The sounds of intense competition permeate the room. PFW athletes communicate in short, terse comments as they strive to overcome the opposing team.
But these athletes are not your typical sports team playing a traditional college sport. These are part of PFW’s esports team, a community of 67 student athletes who compete with universities and colleges across the world in a variety of competitive computer games.
For these student athletes, the Esports team is more than just an outlet for competition. It’s a chance to build community and learn life skills that will support them throughout college and into the future.
International Education Week took place during the week of Nov. 17, bringing a campus-wide celebration of cultures throughout the world.
The highlight of the week was the Global Student Celebration, an evening dedicated to unity and cultural expression. Students showcased their backgrounds through singing, dancing, and cuisine from around the world – including an interesting remix of Travis Scott’s hit song “FE!N.”
What began as a quiet room, quickly transformed into one of the most energetic student celebrations on campus this semester.
Shelby Mansfield, assistant director for International Student Services, explained the performances change every year and the students take time to perfect them.
“We have had anything from fashion shows to cooking demonstrations,” she said. “This year, students were leaning towards singing, dances, and bands.”
Mansfield said the students prepare for their performances very thoroughly and even have a rehearsal the night before. There are bands practicing, friends talking, and a full run through of the whole night.
Lucia Coeslier, a student from France, said that they were putting in an insane amount of effort to perfect the final performance.
“I am most nervous/excited for my performance,” she said. “It is a classic French song.”
Watching the performances is a great way to end the night after eating international food. Mansfield said eating before the performances allows attendees to come together and enjoy a meal. Some of the food served included bahn mi, egosi soup, and baklava as well as drinks like horchata. Most of the food was made locally in Fort Wayne but the school even reached out to a company in Michigan to help celebrate.
Each dance, song, and food represented something uniquely meaningful from the performers’ culture. Colombian student Catalina Vigoya Ruiz explained how the song she chose has been sung in her family for decades.
While she was performing, there were students from Colombia in the crowd dancing along. Another thing you see a lot at this celebration: students coming together.
Dancing is symbolistic for many countries around the world and a way of communication. India, which has the leading number of international students at PFW, has a popular dance called Bharatanatyam which is known for its expressive gestures, storytelling and intricate footwork.
“When I’m dancing, I feel back home again for a moment,” said student performer Lisha Choudhary, from India. “The performance is a mix of traditional Indian dance and American pop culture.”
As the celebration wrapped up, performers were greeted with applause, hugs, and questions from students who wanted to learn more about the dances and songs they saw.
Some stayed long after the final performance ended, taking photos with their friends and continuing conversations about culture, identity, and what it means to be part of a diverse campus.
For those who attended, the Global Student Celebration marked more than just the end of a themed week. It was a reminder of the power the community holds and the diversity international students bring to Purdue Fort Wayne.
And for those few hours on Friday night, campus felt a little smaller and the world felt a little closer.
As campuses across the country recognized International Education Week (IEW), Purdue Fort Wayne used the Nov. 17-21 celebration not just to highlight global cultures for a few days, but to showcase a growing community of international and multicultural students who enrich campus life year-round.
PFW has been participating in the week-long event for over a decade. According to Shelby Mansfield, assistant director for International Student Services, IEW has been part of U.S. higher education since 2001.
Mansfield explained that International Education Week began as a joint initiative between the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Education.
“So it was a collaborative effort to really highlight the value of international education and also exchange opportunities for U.S. students going abroad and the value of having exchange students come to the U.S.,” she said.
For PFW, the centerpiece of the week is the Global Student Celebration, a Friday-night event featuring cultural food, performances, and the annual Parade of Nations.
“The International Ballroom is typically full, sometimes standing room only at the sides,” Mansfield said. “It’s an awesome opportunity to exchange culture through food and performance.”
One of her favorite moments each year is the parade. “Students come on stage, and they say something [typically a greeting] in their native language,” she said. “It gives me goosebumps because it might sound like a really simple idea, but it’s just awesome when you’re in a room when that happens.”
This year’s events also included international bingo and trivia events hosted by the Office of International Education. Mansfield spoke on how the events are connected to international education.
Students Enjoying International BingoIndian Student Association Performance at the Global Student Celebration
“Not necessarily each prize, but each round of bingo will have something international attached to it,” Mansfield stated. Trivia night, she added, is a campus favorite: “It’s super fun because we have a couple of student workers that help create this trivia … We all try to see how well we did at the international-themed trivia.”
The purpose of all these events is to shed light on and provide a sense of community for the international students. PFW currently enrolls 269 international students, with representation from more than 50 countries. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Ghana are among the most represented.
Mansfield emphasized that affordability and the Purdue name continue to attract international students to come to PFW from their home countries.
“The Purdue degree, the reputation behind what that means when they’re getting a job, and searching for a job after graduation, but also affordability,” she explained.
International students arrive through a mix of recruitment strategies. PFW’s admissions staff physically visits countries to recruit students. They also host virtual fairs that high school students or current college students can attend.
But Mansfield stressed that the support for these students goes far beyond recruitment. Her office assists with everything from immigration advising and how to avoid scams to simply helping students adjust to their new environment.
For many students, the Global Student Celebration is a rare opportunity to publicly represent where they come from.
International Foods at the Global Student CelebrationBangladesh’s Appearance at The Parade of Nations
Nishad Parulekar, an engineering student from India, said he chose PFW for its close-knit campus feel and supportive faculty. But adjusting to life in the United States came with challenges.
“Being away from family was the hardest part,” he said. “But events like this help you interact with people.”
Nishad performed at this year’s celebration, sharing a piece of his culture with the campus community. He said International Education Week personally represents a time to “meet people, share traditions, and understand what other students have experienced.”
His dream is to work in robotics, hopefully in Germany, a place he believes offers strong opportunities for engineers. But for now, PFW has provided a sense of belonging for him.
Not all students who participated in the celebration are international; some are domestic students with multicultural backgrounds who use the event to express identities that often go unnoticed.
Milayi, who grew up in Fort Wayne but whose family is from Myanmar, performed a dance she choreographed for the Water Festival, her ethnic group’s New Year celebration. Many people assume she is Burmese, she said, but she is actually part of a minority ethnic group within Myanmar.
“Not many people know who we are,” Milayi said. “So it’s meaningful to represent my culture here.”
She added that IEW gives students a chance to learn how many cultures exist on campus, cultures that might not be visible in everyday classroom interactions.
Tips from the Office of International Education
While IEW is designed with internationally connected students in mind, domestic students are also engaging with global cultures on campus.
Siddharth Vemparala, a domestic student who attended the international-themed bingo night because he heard about it from friends, said events like these broaden student perspectives.
“I’ve learned that people grow up with completely different experiences,” he said. “When you meet students from other countries, you gain a lot of perspective. It changes how you see the world.”
He recalled friendships with former dorm neighbors who shared meals from their home countries with him. “It’s really fun to learn from each other and try their local dishes,” he said. “PFW does a good job mixing students in classes and housing, so you interact naturally.”
While International Education Week is a highlight, assistant director Mansfield emphasized that its true purpose extends beyond the celebration itself.
“Every institution has its own spin on it,” she said. “So the main goals of it would be to share, I would say, share culture and traditions, and to help promote that sense of belonging on your own campus.”
As PFW’s international community continues to grow, IEW offers a window into the friendships, challenges, and cultural exchanges that shape campus life, not just in a single week, but year-round.
As climate change continues to shape weather patterns across the globe, some of its most visible effects are emerging not in blistering summer heat waves or devastating hurricane seasons, as one might expect from the effects of global warming, but in the quiet months of winter. Across the Midwest and northern states, including Indiana, winters are shifting in ways that are unexpected and contrary to popular understandings.
While climate change is widely associated with warming temperatures, its influence on winter weather is far more complex. It actually intensifies weatherextremes, scramblingweatherpatterns, and fueling heavier storms. Atmospheric patterns become more volatile, producing sudden temperature swings. Snowfall decreases overall, yet the snowstorms that do occur can be stronger than before.
Much of the confusion stems from a common misconception: the belief that if cold days or snowstorms still occur, climate change must not be real. This conflation of weather and climate, short-term conditions versus long-term trends, remains one of the biggest barriers to public understanding. Even as the planet warms, individual winters can and will still deliver bursts of frigid weather. In fact, some of the most intense winter storms are now fueled by a warmer, wetter atmosphere.
These changes are increasingly clear across Indiana, where winter is now a season defined by unpredictability. Indiana’sThanksgivingweekendstorm this year is a clear example of how this new weather pattern works. Even though average winters are warming, the storm delivered heavy snow, sudden temperature drops, and pockets of freezing rain.
But behind these day-to-day variations lies a broader pattern: midwestern winters are warming, destabilizing, and becoming less reliable.
Across Indiana, wintertemperatureshaverisensteadily over the past several decades. Extremely cold days are less common, and winter nights are warmer than they were for previous generations. On the surface, this might sound appealing to those who hate cold weather, but the consequences ripple out in ways that touch ecosystems, infrastructure, and public safety.
Warmer air means precipitation increasingly falls as rain rather than snow. Winter rainstorms, once rare, now commonly bring flash flooding and icy roads.
Another growing challenge is the sudden back-and-forth swings between freezing and thawing. Instead of long stretches of consistent cold, Indiana now sees rapid temperature shifts, sometimes within a single day. These cycles damage roads and bridges, destabilize ice on rivers and lakes, stress plants, and create dangerous conditions for anyone spending time outdoors.
These new winter patterns are reshaping not only the human world, but the natural world just as dramatically.
Animals that rely on predictable cold seasons are struggling. Speciesthathibernate, such as bears, groundhogs, and bats, can emerge too early during warm spells, burning through precious energy reserves long before spring food is available. Small mammals like rabbits and mice lose their protective blanket of snow, leaving them exposed to predators and harsh cold snaps.
Plants and vegetation are equally vulnerable. Early thaws can trigger out-of-season growth, only for sudden freezes to destroy these new shoots. Herbivores such as deer and moose then face food shortages, while heavy winter rains can wash away stored plant matter or disrupt food caches.
Amphibians that wait out the winter in mud or under ice are especially vulnerable: repeated freeze–thaw cycles caused by erratic winter temperatures can stress or even kill them.
Migratoryspecies, mainly birds, are feeling the effects too. Unpredictable seasonal cues cause early or delayed migrations, leading to mismatches between arrival times and food availability.
The weather changes, and ecological shifts are only part of the story. Warmer, wetter winters create substantial challenges for communities across Indiana.
Rain replacing snow increases flood risk by producing immediate runoff instead of slow snowmelt. Cities are already seeing more burden on storm drains, bridges, and roads. Agriculturesuffers when soils repeatedly freeze and thaw, damaging crops and disrupting planting cycles. Infrastructure takes a hard hit as well: potholes, frost heaving, and water damage drive up maintenance costs.
Winter-based recreation is also changing. Winter sports like skiing, ice skating, and snowmobiling depend on consistent cold that the Midwest and northern states increasingly lack. While Indiana is not as dependent on winter tourism as northern states, snow-based recreation remains a nostalgic and formative part of childhood. Losing reliable snow means losing opportunities for outdoor play that many Hoosiers grew up with.
The winter as we know it, in all its harshness and joy, is slipping away. If we continue on our present path, many of the defining features of Midwestern winters may disappear entirely. Preserving the season we know will require recognizing the changes already underway and taking meaningful action before they accelerate further.
Cincade Drudge is a student journalist at Purdue University Fort Wayne and a Waterfield Environmental Intern at the EnvironmentalResourcesCenter on campus.
As extreme weather events grow more and more frequent and devastating, the question shifts from how to prevent climate disasters to how to prepare for when they strike.
Around the world, weather-related disasters have already affected more than 2.5 billion people, caused 2 milliondeaths, and resulted in over $4trillionineconomiclosses the last fifty years.
Floods, droughts, and heat waves are intensifying, and their effects are rarely consistent. A region may face drought one year and flash flooding the next. These unpredictable swings make preparedness one of the most complex challenges in the fight against climate change. Preparation for climate change may be complex, but it is not an optional venture; it is vital. Because climate change cannot be fully prevented, adaptation and resilience efforts are now a core part of protecting at-risk communities. Preparedness now means developing plans, strengthening infrastructure, and improving response systems before disaster hits.
These actions can take many forms: updating stormwater systems, building cooling centers, restoring wetlands, expanding urban tree cover, or ensuring emergency alerts reach residents in multiple languages. The question then becomes, where will the money to fund all this come from?
The cost of funding preparedness is a frequent complaint of opponents. However, it has been found that every dollar spent on climate preparedness yields a $13return in avoided damages and cleanup costs. In other words, investing in resilience pays off even if a disaster never occurs.
Federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have all developed adaptationplans that integrate climate data into their operations and emergency planning.
Federal legislation like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act further bolsters clean energy and climate resilience investments, helping to fund clean energy projects and develop a federal climate planning strategy.
But these positive efforts have not been without political friction. The current administration has signaled its intent to scale back environmental regulations and limit the authority of federal agencies, threatening to undo years of progress.
Some of the agencies that lead on preparedness have even faced existentialthreats through budget cuts, workforce reductions, and policy rollbacks. In addition, the administration has imposed new limitations on scientific bodies such as NOAA, restricting data collection and suppressing climate-related research. These moves have extended even to the political policing of language; agencies were reportedly discouraged or outright banned from using terms like ‘climate change’ in official documents.
That tension is especially visible at the state level, where climate preparedness can depend heavily on politics. In Indiana, for example, climate planning has faced major obstacles.
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) recently created a PriorityClimateActionPlan under an EPA grant, identifying vulnerabilities like flooding, extreme heat, and agricultural disruption.
However, that work came to an abrupt halt. GovernorMikeBraun ordered the agency to cease developing federal climate plans without his or the legislature’s approval—effectively freezing the project. IDEM returned the remaining federal funds, leaving no clear path forward.
Regional organizations, like the NorthwesternIndianaRegionalPlanningCommission (NIRPC), have tried to fill the gap with localized climate documents and community engagement. Yet, without state-level backing, these efforts often lack the resources and authority to create widespread change.
This leaves much of the responsibility to local governments, who often face the steepest challenges and the greatest need, with fewer resources.
The plan outlines practical steps such as improving stormwater management, expanding urban forestry to combat extreme heat, and protecting waterways from contamination during severe storms.
Inclusion is a core focus of Fort Wayne’s strategy. Emergency communications are being adapted to reach non-English-speaking residents, and the city uses the HoosierResilienceIndex to measure progress and identify vulnerable populations.
These actions demonstrated that meaningful preparedness can happen from the ground up, even when higher levels of government falter.
However, while these efforts marked meaningful groundwork, movement appears to have slowed in recent years. Since the second Trump administration began, there have been few visible updates or expansions to the city’s climate plans, raising concerns that momentum has stalled at a time when local leadership is increasingly critical.
Still, the road ahead is anything but simple. Many local governments lack the funding, staffing, and expertise to carry out large-scale adaptation projects. Federal support fluctuates with each election cycle, and state politics can either bolster or block local action.
The result is a patchwork of preparedness across the country; some regions are building up preparedness and resilience with strong leadership and investment, while others remain dangerously unprepared.
The stakes could not be higher. Climate preparedness isn’t about distant future threats; it’s about protecting lives, homes, and communities right now. Investing in preparedness saves money, prevents loss, and ensures a safer, more stable future for everyone.
While Fort Wayne has already made a meaningful attempt at preparedness, we can always push for more support for these efforts and encourage similar preparedness efforts in surrounding communities and on a federal level.
Cincade Drudge is a student journalist at Purdue University Fort Wayne and a Waterfield Environmental Intern at the Environmental Resources Center on campus.
Part of the challenge of protecting our planet today is not just the very real effects of the changing climate itself, but the flood of false and misleading information regarding it.
Environmental disinformation, which is the intentional effort to mislead the public about environmental issues, has become one of the biggest barriers to meaningful action. It often comes from industries or political actors with a financial stake in delaying change.
Climate misinformation has surged in recent years, with multiple studies showing that misleading posts from unreliable sources often attract two to three times more engagement than accurate information on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
We’ve seen this playbook of purposeful falsehoods before. Tobacco companies once funded doubt about the dangers of smoking, delaying public health reforms and costing countless lives.
Take the myth of plastic recycling. For decades, the plastics industry has promoted recycling as a solution to environmental damage caused by plastic waste, even though only about 5% of plastic in the U.S. is actually recycled.
The result? People blame themselves for not recycling enough instead of asking why so much single-use plastic is produced in the first place.
Or consider “cleancoal.” Despite the name, coal remains one of the dirtiest energy sources on Earth, responsible for air pollution and millions of dollars in public health costs. Marketing it as “clean” allows companies to appear responsible while avoiding meaningful reform.
Perhaps most crucially, thefossilfuelindustry has taken this same strategy to a global scale, using misinformation to question the reality of climate change and the science behind it. The goal is the same across industries: to confuse, divide, and stall progress.
Why should you care? Because disinformation doesn’t only distort the debate around climate change, it changes real material outcomes. When the public is unsure what to believe, it’s easier for policymakers to do nothing.
Every year that passes without decisive climate action adds to the cost, environmentally, economically, and socially. Before long, we will find ourselves in a world of hurt, with a destroyed climate and a population too steeped in disinformation to do anything about it.
These stories are not isolated; they form a pattern of deception that benefits a few while harming many. And now, with social media, this misinformation spreads faster than ever.
So what can be done? Transparency would be a start. When corporations, politicians, and media outlets are required to disclose who funds their messages, the public can make informed decisions about credibility.
Media literacy is another key step: teaching people how to recognize biased sources and understand how scientific consensus is built.
This scientific consensus concept leads to another important point: Scientists, too, must meet the public halfway by communicating clearly and openly, without the technical jargon that can alienate audiences.
The need for scientific clarity doesn’t erase the blame we as individuals face. We must take steps (no matter how small) toward reaching climate accuracy via verifying info before sharing, supporting credible journalism, and challenging falsehoods when we see them.
The battle for truth is part of the fight for a livable planet. If we allow disinformation to shape public understanding, the consequences will be very real.
Take voting, for example; U.S. voters’ opinion on climate change has been foundtohaveswayedenoughvoters in 2020 to account for a 3% swing in the popular vote. This shift, if reversed by disinformation, could have switched the winner of the presidential election, dramatically shifting U.S. Climate policy.
This shows that holding powerful actors accountable and demanding honesty in environmental communication isn’t optional; it’s vital to securing a bright future for both us and hopefully those long after us. We can’t allow misinformation to affect the outcomes of our elections, our policies, or our future.
If you encounter misleading environmental claims or wish to learn how to identify them, consider using resources such as ScienceFeedback, MediaBias/FactCheck, and HotAir, each of which provides accessible tools for fact-checking and misinformation reporting.
We all have a role in protecting not just our environment, but the truth that helps us defend it.
Cincade Drudge is a student journalist at Purdue University Fort Wayne and a Waterfield Environmental Intern at the Environmental Resources Center on campus.
2026. That is the year the new Surack-Sweetwater Music Industry Building is set to open.
At a cost of $25 million, the new building will house state-of-the art equipment and world-class facilities, offering students attending the PFW School of Music the chance to learn and study music making at a whole new level.
Dr. John Buteyn, clinical assistant professor of music and director of popular music at PFW, said that the new building will contain three state-of-the art recording studios, analog and digital control consoles, and systems for surround and immersive audio.
The recording studios alone are high-end facilities, designed by the same engineers who planned the recording studios at Sweetwater, Russ Berger Design Group.
Dr. Jeremy Grall, director of the PFW School of Music, explained that the new facility will also include numerous editing suites, a large rehearsal room for PFW’s larger ensembles, an intimate “live” rehearsal room (which can hold potential live music concerts), a classroom, a conference room, and multiple offices for faculty.
Professor Buteyn explained that with the new building, space, and technology, PFW will have the ability to record in-house their various musical ensembles, stretching in size from their rock bands all the way to their major wind ensembles and orchestra.
The new structure is a testament to the exponential growth experienced by the School of Music.
PFW School of Music and Degree Programs are Born
John O’Connell, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, explained that in the mid-2000s, PFW (then IPFW) offered a music technology concentration for students majoring in music and an outside field.
However, the program was quite small, with only a single room for students to practice their recording abilities and learn about music technology.
In 2018, PFW became its own entity, with their department of music elevated to become a School of Music. With that change came the opportunity to add new degree programs.
O’Connell said that they were looking for new ways to grow, and the fields of music technology and commercial music offered an exciting opportunity for expansion.
PFW added three new degrees in 2018-2019: music industry, popular music, and music technology.
But degree programs are only as effective as the opportunities they provide.
Thanks to the generosity of Chuck Surack, philanthropist and founder of Sweetwater Sound, PFW formed an agreement with Sweetwater that enabled the School of Music to begin offering new courses for its music majors at a facility on the grounds of Sweetwater called the “Purdue Fort Wayne Sweetwater Music Center” (SMC for short).
That facility contains industry-standard recording spaces and equipment, giving students the chance to learn on current gear used in the commercial music world.
But that was back in 2018.
Professor Buteyn explained that the SMC, though incredible with what it has to offer, has become too small for the growing student body in the school.
In 2018, there were 24 students in PFW’s music industry and commercial music degree programs. By 2019, that number had risen to 80 students, with the program nearly doubling in size to 147 students by 2022.
This growth is highly unusual for academic programs.
“It’s unheard of,” dean O’Connell said. “It’s really spectacular to have that much growth in that short of a time.”
The School of Music now has approximately 300 students, with about 50% of those students coming to PFW specifically for the new opportunities the music industry, music technology, and popular music degree programs offer.
With the growth the School of Music experienced came a welcome but still serious issue – how to host so many students with limited facilities. Class scheduling, and studio/editing time had become a challenge.
“Quite simply, we outgrew the facilities,” director Grall said.
The SMC is less than a third the size of what the new music industry building will be.
A Big Impact on Students and Their Education
One of the first impacts the school of music will experience with the new facility is that students among the various degree programs will get the chance to work together more closely.
Jake Kaufman, a PFW senior majoring in popular music with a focus in performance/song-writing, said that having the music industry building so close to the Music Center will open up collaboration opportunities.
Currently, students must leave the PFW campus and drive to the SMC in order to take their recording classes. They then have to drive back to PFW to take their other music courses.
But with the new building, that commuting will largely be a thing of the past.
“The best part about this is that the building [the new music industry building] is right there,” Kaufman pointed out.
Kaufman believes that the close proximity between the two music buildings will also help reduce perceived barriers between the commercial/pop music programs and the more traditional/conservatory-style programs.
“There seems to be some sort of separation between classical musicians and the commercial musicians,” Kaufman said. “That line need not exist. We are all musicians and we all should be working together.”
Professor Ryan Tilby, clinical assistant professor of recording at PFW, echoes Kaufman’s thoughts.
“Being all in one building is just going to help us realize that we all need to learn something from each other,” Tilby said. “I just want there to be one big community of people helping each other out all the time.”
One example of future collaboration will be the opportunities for commercial music students to practice recording both electrified as well as acoustical instruments.
Director Grall, who plays a variety of instruments, explained that recording acoustical instruments is actually more of a challenge than people might suppose.
With the new music industry building immediately adjacent to the music center, students will now have the opportunity to record a variety of acoustic and electric instruments, all while using world-class recording gear and techniques.
In the midst of all the excitement of the new facility, it’s easy to forget what makes a building spring to life.
“A building is just a place – it’s a thing,” Grall said. “The ‘thing’ that makes this work is the people.”
Grall went on to say that, thanks to the support of dean O’Connell, the professors, and the students, the building will have life and energy.
Kaufman shared that enthusiasm.
“We are definitely excited for it,” Kaufman said.
There are already plans in the works to add new course offerings for future music students at PFW. For now, the Surack-Sweetwater Music Industry Building is a blank canvas of opportunity awaiting the paint brush of creativity.
“The School of Music is going to keep growing,” director Grall said. “But we don’t even know how it’s going to grow yet, because there’s so many options.”
It has been a busy summer for musician Mastodons, and earlier this month was no exception. From July 1 to 13, a group of former and current students traveled to Italy with Dr. Hamilton Tescarollo to attend the InterHarmony International Music Festival.
Dr. Tescarollo, director of Keyboard Studies at Purdue University Fort Wayne School of Music, served as a faculty member and guest instructor at the first of two sessions of the festival.
Located in Acqui Terme, Piedmont, Italy, the event is an intensive music camp where musicians from across the globe get the chance to play and study music with their international colleagues.
From Left: Christian Urizar, Olivia Bressler, Ben Morton (IU), Dr. Hamilton Tescarollo, and Allyn Beifus (Photos Courtesy: Dr. Tescarollo)
According to the festival organizers, cellist and current music director Misha Quint started what would become the InterHarmony Festival in 1997. In 2000, a name change was made and the InterHarmony International Music Festival came into being.
This year’s festival was held in Italy, but the location varies depending on the year. The festival’s website mentions other host countries as locations for previous camps, including the United States, The Netherlands, and Switzerland.
For Tescarollo, this year’s InterHarmony was his first time going to the camp.
He explained that he knew some of the camp faculty and had indicated interest in possibly attending the festival. When an invitation came to serve as a guest piano instructor for the camp, he jumped at the chance.
Tescarollo said his duties at the camp included teaching private piano lessons and instructing chamber music classes, as well as performing on the piano himself.
Tescarollo pointed out that the location of the festival gave students a unique opportunity to not only study music, but also to experience a new culture and new surroundings.
The town in which the camp was held, Acqui Terme, which means “Thermal Waters,” has been a site of relaxation and culture since the time of the Romans. Located just two hours away from Milan, students had the opportunity to go on excursions and see the historic and culinary heritage Italy has to offer.
PFW senior Christian Urizar at the piano during the festivalPFW music graduate Allyn Beifus playing at the festival
Joining Tescarollo in this international musical venture were four of his former and current piano students.
One PFW Mastodon who went on the trip was Allyn Beifus, a pianist and graduate of the School of Music.
She said one of her goals was to improve as a musician, while also getting to meet new people.
She offered an advice to students considering going abroad to study at an international music festival: “You will experience a trip of a lifetime at a place outside the country, experience the culture, and develop musicianship with the people around you that are participating in this event as well,” she said.
That spirit of excitement and curiosity to learn and study is what Tescarollo hopes students experience with international music festivals like InterHarmony.
He said the camp provided students with some amazing opportunities to learn and study music in an international setting.
“Basically, expand horizons and meet new people and make connections,” Tescarollo said.
The Purdue Fort Wayne School of Music has been bustling with activity this summer. Music camps have been in full swing, with opportunities available for musicians of all skill levels and interests.
But this month, PFW is offering a different kind of musical experience. On July 18-19, the School of Music will host Mastodon alumni for the fifth annual Purdue Fort Wayne Alumni and Friends Summer Chorus.
For chorus director William Sauerland, the event is a wonderful opportunity to build community and joy through singing.
“In part, this alumni choir is about creating a culture of care and community,” Sauerland said.
Sauerland, assistant professor of music and director of choral studies at PFW, began his position in 2019. Soon after, Sauerland conceived the idea of starting a summer chorus that would invite music graduates from the School of Music to return for a few days of choral training and singing. The summer chorus was launched in 2020.
Starting a choral experience during a global pandemic, however, was no easy task. Sauerland recalled the many precautions taken to ensure participants’ safety.
Before attending, participants were required to test themselves for COVID-19. During the event, they wore masks and were spaced eight feet apart in a large auditorium.
That first summer chorus drew roughly 30 participants and lasted for three days. The response was so enthusiastic that organizers decided to bring the event back the following year.
Now entering its fifth year, the summer chorus has seen new additions and changes that add variety and broaden its appeal.
PFW alumni return to sing, connect and inspire
One new tradition implemented by Sauerland is inviting a guest conductor to co-lead the ensemble. Last year, William Skoog, a former director of choral studies at PFW (then IPFW), joined Sauerland on the podium.
This year, a PFW alumnus Dan Borns will serve as guest conductor. A 2001 graduate of IPFW with a degree in choral music education, Borns currently works as a choir director for k-12 students in Batesville, Indiana.
Borns said enjoyed returning as a participant in the 2024 summer chorus.
“I hadn’t seen some of those people in 20 years,” Borns said. “That’s special.”
But Borns isn’t the only alum participating in this year’s chorus.
Teaching at PFW since 2008, Peggy Farlow is a senior lecturer in music therapy at the PFW School of Music. She’s also a proud Mastodon, having received her undergraduate degree in music therapy at IPFW.
She said that one of the great joys of the event is the opportunity to meet both old and new friends.
“You’re going to meet new friends,” Farlow said. “It’s amazing how much you end up having in common with people you’ve never met before.”
This will be her third time as a participant with the choir, and Farlow said she highly enjoys the musical and social experiences the choir has to offer.
That sense of community and just enjoying the entire experience is one of Sauerland’s goals for the summer chorus.
“We just have fun,” Sauerland said.
Although the chorus is centered around fun and connection with a community of Mastodons, there are also ambitious musical goals for the group.
Sauerland said he and Borns have selected six pieces of repertoire for the choir to learn over the two-day event. The lineup includes works such as “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell and “Elijah Rock,” arranged by Moses Hogan.
Singers prep for two-day musical challenge at PFW
Sauerland explained that there is a process for learning and preparing the repertoire in such a short time.
A few weeks before the event, Sauerland emails participants PDFs of the sheet music and audio links to recordings. This gives singers a head start on learning their parts ahead of the first rehearsal.
When the event begins on Friday afternoon, the choir will sing through all six pieces, accompanied on piano by PFW faculty member and limited term lecturer Geoffrey North.
After the initial read-through, Sauerland and Borns will decide how to structure Saturday’s rehearsal schedule.
On Saturday, the choir reconvenes for a fun-filled day of rehearsing and socializing, with both directors offering singing tips and feedback. That evening, the weekend wraps us with an informal concert, showcasing the music the group has learned.
Beyond the music, the weekend offers time for participants to reconnect and socialize. Saturday includes a lunch break and, after the rehearsal and concert, an optional group dinner.
Teachers become students at summer chorus
Sauerland noted that the summer chorus provides a unique opportunity for professional choir teachers and vocalists to experience music-making from the singer’s perspective, rather than from the conductor’s podium.
“This may be the one time in a year that those people can devote to being in the choir,” he said.
He added that, from his own experience as a choral director, getting the chance to be a vocalist in a choir is a great opportunity to observe and learn new approaches from other choral conductors.
“Everybody needs an experience where they’re in the seat of being a student,” he said.
Other music professionals agree. Alumna and music educator Lisa Farlow said the summer chorus is an opportunity to be a singer and musician, instead of serving as the teacher.
“It’s just a great way to be able to use your music skills,” she said.
In just a few weeks, the halls and classrooms of the School of Music will once again be filled with the uplifting sounds of voices raised in song. Both Mastodons and their friends will have a chance to walk through their old “stomping grounds” as they revisit the halls of musical academia.
Borns captured the spirit of this upcoming musical experience:
“Come be part of it and get a chance to sing some good music.”
The end of a busy day at Purdue University Fort Wayne usually sees a varying scene of homeward bound students, professors, and staff members.
An endless row of cars pours out of the exits of the campus. Buildings that resonated with the hum of scholars’ voices gradually fall silent as the twinkle of lights shine out in the gathering dusk. Night has wrapped the campus in a dark, comforting blanket as the day’s academic life comes to an end.
Or does it?
For at least some students and one professor on campus, dusk is the herald of a night’s work to begin, because it’s only at night that an earth-based telescope can begin traversing the heavens in its constant quest for knowledge. And PFW’s department of physics will soon begin their voyage of astronomical discovery with the “UFO Observatory.”
Many people would assume that “UFO” stands for “unidentified flying object.” But for PFW’s astronomers and astrophysicists, UFO actually means something closer to home – the “Undergraduate Fun Observatory.”
The story of the UFO observatory actually began almost a decade ago. In 2016, then-professor of physics Stephen Gillam had helped spearhead a project to create and deploy an observatory on the IPFW campus, according to a report from WANE15.
WANE15 reported that the total project came at a price tag of $27,000, but what the observatory had to offer was well worth the price.
The observatory consists of a large white dome that can slide open, revealing the 8-inch reflector telescope inside. Telescopes include a variety of designs and types, including reflector and refractor ones.
Installation of the observatory on campusPhotos Courtesy of Professor Eugenio UrsinoObservatory located at the roof of Parking Garage 3
According to NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, reflector telescopes use mirrors to help gather and focus star light that an astronomer can then see. This is a different process of light gathering versus a refractor telescope, which utilizes lenses, not mirrors, to gather and focus light.
PFW’s telescope is not large, but it provides students, staff, and the Fort Wayne public with a great opportunity to survey the cosmos.
Professor Eugenio Ursino, assistant professor of physics at PFW, explained that PFW’s observatory really serves two purposes: one for students, and one for the greater Fort Wayne community.
“It just makes sense that they learn how to use a telescope,” Ursino said about PFW physics students using the observatory. He explained that physics students who want to pursue their masters’ degrees in astronomy will be expected to know how to use a telescope.
Such knowledge could include something as simple as knowing where to point the telescope to see something in the cosmos or something as advanced as using a computer program to electronically control and “steer” a telescope.
But Ursino’s goals with the PFW observatory go beyond the classroom, as the telescope provides an integral part of the “Friday Night at the Observatory” program held on the PFW campus.
According to the PFW Department of Physics’ webpage, the third Friday of every month during the academic year sees the department of physics offer a program called “Friday Night at the Observatory.” During these events, which are open to anyone from the public, professors at PFW provide a lecture on a selected topic. Following the lecture, assuming the weather is amenable, attendees to the lecture are welcome to spend some time stargazing at the UFO Observatory.
At least, that was the idea.
Ursino mentioned that the original location of the UFO Observatory was not ideal for stargazing, for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the observatory was located outdoors across St. Joe Road, behind the PFW Surplus Center store on the eastern side of campus. That location, next to a parking lot in a grassy field, was susceptible to mud, making a trek to the observatory an uncomfortable and wet experience for stargazing lovers.
Yet another issue was that of temperature. Since the observatory is an outdoor affair, using the telescope during the colder months of the year was not the most pleasant experience.
But those issues are set to become problems of the past.
Just this year, the observatory has moved to a new location on top of Parking Garage 3. That’s a major improvement, because it means visitors to the observatory can now simply park their cars in the garage and walk on solid, non-muddy concrete to the telescope.
But wait, there’s more.
One of the features of the observatory since its inception has been the ability of users to control the telescope via a computer. Ursino described how the idea was that users could remotely control the movements of the telescope and observe galactic phenomena without needing to be physically present. Unfortunately, over time, the various pieces of equipment broke down or needed replacing.
Thankfully, a new computer has been added to the observatory’s technical arsenal, and Ursino is working towards making the observatory remotely controllable. This is a big achievement for the Friday Night at the Observatory program, because it means attendees to the program get a chance to stargaze from the comforts of the indoor lecture hall.
Professor Ursino mentioned that there are several other future astronomy projects and updates in the works for the UFO observatory and the department. Work is still being completed on making sure all the electronics and power systems are operational for the observatory.
For Ursino, the goal of the observatory for PFW’s students is simple:
“Student[s] engaged in simple research,” he said when asked about the impact of the observatory.
That simple research is just the tip of the iceberg for the UFO observatory, as it helps students and Fort Wayne reach for the stars and beyond.
