Writing Samples

As the meat industry grapples with the shifting desires of the American public, much of the burden of retaining and reattracting consumers falls on their marketing teams. Between an ever-growing preference for meatless, or low-meat, cuisine, environmental concerns, and the skyrocketing cost of living in this country, there are more reasons than ever for Americans to skip the meat counter at the grocery store. What’s more, the tactics that marketers once relied on to make meat appealing to consumers are no longer strong enough to out-weigh them. The industry has been forced to make more daring, creative, or evocative advertising campaigns to get their message across to audiences. The 2015 Superbowl advertisement “The All-Natural Burger”, created for Carl’s Jr. fast food restaurants, is jaw-dropping in its bold, innuendo-laden message to the American public that they should be eating more beef, specifically: burgers from their restaurant. This advertisement played during commercial breaks of Superbowl XLIX, which took place in February of 2015. The game aired on NBC, which announced after coverage ended that the New England Patriots versus Seattle Seahawks match up had drawn an average of 114.4 million viewers (Pallotta). Though the Superbowl is watched by Americans of all demographics, Carl’s Jr.’s target demographic skews towards working class people, assuming Americans in upper classes will choose finer establishments or cook at home when choosing a meal. This advertisement appears to target heterosexual men specifically, with its imagery centering on a very attractive, barely censored female model. The commercial begins with an establishing shot of a busy farmers market environment, backed by generic music which heavily features electric guitar and has a classic, American rock feel. The combination of these two elements subliminally primes audiences. Choosing music that is associated with, and therefore typically appeals to, their target masculine American demographic serves to attract the attention of ideal potential consumers. Combining the auditory cue with an establishing shot that is useful context, but not essential to the arc is a clever way for the advertisers to ensure that their essential idea is reaching the highest number of potential consumers possible. Viewers are watching in large groups, eating, drinking, and using the commercial breaks to do things or have conversations without missing gameplay. The music can catch attention, while the establishing shot creates a chance to pause conversation or look up from what they’re doing to watch. Taking just a few seconds to draw as much attention as possible from the room could make all the difference in breaking even, with a 30 second ad slot costing $4.5 million (Castillo). Once the ad has caught attention, Carl’s Jr. wants to hold it. 22-year-old model Charlotte McKinney appears on-screen, seemingly nude. This immediate, unexpected display of sexuality does exactly that. Viewers can’t help but keep watching, since a person being nude in an extremely public setting is an inexcusable social more. McKinney’s voice-over begins, with her stating she “loves going all natural” as she walks through the market, with her body barely censored by the spray from a hose, watering some lettuce. In the next shot, McKinney walks away from the camera, with her backside obscured and implied by a tomato, pinched by a male hand from off-screen. Using the produce as a metaphor for the female anatomy compliments one of the associations the American public carries, subconsciously or not, about meat. Meat is masculine, an “association [which] derives from the stereotypical depiction of strength as a masculine characteristic” (Heinz & Lee 86). If meat is masculine, Carl’s Jr. asserts with this imagery, then produce is feminine. They further this connection between women’s bodies and produce by directing McKinney to turn back to look at the camera as the disembodied male hand pinches the tomato, as if she felt it. Her voice-over is timed perfectly for audiences to hear her say “It just makes me feel better,” as she turns, in reaction to the pinch. Her voice-over both soothes some of the anxiety viewers may feel about the constructed situation, implying in conjunction with her flirty, unbothered facial expression that she isn’t concerned about being in public nude, and introducing the true claim of the commercial that all-natural is better, when it comes to meat products, though what she is referencing is still obscured. McKinney continues through the market as audiences are kept wondering if she is truly nude by a few more cleverly placed props that censor her body. Over a medium shot of her, with her chest and torso covered by a produce scale and two melons, McKinney’s voice-over keeps up the double entendre, saying “Nothing between me and my 100%, all natural, juicy…” before the camera angle changes mid-sentence. Aside from the implications about McKinney’s chest, Carl’s Jr. word choice here also ties into meat’s association as a healthy food. The change to a wide shot reveals McKinney’s entire body, now made safe for cable television by a bikini top and shorts, as her voice-over continues “…grass-fed beef.” McKinney’s voice is replaced by a male narrator who introduces the titular “All-Natural Burger” over a close-up shot of her slowly biting into a perfectly composed burger, then shooting a flirty look at the camera. As viewers comprehend what the commercial is truly about, it cuts to the classic shot of a burger gently falling into frame, perfectly assembled and styled to look as appealing as possible, while the male voice advertises that the meat has no antibiotics, added hormones, or steroids. Following the numerous contamination and food safety concerns that have happened in the beef industry since the late 90s, consumers have been more discerning with what meat, if any, they consume. “Prior to the E. coli scare, only few instances existed in which the press discussed meat production” (Heinz & Lee 93). This is the only moment in the entire advertisement that acknowledges any part of the meat production process. It does so only to assuage the audience’s possible fears about the safety of consuming meat, especially meat usually considered to be low quality, given the price point and standard for fast food restaurant’s products. This sanitization of meat production, as well as fast food production, is entirely intentional, and Carl’s Jr. is not the first to do it. Karl Marx refers to this practice as the “fetishism of commodities” and explains: “the process of marketplace exchange drains products of their original meaning, which derives from the circumstances of production. The void is filled by producers who assign goods new, culturally positive meanings” (Heinz & Lee 87). By completely removing any mention of how the burger is produced, marketers can create a sexy, appealing aura for audiences to associate with the product, rather than a true one. The commercial in strong, but subtle, cues throughout paint meat as a man, such as the swap to a male voice-over narrator once the ad has revealed its true, meat-based messaging. McKinney, as a stand-in for women in general, is characterized as produce. Taking this metaphor and reapplying it to the voice-over script McKinney reads, the sentence “Nothing between me and my 100%, all natural, juicy, grass-fed beef,” becomes “Nothing between me and my man.” Like the classic lettuce, tomato, and onion pictures on almost all fast-food burgers seen in commercials, the ad assumes that men and women belong together, specifically in a sexual and/or romantic way. Despite clear and abundant evidence, that is readily available, of the problems with meat consumption, commercials like this still are exceedingly effective in attracting consumers to meat products. “Meat consumption discourse’s power to silence is impressive. It dissociates meat, an inanimate product, from both the animals and the lethal process that produces it. By obscuring the violence, the discourse makes meat products more palatable” (Heinz & Lee 94). This dissociation creates space for marketers to build a new story around meat products, like the overtly sexual narrative of this Carl’s Jr. ad; We have better meat, since it’s natural. Better burgers have better produce, which compliments them perfectly. Eat our burgers to make yourself better as well, and you’ll have beautiful women who want a “bite” of you. Nowhere in this narrative do you find E. coli, or over-worked minimum wage employees, or slaughter, or any other hint of what it truly took to create a burger from what nature actually made: a cow and plants. Works Cited Castillo, Michelle. “NBC Has Sold 95% of Super Bowl Ads and Says $4.5 Million per :30 ‘Is a Steal.’” Adweek.com, Adweek, 7 Jan. 2015, www.adweek.com/convergent-tv/nbc-has-sold-95-super-bowl-ads-and-says-45-million-30-steal-162210/. Heinz, Bettina, and Ronald Lee. “Getting down to the Meat: The Symbolic Construction of Meat Consumption.” Communication Studies, vol. 49, no. 1, Mar. 1998, pp. 86–99, https://doi.org/10.1080/10510979809368520. Pallotta, Frank. “Super Bowl XLIX Posts the Largest Audience in TV History.” CNNMoney, 2 Feb. 2015, money.cnn.com/2015/02/02/media/super-bowl-ratings/index.html.

As college students across the country wind up for the 2025-2026 FAFSA cycle, the aftershocks of the ’24-’25 FAFSA are still ringing in their ears. Last year’s FAFSA cycle, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, was historically bad. So bad it made the news, with Forbes dubbing it a “failure” and countless other news outlets reporting on the chaos. Here at MCLA, where more than 85% of students rely on some amount of financial aid, Bonnie Howland, Director of Student Financial Services, had a front row seat to the circus. “The FAFSA is designed to give students access to the largest source of financial aid, such as federal grants, college work-study and loans,” said Howland, in an email interview. “A student and parent (if a dependent student) must both sign the FAFSA. Once it is processed by the Department of Education, the information is sent to the college. A baseline number … is given to the college. [It’s] a calculated dollar amount that demonstrates whether a student has the need for financial aid.” Howland’s office is responsible for processing all the FAFSA information for the college, ensuring students get access to the funds they need. That is, when everything is going smoothly. During last year’s cycle, Howland, and her team, were instead swinging from periods of intense problem-solving and frenetic activity to long, tense inactive periods, waiting to see what would happen next for their students. “[We] kept on top of announcements and changes as they were made,” said Howland. “We would prepare as much as we could while waiting for the next step to roll out and continued doing training and outreach for students.” Most Americans only saw the chaotic results of the cycle. So, what actually happened? At its’ simplest, the U.S. Department of Education tried to make getting federal financial aid easier for students. “The ‘old FAFSA’ consisted of over 100 questions, and generated an Expected Family Contribution (EFC),” she said. “The term was confusing for families, considering it was not the actual amount of money that a student actually paid out of pocket for school.” The EFC was actually “a measure of how much the student and his or her family can be expected to contribute to the cost of the student’s education for a given award year,” according to the FAFSA website. It took students’ income, along with their families’, into account, as well as the number of family members currently enrolled in college. The new FAFSA form, designed based on laws enacted in the FAFSA Simplification Act, part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, did away with the EFC and more than half of the questions. The new form also pulls in data from the IRS, aiming to reduce the question count and make filing faster, and increased the number of college students may include on their application from 10 to 20. Perhaps the most drastic change is the replacement of the EFC with the Student Aid Index, or SAI. The SAI is a modified version of the formula used to calculate aid eligibility, aiming to expand assistance for students from low-income families. It’s a worthy endeavor, but disappointingly, not every student benefits from the “new FAFSA,” says Howland. “[T]he new application does not consider the number of family members in college like the old FAFSA. The EFC had the number in college built into the formula, where the SAI does not.” For families with multiple children close in age, it’s a harsh blow. Putting one student through school is expensive enough, already. Forget two, or three, or four. Still, the “new FAFSA” might have had a less news-worthy introduction if there hadn’t been a crippling array of errors and issues in its’ roll out. “A standard opening for the FAFSA form is October 1 of each year,” Howland said. “The Department of Education had many delays due to programmatic errors, formula errors and technical fixes. Making the FAFSA easier and streamlined clearly made the behind the scenes processing more difficult and was out of the control of the individual college Financial Aid offices.” The ’24-’25 cycle opened on December 30, 2023, three months late, and it only got worse from there. A glitch in the system made submitting impossible for millions of students nationwide, especially those whose parents have no Social Security Number. If students cleared the hurdle of submitting, they still weren’t out of the woods, as nearly 30% of applications had calculation errors, according to FAFSA’s website. A further 16% had student errors, or mistakes made by students, that were known but left uncorrectable for weeks as the Department of Education toyed with the coding of the online form which allowed applicants to fix them. Colleges had no way of issuing financial aid offers students until the issues were addressed, leaving both institutions and students waiting around as days ticked by and deadline crept closer. “Admissions Offices moved acceptance deadlines and outreach campaigns to get students to complete their FAFSA, but not all students were successful,” she said. Here at MCLA, she and her team worked to provide students as much training and assistance as possible in filling out the form, as well as trying to alleviate some of the pressure from the swap to the SAI. “We have a process in the office to review the students that were affected negatively by that change,” said Howland, “and can adjust if we are able to see a glaring change in the numbers.” Their work only goes so far, however. “Sometimes there are no adjustments to be made if the income of the family did in fact go up and there were no other significant changes to the finances,” she said. Despite the resilience of America’s students, the fraught FAFSA rollout brought measurable enrollment declines, as students and families simply did not have all the information available to make informed decisions. Colleges did their best to help, says Howland, but it wasn’t enough to combat the lack of information. After such a fiasco, no one would blame her for shuddering at the thought of the upcoming ’25-’26 FAFSA cycle. Yet, Howland says she’s ready for it. “FAFSA was simplified just by the reduction of questions,” she remarked. “I am optimistic that this year’s rollout will be much smoother.” For their part, the Department of Education has said they are doing testing of the formula to ensure the calculations are working correctly, and that the glitches from last year have all been remedied before the new cycle is slated to open on December 1, 2024. Despite her own optimism, Howland knows students may not share her positive outlook. She shared her advice ahead of the new cycle, saying: “FAFSA is slated to open for filing on December 1. Returning students should be ready to go in December and get it filed as soon as possible. If there are any issues, it will give us time to work through them in a timely manner. We are limited with some of our funding, so being on time is crucial.” She and her team are ready to help students navigate filing for the 2025-2026 school year. “SFS will be hosting FAFSA workshops in the spring for students that do not complete in December. We also have one on one appointments available to help with FAFSA completion upon its opening in December. Appointments may be scheduled on our website, www.mcla.edu/aid, after December 1, of course,” Howland says. Her office isn’t just for returning MCLA students. SFS also provides help for FAFSA contributors, like parents or guardians, and enrolling students. You can get in touch with SFS by calling 413-662-5219 or emailing finaid@mcla.edu. With the future of FAFSA uncertain, across the country, colleges and students alike are hoping for the best and fortifying themselves for the worst. At MCLA, students can breathe a little easier, knowing Howland and her team are on their side.

Michael Nichols-Pate isn’t a method actor. Despite countless TV and movie cliches that would make you believe it’s the only way to go, Nichols-Pate believes it can often do an actor more harm than good. “[I]t can just weigh on you,” he told a Writing and Reporting the News class at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts recently via a Zoom interview. “You don’t want to start embodying the negative aspects of your character, which is easier to do than embody[ing] the positives.” The 31-year-old actor and Glens Falls, NY, native speaks from experience, recounting the unease that would follow him home after the final bows of Sandy Hill Arts Center’s production of “Cabaret” in June of 2024. Despite his upbeat demeanor, Nichols-Pate admits the car ride home from the theater was a struggle. “I’m still feeling everything…this is a heavy thing.” He’s not a rookie, either. Nichols-Pate has been acting for nearly 20 years since landing his first role in a local production at age 11. His fascination with theater started long before that first show, when 5-year-old Michael was entranced by a high school production of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Minus a brief hiatus in LA where he wasn’t acting, he has been in theaters ever since. Nichols-Pate plays the dashing Robert Martin alongside “Chaperone” and Salem Theater visiting-guest-artist Rebecca Paige in Fort Salem Theater’s production of “The Drowsy Chaperone”. As an actor from New York working in theater, it would be natural to assume he aspires to Broadway and, like so many in his shoes, spends each day striving to make it to Manhattan. Natural, but incorrect. He’s much more excited about the theatrical work going on that’s a little less visible or mainstream. Some of the most thought-provoking productions, in his opinion, are happening on much smaller stages. “We’re seeing a lot of really interesting and creative pushes being done locally and regionally that [are] not necessarily translating to Broadway.” For one example, he points to the production of “Cabaret” he’d appeared in. The show’s run was a smaller stage in both the literal and figurative sense: Sandy Hill is a regional theater, without the same reach as Broadway, but it was also a uniquely immersive venue. “Cabaret” is set in a nightclub in Berlin as the Nazi Party is rising to power. “Utilizing this small, little hole-in-the-wall theater that wasn’t even so much a theater as a banquet hall and allowing the show to be very immersive, I find that was really impactful,” said Nichols-Pate. “I’ve actually become really interested and invested in creating immersive theatrical experiences as I feel it helps further the story along.” Building a world around audience members for them to react and interact with is a frontier of theater that Nichols-Pate feels deeply connected to. “You can go see Cabaret, or you can go and the minute you walk in the doors, you’re in the nightclub, they’re all around you, and then at the end when the characters are going through turmoil and the Nazis are stomping and marching around, you say to yourself: I could have stopped this at any point, but I, too, sat there. It creates an interesting, unique experience where each show is different.” Nichols-Pate says Broadway productions can’t (or won’t) take risks. With so many eyes on them, these nationally known productions push fewer boundaries, and tend to stick to the brief. On the local and regional levels, however, companies can be bold. In choosing atypical castings, unique stagings, and unconventional designs, local theaters are going outside a box Broadway can’t afford to, with great success. “You’re seeing that more locally because you’re not getting a list of folks, and you don’t have to make up $40 million to just break even. Broadway is not willing to take risks.” It’s not just the capacity for bold choices that draws him to theater at the community, local, and regional levels. It’s also the accessibility. Nichols-Pate is the Executive Director of Bunbury Players: a company of volunteer theatrical artists who present easily accessible theater, free of charge. Bunbury Players was started by Garrett West, Nichols-Pate’s close friend, during the COVID-19 pandemic as a “Zoom Theater,” with the goal of keeping theater alive in a safe and accessible way. Since then, the company has transitioned into in-person productions, but the mission has remained the same. “Theater has gotten so expensive. Not just to create it, but to see it…I get it, theater is expensive. But also, you want an audience to come, and you don’t just want a certain demographic. You want it to be accessible.” It’s that desire to ensure that anyone who wants to see and engage with live theater can that keeps Nichols-Pate, and the Bunbury Players, going, he said. “Sometimes, the most important show is unable to be seen because there’s a price wall. Suddenly, there are children who might want to see ‘Cinderella’, and become inspired by it, who can’t afford getting to see it…It blocks people off.” Bunbury Players aims to close that gap by making theater that is free to see and engage with. It’s Nichols-Pate’s way of giving back to the things that built him. “Community theater raised me. I stand by that.”

Take a walk by Mark Hopkins Hall and you’re sure to notice a brand-new, colorful addition to your surroundings. Across from the main entrance, a large rock is now sporting a fresh white coat of paint, decorated with handprints. The rock re-vamp is a result of the “Make Your Mark” event, held by the office of New Student Transition, early in the fall semester. Spencer Moser, MCLA’s Assistant Dean of Student Growth and Wellness, spent the afternoon helping freshmen and new transfer students paint their hands and add their prints to the stone. He says giving the rock a makeover is part of the college’s efforts to create a fulfilling, useful, and memorable orientation experience for new MCLA students. Capping the first few weeks of their time here with a handprint is Director of Student Engagement and New Student Transition Jenn Labbance’s way of giving students a permanent visual reminder of their entry into the MCLA community. “This is her brainchild, this is her baby,” said Moser. “She’s been wanting to create more tradition and rituals here at MCLA and we know that’s important to the community. …There’s a lot of campuses, even high school or college campuses, that have these rocks, these boulders, and groups of students can make their mark on them. You walk by and say, ‘Yeah, that’s me! I put my handprint on that.’ It’s a nice recollection.” As Moser spoke, behind him, students were lathering their hands in shades of blue, green, and yellow and pressing them gleefully onto the rock’s surface. The white base layer became more and more obscured, covered by handprints in MCLA’s school colors. The energy in the air was palpable, as freshmen and transfer students alike took part in the inaugural event. Janeilah Vazquez, MCLA’s Graduate Assistant for Student Affairs and a former Orientation Leader, was also present to help students make their mark. She’s well-acquainted with the shifts the college has been making to improve the orientation experience for incoming students. “We took things a little differently. We took a lot of feedback from peer mentors, as well as the first-year students who went through orientation last year,” Vazquez said. “We heard them, we listened, and we adjusted our schedule to include more things that increase socialization, but also gets everyone ready for school to start.” Orientation is an undeniably stressful time for new students, as they work to adjust to a completely new environment, schedule, and set of demands at the start of a semester at a new school. Labbance, Moser, and Vazquez know the importance of ensuring that time is designed, planned, and executed as best as possible. Striking the right balance of fun, informative, and commemorative isn’t an easy task, but it’s an essential one. “We integrated what was, in the past, a little more segregated between the Greylock L.E.A.D Academy activity sessions and the traditional orientation sessions, hoping they would complement each other a little bit more,” reflected Moser. “That was new and that was exciting.” The team’s hope was to make 2024’s orientation smoother and more cohesive than in years past, an aim they are constantly reaching for. “[Our goal is] to continue the good work we do around on-boarding students. We always want to improve and look at best practices,” he continued. “There’s some stuff that students may not be totally excited about, but we know, and the research shows, that it’s really important that they’re exposed to these things, and then looking at things we can continue to do that are just pure fun for students and build a sense of community and trust amongst each other.” Pressing palmfuls of paint onto the rock outside Mark Hopkins certainly fit the bill for pure fun. Students were laughing and joking with friends new and old as they left a piece of themselves in MCLA’s story forever. The scene made Vazquez and Moser visibly happy as they handed over paint and rinsed hands. “That’s our magnetic north,” Moser said. “That’s what we look towards.”