ISA kicks off with a soccer tournament

Last Saturday, the PSU International Student Association hosted a soccer tournament at the Bicknell Sports Complex, each team had about eight players and this time there were female teams competing as well. The games started about 8 am and continued until 4 pm.

Yana Kirichenko, a senior majoring in Finance and Accounting from Kazakhstan was in charge of organizing the games that day and making sure everything runs smoothly, she was also in charge of timing the encounters.  

According to Abdulghani Almushir, a member of the winning team: ‘’As an international student, I think this kind of events helps us know each other better and no matter where you are from; you get to represent your country.’’

‘’For some of us, it also serves as a practice since we are part of the PSU Soccer Club and I would personally love if the University recognizes this as an official sport because even for the girls, it is a great experience,’’ said the sophomore in Mechanical Engineering.  

Valeria Romero, student from the Intensive English Program said: ‘’To me, it was incredible because I love soccer. It was also a great opportunity to make new friends and we had a good time together. It was really fun and we should do it more often,’’ she said.  

According to Giuliano Mora, junior in International Business: ''I would say that representing my country with my friends has been quite satisfying, because we are playing against teams all around the globe. I wish there were at least two of these tournaments per semester,’’ said the Paraguayan student. 

Pedro Lopes, senior in Business Management said: ‘’I think this is an experience that brings us together and help us know each other better, including the customs and traditions of other countries.’’

‘’As a Brazilian student, for me is nice to play a sport that is so popular where I come from and it is very interesting to see it being played in the US. This tournament is not necessarily about winning, it is mostly about having a good time and share experiences,’’ he said. 

According to Paloma Perez: ‘’It was fun and a different kind of activity. I enjoyed playing with all the girls, and it was a good day to get together as a team and also promote soccer at PSU,’’ said the first year postgraduate student in School Psychology.

Ben Hawksbee, junior in International Business said: ''It was a great opportunity to play against representatives of other countries and learn about their culture at the same time, all the students that are here today share a love for soccer, which is a universal sport,’’ he said.   

GTV is back on the air

GTV is Pittsburg State University's television news show, broadcast live every Thursday at 4pm on the cable access channel 13. Students of both Television Production and Directing classes come together and produce the show.

According to Andrew Dodson, last week's anchor: ''Being part of a television show with your classmate is a lot of fun; you definitely get a different understanding of the production process, how to make the videos that go on air, and then to actually doing the show.’’ 

‘’I like being on camera, and being an anchor is a big responsibility because you are being watched by all these people but I loved doing it. In the set we all get along so that really helps the process,’’ said the junior in Photo journalism.     

‘’We do several run troughs and practices, so as soon as they say Ok we’re live and that feeling of adrenaline you instantly get that feels like a rush; would be the most memorable part of the show for me,’’ said Dodson.

‘’I would definitely recommend this experience to other students on campus, if anybody either likes Broadcasting as a hobby like I do, or if they want to do it as a career, this gives you an opportunity to do something you won’t ordinarily do,’’ he said.

Sydney Ward, last week's Floor Director said: ''It teaches us to work with people of different backgrounds and personalities, we come together to create something that is very similar to what we would experience at a job in this field.’’

‘’During the production process, I really like stacking the show and deciding what is going to go where and how the show is going to look. I think is very interesting to see how people react to certain segments of the show,’’ said the junior in Broadcasting.

‘’I decided to take the producing and directing class to kind of get the flip side of what goes on in the actual set production as supposed to just producing content, and how that material is implemented into the show,’’ she said.

According to Ward: ‘’The most memorable part for me is to actually call the camera shots myself and connecting the control room with the studio, that was really accelerating because I didn’t know how things were going to go and having that pressure on me really showed me how I react under stress.’’

Tim Spears, producer of the show agreed: ''It’s a bit of a pressure cooker at times but it is also great because in this class you get useful experience that is very relevant to your career.’’

‘’I really like shooting and editing the story, because we get to write our own script in relation to the things that we are interested in. We are pretty much doing the same things that we will be doing in the work force later on and we are already familiar with it,’’ said the junior in Broadcasting.

‘’I will always remember the late nights, because broadcasting requires a lot of outside classroom work and we have to have that commitment of staying until we get everything done,’’ he said.

Erica Edwards is the instructor who guides students through this experience: ‘’I think this is one of the best ways to teach a class like this, because it is very hands on. We have some class room time and then with the live show they get to practice everything that we discussed in class,’’ she said.

‘’It is a ton of work; each student comes up with their own story idea, goes out and shoots it by interviewing people. After that, they bring the material and write a script, then they spend a few hours editing and putting it together, and that is just individually,’’ she said.  

According to Edwards: ‘’When it comes down to the show they decide the order of the stories and timing it exactly, also adding the titles and sound production. There is so much work that goes into it and the live shows is simply the reward of all that.’’

‘’The show is usually divided into four segments, and helping students putting it together is very rewarding because broadcast journalism is such a passion for me just as teaching is, and this is a combination of both,’’ she said.     

The PSU live show project started in the 90’s and it became GTV in 2010, before that the show was called Gorilla Vision.