/The State News
Studio art sophomore Caitlin Gallagher, left, and chemistry sophomore Megan Vrobel pet Zeke before the game against Penn State on Saturday afternoon. Before the home football games, Jim and Terri Foley, Zeke's owners, take the dog around to as many tailgates as they can. Zeke's favorite tailgating food is chili.
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Interpreting Nature
Kati Adams, of Williamston, originally wanted to be an accountant but her mother wouldn’t let her. “I wasn’t the kind of person that could sit in an office for the rest of my life. She knew that I wanted to be outside,” she said about her mother’s resistance to her career plan. Adams ended up receiving her master’s degree from MSU in park, recreation and tourism resources with a focus on interpretation. “You interpret nature to (people) and just inspire them to be a part of it and to love it,” she said. Adams works as a park naturalist at the Harris Nature Center, 3998 Van Atta Road, in Okemos. As a park naturalist, Adams takes care of the resident animals, keeps track of the displays and exhibits, writes and teaches most of the programs offered to members of the community at the nature center. She thinks that educating people about nature is important because she says that “a lot of our food comes from nature and all the plants and animals as well. So everything’s important and everything is tied together.”
Punches of passion
Amateur boxer Tyler Lord-Wilder spars with professional boxer Tyrone “Fist of Fury” Harris during one of her routine workouts at Big House Boxing and MMA, 1131 May St., in Lansing. Lord-Wilder works as a nurse’s aide at East Lansing Health Care Center and spends her free time training as an amateur boxer at Big House Boxing and MMA. “I’m an aggressive personality,” said Lord-Wilder, who admits she used to get into fights a lot in high school.
Portrait of an Anarchist
Lifelong anarchist, accomplished artist and impoverished queer radical Charlie Nash reads quietly in the living room of his current Lansing residence on his 65th birthday. He has made three collages and given them to the home’s owner in return for a place to sleep. “Age has nothing to do with it,” Nash explains. “You’re as old as you think you are. I don’t really see myself as being 65. I see myself being maybe early 30s.” Once an Ivy-League student, Nash truly embraced his anarchist ideology after college, and believes, “You should stay out of institutions, whether they be academic or prisons.” Though more impoverished than he has been in many years, Nash now spends his time creating noise music, collage art and peace; the latter of which he does by walking to the Capitol building every Friday and standing with a sign which reads “Too Many Have Died” in bold, black letters.
Living City
Hershey Jayasuriya, a second-year student in the MSU College of Human Medicine, was born in Sri Lanka and moved to the United States with her parents to escape a violent civil war. Growing up, she moved around a lot and spent some time in homeless shelters, where she was inspired by the doctors who volunteered at the shelters. Her childhood experiences give her the mental tools to get through the grueling years of medical school she faces on her way to becoming a doctor. “When I was younger, every time my mom and I moved, we would change religion,” she said. “I felt like I had a very hands-on education in philosophy and religion and seeing how different people view the world and life. It helps you to clean your mind and give you some sort of balance. When I’m working in the clinic and somebody tells me that they are a spiritual or religious person I breathe a huge sigh of relief because I know whatever horrible thing I’m about to tell them, they have some tools in their mind to be able to emotionally get through it.”
Living City
Sandra Luce socializes with the cats inside the Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) area at Cat Tail Farms. Luce and her husband Roger care for more than 200 felines on their farm in Perry, Mich. When asked about how she got so many animals she said, “It’s just kind of grown. We named the eighth cat Enough, and it didn’t work.” She houses both FIV and Feline Leukemia-positive cats on her property in two separate buildings. She primarily runs the sanctuary off of donations and often finds it hard to care for all the animals. Luce does find help from MSU veterinary and zoology students who are eager to volunteer and care for the felines.
Mom is first
Leann Harris graduated from college at the age of 37 while raising her four children Jordan, 18, Jason, 7, Jenny, 5, and Joe, 3. “When I cam back to school for the first time I had a three month old a one year old and a 12 year old.” Now working at Student Parents on a Mission for MSU and pursuing her masters, she often gives advice to student parents who are going through this for the first time. “You can do it,” Harris says. “No matter what is thrown in your path, you can do it. I don’t think it’s an age thing. For me, I needed to get other life experiences. “Jordan (Leann’s daughter) always jokes I had to have her to grow up. She had to raise me. That’s our biggest joke. It took her 15 years of raising me to get me to the point that I could go to school.” Harris also says that student parents have to realize their limits. “Every woman can be superwoman, but you can’t be superwoman in everything you do.”
Living City
Karina Sa Leitao loves her job — really loves her job — because of her clients. She knows each custumer not only by their name, but by their dog’s as well. At the Classy Canine, 1880 Haslett Road, Sa Leitao uses mostly all natural products and grooms the dogs in a stress-free environment. “When your dog is here, they’re the only dog being worked on,” Sa Leitao said. She uses lavender oil as well as music to keep a calm atmosphere in the shop. “It’s like I have a million different dogs, but I don’t have to feed them or anything,” Sa Leitao said as she laughed about how much she loves her work.
Giving pipes a voice
“I remember my first job (working on a pipe organ). She came to life. I was so excited about it. It was alive — it had a brain and it breathed air,” Jerome resident Rob Robinson, above, said about his first day of work six years ago at Fowler Organ Company in Lansing. Owner Brian Fowler of Delta Township has been interested in organ music since he was a child, but began the company 31 years ago. “I decided, well, I can starve to death working for myself just as well as working for someone else,” he said. Fowler strongly believes in quality and good relationships with customers. And, that’s why the business has grown. Fowler and his employees stress the importance of American-made products. “We’ve got to keep the companies here for America’s sake. It’s scary out there,” Robinson said. “We need to keep the jobs here and not move them overseas because it’s cheaper.” The five men build, repair and restore organs in Michigan and surrounding states. Fowler said what keeps him going is knowing he’s building a product that will be around for a long time. He said pipe organ and classical music are special and should be prized. “You don’t just hear an organ, you feel it,” he said.