Bonaventure community members motivate students

ST. BONAVENTURE (May 10) – Andrea Michnik is an honors Bonaventure journalism and mass communication major with a minor in marketing alumna. January 2006, the last semester of her senior year:

I looked at the sealed white envelope in my shaking hands. I’d been guessing what word would be printed on the index card inside for an entire year now, and felt no need to open it. I knew what the word was. After seven other semesters of professor Denny Wilkins handing me words, I had to know by now.

But even so, I wanted to open it.

So after a few minutes of staring at the last sealed envelope I’d ever receive from Wilkins, I opened it.

I pulled out the index card and the word “pride” – the word I’d guessed  -- stared at me in bold letters. Everything led up to pride. No matter what words I’d received before, I was always meant to move onwards and upwards with pride.

I wiped away my tears and taped “pride” to my desk. Time to live with the word and see what happens.

Students say Bonaventure community cares about them

ST. BONAVENTURE (April 28) – Holding her dying mother, Meredith Haggerty called the hospital, crying.  Her mother passed out after coughing up blood for the third time that week.

            An ambulance rushed her mother to the hospital, and doctors told the high school senior her mother’s cancer had left her weighing a mere 85 pounds and incapable of walking.

            Haggerty decided to skip college to help her mother.

Mascots say they represent schools via spirit

            ST. BONAVENTURE (March 31) – Ten minutes before the basketball game and the Bona Wolf’s head wouldn’t stay on. Crunching up old towels and t-shirts given out at halftime, Waheed Ameen finally jammed the Wolf head onto his and ran onto the Bob Lanier Court.  

            Greeted by screaming fans, the Wolf ran in front of the arena’s student section and danced. Two students in the front row, one wearing a banana costume, lifted the Wolf and passed him through the crowd.

Athletes say international marketing would benefit Bonaventure enrollment

ST. BONAVENTURE (Feb. 25) – Canadian soccer player Christopher Leko ran across The Richter Center’s multi-purpose court, weaving in and out of six orange pylons as he passed a soccer ball from one foot to the other.

“I came to St. Bonaventure University to keep playing soccer while getting an education,” said Leko. “But if I didn’t play soccer, I wouldn’t be here. Not because I don’t like it, but because I never would’ve heard of it.”

Athletes said priority registration needed for academic purposes

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. (Feb. 15) – Jamie Wallschlaeger sat at his desk in Plassmann Hall, scribbling down notes until the last minute of class.

He has to, because the St. Bonaventure University baseball pitcher and his teammates play 55 games this season, and 32 on weekdays, so he misses many classes.

“It's hard to tell how many classes I'll be missing this semester, but I'd say somewhere around 15, plus a few labs,” said Wallschlaeger, a physical education senior. “I'll be missing quite a few Clare [College] courses.”

St. Bonaventure University is the only school in the Atlantic 10 conference, the varsity athletic conference Bonaventure belongs to, that doesn’t offer priority registration to student-athletes, said Michelle Kent, assistant athletic director for academic support and student services.