I had a few things in mind: history, architecture, English education were among the list. But I always had such a passion for journalism. It just did it for me.

Then my roommate, Shane Ostroski, came to me spring semester of freshman year. He was the lone member of the sports department at The Wood Word. He needed help. At that point, I declared English as my major and I figured this would be a way to improve upon my writing skills, along with connecting to other people. And thus, it began.

After my first few interviews, I was in love with this occupation. However, I didn’t just want to report on the news and tell some plain Jane story with the basic who, what, where, when, why, and/or how. I wanted to touch my reader’s heart in some way, writing stories that meant something to them. Mitch Albom’s writings were the way I would model my writing. His works aimed to touch the human heart in some way, shape, or form. Every story I wrote, I aimed for that same goal.

So, to my colleagues at The Wood Word: Thank you for a fun and exciting four years working in journalism. Keep up the good work and continue the passion you have for journalism. You all will be successful in your careers if you all aim for top.

To Ann Williams and Dr. Wotanis: Keep up the hard work and dedication that you two bring to this paper. It has become something great. You two give more than just blood, sweat, and tears to make this paper perfect. I am proud to call you my advisers for this paper. It was more than just an extra-curricular activity; it was family, and you two were the foundation to every ounce of passion brought to the table. Soon and very soon, The Wood Word will be recognized as one of the most prestigious college newspapers in the state of Pennsylvania. You got this!

To Shane: Buddy, we did it. And most importantly, we did it together as a team. From Loughran to Regina to Apartment 12, our rooms, turned “offices” have seen restless nights trying to perfect this section with stories memorable four our readers. Thanks for the great ride.

To Erica Nealon: You have inherited a section that Shane and I have turned into something special at this institution. Your passion for sports and journalism will carry you for the next three years. I have all my faith in you.

To the athletics department: I cannot thank you all enough, especially Dr. Gunning, Andrew Smith, and Peter Schmidt for all of the feedback and assistance you have displayed through my tenure here.

To the communications department: This paper is on the rise to greatness. Keep funding and supporting young journalists like us students through this paper. Again, your patience and trust in just Shane and I to run a single section shows that you believed in us and I hope I lived up to your expectations.

To the people I have interviewed: Thank you for your patience with me. College is about making mistakes, yet you all improved my skills in this field conducting a successful interview, and I have you all to thank while I try to improve in my quest to be a television reporter. Thank you.

And finally, to my reader: Thank you for taking the time out of your hectic lives to sit and read my pieces every issue. You are what keeps this field going and what makes my job worthwhile. It is about you. I hope at one point I touched your heart in some way. Thank you for fueling my journalism fire. You are my rocks.

And to my family: Even if my stories weren’t so great, you still gave me the support and that’s what kept me going all four years. Love you all.

No matter what the future has for me I have The Wood Word to thank for making my college career worth something. To that, thank you and God Bless.

Signing off,

Dave Scarnato, The Wood Word Sports

1. Jump at every opportunity. Join clubs, get to know your professors, and always work hard – that’s what will open doors for you.

2, Learn how to balance school, work, sleep, and a social life. Too much of any of these are a bad thing.

3. It’s okay to say no. Sometimes you try to be the ‘everyman’ and eventually you realize you’re spread too thin. Give yourself a break and don’t be too hard on yourself.

4. Be prepared to make friends. In ways you never thought possible.

5. Be prepared to lose friends. In ways you never thought possible.

6. Have some fun. Hang out with friends until 2:00 a.m. on a school night. Go to a party. Be a goof.

7. Learn to deal with setbacks. Inevitably, unfavorable and unavoidable things are going to happen to you. It’s a great opportunity to think critically about who you are as a person.

8. Be open to change. If you don’t change for the better, you’re not growing as a person.

9. Understand the realities of the “real world.” Nobody in the real world is going to care if you don’t have the best GPA of your college class. So stop stressing.

10. Know that there’s great risk is not taking a risk. Finally, when you graduate, you’re going to have to make the decision, sooner or later, about what you want to do with your life. Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow. Just remember that there are plenty of risks by taking a chance, but there are plenty of risks by not taking a chance.

Ultimately, don’t sweat the small stuff. You don’t have to know what career you want to go into or what field you’ll want to further your studies. College is a learning experience. You’ll be okay.

I have.

It was the middle of July. The weather in Scranton was disgusting as usual. I got lost on my way to Marywood in my red Sunfire. I locked my keys in my car at the gas pump. I had to call a tow truck to see if he could break into my car. It was the first time that I used the whole “I’m a poor college student please forgive me for being stupid and poor” line, so he gave me $5 off of my fee. I was wearing a polyester shirt (I don’t even know why) and I had straightened my hair that day, only to have it go back to curly half way throughout the day. Awesome.

My mentality at this point was anything but positive, but I trudged up the small hill as I approached Electric Mary. I was just hoping that these four years would go differently than my high school years. I spent a majority of my time in high school not knowing where exactly my place in life was.

I sat down in my small group. They put us there according to what department we were in. I looked around me and this was what I saw: a kid with a Mohawk, two best friends from high school, a Prima Donna from the theater department, and a girl and a boy that sounded like they were from Fargo. I immediately though, “Cool. Are these the people I have to spend my four years with?”

Through that little period of getting to know each other, I slowly broke out of my shell. I felt like it was finally somewhere I could easily be myself. Little did I know that I would spend hours upon hours with these people: sometimes fighting about the way things should be done, or laughing because we know that what we’re creating is so ridiculous that someone has to find it funny. In the end, I know that I would have been completely unhappy spending the last four years with anyone but them. And I honestly have never been more grateful to have such beautiful, supportive, and creative people surrounding me.

So here’s to us, communication arts kids. This time’s for real.

This time to write my farewell story; this time to prepare for graduation festivities; this time to wrap up another chapter of my life.

It’s a bit overwhelming trying to cope with the feelings of joy for being done, fear for not knowing how I will fare in the real world and sadness for parting ways with my friends all at once.

When people hear that I am finishing school, the general response is, “what’s next?” I wish I could give them a definite answer, as I don’t even know for sure what is next. I also find myself already having some “would have, could have and should have” thoughts when reflecting on my time spent here at Marywood.

If I could go back and do it all over again, I would become more involved in as many activities and clubs as possible; so to any underclassmen, that would be my number one piece of advice. Get involved, be involved and stay involved. And to anyone who doesn’t think four years in college will fly by, think again.

From 2008 up until now seems like one big blur to me. Even though there had been some stressful times in there that I didn’t think I would overcome, I made it through and now look back and laugh at how I thought those situations were the end of the world. So I look ahead and hope to continue making it through whatever life throws my way.

That has been the million dollar question asked of me ever since I can remember. I always recall struggling to find an answer. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Sometimes I felt like I had missed the career train when my peers would blurt out an extensive blueprint of their life plans, seemingly having it all figured out. That was a little disheartening.

My family told me to find something I love to do, so that it wouldn’t seem like work. It sounds easy enough, but I enjoy a lot of things, and actually finding where those interests overlapped with a job seemed impossible. “Where do I go to get a job being a video game reviewer? Do you even go to college for that,” I asked myself throughout middle school, as I had been an avid gamer.

Questions I had no idea how to go about answering popped into my mind time and time again. Until I woke up, and it was my high school graduation day.

At this point, I had zero ideas about what I wanted to do with my life, and where I wanted to go to college. I initially applied to schools where I had done little research about their program offerings because I was just lost about where I wanted to end up in the future.

I tried to remember one thing though, something I had always told myself. “Be good at everything you do, and you’ll be fine.” If I don’t know something—“I’ll learn it.” If I can’t do something—“I’ll learn to do it, and do it well.” And that’s where my final dilemma in college spawned; What do I major in?

In high school and into my college career, I had done well in every aspect but one: public speaking and presentations. I wanted to throw up when I had to get in front of a group of people and speak. My throat would go dry and my voice would fluctuate horribly. It was something that, although I practiced in a mirror and seemed to improve, I could never grasp and follow that something I told myself to do, to “learn to do it.”

At this point, I didn’t know where to go from here. If I couldn’t even talk to someone how would I ever be successful? I was too scared to even think about it for a while.

In the end, I made a surprising decision to both combat my weakness and follow my enjoyment of writing by majoring in communication arts.

This was going to be how I “learned to do it.” One of the most important things you can learn to do is to learn how to speak.

Fast forward to my senior year. Do I still get nervous when I have to give presentations? Sometimes. I am far from perfect at speaking what’s on my mind and conveying my thoughts, but I have improved from where I was, and that’s something I am proud of myself for.

And hey, I haven’t thrown up yet!

Instead, I have been trying to think of something profound to say. Nonetheless, it is usually when I have something important to say that I seize up and am incapable of producing words. Instead, I will take the advice passed on from a number of professors to just write for the sake of writing.

Before attending Marywood, I spent much of my early college career as a nomad. I attended a small commuter campus with no real sense of community. I simply took up space. I experimented in business, then English, and even dabbled in the realm of art until finally finding my niche. It happened suddenly.

I took a course entitled “Mass Media and Society,” in the spring of 2008. We met in a large theater-style room. It was like an awkward blind date, where the only commonality the participants share is a mutual friend. However, I found the class charming and eventually fell in love with media studies.

From the commuter campus, I transferred to an even larger campus, which did not work for someone like me, who is easily overwhelmed by large crowds. In desperate need of a way out, I ended up at Marywood University.

For the first time since starting college, I felt a strong sense of community at Marywood University. At Marywood, I felt like I could get involved and actually make a difference.

Marywood helped me to explore interests in other fields like radio and print media. Throughout my college career, I have had the opportunity to work with and become friends with a number of wonderful individuals. I would not trade my college experience for anything in the world, except maybe a puppy.

It is hard to believe that my college career is over. It is even more mind-boggling that someone actually believes it is a good idea to give me a diploma. In less than a week , I will be a college graduate.

I mean, really, what are they thinking?

To sum up my thoughts, it is sometimes better to use the words of my personal hero. Dr. Seuss once said, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

However, I will miss The Wood Word staff and it’s advisers…and mostly, the Marywood squirrels.

After five years and acquiring a substantial amount of debt, one thing is certain; college is greater than high school.

Little has changed over time. Throughout the last thirty years, midnight releases have become increasingly popular. Now, not only do opening weekend box office sales make headlines, but midnight sales as well.

Midnight premieres reached their pinnacle with the “Harry Potter” series. The last installment of the series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” currently holds the record for highest midnight sales.

According to “The Telegraph,” midnight sales alone made $43.5 million.

The release of “The Hunger Games” this March brought in $19.7 million here in the United States, according to CBS. Because of this success, the doors have been opened for a slew of summer films to hype premiers and take advantage of the anticipation of their fans.

The “summer” movie season kicks off on May 4, with “The Avengers.” This movie has been highly anticipated over the last few years while its heroes starred in their own prequels. Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) join together to bring down Thor’s scorned brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

Continuing with pop culture’s love of superheroes are two other anticipated releases. On July 3, “The Amazing Spiderman,” starring Andrew Garfield, hits theaters. And the highly awaited finale of Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” franchise, “The Dark Knight Rises” starring Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway, is expected on July 30.

Though they don’t go on sale until later in the spring nationwide, tickets for “The Dark Knight Rises” went on sale in New York and Los Angeles more than six months in advance and sold out almost instantly.

Pixar is joining in the frenzy with the release of their newest animated adventure, “Brave,” starring the voice talents of Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, and Kevin McKidd. Pixar continues with its tradition of creating excellent stories that even college students are sure to enjoy.

Make the best of a midnight premiere

Dress up. There is nothing more exciting about a midnight premiere than seeing who in your hometown comes up with the most impressive costume. If you want to stick out, try going for a more off-beat character. There will probably be tons of over-confident boys in red, white and blue at the “Avengers” premiere, but less covered in green and smashing everything in sight. Or look into a different approach to a classic character. Half-Bruce, half-Batman? Joking aside, when planning a costume, make sure that it’s comfortable because after the festivities, you still have at least two hours of film to sit through. Body paint might get itchy.

Plan ahead. You don’t want to be the one person in your group of friends that gets stuck in the 12:02 showing. When you know that an upcoming movie is something you want to see at midnight, make sure you check to see when tickets go on sale. With big name movies, the tickets tend to go on sale well before the movie hits theatres. If possible, have one person buy all of the tickets with collected money so that you don’t get separated. If you’re in a big group or are someone who likes to sit in a particular part of the theatre, plan on getting there pretty early or all of the good spots will be taken. Who among us ever wants to get stuck sitting on the bottom part of the theatre?

Sincerly,

Scared of Solidarity

The good news is that your best friend is graduating! You have to remember to be happy for her and all of the new things that are going to be happening in her life.

On the other hand, we totally get where you’re coming from. This could be an excellent opportunity to spread your wings and expand on your college experience by taking as many friends with you as you can.

The great thing about Marywood is that you can have one solid group of friends, but also people around the edges that you hang out with every now and then. This is the time to get closer to those people; maybe they will surprise you. Invite other people to dinner.

As far as a new roommate and a constant companion, be optimistic. Maybe this will be the year to spend more time on your own, discovering something new before you graduate yourself. Or perhaps your new roommate will end up a life-long friend as well.

I barely got to see my friends at all for the last month of the semester because we all had so much work to do. This is our last summer together before senior year but we don’t all live close to each other. Do you have any suggestions for how best to meet up over break?

Sincerly,

Far from Friends

Luckily for you, during the summer, we don’t have school … unless you do, in which case, good for you, getting ahead on those credits! An excellent way to make time for each other over summer break is to all set aside a week where you take off of work or whatever other obligations you have and get together. Look ahead to see if there are any concerts or other events going on that you’d all be interested in. Another idea is to go into New York. Since most of our students are from the greatest tri-state area, meeting up in the city for a day with no plans can be one of the most exciting adventures to have. You can go to the zoo, see a show, shop and be home all in one day.

Since this is your last summer together, now would be a nice time to see the places that your friends are from. Seeing someone’s hometown can show you a lot about who that person is. Take a trip to a friend’s house and have them show you around and what they did before you knew them.

If you’re all from Scranton, you should take the opportunity to get out. Drive to Jersey for the day and hang out at the beach.

This really is your time. You have the entire summer to make the best of. It’s the last time you’ll have a break like this.

Foley graduated from Eastern Illinois University in 1969 with his bachelor of arts degree in German and Philosophy, received his master’s degree in Philosophy from Southern Illinois University in 1971, and received his doctorate in Philosophy from Southern Illinois University in 1973. Later on, he decided to persue his masters of public administration degree from New York University in 1982.

Foley began his teaching career in philosophy at College Misericordia where he taught for four years before moving to Marywood in 1980. Here, he has served as the philosophy department chair for 10 years and as chair of the Honors Program for nine years.

“The classroom for me was the most comfortable and it was my fit,” Foley said. His said his favorite class to teach was a tie between the “Philosophy of Law and Society” and “The Philosophy of Women.”

After 30 years of teaching philosophy in the classroom, Foley decided he needed a new challenge. When offered the position of Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Marywood, he took it. He’s been at that post now for the past four years.

As Dean, he is responsible for budget management, faculty development, and various academic programs. He also assesses the teacher evaluations by students each semester.

Foley said his motivation to retire is actually his ability now to do so. “I can actually afford to retire,” said Foley.

But, Foley said he’s also looking forward to some of the other benefits of retirement. “I want to travel. I just want to be able to pick up and go wherever I want, whenever I want without asking for days off of work,” Foley said.

Foley plans on moving to Raleigh, North Carolina to be closer to his family and to get out of the cold NEPA weather to enjoy traveling and recreational activities. But most importantly, retiring will allow him more flexibility to travel and spend time with his grandchildren.

Foley’s assistant, Bev Mizanty, said she will miss working with Foley. “I’ll miss his humor, his ability to handle all situations with compassion, his tremendous caring ways, and his knowledge. He will be greatly missed, not only by me, but by the entire Marywood Community,” she said.

Marywood is currently looking for an experienced individual to take over the position of the Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences who is accomplished and has experiences in teaching, scholarship, and service. The new Dean will be announced by the end of the semester.

As Foley starts a new chapter in his life, he had this piece of advice to offer to students about to enter new chapters in theirs: Be flexible, and always look for new opportunities because, “you never know where life is going to take you.”