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Show Monday, April 18, 2011 Page 5 AggieLif• Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.utahstatesman.com Aiming to put students first By NOELLE JOHANSEN staff writer Junior Erik Mikkelsen, 2011-12 ASUSU President, doesn't have all the answers. He said so himself. "I know how to ask the right questions," Mikkelsen said. Mikkelsen, 23, grew up in Bunkerville, Nev., with free reign of the desert, he said. Mikkelsen said the tiny town near the Nevada-Arizona border is "a joy to behold." Mikkelsen is the second of three brothers. Growing up, they loved to shoot stuff and once tried to blow up a washing machine, he said. "I look back at the bike ramps we used to make," Mikkelsen said. "Horrible idea." He said these ramps often involved large hills leading into ponds. Mikkelsen attended Virgin Valley High School. There were no secrets in a school of 750 students, Mikkelsen said. "In high school, I never did anything in the realms of student involvement and leadership," Mikkelsen said. He said he was scared of girls and didn't like "peppy leadership people." Former ASUSU Athletics VP Alex Putnam lived next door to Mikkelsen in Bunkerville. "We have grown up next to each other since I was 13," Putnam said. He said he always felt Mikkelsen was like a little brother. "In high school he was a lot quieter. He wasn't super involved, but he was a great student, a great athlete," Putnam said. From a young age, Mikkelsen and his brothers were "playing every sport known to man." He golfed, played football and wrestled in high school. His senior year, Mikkelsen was captain of all three teams. The same year, the football and golf teams took second at state, and Mikkelsen took second in state wrestling. He said wrestling was his strong suit. This may be due to the fact that Mikkelsen wrestled since he was young. "They definitely had kindergarten wrestling," Mikkelsen said. Not the sort of wrestling that all kids practice with their peers, but an actual, organized kindergarten wrestling team. Mikkelsen graduated in 2006, one of a class of 110. He said he did not hesitate in his choice to attend Utah State. "The question is why would I not come here," Mikkelsen said. "It was a family conspiracy to get me to go to BYU, but I wouldn't cave." Mikkelsen said his Bunkerville neighbor and current USU Director of Admissions Jenn Twist was influential in his decision. "She's pretty persuasive," Mikkelsen said. Mikkelsen studied civil engineering his first semester, having enjoyed math and worked for an engineering company in high school. He also joined the A-Team, HURD and the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. "He was shy when he got here but he was super involved," Putnam said, "he was everywhere, doing everything." After his first semester, Mikkelsen left Utah State for two years to serve an LDS mission in Atlanta, Ga. There he met Jacob Schiess, now a junior in Civil Engineering. "(Mikkelsen) is definitely a perpetual optimist," Schiess said. "He lives the values that he shares. He'll never ask you do something if he's not willing to do it himself." Following in the example of his neighbor, Mikkelsen was influential in recruiting Schiess. "I went to BYU for a year and a half and he was telling me the whole time to come up here," Schiess said. "You can place a strong value on anything he says." It was his last week in Georgia that Mikkelsen decided he wanted to be student body president, he said. He also realized he no longer wanted to be an engineer. "I narrowly escaped the field of engineering and switched to business and speech," 2011-2012 ASUSU PRESIDENT Erik Mikkelsen said it was not until after his LDS mission that he decided to run for student office. I See MIKKELSE1V, page 6 AN/ MIRZAKHANYAN photo Surfing couches across the country Tradition part of Jewish Passover By MEGAN BAINUM assistant news editor The mission of CouchSurfing is "A world where everyone can explore and create meaningful connections with the people and places they encounter," according to their website. Students from USU, and people around the world, are making that happen one couch at a time. According to CouchSurfing.org , there are currently 2,683,328 couch surfers around the world in 246 countries with 99.83 percent positive ratings. It is a non-profit organization started in 2004. "Hosts" are those members who open up their homes to "surfers." Even if hosts don't have a place for them to sleep, they can still offer things like a warm shower or meal. CouchSurfers is able to stay as a non-profit through donations and an optional verification process members can go through. It costs $25, and the website will verify the address listed and do background checks. Natalie and Chris Curtis, seniors at USU, experienced couch surfing for the first time in December, and said seeing a member who is verified increases trust. Natalie said some hosts won't take someone if they haven't been verified. Natalie said she was apprehensive at first about the process, but the website's social networking set-up made it easier to get involved. If someone is interested in couch surfing, they fill out a profile online. The profile asks questions about lifestyle, interests and countries visited. Natalie said the profiles make it easier to pick a host because you get to know a little bit about them. She said once someone has an account, they get other couch surfers they have met to write reviews about them so people know they are legitimate. She said the more reviews someone has, the better. They were turned away from a few hosts because it was their first time so they didn't have any reviews. Chris said once he read the reviews and comments on other people's profiles, he felt better about the idea. "Some had so many comments and reviews about them and not all those people could make that stuff up so we decided it would be a good thing to do," he said. Ted Allman, Natalie and Chris' host, said couch surfing is a much safer way to meet people in comparison. He said people who someone would meet everyday don't come with background checks or references. By NATASHA BODILY staff writer "Unless you are a hermit, the people you meet every day pose a greater risk than any couch surfer. Facebook lacks the protections of CS, yet people gush all over their walls," he said. Natalie said she felt safer trying it out because she was going with her husband, and probably wouldn't go if it was just her and another girl. However, she did say now that they have done it once, she is more comfortable with it. "Okay maybe there are some creepy people out there, but I can just leave, it's not like I have to stay there," she said. "If someone has 500 reviews, the chance of them being a serial killer isn't that high, it's just the same as anywhere in life." Natalie said they had a great first experience with their host. In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Allman picked them up from the airport and let them pick out what they wanted for dinner. She said he took them to a jazz club where the locals go and the next morning dropped them off at the cruise port. Then after the cruise, Natalie said he came to pick them up and took them back to the airport. However, she said, not all hosts are that generous. "There were some that said yeah we could stay with them if we paid for the gas money and things like that, but he was just this older man who liked meeting new people," she said. Believers of the Jewish faith fall among several branches, or movements, including orthodox, reform and conservative followers. As the oldest, still-thriving monotheistic religion, the traditions and culture are well-established. At Utah State, Judaism is practiced on many levels by a variety of students and faculty. AJ Grovert, a doctoral intern for Counseling and Psychological Services is a Reform Jew, which she described as the most liberal branch of Judaism. After finishing her master's degree at Pacific University in Oregon, she found the Jewish community in Utah to be smaller, but equally as strong as in other regions. "Because it is so small, they want to keep it alive. It is very strong and well-connected," she said. "Spirituality is important, but more important to me is the sense of community and tradition. I am involved with this vibrant and thriving community that has been around for thousands of years and has survived everything." When completing rituals, Grovert said she knows she is doing the same thing Jews have done throughout history. "Being a part of it is being a part of something that is bigger than me," Grovert said. She said the closest synagogue to Cache Valley is located in Ogden, Utah, and most Jews in northern Utah live in or near the area. As a Reform Jew, Grovert said she chooses which traditions and rituals to follow based on their personal significance. During Passover, which begins this year on April 18, she said she will try to follow the kosher diet. She said the diet consists of solely unleavened bread called matzo, excludes pork and shellfish and requires meat and dairy to be eaten at separate meals. Grovert said Passover commemorates the story of Exodus I See SURFING, page 7 I See PASSOVER, page 7 NATALIE AND CHRIS CURTIS stand with Ted Allman, their host when the two went couch surfing. All potential surfers must pass a background check before hosts will agree to let them stay at their homes. photo courtesy NATALIE CURTIS e (1 -; Day ancy8 Go\-03c70,40.9 wricl Conflict pree . -toe -v_arth 4‘`' `44 0,1. (4/ Each of our rings are proudly designed and manufactured in the United States 45 North Main www.diamondgallerylogan.com 435-753-4870 |