....November 13, 11:02 AM
 
 
 
Model Student
Move over Sarah Palin. Maia Arroyo-Roppo is one pretty woman who is not only familiar with the Bush Doctrine, she’s able to argue in favor of it – and it isn’t even an issue she supports.

“I like to argue – it’s in my blood,” the St. John’s University sophomore said. In addition to keeping up with a hectic school schedule that includes courses in accounting, macroeconomics, and science, Maia is a singer in St. John’s gospel choir, Voices of Victory, and is a member of the school’s debate team.

“At debate, they split us into groups and each side presents a topic. It is a really good learning tool because there will be situations in life where you don’t agree with something but you have to support it anyway. Sometimes our debates get really intense.”

Maia was born in California and raised in Minnesota. She moved here two years ago to attend St. John’s as a Business Management major and fell in love with New York and Queens. Most of her socializing takes place either on Jamaica Avenue, where she and her friends like to shop, or at St. John’s campus.

“I love the city, but I also love how homey Queens is,” she said. “If I could have chosen to grow up here, I would have. This is where dreams happen.”

Maia knows she may not be tall enough to walk the runway, but believes she can succeed as a commercial print advertising model.

“I just want to be out there,” she said. “I feel like I can make a name for myself. And why not? I’m in New York – I just have to do it.”

“I want to explore any modeling opportunities during the summers and in my free time,” she said. “But I definitely plan to stay focused on school. In case modeling doesn’t work, I need a fall-back plan.”

Weight: 112 lbs.
34-25-28
www.miss-nyc.com

 
 
Queens Native Returns

Kara Goucher finishes third in the NYC Marathon
United States Olympian and Queens native Kara Goucher picked a heck of a marathon as her first.

A blustery day spent running across the City’s five boroughs isn’t exactly the best scenario for a first timer. Goucher had never run more than 22 miles at once in her life.

Yet the 30-year-old became the first American woman in 14 years to stand on a podium after the New York City Marathon was all done.

Goucher maintained pace with the front pack until the 20-mile mark, when her body hit the proverbial wall and cramps settled in. Paula Radcliffe broke away and became the eventual winner.

It has been 26 years since Goucher left New York, after a drunk driver jumped the barrier of the Harlem River Drive and killed her father, Mirko Grgas.

With the ghosts of her past lining the very streets she ran, that Goucher showed up was worth more than the bronze around her neck.
Two Mets Get Gold Gloves
It wasn’t a total loss of a season for the Mets. Both Carlos Beltran and David Wright won Golden Gloves for the respective positions.

The Gold Glove Award is given annually to the players judged to have “superior individual fielding performance” at each of the nine positions on the diamond.

Beltran, who plays center field, and David Wright, who plays third base, were the only reps from the Queens team.

Hopefully they can make the fielding transition to a new stadium next year.
Yes Man
They say you’re not a success until your likeness is made into a bobblehead.

OK, they don’t really say that but St. John’s decided to honor its dean of the School of Education that way.

Jerrold Ross, who has been the dean since 1995, presided over the school’s 100th Anniversary last month. He began his teaching career as a music teacher in Long Island and New York City.

When the school was first established in 1908, St. John’s was surrounded by farm land and was one of only two schools in the state to offer graduate courses for teachers.
Controversial Priest Opens Up
Father Daniel Berrigan is not afraid to speak his mind – he never has been.

The 87-year-old Jesuit priest first gained notoriety during the Vietnam War when he was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison for staging a war protest in the parking lot of a Maryland draft board. With the help of eight other Catholic activists, Berrigan removed 378 draft files and set them on fire with homemade napalm. Then, in 1980, he and his late brother Philip, also a priest, broke into the General Electric Nuclear Facility in Pennsylvania and vandalized nuclear warheads. They were charged with 10 felony counts and sentenced to two years in jail.

When he was released from prison, the activist and religious leader found success as a poet and playwright, and professor at Fordham University. He is set to speak on Thursday, Nov 13 at 7 pm at the Jobo Center of Sacred Heart Church in Bayside, as part of the Sacred Heart Justice and Peace Committee’s “Justice Heritage” Series. And, although he’s open to talking politics, don’t expect Berrigan to provide any insight about the recent election.

“Well, I never voted in my life,” he told the Daily News. “My brother Philip used to say that if voting made any difference it would be illegal. But I was asked to speak at Sacred Heart about my background in social activism, being arrested, going to jail and what that has to do with my faith and my hope and my Jesuit community’s involvement with social questions.”
Ask St Fidelis
Last Tuesday’s election could’ve been over and done with a long time ago. Sen. John McCain and President-elect Barack Obama could’ve given us all stimulus checks from their campaign funds and just asked the students at St. Fidelis School.

Dating back to 1992, the students at the College Point elementary school have correctly predicted the last four presidential elections.

The school’s vote was held Oct. 31 and it foreshadowed the election last Tuesday. At St. Fidelis, Obama won the popular vote by 110 to 72 and he also won the Electoral College in a landslide victory, 48 to 9.

As St. Fidelis goes, so does the rest of the country.



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