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T h e I n d e p e n d e n t S t u d e n t N e w s p a p e r o f B r a n d e is U n i v e r sit y S i n c e 1 9 4 9 Volume LXXIV, Number 17
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
BLOOD DRIVE
Waltham, Mass.
JEOPARDY
Univ. student chosen for "Jeopardy!" ■ Ariella Weiss from the
Justice spoke with Kornman about his experience playing on "Jeopardy! National College Championship". By ARIELLA WEISS JUSTICE EDITOR
Photo Courtesy of HANNA ARONOVICH
WALTHAM GROUP: Students from Waltham Group welcomed blood donors with Valentine's Day themed decorations.
Waltham Group hosts “Sweetheart Drive” ■ The drive occurred at a
crucial time with America experiencing a national blood shortage. By LEAH BREAKSTONE
JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
The American Red Cross is currently facing its worst national blood shortage in more than a decade, according to their website. On Monday, Feb. 7 and Wednesday, Feb. 9, Blood Drive, under the Waltham Group, hosted one of their triannual blood drives. The “Sweetheart Drive” collected
Photo Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS
55 units of blood, “which is on par with our usual amount collected. This has the potential to save 165 lives nationwide,” Hanna Aronovich ’22, a coordinator for Blood Drive, wrote in a Feb. 10 email to the Justice. The shortage occurred alongside the pandemic; “The American Red Cross shared with us that there has been a 10% decline in donations since the beginning of the pandemic,” Aronovich wrote. In addition to patients not receiving the blood products they need, “Lifealtering choices need to be made by healthcare providers for who gets the blood products and who does not when supplies are limited,” she added.
Additionally, because of the ongoing pandemic, many college and high school blood drives have been canceled. This is problematic because, as Aronovich wrote, “According to the American Red Cross website, high school and college blood drives used to make up about 25% of donations before the pandemic, and now that number has dropped to about 10%.” Aronovich stressed that safety of the donors is the top priority during the drives. The Red Cross nurses “take a health history and mini physical before you donate to make sure you meet all the requirements and are healthy enough
See BLOOD DRIVE, 5 ☛
The Justice: I read in BrandeisNow that the competition started today; have you already gone on today? Are you doing it from Athens? How does that work? Joey Kornman: It actually started airing yesterday: it wasn’t filmed live. We filmed it in Culver City, California from Nov. 19 to 24. TJ: So you’re seven hours ahead — that would be — 3 a.m. right? JK: Right. My episode is tonight at 3:30 a.m. Athens time but 8:30 p.m. EST. TJ: So you're going to watch it at 3 a.m.?! JK: I'm not going to stay up to watch it. Hopefully I'll be asleep; I already know what happens –– I also have a roommate. TJ: What was it like being with other college students? JK: There were 36 of us. It was really nice, and we were all getting friendly for a few days before we started playing. That was tough because you don't wanna compete against people you like, but then you're also more comfortable with them on stage. TJ: Did you know anything about the topics beforehand? Like is there any way for you to prepare? Or is it just based on the knowledge you already have? JK: I only crammed one subject, which was novels and authors. I wasn't gonna try to cram sports or pop culture which I know nothing about. You can actually psych yourself out by doing that. The biggest thing is being comfortable on stage. It's more about being on stage than knowing trivia, if you study too much you could psych yourself out. In a lot of the games the person who knew the most wasn't the winner. My dad knows a lot of trivia, but he doesn’t think he could be [on] Jeopardy. TJ: Do you see yourself as someone who’s comfortable being in the spotlight? JK: Nothing prepares you for being on national TV. I saw Mayim Bialik come out, who’s a legitimate celebrity! And I had done local live [trivia] shows in high school. [For Jeopardy,] We had shot promos in the days before so I had already been on the stage.
The “Wheel of Fortune” stage was just like another room to us. When we got, there everyone was all wide-eyed, but once we started going on-stage, it helped me get more comfortable. TJ: Were your parents there for the filming? JK: The only people that went were the contestants because of COVID. You were allowed to tell people that would have come with you to film if it wasn't COVID, so my mom knows the results. My dad doesn't want to know. He can't keep a secret! TJ: So you’re in Athens for study abroad right, for a classics major: has that come up as a topic at all for the questions? JK: I can't say any of the topics. I signed so many NDAs. I don't even remember a ton of [what was asked]; there was so much adrenaline while we were playing that I don’t remember specifics, so I'm also excited to watch it. It's a known fact that I'm in one episode, but I can't confirm or deny anything beyond that. TJ: Did you watch "Jeopardy!" a lot as a kid? Who or what gave you the push to apply to be on it? JK: A lot of the people there have life-long attachments. My parents went to a filming there in the 80s; some had met Alex Trebek while he was still alive and promised him they’d be back. I don't have that deep connection. It's the pinnacle of trivia on TV in the mainstream; if you really are wanting to watch the highest level trivia, that’d be college level Quiz Bowl. With "Jeopardy!", everyone and their grandma knows it. TJ: What was the application and interview process like to get on? JK: I applied on a whim: you take a quiz, then another quiz, and then go on to the interviews … I know others from Brandeis and my high school quiz bowl team that got to the interview stage too. That was in January 2021, they got back to me in September. I had totally forgotten about it because I treated it like a joke. It’s super low commitment to do the quiz: it's like 50 questions. I did it my freshman year too. I don't know what was so alluring about my application [specifically]. TJ: Where were you when you got accepted? Was what that like? JK: They literally text you. The text said there's a chance you can get on if you pass background checks, but nothing’s guaranteed yet. I was worried they'd be filming while I was in Athens. They asked if the dates in the fall [Nov. 19 to 24] worked for me and I was like ‘yeah, I guess!’ My mom
Senate swore in two new senators
Work-Study Struggles
APAHM Celebration
Work-Study is meant to help afford tuition through working but for some, this proves challenging.
BAASA kicked off their
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ARTS AND CULTURE 14
By AIDEN GUTHRO
FEATURES 6
celebration of APAHM with their annual culture show, themed "Ride with the Waves."
JACK YUANWEI CHENG/the Justice
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See JEOPARDY, 5 ☛
By MAX FEIGELSON
NEWS 2
Editorial board and COVID-19 protocol transparency By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
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FORUM 8 SPORTS 11