Posts Tagged ‘Allison Holton’

PROFILE: Flowers Blooming At MC

If you have ever felt destined to be a certain person or follow a specific path, then you already have plenty in common with the topic of this article, Nancy Ann Flowers. “Live, Love, Laugh, and Dream” is the perfect quote to sum up Nancy. Through her 22 years of life, she has kept fighting and held tight onto her dreams of someday becoming a star on Broadway.

Flowers was born in the early morning hours of March 6, 1988, in Bellaire, Ohio.  Mike and Cheri Flowers were caught slightly off-guard the night before Cheri’s scheduled baby shower for her baby bump named Nancy. The happy couple was decorating their church to welcome friends and family with gifts for their new baby the next day when Cheri went into labor and had to be rushed to the hospital by her husband. Leave it to Nancy to stop the show and make everyone’s jaws drop with her impeccable timing and knack for making everyone smile.

From their exciting kick-start as a family, Mike, Cheri, and their daughter Nancy have been a very close-knit family. Nancy didn’t have any siblings growing up but she has helped raise two family pets; Ziggy, who came into the family in her eighth grade year and then Gizmo, who was born with his multiple sibling right underneath the Flowers’ porch! Nancy saw the pregnant mother cat under the porch and just had to help out. She and her parents adopted one of the kittens and took the rest to the local shelter that did not put pets to sleep. This is just another example of how Nancy shows her kindness towards anyone willing to accept it.

Another way this kind character likes to show her kindness towards animals is through being a vegetarian. Nancy has been a vegetarian since July 19^th, 2005. She can remember the day so vividly because her decision to stop eating meat didn’t come lightly. She and her mother had been on the South Beach Diet for a few months when suddenly, while eating a steak her father cooked, Nancy decided she had eaten enough meat for a lifetime.

Now, she never really liked the taste of meat all that much, as she was used to only eating hamburgers and chicken tenders as her selections of meat, but this was her breaking point. Not only did Nancy stop liking the taste but, when she thinks about how the meat came to be on her plate, it “grosses [her] out!” Being a vegetarian for going on five years now has taken a lot of strength and determination from Nancy. These personality traits are helping her in more areas than nutrition though.

Nancy will be the next-to-last graduate, and the only one this year, who will leave Marietta College with a degree in Musical Theatre. The major has since been deleted from the school’s repertoire but this young dreamer is determined to make it her career.

“It’s the only thing I really love to do and I can get a job in. Yeah, my parents weren’t too thrilled about it at first but, they came around.”

They came around to the possibility of musical theatre being a career for their only daughter during Nancy’s senior year. She played two major roles in her high school productions; Abbie in “Arsenic and Old Lace” and ended her year as Dolly in the Spring Musical, “Hello Dolly.”

“Dolly convinced me I could do it because it was one of the best shows my school had done and it showed people I was a pretty good singer and actor too. They were kinda shocked to see me doing so well and that made me happy!”

Through her four years at Marietta College, Nancy has partaken in numerous plays and several of the musical productions as well. Ask Nancy what her best show experience has been and you’ll get a warm reply with a bright smile saying “Quilters!” This was Nancy’s senior capstone project and the 2010 Marietta College Theatre Spring Musical. Nancy had a huge role in the musical and even got to direct a couple of scenes that were most people’s favorites. She had to change character on stage a few times and, although that was the hardest part, Nancy said “It helped me a lot because it forced me to practice and get out of my comfort zone.”

Nancy isn’t nervous about the future because she seems to be pretty set, at least for the next year. She will be graduating in May, working a local job in Bellaire, then going down to Orlando, Fla., to live and work at Disney World. Nancy was accepted into Disney’s college program and will be there for around five and a half months. She will be working with the Attractions division and hopefully auditioning for shows and performance roles in parades and such.

If I learned anything from having the privilege of interviewing this young lady, it’s this; you can never underestimate yourself and the power you have to affect those around you. Nancy Ann Flowers is a truly genuine, caring, supportive, faithful, and dedicated student who is more than ready to take on the world in her own unique ways. I’ll leave you with the words of the famous Walt Disney, “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

EDITOR’S NOTE:  This article is by Allison Holton, a Media Writing Two student at Marietta College.  If you are interested in writing for Writing on the Mall, send an e-mail to Patrick_H@writingonthemall.net.

Forensics Team Adds Life to College

(Ed. Note – This is an opinion piece.  The contents of the article are the thoughts and opinions of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Writing on the Mall or its staff)

For many students on campus, this team is almost like a secret society, except to the participants’ close friends, and this needs to change immediately. The Marietta College community of students and staff need to stand up and support these bold and lively students.

As a junior here at Marietta, I have only heard of this so-called forensics team of ours a couple of times and those were freshman year when my Communications 101 professor would make an announcement or congratulate them aloud. If you want to know more, you’ve got to talk to the right people. Once you find them and start talking though, it’s hard to stop because the passion for communications runs deep here at MC.

The Marietta College Forensics team is an organization that is dedicated to helping individuals on campus try to perfect the skill of public speaking. From their website connecting to the college’s, you can find out most of the technicalities of the organization and what they are mainly about. According to the department page for forensics, the Greeks organized contests for speakers that developed and recognized the abilities believed to have been central to democracy. I wonder how the Greeks would have felt about the Bush family’s speaking abilities.

In order to better understand what the organization is all about, it’s good to delve into what they go through in practices and competitions. First off, there are three separate categories of events; interpretation, prepared, and limit preparation. Starting in the fall, before semester even begins the seasoned team members start by researching possible topics and possible selections to start writing. New member meetings are held once the semester starts and then the team can choose which tournaments will fit their schedules.

Pieces are prepared as much as possible in the first month of school so the rest of the year can be dedicated to practice making perfect and taking the criticism from judges and making the performances stronger for the next tournament. The meetings are weekly and open to new members at any point as far as I could tell from talking to a few members and Tomeka Robinson, Communications professor and co-leader of the organization. The team usually stays the same year round because students are encouraged to try out early to get in the most tournaments possible but, no matter what your major is, you can be a forensics pro if you’d like.

Scott Burnham, current president of the team states, “I feel that more advertisement would definitely help students learn about the organization. I also feel that students need to realize that the opportunities this organization presents are limitless. This club allows students to practice a practical skill that is a necessity in a professional career. This club also promotes friendships across Universities and on our own campus.”

When asking students what their best team experience is, you might expect to hear things like hitting a homerun in the ninth and scoring that final goal that broke the tie but, on this team, the high moments are much deeper than you can expect from any other team on campus.

“[Winning the National Novice Championship freshman year] showed me that even though I attended a small college, I could still compete against universities that have enormous programs and that dedication is truly the key to your success.” Dedication huh, I think Marietta College knows a little something about that.

To a college with 175 years of history this year, stand up and be proud of the amazing public speakers that are right here in your own body of students. This organization is student-led, the most successful academic organization on campus, and it focuses on helping students reach their highest capacity that they possibly didn’t even know existed! Marietta College plays host to the annual Wilcox tournament so next year, take the chance to see you peers in action. Maybe, just maybe, they’ll make you think a little harder the next time you open your trap.

This article was written by Allison Holton, a student taking Media Writing Two at Marietta College.  Look for more articles from the class to appear on Writing on the Mall in the coming weeks.  If you are interested in writing for Writing on the Mall, please e-mail patrick_h at writingonthemall dot net.