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This semester, Ole Miss freshman volleyball player Marielle Oestermeyer decided to quit the sport she had dedicated so much of her life to playing.  Oestermeyer said couldn’t handle the the stressful schedule of being an athlete and a student.

“First semester was hectic,” said Oestermeyer.

Oestermeyer described leaving for an 8 a.m. class and then usually not returning to her room until 9 p.m.  She would practice volleyball for six hours a day and spend each weekend playing in a tournament.  The sport she once loved began to dominate her life.

“I never got any sleep, I wasn’t happy, and I cried a lot, which is kind of embarrassing to admit.  I was pretty miserable,” Oestermeyer said.

Towards the end of the fall volleyball season, the Ole Miss Sports website published an article titled “Oestermeyer Looks To Lead Rebels Past No. 19 LSU”.  The story focused on Oestermeyer’s leadership abilities, volleyball skills and work ethic.  Although outwardly composed at the time, the talented setter was struggling.

“It was a long process and it took a long time to realize why I wanted to quit volleyball,” said Oestermeyer. “Life’s too short to be unhappy, and you only have so many years of college.  I know it sounds selfish, but I mean if you’re not happy, there’s no point in doing it; and if you don’t love something anymore with the passion that you did before, it’s not worth it.”

Currently, the Ole Miss athletic department addresses the problem of student-athlete stress by offering academic support.  The Fed-Ex Student-Athlete Academic Support Center provides “quality developmental and need-based programs to help student-athletes become independent and self-reliant learners.”  This year, 118 Ole Miss student-athletes were named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll.

Oestermeyer’s former teammate Ashley Veach is one of Ole Miss’s scholar-athletes.

“I deal with my overwhelming schedule by using my time wisely and getting as much sleep as I can,” said Veach.  “I try not to procrastinate.”

After quitting volleyball, Oestermeyer says her second semester as a freshman has been “nothing but happy.”

“I’ve been able to reach out and meet new people and go home a lot more.  I feel more like I belong here at the University of Mississippi instead of like I’m doing a job,” said Oestermeyer.

Even though her college experience is much less stressful, Oestermeyer sometimes misses her teammates and the sport she has played since middle school.

“The hardest part of quitting volleyball,” said Oestermeyer, “was realizing that I’m never going to step on a court with five other individuals again, I’ll never be able to wear a jersey again, and I won’t be able to be proud and to want to win something so bad for my teammates.”

On Monday, journalist Mike Walter screened his documentary “Breaking News, Breaking Down” in the Overby Center Auditorium.  The opportunity to listen to and learn more about Walter, as well as other influential figures in the field of journalism, was provided by the Meek School of Journalism and New Media‘s Spring Journalism Week 2010.

Walter, a four-time Emmy award winner, focused on the trauma that journalists go through while covering a particularly violent or devastating event.  He began by saying that coverage of traumatic events form lasting and moving impressions within in the public.  What the public may not recognize, though, is the human being behind the objective storyteller.

Walter himself did not consider or recognize the burden placed on journalists until  September 11, 2001.

On what he described as a normal start to a beautiful day, Walter witnessed first-hand the gruesome and disturbing terrorist attack on America.  While stuck in Washington D.C. traffic on his way to work, Walter saw a plane crash directly into the Pentagon.

Walter immediately jumped out of his car into a chaotic and frightened crowd to begin covering the attack.  The severity of the event, though, did not overwhelm Walter until he received a worried call from his daughter.  She asked him if her friends’ parents were alive.  At this point, Walter felt the emotional impact of what he had witnessed.

For a long time after 9/11, Walter asked why such a destructive event had to happen.  Then following the advice of a friend, Walter attended a meeting at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.  Afterwards, Walter instead focused his attentions on how to turn his traumatic experience into something good.

The Dart Center was established in 1994 as way to recognize the impact of covering violent and disastrous events on journalists.  The center believes that it is better for journalists to talk about their feelings rather than bottling them up.  The Dart Center promotes a shared experience and brings together journalists into a community.

Walter’s approximately 35-minute- long documentary, “Breaking News, Breaking Down,” was inspired by his experiences at the Dart Center.  In the documentary, he focuses on the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina not just to the city of New Orleans, but to its citizens and journalists.  Walter details the story of journalist John McClusker’s emotional breakdown and eventual recovery. He also focuses on a particular group of journalists’ efforts to rebuild the city and citizens of New Orleans.

Walter’s participation in Ole Miss’s Spring Journalism Week 2010 was a touching and informative look into the almost never seen emotions of journalists.

Registration for Ole Miss’s upcoming fall semester is now underway.  It’s a fairly simple process that involves only a few steps.  

In order to sign up for classes, a student must first meet with his or her  assigned academic adviser who will lift any academic holds.

With 18,000 students, a limited number of classes and scheduling difficulties, students can easily become anxious about getting into the classes they want.  The University takes steps to prepare its academic advisers through events like the Ole Miss Academic Advisors Network Meeting (pdf) in February.

Freshman Sarabeth Bratton looks forward to taking biology classes as part of her nursing major.  However, she does not feel the same about every course she has to take.

“The class I don’t want to take, slash dread, would be English classes because I think they’re subjective,” says Bratton.

By meeting with academic advisers and registering in a timely manner, most students should be able to get a seat in the classes they want or need.