The Yellow Jacket

the Staff

Jesse Jenkins is a senior communications major with a focus on business and advertising. When he is not at school, he works full-time as a man-ager at Books-A-Million. In his spare time he enjoys reading, making films and watching them.

Lena Lambert is a sophomore majoring in social work. She lives in Nitro with her husband and three sons and is involved with the Social Work Organization.

Tabatha Paluso is a senior professional writing major. She is a member of the GSA and the English Club. She hopes to graduate in May and go on to get her MA in Journalism at UCSB.

Cody Cummings is a communications major with an avid interest in video games. He hopes to work in video game productions after gradua-tion.

Alexander Naylor is a professional writing major. He is currently a senior and hopes to graduate in the fall. A few of his interests are playing the electric bass guitar and golf. He likes to cok and often finds himself trying out new concoctions.

TheYellow Jacket is published by West Virginia State University students throughout the fall and spring semesters as part of an on-going learning lab. The Yellow Jacket is dedicated to being a trusted source of news, entertainment and discussion for the students of West Virginia State University. © 2014 The Yellow Jacket. Content may not be reproduced without permis-sion. Faculty advisor: Dr. Jessica Barnes-Pietruszynski.

Marta Tankersley, named WVSU journalism student of the Year 2013, is a communications major. She writes for the Charleston Gazette, WV Executive magazine and works with PRSSA and Tower Communications. Marta is engaged to WVSU graduate CR Hays.

Jessica Clark-Jenkins is the assistant edtior of The Yellow Jacket. She is seeking a degree in English. With her degree, she hopes to go on to teach English as a second language. Jessica is also a member of the English Club and an editor on the Kanawha Review.

Bianca Prince is the editor-in-chief of The Yellow Jacket. She is an English major seeking a minor in Journalism. Additionally, she is an editor on the Kanawha Review and president of the English Club.

Students Celebrate Graduation with Senior Art Gallery...........04

When Life Gives You Lemons......................................06

WVSU’s Academic Quiz Bowl Team Competes at Nationals............07

NBS Hosts First Gaming Tournament...............................08

The New Food Truck on Campus....................................09

Summer Events You Should Attend.................................10

Game Review: “Mercenary Kings”..................................12Game Review: “Mercenary Kings”..................................12

Cover Art: “Drug Dealer 2” by Dusty Stowers.

Table of Contents

Above: “Baboon” by Dusty Stowers, part of his three-piece digital collage. Top of Page: Anthony Young's monotypes: “Preservation I,” “Preservation II,” “Preservation III,” and “Preservation IV.”page | four

By Jessica Jenkins The West Virginia State University art department hosted their semesterly art exhibit on May 1. The exhibit displays the work of seniors that will be graduating at the end of the semes-ter. The event took place at the Della Brown Taylor Hardman Fine Arts Gallery, located in the Davis Fine Arts Building. Artists Sarah Copeland, Dusty Stowers, Sarah Dennison and Anthony Young had their work featured in the exhibit. These artists, as well as other WVSU students, also have their work featured at the Capitol Center Theater. The students credit their success to hard work and their pro-fessors. “I can honestly say that if it weren’t for our professors, I would not have half of the success as I have had,” says Young. “Practice is the key to anything, but especially in art. Practice every day, no matter what you want to do in life--be it writing or chemistry. You can’t be half-hearted with it.” “Don’t be discouraged because especially in art, there is going to be mistakes,” adds Denison. “If you like it, that’s great. That is what is most important. If someone says some-thing bad about it, don’t let it get to you. But you should listen to what your professors say at the same time.” The artists were inspired by a wide variety of issues. “Technology is so invasive today that we have become less aware of our surroundings,” says Copeland about her pieces “Gulp,” “Sizzle,” and “Cluck.” “As a result, we often miss major events and miss serious events that affect ourselves and our world. For this series, I

Above: Sarah Denison’s charcoal pieces “Caged” and “Stray.” Top of Page: Sarah Copeland's vector art, “Gulp,” “Sizzle,” and “Cluck.”

made use of geometric style in order to emphasize our deepen-ing dependence and connection to technology.” Stowers investigated the world of drug use through a digital collage. “My artwork in this series is an exploration of drugs and what affect they have on society and the users themselves,” he explains.“I ask who distributes them, uses them and ulti-mately what physical, mental, and spiritual effects they have. Both illegal and legal drugs are very prevalent in our culture and I look at the hypocrisies, stereotypes, and blurred lines of this issue.issue. Drugs are distributed heavily, and what may be legal might have more harmful and negative effects than something illegal.” Young was inspired by “Invisible Man,” the 1952 novel by Ralph Ellison. “In my body of work, I explore race and social class,” says Young. “The figures in this body of work are invisible to the rest of the world, almost like phantoms. These phantom-like men only begin to take form in society through their actions, both good and bad, and the acknowledgement of their invisibil-ity.” “My work is about putting animals in the human perspec-tive,” says Denison of her pieces “Beast Lady,” “Caged,” and “Stray.” “I humanized the animals in my pieces so people could em-pathize with them. I don’t think that people can empathize with animals as they do with other people. I used Charcoal because I can create different values with it and make the pieces more vi-sually interesting.” Students work featured at the “Sorrow & Rapture” exhibit at the Capitol Center Theater was inspired by Lesley Dill’s “Faith & the Devil” exhibit, opening at the Clay Center on Friday.

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WhenLifeGivesYouLemons...

By Alexander Naylor

West Virginia State University’s SCRATCH (Sustainable Community Revitalization in Appalachia through Children’s Hands) attended Huntington, W.Va.’s National Lemonade Day. The event was on Saturday, May 3, and it was held at the Heritage Sta-tion from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The SCRATCH project teaches the community’s youth about agriculture, sustainability, and economics. The youth learn how to keep and maintain their gar-dens while learning how to harvest their crop to sell to local customers.

"Our kids are thrilled to be taking part in Hunting-ton's Lemonade Day celebration," said Melissa Stew-art, assistant program director at WVSU Extension Service. "Youth from all of our program sites around the city have been actively creating their business plans for weeks."

The SCRATCH youth sold lemonade, seed papers and paper bombs. Seed papers are flat compressed soil and seed bundles that can be applied directly to the soil. Seed bombs are round bundles of soil that also can be planted directly into the ground.

"This is the first time our kids will be selling a fully created product exterior to the produce and flowers they've grown in the gardens," said Stewart. "They've been involved in the entire process, clear down to product marketing and packaging."

Lemonade Day promotes and encourages today’s

youth by allowing them to explore their entrepreneur-ial ambitions through the tradition of opening a lemon-ade stand.

By Marta Tankersley West Virginia State University’s academic quiz bowl team competed in the 25th annual Honda Campus All-Star Challenge for a chance to win grants of up to $50,000 on April 14 in Torrance, Calif. In total, WVSU has received over $170,000 in grants by participating in this event annually. This year alone, grants totaling $325,000 were awarded to 76 Historically Black College and University teams competing in the national championship over a five day period. WVSU Director of Alumni Relations Brenda Fuller coaches the team of four which consists of seniors Ashton Gauff, Eric Jett and Scotty White and junior Raynalle Rouse.

Since the team competed in the quarter-finals last year, they had great hopes of emerging victorious this year, Fuller said in a recent press release. Alas, the team lost in the first round. “All in all we won, though we were knocked out in the first room,” Gauff said. “It was great and fun and nice seeing people that I have not seen within the year again.” Rouse enjoyed the opportunity to “meet different HBCU students with the same passion for knowledge” she has. “I'm honored to represent this University with my team mates and continue to fight for the winning title,” she said.

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FIRST

OF MANY

By Cody Cummings Hello fellow gamers and readers! In addition to this week’s article (which you can see on page 12), I’ll be re-viewing the National Broadcast Society Gaming Tourna-ment that took place in the Wilson University Union on Thursday, April 17. This was the first gaming tournament hosted by the NBS. The NBS tournament was sponsored by GameStop, who happily gave NBS the Xboxes needed to play “Call of Duty” on five screens. GameStop also provided four $10 GameStop gift cards, with $20 in gift cards being given away for each tournament. NBS provided other prizes like coffee mugs and shirts, and “Call of Duty Ghost” posters were also given away. The entry fee was $5 a piece for each tournament, a price gladly paid by participants. One issue that showed up and was a bad sign was the size of the tournament crowd. Unfortunately due to poor promotion, not many people showed up for the tourna-ment. Many attendees were passers-by who were just cu-rious as to what was going on. It was clear that we did a poor job of promoting the tournament, and in the future this will be handled quickly. The second issue was the amount of games we tried to run. The tournament was held for “Super Smash Brothers Brawl,” “Madden 25,” “Pokémon X and Y” and “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.” With the lack of people, we had to drop the Pokémon event and, surprisingly, the event for “Madden 25.” However, the tournament for both CoD

and SSBB were great fun and I was happy to see people smiling and getting into the zone as they played. Still, with the lack of gamers that showed and with the poor advertising of the game, it was pretty successful for NBS’s first run at a gaming tournament. Hopefully I’ll see a few of my readers in the fall when the next tourna-ment will take place. I have a feeling the next tournament will be a big hit and I hope to see you there!

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The New Truck on CampusBy Candice Shea Holliday Have you seen the new vehicle on campus? The big orange truck is pretty hard to miss! Now, on West Virginia State University’s campus we have a food truck, Austin Grill. You can find this truck parked Monday through Friday in the Ferrell Hall parking lot. The truck offers chicken, vegetable and fish wraps as well as wings, a fish sand-wich and even salads. For breakfast there are egg and sausage sandwiches, muf-fins and coffee. They also offer sides and snacks like parfaits, fries, cookies and chips. The best news about the food truck is that it takes not only cards and cash, but also student meal plans. If students have flex dollars or the commuter meal plan they can spend them at the food truck.food truck. This truck is progress at WVSU, but progress always comes with room for adjustment. Word about the truck has spread across campus—and students aren’t afraid to share their opinions. I did a survey of 35 random students to see what Yellow Jackets really think of the new food truck. This seems like a diverse and yummy selection of choic-es, but few students seem to like the food offered and many are scared to even try the food truck because they dislike the other campus options. When asked what food served by Austin Grill was their favorite, one surveyed student said, “Not a single thing. Just like the food that is served everywhere else on campus, it’s horrible and overpriced.”

Unlike most food trucks it has no central theme. For many students, it simply feels like another caf-eteria outlet. Timing also seems to be an issue with the Austin Grill. One of the surveyed students said, “I have not been there. They leave too early for me to get any-

thing.” The food truck is parked in the Ferrell Hall parking lot from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. in the mornings and then 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.p.m. in the after-noons. This is great for the morning and covers most of the day, but WVSU cur-rently does not have a dead hour—an hour around noon where no classes

take place, allowing students to eat lunch or take part in extracurricular activities—meaning that many stu-dents are in class when the food truck is parked out-side. This is progress. Eighty percent of students sur-veyed felt that the food truck was something we should continue to have on campus and that they would like to see a greater diversity of options. Austin Grill also has locations in Maryland, Vir-ginia, and Washington D.C. For more information go to www.austingrill.com or visit their Twitter page @Austin_Grill.

By Lena Lambert We are fast approaching the end of the semester. The last minute details added to research papers and studying months of notes for finals are weighing heavily on most stu-dents. The end of the semester is almost here and all your hard work will have been worth it! Here are a few tips to help relieve some of the stress that the end of the semester brings.

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Enjoy Stress-Free Finals

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One tip—which might be too late now, but students can keep in mind for the future—avoid procrastination. Pro-crastination seems to be the trend for many students. Don’t put off big as-signments. Waiting until the end of the semester before you get started on that big assignment isn’t wise, and will only add to the stress. Working throughout the semester on long term projects is important. Learning good time management skills will ease the pressure that students face all semester long.

Find a study partner. Whether you live on campus or are a com-muter student, it is a good idea to find a study partner. Finding one that will challenge you to work harder will be a benefit to the both of you. Additionally, if you are strugglingstruggling in a particular subject, seek out help. There are many re-sources available on campus throughout the semester, such as the Writing Lab on the third floor of Ferrell Hall and the Tutoring Center on the first floor of Wallace Hall.

Get good sleep—and plenty of it. Pulling an all-nighter or cramming until two in the morning is not wise. Statistics show that inadequate sleep does appear to affect the brain’s ability to work. If you want to remember what you are studying, makemake sure you are getting good rest each night

Lastly, take a break. To make sure that you don’t crack under the pres-sure, take some time to relax. While some stress can motivate you, don’t let it get you down. Put the notecards aside, gather some friends, and do something fun. Grab a Frisbee and headhead outside. Take a walk and enjoy the sunshine. Find some quiet time, or find some social time.

By Tabatha Paluso Summer is almost here, which means there it’s time to start planning for fun activities. Here in West Virginia there is a wide assortment of en-tertaining things to do to make your summer en-joyable. Aside from the normal pastimes such as swimming, camping and fishing, there are sev-eral festivals and events coming up. If you are into the arts, Charleston has its Downtown ArtWalk every third Thursday from March through December. The ArtWalk is a showcase of Charleston’s downtown art galleries such as The Purple Moon, Art Emporium and Gallery Eleven. These galleries contain works from West Virginia’s best locally and nationally recognizedrecognized artists. ArtWalk is held from 5 p.m. to 8p.m., although some galleries do stay open later. This is a great opportunity to meet like-minded people who thrive on W.Va.’s art scene. If music is more your thing, then look no fur-ther than the Trans-Allegheny’s “Seeking Asylum” summer music festival, hosted from July 11 through July 13 in Weston, W.Va. “Seeking Asylum” will be catering to music lovers of several genres, including rock, country and bluegrass. Some of the performers include CircaCirca Blue, David Ball, the Lilly Mountaineers,

and several others. In addition to the music, there will also be a catered dinner and several hospital tours. Another big summer event here in West Vir-ginia is the annual FestivALL, held June 20 through June 29 in the capital city of Charleston. FestivALL has something to offer to those of all ages, from music to food to theatre. For lovers of wine there is the Wine & all that Jazz held on the University of Charleston’s riverfront lawn. For chilichili connoisseurs there is the Smoke on the Water Chili Cook-Off. Lastly, for music lovers, there all sorts of events, such as the Blues, Brews & BBQ, The Charleston Chamber Music Society or FestivALT, an outdoor concert featuring alter-native country, rock and folk artists. To learn more about FestivALL and all of its events, visit their website at www.festivallcharleston.com. Whether you’re into art, music, food or nature, there is always something to do in West Virginia over the summer. Pick a place, an activity and a friend, and go make the most of your vacation!

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SUMMER EVENTS

YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT

PIXELATEDBy Cody Cummings Hello fellow gamers and readers! Ever missed the old days of 16-bit pixel games? Ever thought about one game containing every single thing that was cool from other games? Do you like side scrolling, shooting plat-form games chock full of action with anan over-the-top story? If you said yes to any of these questions, then “Mer-cenary Kings” is the game for you! If you said no—then why are you read-ing this? “Mercenary Kings” is an indie de-veloped game created by Tribute Games. It was first on Kickstarter, a site that allows “backers” to donate to the creative pursuits of others, where it only needed $75,000. By the end of the campaign, the game had reached $116,000. $116,000. The game released PC and Play-station 4 versions on April 1, 2014. The overall reception of “Mercenary Kings” has been highly positive, with

raving reviews from many major outlets such as Game Informer and Metacritic. Now, let’s dive into the action packed pixel world that is “Mercenary Kings.” The game starts off with a cut scene that shows off the cast of characters you’ll be meeting along the way in your ad-venture. You will see five “main” characters flash by on the screen as they go on a dangerous mission. Within seconds, they are ambushed by a large mech robot and a few soldiers. One-by-one they are brutally sliced in half, crushed, or shot down. The game then begins by allowing you to play as one of the only two survivors, King or Empress. This game may look old-school, but its action and brutality is topnotch. I won’t lie—I had never played a PS4 before playing “Mercenary Kings,” but the controls for the game are pretty solid. They feel similar to playing an old Nintendo or Sega game with a few major tweaks in generations. All your major functions like firing and jumping are in appropriate positions, close to each other and similar to old controllers. This

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AWESOMENESgame, however, has active reload, which was a little odd but highly appreciated since you’ll go through clip after clip quickly. Also, rolling is a mechanic that, once mastered, will save you many times. It will allow you to dodge many projec-tiles and even between large enemies’ legs or attacks. The graphics are amazing for pixel art and the animation is priceless. It is fluid and each movement or action is detailed perfectly—down to the last pixel. It’s even more satisfying when you blow the head off an enemy, watching it quickly turn into a cloud of blood; it’s a beautiful thing. The storyline is old school. You are the Mercenary Kings, sent to the Island of Byron Baron, leader of C.L.A.W who seeks world domination! It is your job to battle your way through his army and make sure he will never use the Man-drake Formula for dangerous biological weapons! Its cliché, sure, but it’s a welcoming cliché that is both embracive but also mindless fun. Unlike most games today, where they try to keepkeep you serious as possible, this one gives you that feeling to just go and destroy all you can while having fun. When you play, you can change any part of your gun out for other parts. Mix and match to your heart’s content to create the perfect weapon for you. There are also aid kits, rations, riot shields, grenades and other surplus items to help you along your battles. You can also create knives; there is a funny Easter egg from another famous title that I won’t spoil here. Overall, the game is incredible, perhaps one of the best 2D shooting side scrolling action games out there. It is engaging and playing locally or online with friends is an even bigger blast! The only downside to the game is its long, over 100 mis-sions, and it may get repetitive at times. Besides that, nothing else is flawed. If you have PlayStation Plus, this game is free to own right now! This game gets my Awesome Medal and a 9.75 out of 10 so what are you waiting for? MOVE OUT!

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Congratulations

Graduates!