Relate is a creative outlet event that is held during the semester where students and teachers can get away from all their daily responsibilities and share their talents. Relate was started a year ago by Daniel Ruiz, speech and theater instructor, and Farren Clark, speech instructor.

College years often represent a time of independence and self-expression that marks many students' search for religious or spiritual beliefs. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, fewer young adults (ages 18-19) belong to any particular faith and are less likely to be affiliated with a particular denomination than their parents or grandparents.

Rip Michaels and Gary Owen graced the stage of Peltier Auditorium with their comedic abilities on Feb. 6 at the Student Programming Association's Comedy Night. Opening the night, Rip Michaels introduced himself to the Nicholls community. Michaels claims he was "hit" with the realization to do comedy during his college football career.

After spending her fall semester as an exchange student in Paris, France, Kristen Legendre, business graduate from Chackbay returned to the bayou to share her experience as the first Nicholls student to travel to the French capital through the master of business administration exchange program.

Pan-roasted red snapper with corn maque choux puree, paired with Jazzmen rice prepared in Abita beer, alongside a cornucopia of pickled vegetables and a John Folse Culinary Institute education was Paul Terrebonne's award winning recipe for the regional level of the San Pellegrino Almost Chef Famous held in San Antonio on Jan.

Gilson Filho, freshman from Brazil, won first place for strings in the South Central Division of the Music Teachers National Association Young Artist Competition held in Austin, Texas Jan. 14-15 and qualified to participate in the national competition on March 26 in New York City.

Mardi Gras season is close and two Nicholls students, Mary Catherine Shaver, nursing sophomore from Thibodaux and Francesca Ledet, freshman from Houma have been living double lives as queens and college students. They are Nicholls students while walking past them, but they have lives of being royalty outside of school.

Students and faculty of the Nicholls community walk past Research Vessel Miss Dee behind Gouaux Hall without knowing who it was named after and why it was named after Deanna Bonvillain. Deanna Bonvillain was a secretary in the biology department for over 35 years.

The same mind that created SickFreak Inc., Adrian Bourgeois, accounting senior from Raceland, has switched gears from humor to a more serious style with his book "Message to the Masses," which was officially released on Tuesday. "Message to the Masses" is a collection of 60 poems that Bourgeois has written over the past year about many different topics.

Some authors write to have their work published and spread to the masses while others write only as a hobby. Only a select few are blessed with having their hobby achieve the goal that others devote their entire lives to. Brigett Scott, assistant professor of allied health sciences, sat down to talk about her book that was recently picked up by Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million and Amazon.

The Nicholls community prepares for change this semester from the familiar Blackboard to a free web application called Moodle. Moodle is the new primary source of academic communication with teachers that has similar functioning to Blackboard. There are a number of differences such as the layout, tab names and communication options.

After the Thanksgiving holidays, students will begin to take their final examinations for the fall semester. This week is the last full week of lectures for the semester, which means that finals week is upon us. Finals week is arguably the most stressful week of the semester.

Procrastination and cramming are a student's worst enemies for the last few days of school according to professors at Nicholls. Cramming is a rampant monster that consumes 48 percent of college students under the age of 24 who cram for final exams, according to BBC News.