The Matthew Online

Come back to see us in September

The Matthew Online staff is taking a break for the summer months, but we'll be back in September when the Fall Semester begins. Come back to see us then. In the meantime, please check out our video reportage from last semester. Visit our YouTube channel.

JCU's Model UN program breaks new ground

Congratulations to Elena Ravano, Ian Foley, Kristen Mapes, Emily Menaurd, Giulia Lorenzini, and Ottavia Criss, the new board members of John Cabot University’s Model United Nations Society. There positions are President, Vice President, Secretary, Fundraising Chair, Treasurer, and Press Secretary, respectively.

The board meets each Tuesday to discuss everything from upcoming fund-raising events, plus setting new agenda items.

JCU students launch club that's all business and a little more

By Josiane El Khoury

ROME, March 4 -- Last semester, two John Cabot University students had the idea of forming a business club. The project proved too big, however, and it could not be sorted within a few months. 

After much planning, fulltime JCU students Dafina Lalevski and Alessandro Strolla say they are ready to finally lunch the project this semester. “Last semester we started with nothing,” says Strolla, “but today we have the foundation of our club.”

Their goal is to build up an international business society in JCU providing the students with business practice and a preparation for their future careers.

“We believe it is useful, because the theory we study in school needs to be applied somehow. Until you are there on the market you cannot understand,” affirms Strolla.

At the moment they are organizing a charity event for Kenya. The occasion is scheduled for April 8 in the JCU courtyard. Tickets and T-shirts are going to be sold around the school. Food, beverages and music are going to be provided for the night, and the group have invited the Kenyan Ambassador to Italy to give a speech. 

Back from London, JCU's Model UN team looks to the future

John Cabot University’s involvement in the Model UN experience continued this semester with JCU representatives traveling to London's King College campus earlier this month. MUN representatives Adea Kryeziu and Ottavia Barone Criss have this to say about the event.

The London MUN took place in February 7-11 in London’s King College campus. The conference included students and delegations from universities around the world, including the United Kingdom, United States, Italy, Austria, Netherlands, Bangladesh, India, Ireland and Germany. 

In contrast to last year’s JCU-MUN club of six members, this year, the team consisted of 15 students and 2 faculty advisers.  The newly formed team prepared for the simulation by sitting through public speaking lectures and taking part in negotiation simulations and collaborative meetings on rules and procedures of the MUN -- always keeping in mind the committees and their underlying topics. 

In London, JCU represented two countries: Turkmenistan and Uruguay, in more than 7 committees of the UN for each country. The students took on the role of delegates in specific topics for each committee. They researched their positions comprehensively before attending the conference. As a result of this experience, the students were provided with the technical skills required for formal MUN debate as well as knowledge about different country’s perspectives on the issues discussed.  Moreover, the students gained further negotiation, resolution-building and diplomacy skills along the way. “The most important thing is how you present yourself and to know as much as possible about the topic at hand,” said Emily Menard, a JCU MUN team member in a meeting with Dean Merva on February 27.

Currently, the MUN team is in a vital process of determining the organizational structure so that future conferences will be easier to coordinate and members will be equipped with more sophisticated training.  Furthermore, the team is discussing the growth possibilities for the future, and will soon be voting for various positions such as the president and fund-raising chairs.

Kristen Mapes, another MUN team member, summarized the sentiments of the team at their last meeting, saying, “this Model UN experience has motivated me to work hard so that John Cabot University is represented at conferences worldwide.”

John Cabot University can confidently expect its MUN team to play an important role in international  MUN simulations in the future.

JCU students meet to discuss the gap that binds them

By Cheryl Wayne

ROME, Feb. 29 - More than 30 students came out to John Cabot University's student government sponsored round table on Wednesday to share their opinions on how to bring together visiting and degree-seeking students.

The free pizza was a big draw too. “If you have free pizza, people talk,” said one student attendee.

Student government representative Alessandro Lanutl introduced the forum saying, “there is a lopsided balance between the two groups of students, and I want some ideas about how to integrate these two groups.” Lanutl is a visiting student at JCU from Fordham University in New York.

The students were eager to express their feelings. One degree seeking student said she didn’t want to get attached to visiting students because "it's just too painful to say goodbye." She added, “why invest time in someone if you know they aren’t going to stay?”

 

One month on, students learning to cope with a double loss

By Melissa Colabraro

ROME, Feb. 21 - Tomorrow marks a sad anniversary for John Cabot University. It has been one  month since the back-to-back tragic deaths of JCU students Alessandro Mioni and Karen M. Young.

One month into the semester, the sudden deaths of these two remarkable individuals still holds a place in each student’s heart.

Mioni died in a moped accident the night of Jan. 22. Young’s body was found two days later, just a few hundred yards from the Ponte Sisto Bridge, not far from the JCU campus.

“It's still heartbreaking to remind oneself that [Alessandro] is no longer with us, and a part of us,” says Stephanie Gabriele, a longtime friend of Alessandro.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this before…I still thought [Karen] was going to storm in the door and say something ridiculous and make me laugh as she normally did,” says Erica Smith, roommates of Karen Young.   

 

JCU to expand, 3 minutes down the road

By Nadin Aloufi

ROME, Feb.18 – Going through his papers, John Cabot University President Franco Pavoncello last week took out the blueprints to a new building. With a look of pride, he said "it is beautiful to see this university growing."

On Sept. 1, 2008, the university will occupy its new home, to be called "The Tiber Campus", a three-minute walk away from the current building on via della Lungara in Trastevere. 

JCU's goal is to bring more students to the university to share the experience, but space has been a problem.