BY JORDAN D’AURIO

Nichols College’s Conant Library hosted an event Oct.14 called “Entrepreneurial Leadership Fireside Chat” featuring Mark Lambert, a student at Worcester State University and one of the winners of the recent Startup Worcester competition. Mark shared his journey of founding his Landscaping Company, Lambert’s Landscaping.

Mark described for the audience of students, faculty, and staff the ups and downs of balancing a full college course load (he is working toward a Business Administration degree) with managing a successful company.

Mark explained that his ambition and determination started at age 12, when he would take care of his neighbors’ lawns as a favor to them. Throughout the years, his passion for landscaping grew. Eventually, at age 27, he landed a job with his friend’s father. It was here he gained the experience he needed to launch a business.

It wasn’t always smooth sailing; he ran into difficulties throughout the entire business-launch process, but his parents were his greatest mentors and support system. Mark admitted that his greatest weakness throughout the journey was poor time management. He is still a full-time student and also has to balance his personal life with his professional life, which is sometimes difficult. A goal he has set for himself is to improve his time management skills.

To help Mark balance his personal life with his professional life, he hopes to find office space that is not his bedroom once he graduates from college.

He has relied on customer satisfaction and word of mouth to get his company name and reputation out to potential clients; this has been a successful tactic so far.

Mark left the audience with a closing thought, “If you have a dream or opportunity, go out and do it. Risk-taking turns into something really rewarding.”

This inspired me to go out and get what I want in life and to not worry about the risk that comes with it. Though I may not want to open my own business, Mark’s words inspired audience members and me in a personal way. His above quote is one that I will remember and run with as my future approaches me in May.

BY ERICA MILOSH

Nichols College’s Campus Activities Board presented to students a “Minute to Win It” competition Oct. 8 in the lower level of Fels Student Center. A TV game show that aired on NBC from 2010-2014, “Minute to Win It” is a series of minute-long challenges created with basic household items. Many students lounging in Fels opted to play once they saw all the fun their peers were having. The winner of each game was awarded prizes varying from bags of Halloween candy to gift cards and backpacks.

The first game was called “Office Tennis.” Teams struggled to play tennis with clipboards as rackets and crumpled-up paper as a ball. The object was to, as a team, get the paper ball into a trash bin. Teams were decided by random draw.

Other games that followed were “Uphill Battle,” “Baby Rattle,” “Floatacious,” and many more. “Uphill Battle” mimicked a pinball game. The contestant had to keep three marbles from falling off a slanted table using only a spoon. “Baby Rattle” was the loudest game; the object was to shake all the marbles from one empty soda bottle into another.

Although competition was fierce, everyone remained good sports about the games. The tasks may have been simple, but many were far harder than they appeared to be. “Floatacious” required the contestant to stack five empty cans on a plate floating on a bucket of water. This game grew tense as a number of contestants struggled to complete the challenge in under a minute. No one could stack the five cans, so the game was modified to four.

The “Minute to Win It” games were a great way to bring everyone together, and give students the chance to win some great prizes. CAB held this event to give students something fun to do on a Thursday night. Overall, the event was enjoyable for everyone; even students that just planned on watching got so absorbed in the action they, too, wanted to play.

BY JORDAN D’AURIO

New York Times best-selling author David Levithan spoke to the Nichols College community Oct. 5 about his book Every Day, which was selected as this year’s “Nichols Reads” book, and answered questions posed by first-year students.

Nichols Reads asks incoming first-year students to participate in a shared reading experience during the summer before their freshman year on campus. Reading the selected book then carries into engaging in both curricular and extracurricular activities through courses such as Expository Writing and Nichols’ signature program, the Professional Development Seminar.

Kellie Deys, assistant professor of English and administrative director of the Honors Scholar Program, said: “The idea of the Nichols Reads Program is to encourage students to enjoy reading, to be able to find literary themes, and to think about them in relationship to their own lives.”

“It’s interesting to see all the conversations that come from Every Day and how engaged the students were. The book was supposed to be a conversation starter, so its nice that Nichols College provided a forum for everyone to talk about it,” said Levithan, referring to Nichols Reads.

Every Day introduces readers to a “wise, wildly unique” love story about a teen who wakes up every morning in a different body, living a different life.

“I was inspired to write this book because of the implications of what not having a set body would be like,” said Levithan.

Levithan started his presentation by reading an excerpt from chapter 1.

The gym was packed with students of not only first-year students, but also upperclassmen.

“Even though I did not participate in reading Every Day, I was able to get such insight on what the book was about and was able to connect to both the book and the author without having read it,” said senior Kelly Cusick, Hospitality Management.

After Levithan’s brief reading, he opened the floor to questions. One of the questions asked about the emotions Levithan had when writing the book and he responded that he feels the emotions the main character is feeling in the story whether it’s happy, sad, or mad. Another question that was asked was about a certain place or area in which he liked to write in. Levithan responded saying he didn’t have a specific spot and he normally wrote at his desk in his apartment but added that he doesn’t get as distracted if he writes in someone else’s kitchen table or living room.

First-year student Adam Morrison, undecided, said: “From this event and reading Every Day, I learned about how the author created the book and realized you never really know what someone’s going through until you see it from their perspective.”

Another first-year student, Paul Parks, Business Management, noted: “David Levithan challenged the idea that it is what is on the inside that matters, providing a unique perspective through his novel and speech.”

After the Q&A section was over, Levithan signed books and answered additional questions from students.