Erin Wiltgen

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Student EMTs get real-life experience

By Erin Wiltgen | April 21

It's his first cardiac arrest. Junior Paul Trottman crouches in the back as the ambulance careens through Raleigh's neighborhood streets, its sirens a high-pitched fanfare for the arrival. As it jerks to a stop, Trottman jogs behind the rest of the Emergency Medical Technician squad - a paramedic and another EMT volunteer - into the house. The victim of the arrest is dead. But the team still begins a resuscitation procedure with Trottman in charge of the endotracheal tube, which helps people breathe if they can't do it themselves.

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Professor's days overseas help bring history alive

By Erin Wiltgen | April 13

From the way professor Michael Hunt spoke to his Vietnam War class Wednesday afternoon, it would seem that he was addressing a class of 10 to 15 people. In fact, about 100 students perched in the movie-theater-style chairs of Chapman Hall, all eyes following Hunt's movement across the front of the classroom. "Even though it's a big class, he manages to keep it engaging," said senior Zack Yates as he sat in the back of the lecture hall. "It has a hint of personalness."

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Election has long history at University

By Erin Wiltgen | February 15

Eve Carson and Nick Neptune are starting the final duel to be student body president. But there was a time when student government didn't exist - and students just dueled for the heck of it. At the University's beginnings, rowdy student behavior - including fist fights, pranks and even pistol duels - rapidly drew the attention of the administration. None of the duels were fatal, but many students were expelled.

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Quakers battle misconceptions

By Erin Wiltgen | January 19

North Carolina has the second-largest Quaker population in the United States. No, not the number of Quaker Oatmeal boxes stocking the supermarket shelves, although this is a common misconception, at least for a close friend of Chapel Hill native Will King. King said that when they were kids, his friend thought the Quaker God was the man on the cereal box. "It was surprising to learn how little people knew about (Quakerism) because to me it seemed like a normal thing," said King, a junior at William and Mary College and a practicing Quaker.

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Writing with speed

By Erin Wiltgen | November 29

Chris Baty blames it on coffee. Sitting at home late one night, charged with too much caffeine, Baty sent an e-mail to his friends announcing they would write a novel within a month. "I think it was just one of those crazy, over-caffeinated ideas that you get sometimes," said Baty, program director of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. The program, which began as a 21-person effort in July 1999 in Oakland, Calif., challenges experienced and non-experienced writers to scribble 50,000 words between midnight Nov. 1 and midnight Nov. 30 - averaging 1,667 words a day.

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Students test out Iron Chef skills

By Erin Wiltgen | November 13

It began with sugar balls and mud pies. Liz Turgeon's passion for cooking started as a kid with clumps of flour, sugar and sprinkles, and platters of dirt and onion grass. Sunday afternoon, though, she demonstrated her cooking skills have progressed to a more advanced - and edible - phase. She spent an hour in a Carmichael Residence Hall kitchen preparing shrimp stir fry as one of six contestants in the first Iron Chef College Style Cook-off sponsored by the Carolina Union Activities Board.

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Spiritual investigation

By Erin Wiltgen | November 10

A warm breeze joined the laughter at 3 Cups coffee shop Thursday night as Julian Bach joined 11 other students for his first meeting as an official Bahai. Bach announced to the group, a mix of longtime Bahais and students visiting to satisfy their religious curiosity, that he had converted to the Bahai religion four days ago.

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An interfaith celebration

By Erin Wiltgen | October 10

The low voice rose and fell through the quiet of reflection as junior Arif Khan sang the call to prayer outside the green cloth tent that formed the sukkah. Bundles of leaves dangled from the ceiling above the door, and the crowd gathered around the table outside the structure. They stood, dates in hand, and sent up their own prayers as Khan's song faded and the iftar began. Iftar in the Sukkah, an interfaith event, gathered Jewish and Muslim students Monday to celebrate a major holiday for each religion - despite global tensions between the two religions.

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Darfur war draws on all faiths

By Erin Wiltgen | September 22

Senior Taylor Steelman, in her green S.U.D.A.N. T-shirt and blue bandanna, listened as O.A.R. and Big&Rich filled New York City's Central Park with music. Hands swayed and waved signs, she said. But this was not a typical concert. Instead Steelman was standing beside Muslims, Jews, Christians and others in a united effort to help people in the Darfur region of Sudan. "For Jewish groups who have really been leading the faith-based effort in activism, they relate it to the Holocaust," Steelman said. "It's very personalized.

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Resources help with student tax filing

By Erin Wiltgen | April 12

Most college students can stay up as late as they want and eat whatever they please, but when it comes to filling out taxes, many still opt for the familiar. "My parents have always filled them out for me in the past," says freshman Kelly Gillis. But with the tax deadline coming up April 15, there are some who take on this responsibility personally. Senior Tiffany Reed has filed her taxes for the last four years. "Everyone should do it at least once or twice on your own so you know what you're doing with your own money," she says.