Welcome to the 2nd season of Welcome Home!

Katie Cole chats with two Simmons students, Grace Gile and Lauren Lanseigne, whose relationship began with a dorm-room embroidery date. They each run their own small businesses, which you can find on Instagram @artbythreads and @stitchesinrhyme

The designer of the Shark’s logo, Kelly O’Hanlon (‘18) hops on the podcast with Iz Indelicato to talk about her art background, design process, and what she’s up to now.

Sarah Carlon tells us more about the upcoming Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Awards conference, and what the nomination for Best Streaming Only Station under could mean for Simmons Radio. Check out The Shark’s podcast feed to hear all of our nominations, which we will be uploading throughout the week.

Eliot Stanton reflects on their piece “A Letter to Elliot Page That I Will Never Send,” in which they dip into the topics of transitioning, representation, and celebrity. You can find Eliot on Instagram @estanton314

Keep the conversation going on Twitter and Instagram, or by email at voice@simmons.edu & simmonsradio@gmail.com
The Voice: Instagram & Twitter
The Shark: Instagram & Twitter

As we want to do our best to have as many folks as possible feel at home, here is a transcription of the episode.

Iz Indelicato  

Shall we go ahead? 

Sarah Carlon  

Yeah, let’s do it.

Iz Indelicato  

Awesome.

INTRODUCTION MUSIC BEGINS TO PLAY

ANNOUNCER

Welcome Home. From Simmons Radio: The Shark and The Simmons Voice, this is Welcome Home. A show about news, culture, and stories that impact Simmons University. No matter where you are we’ll keep you updated on what’s happening at home.

Iz Indelicato  

Welcome back to Welcome Home. Season Two. Is that what we’re saying? Is that accurate? 

Sarah Carlon  

Yeah, I like Season Two 

Katie Cole  

Season two. Season two colon, the second semester. Season Two colon, too fast, too Zoom, too furious. Tokyo Drift. All of it.

Iz Indelicato  

Oh my goodness.

Sarah Carlon  

Season Two Tokyo Drift

Iz Indelicato  

Insert Glass Animals Tokyo Drifting. Anyways, it’s so nice to be back looking at you two, not in the studio, but over Zoom as the pandemic rages on. My name is Iz Indelicato, I use they or she pronouns. I am the General Manager at the Shark and the Arts and Entertainment Editor at the Voice.

Katie Cole  

I’m Katie Cole. I use she/her/hers pronouns, and I am the Assistant General Manager of Simmons Radio: The Shark and the News Editor of the Simmons Voice.

Sarah Carlon  

I am Sarah Carlon. I use she/her pronouns and I am the Editor-in-Chief of the Simmons Voice.

Iz Indelicato  

And missing Abby Vervaeke, our fourth co-host who graduated last December. Congratulations, Abby, we miss you so much but are so excited for what you will do and where you’re headed so I hope you’re listening out there. And don’t forget us when you’re famous. So we have quite a few things to cover in this episode. Not only are we covering some fantastic Simmons students who bonded and fell in love? Is that is that accurate? Yeah, Katie, for their shared love of embroidery. We have a story about the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Awards and the story behind the fantastic logo of the Simmons Shark.

Sarah Carlon  

So like we talked about last season, in our first episode, we really want to focus on creating a community space for Simmons especially now that we are remote and not on campus. We can’t do that though without the help from our Simmons community. So we’re looking for contributions of all kinds. Stories, audio segments, playlists, specifically, The Shark just put out a playlist from Dr. Leanne Doherty, which I love very much. So we’re also looking for playlists from professors. Any sort of submissions that you would like to see us highlight on the podcast we would love. So if you have any ideas, feel free to shoot us an email either at The Shark’s email simmonsradio@gmail.com, or the Voice’s email voice@simmons.edu. Both of these emails will be in the description for this episode.

Iz Indelicato  

Awesome. Sarah, thank you so much. As Sarah said, all sorts of things that we talk about are in the episode description, including Instagram, Twitter, all the socials, and a transcription for this episode. Which is something that we’re all really excited about to be doing this season. Just making sure that all of our content is accessible as possible for the Simmons community. Katie, from here, do you want to kick it off with the story that you’ve been covering?

Katie Cole  

Yeah, so we all know that Simmons students are creative. And I had the opportunity to sit down and speak to two Simmons students who both basically run their own small embroidery business and are dating embroidery is a thread throughout their relationship. Let’s take a listen.

Grace Gile

Grace Gile  

I’m a neuroscience major with a chemistry minor on the pre-med track. 

Katie Cole  

And Lauren Lanseigne.

Lauren Lanseigne  

I am in the education four plus one and I’m going to get my dual license in special-ed and elementary-ed

Katie Cole  

Are Simmons students. They’ve been dating for over a year and embroidery has tied them together. 

So I remember reading on social media. I think that one of you got the other into embroidery. How did that all happen? 

Grace Gile  

It actually was our first date was Lauren teaching me how to embroider. Yeah, it’s like really cute. Personally, for me, I had tried a whole bunch of different like art forms. I did like crocheting for a while, I tried knitting and like, hated both of those. But like, I loved sewing growing up. And one day I texted Lauren or something. And I was like, “Hey, please teach me how to embroider.” And then yeah, she came to my dorm and that was our first date was Lauren teaching me how to embroider.

Katie Cole  

That’s so sweet, oh my gosh. So and then you both have kind of like small embroidery businesses where you sell custom hoops to people. Can you tell me a little bit about how you both got started on that journey?

Lauren Lanseigne  

So I’ve been up to it a little bit longer. And I started embroidery, like two years ago, and I just made an Instagram account because I didn’t want to like inundate my regular Instagram followers with posting about it. And it just ended up like, friends and family members started being like, “Hey, you should make me something.” And then I started like being like, I started asking for people if they wanted me to make them things. And then here we are.

Grace Gile  

Yeah. And I kind of like similarly fell into the same kind of situation. I started an Instagram account when I like, did a couple projects and was like, wow, this is something that I love. Like, I’m gonna keep doing it. And then actually, one of my friends from Simmons was like, the first person to ever buy a piece from me, it was like a stupid little, like, three-inch hoop of like, a meme from like, the goose game that was like a big thing, like last year. And she was like, “I love it. Can I please have it.” And I was like, “you want something from like from me?” And then I did like Christmas gifts, and then kind of after that, a lot of people have been asking for either like holiday gifts, birthday gifts, or just something to hang up in their room or whatever.

Katie Cole  

What is the best or your favorite piece that you have ever created?

Lauren Lanseigne  

I think mine is a project that I was working on this past summer. It took me like literally months to do. But I’ve never been more proud of a piece. It was an embroidery my mom asked me to make her to hang in her little cubicle, and it was based off a lighthouse at Acadia National Park. And it took me forever, but I just really love it. And I’m so happy with how it came out.

Katie Cole  

And how does it feel to be making art that in some cases like memorializes important places like for you, Lauren with the lighthouse that you created for your mom. And is going to be hung up in people’s houses and offices and that they’re going to see every day?

Lauren Lanseigne  

I just think it feels really special to have people want that piece of art from you. Like, I just like feel honored that someone asked me to create such an important thing because I’ve like made like memorial pieces for like, lost loved ones, or lost pets and it just like I just feel very honored that people would ask me to do that.

Grace Gile  

Yeah, I feel similarly. And I also think it’s really cool to kind of be a part of the story almost. And like I’ve kind of done similar things like either pet portraits or things like that. And you really feel like you get to know that person and this one little story that they’re deciding to tell through the piece. And so it’s like, really cool to be able to kind of get like a little insight onto someone’s life and something that they’re like super interested in, which is really awesome.

Katie Cole  

Where are you both living right now?

Lauren Lanseigne  

Home!

Katie Cole  

Where’s home for you?

Lauren Lanseigne  

Haverhill Massachusetts. 

Grace Gile  

I’m from Alford, Maine. Lauren and I are just about over an hour away from each other.

Katie Cole  

How often are you able to see each other in person?

Lauren Lanseigne  

A couple times a month?

Grace Gile  

Yeah. Usually like every other week we’ll get together and take some time to hang out.

Katie Cole  

That’s so good. Do you ever wonder when you’re together?

Grace Gile  

Oh, all the time.

Sarah Carlon  

Women loving women, undefeated. Undefeated again.

Katie Cole  

So good.

Iz Indelicato  

They are the trendsetters. 

Sarah Carlon  

Cottagecore TikTokkers could never. Never

Iz Indelicato  

They could never.

Sarah Carlon  

Never.

Katie Cole  

I asked him if they have any, like embroidery goals. Like any like giant projects they want for the future. Grace was like, I want to embroider the periodic table on 108 separate hoops.

Sarah Carlon  

I could see that being like really popular on Etsy. Like people – cause I feel like STEM people have their favorite elements. I feel like we all have, I have a favorite element. 

Katie Cole  

What’s your favorite element?

Sarah Carlon  

I feel like this is lame, but hydrogen. I love hydrogen.

Katie Cole  

Why?

Sarah Carlon  

 I don’t know it can do it can do a lot of different things. It’s very versatile hydrogen and carbon. They’re very versatile. 

Katie Cole  

Yeah, put 2 hydrogens and a carbon together. No. Put two hydrogens and water together and oxygen together. 

Iz Indelicato  

Oh my goodness. 

Katie Cole  

Make water.

Iz Indelicato  

This is why we are in Comm and not the STEM field.

Sarah Carlon  

Hey, I was I was a STEM person for a year.

Katie Cole  

Were you?

Iz Indelicato  

That still baffles me that you went into college… 

Katie Cole  

A nurse?

Sarah Carlon  

No I did chemistry. Isn’t that weird?

Katie Cole  

Yeah, that is weird. That feels wrong to me. 

Sarah Carlon  

I really hated it. Yeah.

Katie Cole  

Really?

Sarah Carlon  

No shade to Simmons professors because I had great professors in the STEM department, but I did not, I suppose it wasfor me. Yeah, it’s catastrophe. But I mean just the way I love Lauren and Grace’s relationship. That is unbelievable. And I definitely have seen both of their embroidery works on Instagram before and it blows my mind like they’re both so incredibly talented. And this is just such a lovely heartwarming story that I really warms my heart. I loved it.

Iz Indelicato  

Something we need around these times, some good news. 

Katie Cole  

Definitely. And if you are interested in Grace and Laurens embroidery or would like to purchase a custom hoop from them, you can find Lauren’s embroidery account @stitchesinrhyme on  Instagram. And for Grace, it’s @artbythreads on Instagram. So check them out. We’ll put the account names down in the description for you all to check out. Simmons students are just really creative across the board. That’s how we got our logo for our station, correct? 

Iz Indelicato  

Yes, it is. So as I hope some of you know, Simmons Radio: The Shark was nominated for six Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Awards, which Sarah is going to tell us more about after this quick piece, one of them being for best logo. And as journalists, we’re supposed to be curious, and we’re supposed to ask questions. But a question that I never asked is how did our logo come to be? I do not understand how I never asked that question. But now I know and we’re going to hear a little bit more about it. So in 2015 2016, around that time, Simmons Radio: The Shark had a competition for a new logo. And as a first-year student, Kelly O’Hanlon decided to throw her submission into the ring. Majoring in political science and international relations, Kelly graduated in 2008 is currently living in Omaha, Nebraska, working as a study abroad advisor at Creighton University. Let’s take a listen to hear a little bit more about Kelly’s background, her design process and what she’s up to now.

Can we get started by you just telling us a little bit about the process in which you designed the logo? Because I know you said that you were a poli sci major. So how did you find yourself entering this competition?

Kelly O’Hanlon  

Yes. So I am in love with a lot of different things in life. When I was studying, I was really fascinated with politics and you know, countries around the world and how they operate. But in my spare time I to this day love to illustrate and paint and do graphic design, kind of fulfill my creative side. And that was the case when I was a student and I saw posters around advertising the contest for the logo for The Shark. And I thought, you know, why not give it a go? Like, try to try to see how I can make a fun logo for the station. Maybe I’ll win. And it just turns out that I did.

Iz Indelicato  

That’s so awesome. And what do you do you want to like walk through the process of how the design for The Shark came to be or if you like took certain inspiration for things or like color palettes. I’m just super interested if you have anything to share about that.

Kelly O’Hanlon  

Yeah, um with my basic knowledge of color theory from art and drawing and painting. I knew that I wanted to do two really contrasting colors that when they came together just kind of electric and just burst off the page. And so I picked that kind of Simmons-ey teal with the yellow. I think those colors worked really well together. I also wanted to try to experiment doing something more abstract, because when you illustrate, you’re basically trying to capture what you see, but I wanted to do something a little bit more fun and kind of just imply a bit of imagination with it. So instead of kind of a very serious or gritty, realistic shark or otherwise. I just thought it would be kind of cool. The mic was like coming out of the wave. So just kind of little bits and pieces of art knowledge that I just had picked up from my hobby came together. And I think it actually had the effect that I wanted it to have on people when they saw the logo, which has really thrilled me and probably has informed a lot of my graphic design projects that I’ve done since then. Graphic Design is all about soliciting emotion and like a reaction to something using particular colors or design elements. And I was just really young at that time hadn’t done much graphic design, and it kind of inspired me to keep it going.

Iz Indelicato  

And can I ask what do you remember what programs you used to make the logo? 

Kelly O’Hanlon  

Yeah, I still use this program to this day, even though they’ve made a bunch of new versions. But I use Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 6 for the whole thing. I probably should have used Illustrator and done some vectors on that. It is not a vector file. I didn’t know what I was doing. I basically drew it. Luckily big enough for it to be high enough quality, but I still kind of find myself doing everything in Photoshop, because that’s what I know and what I’ve known for a really long time, obviously, even if it’s not the most efficient at times. But yeah, I use that. I also use that when I draw, just kind of one-stop shop for everything I do.

Iz Indelicato  

Awesome. That’s so cool. And what are you doing these days in terms of outside of your work and kind of keeping that creative energy flowing?

Kelly O’Hanlon  

I actually do some graphic design on the side for different projects for people, I draw all the time I paint as much as I can. I really make sure to make time for my creative side. I’ve never really learned how to do graphic design formally. So I feel a little bit funny saying I find graphic design jobs here and there. But I think if you have an eye for color or art, you can get creative and kind of fall into a couple different artistic pursuits. So I definitely prioritize keeping up the arts. 

Iz Indelicato  

I feel like this is a question that artists are being asked all the time and they probably hate it. But almost a year into this pandemic, have you been using art as sort of a way to cope? Has it felt like a creative block or sort of an obligation to use this time to like, be creative or work on something?

Kelly O’Hanlon  

Yeah, that’s a great question. Because I don’t do art for a living really, I’m, you know, lucky enough to be able to support myself in some other career while I do art on the side. And I think that relationship with art is really important to me, because if it was my career, especially during the pandemic, I just can’t even imagine how stressed out I would be. And I even was furloughed for a couple months over the summer. I work at a university so a lot of us went through that. Art absolutely captured all my emotions from last year, there were periods where I was so stressed, I wasn’t making anything. There were periods where I was making really weird stuff that I’d never tried before lots of emotions are coming out. And it was just a really good outlet and continues to be a great outlet into 2021. And I appreciate how art has been there for me during this tumultuous time it’s kind of routed me.

Sarah Carlon  

Links to Kelly’s work can be found in the description of this episode.

Iz Indelicato  

So I love everything about this story. But the thing the kicker for me is the fact that she is still using Adobe Photoshop 6. Do either of you have a guess as to what year Adobe Photoshop 6 came out?

Sarah Carlon  

I am afraid that the answer is 2006.

Iz Indelicato  

Incorrect. Katie, do you have a guess? 

Katie Cole  

Perhaps 2011.

Iz Indelicato  

Incorrect. Adobe Photoshop 6, which was used to create our logo and which Kelly O’Hanlon still uses to this day was created in the year 2000.

Katie Cole  

Oh my god.

Sarah Carlon  

What!

Iz Indelicato  

Right? I know Adobe, Adobe comes out with all these updates constantly. But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And clearly it ain’t broke because Dang, that logos good. Dang Kelly knows what she’s doing. And it’s a fantastic designer. 

Sarah Carlon  

We are only marginally older than Adobe Photoshop 6. Thats nuts.

Iz Indelicato  

That’s bonkers.

Katie Cole  

Kelly, too must not be too much older than Adobe Photoshop 6.

Iz Indelicato  

I know. I should have asked her – well at that point, I didn’t at the point of our interview I didn’t know that it was released in September 2000. So I want to ask her if I get in touch with her again. How did you get your hands on this?

Katie Cole  

Oh my goodness. Well, that’s incredible. Thank you, Kelly. Because our logo is amazing. I actually painted our logo on an old vinyl record and it’s in our studio. So Kelly, you inspired me creatively. Thanks, Kelly.

Sarah Carlon  

Also speaking of our amazing logo, it is up for an award along with a few other things The Shark has been doing. So Simmons Radio: The Shark has been nominated for 6 Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Awards for this year, including Best Documentary, Best Spot News Coverage, Best Logo, Best Podcast for Welcome Home, Best Podcast for Food Insecurity on Campus by Molly Jean Henebury and Best Streaming-Only station. When is it’s this weekend? No, it’s next week?

Iz Indelicato  

It is March 2 through March 6. And typically the conference happens just during the weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, but this year, I guess, thanks to the pandemic, maybe thanks to the pandemic? It is longer than that, which is exciting. There are lots of fun panels, and I think that we’re all going to learn a lot. And also, instead of sort of having a limited number of folks who can attend the conference in New York City, since it’s remote, more folks are able to come and attend these panels, and attend the award ceremony, which will be super exciting. 

Katie Cole  

I do also want to mention that we are the only station nominated for Best Streaming Only Station Under 10,000, which means we automatically win that. And that’s not to say that we were the only station who was nominated. In times past, the directors of IBS have said, sometimes if there’s only one person named for a category, it could be no one else submitted for the category. But that’s highly unlikely. It could just be that the station who was nominated stood out so far from the pack that no one else could touch them. So because we automatically when Best Streaming Only Station for a University Under 10,000, we are automatically entered into the Best Station large pool where we go up against all of the other categories of Best Station.

Iz Indelicato  

Huge schools.

Katie Cole  

Huge schools.

Iz Indelicato  

Schools who have  call signs. Terrestrial stations? Is that what we say?

Katie Cole  

I think but I’m not sure. 

Iz Indelicato  

That’s what happens when you’re when you’re streaming on the station.

Katie Cole  

Yeah, so that means we will be up against a couple different schools for Best Station at the conference. And I’m so excited about that. And I am so so proud of us. We have worked so hard to do radio and for the Voice for Welcome Home for everything. If you follow our Instagram, you’ll be able to see updates from the awards. And we’ll let you know if we take home any of those big, tall, shiny golden microphone trophies.

Iz Indelicato  

Or like Kelly said in our interview gets sent a little GIF via email with the envelope that open says “Congratulations, you won a trophy.” Also going off of what Katie said to make sure that our listeners can hear these fantastic things that we were nominated for. This week, we will be uploading all of our nominations to Simmons Radio: The Sharks podcast feed, which will be linked in the description. So you can hear all those nominations and the fantastic folks who have contributed to our successes. 

Katie Cole  

Y’all, the Eliot, Elliot Page story has 554 views.

Iz Indelicato  

Dang

Sarah Carlon  

Really? Oh that makes me so happy! That’s Awesome

Iz Indelicato  

That’s quick

Katie Cole  

It was posted yesterday, I want to say this as one thing. And this is data over the past month, and like it’s 554 views this is in the past 24 hours like this is like unheard of numbers.

Sarah Carlon  

When Elliott Paige introduced himself to the world in December of 2020, Senior Eliot Stanton sat down and wrote a letter to him. A letter that was as much to Page as it was a way to work through their feelings about Page, transitioning, representation and celebrity. Take a listen.

Eliot Stanton  

I wrote this piece while trying to process the complicated feelings I had after Elliott Page came out. People in my life who’d known me before I changed my name to Eliott were messaging me left and right about the coincidence of me and him having the same dead name and chosen name. I was instantly transported back to 2014 when they came out as queer not long after I had. Before writing this letter, I spent a few days consumed by the dissonance of knowing that while the parallels in our lives would always mean something to me, Elliott Page would never know about them, or about me. I was also struggling with broader feelings too, about competition, comparison, and dominant narratives of transness. I hope that by sharing my complicated feelings about trans identity and representation, other trans folks will feel the same way I feel after writing this letter seen and validated, together in community.

Sarah Carlon  

I’m gonna send it to Elliot Page, I have people on the inside.

Iz Indelicato  

Yeah! Do it, do it, do it!

Katie Cole  

I think we did pretty well this this week, y’all and I’m looking forward to continuing this throughout the semester. Remote semesters are hard but at least I get to podcast with you all.

Iz Indelicato  

I love you. 

Katie Cole  

Love you too.

Sarah Carlon  

Love you guys. Love y’all. 

Katie Cole  

Alright.

Iz Indelicato  

Are we gonna do this again? Did we learn our lesson from last semester that this does not work? 

Katie Cole  

We never learn.

Iz Indelicato  

We never learn, we’re gonna do it again. Okay.

Sarah Carlon  

I say we do it again.

Iz Indelicato  

On three or after three?

Katie Cole  

After three.

Sarah Carlon  

After three. 

Iz Indelicato  

Okay. 

Katie Cole  

Cause you would cut three off if you did on three. 

Sarah Carlon  

This is true.

Iz Indelicato  

Okay, okay. 1,2,3 Welcome Home?

Katie Cole  

Yes 

Iz Indelicato  

One, two, three… Welcome. 

Katie Cole  

Welcome Home!

Sarah Carlon  

Welcome Home! Oh yeah, that was really good. I think that was strong, very strong,

Katie Cole  

Strong showing by the whole pod.

Iz Indelicato  

Oh man.

Sarah Carlon  

It was a strong message. I feel like I brought absolutely unhinged energy to the podcast this morning, I apologize. I’m doing my best. 

Katie Cole  

I only drank half a cup of coffee so far. So this whole time we’ve just been going booo – 

Sarah Carlon  

Shooshhh

Iz Indelicato  

Beep

Katie Cole  

Tanking.

OUTRO MUSIC BEGINS PLAYING 

ANNOUNCER

Welcome Home was created and produced by Iz Indelicato, Katie Cole, and Sarah Carlon. The theme music for this podcast was created by Matthew Harrison, aka Matty Sun. The cover art for this podcast was made by Carly Dickler.  Special thanks to everyone who contributed in the making of this podcast through writing articles, conducting interviews, creating segments, and so much more. This has been a production of Simmons Radio: The Shark, and The Simmons Voice.