An Extra Ordinary Life: Carly Ridge

Sitting outside on the deck, leaned back, coffee on the table, the surrounding smell of fresh vegetables and fruit in the air; this is how Carly Ridge likes to spend her mornings at home.

Carly Ridge, a 20 year old junior journalism major at Temple University has a hobby that not many city college kids are familiar with; gardening.  During the summers, Ridge helps garden at her parent’s house. Ridge took up the act thanks to her mother.

“I didn’t always like it,” Ridge said. “At first, my mom made me do the weeding. Now she’s gotten too busy. I like it now; it’s relaxing unless something goes wrong.”

Growing an assortment of veggies and fruits, Ridge’s garden includes blueberries, lettuce, spinach and tomatoes. Since her family doesn’t have a large yard, they’ve gotten creative through the use of planters on the deck. Her mom isn’t the only parent who has influenced Ridge in what she does. Her father and his side of the family were all journalists.

Ridge’s father worked as a press secretary for Senator Dennis Ceconcini based off in Arizona. Also, many people in her family worked as freelancers. “My great uncle, covered parts of the war in Afghanistan. Crazy, he was, like, 70 years old when he did,” Ridge said.

Ridge hopes to follow in her family’s footsteps, becoming a successful journalist as well. She plans on taking a different, personalized path, and possibly owning her own garden along the way. 

An Extra Ordinary Life: Chelsea Finn

With a smile that was made for the camera, and shimmers with electric cheerfulness, Chelsea Finn, 20, lets her lustrous strawberry-blonde hair cascade over her shoulders and onto her orange-red 60’s retro, sleek fitting top. The shirt, warm and fun, with its white horizontal lines looping around in sets of four, contrasts sharply with navy blue shorts that fit snuggly without being licentious. Finn polishes off her modeling worthy, self-crafted ensemble, with white Aldo shoes, that add vibrancy without getting in the way. Her creation can be found in Finn’s blog entitled Organized Mess from a post entitled “Indian Summer”, dated October 7, of this year.

            Having been born in Detroit, moved to Virginia at two, over to West Virginia at five, down to North Carolina at eight, then up to York, Pa, by 12, Finn had already saw more of the United States then many do in a life time prior to enrolling in middle school. “I was a Marine brat,” Finn explained, “It wasn’t awkward [the multiple childhood moves] because my father was a Marine, we lived on Marine bases where everyone moved frequently.”

            However, the move to York, Pa, at 12 would prove to be a divergence from the other moves. The move to York was not to another military base. The Finn’s bought a house to settle in.

            “It was kind of hard being the ‘new girl,’ who spoke with a southern accent, at an age when kids can be mean,” Finn recounted her early days in York.

            Multiply that with Finn’s burgeoning interests in things like fashion and photography which, “there was no one in York to talk to about,” and Finn’s teen-age years might have been riddled with woes of alienation and confusion. However, that wasn’t to be the case. Instead the imaginative and resourceful Marine’s daughter, started her own fashion blog, which is still going strong today, with a bountiful 796 followers.

            From Organized Mess, Finn stated, “I wanted to express something that nobody else in my small town seemed interested in.” The blog became that and much more.

 “I realized a little bit later that I wanted to document my life,” Finn declares in Organized Mess, and that is precisely what she has been doing for the past five years on the blog. From, altruistic New Year’s resolutions, to Valentine’s Day shared with high school sweet-heart Derek Shearstone, to a fashion tribute to Taylor Swift, Finn documents all of it. And much like the world and all its inhabitants are perpetually in motion, evolving, moving, changing… So too is Chelsea Finn. So too, is Organized Mess.

By Michael Casteel

An Extra Ordinary Life: Katelynn Luczkow

Don’t take Katelynn Luczkow, 22, to the beach. Even after a few tequila sunrises, this 5th year senior at Temple will freak out at the vastness and fishy-ness of the ocean, “I hyperventilate every time.”  Even when she went to Costa Rica with a buddy, “it doesn’t matter how much alcohol you give me, I’ll still be freaking out.”

Away from the water, Luczkow is a server at 20 Manning Grill in Rittenhouse Sq. She wears her New Jersey origin like a badge of honor, taking pride in her Hunterdon county beginnings even in Philadelphia where NJ is the butt of a joke.
This goofy fish-and-ocean-phobic young lady is a No Doubt fan and admires Gwen Stefani’s coolness. She maybe even draws that coolness into her personality, but she admits “ I don’t know if I would even necessarily like her if I was in the same room as her… I don’t model my life after her in any way.”
Deep little dimples fill her cheeks when she smiles, but don’t be shocked by her creepy talent: she can make her cheek super hollow. It might look painful but she just laughs at it.
She wants to skydive one day, or maybe even base jump in a squirrel suit. How daring, considering she wont even dip a toe into a body of water with fish in it.

An Extra Ordinary Life: Cindy Stansbury

It’s five in the morning and Cindy Stansbury is starting off her morning, like she does every morning, with a run around Philadelphia. “I guess I’m kind of a meticulous person or a habitual person. I do the same thing every morning on the weekdays it’s my routine,” said Stansbury. Meticulous maybe, but many would consider that dedication to be very different than the average college student who is constantly hitting the alarm snooze button.

To many journalism is a business that is believed to be dying. However, students like Stansbury prove this misconception to be quite false. Stansbury’s passion for the news and reading has always been a part of her personality. “I like to pick up and read the free newspapers Temple provides in the dorms,” said Stansbury.

Stansbury, a journalism major and political science minor, has a big dream. “I want to write for Time. I’m a geek for that magazine. It’s always sitting on my kitchen table. I save copies of the magazine. It’s kind of a problem,” she joked. Stansbury has been preparing for her dream by writing for Temple’s sustainability magazine. Stansbury explained that by working, in this particular field of journalism, she was able to see a side of Philadelphia that many people don’t get to see. “I actually wrote a couple of pieces for Grid which is the sustainability magazine here. That’s a really interesting topic because you get to see a whole part of Philadelphia you don’t normally get to see,” said Stansbury. It’s not hard to tell that if Stansbury keeps up her mentality she is sure to take the world of journalism by storm.

By Molly Mulvihill

An Extra Ordinary Life: John Moritz

When asked what was something that he would never forget about his college experience at Temple University, without hesitation, John Moritz, a third year journalism student replied, “My friends and working for the newspaper.”

The Norwalk, CT native grew up in a small suburban city outside of New York. Home to about 90,000 people, when it came time to apply to colleges, Moritz knew that he wanted to be surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the city. Beyond that, Moritz was certain of his major: journalism, a department of Temple University that is very well known.

“I knew I wanted to do journalism. So basically so junior year, I made a list of all the schools that had good communications, and Miami and Temple were the only two left. I heard back from Temple within 15 days and it took Miami 3 months. By that point, I knew that I was going to Temple.”

Since beginning his time at Temple, Moritz has taken an active role in writing for The Temple News, the University’s school newspaper. “I write once a week, once every other week. I’m a news editor, so I cover whatever needs to be cover, usually bigger issues.”

 In fact, Moritz has recently become involved with “Visualize Temple,” a section of the school paper that is responsible for keeping the university students and community up to date with future plans and design elements of the campus.

            Beyond graduation in May 2015, Moritz plans on continuing his journalism career in the hopes of working for a local paper closer to where he grew up. “I want to be a reporter for Newsday in Long Island, it’s close to home. It’s a fairly large paper but it’s not a giant paper, which I like.”

            Between Moritz’s passion for his major and the career building opportunities Temple has supplied him with so far, only time will tell where this promising budding journalist will make his mark in the future.

By Caitlin Cowan

An Extra Ordinary Life: Jim Kirn

Jim Kirn is a 24-year old journalism student at Temple. Originally from Northeast Philadelphia, he attended Roman Catholic High School in the mid 2000s. Kirn first picked up a guitar at age 12 and has been playing ever since. Touring with Infernal Stronghold, he experienced what it was like being on the road and visiting different places in the country. “I dropped out of school to go on tour. I’ve done about two or three U.S. tours now,” Kirn said. Jim is an avid fan of punk, metal and 70’s hard rock. He also enjoys older hardcore bands, such a Poison Idea.

Kirn has had some pretty wild experiences while touring the country. Recalling a show in Humboldt County, California, Kirn explained how more relaxed the attitude toward marijuana is on the other side of the country. “After the show, people were just walking around openly smoking it. It was pretty crazy,” he said.

When it comes to drinking, Jim prefers to drink good, well-crafted beer, but doesn’t mind having a bottle of malt liquor, or Old Crow bourbon sometimes. 

An Extra-Ordinary Life: Greta Iverson

Greta Iverson has never been carded at a gay leather bar, or anywhere for that matter. Despite the fact that she’s only 20, the junior journalism student says she’s just “too charming” to card at a bar. Don’t be mistaken, though, this girl is not sipping away on those typical fruity little drinks that most college girls go for. Iverson prefers the dark liquor.  

            As I sat down with Iverson today, she wore a black button down and black skinny jeans that were complemented by the pop of pumpkin-orange in her retro eyeglasses and her purple nose ring on her right nostril. She laughed and adjusted her nose ring that is missing the ball clasp. While she is unaware of how she lost it, Iverson is afraid it may have gotten accidentally lodged up into her brain when she wasn’t paying attention.

            Aside from hanging out at the bar after a 40 hour work week at Walgreens, Iverson spends time writing for Jump Magazine. When asked about her musical interests, she simply shrugged and said “Last week I listened to a lot of Blackstreet and N’Sync.” Her sarcasm and her wittiness are exemplary of someone who has outgrown the insecurity of her underclassmen days.

           

           

           

           

An Extra-Ordinary Life: Natalie Weintraub

For Natalie Weintraub playing a second base at the all-boys baseball league was normal.

The 23 year-old Temple senior said she never viewed herself as different in the boy’s club. She boasted that she was good at playing her position. She got interested in the game during the time when her father coached her three brothers. But seeing the boys participating in the sport coerced Weintraub to join the team.

“…I kind of grew up around it [baseball] and I liked the game more than softball,” she said.” “Then after few years I switched to softball,” she added happily.

Baseball and writing continues to be her two main inspirations that drives her to do very best in all areas of her life. 

However, the challenge of playing in boys’ baseball team can’t be compared to the struggle that Weintraub had faced recently. Her personal struggle with drinking and driving caused her to re-evaluate her life and have an epiphany.  Weintraub said that she’s now trying to stay away from these activities after realizing that her driving placed her and others at risk.

Weintraub confessed that one thing most people who look at her quickly realize her maturity level. As a member of a large family of three brothers and three sisters, she said it played an important part in her personal development.  She has quickly learned that claiming a specific area for herself at their modest Bucks country home isn’t an option. With four bathrooms available, Weintraub said she doesn’t mind sharing the space.

“I consider that’s something special to me because I love my family. I take that everywhere with me,” she said.  

 By Sergei Blair

An Extra-Ordinary Life: Molly Mulvihill

The Extra Ordinary Molly

The New York Times Fashion Section, Vogue Magazine; whenever transfer student Molly Mulvihill has a free moment, these are the publications that she pours over. Her passion for the fashion world erupts from her lips like lava from a volcano ; spewing excitedly and uncontrolled. A fashion journalist is what Mulvihill is yearns to be. As for why, she states that fashion to her is like art, beautiful and always changing. “I’m fascinated by celebrities and the way they dress- I don’t know if this is the right word but I’m fascinated by their “swag”,” she said with a bashful giggle. Mulvihill writes for her own blog entitled True Blue,  which is also centered around her adoration of the world of clothes. Although, fashion is not her only area of expertise. Mulvihill also describes herself as a sports fanatic. “Normally when people first talk to me they don’t think that I’ll be into that kind of thing but when I was growing up I was into sports,” she explained. Mulvihill reminiscently explained that in her youth, she was actually a tomboy and that fashion was not always at the the forefront of her brain. That childhood love has stuck with her and she explained that she can still be found tuning in to a basketball game or golf tournament. “Some people think it’s weird,” she said of her polar opposite interests. “But I mean, I like it.”

By Cindy Stansbury

An Extra-Ordinary Life: Caitlin Cowan

Caitlin at Work

When Caitlin Cowan came to Temple four years ago, she didn’t know what degree she wanted to pursue or what opportunities a college lifestyle would provide, in her own words, she just wanted to get out of the suburbs and into the big city life.

“There was nothing to do,” said Cowan, now in her senior year of journalism studies. The biggest surprise along the way came, Cowan said when “out of nowhere” the opportunity presented itself for her to study abroad in London.

“That I was able to study abroad… in terms of financial responsibility, was a huge surprise,” she said.

While Cowan said she appreciated to faced paced city lifestyle offered by Temple, in recent years she has been off-put by the university’s “overkill” marketing campaign known as “Temple Made.”

“I'm really not big on temple made, because I don't really understand where it came from. I get that the slogan is supposed to unify the temple community, but I think temple made is just too in-your-face now,” Cowan.

Despite her distrust in the campaign, Cowan said that she believes many other students like herself are transforming the community and spreading positive images of Temple through actions, not words.

“The temple community is awesome, and I like that there is a such a strong sense of belonging. I liked it was somewhat discrete. now it's plastered everywhere,” said. “I just think [Temple Made] is silly.”

By John Moritz