Stouffer-Mayer Volume I

August 2014

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Kicking Off NSO the Stouffer Way

The Tribune

T HERE is only one real way to start the year off at Penn, and of course, it’s at none other than being at the Stouffer College House. Just after freshmen move in for NSO, staff and freshmen from Stouffer-Mayer come together to have a patio party where we play games, eat food, and much more. What can be better than that? Nothing. The people you meet awk-wardly through our “All-sit,” or “Silent Birthday Challenge,” will become some of the best friends you will ever meet at Penn. At least, that’s what happened to me. Choosing to live at Stouffer was the best decision I’ve made. The overall atmosphere in Stouffer allows you to connect with the people who live around you very easily. In just the first couple weeks as a Stoufferite, you will learn that other Stoufferites live by a family-oriented code that no other college house can offer. Something we hope will make you stay with Stouffer for the next four years.

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Letter from the Editor

ELCOME TO STOUFFER!

My name is Isaiah Harris, and I am a Junior studying Architecture/Design here at Penn. I’ve lived in Stouffer for the past 2 years, and it has been nothing short of amazing. The people I’ve met here are the closest things I have to a family away from home, even if I don’t live far from home in the first place. I live about 45 minutes north of Philadelphia in a small town called Southampton of Bucks County. I was, however, born in Hawaii and moved in 1997 to Littleton Colorado and lived there until 2003. It was that year when we moved to Pennsylvania because of the relocation of my mom’s job. Half of our extended family still lives back in Hawaii, and we’ve been fortunate to keep a close relationship with them and visit as much as possible. Also, the opportunities that are available out here in Pennsylvania beat the opportunities we would have had back in Hawaii. It’s pretty safe to say that I wouldn’t be the first in all of my family to attend an Ivy League university if we still lived there today. Shout out to my brother who will be the first to have attended/graduated a private university this year. Although he goes to Drexel and I to Penn, he’s been my role model since I was born, so don’t ever let me hear you bashing the Dragons. This is my first year as a Stouffer Communications Manager, and I will be handling the publishing of future Stouffer Tribunes. Please feel free to contact me if you ever wish to write an article for the Tribune as we will always use content from our very own. Not only that, but you can also write about ANYTHING your heart desires. We even accept art related submissions (pictures, drawings, etc.) to spruce up the Tribune. Just shoot me an email or my door at 416 in Mayer is always open. I hope you all have a great first, second, third, or fourth year here in Stouffer College House.

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See You All Around,

Isaiah Harris UPenn 2016

Stouffer Communications Managerharrisi@sas.upenn.edu

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Chicken Katsu, Anyone? Isaiah Harris

absolutely love to cook, so I’m sharing a recipe for one of my childhood favorites, taken from Hawaiian-Japanese cuisine: Chicken Katsu. It’s a type of fried chicken, but rather than using breading, it uses an egg batter with panko bread crumbs as the coating. This is very easy to make so you can either try it yourself, or ask me to make some!

Necessary Ingredients: Boneless chicken breast sliced into about 1/2 inch thick pieces. Salt/Pepper for seasoning All-purpose flour Eggs Panko bread crumbs Oil

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Steps: Season the pieces of chicken with salt and pepper Put about 3 tablespoons of flour, 1 scrambled egg, and 1 cup of panko bread crumbs into separate dishes Dip the chicken breast into the flour, then dip it into the egg, and fully cover it in the panko Put enough oil into a pan so its about 1/4 inch high and heat it to medium-high heat Place the fully covered chicken in the oil on each side for 3-4 minutes, or until golden brown.

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ONGRATULATIONS. You have lucked into the best College House at Penn. I generally do not think that people should measure themselves against each other, and that the only measurement that matters is that which a person makes against herself – basically, are you being as good a person as you can be. So I generally do not think of something or someone as best. But when it comes to Stouffer . . . Stouffer Stouff was built at the very beginning of the 1970s and was named after the person who ponied up the cash for con-struction, Vernon Stouffer, who at that time was the head of Stouffer Foods Corporation. He was a pretty interesting person: he pio-neered frozen and microwave food, and he owned the Cleveland Indians. Stouffer was one of the earliest designated College Houses at Penn (the others that still exist being DuBois, Gregory, and Ware). From its earliest days Stouffer has stood for community, and Stouffer resi-dents have had each others’ backs. The architecture in Stouffer Stouff seems com-plicated, but it actually allows for a great deal of interaction and supports the commu-nity.

Your College House

The patio has undergone several iterations. It has been covered with low brick walls that created small separate areas, has been cov-ered with grass, and most recently was graced with huge wooden trellises. This year marks the first year of this version of the patio, without brick walls, grass, or wooden structures. The College House system at Penn, also known as CHAS (College Houses and Academic Services) was created in 1998, when Stouffer already had a long tradition. At that time, Mayer Hall was made part of Stouffer College House. Mayer was built in 1964 and was named after Harold Mayer, a former Trustee of the University and a former partner at an investment bank named Bear Sterns. At the time Mayer was integrat-ed into Stouffer, it was used as housing for graduate students with families. The Mayer Playroom is called the playroom because that is exactly what it was – a playroom in which the children of residents hung out. After Mayer joined Stouffer, the building gradually became dedicated to undergradu-ate residents but the rooms are still big enough to house families. Stouffer is not the only multibuilding College House at Penn (Gregory and Kings Court English have two buildings each) but it is the only one in which the two buildings are separated by two busy streets. Nonetheless, both build-ings seamlessly form Stouffer College House.

CArticle by:

Phil Nichols, Faculty Master

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Phil Nichols

When the College House system was created, one goal was that all of the College Houses would eventually form four year communities. Ironically, Penn’s peer univer-sities wanted to do the same thing and were jealous that Penn was able to commit to doing so. The types of buildings, culture, and other things have led Penn to a different outcome and only a handful of Houses are four year houses. Stouffer is one of them. That means that our sense of community, our culture, our traditions, our pride flow in an unbroken line from the seventies into the future. It means that our new residents have access to the knowledge and experience of older students, that friendships can be made without regard to class, that older residents can enjoy the refreshing energy of new residents. We have one of (if not the) stron-gest alumni programs, and all of our resi-dents can benefit from the experiences and connections of our alumni.

Stouffer may or may not be your central experience at Penn. Either way is fine, there are many ways to experience Penn so long as you do experience it. Whether it is or it is not, Stouffer can be an excellent tool for doing and experiencing new things. There are tons of programs of all different sorts, there are tons of really interesting people to meet and hang out with, and there is a loving and supporting staff to help you out and to let you know what is going on. There is also, I should add, the win-ningest intramural team in the history of House Intramurals at Penn, and our intramural team welcomes people of all abilities. We are the Average Joes playing against the Globo-Gyms at Penn. One last thing. Come to cookies. Every Wednesday, 10:00, in 172F of Stouffer Stouff. Cookies, once called Coffee, has been going on for decades (which makes Cookies older than, for example, the current version of Skimmer), and it is a great time to see people. And the cookies are delicious.

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know this may be hard to believe, but your amazingly cool C-Section Stouffer GA was a pretty dorky middle school student. Although I grew up in a suburb of San Francisco, I’ve always been fascinated by what many consider to be “country living”. While my peers in the Bay were experimenting with AIM technology (all the rage in 2001 when dial-up internet chose to cooperate), I spent my time in 4-H learning to tend to poultry and utilizing their waste as natural fertilizer. Ok.... I may have had an IM icon of the Backstreet Boys... Though my feathered friends never became “cool”, my fascination with the natural process has remained relevant while AOL instant messenger lives on only in Buzzfeed “remember when...” articles. My family started composting in our back yard in the early 2000s in hopes of decreasing our carbon footprint. In addition to saving money by downsizing our garbage can, the natural compost created a safer environment by lessening our need for fertilizers and decreasing water used in our garden. By simply separating our natural kitch-en waste such as eggshells, coffee grounds, and banana peels, we were able to create rich soil while proudly maintaining our reputation as hippie Californians.

Perhaps the greatest misconception of composting is the belief that the exact same process occurs at a slower rate in landfills. Largely due to the lack of oxygen in these underground wastelands, organic materials break down into hazardous landfill gasses such as methane. In an oxygen-rich compost-ing environment, however, these same waste products produce negligible quantities of this same gas. Composting therefore significantly decreases heat-absorbing gases while produc-ing an accessible and useful product you can brag about to your neighbors. I am proud to belong to a community that values the environment as much as I do. I look forward to our year together and meeting everybody at the compost bins!

Please do compost: vegetable scraps, peanut shells, shredded exams you wish to forget, coffee grounds, dryer lint, tealeaves, egg shells, bread and grains Please do not compost: meat, fish, dairy (these attract pests), fats/oils, insulated coffee cups, glossy paper, plastics

Article by: Jaclyn Beatty

Composting is AWESOME

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7

The Allied Guards

VERY, single day when you leave or enter the building here at Stouffer College House, you will ALWAYS see an Allied Security guard in the booth at Stouffer or just before you get on the elevator in Mayer. They protect the buildings and hold the fort even through the night while we all sleep. Living here for the past two years, I’ve been able to talk to many, if not all, the guards to know they are awesome people. They’re always smiling and enjoy seeing all the faces walk through the door and past the booth. To the newer students entering Stouffer for the first time, the guards here are just phenomenal. Everyone should make their best effort to say “Hello,” ask them about their day, and just be friendly to them. How hard is that? It makes a big difference in their days here, trust me. It’s nice to know that someone is always at the entrance to either send you out on your day or welcome you back after that hard day of work. So show your appreciation when you walk by!

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House OfficeWorkersNeeded

Entry Level Job requiring organization, basic knowledge of how to use the

internet, and a bright smile!

Please contact a House Office Manager, Matt Lesser for more details.lesserm@wharton.upenn.edu

HELP WANTEDBe Apart of the Special EventsCommittee!

Come join with your expertise in creativity and having fun. Help put together

Stouffer’s legen....wait for it...dary events!

Please contact a Special Events Managers, Laura Doherty or Carolynn Sullivan if

interested. laurado@sas.upenn.edusullc@seas.upenn.edu

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Super-Awesome Games

Fill in every row, column, and 3x3 box with the numbers 1-9 without repeating

NAME THAT GA

SUDOKU

Jaclyn Beatty

Chika Onwuvuche

Demetri Morgan

Vera Partem

Eddie Scott

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.