The terrorist attack, which killed three and wounded 282, hit home for many students at Norwich University who are tied to Boston in a variety of different ways.

Norwich University head cross country coach Nick Cooper competed in the 117th Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, when two bombs exploded at the finish line. (NU Cadets Photo)

The sunny start to the week turned into a somber day as the country and New England students were caught off guard by this terrifying event. One of them was Zach Milesky, a 21-year-old senior communications major from Cape Cod, Mass.

“My mom was at the finish line working at the medical tent,” he said. Milesky couldn’t get in contact with his mom because communication was cut off, “I didn’t know at the time that she got called an hour before the bomb went off to go back to her office.”

Federal officials took precautions and cut off phone lines because there was thought that the bombs could have been triggered using cellular devices, according to CNN. Today, some of these major questions still remain unanswered.

Milesky’s mother works for the Massachusetts State Department of Emergency Management. Senior Rachel Williams’s father works in the same field and she found herself caught up in the events in the same way.

“He is a first responder. I feel for the victims’ families because it could’ve been my family,” said Williams, 23, a criminal justice major from Weymouth, Mass.

“Every time I was in my room, I put my local news stations on my computer while cleaning my room or doing my homework just to keep up with it,” she said.

Two members of the Norwich family ran the marathon that day and were fortunately safe. Cross-country coach Nick Cooper and senior men’s varsity runner Ezekiel Cary both crossed the finish line before the explosions.

In honor of those participants that didn’t finish the race, volunteers, first responders – and the Norwich women’s rugby team – ran in honor of those who died across the nation. Thousands of people participated in a virtual run for Boston the Wednesday, April 17, after the attack. The rugby ladies wore blue and yellow, the colors of the famed marathon, made a sign that said “Run for Boston” with their names on it and posted a photo of themselves holding it up on the website leading the promotion.

“While running, I was just silent, thinking about how, yes, this happens all the time in Afghanistan and Iraq to Americans,” Williams said. “The fact that now it’s back on American soil it was just so real again after September 11,” she said.

Ezekiel Cary was with his parents and his aunt on the day of the marathon. “We were walking maybe a block or two south of the finish line when we saw people who were crying (and) throwing up on the side,” said  Cary, a 21-year-old senior from Huntington, Vt. “It’s the end of a marathon, people do that, then we realized it was more serious than that and heard it had been an explosion,” he said.

Cary said he just wanted to leave the city when the word spread a couple of blocks down. He saw a little bit of smoke, police departments from surrounding towns driving into the city, and around six helicopters hovering over the 15 block area.

“It was too close for comfort,” he said.

Keith Aucoin, NU ‘01, shows his support for Boston on his ice skate during a game with the NHL New York Islanders. (NU Cadets Photo)

The high of running the race contrasted with the horror of the blast. “There were so many people cheering for us, in over 26 miles there wasn’t more than a half a mile where there wasn’t someone there,” Cary said. “Nobody there did anything to deserve that.”

When they were leaving the area the family heard others say it was an act of terrorism, and the first emotion that Cary felt was anger.

On Thursday, April 18, the two brothers alleged to have undertaken the attack were identified and after the photos were released the manhunt began, resulting in the death of a security officer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as the  elder brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

The manhunt for the younger brother began after he escaped the shootout injured, according to CNN.

One of Norwich’s very own wrestler, Alex Kwmuntis, was contacted by reporters who wanted to know if he had any connections to the younger bomber, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Kwmuntis had wrestled the suspect once at a Division I state tournament for Massachusetts during his senior year of high school.

“I had no connection with him,” he said.” And one person cannot tarnish the reputation of the good and disciplined people that wrestling produces and attracts.”

“It doesn’t affect the way I look at the situation. I still look at (it) as an outsider,” he said. “I feel for all the people whose family members or friends were lost or injured at the bombing.”

By the time Coach Cooper returned to the condo where he was staying, a mile and a half away from the scene, the bombing was on the news. He was on a subway during the explosion. “One of my other friends had just finished within two minutes of it,” Cooper said. He ran the marathon with a group of his college friends.

“I waited for an hour or so after my race because I had three other friends that were running,” he said. “I was going to go watch one of my other friends finish, then one of my other friends’ parents ran by me so I went to go track them down, I was thankful for that,” he explained.

“It was hard to process. We had just run a marathon so we were out of it to begin with. It was humbling and hard to understand that it could happen,” Cooper said.

The Boston Athletic Association, which runs the marathon, has already sent out a statement that the marathon will happen again next year, Cooper noted.

“To see how Boston reacted and how they bounced back, how the community did as a whole, how everybody helped out everybody, all the support and love, that was amazing,” said Abby Belcher, a 20-year-old junior communications major from Winthrop, Mass. She lives just seven minutes away from Boston and considers the city to be her hometown.

“I was on the bus with the softball team.  We were on our way to New Hampshire to play Revere in a game. I got a text, a group message, from my friend who lives in Cambridge, about the bombings,” she said. “I felt useless.”

“I was able to access videos while we were still on the bus, me and a couple of girls that were from Mass. We were watching them and we were honestly just speechless,” Belcher said. “We couldn’t believe it, we saw it right in front of us and it was happening.

Belcher’s mother works in Harvard square in Cambridge and fortunately was not at work that day. “As soon as I found out that my family was okay, I started texting my friends because all my friends go to school in Boston so that’s really scary too,” she said.

For nights after the bombing, Norwich students honored those affected as the bugler played taps on the upper parade ground. This was to commemorate those lost in the tragedy and pay respects to “those that helped out that didn’t need to do anything,” according to Kwmuntis.

It was for “the people that were directly involved who put it out there for someone they didn’t even know,” he said.

“I think being in New England, it brought us together, which is great,” Milesky said. “Acts of terrorism are supposed to make us scared and do the exact opposite. We triumphed over what happened,” he said.

“Norwich stands behind Boston,” said Williams.

He came to Norwich in the fall of 2009 and had high aspirations of playing varsity baseball and becoming an officer in the Army. Those plans derailed on a November evening.

Jonathan ‘Sam’ Philbrook during his freshmen year. (WPTZ News 5 Photo)

“It was November 9^th, the date of rook recognition, when I was handcuffed and taken into custody by the police,” recalls Philbrook. “Sitting in a jail cell, handcuffed to a wall, I thought to myself ‘wow, my parents are going to kill me!’”

Charged with assault and misconduct against a fellow rook, Philbrook would spend the next half of a year enduring false accusations and national media coverage of the case. Today, as a senior leader in the Corps of Cadets, he stands tall on the regimental staff, is a baseball team captain, and will be commissioning in the Army on May 12^th.

There is little doubt his Norwich experience was challenging and unusual.

He initially was thinking of going to a larger university to work on a baseball career. “It was mid-way through my senior year of high school and I was leaning heavily towards attending Georgia Tech for baseball when my parents sat me down for the talk,” Philbrook said. “They asked me if I really thought I had a chance at playing professional baseball or if going into the Army was a more viable career option.”

After Philbrook was accepted to Norwich, he showed up in late August like all of the other students. Everything was going smoothly until his rook platoon began having trouble with another rook in his platoon

“This kid was enlisted in the Air Force and thought he was better than everyone else in the platoon,” Philbrook said. “He would spend his time belittling everyone else until we all started getting fed up with it.”

Philbrook explained that several of his rook buddies had decided they wanted to take serious action. That meant putting on a “Rookie Birthday,” which typically involves playfully tying up a platoon member and covering them in shaving cream. This time, however, with more hostility towards the individual, things would get out of hand.

“While the news portrayed me as the ring leader, I really had nothing to do with the planning of the whole thing besides letting them use my room to do it,” Philbrook said. “So on October 4^th at around 1040 we began doing what everyone including the individual in the chair thought was fun and harmless.”

Philbrook stood on a table filming the scene. He jumped off the table to mop up the floor and ring water out the window, and when he did that, a cadre member spotted them from outside the window.

“As the cadre stormed into the room, what they saw was 13 kids standing around one who was covered in shaving cream and toothpaste,” Philbrook said, “and at that point, they sent everyone back to their rooms. They began interrogating us one by one and when it was my turn, they used a lot of scare tactics and I was very intimidated.”

The victim had embellished the story to make it seem as though he was assaulted, while also mentioning a recent family emergency, Philbrook said. As he was interrogated that night, it was made clear to him the consequences of his actions.

“They quickly began making things up, telling me that I had hit the kid and that he had been sexually assaulted,” Philbrook said. “I assured them that all I had done was videotape the whole thing. I even remember the victim later that night coming into my room and telling myself and my roommate that he knew we had done nothing besides be in the room at the time.”

It wasn’t long until word of the incident was leaked to local media and the victim’s parents began confronting the school and local authorities about the incident. At this point, the investigation was launched and Philbrook and all of his rook buddies had to write statements about the incident.

“While the footage of the incident was greatly appreciated by the authorities because it cleared things up, for some reason I was still targeted as being responsible for the whole thing by the investigating officer,” Philbrook said. “The film was eight minutes and the whole time the victim was laughing like everyone else, and at one point I jumped off of the desk and that is when they accused me of hitting the victim.”

“Sam is a great person and he just got caught up in the wrong thing at the wrong time” said John Edwards, 21, a communications major from Simsbury, Conn.

During this interview, the police officer told Philbrook that he could potentially be charged with assault and battery, misconduct, and lascivious behavior, which could equal jail time. Philbrook was shocked by this even being a possibility.

“It was November 9^th and we were getting ready for our pre-recognition activities when the campus chief came up and asked me to stay in my room,” recalled Philbrook. “I thought I was going to get cleared of all the charges and get my camera back.”

Philbrook said he was then put into handcuffs and escorted into a Dodge Durango police car. He asked the officer if he was getting his camera back, to which the officer laughed and told him that he was being charged with misconduct and simple assault and then read him his rights.

“Sitting in the police station handcuffed to a pole, I thought to myself ‘crap, I haven’t told my parents yet,” Philbrook said. “A year ago I was in high school celebrating my senior year and now I am handcuffed in a police station.”

After telling his parents everything, Philbrook remembers the next day seeing his mug shot on Fox News, CNN, AOL, WCAX, NECN, and numerous other news sites. “My uncle was off the coast of Louisiana with the Coast Guard and called my dad at 4 a.m. and said he just saw his nephew’s mug shot on the news,” Philbrook said.

“There were camera crews outside my barracks filming my windows and large groups of students who really had no idea what was going on,” Philbrook said. “Immediately, the rumors began to spread, but it was very evident that there was no proof linking me with assault and no one could answer the question did he do it and if so, how?”

“I remember it was insanely sensationalized and all of these rumors surrounding it that weren’t true,” Edwards said. “When you talked to the people involved, the story they told was totally different.”

Following this, Philbrook got a lawyer who began working on the case and assured him that there was no proof that he had done anything. “It was about a week later that the Norwich Guidon came out with an article with yours truly on the front page, a big ole mug shot of me alongside the other ringleader,” Philbrook said.

Philbrook disputed the story and the reporter, Josh Flanders,saying the effort was a “disgrace” and calling it “an inaccurate, yet interesting story.” Said Philbrook, “I still have the article today and when my cadre staff first read it they were enraged with the writer, who in fear, had to hide himself to avoid any negative consequences.”

When the semester ended, Philbrook went home to deal with the negative attention the local media had painted of the situation. He was ready to leave Norwich, but decided to stay due to expensive transferring fees and thus returned to Norwich for a second semester, this time with his baseball glove and cleats.

“When I returned to school, I remember a commandant shaking my hand telling me how surprised he was to see me come back to Norwich and saying ‘adversity is not shown through words, but by character’,” Philbrook said. “The case continued, but really went nowhere besides the state’s attorney continually accusing me of something I didn’t do.”

Later in the semester, Philbrook decided to try out for the baseball team and one night after tryouts the team headed to Barre for a fundraiser. He rode in a car with the team captain and another player who he would soon discover to be Flanders, the one who wrote the article about him.

“As we were driving along, I remember him saying that I looked familiar and asked if I was in the Guidon, to which I responded yes,” Philbrook said. “He told me that he had written the article about me and I just remember sitting there silently for the rest of the car ride.”

As Flanders was his teammate, Philbrook would have to learn to forgive him and be mature about the whole situation. “That year the baseball team made it to the playoffs and I used baseball as an escape from everything that had been going on,” Philbrook said.

On May 10 of 2010, Philbrook had his court hearing. “There was so much Norwich support for me that the victim was too uncomfortable so he did not physically attend the hearing and sat in a back room because he was intimidated.”

Philbrook was found innocent, and he was cleared of charges. “It was the ending the media did not want,” Philbrook claimed.

“After everything was said and done, I returned for my sophomore year and tried to contract with the Army, and needless to say, with everything that had happened this was a very difficult process, Philbrook said. “I was originally told that I could not contract because of what had happened, but after appealing the case I was finally told that if I could maintain a good GPA and stayed out of trouble, I would be recommended for a contract.”

The summer leading into his junior year, Philbrook attended and graduated from Army Air Assault school and returned to Norwich his junior year as cadre for a rook platoon. Due to the complications regarding his case, he did not contract until the middle of his junior year.

“I was voted baseball captain at the end of my sophomore year and as a senior in the Corps of Cadets I am serving as the Regimental Community Athletic Liaison,” Philbrook said. “I have helped to bridge the gap between athletics and the corps.”

While serving in the National Guard, Philbrook plans on purchasing one of New England’s largest wedding and special event rental companies, Chase Canopy Company. “As of now I have completed an extensive business plan and I will be hired as an events coordinator and will soon be a managing partner with my brother.”

“From this experience I have learned resiliency and how to overcome adversity,” Philbrook said.

“I think he brightens peoples’ days. He always has something funny to say and always makes people laugh,” said Meredith Lewandowski, 22, a communications major Milton, Vt. “He went through a lot of crap, but was able to pull through and I think it’s inspiring.”

Many students today who know Philbrook think that what he dealt with was very rough and that he fought hard to earn the position he has, Lewandowski said.

“I think Sam is a prime example of rolling with the punches and making the best out of any situation,” said Brandon Owens, 22, a communications major from Silver Spring, Md. “He has been very successful in the Corps of Cadets and will be the same in the Army.”

Montel Williams joined the Norwich University community for the afternoon of April 11. Although he is most widely known for his television show, “The Montel Williams Show,” Williams has pursued numerous avenues throughout his career thus far. He spent 17 years as an Emmy Award-winning talk-show host, speaks Chinese and Russian, served 22 years in the Navy, is a New York Times best-selling author, and a passionate veteran.

Montel Williams speaks to students in Plumley Armory. (Thomas Carson Photo)

One of his current passions is to speak all over the country. “I really want to be here today,” Williams told the Norwich community. “I understood that I would get the opportunity today to address the people that really have to understand who they are: America’s next generation of leaders. You need to understand how special you are,” he said.

His life began in Maryland, during a time where there was racial segregation in America. “I am a product of America’s experiment called busing,” he told the crowd. During his youth, Williams came across a teacher who told him he would never be anything in life. “She had no idea who she was dealing with,” he said.

That drive to prove her and whoever else stood in his way wrong has since then led to great success. After enlisting as a Marine once he graduated high school, Williams applied for the Naval Academy prep school. Once accepted and graduated, he entered the U.S. Naval Academy and studied engineering and international security affairs as a midshipman in the Navy.

Williams suffered from a severe reaction to the wrong dose of an immunization just before graduating from Annapolis, leaving him slightly blind in his left eye. With this new health condition, he was tasked as a Naval intelligence officer, specializing in languages.

As a linguist, he and his unit were often deployed for hundreds of days on end. With some men and women gone two to three years at a time, Williams noticed the negative effects it had on the dependents of his sailors.

In response, Williams started a program speaking to the dependents of the people that worked for him. “That right there was the genesis of The Montel Williams Show,” he explained. In addition to this effort as a naval officer, Williams had well over 360 days under the water in a submarine and over 600 days on the water. “I went to Panama, I was in El Salvador, I was in Nicaragua, I was on Grenada and on the Persian Gulf,” Williams said.

Although his career in the military was successful, he feels as though his leadership started before he even entered the military. “You know you were destined to do something other than what your peers are doing,” he told a young crowd that was filled with students on the verge of entering the military themselves.

In 1999, Williams’ world changed as he knew it. He was diagnosed with MS (multiple sclerosis). “It was the second most devastating news I had in my life and I knew I had extreme health issues to triumph,” he said. With that, he set out to change his life.

“I hope that you understand that you should be paying close attention to your physical health and your emotional health,” he encouraged. “I know that they have programs here for you to figure out the best guidance you can get.”

Williams works out every single day. He typically does 40-45 minutes of aerobics training, followed by resistance and anaerobic training. This concept is called cross-training, which Norwich’s cross-fit program embodies. “Right now, that’s how I think you stay fit for life,” he told The Guidon, referring to cross-training. “If you consider the fact that by cross-training you are actually activating more muscles than you could in any other form of exercise. That’s what is going to keep your balance when you get older.”

Williams recommends that young men and women be aware of what types of physical exercise they are doing now. “The damage you do to your body now will be felt later,” he said.

In addition to working out, Williams spends 20 minutes a day meditating and enjoys snowboarding. “It’s a time for you to concentrate and do guided, specific, mental notes,” he said.

When he’s not busy speaking around the world, working out, or taking part in a handful of other projects, he takes every moment he can to be with his family. His wife of almost six years is what “keeps my soul centered,” he explained. “She’s the one that stays on me for my medication. She’s my motivation to work out.”

As his time with Norwich University came to a close, Williams instilled one last thought into the audience: the future for America. “While you’re sitting in this room, America is crumbling,” he said of the neglected bridges, roads, and infrastructure.

“You came here because you want to lead,” he said. The nation is depending on the rising generation to help the country rise. After an hour of motivational words, laughter, and reflection, Williams closed with a challenge to the students: “Don’t let your dream die,” he said.

After all, the schools motto is “Expect challenge, achieve distinction.” Cadet Brendan Perry took that challenge to a whole new level and in turn achieved distinction.

At 19, not many college students can say they have authored a book, let alone had their book published and featured on the likes of Amazon.com, but Perry, a sophomore studies in war and peace major at Norwich University has done just that.

His book, Archer, chronicles in about 350 pages the story of a young rebel freedom fighter in Washington, D.C. in America during the aftermath of a devastating national disaster. “The cities are all but abandoned in the shadow of a countrywide police action. The government, desperate to gain control over the chaos, has become enemy to a tattered handful of urban rebels,” as described on amazon.com.

“I imagine it as ‘what would happen if Murphy’s law, if all the worst-case scenarios happened from now until the next 20 years. It’s the what-if scenarios, the good, bad, what exactly would happen.” Perry said.

“You know there’s really no one left, cities have been evacuated, the government has declared martial law, this little tattered rebel bands who think they have a chance at fighting and getting the country back,” he said.

The Amazon.com description goes on to describe Perry’s main character who shares his name with the title of the book, Archer, as “a lone youth in search of a home, a family, and in many ways a sense of self. Through a whirlwind of adventures including gunfights, fistfights, betrayal, and love, the young protagonist rewrites his definition of home.”

The idea came to the young author in 2008 during the ramp-up to and during the election period of that year.

“The idea popped into my head when I was first getting to understand and know politics. When I first got interested in politics, you knew what was going on with the country around 2008,” Perry said.

“I have always had the fascination with writing, tried writing a book in 7^th grade and it turned out to be more like a video game screen play, and the grammar was terrible, but this was different,” he said.

“It was right after the 2008 election, I was old enough to understand what was going on, I figured out a little more, I started watching the news a lot more I had this idea and I said “Hey! I really need to write about this,” Perry said.

He began in his living room, typing away on his laptop. As Perry began to write, his idea grew. He just kept writing, straight through his senior year of high school and into his freshmen year at Norwich.

“Next thing I know I had a 20-page chapter,” he said. “I don’t know what it is about this one idea, but I had this mindset that I could finish this one if I really tried.” He spent nights up until 4 a.m. and much of his summer with the windows open sitting at the desk writing and writing and writing, he explained.

He wasn’t alone in his creative process, however. Perry enlisted the help of his family and high school friends to help him create his opus.

“My friends in high school helped me from the beginning saying  ‘sure I’ll read this chapter, I’ll read my friend’s book, and 13 chapters later they are, like, I want another one. They helped me along because I wanted a lot of feedback,” said Perry.

Perry was enrolled in advanced placement classes, was the president of his student council, and a member of the honor society. Even with all that, he stayed up through the hours of the night to write. “I don’t know what compelled me to do it, but I did,” said Perry. “It’s one of those things where if you love it, it’s not a job and this is one of those situations.”

Writing is not just the difficult part, editing also takes time to create a great work, and being a high school student about to enter college, Perry couldn’t send it to an copy editor to look it over.

“My mom helped by editing it over a couple of times, and I actually finished and edited the book during rookdom,” Perry said. “Somehow I had the time, but I couldn’t just leave the book and not touch it until I got recognized so I had to find the time.”

“I was almost done going into arrival day, so I probably finished sometime in the fall. I had a long editing process,” he said.

Late nights ensued. While bathing in the glow of his laptop screen, Perry edited his piece to make it what it is today.

“I read it about 20 more times before it was done,” he explained. As soon as the editing process was done, Perry began to search for a publisher, but he found himself in the standard college student scenario: strapped for cash.

“My grandfather had published a memoir not too long ago and got an agent, went through the whole process, and spent quite a bit of money hiring these people and getting it published,” he said. “It would have cost more in effort, time, and money than I would have been able to.”

So to combat the price and costs, Perry took to scouring the Internet and found Publish America.com, a free publishing company.

He sent his manuscript in and waited for the acquisition editors to decide whether or not they would publish, Perry said.

“It worked out really well. I mean it was up to me to do all the editing legwork, making sure everything was fine tuned and their design department did the cover design and everything,” Perry said.

“I got my first copy which was cool, I sat and stared at it for awhile. It was surreal, knowing that this whole thing was me, that I put it together start to finish,” he said.

“I don’t get much of an author’s discount, I have to buy my book in bulk and make that turnaround and make that profit again,” Perry said.

However, this hasn’t deterred the young author who has taken to pitching his book to classmates as well as local bookstores.

“I bought a few copies and pitched it to local bookstores, one back home near Mystic, here in Northfield, and the school bookstore said they were going to buy a few copies,” Perry said.

“I was very much proud I was able to accomplish this, you know going through this, going through rookdom, and still being able to pull that off,” he said.

In the end, Perry wants Archer to be both a novel with a message as well as an entertaining read.

The book warns of all the possible ways things could go wrong in the world. “It’s up to the students, these rising generation of politically aware Americans to understand. There’s some messages there and some things in there if you read into it and see where I’m going,” Perry said.

“I want people to get out of it is some sense of patriotism, some belief in the strength of this country. They’ll be able to get some good things out of this book,” he said.

Sponsored by the Student Veterans Affairs Council and pulled together by Paul Jacob “DJ Syntha 6” Cortez and crew, the Summer Presence is “nothing like Norwich University has ever seen before,” said Alex Palmer, 20, a biology major from Esbo, Etelä-Suomen Lääni, Finland and a member of the planning staff.

Cortez, 22, a senior studies of war and peace major from Houston, Texas, is a local sensation under the pseudonym “DJ Syntha 6.”  With his own music entertainment company called Bring the Noise Entertainment, consisting of his team of Norwich students, he has put his name out in conjunction with various events, such as the upcoming “Summer Presence” on the NU campus. The team of NU students working to make the Presence’s appearance on campus includes Pfc. Jennette Chartrand, Alex Palmer, Alex Frank, and 2nd Lt. Thomas Cooper “DJ Nati” Baucke.

Each person took an active role in the advertisement, coordination, and production of the Presence. “This (event) would not have happened without them,” Cortez said.

Every Tuesday and Thursday for three weeks, the team met for “sync meetings” to coordinate the event itself and to meet with representatives from various organizations around campus, such as various sports team and the Corps of Cadets.  “This is for the entire university first and foremost,” Cortez said.

The entire university includes the administration also. “If you get the administration involved, you are going to do well,” said Cortez, who personally invited NU President Richard Schneider after receiving an award for student leadership.  Schneider’s support is a source of motivation for the event’s success, Cortez said.

Each of the team members took part in the marketing and advertisement of the Presence. “Social media was a huge part of (the event’s public affairs),” said Baucke, 21, a junior accounting major from Cincinnati, Ohio, and a special guest performer as “DJ Nati.”

“I think the main reason for doing this (event) is to give people something to do,” Palmer said.  The day before reading day will be a safe way for students to celebrate the end of the year without having to leave campus.

As students, Cortez and his team realized the major gripe among the student body: a lack of fun things to do in the local area. “(It is about) being able to answer the call that people always complain about never having things to do,” Cortez said.

From this problem plaguing the university and his passion for his music, Cortez came up with the idea to use his alter ego, DJ Syntha 6, and his connections to host an on-campus dance party.

“I started producing music early on,” Cortez said.  At the age of 15 he began performing locally for quinceañeras, a traditional Mexican coming-of-age birthday party for young girls.  After getting familiar with a few entry level disc jockey programs, his career took off on the music scene.

How DJ Syntha 6 earned a name currently associated with a protein shake harks back to his disc jockey debut. “When I first got into the industry and DJ-ing, all of my music was really centered around a synthesis of different types of music,” Cortez said.

After considering his style, he took on the pseudonym DJ Syntha 6.  Later on, as he became more interested in physical fitness, Cortez discovered the protein shake bearing the same name.  “At that point, it was more comical than anything,” he said.

While attending NU this current semester, Cortez dove back into the music business. “I was approached first by the (NU) baseball team  while I was working on some music  about doing an event for them,” Cortez said. “We did very well. When I noticed how well the event went I decided to get back in the game and to start DJ-ing all over New England.”

While maintaining a good academic standing as a studies of war and peace major, he is a platoon leader in the Vermont National Guard, and a mentor to other lieutenants from the NMMI (New Mexican Military Institute).

Outside of his academic and military life, he performs as DJ Syntha 6 at The Knotty Shamrock and The Southside Tavern as well as various New England gigs reaching out as far as Boston.

Cortez likes mixing different types of music, particularly electric dance music (EDM), that “get people moving.” Adding in different excerpts and recognizable bits of popular videos is one of his favorite ways of keeping a crowd involved in the music.

His music is more than something patrons can dance or simply listen to, he said.

“It’s an art, but more importantly, its a passion,” he said about his pasttime. “I feel in a way like a conductor of popular music.”

Cortez says that he gains inspiration for his own melodic creations through listening to the works of  other such artists, those who paint pictures with sounds and beats, rather than paint brushes.

Though the new disc jockey is thriving in the music industry, his future lies with another passion that he will embrace come his graduation in May: service to his nation.  “My primary (focus) is that I’m active duty Army Infantry Officer,” Cortez said. “That’s always been my main passion in life.”

Aside from giving the student body and local community entertainment, the crew from Bring the Noise Entertainment has found another major benefit by gaining experience in the business world.

“For us,” said Frank, 20, a sophomore biology major from Medford, N.J., “its more of a real -world situation.”

“This has become like a part- time business for us,” Baucke said, who plans to use this experience alongside his degree in accounting.  “This is real.”

For Chartrand, 20, a junior biology major from Poestenkill, N.Y., she hopes to use her new skill sets in planning and marketing to work on campaign trails.

“It’s all students (who planned the event),” Chartrand said.  Pulling together a large production, the Summer Presence, as a group of students makes the experience more valuable.

Looking ahead into the future, the student team working to create a great college experience for the student body created a learning situation for themselves.  “I think it’s a great life experience,” Frank said.

More information on DJ Syntha 6 and the Summer Presence can be found at www.facebook.com\DJSyntha6.

“Anyone who doesn’t show up is going to regret it,” Cortez said.

“The President received information that there are issues associated with the inconsistencies in which the way honor is applied,” said, chairman of the leadership committee of the board of trustees, Leo Brooks.

“If (this) continues we run the risk of having more and more incidents of violations and or breaches of integrity in all aspects of the university,” Brooks said. He is vice president of the National Security & Space group for the Boeing Company’s government operations in Washington D.C. He is also a retired U.S. Brigadier General who graduated from the United States Military Academy.

This first week of April, Lt. Col. Duncan Currier, the new university judicial officer, presented the decisions developed by the university’s honor system planning committee, made up of students and faculty. Only one final proposal was presented, according to a member of the committee.

The planning committee met once a week on Tuesday nights and the members of the committee were elected by each class honor committee. Each committee voted for two representatives from their class; the senior class elected one representative.

Right now, NU is waiting to hear word from the president on whether he backs the changes recommended.

The committee is sure of one change: Due to family education rights and privacy act laws, President Richard Schneider’s lawyer has determined that the university should no longer hold hearings that are open to the public.

Other changes would affect process. “The planning committee on a split lifestyle vote agreed to vote in favor of mixing Honor Committee boards to include members of the corps and civilian honor committees in a ratio of 4:3 in favor of lifestyle,” said James  Dicesare, a 20-year-old sophomore business management major from Groton, Mass.

Dicesare shared that the discussion had centered over the composition of the two committees. Two proposals were made, one for a mixed lifestyle board of adjudicating students and one for separate boards for each lifestyle.

At the time of the vote for the composition of the new system, one of the five members representing corps students had resigned and one of the seven civilian members representing civilian students was absent.

“The vote was cast. Three members of the corps voted against mixed boards and the six civilians plus one member of the corps voted for (it),” he said.

“While civilians may bring a different perspective to the rulings of the corps, it’s an entirely different system,” said Wilma Melton, a civilian freshman history major from Newbury, Vt. “If the committees do merge, both civilian and corps committee members should maintain the same standards,” she said.

Along with the mixed boards, awaiting the president’s approval is the concept of shortening academic integrity cases to only one hearing.

In prior years, the academic integrity cases consisted of two hearings: one to establish academic dishonesty and one to determine if there was intent. The change will now allow a small panel from the honor committee to establish intent during the academic dishonesty hearing conducted by the academic integrity committee.

“While I understand that any given individual is capable of discerning whether another lied, cheated, or stole, I am concerned that there is more to it than just that,”  Dicesare said.

“I believe that honor is a larger component in the life of a cadet than a civilian,” Dicesare said.

Brooks does not understand that reasoning.

“Why does that make you more honorable?” questioned Brooks, referring to being a member of NUCC. “It may make you more focused on a career in the military, it may make you want a more rigorous experience, but that doesn’t make you more honorable. When the student body sees inconsistencies, then that starts making you feel like you’re above the law. We have seen plenty of examples in history where people felt that and it has led to the downfall of many organizations,” he said.

Like Dicesare, many other students were uneasy about this change in the honor system.

“At first, I was apprehensive,” said Katherine Proffitt, a junior political science and English major from Powhatan, Va. “(But), we are one school, (and) there is one honor code,” she said.

As the rising honor training officer, Proffitt hopes to help give both lifestyles the equal training.

“If the system is changing and we’re going to incorporate both systems into one, why not as we’re training the freshman, train the civilian as well?” she said. “We’re one school, one system.”

“I believe in a joint learning process,” agreed Melton. In her opinion, “both committees should remain separate, but should be held to the same standard in order for (them) to better understand each other.”

The Board of Trustees presented their case to the president for a consistent system. “There was discussion about whether that would be one system, but we don’t mandate to the president, we recommend,” Brooks explained.

“My goal as a trustee, and all the trustees feel this way, we want to preserve the foundational underpinnings of what Alden Partridge wanted the university to be – a moral, ethical place where we are growing great leaders that are going to go on doing great things for this nation,” Brooks said.

“The only traditional change is that somebody who is not in the corps now, but is just as much a student as a corps student, is now chosen to adjudicate,” Brooks said. “If I really believe in the honor code and I believe in the system and I believe it’s fair, then applying the standards of evidence to a situation shouldn’t matter if the student is corps or civilian. The results should be the same,” he said

The successful future of the honor system is dependent upon the president’s decision based on the proposal, the cooperation of the honor committee with the change, and the support of a united student body.

“You chose a different lifestyle, you didn’t choose a different level of integrity or honor,” Brooks said.

Red equality signs “took over” news feeds across the nation.

Norwich students contributed to the roughly 2.7 million Americans, scored by the Facebook Data Science Team, that changed their profile pictures to support the Human Rights Campaign for same-sex marriage. The spread of the two-day Supreme Court debate onto social media became an opportunity for students to express their opinions and offer their solutions to the national debate.

This red equality sign replaced numerous facebook profile pictures on March 26th in support of same-sex marriage.

“One of my friends messaged me and said, ‘I need to talk to you about your profile picture, ASAP’,” said Daniel Colón, a 20-year-old sophomore international studies and Spanish major from Boynton Beach, Fla. They had a two-hour-long debate on the idea of marriage.

The Supreme Court cases being argued involved California’s Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. The first was on the ban of same-sex marriage in California after it had been allowed and the latter considered the definition of marriage itself.

Colón changed his profile picture in support of his brother, who has not openly told his family that he is gay. “We don’t actually talk about it, but I’m hoping that it will start a conversation with him,” he said.

His family comes from a Christian background, but Colón’s opinion is that being gay or lesbian is biologically based. “Me and my brother were raised (believing) that homosexuality is a sin and look at him. I don’t think he became anything, I think he became himself,” he said. “He became who he really is.”

“Marriage is what is described in the Bible, a man and a woman coming together,” Colón said. “Now we’re dealing with a social issue that does conflict with religion,” he said, which is cause for disagreement as a nation. Right now, the legalization of same-sex marriage is a decision left up to the states to make. Human rights activists and gay rights supporters hope for a united stance to extend equal rights to same-sex couples following the 2013 hearing.

The nation should hear rulings on both matters by the end of June, according to the Associated Press.

“At a school like Norwich, I’m sure there are a lot of people that will breathe a little easier knowing that everything’s moving forward,” Colón said. “A better direction for everyone.”

“I personally changed my photo because I’m gay, I thought I needed to,” said Nicholas Tebbetts, a 20-year-old sophomore history and political science major from Shrewsbury, Mass.

“Eventually, I plan on getting married,” he said. “I would probably get married in my home state, which does allow (me) the right to marriage, but I would be denied federal benefits.”

Rhode Island is another New England state on the way to becoming the 10^th in the U.S. to legalize same-sex marriage. A lesbian Norwich couple from the state looks forward to when the nation stands together on marriage equality.

“I think it’s essential for the unity of our country. No matter what it is, if it’s gay marriage, if it is gun laws, if it is still race because there are still people that have that issue. People should get over it because we’re all American, we all live in the same country, and personally being in the military, we’re all fighting the same battle,” said Daniella Vitale, 20-year-old sophomore business management major from Providence, R.I. , who is dating Karissa Lefebrve.

The couple has been best friends since high school and has faced serious struggles because of their sexual orientation. “I can say first hand, it’s not a choice,” said Lefebvre, a 19-year-old sophomore criminal justice major from North Smithfield, R.I.

“I tried so hard to be straight for my mother and for my family so I didn’t have to disappoint them, but you can’t deny what’s natural, you can’t deny your feelings,” she said.

“We came here for freedom and freedom of religion,” said Lefebvre, referring to the American experience in found a colony.

“From a religious point of view, a lot of people say America is a Christian nation, but you have to remember that Christians differ on this belief too. Catholics are against it, but then you have Episcopalians and many other Christian branches who are pro same-sex marriage,” Tebbetts said.

This is an issue that is making a mark on American history equal to the discrimination against African-Americans and women, Lefebvre said.

Religion is not the only battlefront in same-sex marriage. Seeing same-sex couples brings people out of their comfort zone, Vitale explained.

“I want to have a family, a nice home, and a wife just like the next guy or girl,” Lefebvre said. “We all want the same things pretty much and when you’re denied that it’s like you’re not really living.”

The decision on whether or not LGBT couples’ pronunciation of the words “I do” has significance in this country has been a political issue since the 1990s. “At Norwich people are affected by this, especially the gay community. They get denied a lot of benefits given to members of the military,” Tebbetts said.

“It’s definitely unjust. We have the 14^th amendment, which provides for equal protection under the law and that’s not currently happening,” he said.

“People say you’re not going to get marriage because marriage is a religious thing,” Tebbetts said about the national recognition of same-sex marriage. “Then why do you deny benefits to (homosexual) people in the military or get fired from a job? Neither of those have anything to do with religion,” he said.

Vitale graduated from United States Army basic training last summer. If Vitale and Lefebvre decided to get married, Lefebvre couldn’t receive marriage rights and benefits offered to straight married couples with a spouse in the military.

“Forty years down the road, people are going to look so foolish,” said Rebecca Weaver, a 20-year-old junior computer security major from Newport, R.I. Weaver attended Catholic school growing up and she changed her profile picture to the equality sign to show that “we’re not all like that.”

Her parents are severely against same-sex marriage. She saw friends and family members change their profile pictures and that gave her the courage to do the same.

When Tebbetts logged onto Facebook and saw that his friends had changed their profile pictures to the red image, it was heartening for him to see it happen so quickly and from people who do not necessarily agree with romantic same-sex relationships.

A student that prefers to remain anonymous clicked to change his profile photo in support of his mom who is getting married this summer to her girlfriend. He believes everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion and although it does not affect him he “knows it means a lot to other people who are trying to fight for it.”

“It brings out all the tension,” Lefebvre said about her observations of the subject on Facebook.

“When people saw it, they wanted to voice their opinion on how they felt about it. It blew up,” said Shelby Descauteux, 20, a sophomore computer security and information assurance major from Nashua, N.H.

“Just because you are against gay marriage doesn’t make you a bad person,” Tebbetts said.

“People were yelling at someone who (posted) an inequality sign on Facebook and I supported him because everyone’s entitled to their own view,” he said.

Descauteux admitted not knowing the specifics of the cases being discussed at the Supreme Court, but she knew they were discussing issues of gay rights and that’s why she changed her profile picture to the equality sign.

“Make a compromise,” she said referring to people that bump heads on this problem.

“It’s like this: I like dill pickles and you like sweet and sour pickles. It’s how your taste buds are, kind of how your brain works. I don’t choose to not like sweet and sour pickle just like I don’t choose to not like males, it’s just how I am,” she said.

Not a bad word can be said about Morales, as he always walked around with a smile and made sure to brighten everyone’s day.

Pat Morales speaks to a WCAX reporter about his recovery and dream to run again. (Thomas Carson Photo)

During the month of winter break of his first year at college, Morales suffered a self-inflicted traumatic brain injury that put him in a vegetative state.  He was put on life support and doctors didn’t think he would ever recover.  But he has beaten the odds and is making a remarkable recovery.

On April 28, 2013, friends, family, and community members of Northfield, Vt., held the ‘Race for Recovery’ for Pat Morales, explained Marguerite Moore, a family friend of the Morales’ from Northfield, Vt.  This race was held to raise money for treatment to help Morales run again.

“When I got the phone call, I was devastated. His father called and was very upset,” said M. Moore.  “He explained what happened.  The next day I talked to his dad and he was on life support.”

Two hundred and fifty community members came together and held a candlelight vigil for Morales on that winter night that his parents were to take him off of life support.

“Kids came and sang some of his favorite songs and we recorded it and played it for him that night.  They put it up to his ear,” M. Moore said, “That was the night we thought everything was going to end. Maybe if not for the vigil it would have. I’d like to think that.”

All of Morales’ friends could not believe what had happened to him. “When I heard of the incident I dropped to my knees on the living room floor because the first words I heard were that he was gone,” said Patrick Venetz, 19, a sophomore criminal justice major from Old Forge, N.Y.

Venetz played club soccer with Morales during their first semester at Norwich University and “naturally they hit it off from the start due to our different lifestyles at school,” Venetz said.

Morales was a civilian and Venetz is in the Corps of Cadets. They loved asking each other questions about what it was like to wake up at 0500 every morning or what it was like to be able to sleep in on the weekends, he remembered.

Morales had a special way with everyone. Haley Moore, a former student of Norwich University from Northfield, Vt., was not very close to Morales in high school but said, “he’s the kid that everyone knew. He was super friendly.”

Morales took H. Moore under his wing once they came to Norwich together. “I was too shy to meet people, so he always took me places and introduced me so that I could make friends easier,” said H. Moore, “we spent almost every day together in college. When he smiles, it’s hard for the people around him not to smile back.”

Victoria Bernier, 21, a junior criminal justice major from Manchester, Conn., was able to get to know Morales while they lived in the same dorm building and had classes together.

“Patrick was told he was never going to be able to walk, he was never going to be able to see or talk,” she said. “And now he’s walking, talking, and has 20/20 vision. His next goal is to run.”

The cost of the therapy for Morales to be able to run again is $5,000. Morales mother asked the community for help to raise the money that insurance doesn’t cover because it is such a new treatment, said Bernier.

“We put on a 5k run to raise 5k,” said Dillon Otis, 21, a psychology major from Northfield, Vt., “It’s been very heartwarming and very respectful all day today.”

The committee made sure to have something that everyone in the community could participate in, Bernier explained. “We have the one-mile kids race, 5k starting at 2 p.m., Zumba is going on, we have face painting, we have a bunch of vendors with a lot of food,” she said.  “We also have a lady selling tea lights and all of the proceeds going to him.”

The day ended up being much more then they had expected. About 90 people showed up to run the 5k race that afternoon, said M. Moore.

The committee putting on the event had their financial goal but more than that, however, they really wanted to see the people come out to support Morales while he walked the 5k himself, as the community cheered him across the finish line.

“Were going to continue fundraising, people can still donate,” said M. Moore, “Were going to keep that going and hopefully we will be back next year.”

Morales story of recovery can influence almost anyone.  He truly gave everyone a sense of the meaning of perseverance. “Watching him go from day one until now, it was like watching a miracle before your very eyes;” said Venetz. “It was amazing.”

Belcher has been a tremendous leader and helped propel the Cadets on their way to the first-ever Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) championship.

Abby Belcher contributes to team success with a nationally ranked batting average. (Sheridan Steiner Photo)

“She is a great teammate and she knows the game of softball. She is there to make you laugh and also be serious,” said junior first-baseman Erin Clarke from Newbury, Vt. “She leads by example, and she is our leadoff hitter who always sets the tone.”

Belcher has a great on base percentage (.516) and hardly anything gets past her in the field at the shortstop position, Clarke said.

Belcher, a native of Winthrop, Mass., has found herself in a leadership position off the field this year as well, as cadre for a freshmen platoon. She is a strong leader across the board, and a key step to her leadership is leading by example.

“I was nationally ranked for my batting average, and other aspects of individual statistics, but I honestly can’t tell you what I’m doing differently as an individual because I don’t think I’m doing anything different,” Belcher said.

This is just an example of the old fable “hard work pays off.” The softball team has put in that hard work and won themselves the GNAC championships.

“I’ve been really lucky and I’ve had the opportunity to play on amazing teams, with players who love the game but also know that it’s not the end of the world if we lose,” she said.

Although softball is a spring sport, the team practices a good portion of academic year. Belcher explains the offseason program: “We start at the end of September and early October. We practice outside for as long as we can and we scrimmage a team for two games. Then starts winter training with lifting,” she said.

The season so far has gone well for Belcher and the team has made history with this GNAC title. But the girls are far from done as they continue and try to advance in playoffs.

“Every team in this is here to compete and win.  It’s a matter of who wants it more and who is willing to fight harder for it,” she said.

On April 24, Suffolk, ranked number eight in the league, upset Norwich’s plans to continue in the playoffs with a 4-1 win. The Cadets will now await and see if they are awarded an ECAC Tournament bid to see if they can get back in the game and fight even harder for it.

As a member of both the women’s rugby team and the women’s ice hockey team, Champagne rules both the pitch and the rink, mastering two varsity sports on top of college. Champagne is from St. Nazarie, Quebec, and studies biology at Norwich University.

During her freshmen year, Champagne traveled to Texas with the women’s rugby 7’s team to win the D-I national title. That winter, she put on her ice hockey jersey and was competing nationally on the D3 team. That next spring, she traveled to California to win the D-2 women’s rugby title. Her sophomore year has continued the success as she and the rugby team claimed the D-I 7’s title yet again.

On top of being such a superb athlete, Champagne holds herself to a high academic standard. The ability to balance academics and athletics is a challenge for any collegiate student athlete, but according to some teammates she has literally been able to play two sports at once.  Champagne athletic season’s overlap. Hockey playoffs go through rugby spring season.

“I don’t know how she did it but she has literally been playing two sports at the same time. I would talk to her and she was just getting out of (hockey) practice and heading to our (rugby) practice, and then would head to open skate, and taking 21 credits on top of all of that.” said senior lock, Meghan Weppner from Williamsville, N.Y.

“Her legs are so strong she is hard to bring down. And she can see lanes out on the pitch others of us can’t. When she is running with the ball she glides almost like she is skating on the grass,” Weppner said.

Weppner points out the skills for rugby, but hockey teammates also see how great she is. “She is a good player, definitely the hardest worker on the team,” said freshman Taylor Cross from Saugus, Mass. “She is smart, has good speed, and is able to make up for kids like me.”

“She is amazing at rugby,” said freshmen Ariana Amodeo. “She is really dedicated and you can really tell that. We wouldn’t be the same team without her.”

Not only is Champagne a hard worker and talented athlete, but she is considered one of the nicest people on her teams. “Her nickname is Bubbles because it describes her personality, she brings a bubbly personality,” Weppner said.

Champagne is an excellent example of what a Norwich student athlete should be.

On May 3, Champagne and the rest of the women’s rugby team will   travel to California top play against Stanford in the Final Four. If the ladies win against Stanford, they move on to the finals where Champagne could bring back another national title for the rugby squad.