The Michigan Avenue busi­ness opened April 2. Since then, busi­ness has been “phe­nom­e­nal,” accord­ing to Brian Thompson, man­ager of Nawal’s Mediterranean Eatery. The com­pany offers a num­ber of prod­ucts, rang­ing from Mediterranean lunch and din­ner to gourmet cup­cakes and desserts.

“She [Nawal Braden-Swart] offers daily lunch and din­ner spe­cials, which are Mediterranean entrées. Everyday it’s a dif­fer­ent entrée,” Thompson said. “People come in look­ing for a menu; she doesn’t have a menu. It’s what’s on the board is what’s served, which has really taken off quite well. People have gone on Facebook, and we have almost 1,000 likes just within two weeks.”

Not only have peo­ple liked the com­pany on Facebook, which can be found by search­ing ‘Cupcakes by Nawal’ in the Facebook search bar, but many have com­mented on the page, explain­ing what they like most about the food, busi­ness as well as the peo­ple. (more…)

“The Vagina Monologues”

On Thursday, April 25, the annual event “The Vagina Monologues” will take place. Although the event was first sched­uled to take place in March, it was resched­uled due to a wide­spread power out­age that closed Ferris’ Big Rapids cam­pus and affected the greater Mecosta County area.

The event is put on to raise aware­ness of vio­lence against women. (more…)

“So many times as a sur­vivor we know in our head that we are not alone, but that doesn’t nec­es­sar­ily get us to move,” Tracy Howard said, her voice strong and sincere.

Howard, Ferris senior in social work and mem­ber of the Social Work Association, is not only a sup­porter for sur­vivors of domes­tic abuse, child abuse and sex­ual assault, but also a sur­vivor herself.

Her past has given her the pas­sion to stand up and reach out to peo­ple who have expe­ri­enced sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tions. She has taken on the role and respon­si­bil­ity to be the head of putting on the annual event Take Back the Night, which is designed to empower sur­vivors of domes­tic abuse, child abuse and sex­ual assault. (more…)

The Big Event

The Big Event, orig­i­nally sched­uled for Saturday, April 13, has been resched­uled for Saturday, April 20. The event was pushed back due to poor weather conditions.

The annual event is still set to begin at 9 a.m. Participants are to meet in the cam­pus quad. (more…)

On April 15, D-SAGA mem­bers came together to spread a pow­er­ful and emo­tional mes­sage at the event, “Queer Monologues,” dur­ing pride week.

Members shared emo­tional, and some­times humor­ous, per­sonal sto­ries that pro­vided the audi­ence insight to their chal­lenges, while allow­ing them to con­nect on a real­is­tic level.

Many of the sto­ries shared reflected the story-tellers expe­ri­ence with “coming-out” to peo­ple they cared about, along with the dif­fi­cul­ties faced and even­tu­ally defeated. Some audi­ence mem­bers became emo­tional as they would relate and try to under­stand many of the sto­ries told. (more…)

For one week, Ferris stu­dents will dis­play their pride through events designed to take peo­ple out of their com­fort zones.

On Monday, April 15, Gay Pride Week will begin and will last until Thursday, April 18. Each day will con­tain activ­i­ties and oppor­tu­ni­ties for the cam­pus com­mu­nity to learn about what it means to be of a dif­fer­ent sexuality.

“The pur­pose of these events is to edu­cate stu­dents on FSU’s cam­pus about the LGBTQ (les­bian, gay, bisex­ual, trans­gen­der, queer) com­mu­nity and pro­mote diver­sity. These events also give the cam­pus a chance to get to know us bet­ter as an orga­ni­za­tion,” Kendree Berg, Ferris senior in psy­chol­ogy and pres­i­dent of D-SAGA (Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance), said. “I hope these events can open up some minds and edu­cate peo­ple, but also help them get to know each other bet­ter and bridge the gap between the LGBTQ com­mu­nity and the rest of cam­pus.” (more…)

If you’ve ever been a server at any kind of restau­rant, I’m pos­i­tive you can relate.

You know the exact sit­u­a­tion I’m talk­ing about. A fam­ily of two walks in and sits at one of your tables.

A middle-aged woman with flaw­lessly curled hair and make-up caked on her face to cover up her wrin­kles. Her hus­band, straight-faced and seri­ous, looks as if he has never heard a funny joke in his life. (more…)

The Big Event

On Saturday, April 13, the annual Big Event will take place in the Big Rapids com­mu­nity. The event will begin at 9 a.m. Participants are to meet in the cam­pus quad.

During this event, stu­dent vol­un­teers will per­form small ser­vice projects such as yard work, wash­ing win­dows and paint­ing for the res­i­dents of the com­mu­nity. By par­tic­i­pat­ing in this event, stu­dents can reach out and thank their com­mu­nity for its end­less sup­port of the cam­pus. (more…)

Mecosta County Companion Animal Resource/Education Society (CARES) will be putting on an Elvis con­cert with Elvis trib­ute artist Jake Slater.

Jennifer Thede, Ferris IT Offices Service Coordinator and Board Executive for Mecosta County CARES, said the con­cert is

$5 for Ferris stu­dents with a valid stu­dent ID and $15 for the gen­eral pub­lic. (more…)

Emptying your bank account for a trip to the eye doc­tor is not a top pri­or­ity on anyone’s list. And if you don’t have health insur­ance, you’ll do just that.

Fortunately, the Spring Health Fair will help Ferris stu­dents keep their money in the bank while mak­ing sure every aspect of their health is up to par.

The fair, tak­ing place Wednesday, April 3 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the IRC, is designed to pro­vide a learn­ing oppor­tu­nity for stu­dents and the cam­pus com­mu­nity by offer­ing a num­ber of health-related ser­vices. (more…)