Late music professor Jerald Bolen remembered by friends and family

DYLAN HEMBROUGH reporter

After his death on Jan. 8, 2023, retired professor Jerald Bolen is remembered as a grateful person, passionate about everything in his life from his music to his family.

Bolen was a percussion instructor at SIUE until his retirement in 2010, but he also taught at SWIC and at the high school level. John Korak, a trumpet instructor, said he first met Bolen in 1995 after starting at SIUE.

“Over the years together, performing concerts or talking about music in general … that’s kind of how our relationship started and how it deepened over the years,” Korak said. “I consider him a very good friend.”

Rick Haydon, professor emeritus with SIUE, said he first met Bolen through a mutual friend while Bolen was working on his master’s thesis. Haydon said that, as his friendship with Bolen grew, the two would collaborate on several musical projects.

“Jerry actually did a book and had these instructional tapes that went with it for teaching drummers and percussionists,” Haydon said. “I had a mini-studio with drum machines and synthesizers, and we sequenced a bunch of the lesson plan out of the book, and then I recorded him playing percussion and drums as examples for the book.”

Haydon said Bolen was always one to try new things with new technology, especially in the musical realm. Haydon said the instructional tapes he and Bolen recorded went on to be used by many of the late professor’s students.

“This was the ‘80s, and … Jerry was always really good about being on the cutting-edge and wanting to try out new stuff,” Haydon said. “I don’t know that anybody had done it then … when we did it, but now it’s everywhere. It’s all over the internet.”

Haydon also said Bolen had a special fascination with South American music, even traveling there and participating in samba festivals.

“He actually traveled to South America several times, just to study samba and bossa nova,” Haydon said. “He also had an extensive collection of South American instruments, like drums, shakers, [and] all the other percussion instruments of South America. I would consider him an authority on that stuff.” He’d went down and actually became part of the samba festivals.”

Stephen Bolen, Jerald Bolen’s son, said his fascination with South American music was sparked by his time with the 5th Army band during the Vietnam War. Jerald Bolen grew up in Staunton, Illinois, and enlisted to join the Army band.

“He ended up spending Vietnam in Central America, particularly around Panama, playing a lot of state-sponsored tours of U.S. embassies in South America,” Stephen Bolen said. “So he’s always had a draw for Latin American percussion and Afro-Cuban percussion especially. He was fortunate enough to go to Cuba and Brazil to take part in that rich percussive history.”

Stephen Bolen said that, though his father never presented himself as a veteran, his time in the Army band left a lasting impression on him for the rest of his life. Later on, Jerald Bolen would take opportunities to go to Latin America to revisit the music he loved.

“He got to go to Cuba on an SIUE tour, I believe, and got to explore Afro-Cuban percussion,” Stephen Bolen said. “He did a sabbatical one year, when he was teaching at SWIC in Belleville, down to Brazil where he got to participate in Carnaval, so that was a tremendous opportunity for him to go back to his roots.”

Korak said his friendship with Jerald Bolen eventually grew to incorporate much of the Bolen family, including Stephen and Jerald’s wife, Sue. Korak said his musical relationship with Jerald Bolen complemented their personal friendship.

“Those relationships you have in music are apart from the relationship you have with the person, and those two can strengthen one another,” Korak said. “The more you get to know somebody musically, in many ways, the more you get to know them as a person too.”

Even outside of music, Jerald Bolen was remembered as a very encouraging and supportive person. No matter a person’s talent, whether or not it was music-related, Stephen Bolen said his father would always encourage them.

“As somebody who made music his life, he would talk a lot about how talented everyone was that he got to work with, and talents wouldn’t always necessarily be displayed musically,” Stephen Bolen said. “If it was music, that’s great, if it’s not he’d be there to listen and offer advice.”

Korak agreed with this sentiment and said Jerald Bolen’s passion for music extended into an overall love of life.

“For Jerry, it’s just the grace he showed as a human being,” Korak said. “He was grateful to be in music, he appreciated everything that music offered him in his life, he never took anything for granted, he was very passionate about it, he was always smiling, because he loved what he did, and he was able to share that passion and love with other people in a way that really benefited them.”

Korak summarized his thoughts on his late friend and colleague, saying he never had a bad thing to say about anybody.

“He always looked for the best in people,” Korak said. “He was a tremendous man, and a fine example for any of us to model our lives after.”

DYLAN HEMBROUGH reporter

Gabriel Msengi has returned to SIUE in pursuit of two master’s degrees — another step towards his ultimate goal of opening a primary care clinic in Tanzania.

Msengi started his journey at SIUE in 2013, where he earned his BS in chemistry, minored in biological sciences, and then went to Howard University for his PharmD. Msengi said his love for pharmacy grew out of a fascination with chemistry during his high school and college years.

“In high school, I had done a Walgreens-St. Louis College of Pharmacy Explorers Program. It was an eight to ten-week introductory program where they would take … 20 students to different Walgreens and learn about pharmacy,” Msengi said. “I switched over to chemistry [from biology], I think because I just like problem-solving, and there were always problems in chemistry to be solved.”

Msengi was born in Tanzania and later lived in Iowa, California and Illinois before moving to Washington, D.C. to attend Howard University.

“It was the first time I’d been on the East Coast,” Msengi said. “It was a different atmosphere as far as it being East Coast. A lot of the people are very business-oriented, business-structured, so I [thought] that was a huge difference. Let me try to learn how to grow and adapt in a different environment, let me see how that would feel, attending a whole different area, a whole different lifestyle, everything was different away from home.”

While working on his PharmD at Howard, Msengi said he was involved in Capitol City Pharmacy Medical Reserve Corps, where he got lots of hands-on experience in the pharmacy world.

“We served southeast DC, [and] it’s a lower-income area,” Msengi said. “[There were] different patients that haven’t been seen by different providers, who have issues with hypertension, diabetes, noncompliance [and] lack of vaccinations.”

Msengi said the Medical Reserve Corps would often partner with other locally-known organizations and government agencies to run medical outreach events, such as Distant Relatives, which provided feminine supplies and food to the community.

“The public health department would reach out to the medical reserve corps, say that and grow as a business-minded person. So, after I graduated, I wanted to do a little more with those two disciplines.”

Furthering his education led Msengi back to SIUE to earn his master’s in both public health and business administration with a concentration in health care administration. While he works on his next degrees, Msengi said he also works as a pharmacy manager in St. Louis.

“It is extremely busy, but if a patient comes up and they’re not feeling too good, you want to just slow down and take their blood pressure,” Msengi said. “Sometimes these patients will not come back for a vaccine, so if you’re trying to prevent the flu and the spread of the flu, and they come in asking for a shot, sometimes you just have to give them that shot.”

Msengi said he tries to conduct his work in a way that is conscious of the patient’s background, which can often mean working across class or linguistic boundaries.

“We drop what we’re doing so we can help protect them, because they may not be going home to the best conditions,” Msengi said. “If they’re sick, they can easily spread that to other people. You really just want to make sure you can provide the best care to the most vulnerable population, because that population doesn’t have access to the resources that some may take for granted.”

After earning his next degrees and getting more experience in the field, Msengi said he wishes to pursue his dream of opening a clinic in Tanzania.

“It’s a lifelong goal of mine to open up a primary care clinic in Tanzania and have it staffed with dentists, doctors, pharmacists, a well-rounded team that would be able to provide those resources to patients back home,” Msengi said.

| Winter Racine / The Alestle this population needs this type of service, say a hepatitis vaccination event,” Msengi said. “They would call us and there would be a registered pharmacist there and pharmacy students that would be able to provide those vaccines.”

Although he originally attended SIUE in 2013, Gabriel Msengi has now returned to campus for another degree.

Msengi said he was struck by the level of poverty in the nation’s capital – an experience that fuels his public health studies now.

“One time I was driving by all the major news networks, like CNN, NBC, and I saw homeless tents outside their buildings,” Msengi said. “We were at the United States capital and you could see so much poverty and so many people that didn’t have access to healthcare. We had dental students that would come out and do oral exams, some of the nursing students would help out with blood pressure screenings, doing counseling, talking to them about their medications if they have questions, and just giving them more information about their overall health.”

Medical clinics showed Msengi not only the public health world, but also the business world. Msengi said he learned a lot about the logistics of running such an event.

“All that work was more so public health, and being able to run and manage that type of organization, there were a lot of business-focused attributes to that organization,” Msengi said.

“So that’s something I could use my pharmacy knowledge and desire to do public health

Msengi said his aspirations in Tanzania rest upon his work and preparation beforehand, both during and after college.

“Anytime you want to do something, you want to put your research in there. Do the work prior to making a step like that. I don’t want to speed the process,” Msengi said. “[I want to] take my time and truly know my craft for me to understand public health, understand how to go about obtaining grants, understand how different systems work, gonna take the next couple years to understand that, as well as work on my leadership and capabilities as a leader and as a manager before I go back home and start working on that clinic.”

NEXT WEEK: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF WEB RADIO AT SIUE

GABRIEL BRADY managing editor

Popularity and virality on social media are difficult to achieve, and even harder to maintain. However, some students at SIUE have found ways to capture that lightning in a bottle and keep it.

Chia Boxdorfer, a senior in mass communications, is one of these students. She is a member of the cosplay community; she puts on a costume and makeup and poses as a character or person from pop culture in photo shoots, short videos and at conventions. It was something she started while in middle school with her friends. She posts these videos and photos on Instagram and TikTok under the name Teakup.cos.

Boxdorfer said although she posts on both platforms, her TikTok has been the more successful page, with more than 20,000 followers. She started her Instagram around four years ago, and the TikTok account a year after that.

“In the beginning it was pretty slow, like getting your name out there is a whole process,” Boxdorfer said. “But with Instagram it’s definitely been slower. With TikTok, it’s definitely more of a quick-and-fast build. I think the first year I had done it, at the end I had gained around 10,000 followers or so. Since then, I’ve been getting 5,000 to 6,000 followers a year.”

Another social media page that may be recognizable to the SIUE community is the SIUE Bulletin, an Instagram page by the same name. The account posts satirical headlines about campus news. After the sign in front of Prairie Hall was hit by a car, a post from the Bulletin showed a picture of the ruined sign, with text that said, “Upon seeing first flake of snow, Prairie Hall resident instantly forgets how to drive”

The page was originally a spur-of-the-moment idea from Morgan Jackson, a senior in computer science. However, now it’s also run by junior political science and mass communications double major Madison Sample.

“I think I had the idea for it and had the first post within a 24-hour span,” Jackson said.

“I was in the Engineering Building, I think, when I came up with it … I just had a goofy little thought, and was like ‘What if I posted this?’ I really like those sites like The Onion, Reductress. There’s tons of different ones that do all sorts of satire headlines. So I was like,‘What if I did something like that for SIUE?’” ed the account, he sent it to me and a few friends,” Sample said. “Me and my fiancé were some of the first followers. Morgan has so many random Instagram accounts, we thought it was just another account he’d created that he would let fizzle out. But I thought it was funny. He started sending me the posts before he’d post them and I’d give my opinion on them. Slowly that transitioned into me writing the headlines you see on there now.”

Sample said although she started taking a more hands-on approach recently, she’s been helping Jackson run the account since the start.

Unlike the Bulletin, Boxdorfer said a lot of her work is solely hers.

“There’s a lot that happens behind the scenes. Obviously, I make most of the outfits you see, so hours upon hours go into that,” Boxdorfer said. “I’m very blessed that I have a job that gives me weekends off, so Saturdays and Sundays are really when I can get into the makeup, get in front of the camera, sew, do things like that.”

Although the length of time varies, Boxdorfer said all of her posts take full days of work. She said she’s currently working on one that’s taken more than 100 hours over four months. She explained her process using a recent cosplay of the popular video game character Kirby.

“It was 80 hours, put just into making it, as in troubleshooting, structuring, sewing, wig styling, makeup, all that,” Boxdorfer said. “Then, I had to film the videos, which can take two or three hours. And then, you have to export the video and edit them down, which can take another two to three hours. So by the time you’re seeing a video, around 90 hours could’ve gone into everything.”

Alternatively, SIUE Bulletin’s posts are much quicker and much more focused on timeliness, according to Jackson. He used the post about the Prairie Hall sign as an example.

“I went back up there for a photo [around 2 a.m.],” Jackson said. “The snow had just started, but it was worth it, because that has become one of our most successful posts by a lot. We gained over a hundred followers in one day.”

With their focus on jokes for the campus community, Sample and Jackson said they’ve both received generally positive feedback from the campus community. Both Sample and | via Chia Boxdorfer

“We’re really, really good friends. When he creat-

Jackson are members of the student government.

“[Former Student Govern ment Vice President] Nicole Burbach is the hugest fan of us, and so is [Student Gov ernment President] Rahmat Salau. When we do Student Government jokes, they get so excited,” Sample said. “Greek Life has been very positive, as well, for the most part, but that’s be cause we try not to be too mean to them. There are some posts that don’t do as well with them.”

Sample said they try to ensure the Bul letin’s jokes punch upward, not downward. However, despite sometimes aiming the jokes at those in power, Sample said the SIUE Bulletin has still received support from them.

“We try to avoid bashing any specific groups or clubs too much, because we don’t want to ostracize people. I like it when pages for things like the library and the Cougar Store follow us, which they do,” Sample said. “[Associate Director of Resident Life] Rex Jackson also follows us … and I know the chancellor has at least seen the account, specifically one of the posts about him.”

Despite the large amount of time Boxdorfer spends on her account, she said it will never be a career for her.

“For me, it’s a hobby. People ask if I would ever turn it into a job. I would not, most likely. It’s a hobby I’m very passionate about,” Boxdorfer said. “I’ve been doing cosplay for 10 years. It’s not something I see myself stopping doing soon. If it was up to me, the end goal is to go up on stage at the U.S. Cosplay Championships one day.”

Although Jackson initially created the SIUE Bulletin as a one-off joke, he does hope it can continue on beyond his graduation in May.

Sample said she will remain at SIUE for another year after Jackson, and also said she intends to keep running the account while on campus.

“We’ve been trying to take on new people,” Sample said. “I’ll be taking over the account next year, and I’m not good at

| via The SIUE Bulletin editing, like to make the little thumbnails we have. I’m good at the marketing and writing side of things, with my degree, but I’m not the tech-savvy one.”

Boxdorfer said the best advice to anyone wanting to start on social media is to find a unique concept that you love, and commit to it.

“Find your niche and go all in. I know people think ‘Oh, no one’s going to watch me, because there’s like a hundred other creators who do this,’ but you’re your own person, with your own unique style and ways to express yourself,” Boxdorfer said. “Find a niche and go all into it.”

Jackson said there’s room to experiment, but it’s also good to be prepared to take losses if you want to experiment.

“When people see the Bulletin, we’ve had the same alternating red-and-white text style for every headline,” Jackson said. “We’ve branched out a few times. One time, we tried out a Reel, and it didn’t do bad or anything … You can branch out your content a little bit, but make sure your content still appeals to the audience you already have, or you have to accept that you may have some losses if you want to change your content.”

To see Boxdorfer’s cosplays, visit her Instagram or TikTok pages, and for the SIUE Bulletin, visit their Instagram page.