April 24, 2019

Since 1919

Emory University’s Independent Student Newspaper

The Emory Wheel

Volume 100, Issue 25

Printed Every Wednesday

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Emily Ferguson Elected SGA Speaker

By Tanika Deuskar and Ana Kilbourn Staff Writer and Contributing Writer

The 53rd Student Government Association (SGA) elected SGA BBA Liaison Emily Ferguson (21B) on Monday night as its speaker of the legislature for the 2019-20 academic year.

The new body, in its second meeting, also confirmed Sameer Kumar (19Ox, 21C) as vice president of alumni relations and Sam Branson (20C) as chief justice of the Constitutional Council.

BSA Exec Board Candidates Sanctioned

By Ninad Kulkarni Staff Writer

Former Chief Justice Matthew Ribel (19C) praised Branson for his performance on the Council.

“Sam is the intellectual backbone of the Constitutional Council, just someone on top it,” Ribel said. “I could not think of a better person for the job.

He is the driving force behind every substantive decision we had to make.”

The Student Government Association (SGA) Elections Board temporarily suspended the executive board campaigns of Black Student Alliance (BSA) President Nicole Gullatt (20C) and External Vice President Timothy Richmond (20C) on April 18 following an investigation and hearing into alleged electoral misconduct.

The suspensions were lifted on Monday at 8 p.m. The voting period for the election opened Tuesday and will conclude on Thursday at 8 p.m.

The Elections Board voted in a 3-0 decision to temporarily suspend the campaigns of Gullatt and Richmond, who are running for BSA treasurer and president, respectively.

See SAM, Page 2

See ELECTIONS, Page 2

Ferguson Elected Speaker Ferguson ran against sophomore representative Mo Singhal (22C) for speaker.

She received five votes, while Singhal received no votes and one voter abstained.

Legislators said that they thought that Singhal would be more effective as a legislator supplying ideas for initiatives rather than a speaker.

Ferguson said in her speech that she hopes to be a liaison between the executive board and the legislature, and between legislators and SGA advisers working on common initiatives. She also said she wants SGA to move from

ELECTIONS

Forrest Martin/A sst. Photo Editor

The Student Government Association (SGA) legislature elects SGA BBA Liason Emily Ferguson (21B) 5-0-1 over Sophomore Representative Mo Singhal (22C) on Monday night. being a “reactive” government to a “proactive” one.

“I appreciate how Emily has more executive experience,” co-Vice President of Communications Karen Lee (21C) said. “As an executive member, I would appreciate someone who knows the system very well.”

Ferguson previously served as vice president for student experience in the 52nd SGA.

AWARDS

Branson Confirmed as Chief Justice Branson was unanimously confirmed with six votes as chief justice of the Constitutional Council. He served on Constitutional Council as an associate justice in the past academic year.

“I am really passionate about constitutional law, whether it comes to the U.S. Constitution or the SGA Constitution,” he said.

DISCUSSION

Klibanoff Wins Peabody Students Host Israeli-Palestinian Dialogue Award for ‘Buried Truths’

By Grace Morris Contributing Writer

Professor of Practice Hank Klibanoff won a 2018 Peabody Award in the Radio/Podcast category on Tuesday for the first season of his podcast “Buried Truths.” Klibanoff was announced as a finalist for the award on April 9, the Wheel previously reported.

The podcast investigates cold cases, or unsolved killings, in the American South. Each season of the podcast details the story of a specific racially motivated killing. The first season explored the killing of Isaiah Nixon, a black farmer, by two white men in 1948.

“In every one of these cases, no one was ever convicted,” Klibanoff said. “In some cases, they were never indicted, and in all of these cases there was no justice.”

The Peabody Award honors effective and well-executed storytelling in television, radio and online media. Klibanoff beat out several big-name podcasts, including “This American Life” and The New York Times’ “The Daily.”

Though Klibanoff said he was proud of the nomination, he was intimidated by the other Peabody nominees.

“I thought I better get realistic that this is not likely to happen,” Klibanoff said. “But at the same time, I knew that the production quality of our podcast was extraordinary … and I wasn’t unhappy with the writing we had done and the stories we had told.”

NEWS Before it Opens,

A Look Inside the Emory Student Center ...

PAGE 2

The podcast developed out of the Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project, a course at Emory that Klibanoff has taught since 2011 which investigates racially motivated killings during the civil rights era.

One of his students, who worked as an intern for WABE, Atlanta’s NPR station, mentioned Klibanoff’s class to WABE’s CEO Wonya Lucas, Klibanoff said. Later, Klibanoff received a call from Lucas requesting more information about the course. The interaction eventually led to the production of the award-winning podcast.

In addition to the background research and writing of “Buried Truths,” Klibanoff dedicated multiple hours in the studio every Sunday to record the podcast.

He described the project as another full-time job and that it “would be hard to put in more time and effort [into ‘Buried Truths’].”

Despite his hard work, Klibanoff does not hesitate to credit others who have helped him develop his podcast, especially his students.

“I’ve been the beneficiary of the exposure to some really wonderful minds in the students who have taken the course,” Klibanoff said.

Editors’ Note: Klibanoff is a faculty adviser to the Wheel. He was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.

— Contact Grace Morris at grace.morris@emory.edu

OPINIONS Senior Reflections: How I Found a Home at Emory ...

PAGE 4

By Caroline Catherman Staff Writer

On Monday night, a panel of student leaders shared their perspectives on the posting of mock eviction notices by Emory Students for Justice in Palestine (ESJP) and the contemporary Israeli-Palestinian conflict with an audience of about 120 students.

The panel included research interns at the Institute for the Study of Modern Israel Brett Kleiman (20C) and Shaina Alcheck (19C), EmoryIsrael Public Affairs Committee (EIPAC) co-President Ben Lefkowitz (22C) and Palestinian student Ata Hindi (21L), as well as students Sarah Spielberger (17Ox, 19C) and Xavier Sayeed (20C).

The panelists first diverged on the effectiveness of the mock eviction notices. Lefkowitz stated that he did not think that the notices encouraged productive dialogue.

“I’m a very strong believer in freedom of speech and in good-faith dialogue but what I saw wasn’t encouraging people to talk. It was a fear tactic,” Lefkowitz said. “It was something that people might wake up to and think that they were actually being evicted.”

Hindi said he did not find the notices inappropriate because they did not target a specific group of students, noting that they were a realistic example of an important struggle.

“I’ve seen what the real eviction notices look like. I have friends that have been evicted from Jerusalem,”

A&E Endgame

Forrest Martin/A sst. Photo Editor

Students discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the mock eviction notices in White Hall on Monday. said Hindi, who lived in Jerusalem for five years. “I hope that is awareness that can be raised in the United States, where the issue of Palestine is still a taboo.”

Spielberger said that while she thought the eviction notices were incendiary, she also believed Israel Week was similarly confrontational and not conducive to fruitful dialogue. Lefkowitz theorized that the University was ill-equipped to productively engage in discussion about Israel and Palestine because the campus had never dealt with the issues on such a broad scale before.

“This was one of the first times that we had a full Israel Week, and the apartheid wall was accompanied

by these fake eviction notices, the die-in — things that the Emory community as a whole has never seen before,” Lefkowitz said. “So I don’t think either side was prepared to have a dialogue.”

Spielberger identified Emory administration as another obstacle to productive dialogue, while Kleiman blamed external media coverage for intensifying divisions between campus groups by taking students’ quotes out of context.

The discussion then opened up to student questions and moved to the broader issue of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict.

EMORY LIFE Cox

SPORTS WashU Knocks Baseball Out of Playoff Contention ...

Back Page

Marvel-ously Concludes Bridge Mural Brings Color Third MCU Phase ...

T PAGE 7 o Campus ...

PAGE 10

See WANG, Page 3

2

NEWS

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

The Emory Wheel

Before Opening, A Look Inside the Emory Student Center

Ayushi Agarwal/Photo Editor

Clockwise From Top Left: Student lounge; workstation with standing desk; serving station in the dining commons; student entrance to the dining commons; pods for study or relaxation; foyer in north pavilion; seating area in the dining commons.

By Calen MacDonald Senior Staff Writer After almost two years of construction, the Emory Student Center (ESC) is set for a soft opening next month.

The opening will mark a trial period during which ESC staff will prepare for full operation at the start of the Fall semester, according to Vice President of Campus Services Matthew Early.

On Monday, The Wheel toured the ESC with Early, Program Manager Al Herzog, Associate Vice President for Planning, Design and Construction Charlie Andrews, and Director of Campus Life Benjamin Perlman.

With all major construction finished, all that is left are “punch-list” items, such as setting up furniture and fixing damages sustained during construction, according to Herzog.

The ESC is separated into two distinct pavilions, connected by a windowed walkway. The south pavilion houses office space, the dining commons and lounges. The north pavilion offers additional office space and lounges, storage space for clubs, and

a multipurpose room large enough to seat a class together.

The multipurpose room can be divided using temporary walls into six smaller spaces connected by hallways.

The room will provide an inexpensive alternative for student organizations looking to hold formal events that are often located in hotel ballrooms, such as the Office of LGBT Life’s Queer Fair and sorority formals.

“If a sorority is planning their semiformal at the Georgian Terrace Hotel, [they can do it here] for tens of thousands of dollars cheaper,” Perlman said.

Overflow seating outside of the room can accommodate another 200 people using monitors that display the room’s interior.

Such seating could be used for events like the annual Carter Town Hall, Perlman said.

The dining commons features a seating capacity of 760 people. The commons will feature a hearth for pizza, a rotisserie, a kosher station, a grill, a salad bar, vegan and vegetarian stations, and Mongolian and stir

Sam Branson Confirmed As Chief Justice Continued from Page 1 Kumar Chosen VP of Alum Relations The legislature unanimously confirmed Kumar with six votes to become vice president of alumni relations. Kumar said his experience on Oxford SGA, where he served as vice president, and the Student Alumni Board will inform his new role. The Student Alumni Board works closely with the Emory Alumni Association to develop programs for alumni and foster relationships between alumni and students. Kumar, an Oxford continuee, said he needs to learn about how the Atlanta campus operates.

“I don’t think I have anything on the docket yet,” Kumar said. “But I can say that my ear is to the ground, and I am excited to figure out the different things that I want to work on.”

Governing Documents Committee A bill to create a governing documents review committee underwent first readings and was passed unanimously by the legislature. The bill was co-sponsored by SGA President Ben

Palmer (18Ox, 20C) and SGA Vice President Lori Steffel (21B).

“If you put even 30 seconds into reading the governing documents, you can tell that they are a complete mess,” Palmer said. “They do not reflect the GSGA-SGA split … they do not reflect any of the actual procedures and practices that we follow today. ... They contradict each other constantly.”

Steffel said that the committee would not have the ability to change any language on its own. The committee will propose changes over the summer to bring before the legislature in the Fall.

A bill to create a governing documents review committee was passed by the 52nd SGA on Dec. 10, 2018.

The bill had been sponsored by Steffel, then-sophomore representative and speaker of the legislature. The bill was introduced again because the committee is an ad-hoc committee, which must be re-approved each governing term.

— Contact Tanika Deuskar and Ana Kilbourn at tdeuska7@emory.edu and akilbou@emory.edu

fry stations. There will also be a beverage station with freshly squeezed orange juice and soft-serve ice cream.

Windows in the dining area provide a limited glimpse into the kitchens.

There are two private dining rooms that can be reserved.

The “Welcome to Emory” mural previously attached to the DUC-ling will be moved to a wall across from the dining commons. Additionally, local artist Christina Kwan was commissioned to paint a part of the ceiling in the commons. “[In] the dining commons there’s a variety of food stations, there’s a variety of seating types, it doesn’t look like a [traditional] cafeteria in any way, shape or form,” Herzog said.

The north pavilion features a twostory open lounge that Herzog dubbed “the commons,” not to be confused with the dining commons. Inside, the walls are panels of dark gray marble preserved from the Dobbs University Center (DUC).

Above the commons are more lounges with collaboration spaces and storage space for student organiza-

tions. Noise-canceling privacy chairs enclosed on the sides are placed next to floor-to-ceiling windows offering a view of the Atlanta skyline.

On the second floor of the south pavilion, a lounge contains a billiards table and a foosball table as well as 75-inch monitors that can connect to gaming systems.

Another billiards or foosball table will be added depending on student use, according to Perlman. Board games, video games and lawn games will be available for check out at the front desk.

A Kaldi’s coffee shop will be located on the second floor of the south pavilion. The Emporium, a shop selling food like soup and paninis as well as small items from the Emory bookstore, will be located on the second floor of the north pavilion.

A geothermal well was created underneath McDonough field exclusively to air condition the ESC. The site consists of 64 wells sunk 400 feet below the surface of the field and will be the first geothermal system on campus.

The ESC uses LED lighting, ceiling fans and fritted glass throughout the building, which reduces glare and heat, as part of Emory’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, according to Early.

ATMs will be moved from Cox Hall to the space outside of the dining commons.

The AMUC stands opposite the east entrance to the ESC. This entrance to the AMUC will likely not be operational as it opens into the backstage of the Mary Gray Munroe theater, according to Early. A marble plaza adjacent to a grass field sits between the two buildings, which will be open for student organizations to hold events in August, Perlman said.

The DUC-ling will serve its last meal on May 8 before being taken down, according to Early. The area it currently occupies will be repaved with brick to form Asbury Walk, with construction finishing before January 2020, the Wheel previously reported.

— Contact Calen MacDonald at ccmacdo@emory.edu

Elections Board Finds 3 Code Violations Continued from Page 1 Gullatt and Richmond’s amendments would bar candidates who had previously resigned from the executive board from running for the offices of BSA president, executive vice president, secretary or treasurer.

According to the temporary suspension decision, former BSA President Imani Brooks (20C) said these amendments would “render applicants who have already sent in their applications ineligible.”

Brooks also alleged that Richmond had campaigned before “applications were approved by the whole executive board.”

The Board said that “evidence was presented to prove that Richmond started campaigning on March 22 before any applicants were approved by the BSA executive board, which is an unfair advantage stemming from unconstitutional power.”

Gullatt and Richmond were both found responsible for Tier II violations of the SGA Code of Elections.

A Tier II violation is “reserved for cases that are relatively minor violations that nevertheless advance a candidate’s campaign unfairly,” according to the Elections Code.

The ruling states that further violations will be considered Tier III offenses.

A Tier III offense is “reserved for cases that are clear and intentional violation of the Elections Code that gives a candidate a clear advantage in the campaign.”

Richmond said he felt that the Elections Board did not adequately review and weigh the presented evidence in making its decisions.

BSA Treasurer Adam Ingram (21C) was charged with a Tier I violation of the Elections Code because Richmond accused him of improperly spending money and giving particular individuals advantage in the application process.

A Tier I violation is “reserved for cases that are accidental or minor violations that do not clearly advance a candidate’s campaign.”

The Elections Board’s decision serves as “a written warning” to Ingram, and any further violations

by Ingram will be considered “at least Tier II offenses,” according to the ruling.

The Board found that Ingram’s approval of candidates applications for executive positions without consulting other members was a violation of the Elections Code.

“Ingram acted on behalf of the BSA Elections Committee, which is out of line with the role of the treasurer position,” the ruling says. “It is also concerning given the fact that he has expressed interest in running himself.”

Richmond said he believed that both he and Ingram should have received the same class of violation, as he felt the Board had found enough evidence against Ingram.

Richmond called the Elections Board oversight of BSA elections embarrassing, considering the organization’s history of solving such problems internally. He said that the Elections Board did not provide adequate justification for taking over the election.

“It’s not a good look for the [Elections Board] to take over [the] elections of a premier social organization on campus,” Richmond said.

He added that SGA and College Council have no ties to the black community at Emory and that BSA is capable of solving its own problems.

Neither Ingram nor Gullatt responded to the Wheel’s request for comment.

— Contact Ninad Kulkarni at nkulka7@emory.edu

NEWS

The Emory Wheel

News Roundup Compiled By Evan Brock

fellowship ends in May 2020.

Emory Hillel Director to Leave For USC

Coordinated Bombings in Sri L anka K ill Hundreds

Director of Emory Hillel David Cohn is leaving Emory to serve as the executive director of University of Southern California’s Hillel, according to an April 22 email from University Jewish Chaplain Russ Shulkes. Cohn has served as the director of Emory Hillel since July 2017.

“Dave has effectively led our Emory professional team in implementing innovative strategies for growing student engagement, increased financial support from Emory parents and alumni, and been a strong partner to our colleagues at Emory University and Hillel International,” Shulkes wrote.

At approximately 8:45 a.m. on April 21, at least eight coordinated suicide bombings against hotels and churches in Sri Lanka killed 321 people as of Tuesday night, according to The New York Times. There have been 24 people arrested in connection with the attacks, BBC reported. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks, according to the Times. University President Claire E. Sterk released a statement on April 22 in which she emphasized Emory’s values of peace and religious freedom and extended prayers toward those affected by the attacks.

“Even as we grieve, we hope and work for a future where all people … can love and believe as their conscience directs them, and can do so without fear,” Sterk wrote.

Lipstadt Accepts Fellowship at Holocaust Museum Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies Deborah Lipstadt has accepted a ninemonth long fellowship for the study of anti-Semitism at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. During the fellowship, Lipstadt will prepare online supplemental material, including scholarly works, newspaper articles and cartoons, to her recent book, “Anti-Semitism: Here and Now.” The supplemental material will be geared toward informing students about the meaning of anti-Semitism, how it manifests itself and ways to combat it. Lipstadt will continue her professorship at Emory when the

Storms Cause Floods, Tornado Warnings in Atlanta In the early morning of April 19, fast-moving rain storms passed throughout Georgia, resulting in flash-flood warnings for various counties around North Georgia and metro Atlanta, including DeKalb County. The storms left more than 20,000 North Georgia residents without power, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

— Contact Evan Brock at ecbrock@emory.edu

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

3

Crime Report Compiled By Valerie Sandoval On April 11 at 4:15 p.m., Emory Police Department (EPD) responded to the Longstreet-Means Parking Deck in reference to a theft. The complainant, an Emory student, said a Fuji bicycle was stolen from Emory Bike Social Club’s storage space in the parking deck sometime between March 30 and April 11. The bicycle was secured by a bicycle lock that was severed. According to the complainant, anyone who resides in Longstreet Means can enter the storage area and it is also accessible by climbing over the glass. The complainant said Emory Transportation and Parking Services donated the bicycle to the club, and he did not know the bike’s estimated value. The case has been assigned to an investigator.

On April 12 at 8:41 p.m., EPD responded to the Student Activity and Academic Center (SAAC) in reference to a report of a person refusing to leave. The complainant, an Emory student and SAAC employee, said she caught the subject trying to enter the gym without paying and asked him to leave. The subject initially complied, but the complainant later saw him on the basketball court. The complainant called EPD because SAAC policy dictates that employees must call EPD if someone is caught inside the facility without paying. The subject admitted to the officers that he snuck onto the court without paying. The officers issued the subject a criminal trespass warning.

On April 12 at 10:25 p.m., EPD

responded to a fire alarm at 15 Eagle Row, the Sigma Phi Epsilon and Beta Theta Pi house. Facilities Management (FM) and DeKalb County Fire Rescue also responded to the scene. FM personnel determined that the fire alarm was set off by smoke in one of the bedrooms and told EPD that the area smelled of marijuana. The officer met with the two occupants of the room and asked if either of them had been smoking marijuana or if someone had been in their room smoking. Both replied that they do not smoke. One of the occupants pointed out that the smoke detector was missing and stated it must have fallen off and broken, causing the alarm to go off.

The officer left the room to check with FM personnel regarding the smoke detector.

They told him the smoke detector was in place when they arrived, but they removed it so the alarm could be reset. The officer came back, opened the door to the shared bathroom and found a bong that contained a green leafy substance. When the officer stepped back into the room, neither of the occupants were present. The officer went into the hall to try to find the occupants, and when he entered the bathroom again he discovered the green leafy substance was no longer present in the bong.

When interviewed, neither of the room’s occupants admitted to owning the bong. The officer confiscated the paraphernalia but did not issue any citations. Campus Life was notified about the incident.

On April 13 at 12:28 a.m., EPD responded to Woodruff Residential

Center in reference to a report of marijuana possession. The complainant, a resident adviser (RA), said a student notified her of a strong odor of marijuana coming from a room on the third floor. The RA knocked on the door, entered the room and confirmed both of the residents had been smoking marijuana. When the officer arrived, he noticed a grinder and bulb and confiscated them. The officer cited both of the residents for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana. Campus Life was notified about the incident.

On April 16 at 12:01 a.m., EPD responded to the Callaway Memorial Center in reference to an alleged antiMuslim message written in chalk and spray paint outside of the building.

When the officer arrived, he found the message, “No Money For A Muslim Space But Sterk Gets A New Office.”

The officer spoke with students who were on the Quadrangle and they said the message referenced Muslims not having a safe space at Emory. There were multiple messages on the sidewalk of the Quad related to University President Claire E. Sterk’s “$20 million new office” and how the students could have benefited from the money instead of building a new office.

Facilities Management arrived on the scene and said they would attempt to remove the messages. The estimated cost of cleaning up the spray paint was $200. Campus Life was notified about the incident.

— Contact Valerie Sandoval at valerie.sandoval@emory.edu

Wang and Tabatabaei Hope to Start BridgeUSA Chapter Continued from Page 1 Panelists discussed distinctions between being anti-Israel and antiSemitic. They then shared their definitions of Zionism and proposed solutions.

Alcheck and Lefkowitz said they thought compromise would solve the ongoing conflict, advocating for a two-state solution. Hindi disagreed with the idea of a two-state solution, saying that Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem is illegal and must be rectified with withdrawal.

Kleiman stated that Emory students should be cognizant of the differences in the way that people in the U.S. and people in Israel and Palestine talk about the conflict.

“There’s a complete detachment

between what’s happening in the land and what’s happening here. Here it’s very idealistic, very partisan and very polarizing,” Kleiman said. “We’re talking about history, the 1800s, the 1890s. A lot of the people there are worried about tomorrow. They’re worried about whether their house will be evicted. They’re worried about if there’s gonna be a bomb.”

The discussion concluded with suggestions from the panel on how the Emory community can have productive dialogue about the conflict in the future. Kleiman, Sayed, and Hindi encouraged students who want to learn more about the issue to educate themselves by reading various credible sources and staying aware of potential bias in news sources.

Hindi specifically suggested that students read the work of Israeli his-

torians and Israeli Human Rights organizations because they get information directly from the scene of the conflict.

Spielberger said that students needed to prioritize finding a solution over defending their opinions.

“We have to want to find a solution more than we want to be right,” Spielberger said. “Embrace the discomfort that comes from real dialogue, because that’s the only way forward.”

The discussion was hosted in part by Jane Wang (22C) and Kimia Tabatabaei (22C), students who hope to charter a BridgeUSA chapter at Emory next semester. BridgeUSA is a national organization which seeks to educate students about global issues by creating civil dialogues that bridge the gap between different sides of the

STUDENT HOUSING

Toll Bros Seeks Hold on Housing Proposal

By Ninad Kulkarni Staff Writer

Toll Brothers, a home construction company that will build a student housing complex on Clifton and Briarcliff Roads, has asked to delay development, according to Carl Westmoreland, an attorney representing the company.

Uncertainty about MARTA development plans in the Clifton Corridor is the reason for the requested postponement.

“The applicant [Toll Brothers] and county need more information about the plans and timing for MARTA’s improvements in the area,” Westmoreland wrote in an April 22 to Emory and DeKalb County leaders.

Toll Brothers’ proposed develop-

ment includes 202 apartment units and would require rezoning the area to allow for a higher density of residents.

The company initially filed a rezoning request in June 2018, which was postponed until May 2019 due to concerns from Emory and other neighborhood representatives about the possibility of increased traffic along Clifton and Briarcliff Roads.

A lack of clarity regarding MARTA expansion along the Clifton Corridor was also a factor in the delayed request from June 2018.

The original number of units to be built was 374, but Toll Brothers reduced this number in the revised proposal.

In a March 29 email to the Wheel, Emory’s Senior Associate Vice President for Government and

Community Affairs Betty Willis said the University was concerned and that Cliff Shuttles are already running at full capacity.

“Emory continues to have concerns about traffic that Toll Brothers will need to resolve, especially due to the existing complexity of the Briarcliff/ Clifton intersection and its significance as a key traffic artery for the Clifton Corridor. Emory would like to see the traffic studies for this project, and analyze the [Georgia Department of Transportation] response on access to the development,” Willis wrote.

“Any additional shuttle access for the development would require significant investment by the developer.”

— Contact Ninad Kulkarni at nkulka7@emory.edu

political spectrum, according to its website. Wang and Tabatabaei organized the event in collaboration with the Emory International Relations Association, an on-campus student group.

“There’s this echo chamber on college campuses where people who agree with each other only talk to each other, and that strengthens their beliefs without ever challenging them,” Wang said. “We wanted to challenge people’s beliefs and get them to hopefully understand each other.”

After the panel, Zachary Shuster (17Ox, 19C) said he thought the discussion held importance.

“I’m really glad this happened, I think it needed to happen,” Shuster said. “One thing I did wish to see more of was a panelist from the right

wing, because all of them I know were on the left.”

Noor Alfalih (22C) said she thought Wang and Tabatabaei had successfully created a space for dialogue that represented a variety of perspectives.

“I thought it was a great discussion,” Alfalih said. “I do agree all sides should be heard, and personally, I have learned more from the other side, though it doesn’t necessarily mean that I changed my mind.”

Editors’ Note: Kimia Tabatabaei serves on the Wheel’s Editorial Board. Tabatabaei was not involved in the composition or editing of this article.

— Contact Caroline Catherman at caroline.catherman @emory.edu

The Emory Wheel Volume 100, Number 25 © 2019 The Emory Wheel Alumni Memorial University Center, Room 401 630 Means Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30322 Business (404) 727-6178 Editors-in-Chief Nicole Sadek and Niraj Naik nwsadek@emory.edu and nhnaik@emory.edu Founded in 1919, The Emory Wheel is the financially and editorially independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University in Atlanta. The Wheel is a member publication of Media Council, Emory’s organization of student publications. The Wheel reserves the rights to all content as it appears in these pages, and permission to reproduce material must be granted by the editor-in-chief.

The Wheel is printed every Wednesday during the academic year, except during University holidays and scheduled publication intermissions. A single copy of the Wheel is free of charge. To purchase additional copies, please call (404) 727-6178.

The statements and opinions expressed in the Wheel are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Wheel Editorial Board or of Emory University, its faculty, staff or administration.

The Wheel is also available online at www.emorywheel.com.

The Emory Wheel

Senior Reflections Wednesday, April 24, 2019 | Opinion Editor: Madeline Lutwyche (madeline.lutwyche@emory.edu)

Behind the Curtain of Student Gov’t Challenges Define Dwight Ma

Since entering Emory, I have prioritized school involvement. During these four years, I have enriched my college life by devoting numerous hours in organizations on campus.

During my time at Oxford, I was the vice president of Student Government Association, event chair of Business Club, and president of International Student Association.

I have learned more from my involvement in campus life than I have in a classroom.

What I am most proud of from my Oxford days is my facilitation of international students to become more involved on campus.

We established the Cross-Cultural Peer Program by pairing domestic and international students on account of enhancing communication between the two groups.

This program was a huge success as it eliminated the gap between

domestic and international students.

But for me, holding a leadership position in an organization dominated by American students is not an easy task. Although I was a student government president in high school, the management style is very different between China and the United States.

When I became president of the student union at my high school in China, I was appointed by teachers and the past president rather than being elected.

Working with numerous on-campus organizations taught me responsibility, community support and respect.

Ever since I came to the United States, I had to campaign for positions within the Student Government Association.

In China, as the president, I could allocate funds directly and carry out activities without too much restriction.

This is totally different in the United States, I had to pass a bill through legislators in order to receiving any funding or carry out a program. Sometimes, it could take sev-

eral weeks and there could be lots of debates about the budget.

In comparison, at the China Student Union, I implemented the program on the second day of my plan.

Well, some people may think that the power of the president of the Student Union in China is not bound.

Though it is undeniable that such a system is faster and more efficient.

Despite these differences, I do not think that one system is superior to the other.

However, we must recognize each other’s differences and work hard to bridge the gaps caused by these differences.

The Emory community cultivated my interest in school involvement and leadership.

Working with numerous on-campus organizations taught me responsibility, community support and respect.

In general, the experience and knowledge I have gained from Emory has prepared me for any future leadership positions.

I am proud to be a part of Emory, and grateful that Emory offered me the opportunity to enhance others’ lives on campus as president of SGA.

College Experience Jay Krishnaswamy

Dwight Ma is from Wuxi, China.

He served as Student Government Association president. After graduation, he will work for a consulting firm.

Easy is forgettable. Think about it. Go ahead, this reflection will still be here. Whether you are from the Business School, Nursing School or the College, it is likely that the most memorable experiences you have had did not come about easily. It could be that time you finally worked up the courage to respond to questions from your freshman-year orientation leader to the time you signed your job offer for post-graduation. If there is one thing that Emory has taught me over the past four years, it is that the tough experiences are the most memorable, and the most important.

I am honored to be graduating with classmates that, despite the odds, are willing to rise to the challenge. This is by no accident, of course. Emory molds a tenacious bunch. Whether it

I experienced the thrill of covering breaking news, frantically stringing together words and sentences to meet a deadline, and sparking community debate and conversation when articles were finally published. I loved seeing and hearing the reactions when we published a story, whether it was about student government breaking its constitution or Cox failing its health inspection.

As editor-in-chief, I received complaints from students, alumni and community members about our socalled “negative coverage.” I’ve been called by a fake lawyer threatening to sue me if I didn’t remove an article. An alumnus told me I wouldn’t have a job after graduation because I was “out to get my peers.”

What many people fail to realize is that while a student newspaper’s mission is not to make the University look bad, it’s also not a public rela-

tions machine that churns out fluff pieces. Its job is to inform the community and cover anything newsworthy.

That encompasses if a student leader is arrested for possessing cocaine and revealing exactly how much Emory lost in the Migos scam. It also includes if a professor wins an award or if students receive prestigious scholarships.

We are lucky to attend Emory, where the student paper is editorially and financially independent from the University, so that the Wheel can write stories that scrutinize the University and its leaders. But like any other media organization or institution, the Wheel sometimes makes mistakes.

Know this: the editors learn from every correction they have to run on an article. However, if you want to attend a school without an independent newspaper, then you are choosing to turn a blind eye to the issues in that institution. If you have qualms

be uncomfortably dancing at Songfest or riding miniature bikes during the Oxford Olympics, from day one we were tasked with rising to the challenge. If you’ve had the opportunity to read this very newspaper in the past year, you might recognize my name from an effort to change the way our student activity fee is allocated. It was a certainly tough and grueling experience that in the end did not yield the intended result. Do I regret spending time on the effort? Of course not. It was not easy, but it was certainly not forgettable. After graduation, I will take with me the stories of friends and peers who jumped every hurdle to make it to May 13, 2019. From the classmate who checked Twitter every morning to see if his immigration status had changed to the friend who worked a full-time job to send money back home, it is these challenges and the thousands of others that help define the Class of 2019. It is these same challenges that will mint the next generation of leaders, leaders who are unafraid to change the world for the better.

Congratulations, Class of 2019 — I can’t wait to jump the next set of hurdles with you.

Jay is from Duluth, Ga., and served as the BBA Council president.

After graduation, he will be working for PwC as a consultant.

Going On the Record About My Time at the Wheel Michelle Lou

I remember being the only student at the public Q&A forums when the four finalists for the College dean visited campus. The candidates’ faces fell a little when I told them I was covering it for the student newspaper and had to be there.

I also recall being the only nonSGA person present while covering

student government meetings during my sophomore year. At the time, thenSpeaker of the Legislature Will Palmer told me he was likely the only person reading my student government coverage. That changed when the Wheel got to cover the controversial Dwight Ma — and I saw the student body (and alumni) become deeply invested in its own student government for the first time in years.

And most importantly, I will never forget a mother thanking me after I wrote an obituary for her son. I can easily say that I’ve learned more in the Wheel’s offices in the AMUC than in any classroom — to ask questions, to meet people I never would’ve encountered in class and to write stories that would have otherwise gone untold. I spent 30 hours a week on the Wheel for nearly four years, and I don’t regret a single second. The word “passionate” didn’t mean much to me until

The Emory Wheel Nicole Sadek, Niraj Naik Editors-in-Chief Richard Chess Executive Editor Christina Yan Managing Editor Caroline Silva Asst. Emory Life Editor Ryan Callahan Asst. Sports Editor Forrest Martin Asst. Photo Editor Jacqueline Ma Asst. Copy Editor Cailen Chinn Asst. Multimedia Editor Aditya Prakash Associate Editor Devin Boğ Associate Editor Jesse Weiner Associate Editor

Michelle Lou is from Irvine, Calif.

She served as the editor-in-chief of The Emory Wheel. She is working at CNN until she begins law school at Duke University in the Fall.

The Emory Wheel welcomes

Isaiah Sirois Managing Editor Madeline Lutwyche Opinion Editor Ayushi Agarwal Photo Editor Alex Klugerman Editor-at-Large Madison Bober Copy Editor Seungeun Cho Copy Editor Isaiah Poritz Asst. News Editor Shreya Pabbaraju Asst. Opinion Editor Zach Ball Asst. Opinion Editor A desola Thomas Asst. A&E Editor

about the newspaper’s coverage, write a letter to the editor. If you think the Wheel is missing the perspective of a demographic, let it know. If you feel passionately about a news topic, submit an op-ed. When readers engage with the newspaper, the content is better and more informed.

When I first joined the Wheel, I did not fully comprehend a student newspaper’s ability or duty to check power, whether it be student leaders managing hundreds of thousands in student money or administrators spending millions on office renovations. Four years later, I firmly believe that each article the Wheel publishes creates a better, more informed community.

Volume 100 | Number 25 Business and Advertising Joshua Papson Business Manager Mileen Meyer Design manager Business/Advertising Email: wheelbusinessmanager@gmail.com

The Emory Wheel welcomes letters and op-ed submissions from the Emory community. Letters should be limited to 300 words and op-eds should be at least 500. Those selected may be shortened to fit allotted space or edited for grammar, punctuation and libelous content. Submissions reflect the opinions of individual writers and not of The Emory Wheel Editorial Board or Emory University. Send emails to michelle.ann.lou@emory.edu or postal mail to The Emory Wheel, Drawer W, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322.

Letters to the Editor Submit here: www.emorywheel.com/op-edsubmissions/

Taking Calculated Risks at Emory Allison Zieser

Unlike the majority of students at Emory, my college experience didn’t start with Songfest or an English freshman seminar — instead, I transferred before my sophomore year from the University of Iowa. “You’ll end up transferring back,” “You should have a backup major; it’s much harder for transfers to get into the B-school,” “Your resume will never be able to compete with a non-transfer,” is what I was told when I began my first semester at Emory. Reflecting now, I wish I realized that there wasn’t a checklist for being successful. My sophomore year, I spread myself thin, spending all my free time doing work and increasing my organizational involvement, attempting to check off everything needed to prove myself as a student, despite being a transfer. I joined or applied to any applicable club in the college and B-school, rushed a sorority and generally forced myself to integrate.

Ironically, the only thing I actually needed to be successful was a strong ability to adapt to my circumstances — which I naturally obtained by being

Wednesday, April 24, 2019 5

OP-ED

The Emory Wheel

thrown into a new environment and giving myself no choice but to move forward. I embraced what seemed to be unfavorable odds, challenged myself and never stopped to look back.

I switched my major from creative writing to finance, even though I was told it wasn’t wise, and took the necessary steps to enter my aspirational career path, even though I was told that I started preparation too late. I was rejected from some organizations and internships because I didn’t have the same acumen as students who had been on campus the year before — but I took the rejection as motivation to seek acceptance. I knew the odds may be against me, but I decided to move forward as if they didn’t matter — which, it turned out, they didn’t.

We wrap ourselves up in this idea of clarity — that we have to know everything that will happen next, and if we’re too unsure or think it’s too big of a risk, our fear instincts kick in, and we immediately flee; that if we don’t fit prerequisites, then it’s not even worth trying. I consider transferring to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made because it taught me that this isn’t the case. Sometimes we need to take a (calculated) risk, ignore the odds and go forward with confidence.

Sometimes if an opportunity induces fear, maybe that just signals it’s the opportunity we need to take.

Allison is from West Des Moines, Iowa, and served as the Goizueta Women in Finance co-president.

After graduation, she will work as a leveraged financial analyst for Citi in New York City.

Making Emory My Home Not Everyone Feels Welcome Here Nora Elmubarak

Asalam Ailikum Emory, As I reflect and experience all my lasts with you, I remember all of the firsts: My first Emory Muslim Student Association Art Gala, where I emceed nervously and stumbled on all my words; my first time falling asleep in class (seriously, why is astronomy held at 8 a.m. in a darkroom? What were y’all expecting?); my first protest and sit-in and die-in, where we fought to remind this campus and the world that black lives and black students always matter; my first time wearing hijab — and my first time being asked by a professor to take off my hijab; my first anxiety attack; and my first time going by my God-given name with pride (thank you, Nancy).

My firsts were all here. Yesterday, as I lay on McDonough Field eating free Zaxby’s tenders, I remembered running from Raoul Hall my first year during Dooley’s Week, and I couldn’t help but reminisce on the numerous times I have walked this field: from my very first Student Activities Fair,

where I excitedly shuffled through the crowds looking for the Muslim Student Association table, to then being the one running the table and welcoming so many young, eager faces to an organization that I made my home away from home.

Here’s the thing about Emory — it isn’t easy here.

Every time Emory hurt me, it also built me. For every microaggression or challenge, there was a peer or a friend or a colleague or a mentor.

Emory, you saw me at my very worst. You saw me when I felt like I couldn’t move forward, and sometimes, Emory, you were the one to push me into those episodes.

Emory, you hurt me and you ignored community members like me because, as we all know, you were not made for Afro-Arab, Sudanese, Black, Muslim, low-income Hijabis like me.

You just weren’t, and that’s okay.

I was naive coming in to think that who I was didn’t matter and that college would be the great equalizer. It wasn’t, and it isn’t, and that’s okay. It is okay. It will be okay. You know why?

Because every time Emory hurt me, it also built me.

For every microaggression or challenge, there was a peer or a friend or a colleague or a mentor; there was a professor that would redo his syllabus to incorporate your motherland (thank you, Dr. Shomade) or a person that at the very least could listen, empathize and help orchestrate a way to push back and make this place home — make it a space I could value.

There was a Free Thought open mic night, where I could shed my soul of the exhaustion it felt after having to constantly validate my existence here but could also celebrate my existence here.

There were offices and administration members that I could educate and check in with to ensure that progress was happening.

There were friends to remind me that my existence is both loved and necessary.

And sometimes, there was just that free Xfinity subscription that did more for my mental health at times than the months-long waiting list at CAPS. Emory, you broke and built me and for that, I will never forgive you, and I will also never stop loving you and thanking you — you housed my firsts, and I made you home.

So to the class of 2023, just remember that you too can make this place home.

Wa Ailikum Wa Salam, Nora Elmubarak Nora is from Huntsville, Ala., and served as MSA president. After graduation, she will attend the American University College of Law.

Out of Emory and Into the Wild An Argument for Brian Taggett

I applied to Emory sight unseen.

My prior exposure to this school only came from reading “Into the Wild,” where the protagonist Chris McCandless graduated from Emory and promptly wandered North America as a nomad until he met his ultimate demise in the Alaskan wilderness.

I genuinely hoped my Emory degree would not leave me, like McCandless, in an abandoned school bus.

Nonetheless, my conception of Emory and Atlanta was a bit driven by illusion.

I thought the water fountains would spray Coke, the entire album of “TM:103 Hustlerz Ambition” by Jeezy would be blasting on every street corner and every other word of the local vernacular would be “y’all.”

While I was wrong in much of that aspect, I was fortunately correct for why I chose Emory.

This school was the only place where I could actively pursue all my passions academically and extracurricularly.

In the classroom, I was able to

double major in two fields that incredibly interest me, which opened a door for me to study abroad.

Outside of academics, I was able to pursue my passion of journalism by working at the Wheel in addition to my love of baseball by playing for the University’s team.

However, it’s not to say that securing the experiences I so badly wanted in college did not come without hardships — in fact, those hardships shaped many of the most important lessons that I learned at Emory.

This school was the only place where I could actively pursue all my passions academically and extracurricularly.

I am certain that 20 to 30 years from now, when I look back at my time here, I’m not going to be thinking about the exact specifics of that essay I wrote about the relationship between authoritarian leaders and propaganda, but I will laughably recall all the reasons why not to procrastinate.

It’s safe to say postponing a 20-page essay for the night before it’s due will only destroy your circadian rhythm and allow you to witness both sunset and sunrise from the eighth floor of the Woodruff Library.

I will also be able to pinpoint the moment when I learned how to work efficiently under pressure.

When recalling my time as the Wheel’s editorial page editor, I’ll remember scrambling around the office at 2:30 a.m., in an attempt to publish an editorial for the next day covering a result of the 2016 election we had not anticipated.

Perhaps most importantly in my time at Emory, I learned how to deal with defeat — and how to use it as motivation.

My freshman year, I was cut from the baseball team.

I wa s so upset by it that I nearly transferred schools.

However, after much thought, I decided to work my ass off to become a member of the team again.

I am so proud to say that not only do I have a jersey with my name on it, but it’s finally getting good use for my senior season.

Although we were separated by nearly 30 years, McCandless too worked in the Opinion section for the Wheel.

It’s unlikely my time here will be documented in a Jon Krakauer book; nonetheless, I’m confident that the lessons I learned here will serve me for years to come, even if I can’t recall the details of every lecture, editorial or game.

Brian is from Kalamazoo, Mich., and served as an associate editor and editorial page editor on The Emory Wheel and a pitcher on the baseball team. After graduation, he will be working with the Detroit Tigers Organization in Lakeland, Fla. as an ESL/Cultural assimilation instructor for foreign players.

The Classics

Camila Reed-Guevara

While at Emory, I discovered the classics. In high school, I was never exposed to the ancient world. But on a whim, the first semester of my first year, I took a classics course that introduced me to canonical texts like “The Iliad,” “The Odyssey” and “The Aeneid.”

I became fascinated with a world that no longer existed, that lives on through our fantasies about it. Having been bitten, so to speak, by this course of study, I began researching, again by chance, with the same professor who taught that course.

His research subject was the Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger. He was in the process of writing a book about him, and invited me to read Seneca’s work and decide for myself if I found it interesting.

Within the course of a year, I had read all of Seneca’s surviving texts, looking at the themes of slavery and education in particular.

What I found was that this philosopher lived in a world where enslavement was a common practice, in which a very small percentage of people were

literate and social class determined access to education.

While we now live in a different world, we don’t deal with dissimilar problems.

In our country, millions are imprisoned and unpaid for the work they do. We are unable to provide an equal education to all people.

The richest among us can pay half a million dollars to bribe their children into college. Seneca made a compelling argument for why we should consider education a universal human right, and it’s an argument we cannot afford to forget.

What I learned from Seneca changed what I think about Emory as an institution. It is, in its most basic form, an institution of privilege. It is a private university that serves as a gatekeeper to knowledge. Not unlike my own discipline, which is the least diverse of all the humanities and has consistent problems with recruiting people of color as students and faculty. However, that does not mean we should abandon this institution or this discipline.

I encourage all of us at Emory, graduating seniors or not, to use our gift to continue to fight for, and push for, more equitable and accessible education — not only on our own campus, but everywhere.

Camila Reed-Guevara is from Salt Lake City. She founded the Emory Classics Journal “Tesserae,” and debated for Emory’s Barkley Forum. After graduation, she will be pursuing a master’s degree at the University of St. Andrew’s under the Bobby Jones Scholarship.

6 Wednesday, April 24, 2019

OP-ED

Slow Down, Savor the Little Moments Namrata Verghese

Last month, I helped interview finalists for the Emory Scholars Program. In addition to running the interviews, we were tasked with giving a brief “Emory elevator pitch,” intended to entice these prospective students into accepting their admissions offers.

I had my spiel down pat; at the end of each interview, I rattled off Emory’s various resources, highlighting the wide array of opportunities I’ve received here — the internships, the leadership positions, the research experiences.

During one of the last interviews, however, a girl raised her hand after my little pitch.

“You talked about all the things you got to do at Emory,” she said.

“But if you could tell your freshman self something to do differently, what would it be?”

I was caught off-guard — I’d practiced the spiel, but not much else — and answered her question spontaneously and honestly.

“I’d tell her to slow down,” I said, surprising myself. The advice stood in stark contrast to my pitch, which emphasized the activities, the opportunities, the relentless drive. But, like most unprepared answers, mine was startlingly revealing.

We’ve been taught to treat our time at college like a race. We start off

sprinting, accumulating bullet points on our resumes at a rapid-fire pace, always hunting for the next thing — the next job, the next position, the next award.

We compare ourselves to our peers, who are always, inevitably, doing better than we are, and so we tell ourselves to do better, to be better.

To work harder. To optimize ourselves, in true millennial or Gen Z fashion. After four years, we arrive, finally, at the finish line, sweating, panting. Exhausted.

Sometimes ... detours are more interesting than linear progressions.

Sometimes we need to get lost — to slow down, catch out breath and trust that, eventually, we’ll get where we need to go.

In retrospect, I realize I could have treated my time here as a stroll instead of a race.

A collaboration instead of a competition.

When we amble through Lullwater with our friends on a lazy Sunday afternoon, we aren’t worried about finding our destination in the most time-efficient manner possible.

Instead of panicking and trying to find our way out, we pace ourselves, enjoying the afternoon, the warmth, the company.

Sometimes destinations are shrouded by trees, and detours are more interesting than linear progressions.

Sometimes we need to get lost — to slow down, catch our breath and trust

that, eventually, we’ll get where we need to go.

When I look back on my time at Emory, the best moments weren’t scoring that big internship or winning that next prize.

The best moments were the little ones.

The ordinary ones. The ones spent in Peet’s, where my friends and I would promise each other we’d work and proceed to gleefully distract each other for hours.

The ones spent in the Music and Media Library, putting the final touches on Model Minority Magazine, one of my proudest accomplishments at Emory.

The ones spent in the apartment I’ve shared with my best friends for the past two years, eating takeout and drinking $6 Trader Joe’s wine under the twinkling glow of fairy lights.

Talking and laughing and being.

College is long. It’s unpredictable.

You won’t always know what you’re doing or where you’re going — and that’s okay. Take your time. Take a breath.

Take care of yourself, and enjoy the little things along the way. Nothing captures my feelings about imminent graduation better than this quote from Arundhati Roy’s “The God of Small Things”: “Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstituted.

Imbued with new being. Suddenly, they become the bleached bones of a story.”

Namrata Verghese is from Houston and served as co-editor-in-chief of The Emory Globe, co-founder of Model Minority Magazine, an IDEAS Fellow and a Fox Undergraduate Honors Fellow at the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry. In the fall, Verghese will pursue a master’s in English at the University of Cambridge (U.K.) under the Charles Elias Shepard Scholarship.

The Emory Wheel

Nyá:wę, Thanks To You Emory Klamath Henry

Nyá:wę. This means thank you in my indigenous tongue.

I would like to open up my senior reflection by thanking the ancestral peoples of the lands upon which Emory University currently resides, and those who were enslaved and forced to build the infrastructure on Emory University lands. Emory University is located on the traditional lands of the Muscogee Creek peoples. The Muscogee Creek were forcibly removed by the U.S. government in 1834. This event would go on to be remembered as the Trail of Tears. Nyá:wę to those ancestors and modern-day Muscogee people who continue to care for the land. Nyá:wę to those who built Emory University.

My name, “Klamath,” means “people of the river.” I am from the Shasta tribe of California and the Tuscarora tribe of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The Tuscarora tribe I come from is a sovereign nation surrounded by the State of New York. My family currently lives in Northern Nevada, which is where I was raised. My family is my world. My tribes are my people. Nyá:wę to my Earth family and my ancestors.

My Emory experience started on the softball field. If it were not for being recruited to play softball, I would never have been a student at

Emory. Prior to being recruited, I did not know Emory existed! Playing college softball gave me confidence and allowed me to gain the experience that I will need to continue my coaching career. Two seasons into my college career, my spinal injury forced me to retire from playing but did not keep me away from the game. Nyá:wę to the Emory Athletics program, my coaches and my teammates for developing me into a strong leader.

My activism has been filled with many unique and enriching experiences. Learning from other students of color and marginalized communities has expanded the way I think about the world.

Thank you to Emory administration for listening to me. Nyá:wę to the Emory activist community for teaching me how to persist. Nyá:wę to the Emory administration for listening to me speak.

My professors have been exceptionally inspiring. Every professor I have had in my time at Emory has given me the tools I will need to excel. From them, I have learned how to think critically, deeply and intellectually.

Nyá:wę to my professors for teaching me how to learn.

I am happy to be graduating this Spring but excited to continue my journey. Y’all at Emory have grown, shaped, pushed, challenged, demolished and uplifted me.

Nyá:wę, Emory. The past four years were amazing.

Klamath Henry is from Fernley, Nev., and served as an intern at the Commission on Racial and Social Justice. After graduating, Henry will pursue graduate studies in cultural anthropology and work as a graduate assistant to the softball program at California State University, Fullerton.

Bullet Points for The Other Kind of Peer Pressure Success at Emory Mustafa Hassoun

Leigh Schlecht

When I started attending Emory, I searched everywhere for to-do lists.

I wanted a roadmap for college, but I didn’t find one. Instead, I created lists upon lists for myself, thinking that those filled-in boxes would bring me closer to achieving my goals. They did.

I quickly realized, though, that the professional advice I wanted was actually personal advice I needed. So here, I offer a few bullet points from my own to-do lists that shaped my Emory experience, and made me better for it.

1. Visit the National Scholarships and Fellowships Program Office — as a freshman.

As early as possible, go talk to Dr. Friddle. She does have checklists, and she offers thoughtful advice for every stage of college life. Dr. Friddle encouraged me to explore my passions and advised me on becoming a competitive applicant while remaining true to my interests. She helped me shape my trajectory and plan for the future in ways I could not have done on my own.

2. Keep a journal.

So many great moments happen at Emory. While you hopefully have a resume recording the larger ones, write down the rest, too. Allocate a notebook for a joke your friend told, the late-night runs to Buford Highway and the dorm-room conversations you don’t want to forget. I started a journal the day I started college, and I’m so glad I did.

Two thick notebooks later, I can flip through pages and pages of memories I might not otherwise recall.

3. Find a non-Emory passion.

Develop yourself outside of an academic, extracurricular or resumebuilding context. For me, those passions include exploring Atlanta, reading for pleasure and running. After making time for myself, I slept better. My mental health soared. For the majority of my time at Emory, I truly felt happy. By making time for myself through non-academic pursuits, I became a more interesting person.

So, what makes you interesting?

How have you challenged yourself recently?

The answers to these questions will shape your time here for the better, as they did mine.

Leigh is from Sheboygan, Wis., and served as copy editor for The Emory Wheel, IDEAS fellow and Omicron Delta Kappa president. In the fall, Schlecht will pursue a master’s in English at the University of Cambridge (U.K.) under the Charles Elias Shepard Scholarship.

When we think of peer pressure, fraternity houses and freshman dorms typically spring to mind.

We understand peer pressure as something every parent and high school assembly cautioned against.

Through this line of thinking, we ignore the other kind of peer pressure: the profound influence we have on one another’s development.

The other kind of peer pressure facilitates the growth necessary for a successful college career.

As a particularly strong-willed person, people do not typically associate me with peer pressure.

Yet, through this other kind of peer pressure, I have become a more reliable friend, better student, stronger employee and more.

Second semester freshman year I found myself in a state-of-the-art pressure cooker.

I was well on my way to finishing the major requirements for political science.

I started exploring a second major

and the whispers began — the other kind of peer pressure.

I was told repeatedly that I needed to have a second major with more “marketability.”

I slowly, albeit illogically, began to see the merit in my peer’s arguments.

I drastically altered my schedule for the next semester, signing up for four business school prerequisites; I even convinced one professor to open more seats in her class.

The following semester was miserable.

My GPA dropped and I prioritized “prestige” over mental health.

Nonetheless, this experience taught me the invaluable lesson of following my instincts.

I quickly realized that I was wholly dispassionate about the subjects I was studying.

My GPA dropped and I prioritized “prestige” over mental health.

Nonetheless, this experience taught me the invaluable lesson of following my instincts and sticking to my passions.

Through peer pressure I learned to trust myself more.

Late sophomore year, the then presidents of the Emory

International Relations Association convinced me to run for head delegate — something I neither would have considered without their efforts nor would have become president one year later.

My peers, who hold wide-ranging political beliefs and come from across the world, taught me to see the nuance in political ideologies.

Most importantly, because I had so much to learn from my peers, I improved as a listener.

Both my extracurricular activities and my personal relationships demanded I strengthen my listening skills.

Through years of practice with my peers in many avenues I developed listening abilities that will be a resource both personally and professionally.

The other kind of peer pressure pushes us to challenge ourselves and grow as people.

The other kind of peer pressure challenges our preconceived notions and deserves much more credit and attention than it receives.

Before I conclude, I want thank my peers.

Thank you for making me a better listener and more self-assured. Also, thank you to the ones who helped me write this reflection. To evoke something of the original peer pressure: cheers.

Mustafa is from Huntsville, Ala., and served as Emory International Relations Association President.

After graduation, Hassoun plans to attend law school.

&

The Emory Wheel

Arts Entertainment Wednesday, April 24, 2019 | Asst. Arts & Entertainment Editor: Adesola Thomas (adesola.thomas@emory.edu)

marvel cinematic universe

Afrobeats Concert

Burna Boy Brings ‘African Giant’ Energy to Atlanta

By Helena Baffoe-Bonnie Contributing Writer

Grade: A-

Courtesy of Disney

In the trailer for ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ a distressed Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) drifts alone in space. ‘Endgame’ hits theaters this Friday, April 26.

‘Endgame’ A Superhero Movie Gem

By Jesse Weiner Associate Editor

Grade: A By the time you read this spoilerfree review of “Avengers: Endgame,” you’re likely fall in one of two camps for “Avengers: Endgame”: either you’re clenching your opening weekend tickets and hoping that it lives up to the hype, or you’re a casual movie fan who’s wondering whether you should avoid the crowds and wait a week or two to see the superhero phe-

nomenon. I was most definitely the former, and now I can sincerely say that “Endgame” is 100 percent worth the wait. Die-hard Marvel fans must watch as soon as humanly possible and others need to rush to theaters as well (after bingeing the prior 21 films, of course). “Endgame” is a surreal cinematic experience that beautifully wraps up this era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) while subtly hinting at an exciting future.

After half of all living beings in the universe vanished at the end of “Avengers: Infinity War,” the remain-

Rap album review

ing Avengers are left reeling. Led by Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Captain America (Chris Evans), our heroes take one last stand against Thanos (Josh Brolin) in the hopes of taking back the Infinity Gauntlet and rescuing their fallen friends.

Some may criticize today’s blockbusters for sacrificing character development for spectacle. In fact, last year I argued that “Infinity War” did just that, trading character arcs for breathtaking action set-pieces. For a large

See ENDGAME, Page 8

Annual ATL Film Fest Showcases Impactful Flicks

Courtesy of AMF R ecords

Loyle Carner Talks Friendship And Romance on New Album South London MC and foodie extraordinaire Loyle Carner, born Benjamin Gerard Coyle-Larner, has been gracing rap fans worldwide with his nimble, mindful lyricism ever since the release of his 2014 EP, “A Little Late.” In this nearly 20-minute release, Coyle-Larner and longtime collaborator Rebel Kleff establish themselves as master wordsmiths with their clever quips and signature jazz-influenced, lo-fi hip-hop sound.

While the rich musicality of this Loyle Carner project and his subsequent 2017 Mercury Prize-nominated debut LP, “Yesterday’s Gone,” are certainly responsible for his growing following, Coyle-Larner is cherished by audi-

See AFROBEATs, Page 8

2019 Atlanta Film Festival

By Saru Garg & James Patrignani Contributing Writers

By Adesola Thomas Asst. A&E Editor

Self-proclaimed “African Giant” Burna Boy performed to a sold-out crowd at The Mansion Elan on April 19. The Nigerian native has attracted a strong African following with his smooth vocals, quickly rising to become one of the most popular Afrobeats artists in Africa. He has coined his musical style as “Afrofusion” — a unique blend of Afrobeats, dancehall, reggae and hip hop.

Burna Boy, born Damini Ogulu, developed his initial interest in music at the young age of 10, when he began making beats on an old computer with the FruityLoops software (now known as FL Studio). At age 19, after two years of college in London, Burna Boy dropped out and returned to Nigeria to formally pursue music. In 2012, he released singles “Like to Party” and “Tonight” in collaboration with producer LeriQ, placing himself on the Afrobeats map. Since then, Burna Boy has worked with some of Africa’s biggests artists, including Wizkid, D’Banj and AKA, as well as popular Western artists Drake and Major Lazer.

The crowd, primarily comprised of young Africans and African Americans, certainly dressed to impress. The stylish nightclub teemed

with excitement as a number of openers set the stage for Burna’s arrival.

Though Burna Boy began his set at 12:45 a.m., an hour and 15 minutes after his expected 11:30 p.m. start time, the crowd received him with an excited roar. My frustration toward his tardiness was instantly replaced with excitement as his engaging stage presence lit up the stage. I danced along as he started with his energetic 2018 track “Heaven’s Gate,” a collaboration with British singer-songwriter Lily Allen. He proceeded to perform several other tracks from his momentous 2018 record “Outside,” ranging from the cheerful “Streets of Africa” to the sensual “Devil in California” — a personal favorite. Of the songs performed from “Outside,” “Sekkle Down,” featuring J Hus, energized the crowd most.

Burna Boy then traveled back in time, performing a number of earlier hits, including his 2013 and 2014 singles “Yawa Dey” and “Check and Balance,” respectively. He also repeated a portion of “Like to Party” in a cappella, showcasing his impressive vocals, before transitioning to recent bangers “Gbona,” “On the Low” and “Dangote” — a song whose first few beats alone were enough to make the crowd erupt into a full-blown singalong. Burna’s musical talent was put

Loyle Carner

“Not Waving, But Drowning” (2019)

ence members and music critics alike because of his lyrical vulnerability.

Coyle-Larner has used his two releases and his new 2019 sophomore LP, “Not Waving, But Drowning” (“NWBD”), to discuss the vacuum left by his stepfather’s sudden passing, his love for his mother and younger brother, his identity struggle as a mixed-race black man, and his relationship with ADHD and dyslexia (Loyle Carner is a spoonerism for Coyle-Larner). But the fulcrum of Coyle-Larner’s newest work is his relationship with his girl-

See Coyle, Page 8

Film festivals are a haven for movie lovers everywhere. Packed with panels, conferences and, of course, films, they are unmissable opportunities to learn about and appreciate the medium. The Atlanta Film Festival, which took place April 4-14, boasted an infectious energy that Saru Garg and James Patrignani, two A&E writers, were enthusiastic to bask in. Here is a rundown of seven films they collectively saw.

“The Farewell” Grade: A One of the questions that looms over first-generation immigrants to the United States is whether they should have left their home country at all — whether their lives in the U.S. are better than the lives they left behind.

In her sophomore feature, ChineseAmerican filmmaker Lulu Wang takes this question to task with the honesty, vulnerability and complexity that it demands. Based on her own life, the film follows a young woman named Billi (Awkwafina), who finds out that her beloved grandmother, Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen) has been diagnosed with cancer. Bound by Chinese tradition, which dictates that terminally ill individuals not be informed of their diagnosis so as to incite fear, Billi and her family must craft a ruse to visit China and say their goodbyes to Nai Nai. Anchored by a standout dramatic performance from Awkwafina and unconventional, expressive cam-

erawork, “The Farewell” generously and lovingly contrasts the collectivist Chinese culture with the individualistic American one, without ever tearing down either value system. The film also explores the facades of family life both explicitly, through the various ruses the family concocts to see Nai Nai, and implicitly, through the elaborately constructed, yet artificial backdrops against which the action unfolds.

Bursting with dark humor, profound wisdom and tender moments, Wang paints a poignant picture of a divided immigrant family who must reconcile their conflicting beliefs in the face of looming tragedy.

“Little Woods” Grade: ANia DaCosta was recently tapped to direct the Jordan Peele-produced reboot of classic horror slasher, “Candyman.” In her directorial debut, however, DaCosta tackles horror of a different kind: the American healthcare system. Set in small-town North Dakota, “Little Woods” tells the story of Ollie (Tessa Thompson), a smalltime pill peddler who is almost finished with her probation. The charge?

She had been arrested for illegally transporting Canadian medication across the border and selling it to low-income workers who desperately need it.

Though Ollie plans on leaving North Dakota and building a better life for herself, her plans are complicated after her sister Deb (Lily James) becomes pregnant. Bearing a child she does not want to keep and in need of a place to stay, Deb pleads for Ollie’s

help. In order to support her, Ollie must go back into business.

Despite the illegality of selling drugs, “Little Woods” casts no judgment. As Ollie says to Deb during one conversation, “Your choices are only as good as your options are.”

In a rural, blue-collar town, they are all helpless to circumstance, doing what they must in order to survive.

The authorities cannot understand this, and, as a result, many tense confrontations occur throughout the film, heightened by the jarringly loud, mounting score. Thompson and James deliver deeply empathetic performances which further complicate viewers’ notions of morality versus legality. But not all hope is lost. Despite its predominantly muted color palette, the film casts recurring shots of brilliant sunsets, signaling the end of one day and the promise of another that may bring something better.

“Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” Grade: B+ Joe Berlinger’s crime biopic traces the path of Ted Bundy (Zac Efron), America’s most famous serial killer, and his former girlfriend, Elizabeth “Liz” Kloepfer (Lily Collins), as Bundy brutally murders over a dozen young women in the 1970s. Eventually, Bundy is arrested and put to trial. Efron and Collins give incredible performances.

Efron’s careful depiction of a killer’s psyche steals each scene, and Collins delivers a compelling representation of a woman juggling her undying love

See the, Page 8

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Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Afrobeats Star Performs At Sold-Out Show

Continued from Page 7 on full display as he sang his songs effortlessly, never running out of breath even while dancing and jumping from corner to corner of the stage.

He took a rest from singing for a “zanku” dance break, which he performed with a guest dancer. A lively, foot-tapping dance, zanku originated in Nigeria with the release of Zlatan Ibile’s 2018 track “Zanku (Leg Work).”

The crowd went wild as Burna Boy displayed his impressive footwork. He grinned widely as the audience’s reaction to his dance moves affirmed that he was, indeed, killing it.

Toward the end of the show, Burna Boy called for a moment of silence to honor the passing of Nipsey Hussle, a beloved Eritrean-American rapper, entrepreneur and community activist. Burna Boy shared an emotional word on the importance of loving one another and not taking life for granted.

He closed his 1.5 hour set with his eagerly anticipated breakout hit, “Ye.” The crowd’s energy surged as he performed the catchy track, joyfully jumping up and down with the beat.

The audience made sure to shout his signature line, “I can’t come and kill myself,” a Nigerian adage that essentially means you shouldn’t torture yourself over a situation you can’t control.

Courtesy of Tomi Idowu

Burna Boy spits fire at his April 19 concert.

While Burna Boy performed most of my favorite songs, I was slightly disappointed that he closed the show without performing “Location,” his recent collaboration with the British rapper Dave that peaked at No. 6 on the U.K. singles chart.

Overall, Burna Boy provided his audience with high energy, contagious charisma and impressive vocals. The “African Giant” had indeed made his mark on Atlanta.

— Contact Helena BaffoeBonnie at hsabffo@emory.edu

A&E

‘The Farewell,’ Starring Awkwafina, Debuts Continued from Page 7 for Bundy while dealing with the horrors of his actions. The seasoned John Malkovich gives a standout performance as Judge Edward D. Cowart, who finally convicts Bundy and sentences him to death. Malkovich’s nononsense, stoic character provides some subtle yet effective comedy in an otherwise serious drama. Cowart’s and Bundy’s personalities clash as Bundy finally meets his match. Storywise, the film admittedly has a choppy start.

Hampered by a sluggish beginning, the narrative has a hard time finding its footing for about the first third of the film. Luckily, however, the latter half of the film offers a thrilling conclusion that builds on the movie’s earlier character development. It is at this point that Efron fully commits to and shines in his role, as he portrays a character who engages in some truly violent acts.

As the title promises, the expert storytelling crafts a satisfying and truly horrifying and conclusion. By the time the credits roll, you will most certainly have chills down your spine.

“The Death of Dick Long” Grade: BDaniel Scheinert’s raunchy comedy, “The Death of Dick Long,” follows the shenanigans of Zeke Olson (Michael Abbott Jr.) and Earl Wyeth (Andre Hyland), as they try to keep secret their accidental murder of their best friend, Dick Long (Daniel Scheinert).

“The Death of Dick Long” is unapolo-

Coyle-Larner Traverses Adulthood Swimmingly Continued from Page 7 friend, whom he speaks lovingly about throughout the album. “NWBD” draws its title from the eponymous Stevie Smith poem about a drowning man who was thought by a group of onlookers to be waving.

The poem, like “NWBD,” aptly captures the keen difficulty of trying to hide one’s struggles in the midst of merriment. Carner reflects the pangs of this emotional dissonance in tracks like “Loose Ends,” featuring Jorja Smith, and “Krispy,” a track dedicated to Kleff.

“Loose Ends” soars with Smith’s glossy warbling and Coyle-Larner’s mournful recognition that both lost and new loved ones will never know each other: “I been goin’ insane, shelf full of family remains/ Brokenhearted is seein’ none of them again.” But all the melancholic reflections Coyle-Larner raps about are carefully complicated by the joys he recognizes within them.

While “Loose Ends” acknowledges that Coyle-Larner’s “missus” — sweetly aliased as French Vanilla — will never know his late father, it also highlights Coyle-Larner’s gratitude to have them in his life.

The album itself is book ended by “Dear Jean” and “Dear Ben,” songs that operate like epistles between Coyle-Larner and his beloved mother.

In “Dear Ben,” Jean Coyle-Larner says, “You’ve finally found your one, your Golden Snitch, and my task is done/ For I’ve gained a daughter/ I’ve not lost a son.”

While one might be tempted to swoon at Coyle-Larner’s ethos and approach to the rap game, it would be remiss to caricature him as a musical “softboi” who performs confessional, redemptive rap.

Coyle-Larner’s music is not necessarily antithetical to the more sexually motivated grime rhymes of rap-

pers like Octavian or Skepta. It merely focalizes other subject content. The legitimacy and strength of “NWBD” is not derived from Coyle-Larner’s ability to croon about subject matters that some listeners may deem more comfortable and heartwarming.

While one might be tempted to swoon at Coyle-Larner’s ethos and approach to the rap game, it would be remiss to caricature him as a musical ‘softboi.’

Rather, his music is affecting because it is effective, emotionally driven and intentional. His work is cut from the same rich, textured cloth of rappers like Mos Def and late poets like Craig Arnold and Mary Oliver — artists who, like Coyle-Larner, embody the fact that honest art comes from honest people. “NWBD” focuses on friendships in addition to CoyleLarner’s living and departed family.

“Krispy” is a four-minute track about the frayed friendship between CoyleLarner and former producer and longtime “mate” Kleff, who is largely absent from “NWBD” aside from his feature in the “You Don’t Know” single and music video, which also features Kiko Bun. Coyle-Larner raps about a relationship forged by a mutual love for music and complicated by money: “To rip a bond apart, shred it out its course/ Now two best friends who shared the torch barely talk/And if we do it’s mostly money, not remorse.” While Coyle-Larner could have rapped along to instrumental boom-baps to express his love for his friend, he spits a short verse and says that the rest of the

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song is for Kleff to add his own verse.

Tender gestures like this are speckled throughout an album that paints a mosaic of Coyle-Larner’s relationships and cherished moments.

Tasty tracks like “Its Not Coming?” and “Ottolenghi” paint soundscapes of Coyle-Larner’s living room during the 2018 World Cup, and of Southern Railway train rides with brighteyed, wise passengers. “Ottolenghi” and “Carluccio” demonstrate CoyleLarner’s immense appreciation for masterful chefs, both living and gone.

Within all of these tracks are verbal pecks to Coyle-Larner’s “French Vanilla butter pecan,” whom he speaks of on tracks like “Angel.” featuring longtime collaborator Tom Misch, “Ice Water” and “Desoleil (Brilliant Corners),” featuring Sampha.

At the end of “Desoleil,” which features a flow different from what I’ve heard in any other Loyle Carner song, an obviously overwhelmed, grateful Coyle-Larner nearly whispers, “I see that you’re deeply in love with me/ Uh/Shit/You’re deeply in love with me?” “Not Waving, But Drowning” is a robust and formidable sophomore project.

The twinges of melancholy in CoyleLarner’s lyrics register differently than the grief and restlessness expressed in previous releases. All the pain is swaddled in what sounds like remarkable, blossoming hope.

Though the album intermittently lacks the precision and fluidity that Kleff’s production skills highlighted in past works, “NWBD” is nonetheless worthy of multiple listens. It is a testament to the ability of time to help heal wounds, forge new bonds and help us keep our chins up.

— Contact Adesola Thomas at adesola.thomas@emory.edu

Courtesy of ATL Film Festival

The Plaza Theatre marquee welcomes eager moviegoers for the 43rd annual Atlanta Film Festival. getically inappropriate and hilarious.

Set in a small town in Alabama, much of the comedy is made at the setting’s expense, exploiting its many zany characters.

‘The Farewell’ generously and lovingly contrasts the collectivist Chinese culture with the individualistic American one.

The two leads completely own their roles and their idiotic natures, bouncing off each other to form their superb chemistry.

In one scene, when our bumbling leads have to hide a dead body from their children, their banter makes for

a hilarious attempt to craft an on-thespot alibi for the police. Unfortunately, despite the promising comedic banter, the second half of the film seems to forget what kind of movie it is, trying and failing to fuse the genres of comedy and drama.

The movie lost my interest as soon as it tried to pivot into a serious film, as the drama eventually disrupted its fluidity.

Despite its tonal issues, “The Death of Dick Long” is still a solid comedy that stands out above most cookiecutter movies of the same genre.

Full ATL Film Fest reviews can be found at emorywheel.com.

- Contact Saru Garg at saru.garg@emory.edu and James Patrignani at james. patrignani@emory.edu

‘Endgame’ Lives up to Lofty Expectations Continued from Page 7 chunk of the film, “Endgame” does exactly the opposite. The film places a massive emphasis on further developing the story arcs of the surviving Avengers, namely Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America, Black Widow, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner).

While this core group of Avengers hasn’t assembled as a team since 2014’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Endgame” blends them back together smoothly. We care immensely about these original favorites, and the film doesn’t brush past this fact.

We’re given time to marinate in these beloved characters, their relationships and how they’ve changed over the years.

A major reason we have time for this character development is the film’s lengthy runtime, which exceeds three hours. This could turn audiences off, but directors Joe and Anthony Russo completely justify it over the course of the film.

Crucial character moments and interactions never feel rushed, and the film doesn’t have to rely solely on past storylines — it has time to introduce new arcs and weave them into past ones.

This is not to say that “Endgame” lacks the bombast of past MCU entries. In fact, I would pit the stunning climactic battle of “Endgame” against any battle in any superhero film, including the jaw-dropping airport sequence from “Captain America: Civil War.” It’s just that “Endgame” is so much more than an action film. It’s heart-

breaking, hilarious and heart-pounding, sometimes all at the same time.

Few films have ever made me cry, but “Endgame” left me tearing up, sometimes unexpectedly. The film wraps up this era of the MCU elegantly; even when it sets up future entries, it does so in clever and subtle ways, and never stays past its welcome.

Despite its heavy subject matter and intensity, “Endgame” doesn’t pass on opportunities for humor, and it’s actually a very funny film considering it follows the bleak ending of “Infinity War.” While some punchlines don’t feel necessary, Tony Stark’s one-liners still land as strongly as ever, as do AntMan’s (Paul Rudd).

On top of this, the Russo brothers manage to integrate several incredible moments of fan service without ever feeling forced.

Character team-ups and payoffs that fans have been theorizing about for years are realized and guaranteed to cause hooting and hollering, which makes for a thrilling theatrical experience.

With “Endgame,” the Russo brothers have done the impossible yet again.

They’ve carefully crafted a film that honors the MCU’s past, respects and develops the iconic characters and sets up the universe for an intriguing future.

Not only will this movie make a bazillion dollars, but it will go down in history as a milestone in science fiction filmmaking. In fact, you should stop reading this review and go buy your tickets now. We’re in the Endgame now, and it’s a sight to be seen.

— Contact Jesse Weiner at jweine8@emory.edu

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The Emory Wheel

Emory Life

Wednesday, April 24, 2019 | Asst. Emory Life Editor: Caroline Silva (ccsilva@emory.edu)

CAMPUS ARTS

Ayushi AgArwAl/Photo Editor

The mural outside Cox Hall features prominent Atlanta icons including the Vortex skull (RiGht) and the Atlanta Hawks logo ( Bottom centeR). Claire Pomykala (21C) and Sierra Basquez (21B) hope to finish the mural in time for the Spring 2019 Commencement ceremony.

Cox Bridge’s Atlanta-Themed Mural Brings Back the Arts

By Ryan Fan Editorial Board Member When Claire Pomykala (21C) first pitched the idea of a mural to The Pulse, Emory’s literary and arts anthology, in October 2018, she didn’t think it would get approved.

But when The Pulse moved the idea forward to David Fuhrman of Campus Life, he accepted.

Coincidentally, he knew of the perfect available space for the students, the Cox Courtyard.

Now, when you walk past the Cox Hall patio, the mural is in full bloom.

Dedicated to the city of Atlanta, the mural features historical symbols, including the Atlanta United crest,

Vortex Bar & Grill’s iconic skull, an Olympic flame and Midtown’s rainbow crosswalks.

While some contributing artists have joined the effort through artfocused organizations like The Pulse and Emory Arts Underground, several students unaffiliated with the arts organizations have also put in substantial efforts.

For Pomykala, the mural represents an effort to revitalize arts at Emory, where art rarely seems to flourish outside promotional purposes.

The arts have been on a decline since 2012, when Emory closed its Visual Arts program.

Few projects at Emory constitute art for art’s sake, she explained. The

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

mural also serves as a medium for expression and protest from artists across campus.

Claire Pomykala (21C), leader of Cox Bridge Mural

Ayushi AgArwAl/Photo Editor

“[The mural is] there to bring back the arts on campus,” Pomykala said.

“I made this mural because I was sick and tired of letting the arts be neglected.”

Jessica Kang (22C), a contributor to

the mural, echoed Pomykala’s emphasis on the need to revitalize arts at Emory.

“This mural is just a representation of the arts being brought back to Emory,” Kang said. “It’s a mural of Atlanta icons. It’s setting Emory within the city and its historical context.”

On a sunny afternoon, you may see three different Emory students working on distinct parts of the mural, each armed with a set of paintbrushes, paint rollers and multi-colored paint cans.

Though the mural appears close to completion, the artists still have plenty to do. Only the first few layers of paint have been applied and the final layers are still necessary. Annie

Schiffer (20C), the incoming president of The Pulse, is currently painting railroad tracks to connect the various Atlanta icons, while Sierra Basquez (21B) works on the Atlanta skyline and sunset.

Pomykala and Basquez have largely taken the lead in painting and organizing the mural.

Basquez has dedicated well over 20 hours a week and eight hour days to the project and Pomykala has taken a lighter course load to make time for the mural this semester. After approval in October, Pomykala and Basquez have spent most of the year working on the mural.

See POMYKALA, Page 12

PROFILE

Educational Studies Dept. Farmers Market Vendor Doubles as Local Mayor Sends Off Final Graduate By nicole SadeK Editor-in-Chief

By GReG KimmeReR Staff Writer As a first-generation college student at High Tech High Chula Vista, a high school in San Diego with predominantly low-income, first generation students, Rafely Palacios (19C) noticed that her more affluent classmates were able to more easily procure costly resources like college admissions consulting.

This realization sparked her interest in education, and would eventually lead her to major in it at Emory. The only roadblock was that, as she began to develop a passion for the subject, Emory’s department had begun to shutter its doors.

She was initially told by administrators that she would only be able to minor in the subject. But eventually, after accruing enough credits in the major, she successfully convinced administrators to allow her to graduate in Spring 2019 as a double major in educational studies and international studies, making her the last Emory student to major in educational studies.The educational studies department was closed as part of a broad downsizing, orchestrated by former College Dean Robin Forman. Nontenured faculty in the department were let go, and tenured professors were given the option to move to a new department. The closing of the

department was announced at a faculty meeting in fall 2013, and took four years to execute fully, allowing time for majors to graduate.

Palacios said that the disparities she witnessed at her high school formed part of her initial drive to pursue education.

Rafely Palacios (19C), last educational studies major at Emory College Ayushi AgArwAl/Photo Editor

“When we were all applying to colleges, we all had different experiences,” Palacios said. “[Affluent students at High Tech High] were able to hire people to do their essays and to help them with the application itself, and I didn’t have that help. So I just noticed these discrepancies between our experiences and knew that I wanted to do something about that.”

Once at Emory, Palacios joined Emory Graduation Generation, an organization that seeks to increase the graduation rate at low income schools.

Palacios was also keenly interested in History of American Education, a class she took with Amber Jones. The

See PALACIOS, Page 12

If Rey Martinez wanted, he could be a gambler. To many, his luck is uncanny. Even as he stared down the barrel of a gun in a Florida Marriott, his luck did not fail him. If robbers hadn’t entered the lobby at midnight, guns loaded, Rey Martinez would have never met his future wife, a Marriott employee who remained in touch with him after the incident.

But that’s the story you’ll likely never hear Martinez tell — not because he doesn’t love his wife, but because that’s not the type of conversation you usually have over empanadas and tamales, rice and mojos. Clad in gym shorts and a red tee, Martinez runs a popular stand at Emory’s weekly farmers market, attracting lines that sometimes even spill in front of other vendors. Martinez and his wife of four years, Ana Maria Martinez, have spent the past 190 Tuesdays (3.5 years) feeding Emory students Cuban food — “the best Cuban food on this side of Havana,” as they like to say.

“Let’s go Cuban today! Forget the hot dog, forget the pizza,” he told a group of students emerging from gym class with yoga mats. “We got beans, rice, plantains, tamales.” Martinez looked at them with his eyebrows raised, as though even he himself was impressed by the options. His animated conversations with customers often leave students smiling from ear to ear. That charismatic attitude, along

Ayushi AgArwAl/Photo Editor

Rey Martinez and his wife Ana Maria serve Emory students and staff during the weekly Emory Farmers Market. with Ana Maria’s impeccable ability to remember a customer’s name and order, elevates their customer service, which they believe to be one of the most important factors in running a business.

“You want hot sauce with that?”

Martinez asked a student at the market, as Ana Maria handed her husband a plate half-filled with rice. “He just loves to serve,” Ana Maria said. “He loves to serve food, loves to serve his country and loves to serve his people.”

Their stand, a derivative of his former restaurant Rey’s Cuban Cafe in Loganville, Ga., becomes the bustling center of campus every Tuesday.

Though his restaurant was once the focal point of his work, Martinez had to give it up after being deployed.

Before marrying his wife, Martinez served in the U.S. Navy Reserves from

1990 to 2015 — first in Bahrain, then in Iraq and finally in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. During that time, his hard work, and perhaps a bit of luck, earned him a Naval Achievement Medal in 2007, a National Defense Medal in 2010 and an Iraq Campaign Medal in 2013.

“When I first joined, I did want to serve, but I wanted to do it for four years,” Martinez said. “I enjoyed it so much that I decided to stay another four years. And four years turned into eight years.”

Before he knew it, he was 44 and had served for 25 years. After returning from his latest deployment, Martinez decided he wanted to serve in a different capacity. In 2015, when the Navy veteran and Cuban restaurant owner

See MARTINEZ, Page 12

EMORY LIFE

The Emory Wheel

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

11

STUDENT ART

Junior Crafts Vibrant, Affordable Needlepoint Art

CourtEsy of MAriA MCNiECE

Maria McNiece (20B) began making needlepoint art in 2018.

She has sold her work to customers natiowide

By aidan VicK Staff Writer When Maria McNiece (20B) began making needlepoint in the summer of 2018, she never imagined sharing her pieces with anyone but friends and family. Now, the self-taught artist has sold about 20 original pieces at prices affordable to college students nationwide.

A dance and movement studies and business double major, McNiece first took up needlepoint after seeing displays at a Michael’s craft store. She also noticed a declining interest in hobbies

in her hometown of Gainesville, Fla., and decided to explore one for herself.

“I always would go to art shows and be really excited about a piece, and then just feel like I couldn’t afford it,” McNiece said. “I wanted to make [my art] so people could have whatever they wanted on their needlepoint for a college student’s price.”

The cost of her pieces depends on the size of the loom, the amount of material needed and the time it takes her to complete them.

McNiece has sold works priced from $5 to $80, compared to e-commerce websites like Etsy where large pieces

FOOD REVIEW

Pao Pao Packs a Flavorful Punch

By VaRun Gupta Senior Staff Writer

pao pao Ramen FactoRy toCo hills ProMENAdE

Tucked between Flying Biscuit and Kale Me Crazy at the Toco Hills Toward the end of my meal, I Promenade, Pao Pao Ramen Factory & Bar opened its second location in sneaked a glance around our table March 2019 after success at their and noticed that my three friends had lost all motivation to finish their large Buford Highway location.

The restaurant looks the part of a portions. My two vegetarian friends playground for foodies, with a witty ordered the Buddha vegan ramen and anime-style mural of a child devour- spicy hot pot with tofu, respectively ing a large bowl of ramen dominat- and were pleased with the plentiful ing the main dining space. Offering variety of greens. For an extra punch vegan, vegetarian and meat entrees of protein, both added a soft-boiled and appetizers, the upscale restaurant egg for $1 each.

My other friend opted for the kimtakes no shortcuts in serving up a range of conventional Japanese bites chi seafood heaven ramen, which feaand noodle-based tured thin noodles in a entrees. My three spicy broth With an albiet friends and I began that balanced the kimtrendy interior, bold chi’s acidity with the with the appetizers.

While they ordered a flavors profiles and meatiness of shellfish. six-piece plate of vegHowever, overwhelmed well-balanced array by the sight of a whole etable gyoza, I chose of ingredients, the octopus, he too was the pork belly Pao unable to finish his Pao bun. restaurant offers large portion. Though I was enamored an upscale dining my ramen packed an by the thick, succuexperience. explosion of flavors and lent pieces of pork in textures, my senses the Pao Pao bun, but my vegetarian friends expressed dis- were not fully engaged. Bright fluoresappointment with the small size of the cent lighting, multi-colored armchairs gyozas which seemed overpriced at $5. and loud music flooded the dining Two appetizers proved insufficient for room and drowned out the mouthour party of four. For the main course, watering aromas of the food.

I ordered the volcano miso ramen, Overall, dining at Pao Pao Ramen which featured spicy ground chicken, was well worth its price of about $12 edamame, pickled seaweed salad, an per bowl of ramen and $5 per appeegg and thick noodles. I loved its fiery tizer. I highly recommend the volcano broth — sour from the soybean paste miso ramen and would eagerly return and subtly spiced with red chilies. for another bowl. With an albeit trendy The staff was very attentive to interior, bold flavor profiles and wellour spice and dietary preferences. balanced arrays of ingredients, the For those that find most spicy foods restaurant offers an upscale dining unbearable, myself included, medium experience for students seeking a fresh spice turned out to be the perfect alternative to current Emory staples, decision. The pea-sized bits of savory such as Dragon Bowl or Wagaya at ground chicken had evenly soaked up Emory Village. the spices from the rich broth, which wonderfully complemented the rest of — Contact Varun Gupta at the ingredients. varun.gupta@emory.edu

run for around $150 to $180. She also said that each piece can take anywhere from four to over 60 hours to complete, and that she actively makes time in her schedule to work on her pieces because she enjoys it so much.

McNiece runs an Instagram account where she commissions her art and uploads pictures of pieces that are available for purchase. Although she profits from her creations, she still sees her artwork as more of a hobby.

“I think, sometimes, people have a pressure to capitalize on their hobby and their artistry, but that’s not my primary focus,” McNiece said.

McNiece’s pieces begin with fabric canvases secured by a wooden hoop frame. She then adds her designs using multicolored embroidery threads and beads.

“If there’s a specific project that I’m working on that’s really intricate and requires a lot of different types of thread or kinds of beads, then I’m at Jo-Ann Fabric [and Craft Store], like, once every two days,” said McNiece with a chuckle.

Despite feeling that her first few pieces weren’t very skillful, McNiece said she has never been dissatisfied with her work.

“I never valued perfection as an artist, so I never minded that I was bad at needlepoint at the beginning,” McNiece said.

Many of her works feature natural

motifs, including honey bees, oranges and lemons. She finds inspiration for her pieces from other needlepoint Instagram accounts, her daily life and dance routines, one of which inspired a piece on pomegranates.

Maria McNiece (20B), needlepoint artist and dancer

CourtEsy M AriA MCNiECE

McNiece often commissions duplicates because she can’t part with the originals, and has displayed some of her personal collection at this year’s Emory Arts Underground showcase.

Laura Briggs (19C), McNiece’s significant other, said they love how McNiece’s artwork utilizes beautiful, vibrant colors while remaining precise. Briggs also said that McNiece’s enthusiasm for adorning people’s living areas drives her work.

“She’s really excited to have her work in other people’s spaces and homes,” Briggs said. “I think she’s really passionate about making people’s homes feel welcoming and beautiful.”

Briggs said McNiece is one of the most compassionate and driven students they have ever met. One of McNiece’s regular customers, Alana

Davids, has already bought four pieces from her. “[Her works are] personable, very detail-oriented, and, I mean, they’re perfect,” Davids said. “Whenever [my partner and I] walk in the door, we see the butterfly collection that she did for us, and that brightens our day.”

Despite her success, McNiece — who also serves as the presidentelect of Emory Pride, vice president of AHANA Dance and co-captain of the all-female hip-hop Persuasion Dance Crew — says she doesn’t plan to turn her artwork into a full-time job.

Rather, she hopes to continue creating art as a hobby.

“Being able to make work that makes other people excited, even if it’s not my personal aesthetic, feels really good to me,” McNiece explained.

While reflecting on her journey as a needlepoint artist, McNiece encouraged her fellow students to pursue their interests even when faced with obstacles.

“Don’t be afraid to try something and be really bad at it,” McNiece said.

“Most of my pieces when I was first starting out were literally trash, and they were still really fun. There’s something to be said for doing something for [enjoyment], rather than for the production of it.”

— Contact Aidan Vick at afvick@emory.edu

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Alums Pay Homage to Traditional Food Culture By caRoline SilVa Asst. Emory Life Editor In 2013, at the Red Lion bar in Manhattan, N.Y., Anthony Morano (08B), then working at a startup called Huli, asked Leila Elamine (07Ox, 09C) to dance. Elamine was visiting a friend in the area at the time. The pair did not know each other while at Emory and, despite her initial hesitation, she agreed to dance.

Little did they know, the dance would eventually lead them to become friends and co-create The Recipe Hunters, a blog that documents “artisan food processes and traditional recipes around the world.” Over the last five years, Elamine’s and Morano’s work has taken them to 7o different cultural communities in 15 countries, all in the pursuit of documenting endangered, traditional culinary practices.

Prior to establishing The Recipe Hunters, the pair moved to Chicago in 2014 as the city was on both their bucket lists. Elamine and Morano said they wanted to try out new things.

Elamine became a cheesemonger, or artisan cheese specialist, while Morano worked in an ice cream shop.

“We just had these years of dedicating our lives to our work … but not [our] passions,” Morano said. “We basically were like … ‘We want to go mushroom hunting in Spain. We want to learn how to make cheese in France.

We want to learn how to harvest olives in Italy. We want to learn how to make kimchi in Korea.’”

While at Emory, Morano was the starting goalie for club soccer and a volunteer for Emory Best Buddies, an organization providing opportunities for the disabled, and the Boys and Girls Club.

Before becoming a “Recipe Hunter” and after graduating with a bachelor’s in business administrations and finance operations management, Morano had co-founded and worked as chief operating officer at Huli, a Costa Rican-based healthcare technology company, from 2011-14.

Elamine graduated with a bachelor’s in psychology and was a member

of Delta Delta Delta sorority, Aural Pleasure acapella group and Student Senate. After Emory she worked as a human cancer researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

She said that listening to her ailing patients’ regrets inspired her to take a sabbatical from work to pursue her creative abilities.

“One of my patients … on the last night that I saw before he died … he said, ‘Leila reach for the stars … say yes to everything, just tackle life. Get it,’” Elamine said.

Anthony Morano, Founder of The Recipe Hunters

CourtEsy of A NthoNy MorANo

In July 2014, after three months in Chicago, The Recipe Hunters embarked on their first journey, to Norway, with no set plans for room or board.

“We booked one-way tickets and it was like … ‘We’ll figure it out from there,’” Elamine said. “We went couch surfing for the first week. We searched for farms that wanted to work with us.”

Leila Elamine, Founder of The Recipe Hunters

CourtEsy of lEilA ElAMiNE

For nine months, Elamine and Morano volunteered at a dairy farm in exchange for room and board in the city of Bamble, Norway. To discover endangered, traditional recipes, they began asking locals and knocking on doors in hopes of finding and documenting locals renowned for their traditional cooking.

Through word of mouth, The Recipe Hunters eventually found Godt Brød Grünerløkka, a small artisan bakery in the neighborhood of Grünerløkka

in Oslo, Norway. Kristian Magnus Sie Skogsta, an employee at the bakery who is renowned for her baked goods, taught them to make Bestemor bread, a nutty and coarse loaf, which became the first recipe that the two documented.

They began documenting cultures often misrepresented in mainstream media, with a focus on indigenous women.

Their work eventually became the foundation for the Culinary Heritage Co., their nonprofit that seeks to preserve and promote multiculturalism through different types of culinary media including short films, step-bystep recipes and journal entries that highlight specific travels.

“We really wanted to show people the average, daily person that was really doing something incredible in their community,” Elamine said. “[Our short films have] evolved to tell the human story through food … [and] keeping these old heritage processes alive.”

In 2015, while in the Spanish community of Galicia, the local newspaper La Voz de Galicia caught wind of their work. La Voz sent a photographer to document the pair’s recipe hunting activities, and their journey became headline news in Spain.

At the time they were learning to make Pimientos de Padrón, the peppers which they harvested with a local of Herbon, Galicia Morano and Elamine plan to release a video about the trip soon. “[After the article was published] we start getting calls from people inviting us into their home,” Morano said. “We couldn’t even fulfill all the invitations. … It was an overwhelming support from this region of Spain and the people and how they wanted to share their culture with us.”

In Wales in 2017, The Recipe Hunters met Nia Williams. Both were working closely with Slow Foods, a grassroots organization with the goal of preventing the disappearance of local food traditions, and found each other on the website. As a Welsh

See THE, Page 12

12

EMORY LIFE

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

The Emory Wheel

Palacios Overcomes Institutional Hurdles to Study Education Continued from Page 10 course convinced her to take more classes about education. Opportunities on campus were already sparse when Palacios arrived as a freshman, with only four to five classes offered in the education department that year. The trend only worsened in later years as the department continued to shrink. “[During] my junior year, there was one class, and this year there was only one class again,” Palacios said. “Every semester I’ve been here, [there have] been less and less classes, less and less opportunities to know about different educational issues and theories.”

Former head of the Education Studies Department and current Associate Professor of Mathematics Bob Jensen said that the decision was made at a time when the university was trying to cut costs and move resources to bolster existing departments that could bring the university renown.Palacios considered transferring to another school with more plentiful resources in educational studies after realizing she would face a dearth of opportunities at Emory. However, professors, advisers and friends convinced her to stay, suggesting that she

could expand her study of education in graduate school if she wasn’t able to major in it at Emory.

After Palacios’ junior year, a windfall came for the few students left on campus still interested in pursuing education. Vanessa Siddle Walker, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of African American and Educational Studies and president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), helped establish the Horace Tate Scholarship in 2018, awarded by Emory to six students who would continue engaging with educational issues and topics.

The Horace Tate Scholarship has consisted thus far of a seminar with Siddle Walker entitled AAS 485: Education and Community and engaging in fundraisers to fulfill the needs of Towers High School, a predominantly African American low-income public school in DeKalb County.Alongside Towers Principal LaKeisha Griffith, Palacios and the other Scholars worked to partner with businesses to fundraise in order to raise the school’s status.

This semester, the group is working to bring students to Emory’s campus for a college fair. Another focus for the

semester was helping Siddle Walker prepare to attend the annual AERA conference, which the Scholars attended as well. Palacios highlighted this as a unique opportunity to engage with scholars in the field.

“Thousands of professors, educational researchers and doctoral students attend [the conference]. It was a really wonderful opportunity,” Palacios said. “[The Horace Tate Scholars] are the last people on Emory’s campus that are studying education … and Dr. Siddle Walker has provided us with so many opportunities to be able to that,” Palacios said.

Palacios said she was recruited into the program by Jaleyah Walker (17C), who asked her if she wanted to take a course with Siddle Walker.

Though all Horace Tate Scholars were selected because of their interest in studying education, Palacios is the only one pursuing a full major in educational studies.

Other majors pursued by scholars include African American studies and political science.

Dr. Barbara Coble, partnerships manager at Graduation Generation, attested to Palacios’ strengths in community engagement and mentoring.

Pomykala, Basquez Bring Atlanta Icons to Cox Continued from Page 10 Basquez has painted the entire Atlanta skyline, a portion that accounts for nearly a quarter of the mural, while Pomykala has organized the supplies budget and led meetings to coordinate artists.

Basquez identified art as an important part of her life and said she was nervous when she enrolled to Emory due to the lack of a campus arts culture.

“Basquez came to the plate and really stepped up,” Pomykala said.

“She’s absolutely wonderful. I never asked her to do as much as she’s done, and she has done a lot to help out, which I’m so thankful for.”

The group hopes to complete the mural before commencement, but rain and the project’s reliance on volunteer efforts have impeded the progress. In planning the mural, Pomykala and Basquez designed rough sketches, followed by measuring the walls and making sketches on large paper with colored pencil.

No digital software was used, and the two spent hours making the final design look close to the final product.

Where most murals are on square walls, Cox Hall’s spans two triangular walls, allowing for a more dynamic viewing experience.

The two sections grow and decrease in size and shape, and the ramp is a space of motion.

To Pomykala, the mural is there to

create a more purposeful harmony between symbols rather than a simple, static artwork.

On March 18, after a $28,000 overallocation of the Student Activities Fee, the Student Government Association (SGA) finalized a 32 percent budget cut to the Media Council for the 201920 school year, slashing funding to campus arts organizations and cutting The Pulse’s budget to half its original.

“The arts are dying at Emory

“[The Mural is] there to be back the arts on campus. ... I made this mural because I was sick ad tired of letting the arts be neglected” — Claire Pomykala (21C) because we’re so focused on pre-med and pre-business,” Pomykala said.

“Art is such a big part of people’s identity, and to not have [art] shown is crushing that trend.”

WMRE Treasurer Shannon Anderson (20C) wrote in a Feb. 6 op-ed for the Wheel that SGA and Emory administration have not heeded concerns from students pursuing the arts at Emory.

The Media Council’s budget cuts followed criticism that the proposed cuts posed a dangerous attack on the arts at Emory.

“We’re going to make do with what we can,” Pomykala said. “We’re flexible, but it’s a struggle.”

The mural has proven impactful: several members of the Emory community who pass by often take a couple extra seconds to stare and compliment artists.

Even with rainstorms impeding the artists’ progress, the mural has filled its designated space.

The mural is also personal to the artists working on it, as it holds a therapeutic effect for its artists.

For Basquez, the mural presents an opportunity to work on a larger, long-term project, rather than several smaller projects.

Pomykala, too, has found personal value in the mural.

“Being able to paint and have so much positive feedback is an amazing feeling,” Pomykala said. “[Painting the mural is] 20 times more satisfying than any other class I’m in right now.”

When the artists finish the mural, they hope that its impact will stretch far beyond the 2018-2019 academic year.

Pomykala said that, even prior to its completion, the mural had been sending a message to the Emory community that the arts are back and here to stay.

“Art exists at Emory,” Basquez said.

“You just have to dig a little deeper to find it.”

— Contact Ryan Fan at ryan.fan@emory.edu

Coble served as Palacios’ instructor during an independent study where Palacios lead the Paving Our Futures program, under the Graduation Generation organization, mentoring high school students and preparing them for college. “[Rafley] is a great role-model, not just for the K-12 students she works with, but for Emory students as well,” Coble said. “I’ve had several independent study students over the course of the 8 years that I’ve been at Emory, and this experience with Rafely has been the most productive.”

Despite her success in educationfocused extracurriculars, Palacios said the College was not keen to officially recognize her as an education major.

“We had to go through this whole process because [Senior Associate Dean Joanne Brzinski] had to approve of me being the last education major,” Palacios said. “[That meant] going through different levels and different people just so that I could get approved.”

Jensen, the former director of the education studies department, was key to helping Palacios fulfill the requirements to minor in education. But after four years of education classes,

Palacios finally decided to broach the topic of officially becoming a major.

“This semester [Spring 2019], I reached out to [Jensen] and said I had taken more than 11 classes that are related to education, and again he was extremely helpful and was able to find substitutes for other classes,” Palacios said.

Jensen, who will retire in Summer 2020, believes that the legacy of the program lies with the graduates it produced, a legacy that will continue with Palacios.

He commended Palacios for her perseverance in pursuing the subject despite the department’s closure. “[Palacios] was very remarkable in what she did as a freshman,” Jensen said. “She was proactive, and very few students are that aware as freshmen.”

After graduating, Palacios plans to take a gap year to work in college advising. She then hopes to earn her master’s degree in teaching from either the University of California, Los Angeles or Stanford University (Calif.) before pursuing a doctorate and eventually working in education policy.

— Contact Greg Kimmerer at gpkimme@emory.edu

Martinez Balances Public Service, Entrepreneurship Continued from Page 10 turned to his wife to tell her that he wanted to run to become the mayor of Loganville, she was stupefied. Did she ever think he would become a political leader? “Never.”But he did.

Now, as Loganville’s mayor, Martinez champions small businesses. It’s only fitting, then, that he works at Emory’s Farmers Market to pay the bills.

“I’m not about to raise taxes on the people of Loganville to raise my salary,” Martinez said. “I would rather work for it.”

He manages the workload by splitting up his week: two days serving food at the Emory and Georgia Tech Farmers Markets and the rest of the week attending to his mayoral duties.

Because he hadn’t previously served in a political position, he never imagined he would beat out two incumbents to serve on Loganville City Council in 2010, and then do it again in 2013.

He didn’t realize that his work on the Council would eventually win him the mayorship, and he certainly never believed he would win nearly 67 percent of the vote.

With almost 1 million Latinos, the Latinx community in Georgia is the fastest growing in the United States since 2000, according to the Latin American Association.

During the 2018 primaries, Latinx representation in Georgia tripled

from that of previous elections, and though not all Latinx voters agree with Martinez, he became a recognizable face as Georgia’s first ever Hispanic mayor: gregarious smile, medium height, a spring in his step. He is Cuban, Puerto Rican and Georgian, with a Puerto Rican accent and confused Southern drawl.

“Last year I went to over 250 events [as mayor],” said Martinez, as he began to clean up his stand at the closing of the farmers market. Ana Maria, who is far more reserved but just as amiable, chuckled at the number.

At Emory, though, he devotes all of his energy into serving students. He tells his mayoral staff, “Do not bother me on Tuesdays from 9-5 unless something drastic happens.”

And they don’t. Thanks to his responsible staff, Martinez keeps his passion for cooking alive. But he doesn’t plan on being a chef his whole life. The next step? Governor. Maybe even president.

“I’m not afraid to say it. … I don’t anticipate staying mayor,” Martinez said. “I would love to be the governor one day. I enjoy serving the folks of Loganville right now, but I would love to serve the great folks of Georgia and maybe the United States? Who knows?”

— Contact Nicole Sadek at nwsadek@emory.edu

‘The Recipe Hunters’ Travel the World to Document Traditional Recipes Continued from Page 11 native, Williams held the recipe to Welsh Cakes, a local delicacy she had made with her grandmother since she was three years old.

Williams later invited The Recipe Hunters into her kitchen. Williams’ recipe differs slightly from the common Welsh Cake, as her grandmother’s recipe calls for lard and butter rather than just butter. “[Elamine and Morano] were really enthusiastic about small food producers and the heritage of cooking, and

you can see that in the films they did in Wales,” Williams said. “What they’ve done for food production and food heritage in Wales is really highly regarded … and I don’t think they realize the work they have done” Elamine is responsible for all media footage for The Recipe Hunters and creates all their films. The films showcase step-by-step tutorials of the recipes guided by the local resident who hold the recipe.

Among all of their worldwide culinary discoveries, Elamine and Morano both identified pulque, a pre-Aztec

Mexican alcoholic beverage, as the most intricate recipe they have made.

From planting the seeds of the maguey plant to drinking the finished pulque, the process take 10-12 years. The difficulty of the extraction process requires a specialist called a tlachiquero.

The final product is a fermented milky colored, mildly sweet tasting drink.

“We had to work with all of these different farmers to get [the plant at] all of the different stages,” Elamine said. “So we would have to travel

around and find plants that were at the right stage to document.”

Elamine currently runs the day-today operations of The Recipe Hunters while Morano finishes his MBA at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Though Morano, who manages much of The Recipe Hunters’ financial matters, intends to continue contributing to the project, he is unsure whether he will continue travelling after graduation.

As The Recipe Hunters continues to document endangered, heirloom culi-

nary practices from around the world, Elamine advises Emory students to take a leap of faith and explore their passions.

“Take some time from your life and put it to the side, and explore your passions and your interests,” Elamine said. “The things that you’ve always thought about doing or, in your heart, have kind of poked up every once in a while … go after them ... because you’ll regret it if you don’t.”

— Contact Caroline Silva at ccsilva@emory.edu

14

SPORTS

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Freshmen Shine at Meet Continued from Back Page hurdles with a personal-best time of 15.62 seconds, while sophomore Jacob Hedgepeth beat his personal record in the 1500m run with a time of 3:58.48, earning him 18th place in the event.

In the 800m run, both sophomore Thomas Perretta and freshman Jon Marcus compiled personal records, with Perretta finishing in ninth at 1:53.39 and Marcus placing in 23rd at 1:56.29.

On the women’s side, junior Isabel Saridakis took home second place in the pole vault with a height of 3.70m.

In the hammer throw, senior Paris Wagner also finished in the top-10, placing sixth with a distance of 49.45m.

In the 1500m run, senior Kayla O’Shea recorded a time of 4:44.07, receiving 12th place for her efforts. The UAA Championships will be held at Emory on April 27 and 28.

— Contact Alex Moskowitz at apmosko@emory.edu

Golf Looking to Collect Hardware at NCAAs place finish.

In preparation for the last tournament, Yiu said the team is still keeping ment with a score of 216 (70-72-74) on the A team. Freshman Logan Ryan up the pace with practice.

“On days we don’t have finals, we earned eighth place at 217 (72-72-73).

Senior Connor Yakubov and junior are getting ready,” Yiu said. “We are Matt Organisak had scores of 223 (71- working out and stretching a lot at the end of the season. We 71-75) and 224 (77-72need to keep up with 75), placing 20th and our hand mobility.”

24th, respectively.

“Hopefully, we are Sjoberg assessed Yiu, who was the last ones with the the situation in siminamed the UAA Men’s biggest trophy at the lar fashion.

Golf Athlete of the end of the week.”

“We’re going to play Week, commented on a ton of golf,” he said. his performance and “The expectation is to process.

— John Sjoberg, Head Coach go in and play as well “If I am able to get as we can. Hopefully, a good first [stroke], I can get a lot of birdies,” Yiu said. “I we are the last ones with the biggest think I played pretty well. I made a few trophy at the end of the week.

The Eagles will finish their seamistakes with a few bogeys but I kept son at the NCAA Division III Golf coming back.”

Freshman Andrew DiPetrillo was Championships on May 14-17 at the the top scorer for the B team with a Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, mark of 218 (77-68-73), good enough Ky. for 10th place. Sophomore Davis Hingtgen also performed well with a — Contact Anirudh Pidugu at score of 220 (78-72-70) and a 14thanirudh.pidugu@emory.edu

Continued from Back Page

Eagles Come Out on Top of Dramatic Weekend Continued from Back Page showcased the team’s flair for the dramatic. Down 7-1 entering the seventh inning, Emory wasn’t playing up to their high standards on both sides of the ball.

However, as Head Coach Adrianna Baggetta has been preaching all season, the team has a “never give up, never die mentality.”

Down to their last out in the seventh inning, the Eagles put that philosophy into action and strung together eight straight runs to take a 9-7 lead.

In the bottom of the seventh, senior pitcher Madeline Maday retired the Spartans to secure the victory. The third game of the series was another close, high-scoring affair. Each side exploded offensively in the fourth.The Eagles’ six-run inning was quickly followed by a five-run Spartan response.

After six innings, Emory held a narrow

8-7 lead. The Eagles once again used their final at-bats productively and added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the seventh. The Spartans had no response this time, and the Eagles won 10-7. With a home run and three additional hits, junior outfielder and pitcher Sami Feller was the star of the game, capping off an electric 11-16 weekend at the plate. Feller, who was awarded UAA Softball Hitter of the Week, attributes her success to the support of her teammates.

“I’m feeling confident,” Feller said.

“I’m feeding off my teammates’ energy, and it’s working.”

In stark contrast to the first three games, the fourth game was a pitcher’s duel between the Eagles’ sophomore Madison Schaefer and the Spartan’s Sidney Brannam. Through six innings, neither pitcher allowed more than five hits. However, the Spartans held a slight advantage after a two-run home

run in the first inning. Looking for more late-game heroics, the Eagles cut the deficit to one in the seventh inning.

Although Emory had runners on the corners, they were unable to tie the game. The Spartans won 3-2.

On April 26 and 27, the Eagles will finish their regular season at Brandeis University (Mass.) for a crucial fourgame set that will determine the winner of the UAA. The Eagles will need to win three out the four games in order to capture the UAA title.

Even though Baggetta expects the team to prepare as they do for other games, she admits that this series has more weight to it.

“It’s as close as [we] get to a conference tournament,” Baggetta said. “It’s exciting to see what it will be like on that stage.”

— Contact Charlie Scruton at charlie.scruton@emory.edu

The Emory Wheel

Swoop’S Scoop Sport Thursday

W Tennis

Opponent

Time

University of Rochester 8:30 a.m.

april 25 Friday

W Tennis

@ UAA Championships

All Day

M Tennis

New York University

8:30 a.m.

april 26

Softball

@ Brandeis

2 p.m. & 4 p.m.

Baseball

@ New York University

3 p.m.

Track & Field

@ UAA Championships

All Day

W Tennis

@ UAA Championships

All Day

Baseball

@ New York University Noon & 3 p.m.

Saturday April 27

M Tennis

TBA

12:30 p.m.

Softball

@ Brandeis

1 p.m. & 3 p.m.

Sunday

Track & Field

@ UAA Championships

All Day

April 28

M Tennis

@ UAA Championships

All Day

Baseball

@ New York University

11 a.m.

*Home Games in Bold

Baseball Knocked Out Of Playoff Contention Continued from Back Page Rubenstein tied the game at two with an RBI single in the third to plate Brereton. WashU broke the tie in the sixth with two RBI doubles.

Terp brought the Eagles within one after he nailed a solo home run to center field, but that was not until the top of the eighth inning.

The Bears were able to score an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth and hold the Eagles scoreless through the ninth to end the game 5-3. Freshman pitcher Bryant Wise earned the no-decision. Wise allowed the two runs in the first inning but settled in and pitched four more scoreless innings. The loss goes

to freshman pitcher Joey Bock, who fell to 4-3.

Rubenstein and the team were upset with the loss but have high hopes for the future.

“The weekend at WashU was extremely disappointing,” Rubenstein said. “While we can no longer make regionals this year, we hope to finish the season on a high note at NYU and take that success into next year, which appears to be very bright.”

The Eagles will play their final series of the regular season away against New York University starting on April 26.

— Contact Lynden Fausey at lynden.fausey@emory.edu

MLS

United’s Bad Season Continues With Loss to FC Dallas

By Sammy John Staff Writer

Sports fans should know that all good things must come to an end.

Every championship team struggles.

But Atlanta United is not just suffering a post-championship slump; the team is crashing and burning.

Coming into their April 20 home game against FC Dallas, Atlanta was hoping to capitalize on momentum after their first win of the season against New England. Despite firing 22 shots, eight of which were on target, Atlanta lost 2-1 to an exceptional FC Dallas team.

FC Dallas immediately put Atlanta on their heels by scoring in the sixth minute. After FC Dallas played the ball out from the defense, midfielder Michael Barrios spun away from Atlanta defender Leandro GonzalezPirez, leaving the Argentinian in the dust following a mistimed slide tackle.

Barrios burst down the right wing with great agility and speed, and Atlanta defender Brek Shea sprinted in vain to intercept him.

Barrios fired a perfectly placed pass

toward his compatriot and teenage forward Jesus Ferreira, who calmly controlled the pass and slotted the ball past the outstretched foot of Atlanta goalkeeper Brad Guzan and into the goal.

The noise level dropped substantially from the Atlanta faithful, stunned to see their team concede a point so early in the match. But Atlanta attempted to fire back when the ball found midfielder Ezequiel Barco from a corner kick in the 25th minute. Barco smashed a curling shot from outside of the goal box square off the post, but Atlanta could not score off the rebound.

Before halftime, FC Dallas almost extended their lead. FC Dallas defender Reto Ziegler hit a strong free kick from distance, but Guzan made a solid diving stop to keep Atlanta in the game.

During the second half, Atlanta played better and created many goal-scoring chances in attack.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t put together the finishing touches.

Atlanta midfielder Julian Gressel hit a curling free kick in the 50th min-

ute, but FC Dallas goalkeeper Jesse Gonzalez dived to make the save.

Barco again hit the post off of another free kick in the 60th minute. Barco’s powerful, bending free kick clipped the top of the crossbar in a manner that would impress free-kick maestro and former LA Galaxy midfielder David Beckham.

Atlanta searched for an equalizer and twice came agonizingly close through forward Josef Martinez’s efforts. In the 81st minute, Gonzalez made the best save of the night to deny Martinez’s close-range shot directly from a corner kick, displaying lightning-quick reflexes and dropping down to save the low shot. Then, in the 86th minute, Atlanta midfielder Gonzalo “Pity” Martinez lobbed a pinpoint pass to Josef Martinez, who darted behind the FC Dallas defense. Despite being one-on-one with Gonzalez, Josef Martinez hit his shot just wide to the disbelief of Atlanta fans and commentators alike. Gonzalez played a huge role in FC Dallas’ win as the 23-yearold stepped up to the challenge with seven saves.

FC Dallas took advantage of Atlanta’s aggressiveness and scored on a counterattack. Barrios found a lobbed pass, and in a display of speed and accuracy, the midfielder earned his second assist with a pass to midfielder Bryan Acosta. Acosta sprinted 75 yards down the center of the field — leaving Gonzalez-Pirez in the dust yet again — to score the tap-in goal.

Gonzalez-Pirez’s faulty positioning was a major factor in both of FC Dallas’ goals.

Despite the frustrations in offense, Atlanta United got a consolation goal in stoppage time, and Josef Martinez finally ended his 436 minute goalless run with a well-placed penalty kick.

In tight games like this one, Josef Martinez’s misses and Barco’s shots off the post are costly. Yet manager Frank de Boer was still very happy with his team’s performance and insisted that wins will come if Atlanta continues to play with the same attacking intent.

“You think always if you make progress, it’s always three points, but today it was not like that,” de Boer said. “I think we really made progress today

— how we played today. You cannot expect more. I was proud of the intensity, [but] not always the best team wins.”

Despite de Boer’s optimism, fans’ patience is wearing thin. Goals have continued to elude his team despite several good chances. Atlanta holds the unwanted record of the least amount of goals scored in the MLS Eastern Conference, which should be especially painful for the Atlanta faithful since the Five Stripes scored the most goals in the entire MLS last season.

Fans have expected the 2018 MLS Golden Boot winner Josef Martinez to assume responsibility, but he has failed to step up and take control of games in the same manner as last year.

While Atlanta may have attacking potential, that alone does not win championships. Unless de Boer can start guiding Atlanta to more victories and goals, his tenure with a new team may be cut short yet again.

— Contact Sammy John at sammy.john@emory.edu

The Emory Wheel

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15

The Emory Wheel

Sports

Wednesday, Aril 24, 2019 | Assistant Sports Editor: Ryan Callahan (ryan.joseph.callahan@emory.edu)

MEN’S GOLF

Yiu Named UAA Golfer Of The Week

TRACK & FIELD

SOFTBALL

Feller, Team Set Sights on First Place By charlie Scruton Contributing Writer

By anirudh Pidugu Senior Staff Writer The No. 1-ranked NCAA Division III Emory men’s golf team finished second out of 14 teams at the Discover Dekalb Emory Spring Invitational held from April 20-21. The invitational was a 54-hole event that took place at the 6,535-yard, par-71 Smoke Rise Country Club in Stone Mountain, Ga. The Eagles ended with a score of 878 (294-287-297), 13 strokes behind No. 2-ranked Huntingdon College (Ala.) who placed first with a score of 865 (294-287-297). Guilford College (N.C.) finished third with 880 (287-301-292), and the Emory B team placed fourth with 884 (306-288-290). St. John’s University (Minn.) rounded out the top five with 886 (301-291-294).

Coach John Sjoberg said that Huntingdon played beautifully to close out the tournament.

“We had a lot of rain so it was pretty sloppy,” Sjoberg said. “We battled really well and came back on Sunday.

Huntingdon had twelve birdies with their five guys and [we] couldn’t catch them.”

Sophomore Eric Yiu continued his impressive season for the Eagles, finishing in sixth place for the tourna-

See Golf, Page 14

in both the 100m dash at 11.48 seconds and 200m dash at 23.22 seconds.

Freshmen Anderson Shew, Graham Scott and Kieran Kelly finished second in the 3000m run, 110m hurdles and 40m hurdles, respectively.

While most of the Eagles competed on Friday in the Mountain Laurel Invitational, some of the track and field athletes also competed at the Georgia Tech Invitational on April 19 and 20. There was no team scoring at the meet, where the Eagles competed against some NCAA Division I athletes.

Freshmen Patrick Crockett and Chris Jernigan both shined in the javelin, with Crockett placing fifth at 51.36m and Jernigan obtaining seventh place with a personalbest 48.95m. Fellow freshman Lucas Werner finished 11th in the 110m

The 26-10 Emory softball team picked up three wins in a four-game set against conference rival Case Western Reserve University (Ohio).

The Eagles now sit comfortably in second place in the University Athletic Association (UAA) with a 12-4 conference record and are just two games back of Brandeis University (Mass.) for first place.

The Eagles got off to a strong start in the first game of the series, jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Freshman outfielder Megan Weisenberg brought in the first run with an RBI single, and a fielder’s choice brought home the second. After each team added a run in the fifth, Emory held a narrow 3-1 lead as the Spartans went to bat needing to score in the seventh inning. The Spartans executed a double steal to score one run and then tied the game with a clutch two-out single to send the game to extra innings. In the ninth, senior shortstop Cassie Baca stepped up to the plate and delivered a go-ahead grand slam to give the Eagles a 7-3 victory in spectacular fashion.

The Eagles’ second game once again

See fREShMEN, Page 14

See EAGlES, Page 14

Priyam mazumdar/Staff

Senior distance runner Bobby Wilson competes at the Emory Classic, held on March 29 and 30. Emory will also host the UAA Championships April 27 and 28.

Emory Picks Up Steam Ahead of UAAs By alex moSkowitz Staff Writer

The Emory University track and field teams fought hard at Sewanee: The University of the South’s (Tenn.)

Mountain Laurel Invitational on April 19, where both the No. 7-ranked women and No. 149-ranked men finished in second place. The women’s team compiled a total of 115 points while the men scored 106.

Freshman Brittney Haney led the way for the women by finishing first in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:10.46 and second in the 100m hurdles with a time of 17.47.

“I really just put my best foot forward given the very difficult conditions for the meet, and am very proud of my results,” Haney said about her runs.

The women’s team compiled four

BASEBALL

more second-place finishes across the other track events. Sophomore Emily Kastenberg ran the 200m run in 28.22 seconds while sophomore Rachel Shanahan was timed at 2:31.73 for her 800m run. Sophomore Abby Durfee completed the 1500m run in 5:17.01, and sophomore Christina Dwier finished the 3000m steeplechase at 13:11.21. Kastenberg also added a third-place finish when she posted a time of 13.62 in the 100m dash.

In the field events, junior Ayriel Coleman added another second-place showing in the triple jump with a finals mark of 10.84m.

On the men’s side, senior Tyler Breeden earned the Eagles’ only firstplace finish in the 3000m run with a time of 9:14.76.

The Eagles added five runnerup finishes at the meet, with junior Fernando Cardozo coming in second

WOMEN’S TENNIS

WashU Sweeps Bryant Celebrates 20 Years as Coach Four Game Series By richard wang Contributing Writer

By lynden FauSey Contributing Writer

After moving to the top seed in the University Athletic Association (UAA) conference last week, the Emory baseball team fell to No. 16-ranked Washington University Bears in St. Louis (WashU) (Mo.) in all four games of their series. The sweep dropped the team to second in the conference.

Emory lost their first game against WashU 8-1. Emory’s only run came in the eighth inning off the bat of senior infielder Bubby Terp, who singled to right field and brought in junior infielder Ryan Adelman. The loss went to junior pitcher Richard Brereton, who fell to 2-1 after allowing six runs on eight hits and two walks in four innings.

The series continued with a doubleheader on April 20. The Eagles kept the first game close, but ultimately fell to the Bears 3-2.

WashU had a 2-1 lead heading into the top of the eighth inning when sophomore outfielder Jack Rubenstein hit an RBI single to tie the game. Rubenstein and Brereton combined for six of the team’s 10 hits.

Unlike the previous game, the Eagles put 11 runners on base but were ulti-

mately unable to capitalize on these opportunities.

Sophomore pitcher Jack Moore received the no-decision after allowing two earned runs, three hits, four walks and striking out four in seven innings. The loss goes to freshman pitcher Jack Brodsky, who fell to 6-3.

After losing the second game of the series, the Eagles needed to win the rest of the series to keep their UAA Championship dreams alive.

Unfortunately, Emory lost the second game of the doubleheader 7-2 after allowing six unanswered runs early in the game.

The Eagles were held scoreless for six frames before breaking through with two runs in the seventh after an RBI double from Terp and a sacrifice fly by senior catcher Eric Terry. Terp had another strong game, hitting a pair of doubles, driving in an RBI and scoring one run. Junior pitcher James Robertson was dealt the loss after he allowed six runs on six hits in 3.2 innings.

The final game of the series was a close matchup. Emory scored first on a WashU defensive error, but the Bears soon took the lead again after scoring two in the bottom of the first.

See BASEBAll, Page 14

The Emory women’s tennis team left disappointed after yielding several key points in a 7-2 match against Georgia Gwinnett College on April 17.

Although the Eagles lost the match, it was still memorable for the team as it marked Head Coach Amy Bryant’s (96B) 20th season at Emory.

In doubles, freshman Christina Watson and sophomore Stephanie Taylor faced little resistance from their opponent. With several aces from Watson, the duo secured an 8-3 victory.

Freshman Jessica Fatemi and senior Daniela Lopez, on the other hand, fiercely battled their opponents.

Both sides had strong serving games, but the Eagles lost the close match in the tiebreaker, 8-7. Sophomores Ysabel Gonzalez-Rico and Defne Olcay got in their own way, sailing the ball out of bounds several times and losing 8-2.

The Eagles played several other close matches in singles, and half of the matches ended in a tiebreaker.

Gonzalez-Rico could not find her groove and yielded the match to her opponent, 6-0, 6-3. Lopez won her first set, but her opponent increased the pressure in the ensuing sets.

She lost 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. Olcay fought relentlessly but lost the match, 7-5, 6-4. Freshman Emma Cartledge had a close match against her opponent,

and their battle lasted longer than any other match.

She won the first set and tried to keep up her momentum but lost in the match tiebreaker, 6-7, 7-6, 10-6.

Freshman Lauren Yoon also yielded her match, 6-2, 7-6. Fatemi brought back the only singles victory. After badly losing the first set, she quickly bounced back and won the match 1-6, 6-3, 6-0.

With their regular season now over, the Eagles celebrated Bryant’s 20th anniversary at Emory. She assumed the head coach position back in 2000.

In her 20 years as a coach and four years as a player at Emory, she has been one of the most successful figures in the program’s history.

Bryant was the first women’s tennis player in Emory’s history to earn All-America honors in both singles and doubles. She was the runner-up in the NCAA national singles championship her junior season in 1994-95 and teamed up to reach the semifinals of the NCAA doubles championship her senior year.

Besides being a successful player herself, Bryant has led the Eagles to achieve numerous honors and awards as coach.

Over the past 20 years, the Eagles have won national titles in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2014 and 2016. The team has recorded a 396-98 overall record with 18 appearances in the NCAA national quarterfinals and 12 appear-

ances in the NCAA team championship finals. Bryant has coached five players to NCAA Division III Singles Championships and a doubles pairing to four consecutive NCAA national titles between 2001 and 2004. Under Bryant, players have won 87 AllAmerica awards and 12 conference Most Valuable Player honors.

Reflecting on her career at Emory, Bryant talked about what makes her decide to coach the Eagles persistently.

“I really like being at Emory. It’s like a second home to me,” Bryant said.

“Being involved in Emory athletics is a part of my blood, and I enjoyed being with those players. Being able to laugh a lot has helped me persevere through all 20 years!”

Celebrating Bryant’s 20th season at Emory, the Eagles along with former players made a video clip recording their best wishes. Team captain Lopez has been a part of Bryant’s team for four years, and she expressed her gratitude toward Bryant.

“Amy is like a friend to all of us who we hold respect for,” Lopez said. “She is an understanding and selfless leader. She helped me mold into the player I am now, and she is a huge cause for many of my successes.”

The Eagles will fly to Florida to compete in the UAA Championships from April 25-27.

— Contact Richard Wang at xuetao.wang@emory.edu