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Show Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010 Page 9 AggieLif• Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.com The staff behind the sets By JESS WALLACE Northern Utah schools share nursing program staff writer A stage show is the product of a series of partnerships between skilled individuals and teams. Between acting, lighting, set, costume, sound, makeup, hair and prop design, one show becomes subdivided into several art forms and practices. A multitude of people are needed to get a show off its feet, and Utah State's theatre department is no exception. A particular department within the encompassing theatre realm of study is the costume shop. The shop is a place of full of activity and manual labor. It is a place where opinions are exchanged over hand-sewing as projects are completed and new students within the department learn the ins and outs of costume production. Of course, a place like this requires someone to be in charge of the stitching masses, and at Utah State that person is Amanda Profraizer, the current costume shop manager. As the manager of the shop, Profraizer has many responsibilities such as hiring staff, maintaining machines and supplies, supervising the building of the clothes and projects, building garments, supervising designers and students and overall organization. "The supervision of students is particularly difficult," Profraizer said, "because they're all on different levels skill-wise. Some By CHELSEE NIEBERGALL staff writer "The fact that we get to create things and see them on stage is amazing," said Molly Hill, a junior in costume design and technician in the shop. "We're all friends and comfortable with one another and get to work together, too. The people here are the best and my boss is the bomb," she said. On top of managing the shop, Profraizer is a fully The WSU/USU Cooperative Nursing Program gives students an opportunity to obtain a nursing degree from Weber State while attending USU. "I am really glad that Utah State has a nursing extension because I love Logan and wanted to go to school here, and now I can because of the extension," said Amanda Bell, an undeclared freshman and prospective nursing student. The Nursing Program is accredited by the Utah Board of Nursing and the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission, according to the nursing program's website. "You get the best of both worlds. Weber State brings the curriculum, staff and success in teaching nursing and USU provides all the facilities and labs we need," said Jon Kelly, WSU/USU Cooperative Nursing Program Campus Coordinator. Kelly said the nursing program has a 25 percent acceptance rate and applications are reviewed by the nursing program admissions and advancement committee. According to the course requirement sheet, a point system is used to determine acceptance. Applications received by Jan. 15 will earn extra points. Support courses will be evaluated, but points will not be awarded for courses that are in progress when applications are sent in. Students must have their applications in by Feb. 1 and will be notified of their acceptance status by April 15. "I wasn't scared about the program until I started taking physiology. Now I am a little nervous about it," Bell said. Kelly said he would advise students who want to get into the program to work toward another degree at the same time because it will give them another point on their application. Also, applying, even when the prerequisites aren't finished, can give students another point. "It is hard because we have a lot of studying to do. I have over 15 textbooks this semester," said Jessica Price, a junior in nursing. Kelly said once a student is accepted into the Weber State University RN program they become WSU students taking courses on the USU campus. The required nursing curriculum and clinical experiences can be completed in Logan as well. When students have finished the program they will graduate from WSU with an Associate of Science degree in nursing. If desired, students can then apply to the Bachelor of Science I See COSTUME, page 10 I See NURSING, page 10 THE STAGE COSTUME SHOP takes students of varying skill levels and allows them to obtain knowledge of costume design. Amanda Profraizer, a USU graduate, supervises the shop and has designed costumes for both television and theatre. ARMEN HOVSEPYAN photo students are very good stitchers, others can only handle smaller jobs and others have never sewn a day in their lives." Profraizer said time can be an issue as well. "We always have to be mindful of our time too; there's always a deadline, the show must go on, we have an opening night and the actors can't be naked, the directors frown on that," she said. Whether the character is a ragged street urchin in 18thcentury England or an ele- phant trapped in a tree, the costuming department aims to keep the quality equal. "It never gets old, there's always a different project. I like that we're always doing new things, it never gets monotonous," Profraizer said. "It's fun to work with students, to get them involved. Especially students who have never done costumes before and they're able to be a part of things and see a show come to life. It's nice to see them get so into it and excited." Center answers questions for small business owners By STOREE POWELL features senior writer Just because someone has a good idea doesn't mean they can make it a successful business, said Frank Prante, director of Logan's Small Business Development Center (SBDC). "Usually single products, unless they are quite significant, are not a large enough base to start a business on. I would suggest that if someone wants a business, they have a good variety of product or service offerings," Prante said. Prante said someone called him recently wanting to start a soap-making business. "There is a quote, 'Any fool can make soap, but it takes a smart person to sell it,"' Prante said. "That was my reaction, you probably make very good soap, but that doesn't necessarily make a business." For those who are starting a small business or already own one in Utah, feedback and entrepreneurial education is just a step away at the SBDC, and the service is free. Established in 1980, the center at Utah State University was one of the first regional centers established, according to the USU/SBDC website. Prante said the center sees about 160 people a year. The center is funded by the federal government under the Small Business Administration (SBA), the state of Utah, and USU, according to the website. Utah's SBDC has a network of 11 regional centers throughout the state. The Logan center serves Cache and Rich Counties, as well as clients within a reasonable proximity in southern Idaho, and areas of Box Elder County. The center is especially dedicated to minorities and disadvantaged people, according to the Utah SBDC pamphlet. Prante said the SBA defines a small business as less than 500 employees. He said the types of businesses they help are manufacturers, retailers and services. The center provides business plan consulting, cash flow projections, financial analysis, and problem solving, according to the website. Prante said while they can help improve advertising, they are not advertising experts. He said they don't help set up websites, but they can help a site come up higher in online rankings. Also, the SBDC does not provide legal or tax services, according to the website. Why should small business owners or those thinking of starting one visit the SBDC? Prante said the SBA has found a failure rate of 35 percent in businesses in their first four years. To try to help small business people overcome this, the center tries to teach flexibility. "I think one of the biggest problems is someone who is not flexible. They don't adapt and change according to their environment," Prante said. "For example, people should realize the money doesn't always come in right away, even if you make the sale." Prante said while it usually takes 30 to 60 days to collect the money, it could take 120 days. "They don't have to be good business people in terms of knowing a lot about business, they have to just be willing to learn and be flexible," Prante said. He also said a Stanford University study showed if a person had five or more years of business experience, not necessarily all in the same industry, they had a 92 percent success rate in starting a small business. Prante said these people understand they need three perspectives to be successful: that of a technician, the person doing the job; that of an entrepreneur, to know where the business is going; and that of a business manager. An example of a woman who had only the skills of a technician came to the SBDC "practically dead," Prante said. "She'd get up at four in the morning and bake bread all day, and then go to the store all day and work until late. She was not getting much sleep, and she did not have a manager. She was killing herself," Prante said. What this business owner didn't know, Prante said, is if a business has employees, they are more likely to succeed. It can be complicated to have employees because there is more paperwork, including taxes, he said. "Having employees frees up their time to focus on business aspects they should, like improvement," Prante said. This topic recently came up for Prante when an owner came in after his manager said he should file for bankruptcy for his manufacturing company. Prante said the center did a financial analysis of his business, even though it had already been done, but did it differently. Prante said they did it by product line and not just overall sales and variable costs. "We could see that by reducing his costs by a few pennies and raising some prices he didn't think he could, he could see that his business was solvent with just a few changes," Prante said. "We wrote up a summary of what was happening and why it was good, and brought it to SBA, who was foreclosing on him, and they let him refinance his business under another name." One of the biggest mistakes people make when they are starting a business, Prante said, is they don't realize they need personal investment in the business. They may try to start a business without enough capital, so they can't overcome the ups and downs that occur that they don't expect, and there is always something unexpected that happens, Prante said. He said a personal investment should be 30 percent of the business loan needed as well as collateral, like a home. "If you don't have that, you won't get a loan. You have to have your own neck on the line. Different banks and credit unions are different, some will consider a startup and some won't," Prante said. "Those who consider it want to know it is a secure thing to invest in. The SBDC can help work with people on loans because we are aware of lots of different sources." "People love our work, and we get very high marks from the SBA. I love this job because I get to work with the people," Prante said. The center offers a business success course held in September and May that goes for eight sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Prante said. Th SBDC is located at the East Campus Office Building. For more information on the Logan SBDC, visit the USU/SBDC website. — storee.powell@aggiemad.usu.edu 1 East Campus Office Building Small Business Development Center Northern Region Extension Office Extension Equine & Small Acreage Purchasing i Environmental Health and Safety . UtahStaite UNIVERSITY 4 • 4'4 . 4 THE SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER is a free service for the USU community. The center evaluates problems that small businesses may be having and makes recommendations based on their findings. BENJAMIN C.WOOD photo |