Many Elon University freshmen finding their niche on campus involves being chatty in classes and signing up for a plethora of clubs.
Junior Joseph Del Vecchio, entered Elon his first year as solely a business major.
Junior Joe Del Vecchio smiles during an Etalk meeting. Photo by Courtney Campbell
“I never planned on joining anything with television,” he said. “I wasn’t even a comm major when I got here.
He is now co-executive producer of Etalk, an entertainment talk show, along side junior Abbey Maloney and is double majoring in Marketing and Strategic Communications.
Del Vecchio first got involved by accident. After winning an Biscuitville competition, requiring him to write a speech for free food for a semester, he was noticed by one of the show producers, alumna Lindsey Nicole ’14, who thought he was hilarious. She contacted him and asked him to join the show.
He went to a meeting and, though one of the only boys in the organization, he was immdiately hooked.
“What I love most are the people,” Del Vecchio said. “They are all so much fun and friendly, and they are always so willing to help to produce a good show.”
Del Vecchio directs and runs the technical boards during the latest episode. Photo by Courtney Campbell.
Del Vecchio rose the ranks through Etalk, beginning as a cameraman who occasionally appeared on weekly websites to director and now executive producer. He applied to be executive director because he cares about the organization and believed he has good organizational skills to help Etalk succeed.
As executive producer, Del Vecchio needs to plan out a budget, work behind the scenes in the directors chair and make sure the entire show runs smoothly.
Etalk is filmed live-to-tape, meaning the show is not run live, but the team tries to record it as though it is. This year, Del Vecchio has worked to make improvements in professionalism — last Sunday, they filmed their first live-show for a pre-Emmy broadcast.
“We’re making progress,” Del Vecchio said. “I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year holds.”
Behind the scenes of Etalk, Elon’s entertainment talk show. Photo by Courtney Campbell.
The four Etalk hosts discussing this weeks latest gossip. Photo by Courtney Campbell.
Setting up for the next block. Photo by Courtney Campbell.
Host Madison Sternberg interviews tennis player, Neal Post. Photo by Courtney Campbell.
Every fall, Elon University freshmen and transfers sit through an hour long ceremony, bask in the sun, make their commitment to the Elon Honor Pledge, recite the Call to Honor and receive the symbolic honor coin for their efforts. During the hour-long ceremony the four pillars of the code are discussed: honesty, integrity, responsibility and respect.
Although students have these coins as a reminder of the pledge they sign, they don’t always actively think about it or the ceremony they attended. To many students, these ideas of honors have been following them for years.
“[The Call to Honor ceremony] doesn’t really stand out to me,” said junior Maddie Lynch. “It was just really long. It’s really the same thing you had in high school. Now, you get a coin for it.”
Lynch doesn’t actively think about the Elon Honor Code, even though signs are hung in almost every classroom serving as a reminder, reiterating the four values they signed their first year at Elon. But, Lynch also said she is an honest person in general, which is why she doesn’t need the constant reminder not to plagiarize or be truthful.
“To me the honor code means to always do your best,” Lynch. “You don’t cheat to do better or break the integrity of your work.”
Senior Elizabeth Benjamin has been reminded of the Honor Code for the past three years through the various syllabuses where it is listed again and again. To her, the Honor Code means giving credit where credit is due and being an honest person.
Benjamin has also experienced a similar code during her middle and high school years, but she said Elon’s Honor Code is less strict. The may be because of the freedom students are given and predisposed expectations they are held to as the enter their adult years.
Even though students aren’t actively thinking about the aspects of the honor code, they are still actively learning how to uphold honor in their classes.
Junior Patrick Keneally forgot about the honor code until this morning, when he found out the Call to Honor ceremony was happening. Thinking back on it, to him, the code is about being honest with his professors, his friends and those around him.
“I don’t necessarily think about it,” Keneally said. “But, now that I’m taking upper level business courses with chapters about ethics, I think more about doing the right thing.”
The goal of the pledge is to remind students to continue the “honorable legacy” of the university. According to the Call to Honor, to keep the growth of students and faculty and grow in knowledge, all members must commit themselves to being truthful in their work, trustworthy, accountable for their actions and civil.
“It’s always in the back of my mind,” Benjamin said. “As long as you know it’s there, it might stop you from doing something dishonest.”
As Elon University strives for diversity and welcomeness, they have made efforts for inclusion in the LGBTQIA community on campus.
Graphic by Courtney Campbell
Recently, the LGBTQIA Task Force Implementation and Assessment Team shared its update for Elon’s Institutional Strategic Plan for LGBTQIA inclusion. The plan lays out the recommendations in support of the four overarching goals the team has — support, welcome, educate and communicate.
Since the plan’s implementation, the university has added a number of resources for LGBTQIA students, including housing, specific health professionals and increased accessed to the Gender and LGBTQIA Center. There has also been training programs given to Greek Life and Athletic Teams among other groups to increase acceptance and understanding.
One of the major changes includes a new optional demographic category for LGBTQIA identity on Elon’s Application for Enrollment and to publicize the system for using a preferred name. The Task Force is hoping to expand its education and programing in the years to come.
Despite the progress being made in terms of programming and policy changes, there still has yet to be a complete change in climate at the university. According to Kristen Wrinkleberg, professor of art history, believes the LGBTQIA climate is not as good as it used to be even though there has been policy changes.
“Some of the things they are doing will make a difference,” she said. “Now admissions is capturing data with a box you can check. But, a lot of students won’t check that box even if they know they are. It’s different what we want to achieve that what is actually being achieved.”
But, with information being released the university, the next step is to look at the assessment. Kimberly Fath, assessment specialist and member of the LGBTQIA Task Force Implementation and Assessment Team, wants students to feel the same level of support and belonging. She is curious whether or not LGBTQIA students do not join certain organizations because they feel unwelcome.
President Barak Obama’s letter of support for the LGBTQIA community hanging in the Gender and LGBTQIA Center.
“We want the same experience for all of our students,” Fath said. “Not that they do the same things, but the experience is the same for being welcomed and having full participation for anything they want to do.”
It is Fath’s job to assess the information and educational programs in place, which students have responded well to.
Junior Alexandria Jakaitis and member of Sigma Sigma Sigma said her sorority received a LGBTQIA training session from Matthew Antonio Bosch, director of Gender and LGBTQIA Center.
“Everyone really enjoyed it,” Jakaitis said. “It answered a lot of questions we didn’t really think about before. Everyone felt more comfortable about the topic after.”
She said it was most beneficial when Bosch explained the proper terms to use in different situations, which will lead to less awkward and more politically correct conversations and environments in the future.
Despite these programs reaching specific organizations, students outside of them have not experienced the changes.
“I haven’t really heard or seen anything,” said sophomore Rachel Waller.
Junior Jack Vincenty, a performing arts major, said his program is usually more accepting to the LGBTQIA community, which is why he hasn’t seen many efforts.
“I’m in a community where it is very accepted and we are more inclusive,” he said. “So, I haven’t noticed anything.”
In a society where food is overproduced and over consumed, there are still some that are worried about their next meal. This is especially true for those living in Alamance County, North Carolina.
Many areas of Alamance County are a food desert and 19 percent of citizens are food insecure, above the national average of 14.3 percent. 43 percent of residents said they didn’t have fresh produce within walking distance and 11 percent do not live near a grocery store.
Moderator, Jason Husser, introduces the hunger panel.
To spark conversation between Elon University students and the community, Community Connections held a panel moderated by Jason Husser, faculty fellow for civil engagement. The panel consisted of Kim Crawford, executive director for Allied Churches, Linda Allison, deputy director, Alamance country department of social service, Svetlana Nepcatych, assistant professor of exercise science and Heidi Norwick, president of United Way.
The conversation was facilitated by questions from members of the audience while the experts gave their opinion and began with the norm of hunger.
“Anytime we talk about numbers it makes it seem like a number is okay,” Crawford said. “If one person is struggling it’s a problem.”
In 2013, Alamance’s largest food pantry shut down abruptly leaving 7,000 people who got food there monthly without options. Crawford knew something needed to be done and opened up a food pantry with Allied Churches, despite having limited knowledge of how to run one.
The panel attributed this success to the community and its outreach.
“We’re definitely making progress because this is a community program,” Allison said. “There’s now a distribution center in Holiday Hill Mall that gives out 6,000 pounds of food.”
Currently, there are registered18 food pantries available in the area. Now, that there is food available to a certain extent the community is working on making more healthy foods available.
“The conversation is starting to change in Alamance country,” Crawford said. “We’re starting to have the conversation so we can not just hand out food, but what kinds of food we hand out.”
According to Nepoctych, there are many macro- and micronutrients from diets, which can lead to obesity with a lack of exercise. Additionally, parents with fewer funds, parents will chose the fast-food, which is cheaper but high in fats and sugars.
Heidi Norwick and Svetlana Nepocatych discuss hunger in Alamance County.
To change the types of foods available, these pantries are looking towards community gardens and more specific donations. However, if they have quality foods there must also be an education component to allow people to know why this food is better and where they can obtain it.
“When we have food pantries an if we start providing diff kinds of food we also need to provide the education,” Nepocatych said. “You can’t give people lentils and chickpeas and expect them to know what to do with it.”
In order to improve the hunger conversation, the stigma behind food stamps and receiving help must end. In Alamance County the SNAP, or nutrition aid program has grown 123 percent since 2008.
“They need to realize that they should not be embarrassed,” Allison said. “Their lives have turned upside down. We see ourselves as a safety net for the community.”
These stamps are stored on a card, so it is less conspicuous, but people are still unwilling to admit they are in need. Allison emphasizes that these people are just simply hungry, are in a tough spot and should not be judged for that.
For now, food pantries are looking for donations, volunteers and understanding.
“Come to the soup kitchen and eat, and realize how much your life revolves around food,” Crawford said. “We’re the only three or four course dinner place for people to go. We need people to come sit down, have a conversation and do it more than once.”
Elon University’s Campus Security and Police were given body cameras in August 2014 to increase trust and security among the community. However, with the tapes being stored the public is worried how often they’ll be used and about public release.
Graphic by Danielle Deavens
Legislation has in at least 15 states has been introduced this year to keep recordings of police encounters out of public records.
In a Elon Poll that surveyed 867 North Carolina residents from Feb. 16-20 found that 91 percent of respondents supported on-duty police officers wearing body cameras, but only 63 perfect believe that the footage should be made public. It was found that both political persuasion and race sway this belief.
“It’s another tool to have in our toolbox,” said Dennis Franks, director of campus security and police. “Everyone has embraced having them. The only negative I can see to them is if they go down.”
The main reason for having body cameras is to increase safety among the community and police accuracy. According to Cliff Parker, town of Elon chief police, one of the main reasons for the low crime rate in Burlington and Elon is the general sense of community. Having body camera would increase this as everyone is held accountable.
Video by Atoria Mills
Body cameras allow for transparency and the accountability of officers. This may reduce false accusations, misconduct or abuse against them. The use of cameras on-duty also provide hard video evidence of decisions made by officers in situations, providing an accurate picture of what happened instead of speculation.
“We look at the totality of an investigation or encounter,” said Parker. “A body camera can help enhance that, but it’s not the ultimate answer.”
The recordings can also provide valuable evidence in obtaining accurate witness and victim statements that are often not remembered in a high stakes or quick situations. This can be used to speed up court proceedings by providing indisputable proof of situations.
“A lot of the situations we deal with are very fluid and very rapid,” said James Perry, town of Elon assistant police chief.
Currently, Elon University police have four body cameras in use between the security and police staff. The cameras were originally used for parking enforcement in Burlington, but are being adapted for campus use.
These body cameras are also very costly — up to $1,000 per person. This includes the purchase, operation and storage of the film. According to Parker, it takes time and money to determine which cameras are good to use as it would be disappointing to find the camera purchased were not quality.
“We’ve been looking at the best camera,” Parker said. “You have to also keep in mind that companies are flooding the market. You have to look at historically, what is a good product.”
Video by Atoria Mills
However, this transparency from the film is an issue for both police personnel and civilians in terms of privacy.
In the Police Executive Research Forum’s 2014, Ronald L. Davis, director of office of community oriented policing services, said body cameras can also affect how officers relate to people in the community, the community’s perception of the police and expectations about how police agencies should share information with the public.
Some citizens may be nervous to approach police if they are wearing a camera for the sake of their privacy causing them to withhold information.
Taser body camera
Recording itself is a manual process and the policeman wearing needs to turns it on. Law enforcement can decide when to activate the camera, how long the footage is stored and if and when it should be accessible to the public. For example, it could be turned off when interviewing a victim of sexual assault.
Police can also choose to not be heard in daily conversations.
“You don’t want everything we have to say to each other…constantly recorded,” Parker said. “Do you really want some of the things we have to talk about recorded?”
The police are still working through the quirks of the body cameras, deciding whether or not the footage should be available but will continue to use the new equipment.
Sophomore Rachel Kauwe watched as her sister was hunched over the toilet, purging herself. Suffering from an eating disorder herself since middle school, she knew that something needed to be done, to fix herself and her family.
Kauwe has had more struggles than the average Elon student. When she was a baby, her father’s ex-wife once attempted to roll her families car down a hill, while Kauwe was in it. This lead to a move from California to North Carolina and a disconnect with her half siblings.
Additionally, her father was struggling to start up a beef jerky business, which put stress on the family financially.
Rachel Kauwe smiles big, looking towards the future.
Throughout her life, her family has had difficulties to make ends meet causing her to make sacrifices, which impacted her control and eating habits.
“When me and my sister were growing up and I could see my parents giving to us,” Kauwe said. “So I decided I would take a little from my stuff and give to my sister and my mom. I got in the habit of giving to my sister and not getting anything.”
This habit of taking very little food caused Kauwe to devourer whatever food she could when it was available. It became an ongoing trend of binging that led her to gain weight. Already ostracized from the wealthier kids in the area, Kauwe was now bullied for her weight as well and her confidence dropped.
A slippery slope to recovery
While working on a project on eating disorders with her bulimic friend in middle school, the two learned about their mental diseases and decided to help each other get better. Instead, they ended up switching disorders. Kauwe’s friend began to binge eat every so often while she began to purge to lose weight.
Kauwe could not control her family’s financial situation or how other kids viewed her, but she could control how much she ate.
“I was 40 pounds less,” Kauwe said. “I quite purging and I started exercising and took it to an extreme. There’s healthy exercising and then there’s all I’m doing is exercising.”
Dealing with an eating disorder, Kauwe still managed to put her family first and helped out with their growing business, as her eating disorder grew and mixed with anxiety and depression.
Kauwe kept her disorder away from her family for a long time, especially her father who doesn’t fully understand psychological disorders. It wasn’t until her sophomore year of high school that she realized that she needed to get help.
She listened as her younger sister opened up to her that she was also suffering from binge eating and bulimia. Kauwe then decided to open up to her mother, who has also suffered from depression and an eating disorder herself. Although they were different circumstances, it was something they could help each other through.
“The second I found out my sister was doing it, I knew we needed to do something,” Kauwe said.
Together, the two found online counseling, where the could get the help they needed without their parents knowing or the expensive costs for an in person therapy session. Eventually, they reached out to school counselors and slowly recovered, using one another as a support system.
Luckily for Kauwe’s sister, she wasn’t that deep into her disorder, so she has fully recovered. For Kauwe, its never going away because it is so deeply rooted in her past. However, during her junior year she gained a better handle on her disorder, but she still slips.
“When I don’t take time for myself it becomes a trigger,” Kauwe sad. “If I become physically exhausted that’s a trigger for me because I lose control of my life, but I can control this, but I end up losing control again.”
Currently, Kauwe can count on her hand the number of times she has had an episode since that time, which is a step in the right direction for her.
Receiving the crown in confidence
Shortly after losing the weight from her disorder, Kauwe began to compete in Miss North Carolina in 2010. She believed that she could finally compete and fit in, but this was an experience that helped her grow in her confidence more so than win a crown.
At first Kauwe was very self conscious and thought her competition would consider her a fraud, pretending to be upper class, but quickly learned that these girls were very supported and made connections instantly.
“No one really cares about how you act,” Kauwe said. “At the end of the day you’re the one accountable for your actions and what you say. And if you can’t, you’re letting someone else control it.”
She now has the confidence to ask a stranger how their day was and to smile at everyone she walks by. She believes people genuinely care about others stories and everyone is simply a friend waiting to happen.
Rachel Kauwe writes, trying to remember her speech.
For one of her events in 2014, she competed in the spokes model competition, which focused on confidence and creating platform for it. Kauwe chose to speak on mental and eating disorders and having the strength to reach out to others.
“Its okay when your not okay, just let other people help you,” she spoke to the crowd. “It takes a lot of strength to help yourself, but it takes more strength to be vulnerable and let other help you.”
Her speech went so well she was asked to make an appearance at Riverside High School in Durham, where girls were facing similar struggles to Kauwe. She was able to talk to 800 girls about believing in themselves while letting other help — her dream come true.
Although she wants to inspire others, she would rather others inspire her by taking her advice.
“I really like helping people,” Kauwe said. “It helps me to help others. It’s one of the ways I deal with myself and get better.”
Since then she has done similar speeches in other high schools in the triangle, including Alamance County.
Let there be light
Despite dealing with low confidence and a eating disorder, Kauwe still managed to focus her efforts on her education. She wanted to be better than her parents, who are both overweight and dropped out of college.
“I cut myself off from social life and focused a lot of getting ahead,” she said. “I decided I was going to be fit and I was going to do very, very well in school.”
This allowed her to come into college with 36 credits. It has also allowed her to take the next two years off to do missionary work.
Kauwe joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) about a year and a half ago. After attending different kinds of churches for about four years, she did her research and decided that they fit best in terms of her morals and believes.
It was at her church in Durham where Kauwe got additionally help with recovering from her eating disorders. Filled with mental health professionals from Duke and UNC Chapel Hill, she was able to open up to them and get additional support while they kept everything completely confidential.
This has also given her otherworldly perspective that helps her deal with her control issues.
“That’s why I like religion,” Kauwe said. “It’s like look uour not okay now but there are forces beyond your control that can help you if you’re willing to help yourself.”
She knew that she wanted to go on a missionary trip with the LDS at some point, but expected it to be after she graduated. However, at the end of fall semester she began to question whether or not Elon was the place where she belonged and decided to look at her options.
“I just had this overwhelming feeling that I needed to go on a mission,” Kauwe said. “I talked to my mission leader and bishop, Todd Coleman, and we started saying a prayer, but we didn’t need to finish because we both knew this is what needed to happen.”
Coleman is also an associate professor of music at Elon University, furthering a connection between religion and school for Kauwe and a source for support. He said members of the LDS have an emotional and spiritual connection by devoting multiple hours to the church each week and following moral codes.
Missionaries take this with them as they share the word of the gospel and partake in service.
Coleman served his own mission in Minnesota a few years ago and found an immense amount of growth in himself and believe Kauwe will too.
“When you sacrifice your own self interest to strengthen other people, you can’t help but grow yourself,” Coleman said. “Most missionaries when they come home are more mature, humble, wise than before. You gain a decade worth of experience in less than two years.”
Kauwe learns in April where she’ll be heading. When she returns it will be her senior year, allowing her to graduate with her class.
For the missionary trip, Kauwe plans on keeping an open mind. She knows not everyone will agree with her beliefs, but hopes to educate them through her own experiences and what the church has done for her.
“Even if others don’t accept the religion I aceept they can still learn from other religions,” she said. “If I can serve someone else and do that, and serve people who do have or don’t have the same believes that’s for my benefit.”
#ElonDay social media banner. Photo courtesy of Elon University.
Every Tuesday morning Elon University students gather in Numen Lumen to get free coffee and snacks while mingling among their cohorts. But, this Tuesday will be a little different.
March 10 has been dubbed as Elon Day, allowing the university to spin their beloved college coffee into a global effort to raise funds for alumni and supporters to show that they “believe in Elon” and strengthen the philanthropy to improve the school.
“It’s such a great tradition among alumni,” said Dan Anderson, Vice President of Communications.”The faculty have such a connection among the alumni, so they reach out to them as well. Last year, there was a great deal of fun posting messages to each other.”
Anderson also said that founders day last year was great on campus and the whole university was involved with college coffee and planting trees. However, this did not reach as many members of the community that were aboard or no longer attending the school.
Elon University flag will be changed tomorrow in honor of #ElonDay. Photo by Courtney Campbell
“I was abroad last year and I was jealous to see everyone at college coffee,” senior Ryan Greene said. “I’m excited to see what they are going to do to top it.”
To change that, this year Elon will be live streaming the college coffee reaching different parts of the country and London at 9:40, allowing everyone feel a part of the university. Throughout the day there will be other events like A Toast for Elon for the class of 2015 and #ElonDay birthday parties celebrated on campus and at different alumni chapters across the nation.
One of the biggest push to obtain donations revolves around a social media. Using #ElonDay and visiting their official website students, alumni and families can track the total amount of gifts made in honor of Elon day, leaderboards for the top campus funds and athletic programs and stay updated around the world.
“Social media is the most important thing and anyone that went to the university can see how important Elon Day is,” senior Joseph Incorvia, student body Executive President. “Tomorrow everyone around the world can donate and be involved. It is up to the students and alumni to do their part.”
Throughout the day, social media will be filled with picture of dogs and babies wearing their Elon gear and alumni sharing some of their favorite memories and showing what Elon means to them. The idea behind the #ElonDay is to get as many people involved as possible and hopefully becoming a trending topic.
“The biggest goal is not necessarily the amount of money raised, but the amount of people that donate,” Anderson said.
Brooke Greenberg started to sing as soon as she could talk.
At 7, Greenberg, now a sophomore, went to an open-casting call, found an agent and a voice teacher and started performing in musical theater. While watching Taylor Swift’s “Love Song” music video at 13, she became inspired to learn guitar and write her own songs. She has been writing her own music ever since.
“You Already Knew” is known
Under the stage name Brooke Alexx, Greenberg has released her first single, “You Already Knew,” on iTunes. The song dropped Feb. 14. In the first 24 hours it sold about 200 copies, and more than 600 people watched the music video.
“I’d say [the single has been doing] pretty well,” Greenberg said. “Everyone has been Snapchatting and texting me that they love it, and my friends and family have been sharing it on Facebook.”
Lyrics such as “All this time you were just using me,” “All your lies, I foolishly believed” and a repetitive chorus of “You already knew” come from her life experiences.
“The song is about a boy I was with who already knew he was going to end it the whole time,” Greenberg said. “I’ve been told the song is more pop with a hint of country. I’d describe it as an edgy, I’m-better-off-without-you anthem.”
Greenberg wrote the single fall 2013 and said it is her favorite both lyrically and melodically. She performed it in “Electric Ensemble,” both a course and a band in which students perform their original works as a group, and it was received well by the audience.
The reception was so positive that she decided to record it.
“Having a song on iTunes has always been a goal of mine, something on my bucket list,” Greenberg said. “Just to have my own original music out there, it’s so exciting. I’m just excited for my friends and family to hear it and see what they think, but you never know who could see it. If you don’t put yourself out there, nothing can happen.”
A little help from my friends
Her friend Spencer Clarke, a senior and member of Elon’s all-male a cappella group, Rip_Chord, recorded and mixed for her. He started working with Greenberg through Limelight Records, an on-campus record label, during her first year at Elon.
“At the time, Brooke’s songwriting wasn’t really up to par, so there weren’t enough good songs for a full album,” Clarke said. “After a year of classes and some management changes on her end, we agreed to just work on a single of her best song, ‘You Already Knew.’”
Like Greenberg, Clarke agrees that this was the best choice for her first single.
“It checks all the right boxes for being popular music, and it could certainly make it to the radio if she knew the right people,” he said.
The recording process began in January with the creation of scratch tracks, or throwaway recordings, of
Greenberg recording. Photo courtesy of Brooke Greenberg.
Greenberg on guitar and voice.
Clark then added members from the Electric Ensemble to the track, with senior Jack Garno on guitar and bass, senior Jake Valente on drums, junior Addison Horner on synthesizer and senior Jess Riloff on backup vocals.
Having so many members to record made scheduling difficult. The musicians had to find times when everyone was free and when the recording studio was open.
“Some days, the recording studio would be already booked weeks in advance,” Clarke said. “So we took my equipment down to the audio suites in the School of Communications and recorded down there.”
A Winter Term of work
Clarke spent his Winter Term 2015 weekends mixing the song and sending it to friends and alumni of the music department for feedback. It went through five rounds of reviews before it was ready.
To help get the word out, Greenberg contacted Elon alumnus Matt Carter ’13 to design the album cover art and Facebook cover photo. Then, during the summer, seniors Julia Boyd and Cappy Leonard contacted Greenberg to ask if she wanted to do a music video that they could add to their portfolio. It worked out perfectly for both parties.
“They were very accommodating and professional,” Greenberg said. “I loved working with them.”
The “You Already Knew” music video features familiar spots around campus. It begins in The Oak House, where Greenberg is scribbling lyrics. The rest flashes between Greenberg performing with the band and scenes of a relationship between Greenberg and a young man, played by senior Jordan Roman, falling apart.
The music video can be found on Greenberg’s YouTube channel “BrookeAlexx” along with various covers she has recorded, including “Take Me Home” by Cash Cash and “Stay With Me” by Sam Smith.
Planning out the release of the single was the hardest part, but also the most rewarding.
“It was difficult because I had to put everything together,” Greenberg said. “But that was also my favorite part. I love being hands-on and doing things myself, so I’m glad I had basically all the power in determining everything from the plot of the music video to the date everything would be released.”
Greenberg has written many other songs during her career. Her first, written when she was a sophomore in high school, is called “Your Song,” which was inspired by her father.
She hopes to record another this semester, assuming she can get the whole team together again.
Keeping with the beat
Since this is Greenberg’s first recorded song, she still has plenty to learn as an artist, but Clarke said she has potential.
“I think Brooke still has a lot to learn in terms of songwriting, but if everything in her future gets better than this, I think she has the potential to have a lot of success in popular music,” he said. “Her voice is unreal.”
On campus, Greenberg is involved with different forms of music. She sings with the a cappella group Sweet Signatures, which allows her to practice singing while surrounded by a group that supports her.
“It’s my favorite thing I’m involved with on campus,” Greenberg said. “Our friendships are very real, and I love that it’s such a tight-knit group of girls, and we all get to do what we love together. It’s a special thing, and I am lucky to be a part of it.”
Greenberg has also signed with Limelight Music Group, Elon’s promotional group for up-and-coming musicians. She may be doing shows throughout the spring as well.
For now, she will continue to write and create what she can.
“I love that lyrics and melody can convey what words can’t,” Greenberg said. “It’s an outlet to express my emotions when words alone fail.”
Courtney Campbell 