Matt Salda

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Study Abroad Students Find Fresh Perspectives on Life

By Matt Salda | January 13

Whether they're seeking better grades or more friends, students look forward to changes accompanying their new classes spring semester. Jessica Cantley, a junior psychology and sociology major from Winston-Salem, will expect a complete change of setting when she starts her classes in a new country. She will be leaving her home and school behind Wednesday when she travels to Florence, Italy, as part of UNC's Study Abroad program. "I think it'll be real freedom and real separation from everything I know and everyone I know, and it'll be good for me," she said.

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Students Date Despite, Because of Racial Differences

By Matt Salda | November 21

Sophomore Crystal Lee learned the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of interracial relationships when she dated and then broke up with sophomore Eric Montijo. Racial differences enhanced their relationship but ultimately brought it to its end. Many students such as Lee and Montijo have defied convention by crossing over racial lines in their relationships. Ketura Parker, vice president of UNC's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said such interracial dating at UNC has become more accepted rather than simply tolerated.

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Student Bridges Gap for Working Poor

By Matt Salda | November 1

On any given day, UNC students are likely to encounter poverty in the form of Franklin Street panhandlers. Yet they are equally likely to encounter it while ordering food from employees at the school's dining halls. Liz Kistin, a junior political science and Latin American studies major from Albuquerque, N.M., has spent much of her free time at UNC helping to alleviate local poverty among unemployed and working people alike. "There's this aspect (of poverty) that's more hidden, that of people working 40 hours a week and still not making ends meet," she said. Kistin helped found

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Aspiring to Be Real 'Idol'

By Matt Salda | October 24

Several UNC students will join countless other young singers in an exodus to Atlanta in hopes of performing on national television. They are making the trek Sunday to audition to appear on the next season of the popular Fox television show "American Idol." Among those hoping to compete on the 21st century reincarnation of "Star Search" are UNC sophomores Thomas McAbee, Justin Carter and Jason Hamlin, who will take the potentially life-changing road trip to Atlanta together.

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No More Play Money

By Matt Salda | October 10

Graduate student Russell Ballew confidently presents a report on the financial performance of Impac Mortgage to his class. "They just have some really ridiculous returns," he gushes about Impac. "It's thrilling." Ballew has not prepared his presentation for a class research project but instead to convince his fellow students to invest in the company using University endowment money.

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TV Dramas: A Reflection of Reality?

By Matt Salda | September 20

Horatio Caine, a renegade forensic investigator on the prime time television drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," wanders away from a search team down an isolated dirt road. With the sun's reflection gleaming off his sunglasses, Caine stumbles upon the missing girl in question and casually proposes to her, "What do you say we sit here and get found together?" John Butts, the N.C. chief medical examiner, said such scenes in CBS's "CSI" and other television dramas about forensic science are ridiculous. "Nobody does things that way," Butts said.

Matt Salda

Study Abroad Students Find Fresh Perspectives on Life

Students Date Despite, Because of Racial Differences

Student Bridges Gap for Working Poor

Aspiring to Be Real 'Idol'

No More Play Money

TV Dramas: A Reflection of Reality?

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