Pretty Dispatch, Let Me Light Your Chemicals

"Pretty Dispatch, Let Me Light Your Chemicals" of Ferris in Focus is the fourth episode of FiF's spring 2010 semester. It was scheduled for completion at 9:00 AM EST on March 1st and broadcast on March 4th of 2010.

Big Rapids Life

 * Producer: Lamarr English
 * Editor: David Stiefel

First up on Big Rapids Life for this segment was Laurie Smalla, director of Meceola Central Dispatch. Laurie emphasized the need for multi-tasking for a dispatch worker to be truly effective. The Meceola Dispatch receives all emergency-related calls for both Mecosta and Osceola counties.

Brigitt Enos, a supervisor, claimed that dispatch workers can have up-to twelve-hour shifts. Meloney Eastrom, a dispatcher, talks about what it was like for her. She claimed it was “a roller coaster,” a ride she didn’t particularly like; but she never knew when she’d eventually save a life.

Brigitt added in that the job can be very psychologically damaging, since things which would be appalling to much of the public need to be laughed off as a coping mechanism so workers can go from one call to the next.

Laurie commented that: “I’d like to think we do make a big impact. After all; someone has to answer those 911 calls.”

Health Matters

 * Producer: Megan Barker
 * Editor: Kelly

Megan did a special on promoting the Wii, since that console came with a lot of games that promote exercise while allowing the player to have fun simultaneously. Megan supported her argument with several clips of her mom and sister playing, as they talked about their favorite aspects of it. Emmalee in particular celebrated that Wii Tennis made her arms hurt. She liked bowling as well, but was iffy about Wii Baseball.

Jason Williamson, a pharmacy major, pitched in that he liked also the aspect of playing games at home while exercising simultaneously. Emmalee moved on to point out that she also highly enjoyed playing Dance Dance Revolution.

Megan finished by stating that there’s one major advantage to this approach as opposed to traditional exercise: getting to work out at home with family and friends as opposed to being around nothing but strangers in a gym.

E-News

 * Producer: Nate Totten
 * Editor: Nick Blohm

Jamie Foxx, Lindsey Vonn, Sarah Palin, Sean White, and the cast of Jersey Shore were some of the first guests on The Tonight Show when Jay Leno returned to it. Even this was not enough to appease Conan O’Brien’s angry fans.

In movies, Cop Out was released, as was The Crazies.

George Clooney was a nominee for an Oscar that year, due to his role in Up in the Air. This was considered his redemption from being in Batman and Robin. Another actress in Up in the Air is also known better for being in Twilight. Meanwhile, Sandra Bullock directed The Blind Side and redeemed herself for her flop film Gun Shy.

“Hopefully, they’ll learn from their mistakes,” Mark commented as a big picture of All About Steve showed up on screen.

Program Spotlight

 * Producer: Ben Wyman
 * Editor: Dominique Gibbs

Industrial Chemical Technology featured this time around, and a lot of industries need someone who is lab-savvy. Instructor Bill Killian pointed out that chemistry is like baseball: If you’re not actually doing it, you’re not a pro. All the theories on Earth are nothing if you do not actually create anything.

Physical Sciences Department Head David Frank went as far as to say that ICT is more hands-on than pretty much anything else in Physical Sciences.

Student Megan McConnel claimed to enjoy the work environment and fellow classmates. Another student enjoyed testing for actual aspirin contents in commercial aspirin tablets.

Nicotine contents in different brands of cigarettes are also a common study theme. Chemists in the program not only analyze chemicals in preexisting products, but also get to synthesize some of their own creations. These include polyesters and dyes. Phizer, Dow, Amway, SC Johnson, and other companies have a lot of need for chemistry grads, which is where a lot of students end up being hired out to.

The program does its best to match students with which chemical company and its needs most fit that students’ actual desires.

Bulldog Stories

 * Producer: Eric Stacy
 * Editor: Sara Potter

Dennis, a New Media major, said that his options for a proper school for studying printing consisted of only two: Ferris or Western. And he settled for Ferris. He had no idea just how much of the printing process had gone digital, something which took him off guard when he went into the New Media program.

Dennis was, among other things, part of the Student Leadership program’s web development team. He listed several other things at campus that he was involved in, one of which was the Gamma Epsilon Tau fraternity. He was also nominated for several Image Awards.

He even went as far as to say: “I wish I could have accomplished even more.”

Versus

 * Producer: Nate Totten
 * Editor: Nick Blohm

This week's edition had the ND arguing that the elderly are more fun to be around than babies, with Andrika defending the side of babies. ND's opening argument was that babies are smelly and dependent. Andrika argued that the extremely elderly can also be dependent and smelly. And unlike babies, the elderly can also smell like looming death. The ND countered that babies are impossible to hold an intelligible conversation with, to which Andrika responded that babies are easier to please. The elderly can play games with you. Babies look better in swimsuits. The elderly can have custom-tailored clothes; whereas babies have their moms shop at Baby Gap. Babies are smooth while the elderly are wrinkly. Elderly men have more applications for their gums than babies do. It degenerated into a "you suck, no you suck" debate between the two hosts. Glen likewise asked that future producers try to have the hosts behave a little more maturely than that.

What Do You Think?

 * Producer: Eric Stacy
 * Editor: Sara Potter

Answers included:
 * 1) Singing
 * 2) Cooking
 * 3) Interactive skills
 * 4) Piano
 * 5) Drawing
 * 6) Car repair
 * 7) Video game skills
 * 8) Tennis
 * 9) Saxophone
 * 10) Jazz music
 * 11) Cooking up nonsense to get through presentations

Now Demonstrating

 * Producer: Frank Molner
 * Editor: Tabby Young

Pathfinders Travel, a travel agency, rejoiced that it could give bored students a spring break to remember. Popular travel destinations included Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico.

Pathfinders employee Ann Shanteau alerted students that they should know their flight schedules, and beware of any delays. She reminded students to always have a passport ready. (But said nothing about visas.)