FAU Owlettes Playing Football

The Women's Flag Football Club is a recent addition to FAU thanks to the hard work and passion of junior Jannean Burke. Burke said that her dad has been training her to play football since she was young. "My dad wanted a boy, instead he got me and ever since he has tried to make me great at football."

Burke decided to start this club after hearing that other schools also have teams outside of intramurals. "I played on my sorority's team, but we just had intramural games, I wanted to play with girls who were better than me. I wanted to take it to the next level," said Burke.

The club played in their first tournament at the University of North Florida this last fall and have also been invited to also play in the University of Florida "Swamp Bowl"
Flag Football Tournament. The club had try-outs on Jan. 23 and 15 girls show up, one in particular being deaf. "Its a club, so everyone gets to make it," said Burke.

The teams Facebook page says that they are "dedicated to the promotion of flag football for women throughout FAU and their goal is to advance opportunities for equality on the fields by taking a leadership role in administering game play, through education, and training of the game."

Burke told me that "It was really nice to be the creator of something that was the start of a tradition. Other teams have been around for over 15 years and this is the first year. It is just really exciting to be involved in something that allows women to do something that is typically dominated by men."

The team has practice every Saturday and offensive practice on Thursdays. If you are interested in joining  the team contact Jannean Burke here.

FAU "Dirty Birds": The Noise of the Burrow

As some of you may know the Florida Atlantic basketball team has just recently become ranked no. 1 in the Sun Belt Conference and it is quickly looking as though they maybe able to get a glimpse of some NCAA March Madness. Although head coach Mike Jarvis has reaped great benefits from recruiting two freshmen (Ray Taylor and Greg Gantt), it is truly the fanatical fan base they have that has given these freshman an environment built for success. 

This group of supporters is known as the Dirty Birds, a group that was previously known as the Rowdy Rex's and the Sexy Rexies that were formed when Rex Walters was head coach of FAU basketball. After Walter's departure in 2008, the two groups decided to merge.

The creator of this group, John Cook, is also know as "Dirty #2." Cook has just graduated this past fall and has embarked in a number of endeavors to better the future of FAU inside and outside athletics. "It wasn't something that just happened overnight. It has been an on going process and goal for the past four years," says Cook.

The Dirty Birds are an unofficial FAU spirit group and thus entitled to do and say what they want, according to their Facebook page. The Birds have one requirement for their members, which is to "be loud." They also say they prefer you to wear blue and to come to the games early and tailgate.

Cook takes pride in the recent succes of the team and appreciates the recognition from Coach Jarvis, that seems to be a regular occurrence in his post-game interviews. The team has also taken time to show their appriciation for the group of rowdy supporters by coming over to say thank you after each home game.

FAU Student Entrepreneur Program

Florida Atlantic University has one of the top business programs around the country, but if you ever felt like the classroom was failing to give you "real life" experience, fear not. FAU MBA student and University of Florida Accounting Major, Hayden Trepeck was inspired to start a club at the University of Florida called the "Gator Creators", as well as FAU, and now a program. "We believe that there is more to an education then sitting in a classroom, memorizing formulas and taking exams. We are here to facilitate out of the classroom learning focused on entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial spirit," said Trepeck.

The Adams Center for Entrepreneurship (ACE) has been listed as Business Week's  top 50 entrepreneurship programs nationally. ACE strives to engage students and the south Florida community in the spirit of entrepreneurship. The mission of the program is to create entrepreneurial leaders that find sustainable solutions to economic and social problems. The goal is to prepare student of all majors, ages, and even just local entrepreneurs who are looking to become entrepreneurs.

"The growing popularity of new venture creation has led many students to seek concurrent skills by pursuing the entrepreneurial spirit," says Trepeck. "We aim to serve this unmet need by providing not only a prominent and diverse speaker series, but perhaps more importantly a strong network of like-minded individuals from which value will be added to all members."

The Entrepreneurship Club is open to all students and meets every Tuesday at 6:45 pm.

• Once a month professional speaker’s series
• Students brainstorming session
• Student competitions
• Networking throughout all Disciplines
• Professional entrepreneurial mentoring programs
• Scholarship giveaways
• Free Food and giveaways at every meeting 

If you are interested in joining the Entrepreneurship Club visit their website http://www.YesOwls.com.

Drug Free Owls at FAU

Most of you might be familiar with D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), a program that I was personally introduced to in the 5^th grade. In D.A.R.E I learned all about what drugs looked like, smelled like, how they made you feel, and most importantly the effects they would have on your body in the long and short term. What I will admit is that when I started to hear about various drugs in college, I had no idea how to answer any questions that I had about drugs.

FAU sophomore Camille Royer is trying to solve that problem and has decided to work with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office to create a D.A.R.E. program for young adults at FAU. This program will be the first like it. Royer says,"the program will be designed for college students, it will be a lot different than the program for elementary students."

She was inspired to start this program after she had an uncle die from a heroine overdose. “After my uncle passed I saw friends doing drugs and I thought that maybe being reintroduced to D.A.R.E. and what it teaches, they might change,” said Royer.

Royer expects the program to be up and running in fall 2010. She is hoping to start with a series of seminars on staying drug free. “I want to start with Greek Life, I’m in Greek Life and I just think it’s the easiest way to get the program out there." 

Royer expects to have tables  to promote for the program this spring at FAU. If you are interesting in helping contact her here.

FAU Football "hOWLettes"

National NCAA Signing Day is quickly approaching and that means crunch time for a group of women called the hOWLettes at FAU. President Katie Matthews is in charge of group of girls that escort football recruits, as well as their parents, around FAU.

This hard working group of student volunteers attends all home football games during the fall semester. They are in charge of a group of prospects and aim to ethically show them everything FAU has to offer. “It allows them to get involved in student life and they are a great asset for the program since they are students and can answer questions that coaches can't," said FAU coach Howard Schnellenberger.

Other schools have been in the news recently because of similar organizations unethically recruiting students. The University of Tennessee's "Orange Bride" has been fighting allegations of attending prospective recruits high school football games. “We would never do that,” Matthews said. “We keep everything very professional. The only time we see them is either on campus or at the football games.”

FAU Owl Helps Haiti

Following the devastating earthquake that occurred in Haiti, some people were not only considered with the well being of the people, but also those volunteering. FAU was fortunate to not loose any students to the fatal earthquakes, but only by a few weeks.

FAU sophomore, Kelsey Taylor spent her Christmas vacation volunteering her time at the Good Sheppard School in Pele, Haiti.  The group of college students she traveled with built desks that were also used as benches for the school. As well as the desk they sang songs, did arts and crafts, and passed out goodie bags with clothes and toothbrushes. 

Kelsey also visited local hospitals and orphanages that housed children suffering from AIDS, tetanus, and hepatitis, among many. She and the other volunteers fed, changed and shared love with all of the children. "Some of the babies just need to be touched, they need the feeling of love," said Taylor.

When asked about her trip Taylor said, “the people of Haiti are so full of love and grace. I know I helped change some people’s lives with this mission, but I don’t think they know how much they’ve changed mine.”