Becoming Tyler

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Tyler Adams. Photo by Faith Gimzek.By Faith Gimzek

In a cold January weekend, Tyler Adams, 16, went with a friend to shop for a new outfit to wear to a school dance. At Hoosic Valley High School in Schaghticoke, N.Y., the winter semi-formal was a well-attended event that students looked forward to for weeks. With cash from babysitting and a seasonal job at a nearby farm, Adams picked up a black button-up shirt, a striped tie and a pair of khakis. When he got home, he stashed the clothes in the back of his bedroom closet.

The day of the dance, Adams reluctantly put on the strapless black dress and matching heels his mother had purchased for the occasion months earlier. He hid the new clothes in his backpack and got dropped off at another friend’s house. There, he took off the dress and put on the shirt, tie and khakis before leaving for the dance. This year’s theme was Hollywood.

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Finding the Hidden Harmony

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By Hannah Nesich

The theater, filled with over 100 people, was silent. Impatient parents and friends waited.

On the timber stage floorboards stood 15 women, curving in an arc around three microphones. Natalie Skoblow, a petite brunette, stood at the center of the arc. After a few confident glances at the surrounding women, she began to count numbers, barely audible to anyone past the third row.

“1..2…a 1, 2, 3, 4.”

And with that, the popping, syncopated beats of SUNY New Paltz’s all-female a capella group The Sexy Pitches gradually began to fill Julien J. Studley Theatre. Skoblow, the soloist that night, glanced up at the audience and took her first breath.

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The First Red Carpet in New Paltz: Matt Hunter’s First Venture Into Film

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By Bre Metcalf-Oshinsky

It’s 4 a.m. on a Friday night in New Paltz, and Matthew Ryan Hunter is furiously clicking away on his computer keyboard. Still in his clothes from class the previous day, he is barely blinking at a 120-page screen-play entitled “Sandwich Girl.”

“It’s a working title,” he explains with a smirk, and begins tapping dialogue again on page 72.

At universities across the country, college kids pull all-nighters. But Hunter is not cramming for a midterm exam or a last minute essay. Writing movies is his dream job, and he’s not waiting for graduation to start his climb to fame.

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Lianne Valdivia: Six Years Under Her Belt

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By Jack Spader

There are always athletes who stand out. Lianne Valdivia is one of those athletes. When she is out on the field, outrunning her opponents or finding an opening in the net, it doesn’t take a seasoned lacrosse player to see her ability. Only in her second year at SUNY New Paltz, she already holds the record for the most goals scored in a season. For a girl with so much talent and skill, Many people assumed that she had been playing her whole life. Wrong. It has only been six years since the first time she picked up a lacrosse stick.
In the 2012 season, Valdivia won the team award of lead scorer. She had not originally been going for the award until, halfway through the season, one of her teammates told her that she was the runner-up. Then Valdivia set her sights on being the lead scorer. She went further, setting a school record with 38 goals for the season.
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Minna George: Dreaming of Dancing

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By Sheryl Katz

Splitting the team into groups, Minna George announces the group choreography exercise that the girls of Nachle, the Indian dance team at SUNY New Paltz, will be participating in.

At the start of the semester, neither she nor her co-captain, Debbie Schaeffer, contribute to this exercise, instead they take a step back and watch the rest of the team work together to come up with choreography using the Indian dance techniques and hand formations of Bharatanatyam taught to them.

“I have really high expectations of them because a lot of them are really creative,” George said.

By initiating a group choreography exercise, she is making sure the walk-on dance team will carry on successfully and continue to prosper after she graduates from SUNY New Paltz in May.

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Zumba Fitness: The Fun Workout

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By Gabriela Jeronimo

“Come on, get your feet off the floor!” Zumba instructor, Liz Sydney, yells to her students.  “I’ll probably be the reddest one in the room, anyway.”

The students begin to follow her dance moves through the mirrors lining the walls of the dance studio in the Athletic and Wellness Center.  Mara’s “Crazy Love” is blasting through the speakers in the room.  The fans sway side to side from the vibrations of everybody jumping at once.  Sweat is trickling down everyone’s faces, but they don’t seem to mind.  In fact, they are smiling and laughing at Sydney’s counts and funny commentary.

Once the song plays its final note, students rush toward their water bottles. After taking that sip of water, everyone runs back to their place and listens to Sydney’s directions for the next song.

“The key to this song is right, left, right double!” she yells.  The song starts to play. Her students try to figure out the dance moves.  They look confused but keep going. The same cycle continues until class ends with stretching and thank yous from Sydney.

Teaching Zumba is only one part of Sydney’s hectic schedule.

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Nicole Janine Rivera: The Journey of Discovery

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By Kamoy Joseph

“I just want you close… where you can stay forever…” Though Nicole Janine Rivera sang in front of audiences many times before, she found herself full of fear. Her legs shook and thoughts raced through her mind. She hadn’t opened her mouth to sing in front of a large audience since the death of her grandfather, four years prior.

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Penning the Peculiar and the Personal

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By Rachel Freeman

Sitting alone at the bar in Murphy’s on a Thursday night nursing two whiskey sours, Eric Velzis pulled out a small notebook. He scanned the space bustling with college students, all unaware they would soon be subjects of a poem.

Exploring club culture, he moved from his perch at the bar to another beside the dance floor, then finally to a table surrounded by a crowd. He continuously recorded what he observed and captured the scene through his senses.

Despite the drinks in their hands, to Velzis everyone around him looked thirsty.

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Dedication Until the Very End

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By Niko Prassas

Although he’s been on the swim team for all four years of college, Bryan Farm still needed to keep his nervous excitement in check.  He sat with his teammates in almost complete silence as he waited for his turn to compete.  The SUNY New Paltz swim team was set for the last swim meet of the season.  For Farm, it would be his last swim meet ever. Continue reading →

Leave it on the Dance Floor

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By: Victoria Morrell

On the morning of April 15, 2012 Craig Washington answered one of the hardest phone calls of his life. His best friend and fellow performer, Travis Veada, had passed away after a long fight with meningitis. A few hours later Washington was up on stage with the SUNY New Paltz hip-hop dance troupe, Culture Shock, giving what he would describe as one of the most full-out performances of his life.

Not performing wasn’t an option.

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