About 1,500 Quinnipiac University students waited Saturday night for 21 cards to be flipped over to reveal how much money they had raised for the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.
A “Let’s go, QTHON!” chant starts as organizers turned over each card.
When the cards had been flipped, the numbers revealed $265,431.79.
The crowd erupted into cheers, chants and tears as QTHON surpassed its fundraising goal by more than $15,000, establishing a new high in the eighth year of the event at Quinnipiac.
“There’s something so special about holding one of those cards. It was a rush of emotions,” QTHON recruitment director Alex Ford said.
The QTHON management committee and student organization committees worked through the school year to put on the 10-hour dance event that took place in the Quinnipiac University Recreation Center Saturday.
Athletics teams, greek organizations and clubs like Alpha Delta Pi, Quinnipiac Student Nurses and IceCats created teams to dance for the entirety of the event and also hosted a “miracle child,” or, a specific child who benefited from the money raised.
“I do (this) for my future patients and to make sure another kid doesn’t see the inside of a hospital room,” Ford said.
Alex Clarke, a senior public relations major, said, “This is a way to give kids a voice and raise money for a good cause.”
Miracle child Emma singing Taylor Swift’s: “Look What You Made Me Do”
Each participant was responsible for achieving a personal fundraising goal.
Some got creative with ways of receiving donations, like fundraising committee member Megan McCarthy, who took her personal fundraising to another level by using Venmo.
“I Venmo-requested friends, family and my ex to donate to QTHON throughout the week and night,” McCarthy said.
“I am so proud of all of the people who worked so hard to make this goal achievable. It makes me so incredibly happy that we were raise that much for the kids,” she added.
Various activities took place through the 10 hours to keep the energy up.
Decked out from head to toe and wearing neon pink shirts were members of the morale committee.
Every hour on the hour they performed a 10-minute routine — rehearsed months prior.
“I knew I wanted to be a role model and have more of an impact on this event, so I applied for (the morale committee) and never looked back,” Melissa Podias said.
Throughout the day, organizers went on stage and asked participants to take out their phones and ask family and friends to donate through apps. That effort raised about $7,000 in one hour.
Fundraising co-chair Katie Stokarski said, “I was very nervous about us reaching our goal. A quarter of million dollars is a huge goal for a school our size, but the push we had at night of made us reach our goal.”
Other activities during the long day included a game of knockout and a game of HQ Trivia QTHON version. There were also different theme hours that included Disney, holiday and throwback Thursday themes in which participants dressed up.
Morale dancer Erin Schirra dressed as Moana for Disney Hour
“Throwback hour was definitely my favorite because it reminded me of my childhood,” QTHON participant Jess Ciccarella said.
Scaling up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is no easy feat.
It’s an extreme altitude mountain trek. It takes hikers through five different ecological zones, from farmland to alpine desert to snow capped arctic peaks. Temperatures can reach an upwards of 104 degrees and at night drastically drop between 20 to -20 degrees Fahrenheit, not including windchill. People can start experiencing acute mountain sickness symptoms as low as 8,000 feet and, as one enters the higher altitude zones, limited oxygen begins to impact one’s physiology, officially making the experience empowering yet treacherous.
Now, imagine ascending to the top at 64 years old.
Hamden resident Lew Nescott is taking on this challenge wholeheartedly. He flew out on Feb. 18.
In order to reach the top of the 19,341-foot summit, the body has to train itself, physically and mentally, to adapt to change. He felt the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University would be the perfect place to help him get back into tip top shape.
Nescott reached out to Bruce Koeppen, the dean of the school of medicine, about wanting to team up for this project. Koeppen then reached out to the biomedical sciences professor Tom Martin.
Martin said, “yeah, let’s give this a try,” and then blasted a call out to the first-year medical students to see who was interested in taking on such a project— perhaps as the student’s required capstone project.
Katherine Woolley was the first to jump on the offer.
“Oh, I hopped on it,” she said.
You can say it was fate.
“I was really excited about it,” Woolley said. “Honestly it seemed too good to be true.”
Katherine Woolley
Woolley is a bright-eyed 23 year old from Denver, Colo. She is an avid rock climber, hiker and snowboarder who loves the outdoors and nature. Having done undergrad at the University of Colorado Boulder, studying Integrative Physiology with an emphasis in exercise science, she knew that Quinnipiac University, nestled in between Sleeping Giant State Park, was the perfect choice for med school.
“The facilities are beautiful and the professors are amazing,” she said.
The year before she moved out to the East Coast, Woolley took a gap year, hiking all over Southeast Asia for three months, developing an appreciation for what the human body is capable of. She explored Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal and India.
Woolley and Professor Martin
“I did some high altitude trekking in Nepal, which is where I kind of had my first idea of making my capstone project involving high altitude and mountaineering,” she said. “It’s such an interesting culture there.”
The entire infrastructure of Nepal is based on Nepali Sherpas taking tourists up different mountains that normally one couldn’t do on their own.
“I thought it was so interesting that this 5-foot-2 tiny man can carry like 200 pounds on his back and run up the mountain and all these big buff tourists are struggling to catch their breath,” she said.
Nescott’s request couldn’t have aligned better with Woolley’s curiosity and career aspirations.
“This project is so multifaceted,” she said. “Not only are we helping a master’s athlete who came out of a retirement for a climb to do something amazing, but he’s doing it all for charity.”
Woolley said that working with Nescott has been inspirational and that he is motivated, hard working and doing this from the bottom of his heart. Nescott is funding his trip all out of pocket. All the money raised will go directly to the Sarah Foundation, which provides programs and services for people with intellectual and other disabilities who live in Connecticut.
According to the foundation’s website, Nescott said this climb is personal. He is climbing for Sarah, as well as his cousin, George or “Geo.”
“I think this goes to show you that if Lew can come out of retirement, hike to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, then anyone in the Sarah Foundation, anyone anywhere, if you are down on your luck, if you are turning over a new leaf, you can do anything you set your mind to,” Woolley said.
“It’s been a real honor to work with him and everything that this climb stands for.”
Nescott started to ascend to the top of the mountain on Feb. 20 or Feb. 21, but in order to prepare, Woolley and Martin devised a strategic plan for Nescott to help him through the harsh conditions.
Even though Nescott is an experienced climber having previously scaled three of the seven highest mountains in the world, he still needs to train and prepare for that high hypoxic environment.
“We came up with high intensity interval training, which has been shown to improve your cardiovascular fitness very efficiently,” Woolley said. “You can go for like an hour jog or you can do a 30 minute HIIT routine and you’d be sucking in a lot more air after the HIIT routine.”
The program also has different measures of heart rates that they want Nescott to hit. He has his own monitor with a watch he wears so he knows what beat per minute he needs to be at and for how long. These exercises can be done on his own, which is something Woolley thought was important.
“It’s a pretty strict exercise regiment,” she said. “Now he has the equipment to really workout properly.”
Testing began eight weeks ago before training started in the Motion Analysis Laboratory.
The work doesn’t end when Nescott returns from Africa on March 1.
From the plane, he will head to Quinnipiac and, on March 2, the rest of the data will be collected and they will begin to see how the operative outcome affected a bunch of the different variables.
“And on top of that, we have data we are collecting while he is climbing,” she said. “So he is wearing a bio strap. It’s going to be collecting heart rate, heart rate variability, temperature, activity level and GPS, all that kind of stuff. He is going to be wearing a pulse oximeter, O2 saturation…”
Woolley though is most excited about the video interviews Nescott will record, answering questions like: How nauseous are you? How are you sleeping? How are you eating? This is all to see if Nescott is getting altitude sickness.
Woolley will be able to see his cognitive abilities, how he is talking and how he looks. She also has him doing ataxia exams, heel to toe walking and a stroope test for air detection.
“The whole idea of all the senses is so we can recreate this climb from a data standpoint,” Martin said. “This is how he went from this elevation, how the heart rate and body temperature changed …that kind of stuff.”
Whooley said it may seem like a niche study, but there really isn’t any other data on anyone like Nescott out there.
“It’s a great opportunity for Katherine and the learning for the school of medicine students,” Martin said. “It’s also a way to help advance science potentially. To kind of get an idea of how athletes can respond to the altitude, it benefits the community, it benefits Lew, it benefits the foundation, it benefits the students and it also has the ability to potentially help the sciences. It hits all those landmarks.”
The research isn’t even close to being done yet, but Woolley is thankful for the opportunity.
“I am really grateful for Lew, the foundation is awesome, the school has been very supportive and Dr. Martin has been the best mentor ever,” she said. “He’s even teaching me an independent study, which is something he is doing out of his own free time.”
Quinnipiac University will host its eighth annual QTHON charity event Saturday from 2 p.m. to midnight. The 10-hour dance marathon will take place in Quinnipiac’s recreation center at Quinnipiac University’s Mount Carmel campus.
QTHON has been an annual event at Quinnipiac University since 2011. QTHON has raised more than $450,000 to date for the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. Dancers and sponsors raised $218,184.83 for the cause at last years event.
The dance marathon charity event began in 1973 in the HUB Ballroom at Penn State. Penn State’s IFC President Bill Lear put on the inaugural event. His goal was to host a dance marathon for a worthwhile cause. Over $2,000 was raised in its first event. Since then, the event has adopted the name “THON” and has raised well more than $100 million to date at Penn State alone.
Students and community members around Hamden will gather Saturday to attempt to reach the goal of $250,000 raised. Dancers who have raised more than $100 prior to the event will receive a QTHON dancer shirt, as well as food and other amenities.
The entry fee for all other attendees is $10 at the event according to QTHON co-executive director, Steph Rivera.
To donate or start your own fundraising page visit QTHON’s website here.
**UPDATE: Quinnipiac won Sunday afternoon’s game against Marist, 80-74, in double overtime. The victory clinches the fourth consecutive Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season championship for the Bobcats, who move to 22-5 overall and 16-0 in conference play. Aryn McClure led the Bobcats with a season-high 25 points, while Jen Fay added 21.**
Quinnipiac University women’s basketball head coach Tricia Fabbri collected her 400th career win Feb. 11 against Siena College. It is unlikely that this is on her mind now, as her team prepares to face off this afternoon against arch-rival Marist College — the only Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference team that has challenged the Bobcats.
Fabbri is already a member of the Connecticut Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame as a player for Fairfield and, now with 400 wins, is adding to an impressive 22-year coaching career. Fabbri certainly seemed to enjoy the moment for a few minutes in this video posted on Quinnipiac’s women’s basketball team Twitter page.
.@QUCoachFabbri collected her 400th victory yesterday on the road at Siena. Hear from coach Fabbri about what this milestone means to her: pic.twitter.com/b5xgj3T4Jy
In the video, Fabbri spoke about sharing the victory with everyone around her.
“The team is not I, and it’s shared with everybody. I don’t do this by myself,” she said.
Carly Fabbri, a senior guard and the coach’s daughter, said staying focused game to game is the key to the team’s success this season.
“We hate to lose. I think that’s what fuels us,” the young Fabbri, who is averaging 4.3 assists per game, said.
“Once you start focusing too much on the future, that’s when you’re going to get picked off in MAAC play.”
As her mother collected her 400th win, Fabbri and the team are also on a 16-game win streak. In case that wasn’t good enough, the team is also unbeaten in conference play amassing a perfect 15-0 record.
“I think it’s just that mentality (that) everyone’s going to have their chance if they put in the work and they buy into the system,” Carly Fabbri said.
Her mother’s system, which includes five-player substitutions known as the “gold rush,” was put on display when Quinnipiac made it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament last spring when it upset Marquette and the University of Miami.
Quinnipiac has three games remaining on its schedule before the MAAC Tournament opens in Albany, New York.
The Bobcats face MAAC opponents Marist, Rider and Monmouth starting today at 2 p.m. in Poughkeepsie, the place that Carly Fabbri called “one of the loudest places to play.”
As shootings have become more common in American schools, the importance of active shooter protocol is exaggerated.
Connecticut has a history of violence on school campuses. Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown was attacked by an active shooter in 2012. The gunman killed 27 staff members and students during the tragedy.
Despite its impressive safety record, Quinnipiac University hasn’t escaped the need to prepare its campus for the worst.
Criminal offenses may be down but co-chair of the emergency management team at Quinnipiac, Keith Woodward, believes that is no reason to forget emergency protocol. “Keeping safety in the forefront of our community is something we do, and we don’t take it for granted,” Woodward said.
The Quinnipiac University emergency management team sent an email to all faculty and staff at the end of January. The email was regarding important safety information and outlined the emergency alert systems used by Quinnipiac. It also supplied faculty procedure in specific emergency situations.
Included in the email was information for Quinnipiac’s emergency text and Alertus computer alert systems. It also gave instructions for the Rave Guardian App, a free app that provides “rapid and proactive” communication to emergency services and contacts.
Woodward also said that the information in the email was not new. Faculty procedure for the scenarios of an active shooter, lockdown, evacuation and shelter in place are all described in the email. They are advised to know two exits from the classroom outside as well as a hiding spot in the classroom. They should also be familiar with the types of emergency messages. Similar protocol for students can be found on Quinnipiac’s MyQ student portal.
Assistant Professor of Journalism, Ben Bogardus, feels that most emergencies are common sense. “Things like, ‘if the fire alarm goes off, leave the building’ and ‘if a student collapses, call 911,” Bogardus said. When asked about preparedness for emergencies in the classroom however, he says, “there needs to be more information on what to do in situations where we [the class] need to stay in the room.”
Compared to the Hamden public school system, Quinnipiac is more prepared for emergency situations. Listed under the district policies of Hamden Public School’s website is their “Emergencies and Disaster Preparedness.” The website only has procedure for fires, bomb threats and emergency closings under said category.
Another clear difference between Quinnipiac and Hamden public schools is the distribution and depth of information. The Hamden public school’s safety information was difficult to find, but Quinnipiac’s information is promoted through alert systems, emails and student portals.
Quinnipiac may have safety information readily available, but it is not necessarily well received. Many students admit that they are not signed up for or even aware of Quinnipiac’s several alert systems. Christian Quigley, a sophomore biomedical marketing major, said he receives email alerts from the school during power outages, parking closures and local emergencies. However, he said has no additional alert app or service from Quinnipiac.
Similarly to professor Bogardus, Quigley had no prior knowledge that the safety information for events such as active shooters and lockdowns was readily available.
“Training to every scenario is not a goal we chase,” Woodward explains. However he hopes the information helps by educating the community on how to react to situations.
Senior Angela Varney felt early application was the best option for Quinnipiac to improve their safety information distribution. “The best way to inform students of their service would be to introduce alert systems in Freshman seminar classes,” Varney said.
For more specific emergency situations and procedure go to ‘Health and Campus Safety’ on Quinnipiac’s website.
Technical difficulties marred what was otherwise a proud and lively display of black excellence last night at the Quinnipiac Black Student Union’s Black History Month Showcase.
The showcase in Buckman Theater was just the latest in a series of events Quinnipiac University planned to commemorate both Black History Month and the 200th anniversary of Frederick Douglass’ birthday.
The event saw its first technical setback during this opening video when the sound feed was cut three minutes in. The video played on in silence. Awkwardly at times of black triumph, yet harrowing at any of the many instances of horror in the history of African-Americans. The sound continued to be resurrected and subsequently cut throughout the night.
Despite the difficulties, the crowd still enjoyed multiple performances that included poetry from students, a performance from Quinnipiac spirit group Step to Perfection, and a series of intermittent hip-hop, spoken word and beatbox performances from proverbial warm-up guy/hype man Frank E. Brady (affectionately referred to as The Hope Dealer).
Though the members of the Black Student Union who organized the event were clearly disappointed, they still had a vision for what the night meant to them and their fellow black students. The organization’s director of public relations Kerri Gravesande described the event as a celebration of black excellence.
“The point of this event was to show the different aspects of black history,” she said. “It’s not like slavery is forgotten but that’s not the point of this, it’s not a pity party and it’s not a cry for help, it to show everybody that we are resilient people and we always come back stronger and that we’ve done amazing things.”
When asked what black excellence meant to her, Black Student Union Secretary Coralie Joseph said, “I would say it begins with just loving yourself and accepting yourself… and realizing you are useful to society whether you see it or not. It doesn’t matter the adversities that you’ve faced throughout your life you are a very valued person in society… and taking that and using that to help other people, not keeping it to yourself and sharing it with the rest of the world.”
When asked the same question, Gravisande simply said “Us.”
With Judy Olian set to be Quinnipiac’s ninth and first female president, it may be worth looking back to see what the other presidents were like over the almost 90 years of Quinnipiac history. (Unless otherwise specified, all information and photos are from the archives of the Quinnipiac Chronicle)
Danny Glover sat down with members in and around the Quinnipiac community Tuesday night to discuss the start of Black History Month and how he’s using his platform to speak about change.
Known for his roles on camera from movies such as “Lethal Weapon,” “The Color Purple,” and “Angels in the Outfield,” Glover said he and his mom both agreed his fame was meant to go beyond the movies he performed in. This agreement was what brought him to Quinnipiac’s campus.
Glover discussed how his passion didn’t come from acting, but by identifying and looking up to people like his parents, Bob Moses, and several civil rights movements.
“I want to be of some use,” Glover said. “At the beginning, I felt that I was of some use and the idea of being a child of the civil rights movement and how much I identified with those moments.”
He discussed using his acting, like in “Master Harold,” as a way to start a discussion not just about black people, but about the world.
“It gave me a path, it gave me a way,” Glover said. “Not only could I talk about the system of Apartheid in the most brilliant writing. At the same time I could express about how I feel about the world and the justice of the world.”
Don Sawyer, the interim associate vice president for academic affairs and chief diversity officer at Quinnipiac, spoke on the importance of having someone like Glover, who’s had a strong presence on TV, talk about ways he’s reaching out to help others.
“I mean a lot of people know him as an actor but not a lot know necessarily about his activism,” Sawyer said. “You don’t have to just be an actor or just be an activist but you can blend your career with also the support of the local community.”
“She is a tireless and effective fundraiser,” UCLA distinguished professor Steven Lippman said.
Olian spearheaded a fundraising windfall that saw $400 million come into the school.
Lippman added, “Dean Olian has shown herself to be incredibly energetic and hard working with unsurpassed attention to detail. Her entrepreneurial bent is ideally suited to help Quinnipiac University excel in general and ascend the rankings in particular.”
Before Olian officially becomes president on July 1, here are some facts you may not know about her and her journey to Quinnipiac.
1. She had a unique upbringing
Olian’s parents escaped the Holocaust — a disaster that separated the couple for seven years before they were reunited. They moved to Australia, where Olian was born. She “ping-ponged” between Australia and Israel during her childhood, and also spent time as an au pair in Switzerland, according to a website run by UCLA assistant dean Dylan Stafford.
That same website revealed that Olian had cancer in her 20s and left her unable to have children. She said her experience is part of the reason why she loves working with young people and being involved in their education.
3. Her education has an international flair
Olian earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. After traveling to the United States with her first husband without a work visa, she entered grad school. She earned her master’s and doctorate in industrial relations from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
4. She teaches an extremely popular class at UCLA
Olian teaches “Critical Milestones in Preparing for Life in Leadership” with Peter Guber. Guber is CEO of Mandalay Entertainment and owns the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
5. She is more than just a professor and dean
Olian is also the author of a weekly syndicated newspaper column and host of a monthly television show on current topics in business. She is a much sought-after speaker and consultant for major corporations. In addition she serves on the board of advisors for Catalyst, a nonprofit organization with a mission of creating better workplaces for women.
Quinnipiac University announced Monday afternoon that Judy D. Olian would be named the ninth president in the history of the school.
Olian takes over the role from John Lahey, who served as Quinnipiac’s president since 1978, a 31- year tenure. Lahey officially gives way to Olian on July 1, 2018.
“I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be here,” Olian said. “(I am) very excited to be joining you in building this next phase of a very special university.”
Olian takes time out to talk to Hamden mayor Curt B. Lang after her press conference.
Olian has been serving as the dean at the UCLA Anderson School of Management since 2006, and is the first female president in Quinnipiac history.
The school had been reviewing candidates for a new president since Lahey announced his impending retirement in April of 2017. Under Lahey, Quinnipiac has added two campuses and increased enrollment to more than five times as many students per year, as well as a added a polling institute and Division I athletics.
“This is an exciting time for Quinnipiac University,” Lahey said in a statement announcing Olian’s appointment. “We wish Dr. Judy Olian the best of luck as she builds on the success forged by our students, faculty and staff, working with the Quinnipiac community to move our institution to even greater levels of achievement.”
