The Student Newspaper of
Palm Beach Atlantic University
Volume 7, Issue 20
Urban garden
Digital photography students ventured to Mounts Botanical Garden, located on Military Trail, near the airport. See page 8 for more
photographs from the garden.
Left: Amy Hillberg / contributing photographer, right: cash lambert / assist. news editor
By Anna Zetterberg
Managing Editor
As I walk through the freshly-
clipped grass, small drops of dew drag
across my bare feet. Radiant orange
beams of morning sun cascade across
the delicate blooms, hanging like
trumpets, declaring the glory of a new
Two men prepare for a night out on the lawn of the Meyer Ampitheater.
‘SleepOut’ downtown
shows life of homeless
By Chris Hernandez
Features Editor
When Palm Beach Atlantic Univer-
sity senior Karen Green took to the
stage of the Meyer Amphitheatre in
West Palm Beach on April 9, she asked
the community gathered for SleepOut
2011 to imagine. To imagine going to a
city alone for a new job only to find that
there wasn’t one available. To imagine
going to a place for a new beginning
where you knew no one, with only $30
to your name and one bag of clothes.
To imagine becoming homeless. “If
you can imagine that,” she said, “then
you know my experience.”
Green is one of many people impact-
ed by The Lord’s Place, a non-profit
organization built on the purpose of
breaking the cycle of homelessness
through programs that range from
family housing to career development.
An alumna of The Lord’s Place’s Rapid
Re-Housing program, Green expressed
her gratitude later on that night for the
organization that provided her with a
safe and loving home and credits it for
her success at PBA.
readmybeacon.com
day and its creator.
Cheerful birds sing from treetops;
the bees join in with a soft buzz as they
go about their work. An overhead jet
serves as the only reminder of where
the garden is, humbly tucked away,
unseen by most who zoom by on the
busy street.
Each path leads to an unexpected,
Chris Hernandez / features editor
Before finding The Lord’s Place, Bill
McDermott spent 18 months living in
Okeeheelee Park. A drunk and drug
addict, McDermott decided to get his
life together. That decision led him to
a half-way house and, eventually, The
Lord’s Place. McDermott is currently
working on sharpening his computer
and interview skills in the organiza-
tion’s job training program. He sees
the program as a blessing. “When I
started at The Lord’s Place, I had lived
my life as a non-believer,” he said.
“Now, I know there is a God.”
Tiffany Swisher had struggled with
drugs since she was 14 before enter-
ing various treatment facilities that
she said did nothing for her. As she sat
with her infant son on the green of the
amphitheater, surrounded by people
setting up their tents for the night,
Swisher recalled the time she had had
enough. “It was after I was caught steal-
ing from Wal-Mart that I decided to go
into in patient treatment,” she said. “I
remember thinking ‘I need to do this
for myself and for my son.’” During
see SleepOut, page 2
new area to be explored. This secret
garden is teeming with life. Spiders,
insects, small rodents and birds have
found their own little paradise—
where they, and I, can escape from the
busyness just outside the gates.
While life out there feels like it’s on
fast-forward, in here, life is on pause.
Homelessness in
Palm Beach County
By Cash Lambert
Assistant News Editor
Homelessness seems to be
far away from the average Palm
Beach Atlantic University student
and far away from any solution.
Whether you see them or not, the
homeless are here in PBA’s com-
munity.
The Palm Beach Homeless
Coalition has put forth a ten-year
plan, which is aiming to “create
a local homeless response sys-
tem that will completely eliminate
homelessness in our communi-
ty.” The outcome of the ten-year
plan is hoped for by 2018, where
“communities will have developed
4,000 units of affordable/acces-
sible housing located throughout
the county.”
The statics are staggering. Ac-
cording to pbc.gov, 42 percent of
the homeless are under the age
of five. A recent study has shown
that homelessness has increased
nearly 22 percent since 2007.
The reasons for homelessness
in Palm Beach County and across
the nation are many and varied,
from an increase in poverty to a
lack of affordable housing. Ad-
vocates for the homeless see a
problem the community must deal
with, and not “sweep it under the
rug.”
For information on helping fight
the problem of homelessness,
visit thelordsplace.org or home-
lesscoalitionpbc.org.
inside...
Coach Carter is cautiously
optimistic about end of
baseball season.
page 7
Monday, April 18, 2011
PBA’s diversity
increases with
its county’s
By Samone Davis
Staff Writer
Between the years 2000 and 2010,
Palm Beach County experienced an
increase in population by 16.7 percent,
due to the increase of the minorities
(blacks and Hispanics) that raised the
county’s census population to over 1.3
million in 2010.
According to the Sun Sentinel, of
Palm Beach County’s 1.3 million resi-
dents, 40 percent are minority, which
moved up from 29 percent in 2000.
The Palm Beach Post recorded that
by 2010 the population of whites in
Palm Beach County increased to 60.1
percent; blacks are now up to 16.8 per-
cent and Hispanics are at 19 percent,
which was previously 12.4 percent in
2000.
Coinciding with the increase in the
population of minorities in the county,
Palm Beach Atlantic University also
experienced its own increase in diver-
sity.
Of PBA’s population, 58 percent are
white students. The number of minori-
ties has significantly increased over
the past few years. The population of
Hispanics among the student body is
currently 13 percent and the popula-
tion of blacks has increased as well, to
15 percent.
“There is a large population of His-
panics and African-American blacks
enrolled in this university and over the
past few years, there has been more fo-
cus on increasing of number of inter-
national students,” said Beth Chavez,
assistant director of the Center for
Campus Connections.
However, some students around
campus hardly notice the difference
in race and population because of the
friendly environment while others do
notice it, and embrace it.
see Diversity, page 2
Diversity
at Palm
Beach
Atlantic
Seniors share their stories.
page 4 & 5