bunch of comedians trauma dumping.” I’m like, yeah, that’s a lot of what it is initially. Most people don’t know that I’m bisexual until they see my stand-up because that’s just when I talk about it. Most people don’t know
I’m Jewish until I talk about it in my stand-up. I feel like for a lot of people and for me, standup feels more comfortable because it’s like you’re making fun of yourself for things that you’re kind of insecure about, but you’re beating other people to the punch. So it’s definitely got a lot to do with identity.
Stand-up can be very personal, and people who don’t really do [standup] don’t see it as that. They’re just like, “Oh, this is a stupid joke,” but a lot of people use humor to cope with things
that happen. So yeah, I definitely feel like it’s very connected to identity.

Is there anything in particular that when you go to a show you want audiences to take away?
I usually go into a show thinking that I want people to be surprised. When I do stand-up, I dress purposefully incredibly girly. I don’t look like I do stand-up. Most people, when I go to an open mic, are like, “Oh, are you singing? What are you doing here?” So I like when people are confused by me, which sounds weird. But I look very girly, and then I’ll go on stage, and I’ll say a really outlandish joke about
something that’s weird. I like when people are like, “I wasn’t expecting that.” I want people to be confused and surprised, in a good way.

How is it that you come up with your content? Is it spontaneous, or do you have a running list?
I do it mainly spontaneously. In comedy, there are two main kinds of writing: passive and active. Passive just comes to you. Like you’re just walking down the street and a joke will go into your head and then you just write it down from there. That’s typically what I do. I have a hard time with active writing, which is where you sit down and just write jokes. Like, “I’m gonna come up with them right now.” I don’t know how people do that. I’ve done that maybe once or twice, and the jokes are never as good as when I just spontaneously come up with them.

So is comedy something that you’re interested in doing in the future as a career?
Yeah, I would like to. Honestly, this is probably my favorite artistic endeavor that I’ve done because it’s very independent. You get to be your own manager, essentially, and I really like that aspect of it. It makes it easier to do it as a career. Not money-wise, obviously — it’s difficult to make a living off of, but
it’s a good thing if you have a day job and then you go do comedy and then you hopefully make your way into being able to live off of that. It definitely will take a while, but hopefully I can do it as a career at some point.

The Stand Up Comedy Coalition will put on three shows at Oberlin throughout the semester. The Coalition will host a comedy variety show on Oct. 27, which will be open to student performers, and a show over Oberlin parents weekend that will feature a student opener and a guest performer. Lastly, on Dec. 2, the Coalition will host a variety of Chicago comedians at Oberlin, including many of Belmont’s close friends.