Printed in the College of Eastern Utah's Eagle Newspaper:

Dance instructor: Angelina Cook

May Blueotter, staff writer

Angelina Cook, Eagle dance director, is in her second year at CEU and had her team place as the number four best at the USA National’s Competition in February.

She is used to getting up early for practice from 6-8 a.m. Monday thru Friday. “I have a husband whose a landscaper who owns his own business. I have three kids: a five-year-old, a three-year-old and a six-month-old. Two boys and the six-month-old is a girl. He watches the kids while I run the dance program. And yes I want more kids, but just not right a way.

Cook took the Eagles to nationals this year. “It was a fun experience for us, we kind of didn’t know what to expect because we weren’t able to come last year. But this year we went knowing that there were going to be ten teams to compete against and that we were going to have to make it to the top five in order to be a finalist.”

In the national competition CEU was placed against schools from throughout the West and enrollments of up to 47,000.

“They have a much better talent pool to pull from. So, we did our best amongst the four to work hard and come up with a creative routine, hoping that our creativity would be in our favor, if our talent lacked. But luckily, when we got there, we realized that we were pretty much just as good as the other schools.

“We had a fun time in Las Vegas when we competed. We did make finals and took fourth over all. That was a really big accomplishment and the four teams that we beat were really good, and now we have a better idea of what to expect next year. So, we’re pushing’ to go for second or third next year. And we really loved riding the Stratosphere after the competition.”

When asked how work effects her family life, Cook says jokingly, “It doesn’t. Just kidding. It’s really at a convenient time for me because my children are pretty much asleep until I get home and then as soon as I get home, my husband goes to work.

As far as family life goes, it’s kind of difficult dragging three kids off to the games when when I can’t find a-sitter. Besides that, it’s very convenient as far as being a stay-at-home mom, because I can kind of work around my kids.”

Cook has a bachelor’s degree in secondary education and a social studies composite which she received at Utah State University.

Prior to coming to CEU, she taught for three years at Carbon High School as a dance team coach.

When asked about the outlook of next year’s new recruits, Cook says, “Yes there were a lot of interest in my program until our scholarships got cut. We had the best tryout ever and cut girls that I would love to use next year. I had a lot of girls calling from Hunter, Hillcrest, and some of the bigger 4A and 5A schools that were interested in coming down because they’ve heard about the success of the program. They heard about the scholarship program that we were once able to offer.”

Scholarship cuts have been a large problem for many programs, but there is always a look towards the years to come, she said.

One of her favorite quotes is from David Berry, “If you can’t dance well, just get up and dance.” Oh, and just for her girls, “Don’t be too sarcastic.”

In depth with CEU’s Kim Zollinger

May Blueotter
lifestlye editor

Kim Zollinger’s position at the College of Eastern Utah is Marketing Director of Auxiliaries. This includes the Bookstore, Housing, BDAC, Athletics and Food Service. She also is responsible for the direction of the summer camps held from May through August.

CEU’s summer camps include sports camps, youth conferences, a choir camp as well as a mine rescue camp. “I really enjoy my new position,” says Zollinger, “It is a lot of work and long hours but it pays off when the satisfaction of successful camps and conferences are so very important to our college in the form of the future recruitment. If we can get these athletes and students on our campus we have a good chance of percentage of them come to CEU when that time arrives.”

Continues Zollinger, “Participants in our summer camps come mostly from the Wasatch Front, but we had nice turnouts from the states of Colorado and Idaho this summer. The entire athletic department from CEU helped out with the camps in the form of scheduling, facility preparation, and directing some of the camps. It was a total team effort by our staff and by Jonathan Young, who was in charge of residential housing of the campers. It is nice to see everyone working together on a project as huge as our summer camps and actually enjoying it. I really appreciated all of their hard work.”

“For next summer recruitment starts early. I plan on going out to most of the schools in the state to try and get them to commit to our camps early. Besides sending out brochures and letters we drop off posters of each sports camp and try and talk to the coaches to get their input on what we can do to improve our camps. At the end of each camp we have the coaches fill out an evaluation. This summer on a scale of (1 to 5), 1 being needs improvement to five being excellent, we averaged a 4.4. So we know that we host one of the best summer camps around the state, but we would really like to see the numbers increase in all the camps.”

Zollinger is also in charge of concerts presented at the College of Eastern Utah. Past country artists include JoDee Messina, Mark Wills, Terri Clark, Andy Griggs as well as Rhett Akins, Daryl Singletary and Jeff Carson. Zollinger says, “Concerts are fun to host but are really a lot of hard work. Many days and nights are spent by the entire staff at the BDAC preparing for the fun event. We usually try to schedule two concerts a year. One in November/December, and the other in late April. Our student government helps out by giving the student activity holder $10.00 off each ticket when they show their card to the ticket booth. With this discount the students do not have to dig into their pocketbooks very deep for the entire price of admittance. We are very fortunate to have professional country artists perform at our BDAC. Not many people can get the chance to see the artists up close as you can in our venue. Presently we are looking to route an artist for December. We will find out later if it is secured.” But for right now Zollinger is busy enough as it is. She is getting ready to fund-raise athletics, and other auxiliaries, plus getting prepared to recruit for next summers camps. So you’ll will probably see her scurrying around the campus and town.

NEW FACULTY

Business instructor David Cassidy talks about family...

May Blueotter, staff writer 

Before coming to CEU to teach various business education classes, David Cassidy the new instructor at CEU, worked for Owens Corning.

“Owens Corning are the people that make the pink fiber glass and have the pink panther for their logo. I worked for one of their divisions and I was the vice-president of that division.”

Majoring in marketing with a combined minor in marketing and statistics, Cassidy received a bachelors degree

David Cassidy is a new business instructor at CEU. (photo by Jonas Harmon/The Eagle)

from Brigham Young University. Afterwards, he acquired a MBA from Utah State University.

When asked why teach business, Cassidy replies, “My working career has obviously been all in business and I, some years ago, decided my dream career would be to teach business at a small college.”

He comments on how he taught some adult evening classes at a college in Ohio and also for some LDS early morning seminary classes.

Last summer he heard about a teaching position opening in Price.

“My oldest daughter and her husband and children used to live here in Price. And so, I’d been to the school before.”

“It’s a challenge, but it’s fun. I really enjoy teaching from the books and, adding to that, the life’s experiences I’ve had. They apply to the business corses that I teach. It really is the funest thing I think I’ve ever done.”

“I was born in Vancouver, Washington. I have been to all 50 states. I’ve traveled to all 50 states. Been to 21 foreign countries. I’ve lived in Washington, Utah, Alabama, Indiana, Ohio and Virginia since I was married. Before I was married, I lived in a ton more places.”

Cassidy shares a little about his family.

“I’m married, have four children and five grandchildren. My oldest two are girls and they’re married. I have a son that’s at Brigham Young and I have a son that’s living back in Indiana.”

“I collect antique target rifles and I am very interested in street cars and old cars. When the weather gets cold outside and ( I ) can’t do anything else I like to build model ships.”

“I think my favorite place to live was Utah. I enjoy the desert. When I was in college I used to do a lot of cave exploring and hiking in the desert. I did some rock climbing. So, I really enjoy this dryer cold barren kind of area.”

As a message to CEU students, Cassidy says, “I think having an acquaintance with and some background in business is very essential to being successful in life. It helps you make decisions in an organized sort of manner and helps you whether your in the fine arts or whether your in diesel mechanics.

“It helps you to order your life in such a way that you can accomplish the things you want to. Helps you understand why people do things.”

Sophomore Jonathan Skoubye has trouble keeping up with all his studies. This amount of work at college can lead to symptoms of depression and high levels of stress. Stress and depression are real dangers for college students. (photo: Patrick Heagany/The Eagle)

Relief for stress and depression

May Blueotter, staff writer

With all the negatives in college student’s lives, they could go without a few less pressures. The World Trade Center bombing, midterms, work, school, upsetting feelings between roommates, relationships or lack there of, runaway fugitives, provisions shortages, and well, all those things you miss out on when you’re away from home. The sad thing is, they don’t just walk away.

We find that getting older seems to be what we all didn’t have in mind. Tribulations are always going to be there.

Sometimes we think that the real problem is school itself and that’s where all our thoughts come together with quick solutions. Dropping out, leaving the dorms, or other drastic changes are just a few responses that at first sight seem to be a positive decision but later dissatisfaction fills our lives leaving a feeling of defeat.

Terry Holbrook, director of the Wellness Center explains how different symptoms define depression. Confusion, sleep, weight fluctuation and loss of interest in physical relations are general signs, along with a feeling of hopelessness.

“Most people have a general interest in sex. And so when I ask a student how’s your sex drive, I am not talking about whether or not they’re having sex. I’m asking them is your normal sex drive there, is that interest there. And obviously if the interest is repressed and it’s not there, that’s a symptom of depression.” He suggests that people who are depressed experience anhedonia, a general loss of what has been known to generate interest and excitement in one’s life.

“If the multiple symptoms are there then we can probably say that the person is clinically depressed. Sometimes the person may be needing medication for it; sometimes just being able to talk about it is sufficient. That’s when we look at family history.

“A lot of mental illness does have a genetic stretch to it, and so we find somebody who does have a family history of, say bipolar illness, (they) themselves may also suffer from bipolar illness and depression, than the others,” says Holbrook.

The world these days can feel pretty lonely. Here are some suggestions to consider before a rash decision is made that affects your future. (See chart on right)

“Depression is the cold of common health,” says Holbrook. When someone has a cold they don’t find a need to run to a doctor as soon as possible. They wait for it to clear up in a couple of weeks. The same thing is true in most depressions.

“The one thing that we need to keep in prospective is that most people are going to handle these things I think reasonably well,” says Holbrook bearing in mind the recent world incidents. He adds that some psychologist are suggestive people, and go as far as implanting the thought of posttraumatic stress when watching the World Trade Center attack on television. “Wise people ask the question, what have we learned, and how do we rise above this,” he says. “People are resilient. They have the ability to rise above. That’s what I want the students on our campus to know.”