In advance of Yeshiva University's upcoming Sarachek Basketball Tournament, which will be taking place on campus beginning March 27th with the participation of schools from throughout the country, the Sports Management Club - led by Joey Goffstein ('14) - secured their first marketing partnership. 

Proudly, the club announces a deal with Five Star Catering, who have become the Official Caterer of the MTA Varsity Basketball Lions during the course of the tournament. 

As a team partner, Five Star is also the presenting partner of the "T-Shirt Toss" and their logo will be featured on the t-shirt giveaways during the Lions' games. As Goffstein explained,"getting this deal done was a tremendous learning experience and provided great insight into the sports marketing industry. We're excited to have partnered with such a top-tier catering service."

On Wednesday morning March 5, the news went out - MTA had won an award in the C-SPAN StudentCam documentary contest. "Made in the USA", a documentary produced by Yisroel Loewy ('15) and Shimmy Socol ('16) of MTATV,  had won The Honorable Mention Award out of 2,355 entries. 

This year's theme was "What's The Most Important Issue Congress Should Consider in 2014?"  We decided that we wanted to produce a documentary about what indeed turned out to be the number one topic discussed, the economy - specifically, less outsourcing and more in-sourcing. We did not want this documentary to be just any standard film stating facts about this nation's fiscal situation so we decided to show it in the best way we possible could. We took to the streets of NYC where we filmed various scenes depicting what outsourcing jobs is actually doing to the middle class. 

Click here for more photos

We also ran a series of interviews, one with CEO and YouTube infotainer Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome Inc. and one with YUHSB's own recruiting consultant, Shuey Jacoby. The award consists of a cash prize and a spot on the StudentCam winners' page here. MTATV's winning entry can also be viewed by clicking on the first image above. 

We would like to thank all those who helped make this documentary a success and hope to produce more in the future.

This week, the juniors and seniors attended a program coordinated by our Guidance Department about the dangers of drinking and what alcohol consumption may lead to.  After an introduction by Rabbi Taubes and some words from Mrs. Tamar Sheffey, our School Social Worker, the main part of the program began.   The speakers were from SAFE, an outpatient addiction clinic in Brooklyn that services the Jewish community and that runs Project SAFE, a school based prevention program.

Mr. Yossi Sirote, the Associate Director of Special Programs for SAFE, introduced the keynote speaker, Mr. Joe Cabasso.  Mr. Cabasso was a drug addict who eventually overcame his addiction and he came to tell us his tale.  He grew up in Brooklyn where his parents threw a crazy Purim party every year. When he was just 13, he started drinking with friends at this party, which eventually led to his drinking every Friday night and he ultimately became an alcoholic. His drinking led to his experimenting with and then using other drugs and he soon became a full blown drug addict. He poignantly described the hardships and pain that he went through at this time, as he engaged every student in the room.

He explained to us about a few of the many dangers brought about by the use of drugs and alcohol. He described to us how he almost lost his family and his business and he also related that a few of his friends actually died because of their alcohol and other drug use.  What was important to hear was that most of his friends that were addicts as teens are still addicts today.  During the question and answer period, students asked many questions and found the speaker's answers fitting and interesting.  The program ended with a video about how drunk driving affects the lives of so many people, even those who are not in the accidents themselves.

As we go into Purim, the words of Mr. Cabasso are still ringing in our ears. We hope everyone's Purim is enjoyable and safe.