Slayton Rous, senior health promotions major, adds ingredients to his skillet during UAC and Sodexo’s first Top Chef Cook-Off Monday night in the Webb Lecture Hall. Rous won the competition and hopes to have a chance to defend his title in the future. Kathi Walker/The Bulletin.

After 60 minutes of cooking, UAC and Sodexo’s first Top Chef Cook-Off produced champion Slayton Rous, senior health promotions major.

“Everything turned out terrific tonight,” Rous said of Monday’s competition. “I usually use different ingredients for the recipe I used tonight, but everything came out great in the end, so I’m happy. I started with a beef sauce, then moved on to a cheese sauce, made the noodles and the ratatouille at the end. I figured it would be quick, tasty, and I know how to make it well.”

More than 100 students cheered as the six competitors crafted their culinary creations.

“I’m actually surprised at how many people came out to support the chefs,” said Kyra Strobel, senior communication major and UAC’s public relations committee chair. “We were really pleased by the turnout and hope this will start a trend of really getting involved in events like this in the future.”

Jeff McCullough, general manager for Sodexo at ESU, said he was also pleased with the turnout.

“Considering that this is our first time and that we’re dead up against another event tonight, it’s really hard to find a night this late in the semester where nothing’s going on, and I’m really pleased with the turnout we got for this event,” McCullough said. “I was especially pleased with the amount of non-contestants that showed up… I mean everyone has their own contingencies and plans for the evening and yet they all showed up to support the contestants.”

While only six chefs were selected to participate in Monday night’s competition, over 35 students competed in last week’s qualifying Quick Fire competition.

“There were around 37 or 38 contestants at the start of the Quick Fire event, and now we’re down to six,” Brown said. “I think based off of the response we saw to this event, maybe there’s a future for a culinary arts series of events at ESU, or even a program.”

The novelty of this type of competition at ESU played an important role in choosing the theme.

“We based this first challenge off of a Pasta Challenge, because it was fairly basic, and we didn’t want anyone getting too scared or nervous, so we just went with this basic kind of ingredient,” McCullough said. “We made sure we had several different kinds of pasta out there, and all sorts of ingredients, which really makes this about putting together different kinds of ingredients in a unique way.”

Some chefs at Monday night’s competition brought a secret ingredient or a recipe they had experience with, while others chose to show up and let their experience do the cooking for them.

“Each contestant was allowed to bring one secret ingredient with them, which three of the contestants did –  one brought a walnut and blue cheese crumble, one brought beef broth, and one brought tomato sauce with sage,” McCullough said. “Three of the contestants are using a recipe, but three are just cooking from memory, and both are interesting strategies.

“On Friday, the six contestants who were drawn from the top 30 percent of the Quick Fire competition were given a list of the ingredients that would be available on our Bounty table so they had the weekend to work on recipes and such.”

In addition to providing cookware and uniforms for the contestants, Sodexo also helped to create the formatting for the evening’s competition.

“We needed to do one of these events to get the format down,” McCullough said. “Now that we’ve seen how it can work and seen the crowd that just this first-time event drew, we’d like to do a longer event next time, starting with a larger pool, and narrowing it down to some final contestants after five or six events like this over several weeks.”

Rous said he would like to participate in the Top Chef Cook-Off again.

“It’d be awesome to defend my title if they did another event like this,” Rous said. “I’d come back and do it – hopefully they can make it even bigger. I’d like to see a lot more events like this again, hopefully they can involve other groups around campus.”

Chelsea Brown, UAC featured events chairperson and sophomore health promotion major, said that the turnout from Monday night’s event could lead to future cook-off competitions.

“Based off of this event’s attendance and the excitement in the air tonight, I think this was a big hit,” Brown said. “I think if we do it again, it’ll be an even bigger event than it was this year.”

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Kan. Health and Environment Secretary to speak at Community Health Workshop

Kansas Health and Environment Secretary Rod Bremby will speak at a community health workshop to be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 4 at the Granada Theatre.

John Barnett, assistant professor of social sciences who is organizing the workshop, said that he heard Sec. Bremby speak last May at Washburn University.            Barnett said that he was inspired by Bremby’s message and that the purpose of the workshop is to create a dialogue in the community. He said he hopes this could end up being a statewide model for Kansas and that it will be a continuing process.

A question and answer session will follow Sec. Bremby’s speech.

For more information, contact Barnett at jbarnet4@emporia.edu.

Greeks to host fundraiser

Sigma Tau Gamma and Sigma Sigma Sigma will host a fundraiser for Compeer from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 27 at 12^th Street and Commercial Street.

The goal of the fundraiser is to raise at least $1,000.

UAC to bring Wii-HAB to Memorial Union Main Street

UAC will host Wii-HAB, a chance for students to play games on up to four Wiis, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 30 on the Memorial Union Main Street.

Kyra Strobel, chair of the UAC public relations committee, said that the idea to host the activity came from Rehabilitation Centers using Wii games for patients.

The grand prize will be a Wii Fit, but other fitness-oriented prizes will also be given away. Students do not have to be present to win.

PRIDE to host garage sale to bring speaker to campus

People Respecting Individuality and Diversity in Education (PRIDE) will host a garage sale from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 28 at St. Andrew’s Church. Proceeds from the garage sale will be used to bring a speaker, Sylvia Guerrero, to campus during Pride Week, April 20-24.

Guerrero is the mother of transgender Gwen Araujo. Araujo was murdered in 2002 for being transgender. Guerrero will speak not only about her daughter, but also the rights of the LGBTQA community. The Lifetime movie, “A Girl Like Me,” is about Sylvia and Gwen.

Items sold at the garage sale will include clothing, furniture, toys and dishes. In the case of inclement weather, the garage sale will be rescheduled for a time and place to be announced.

Didde Center to host Cake Walk

The Didde Catholic Campus Center will host the First Annual Cake Walk for Relay for Life at 7 p.m. April 3 at the Didde Center Social Hall.

Mary Sigle, outreach minister at the DCCC, said that the cake walk is the opportunity for the community to come together in the fight against cancer while still having fun.

The cost is $1 per game. Cakes are being supplied by Dari Delight, Reebles and local parishioners. Sigle said the goal is to raise at least $400.

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The Union Activities Council hosted speaker Peter Bielagus last Thursday night in Webb Lecture Hall. Bielagus, Young America’s Financial Coach, focused his speech on how students can avoid getting in financial debt and begin to save money and invest.

Bielagus said that he understands firsthand how quickly a student can fall into financial debt.

“When I was in college, I really messed up my finances,” Bielagus said. “I didn’t know anything about personal finance and I very quickly got in about $5,000 in credit card debt – in about six months… I realized one day when I got a credit card bill and I couldn’t make the minimum payment that it was a big problem.”

Bielagus said that few students are actually familiar with how credit works or even how to find their credit scores.

“The level of knowledge at most schools of understanding personal finance is pretty poor because most high schools don’t teach it and most colleges don’t teach it either,” Bielagus said. “When they enter the workforce with all the stuff going on now, it’s just simply more important, because what you could do four years ago with a so-so credit score you can’t do anymore.”

There are six ways to improve your credit, Bielagus said. These include paying off debt, establishing a payment history and no longer applying for credit cards, among others. The first and easiest way to improve your credit is to check your credit report for mistakes. Around 70 percent of people have mistakes on their credit reports, Bielagus said.

“Anybody in this room or if anybody tells you that you don’t have a credit report because you never borrowed anything is full of garbage,” Bielagus said. “You may have a report simply because there’s a mistake on it.”

Most students said they were unaware of how credit scores worked or how to build credit.

“I didn’t know anything about credit scores, or how to check them, or even really how to build credit before I listened to his speech,” said Ben Graham, junior recreation major. “He did a good job and was actually pretty funny.”

Bielagus recommended using www.annualcreditreport.com to check one’s credit and he said it’s the only truly free credit report Web site.

Bielagus said that most credit cards from retail stores are usually not a good idea for students. They have become more popular over the past several years and include most major retailers.

“Studies have shown that the savings you get (using store credit) are mitigated by your tendency to keep spending,” Bielagus said. “Most people think I can go spend thirty more dollars because I saved thirty dollars.”

Bielagus said that most students don’t save or invest because they simply don’t think they have the money to do it.

“Too many college students think they can’t save or invest,” Bielagus said. “Most of them tell me, ‘Oh Peter, I can’t save $100 a month,’ and I tell them to save fifty cents a day or a quarter a day.”

Bielagus concluded his speech by sharing a personal experience. Bielagus spoke of his college days at the University of Miami where he admitted to spending large amounts of money to impress and basically “buy” friends. After recently learning the news that he was going to be an uncle, Bielagus said there are many things in life that money simply can’t buy.

“You know I could probably fill a book with all the things in life that I do not have, and when I think of those things I get frustrated, I get angry, I get upset and I feel like life is not working out the way it should be,” Bielagus said. “A little over a year ago when my mom told me I was going to be an uncle, I felt like the wealthiest man alive.

“So maybe when I say start before you should start maybe I don’t mean credit scores and budgets, maybe I mean start by realizing that the feelings we try to create by buying more stuff, well if we’d just take a look at some of the wonderful things around us we can create those feelings for free.”

Bielagus speaks to over sixty high schools, colleges, and military bases each year. Outlines of the speech as well as a free e-book on the stock market are available by e-mailing him at peter@peterbspeaks.com.

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Jeremy Michaelis, lead singer of Red Umbrella, sings Monday night in Albert Taylor Hall. UAC coordinated the appearance of Red Umbrella and Alisa Turner as part of Music Therapy 101./PHOTO BY KELLEN JENKINS

Alisa Turner, indie singer and songwriter, and Red Umbrella, a new wave band, performed at 7 p.m. in Albert Taylor Hall last Monday night. The performance was hosted by the Live Music Committee of Union Activities Council.

Esteban Gomez, co-head of the Live Music Committee, said that the name of the tour was Music Therapy 101. The event was free and open to the public.

“College is really stressful to most people so we decided to give them something to relive their stress,” Gomez said. “That’s what music therapy tries to do, with their soft mellow music.”

More than 40 students attended the show. Gomez felt that more students would have shown up if it were not for a Buzz-In announcement that was emailed to students on Monday, titled “Music Event CANCELLED.”

“(We want) to get people to just show up at this point,” Gomez said. “There was a miscommunication on the Buzz In announcements. It was for Friday and not for this event. If people just skim it, they won’t show up for concert.”

The students that attended were eager for the show to start.

“It sounded like fun because I usually don’t get that involved on campus,” said Aimee Denton, sophomore biology major.

Denton wasn’t aware that the theme of the concert was music therapy but was just excited to hear the music.

Jake Tannehill, freshman English major, is interested in the music itself and asked permission to leave choir practice early to go to the concert.

“I like music,” Tannehill said. “I asked my choir director if I could get off from choir tonight to come to this. I just wanted to see what it was about.”

Tannehill was also excited to hear what the performers had in store.

“I play guitar and anytime I see a guitar, I’d like to see the person play,” Tannehill said.

Turner was born in Hawaii and moved around a lot as a child. She cites her experiences as a preacher’s daughter and a victim of Mercury poisoning as her inspiration for writing music.

“In those moments of pure insanity, I had to keep myself going,” Turner said.

Between songs, she told personal stories of her life before and during her music career.

As a child, Turner was diagnosed with a thyroid problem. Years later, she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and early Alzheimer’s. She found out later that her symptoms were actually indicative of Mercury Poisoning.

Throughout this time, she was still touring the country.

“I didn’t want to die but I didn’t want to live,” Turner said, describing the times when she was in extreme pain throughout performances.

Red Umbrella is a four man band that hails from Canada.

Ashley Peaches/The Bulletin

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Wednesday night, Union Activities Council sponsored a Bingo Night and Live @ 5, a music event featuring Chase Ihde, sophomore English major.

“Their big thing is to reach out to students,” said Kyra Stroebel, junior communication major and UAC public relations chair. “They just try to do things that are entertaining that students like to come to. That’s why we’re around, to come up with fun events for students.”

Bingo was held at the Hornet’s Nest from 7 to 9 pm and more than 100 students participated.

“The PR committee for last year picked Bingo as an event and we did it first semester and it went over so well that we decided to do it again,” Stroebel said. “It’s actually pretty amazing how so many people get so into such a simple game like Bingo.”

Live @ 5 is a new UAC sponsored event that is scheduled for every other Wednesday through March 25. UAC is still looking for two more acts to perform.

“It was kind of a come and go type of thing,” said Esteban Gomez, freshman social science secondary education major and UAC live music co-chair. “A lot of people were either going to dinner or coming out of dinner and dispersing throughout the Union or other people sitting around and listening. It was a pretty good turn out.”

Bingo Night was an event that brought significant success last semester, so UAC organizers decided to bring it back.

“We had about 85, I want to say, last semester, so we were expecting around that many,” Stroebel said. “Maybe not as many as last time, because last time it was the first event of the year, so people were really excited about it and this is our first event of the semester, but I didn’t think it would excite people as much.”

UAC has planned eight more Live @ 5 acts for the remainder of the semester and gives out coupons for free drinks from the Hornet Express at every Live @ 5 event. The coupons are only good during the event.

“We kind of started the process of searching for performers over break, the end of last semester,” said Lacee Hanson, sophomore communication major and UAC live music co-chair. “We’ve just noticed that there is a lack of venues for local music and so we really wanted to be able to provide an outlet for local artists to be able to perform.

Promotion of the events was an issue for each event coordinator.

“It was kind of hard to promote,” Stroebel said. “We got back to school about a week and a half ago, so it was kind of hard to get a lot of promotion out in that amount of time.”

Prizes given out during Bingo Night included DVDs, ceramic cups full of candy, a crock pot, Emporia State memorabilia and VIP tickets to the Pittsburg State basketball game, donated by the Athletics Department.

“Our committee did a brainstorm over what we wanted to do and we decided we really wanted to do this one again because of how well it went over last semester and then execs actually made the final decision over which events we’d actually be doing,” Stroebel said.

Many competitors were very serious about winning their bingo game.

“Last semester was really funny because there were some serious bingo people here,” Stroebel said. “They brought their daubers in and they were ready to go. I guess they were really serious tonight, too. I saw some that were really focused, but I think a lot of the crowd was here just to be silly and have fun.”

Alex Pedersen/The Bulletin

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