My email is emmariestorm@gmail.com
My handle is @emmariestorm on all platforms
T. Mychael Rambo is a 3-time Emmy award winning voice actor, actor, singer and theater professor whose career’s trajectory changed at a frozen yogurt shop.
About me
Hello! My name is Emily Storm, I’m a student journalist and storyteller with an emphasis in multimedia journalism. My experience in student advocacy creates a passion for connecting with people through telling genuine stories.
Dial Tone
Dial Tone is a band comprised of three college students at the University of Minnesota who have gained traction since their formation in October 2022.
With an online following of 1,000+, these honors students talk about how being in a band alongside college has inspired multiple facets of learning. The members of Dial Tone explain how they’re learning to find their balance and how they intend to move forward.
University of Minnesota Students Find a New Way to Survive College
By: Emily Storm
University of Minnesota students created a club whose purpose is to simulate the reality television show “Survivor” scaled to fit a college campus and featuring students as castaways. The club is on their second season, and will wrap up with a live finale on April 23 in Coffman Memorial Union.
In a game whose purpose is to “outwit, outplay, and outlast,” student contestants participate in a tribal council to vote out a member, and then participate in a challenge to become immune from the next week’s tribal council every Sunday.
The day’s challenge is to continually cross a room, grabbing and stacking one cup at a time on their hand and on top of one another with a goal of stacking five consecutive cups. If any cups are dropped, the players must restart.
The top three players compete in a second puzzle challenge, and the winner of the puzzle receives immunity the next week. Luke Miller wins the puzzle challenge.
Before the challenge, contestant Miller reveals his plan to vote out Sam Ahmed in a confessional, saying “It’s either me or you at this point, and it’s not gonna be me, so it’s gotta be you.”
Ahmed is eliminated, though, his confessional is revealing of another game at hand, sportsmanship. “At the end of the day, this is a game, I love Survivor and it’s a shame how this went down…but I wish everyone left in the game good luck, you guys got me, good game.”
The club’s founder, Eidan Silver, feels similarly. “The community is the biggest thing. Survivor as a game to me is not necessarily about the winning and adrenaline…the goal of this organization on campus is just to make friends.”
Strangers Meeting Strangers
By: Emily Storm
150 strangers, one stage, and limitless connections. For the people of Minneapolis, Strangers Meeting Strangers is a new event created with the intention of forming connections with people of all walks of life within the Twin Cities.
The event’s attendees can throw their name into a raffle at the door. If chosen, they have the opportunity to meet and talk to another stranger from the event about any topic in front of the crowd of other strangers. The talking periods last 10 minutes, and there are five conversations.
Liban Kano, the event’s founder, is a retired veteran who realized a need for connection upon returning to Minneapolis from the military. “After a decade in the military, I realized I didn’t know many people anymore. Life has changed, people have moved on.. I wanted to do the polar opposite of the military… and I wanted to get more into freeflow creative.”
Kano’s choice to step into a creative environment is inspiring others to venture out and create new connections, such as local artist and event attendee: Endio– who attended the event because he values connecting with other people.
“Every person has their own story, their own set of experiences. Being able to find a common ground– that is so special,” Endio says.
FINNEAS’ Versatile Career as an Artist
By: Emily Storm
FINNEAS–known primarily for his work alongside his younger sister–Billie Eilish, is a singer, songwriter and producer. He began releasing his music as an independent artist in 2016 with the song “New Girl.”
FINNEAS has made a name for himself as a solo artist through releasing two alternate pop albums Blood Harmony (2019) and Optimist (2021). In his albums, he experiments with various audio effects and compositions–ranging from vocal autotune to a piano etude in Optimist.
In addition to his repertoire, FINNEAS independently produces music for artists such as Justin Bieber’s “Lonely,” Selena Gomez’ “Lose You to Love Me” and Camilla Cabello’s “Used to This.”
He is a critically acclaimed artist; at the 2020 Grammy’s, he won a Grammy for producer of the year. He and Billie also won record of the year, song of the year, album of the year, best pop vocal album, and best engineered album, non-classical that year.
FINNEAS and Billie’s work has attracted the attention of major motion films. They have written, sung and produced the song “No Time to Die” for the James Bond Film No Time to Die, and FINNEAS voiced a character in Disney/ Pixar’s animated film “Turning Red,” where he voiced a boy band character and sang songs written by himself and Elish.
Rhinoshrine Charges Into Battle of the Bands
Rhinoshrine performed in Battle of the Bands round two on Friday, Feb. 10 in a 20 minute set. Four bands competed in Battle of the Bands; the band voted as the winner by the crowd will compete against the victors of the three other rounds at Spring Jam, which will take place in late April.
Rhinoshrine–a band whose history spans back to kindergarten– creates music from a variety of genres they hope everyone will enjoy.
“We’re a garage rock band,” says guitarist, Bud Hjelmberg. “I like to tell people we’re a rock band, and people ask me what kind and I just go… We’re a rock band.”
Bassist Ben Ranney describes Rhinoshrine’s style as “alt, indie, rock, with a little bit of psych, a little bit of jazz, a little bit of classic.”
The members of Rhinoshrine are motivated through evoking strong emotions in their music that are true to them and use playing for an audience as an outlet to express themselves.
“I really do hope that when people listen to it, it doesn’t just evoke different feelings from what we are choosing to write at the time,” says drummer Sam Foster. “Our music is never really the same.”
For a band with roots at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities– their performance at the Whole Music Club is a warmly welcomed homecoming.
“We’ve all been around Minneapolis forever,” says pianist and trumpet player, Adam Trelstad. “We kinda got our chops playing at the U at the house shows there, and it would be great to get more official there.”
As the members of Rhinoshrine perform as a group and as friends, they have recognized their tightly-knit bonds that continue to form.
Hjelmberg compares his chemistry with bands prior to his time in Rhinoshrine, “We do definitely have a groove I didn’t realize before. We’re getting tighter in some fashion.”
Tresland describes their growth as second nature, “That unconscious growth of knowing what each other’s doing– when we’re learning a song now, things just come together easier.”
After their performance at Battle of the Bands, the members of Rhinoshrine express their gratitude.
“We’re Rhinoshrine, we love you, and you’re all amazing,” says Hjelmberg.
Just Gopher It
Goldy the Gopher– the award-winning illustrious mascot for the University of Minnesota– is known for his shenanigans, turning heads (literally!) and being the #1 fan at every sporting event. Despite being one of the most popular figures on campus, the faces behind the mask remain completely anonymous.
The people filling generations of Goldy’s paws are the same students who attend daily classes– Goldy could be anyone.
Kimberly Plourde and Wyatt Fitzsimmons are two former mascots who can attribute their time as Goldy to memories that will last a lifetime.
Emily Storm 