October 2011 Archives

      The Concordia University St. Paul's fall play, Dracula, is based on Bram Stoker's classic novel. The story tells of a Transylvanian Count whom is looking for real estate in London. His real estate agent, Mr. Harker, travels to Transylvania to confer with the Count, leaving behind his fiancée Mina. While Mr. Harker is absent, actually under the spell of Count Dracula's brides, the story in London focuses on Dr. Seward and his mental asylum. At the asylum is a lunatic named Renfield whom has been bitten by the Count in the past and wants nothing more than to be loyal to him forever, but he neglects her, driving her to madness. Dr. Seward is one of the many suitors of Lucy, the best friend of Mina. Count Dracula arrives to London via a shipwreck, in which everyone is presumed dead. He is able to take the form of all of nature in order to blend in and not give himself away. Wanting to make Mina one of his brides, the Count slowly works into the lives of the characters by first infecting Lucy. This is much to the dismay of Dr. Seward, whom calls upon Professor Van Helsing in order to find out what is ailing his love. Professor Van Helsing, unbeknownst to Dr. Seward and the other characters, is an enthusiast in the world of Vampirism. After Lucy has been deeply infected, Mr. Harker finally finds his way home, disoriented and wounded. He tells his beloved Mina to seal his journal so neither of them will have to know the horrors he went through in Transylvania. However, after Lucy's "death", in quotations due to the fact she is now a vampire and has eternal life, it becomes obvious that the man that tormented Mr. Harker is the same man responsible for the events in London: Count Dracula. In reading the journal, Mina and Van Helsing discover Dracula's secrets from Transylvania. This combined with Van Helsing's extensive knowledge of Dracula and the vampire world, they are able to defeat him and save Mina's life. At least they believe they have.

      Dracula and the idea of vampirism in general have been interpreted in many ways by many people. The exchange of bodily fluids tends to be associated with a sexual theme. Throughout the play, the act of the bite of the vampire is also very sensual and erotic. Lucy and Mina discuss their sexual feelings about men in one of the beginning scenes of the play, further assenting to the idea that the book, and therefore the play, has a lot of sexual energy. The staking through the heart in order to kill a vampire also points to something commonly associated with sex, and that is love. People generally relate love to the heart, and in order to fully kill a vampire you must stake it through its heart. Lastly, the use of garlic can bear a meaning to sexuality as well. Garlic contains an ingredient, allicin that produces blood flow to the sexual organs in both men and women. However, this is contradictory to the idea that vampirism is purely sexual because garlic would enhance sexuality, yet it inhibits vampires. Vampires and their portrayal in the media are historically associated with sexuality.

     I thoroughly enjoyed the play, as well as the many varieties of the movies I have seen. I may be bias due to my love for horror movies. The play was most true to the novel and not to any of Hollywood's attempts to recreate what Bram Stoker brilliantly made all those years ago. Dracula was not the first book about vampires, but it was the modernization of the vampire as according to Stoker. This story led to the continuing innovation of vampires throughout the years, leading to the most recent of vampire movies. However, this is where many vampire legends began: the garlic, the stake, the decapitation, the crucifix, the coffin (Which in Stoker's version is simply the box of Transylvanian dirt in which Dracula must rest), etc. Many of these aspects have been manipulated throughout the years. All of the current vampires, and arguably werewolves, in pop culture can and should be credited to Bram Stoker for his original account of Count Dracula.

The convocation that took place at 11:45, Wednesday, October 19^th, 2011 was an informational presentation of the benefits of nonprofit careers. Women from Concordia's own Career Services initiated the convocation and introduced who would be speaking. They gave credit where credit was due to people such as Kelly Matthias and Dr. Bransford, among others. The central focus of the convocation was for interested parties to find internships, volunteer opportunities, and eventual careers. A former honors student, named Katie Benke, was introduced and gave a speech about her career path that began at the very same convocation years prior. Her volunteering for her project led to an internship and an eventual career.

It was then time for Michaela Charleston and Cindy Yang from the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits to speak about their professions and the company.  They informed the audience of the MCN's mission, which is "MCN works to inform, promote, connect, and strengthen individual nonprofits and the nonprofit sector." The women then went on to elaborate how they spread the word of their company through publications, advocacy, projects, and programs. They also made it very clear that careers in nonprofit organizations can make individuals money. They even provided statistics, including that 1 out of every 9 employees works for a nonprofit company, nonprofit companies provide $13.2 billion dollars in wages each year, and is on the increase despite the economy. Michaela and Cindy then went on to talk about the importance of networking in a nonprofit organization and all the different components associated with that. They ended their presentation with various websites that the audience members could use to find volunteer opportunities as well as internships and possible careers.

The crux of this convocation was to inform individuals of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and how it can be used effectively. A student, particularly a former honors student, was used to show how a volunteer opportunity can so easily become a career one loves and enjoys. The women representing the company then gave all the facts and figures to show the audience how productive and official the organization is. Statistics were used quite effectively to prove that money can be made in nonprofit organizations and that they are not a 'waste of time" as most people think. The representatives from the organization explained networking in order to further educate the audience on the importance of making oneself known, especially in nonprofit situations.  The presentation was closed with websites in order to provide resources for the audience to find nonprofit opportunities.

In my opinion, this presentation seemed to focus on the wrong thing. I got the vibe that the organization was more important than the individual organizations themselves. I felt like I was being sold a product. Volunteering should not be about finding a career, but doing something you enjoy to simply help others. Other than the Concordia alumni, I never once heard mention of the good feeling one gets when volunteering. After the organization took over the presentation, I feel it became too formal and informational rather than from the heart. The heart is where I believe any nonprofit work should come from. There were some very good resources for future volunteering as well as internships. The fact that the women were very strong in the fact that they wanted us to stay in Minnesota made it seem very impersonal and purely business related. Although this was an intriguing and helpful convocation, I found it to be very impersonal.