Mirror - Vol. 38, No. 05 -October 10, 2012

              THE PMIRROR
Week of October 10,2012 • Vol. 38, Iss. 5 • The Reflection ofFairfield • Independent Student Newspaper of Fairfield University
Do-Si-Do to Crush Cancer
BY LAURA O'REILLY
MANAGING EDITOR
At the age of 2, Amanda
McKean '13 was diagnosed with
leukemia. It was the day after
Christmas.
"My parents didn't know
what was wrong with me - I was
having intense stomach aches
and extremely high fevers," she
said. "After many tests, doctors
determined that it was leuke-mia."
After crushing leukemia at
such an early age, McKean cre-ated
Cancer Crusher, a non-profit
foundation in 2008. As
a survivor, she wanted to raise
awareness and funding for pe-diatric
cancer patients and their
families.
This Saturday, Oct. 13, Fair-field
University students will
throw on their cowboy hats and
boots for a night of square danc-ing
to support the fight against
pediatric cancer.
"Every time I go back [for
checkups], I observe teenagers
around my age who were miss-ing
out on applying to college,
playing sports, going to prom
... it made me realize that this
age group is underrepresented
when it comes to cancer," McK-ean
said. She believes that many
people only think of children or
the elderly as being affected by
cancer, not the young adults.
According to the Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
in New York City, each year in
the United States about 3,000
children and young adults are
diagnosed with acute lympho-blastic
leukemia, the type with
which McKean was diagnosed.
At the age when most chil-dren
are dressing up their dolls
or playing in the backyard, McK-ean
was losing all of her hair
from chemotherapy treatments.
She was treated at the Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
by Dr. Norma Wollner who McK-ean
calls, "the most incredible
woman I have ever met."
Wollner helped create the
pediatric cancer floor at the
Center and has since retired.
McKean still stays in touch with
the doctor who changed her life
through the countless surgeries
and spinal taps.
In high school, McKean
launched the Cancer Crusher
Foundation with numerous ini-
Contributed Photo
McKean (fourth from the left) and friends enjoyed a night of dancing at last year's Cancer Crusher Hoedown.
tiatives including organizational
alliances, special programs and
innovative fundraising events.
The foundation's mission is, "to
crush pediatric cancer by em-powering
our community to col-lectively
conquer this devastat-ing
disease, afflicting children
from infancy to 25 years."
When it came time to look
at colleges, she chose Fairfield
because of the "tremendous stu-dent
involvement."
DANCE I PAGE 2
Brazilian chefbrings exotic cuisine to Barone
BY DANICA CI; IS AII os
NEWS EDITOR
Cuscuz. Empadas. Mousse
de Cafe.
Though these dishes may
sound completely foreign to
some Fairfield students, they
are part of an everyday diet for
Brazilian chef Bruno Rios, who
is coming to Fairfield to give stu-dents
an opportunity to taste a
bit of his culture.
This Wednesday, Thurs-day
and Friday, Sodexo will be
hosting a special program in the
main Dining Hall called Global
Chef. At the U-shaped servery,
students will be able to try mul-tiple
South American items at
different meal times.
Wednesday evening will in-clude
a dessert sampling. Thurs-day
evening will include both
dinner and dessert dishes, and
Friday will include lunch and
dessert items. By offering a vari-ety
of meal times, the program-mers
hope that students can
attend one of the meals to see
what Global Chef has to offer.
Due to the success of So-dexo
at Fairfield, the company
hand-selected the University to
host the program. "As a Sodexo
account, Fairfield University
has certain goals that it actually
meets and surpasses," explained
Matt Olschan, retail marketing
manager of Fairfield Dining Ser-vices.
"Therefore, we stand out
to get 'x' amount of program-ming
... kind of like a sample
school. We
showcase things often."
Through this program, chefs
travel around the world to pro-vide
authentic food from their
country to different schools and
organizations. Because the foods
presented are standard for the
home country of the chef, host
schools must order ingredients
outside of their regimented rou-tine
to allow the chefs to prepare
their dishes the way they would
at home.
"[Rios] customizes his own
menu to what he feels represents
his profile best, so not only is
he making
stuff he is familiar with, I think
he is making stuff he feels best
represents him as a chef," said
Olschan. Rios is currently work-ing
his way down the east coast
through Global Chef, beginning
at schools in Massachusetts and
eventually ending in Florida
While this program is differ-ent
than most of the promotions
that Sodexo offers, it is part of
a larger calendar of events that
Fairfield's Sodexo branch pro-vides
for students. For example,
last month showcased Indian
food and a Hispanic cultural cel-ebration
for Hispanic heritage
month. In the upcoming weeks,
students will notice that Sodexo
is presenting fall promotions, in-cluding
a Halloween theme.
Incorporating multi-cultur-al
food is part of the larger goal
of Fairfield to create a more di-verse
campus. Olschan com-mented,
"I think as a partner-ship
with Sodexo and Fairfield
what this program brings to the
table is just something that goes
to show that all students are rep-resented."
Upperclassmen had mixed
reviews because they do not
necessarily go to Barone on a
GLOBAL CHEF | PAGE 2
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