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Most college students need more credits and more exercise, and these fun courses are a way to get both. �Hofstra is a liberal arts college. Part of the liberal arts is knowing about the physical part of ourselves, and that often gets left behind,� said Dr. Nancy Halliday, chairperson for Physical Education and Sports Sciences. So, really Hofstra students, it is your duty to education to take:
Horseback Riding
Credits: 2
Time Commitment: 1 hour and 50 minute class, once a week, plus driving time.
A $300 lab fee is steep for those who are not die-hard equestrians, but if you�re determined to learn to ride, this is cheaper than private lessons, and there are credits to be earned. Plus, according to an MSNBC�s calorie counter, an hour and 50 minutes of horseback riding will burn 525 calories.
Scuba Basic Dive Technique
Credits: 2
Students learn to dive using provided scuba equipment (for a lab fee of $80, comparable to new science textbooks). �There is a classroom element connected with safety aspects,� said Dr. Halliday. Students who see any out-of-the-water action as a deterrent need only consider that this might be the only lecture given at Hofstra that�s potentially life-saving. While the class is not for certification (that�s PESP121), students have the option to participate in a certification trip at the end of the semester. Senior psychology major Donnie Hudspeth, who found the dive class when flipping through the course catalog, looks forward to taking a certification test upstate at Roth Springs. �That�s what I consider the real test,� he said. But he and you will still have to take the quizzes, so study that scuba!
Camping Skills
Credits: 0.5
Time Commitment: Half-semester course. 1 hour and 25 minutes, twice a week for seven weeks.
While this class is currently only open to Physical Education majors, Halliday said a section could be added for non-majors if there was a demand, and there should be one. The course teaches the vital skills of pitching a tent, cooking outdoors and walking around with a heavy backpack. Most classes are outdoors, and the final exam is an overnight camp-out trip where students exhibit their newly learned skills. Take the class this year, try out for a reality television show next year.
Hatha Yoga
Credits: 2
Time Commitment: 1.5 hour class, twice a week
�It�s a good way to stay in shape and keep stress-levels down,� said Nicole Boudreau, a senior English major, who added that she still uses the techniques she learned last semester. She even taught some moves at a Resident Assistant program this past fall. Mats are provided, but flexibility is not. Bring water; it�s sweatier than it looks.
Self Defense
Credits: 2
Time Commitment: 1 hour and 25 minutes, twice a week.
�Ninety percent of students in my Tai Chi and Self Defense classes are non-PE majors,� said professor Joseph Bubenas (so students need not worry about getting their ass kicked by someone who intends on teaching stuff like this professionally). Unlike the Tai Chi Chuan class, which focuses on fluidity and balance, and the karate class, which gives students an introduction to the forms, �self defense is aimed more at providing students with skills and strategies for protecting themselves,� said Halliday.
Bowling
Credits: 1
Time Commitment: 1.5 hour class, once a week, plus driving time.
This class takes place at North Levittown Lanes, so you need your own transportation, but with a class capacity of 35 students, you�re bound to be able to put together a carpool. There�s a $6 weekly fee for three games and shoe rental. Grades are not based on game scores.
None of these classes suit you? �We�re talking about putting together an adventure class for non-majors either next semester or next fall,� said Halliday. The adventure class would consist of an extreme obstacle course where students would engage in �perceived risk activities��think ropes, cables and logs in midair. Now that�s a way to earn your �A�.
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It was late on a Thursday or technically early on a Friday when a man in a shirt and tie thrashed around a news van. �You knew this would happen,� the crew members said. The man yelled back in jest, �Get out of my van!� Seconds later the Newton, Massachusetts-born sportscaster was on camera coolly reporting for Fox 5 New York that Aaron Boone�s home run in the bottom of the 11th had decided which team went on to the World Series; the Yankees had beaten the Red Sox.
�It actually wasn�t that bad, I�ve been doing this so long, and I�ve been away [from Boston] for so long. A lot of that [rivalry] phased out when I went to Dallas,� said John Discepolo, a Hofstra communications alumnus and lifelong Red Sox fan, who was WRHU�s sports director for two years before he graduated in 1994. He had loved the Sox/Yankees games despite the diet of hot dogs and pretzels that came with them. And he had especially loved the last game. �It was the best game I�ve ever seen. To see the pride of the Yankees, the pride of this town, to be a part of that, to be covering something of that much importance, it was amazing,� he said. His voice was loud and perfect and fast�the only kind suitable for a lead sports anchor.
A news director had once asked Discepolo to play up his Italian heritage to create more of an on-air personality. Discepolo refused. When interviewed, he played down the event that had received attention from at least one New York chapter of The Sons of Italy and from the Daily News. His personality seems plenty exciting without the pretense. His enthusiasm for sports is overwhelming. Daily News readers thought so when they gave the Fox 5 lead sports anchor a nod when they listed their All-Star team of newspersons. (Discepolo did not make the team cut, but for a man who has been reporting for Fox 5 New York for less than two years, to be mentioned is still an honor).
Friend and author Adam Shandler, who will still hit up a Hofstra football or lacrosse game with Discepolo, also thinks highly of his sportscasting abilities. In an interview about his novel �Coaching Ira,� Shandler, who did play-by-plays for the radio station when Discepolo was sports director, called the anchor �ridiculously talented.�
Discepolo is also ridiculously hard working. There are only two days a year that no professional sports are played, the day before the baseball All-Star game and the day after. �Sportscasting is my passion�Everyone always told and still tells me I should go to news, there are more opportunities in news�but I wanted [sports], said Discepolo. �And when you want it, you have to want it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year�and you can�t sit back and take rejection or take failure.�
In his Hofstra days, sports reporting had been just as important to him as it is now. His two favorite college reporting memories were both when he was covering sports for WRHU. The first, when Hofstra upset New Hampshire at Homecoming in 1994 and the second, his most favorite the last football game he covered for WRHU. It was the last game of that 1994 season, against Delaware; Wayne Cherbet, who had been a teammate of Discepolo�s when Discepolo was a punter for the Dutchman, scored two touchdowns. The team lost the game on a missed field goal and thus missed the playoffs too; but for a non-scholarship team like Hofstra to tie Delaware, one of the better division one teams, the game was an exciting sign of Hofstra�s football future. �It let people know that Hofstra was the new kid on block,� said Discepolo.
Discepolo credits his time at WRHU for preparing him for the intensity and immediacy of his future in news coverage, and added that being sports director at WHRU, �prepared [him] to just make decisions and not look back sometimes.� Right or wrong, in the world of broadcast there is no time for dwelling on things�and there is no such thing as luck.
That�s what professor Nancy Kaplan told Discepolo when she pulled him aside, his sophomore or junior year, he said. She said that �Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.� It was this Discepolo had in mind when after spending a year reporting in Albany, he left and took a job with KDFW Fox 4 in Dallas. Dallas was the first big break of his career; it was a jump into a major market.
It was the kind of jump he recommends to journalism students. �I�ve heard so many guys say, �I�m from New York. I�m going to stay in New York.� And I�ve never met a single person who has had that happen,� said Discepolo, who believes that going away and perhaps eventually coming back to New York, is a far more probable plan. �My advice to any aspiring broadcaster is to get on the air somewhere. Just get on the air! Go to the smallest markets. And the best time to start looking for a job is when you already have a job,� he said.
As far as his future in broadcast is concerned, Discepolo is not looking for his next job. �I love New York; it�s a great town,� he said, but he added that he would �always entertain an opportunity whether it is in sports or news.� And of course, he should say that; he should always be ready for change. In this business, luck is when opportunity meets preparation.
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