Author: Kahri Jones, kjj5053@psu.eud

Students look forward to the promising future of technology

Technology is constantly shaping the world around us. It has changed the way we live our daily lives, for better or for worse. It has reinvented the way we interact with each other; it even allows you to be anywhere, virtually. It has even reshaped the way in which people date, i.e. eHarmony.

It has seamlessly integrated its way into our educational institutions. We are now in the information age. The Internet can easily shed light on any and every subject that you may be in the dark about.

With this accessible information, companies are have turned to social media marketing for even more specialized target audiences. With young infants growing up with tactile flashing screen tablets, older people, ages 55 to 64 years old, are amongst the fastest demographic adopting technology.

Mobile applications such as Swarm by Foursquare, Yelp and Open Table create new interactive experiences with cities. Sure, all of this is no big secret, but where is all this technology headed?

The Internet and technology will continue to progress, it has since the beginning.
It seems safe to say that technology’s direction will continue to make the world around us more efficient, and help offer a more personalized and tailored lifestyle. There are several emerging technological concepts and advancements in the horizon.

Wearable technology assisted by the Internet of things is on the forefront. Picking up where mobile technology left off, new innovation finds it way into smart clothes. Drones have gained recognition over the past few years. Some recall Amazon’s plans to incorporate these pilotless aircrafts to make home deliveries to online orders.

Amazon isn’t the only one to employ the use of a drone. Even Hollywood producers are rigging cameras to drones in order to shoot big budget films. Currently, the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, has imposed harsh regulatory guidelines, which seems to only hinder the development of the Amazon Prime Air service. It is up to Amazon and other drone companies to reach an agreement with the FAA that will satisfy the public.

Freshman Stephanie Henderson approves of the air traffic fleeting service as long as her items are accurately and safely delivered.

“I can’t wait to be able to order anything and receive it the same day. I’m sure that all the bugs will be fixed before its commercial use,” Henderson said.

The novelty of new technology can often seemingly be mostly positive. There are some questions that are raised about possible implication that it may present.

Although 3D printing may appear as a manufacturing miracle, there are still some implications. The same tool that can assist a plastic surgeon in providing a prosthetic body part can also aid a criminal on the black market. The first 3D printed gun was recently fired. Many can see that 3D printing and its ability to create guns and other weapons pose a concern for the debate of gun laws.

Self-driving cars are expected to make its way into the automobile industry in the near future, with prototypes by BMW and even Google. BMW recently previewed its F 015 Luxury in Motion research car in Las Vegas.

The technology’s basis of automation is made possible by complex sensors and computer processing, which replaces the work of a human. People foresee additional productive free time during commutes and even the decline of automotive deaths.

One student nostalgically remembers a certain Nintendo gaming console from the 1990s.

“I’m excited to see today’s innovation of virtual reality gaming experience. I once had a Virtual Boy by Nintendo,” Frank Lipscomb juxtaposes video game design of the past and future. “It will seem primitive for the next generation of (video) gamers.”

Recent trends have seen companies return to their interest in virtual reality. We can only anticipate and wonder what Facebook has in mind for its users since acquiring Occulus Rift, a virtual reality company.

By: Paul Alberici

Back in 2012, Marvel Studios released “The Avengers,” a movie which took their famous heroes such as Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and Thor from their previous stand-alone movies and packed them together to fight one common enemy. This movie was a worldwide phenomenon and became the third biggest launch in movie history. It was hard to imagine what Marvel would do to top this.
On May 1, Marvel went for a second round with their team-up movie with “Avenger, Age of Ultron” and just like the first one, it was nothing short of impressive from my perspective and the perspective of our fellow students at Brandywine.
This movie starts out with Tony Stark, otherwise known as Iron Man (portrayed by Robert Downey Jr.), and Dr. Bruce Banner, otherwise known as The Hulk (portrayed by Mark Ruffalo) realizing the planet needs some sort of global defense force in the form of artificial intelligence for the battles the Avengers couldn’t fight so that the world would always be safe.
This went disastrously wrong as this A.I. system with an attitude and a god-complex known as “Ultron” (voiced and motion capture performance by James Spader) came to life without them knowing and became convinced that the Avengers were part of the problem, not the solution. He sought to destroy them and bring peace to the world. The resulting battles and stakes superseded what panned out in the first Avengers movie.
“Because of the bigger stakes and the previous movies to set it up, there was more destruction and more peril,” sophomore Mark Gurenlian said. “It made it much better and more intense than the first one.”
The main antagonist is a peculiar character and personally one of my favorite villains in the series. Ultron’s task is to create a safer world, which actually confuses him because of how disoriented the world already is. Instead of just being homicidal, he was fiercely intelligent and indifferent towards the loss of life in completing that mission.
He wants peace for the world yet believes that the only way for this to be achieved is through extinction. And James Spader’s voice and motion capture performance truly brought a hunk of metal to life and made him even more creepy and intimidating.
“He was so creepy and was such a great villain,” freshman Sam Dimarco said. “Even visually, he looked alive which made him even more amazing. It is crazy that somebody that evil was created by the Avengers.”
Along with Ultron being new to the fight, there is also the addition of the super-powered twins: Quicksilver (portrayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (portrayed by Elizabeth Olsen). With her telekinetic powers she can manipulate objects and minds and he has super-speed, they actually start out helping Ultron but by the end have a change of heart.
These characters were introduced at the mid credit scene of “Captain America, The Winter Soldier,” but “Age of Ultron” really showed them off as characters and already have fans split on who is their favorite, despite basically being brand new. They truly bring a brand new dynamic to the team with their powers as well as their emotional back-story.
“My favorite new hero would have to be Scarlet Witch!” sophomore Taylor Monkman said. “I loved how they incorporated a mind control hero in this movie.”
“He [Quicksilver] was a perfect combination of action and comedy,” freshman Derek Osborn said. “He had so many good scenes with his super-speed and was an overall comedic character.”
The third new hero was the omnipotent AI known as Vision, who basically turns out to be what Ultron was supposed to be, without the whole “homicidal maniac hell-bent on worldwide extinction” part.
With the first Avengers movie, it took most of the movie for the team to finally come together. This time around, they are already a team, and right from the get-go they are able to get much more accomplished. There is much more cohesiveness in this movie between the Avengers.
Yet with this team already pre-established, this gives the writers more of an opportunity to dive deeper into the specific characters, both new one and old ones. This is something I think was done well for a movie with so many moving parts now with nine separate heroes. While the question the team was faced with in the first one was, “how will this team work together?” The question they face now is, “how will they stay a team?”
“This movie had a much more personal feel,” junior Liz Gramlich said. “This movie went more into their backstories that we may not of known about for each individual character. It didn’t feel like an Avenger held an advantage or did more than the other, everyone was important.”
After asking five different people, nobody could really agree on which scene was his or her favorite scene of the movie, as each person (including myself) stated to like a different scene. This is a testament to the movie that one specific scene does not share a more unique moment over the others. This movie is a non-stop action movie that also has a coherent storyline that makes you feel for some of these characters on some occasions.
As the eleventh movie in this series, this movie truly stands as one of the elite. The stakes are getting higher, the fights are more intense and the strain is pressing more on the team now, it will be interesting where this goes from here. This movie to me earns a 3 and ½ out of 4 stars in my book.
This movie ends by setting-up some of the upcoming films such as “Captain America, Civil War,” “Black Panther,” “Thor, Ragnarok,”as well as the next Avengers movie, the two part “Infinity Wars.”The next movie in the series will be “Ant-Man,” starring Paul Rudd due out this summer.

By: Paul Alberici

Each year, Brandywine takes in hundreds of new students. Freshman and new students come for orientation looking for answers regarding the next step in their educational career. This is where the Orientation Leaders come into play.
This select group of students all applied for these positions. The selection process included individual and group interviews to show off their leadership abilities and passion for the school. These students were chosen to help these new students become more acclimated and comfortable
Out of a record amount of 40 applicants for this position, a total of 14 were chosen:

• Jacob Adams-Business Management
• Paul Alberici-Corporate Communications
• Noor Avi-Marketing and Management
• Gene Cabrera-Criminology
• Lazina Chowdury-Pharmacy
• Fatuomato Conteh-Biology
• Coleman Hart-Marketing
• Yaasmiyn Mapp-Psychology (Returning OL)
• Michael Mensah –Biochemistry &Molecular Biology (Returning OL of the year)
• Anant Pathak-Finance
• Allyson Pyle-Psychology
• David Spencer-Accounting
• Anna Toshtzar-Business Management
• Logan Woods-Finance

Stephanie Jones, the associate director of Student affairs and one of the people in charge of making these decisions, explained that this was not a decision done overnight.
“This was a super hard decision to make,” Jones said. “It was awesome because we had so many super-involved and so many student who wanted to get involved apply for this position. What made it so hard is that we wanted to take people from both sides of that spectrum.”
Aside from just applying and looking at involvement, there were some other key factors that went into the decision.
“One of the first factors we looked at was GPA,”Jones said. “We had a certain line set for where we wanted the students to be at and if they weren’t quite there, we felt it was more important for that student to focus on their academics.”
Another key factor in the selection process was the interview process. When Ronika Money-Adams and Jones conducted their interviews, they were looking for people that get excited about the campus or people who would represent the campus and school well. The interaction that took place in the group interviews as well was a vital piece in making the final decision.
Now, along with the orientation to show students what to do, there are also events being planned throughout the summer to get excited about coming here and getting to know each other. Some of the possible events being planned are a trip to a Phillies game, Ice cream Olympics, and the annual Grill & Chill. All of these events are not only going to be exciting for the incoming students, but also have the Orientation Leaders excited as well.
“I am hoping to make the orientation fun and exciting for upcoming freshman,” Anna Toshtzar said. “I also hope to make new friends in the process.”
Now some of these orientation leaders had different inspirations for waiting to become orientation leaders. Whether it was just a personal desire to help the new students or if it was because of a successful orientation leader they themselves had.
“I wanted to become an OL because of my OL,” Gene Cabrera said. “He was very involved with the group and that inspired me to do the same.My OL was excited to talk to us and he went up to everyone to start a conversation.”
Part of these 14 leaders, there are two returning OL’s:YaasyminMapp and Michael Mensah, who was also the Orientation Leader of the year last summer. This was an experience they both enjoyed thoroughly and were excited to have this opportunity once again. They were both also very eager to get back at it.
“Being an OL last year was so much fun! It was the highlight of my summer of 2014,” Mensah said. “I would wake up excited and ready to go to work; I’m not even a morningperson! After the experience I had last summer, there was no way I could resistcoming back.”

This experience was something that they not only enjoyed doing because it helped other people get accustomed to the school, but also because they learned valuable leadership skills as well as meeting new people, both OLs and new students. This is something they both cherish and hope the new OLs get out of it.

“I’m hoping that the new OLs will also gain more leadership skills,” Mapp said.“As well as helping out these students as if they would want to be helped out, and to have fun! I truly hope that they will gain a memorable experience that they will never forget!”

With all this excitement through the new team, it doesn’t seem like it will be a dull summer here at Brandywine. New Student Orientation Leader will team up for the first time for their training on June 4th.