6
Fresh Fruits!
Healthy choices at the Farmer’s Market
Marvelous Music! Classical Music at the Austin Symphony 18
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Tech Theatre!
Behind the scenes at ZACH Theatre
Delicious Desserts! All you can eat at Amy’s Ice Cream
INSIGHT Inside some of Austin’s incredible local attractions and events
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
2 | Table of Contents
Friendly Farming
6
Suspicious Scoops
10
Taking Notes
12
All About Austin Airports
16
18
Behind the Curtain
24
Transformation of the Violins
26
The Real Scoop
32
Healthier Choices
Table of Contents | 3
FRIENDLY FARMING By: Raphael Stone
“There is a statistic that points to the average customer has 30 times the amount conversations at a farmers market that they do at a grocery store, and I think that is a very good that points to exactly how community based farmer markets are.” Along with that, he explains that there are a variety of people that come to the farmers market, not only for the food, but for the experience. “We have low class families, we have low income families, we have high income families, all across the border at our markets,” Driscoll says. “At our farmer’s markets, we run a program called the double dollar incentive program and that allows folks who are on the snap supplemental nutrition assistance program or the WIC woman infant children program to spend those dollars at the farmer’s market, and we double each dollar at the farmers market,” Driscoll mentions. As a Farmers market Coordinator, Driscoll helps out with these programs, and gets to see how it affects people’s experiences at the farmers market. “It isn’t a good market unless it is part of the community. It has to be rooted in the community in order to serve the community.” Driscoll tells how the farmers market is part of a large community and a community itself, and he also tells how important it is to so many people. Driscoll also says, “Our downtown SFC, sunset valley farmers market, they’ve really taken root in the community, and become a part of people’s lives, and part of what they do on the weekends. They get to go to the SFC they get to meet the people that produce their food, and create relationship.”
This was a painting done to showcase the farmers market in austin, inspiring people to participate in the farmers market, and eat healthier through art.
Healthy is starting to be the new hip thing in Austin, with people bragging about how healthy their product is, and others getting put out of business because of all the chemicals in their products. The farmers market has become just one of the few places that have made Austin healthier, and weirder. The Farmers Market, founded in 1993 by Kate Fitzgerald is run by the Sustainable Food Center in Austin, and has taken lots of attention from residents in Austin. Occurring every Sunday, the farmers market is an alternate way to get fresh produce, while supporting local farmers In Austin, people become employees of The Sustainable Food Center (SFC) for multiple reasons. Robin O’Neil, an employee at SFC says, “Some motivations include to protect/promote environmental health, support local agriculture, public health and welfare, contribute to a vibrant food environment in Austin, food and racial justice… There’s a lot of reasons why people want to work here.” Evan Driscoll, one of the two farmers market coordinators says, “We have 3 famers market and the farm stand, which is right outside of our office, but once a vendor applies for our farmers market, they also have access to all our other farmers markets.” Driscoll says how easy it is to start selling approved products at the farmers markets.
6 | Friendly Farming
This is a photograph of Johnsons Backyard Garden selling their food at a local farmers market.
Photograph pfovided by: the Sustainable Food Center
When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is correct, medicine is of no need. - Ayurvedic Proverb
Friendly Farming | 7
8 | Friendly Farming
Evan explains the uniqueness of the farmers market and says “The cool part about the farmers market, is that everybody is stronger together at a farmers market. Nobody, there’s no vendor at the farmers market would be stronger selling by themselves on the side of a road or something. Its because we all come together, and it’s really vibrant and dynamic that attracts customers, so when vendors start putting out all their goods, that’s when you really start to see everything gel and come together.” “A lot of my work at the farmers market, is making sure that customers are going to have the best experience that they can being involved in the farmers market community.” He says that the other part of his work is also with the vendors. “My work, is really interacting with our vendors who again are the lifeblood of everything that we do, so making sure that they are well supported, whether that’s taking pictures of them and putting it on our social medias platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, and telling their story and showing their product right, that’s helping to get their brand out there.” Driscoll says just a couple of the things that customers will tend to ask on a day to day basis. “Where do I find the eggs? Are melons in season right now? Which of your vendors are certified organic? What does organic mean? What is sustainable? What does Sustainable Food Center do?”
“We start preparing for markets the day before the markets. So on friday, we are getting together all the receipts that we need to get together for farmers.” He then says, “We need to get the equipment ready, all the sound equipment, all the water we bring for customers, all our tents ready, everything like that we get ready the day before.” The next day, Driscoll says “Saturday morning, we are at the office at 5:15 and we load up our trucks and our trailer, and are off and away to the farmer’s market.” He also explains that he just got to the end of that day. “The fun part, is when the vendors start showing up. The vendors come, they bring all their equipment, they bring all their products, they bring their food that their selling, all their advertising, and branding, their posters, and that’s when you really see the the farmers market start to come to life, when you have a bunch of small business coming together and sort of um leveraging each other’s really marketing and branding outreach um to reach a larger audience” “I’m happy to say that SFC staff are motivated to work here.” Robin O’Neil says. The farmers market is really a vibrant place in Austin that is really easy to get to. It is accessible, community friendly, and a great way to see the inside of Austin. When going, people get to see the community, and a lot the great parts about Austin.
Photograph by: Sustainable Food Center
“It might be with a consulting a farmer on sight about dealing with particular pest problem, or a fungus issue that they are having with their soil, and just sorta working through problems like that with them, it might be talking to a vendor about low sales and maybe their
sales aren’t what they need to be and so we solutionize with them on how to increase their sales,” Driscoll says
Friendly Farming | 9
CONTRIBUTORS Arushi Harkawat
Arushi Harkawat is a freshman attending the Liberal Arts and Science. She moved to Austin seven years ago, and she loves all things local. She has a brother who attends elementary school, and is all family and friends oriented. Some of her favorite hobbies are swimming, dancing, and she also loves to eat out at restaurants.
4 | Contributors Page
Ben Lee
Benjamin Lee is a freshman attending LASA High School. He was born in Austin, Texas and has a younger brother. He enjoys playing sports and being with his friends. He likes shoes.
Tony Lee
Tony Lee is a 14 year old writer in his freshman year of highschool at LASA. He was born in South Korea and moved to Austin, Texas at a young age. He loves delivery food and enjoys playing video games on his computer in his free time. He also loves being a tech for theatre at high school. He is interested in engineering and becoming a pilot in the future.
Raphael Stone
Raphael Stone is a 14 year old freshman at the Liberal Arts and Science Acadamy. He is a state wide cellist, and an aspiring luthier. He enjoys music, and likes to row on Lady Bird lake in his free time. He also enjoys math, and puzzles. He likes to design, and imagine up things in his free time.
Contributors Page | 5
SUSPICIOUS SCOOPS 10 Shocking Ice Cream Flavors that you would have probably never thought of eating!
ARUSHI HARKAWAT LOBSTER??
PIZZA??
Creation of Max & Mina’s in Queens, this pizza-flavored ice cream is a blend of fresh tomato, garlic and mozzarella.
Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium in Bar Harbor, Maine makes the most of The Pine Tree State’s most famous delicacy with its Lobster Ice Cream, a butter ice cream-based treat with fresh, buttered lobster folded into each bite.
DURIAN??
The Perfect Scoop in Las Vegas daringly turned the pungent fruit into an ice cream flavor (to join the ranks of lychee, black sesame, and red bean) and the turnout deliciously rich, creamy, and a lot sweeter than its smell.
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2 This Scottish dish made of sheep innards is traditionally served up sausage style, but comes in ice cream form at the Harrods department store in London.
HAGGIS?? 10 | Suspicous Scoops
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Juneau, Alaska; Eskimo ice cream—also known as Akutag. The statewide delicacy has usually got enough fresh berries mixed in to satisfy one’s sweet tooth, its base is actually animal fat (reindeer, caribou, possibly even whale).
ESKIMO?!
Forget your basic chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. These weird, crazy, and unique ice cream flavors will twist your brains in different directions in awe and possibly disgust! Gain more perspective on how other parts of the world, or even just other cities in the United States, have molded ice cream into their cultures!
PURPLE YAM??
OCTOPUS??
Ice cream enthusiasts in Japan are going cuckoo over this octopus-flavored ice cream. It is also known as “Tako Aisu”, which “Tako” means octopus in Japanese. Octopus in Japan is used for many things, ranging from delicacy (takoyaki) to porno movie prop, and ice cream.
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Purple ice cream, a foreign favorite. Purple Yam, ake “Ube”, is a popular sticky sweet in the Philippines that’s also become one of the country’s top frozen dessert flavors. In the U.S. you’ll most likely end your meal with it at a Filipino restaurant, but you can enjoy it cone-or-cup style at Dave’s Ice Cream in Pearl City, Hawaii. Several shops in Los Angeles offer the flavor too.
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London ice cream shop The Icecreamists caused a stir when they started selling breast milk ice cream, entitled Baby Gaga. It used freshly-expressed breast milk donations from the public blended with Madagascan vanilla pods and lemon zest.
It took four months of testing and tasting to perfect it, French ice creamery Philippe Faur—who’ve made ice cream from caviar, mustard and black truffle—finally perfected a foie gras kind of the cold stuff in 2008, which has since gained popularity.
BREAST MILK??
FOIE GRAS??
Inspired by a common snack in Southeast Asia: mango slices dipped in chili sea salt!
CHILE MANGO??
Suspicious Scoops | 11
12 | Taking Notes
BY: BENJAMIN LEE
TAKING NOTES “I don’t think anybody without a love or passion of something can be successful at it” -Steven Hakel
You think Austin music, and probably the only things that come to mind are famous music festivals and conventions like Austin City Limits, South by Southwest, and Fun Fun Fun Fest. But, did you know that none of these events were founded recently compared to the Austin Symphony Orchestra? The Austin Symphony is the oldest performing arts group in Austin being 105 years old. Performing in the Long Center in Downtown Austin, the Austin symphony was established in 1911, where there were only 28 unpaid members to start with. The Austin Symphony performs to let people appreciate classical music and hear how beautiful classical music is. Consisting of the top musicians in Texas, like violinists Caleb Hans Polashek, Steven Hakel, and Roman Yearian, the Austin Symphony Orchestra is known to play some of the most appraised classical music composed of all time. The symphony consists of over 80 musicians alone. Each musician has to audition to get in, and they are assigned positions, “But sometimes we switch chairs for different pieces.” said violinist Steven Hakel. The Austin Symphony has been a place where musicians come to not only play, but to enjoy.
The Austin Symphony, to the left, performs in the Long Center in Downtown Austin, and performs to over 4000 people per concert. Photo credits to Benjamin Lee
Violinist Roman Yearian said, “I enjoy the Austin Symphony because all the best musicians in Austin come together and play some of the best classical music in the world. They are very organized and concentrated to make the music sound as best as possible.” The performers do not dread to come to rehearsal, but they take pleasure in it. “I love the Austin Symphony because there are a bunch of great violinists and we play some of the best music.” says Hakel. The musicians in the symphony have not only played in a single orchestra, but a variety of different orchestras. When asked which orchestra they preferred, they eventually said that the Austin Symphony has been the best experience yet. Hakel says, “ I love the Austin Symphony because there are a bunch of great violinists and we play some of the best music, in my opinion.” Being a symphony, the Austin Symphony mostly plays classical music, and sometimes other types of music for special occasions. However, classical music seems to be the favorite to be played. “My favorite type of music is going to have to be classical music.” says violinist Caleb Hans Polashek. “Why? I enjoy being able to play compositions written by some of the greatest composers of all time. It feels like an honor.”
Taking Notes | 13
The Austin Symphony performs in the Long Center in Downtown Austin. The theatre seats 2,442 people in the Michael & Susan Dell Hall, 229 people in the Debra and Kevin Rollins Studio Theatre, and 2,000 people in the City Terrace. Photo Credits to Benjamin Lee
Yearian agrees, “I enjoy the Austin Symphony because all the best musicians in Austin come together and play some of the best classical music in the world, and they are very organized and concentrated to make the music sound as best as possible.” Violin is the most popular instrument out of the many in a single orchestra, having the most members in the violin family than any other instrument. When violinists were asked why they chose the violin, they all had different and unique answers. “I started playing the violin at the age of four. My parents had asked me if I wanted to play an instrument, and I said yes.” says Polashek. “I chose violin because of the sound it was able to produce and where it could take me. No offense to the violists, cellists, and bassists, but violinists always had the lead role if there is one. I always wanted the lead role, so I chose violin.” While Polashek chose the violin himself, Hakel had a different case, “I started violin at the age of 5. My mother had decided into me becoming a musician, and she chose violin.” Yearian, had an altogether different reason. “I first started playing violin with my grandmother. She had played the violin, and after watching her play, I told my parents that I wanted to learn how to play violin, and so my grandmother taught me.” says Yearian. “I still remember the day when I first went to my grandmother’s house with my eighth-size violin and started learning.” Even with starting at such a young age, none of them want to stop performing. Hakel says, “My family is a reason why I don’t stop playing, but what I think is more important than that, is that I am very passionate about violin, and I love playing it. I don’t think anybody without a love or passion of something can be successful at it.”
14 | Taking Notes
Polashek has a different reasoning to keep playing, “I enjoy playing the violin. What inspires me to keep playing, is the thought of all the music still left that I can play. A lot of music is still left, and I haven’t played half of them. I want every music to be heard because each music has a different meaning to it. And, I express myself best with music. It gives me a chance to show the world my passion.” And some do it for others than themselves. “I think mostly, my grandmother inspires me the most. I’m not even close to how good she was, so I keep telling myself that I need to keep going and improving for my grandmother’s sake. I promised her when I was young that someday I would surpass her” says Yearian.
“I enjoy the Austin Symphony because all the best musicians in Austin come together and play some of the best classical music in the world.” -Roman Yearian
The Austin Symphony is an organization where musicians can come together and do what they love. Play music. Each musician may have a different reason for playing, but they all agree on one thing. In order to be great at anything, it takes, “Hard work, dedication, perseverance, and repetition of the right way to do things” says Hakel. A symphony can not be played by a single person, it takes the entire orchestra.
The pciture on the right shows the view from the Long Center in Downtown Austin. Photo Credits to Benjamin Lee
Taking Notes | 15
All About Austin Bergstrom Airport! This story is an indepth look at all about Austin Bergstrom Airport and how it rocked the numbers in 2015. By Tony Lee
11,897,959 passengers went through Austin Bergstrom Airport!
55,274 planes departed from the airport!
81% of departures were on time.
78% of arrivals were on time.
16 | All About Austin Bergstrom Airport
Austin was the
34th busiest airport in the world!
157,484,666 lbs of cargo flew from Austin Bergstrom Airport!
63.9 minutes was the average departure delay.
58.3 minutes was the average arrival delay.
All About Austin Bergstrom Airport | 17
Picture of Soundboard
“The goal for technical theatre is to make it disappear” - Craig Brock, Audio Supervisor of Zach Theatre
18 | Behind The Curtain
BEHIND THE CURTAIN There’s more to the show than what’s on stage. Story and Photography by Tony Lee
The actors perform as if they were a whole new person, the lights shine onto the stage creating a stunning visual experience and the sound of music fills the room. A performance is meant to captivate the audience in a whole new world with what’s on stage, but what’s behind the curtain is an entirely different world. Theaters spends weeks, months or even years to create the show that will ignite a bright light in our Austin community. In the world of theatre there are all kinds of productions and shows; quite a lot goes into making these shows including the director, teams of people and heads of their respective departments working together every day backstage in order to solve any problems from a budget crisis to cupcake outfits needing to be hand washed to make a production a reality; all behind the scenes. “So technical theatre is grown up playtime. It’s easy to say but it’s really a lot of fun, and the people who do this have a passion for visual arts, hands on, collaboration, problem solving. People from the outside can look at that and see that we’re just playing and it’s part of that. The job is fun or we wouldn’t do it but it really does take a highly educated and trained personnel to accomplish these things,” said Paul Flint, Director of Production at ZACH Theatre. Technical Theatre is essentially all of the lights, sounds, designs and everything other than the actors themselves. Theatrical productions would be impossible without all the different personalities working together to make it happen.
“I love the challenges and I love helping a group coming up with a solution to those challenges or problems. I love being able to help guide this group of people towards a goal and help them learn from each other,” said Flint. Theatre like many other jobs, has aspects of planning and teamwork, but in the world of theatre professions mainly consist of actively working on a task with other people compared to filling out spreadsheets or ringing up food at the cash register. Flint personally was a carpenter before his current position as a director of production, and says that was a very valuable experience; he can now apply skills he learned into his everyday life and fix various things at home by himself. “One of the great things I learned at the record plant is that improvise adapt and overcome Right, so that was a huge thing for me, just that concept implies to everything, especially audio but everything you have to be you know, it’s kind of a life lesson you have to improvise to every situation you adapt to the situation and you overcome the obstacle and move on,” said Craig Brock, Audio Supervisor of ZACH Theatre. One thing Brock learned is to adapt, and from time and experience, certain things will start to become apparent. Adapting is crucial because often problems with no solutions come up and working around them becomes the only option.
Behind The Curtain | 19
Picture of Fly Rail
“Theatre can be so challenging and rewarding but challenging. People who do theatre can take it personally in this nature. It’s hard to get away from that but in a business and a profession it’s bad to take things personally, it can really backfire on you,” said Flint. Something he noticed is that people tend to act certain ways in different situations. Theatre is a world of mistakes that become experiences to learn from. Because of this, people will have a habit of liking their job, as it makes them improve upon themselves. “You’re just experiencing the show and it’s entirety without being drawn out of the moment or the little dream world without being the real world for two hours with the rest of the crazy stuff whatever problems they have or whatever world problems they have but if they go and enjoy themselves for a couple of hours something that they can put on and makes their little lives a little better somehow,” said Brock. Theatre can positively benefit somebody else too, through the entertainment of the fine arts. Craig says he absolutely believes entertainment can be a direct measure of happiness and is a human right.
“I think you have to find what you’re doing fun right, obviously the goal is to find something that doesn’t feel like work. If you enjoy doing it then it’s fun for you and it doesn’t feel like work, and you’re going to be much more willing to put in all the hours it takes or work for less money than you would like, even with all of the personal stuff you’re going to give up in the sense of you’re not going to be home as much if you’re working but I still think audio is the most fun,” said Brock. Some examples of theatrical professions include directors, electricians, sound technicians, set creators, prop creators, costume managers and all the smaller jobs in between. “My job is really doing precision guess work with information that is questionable so it can be tough trying to make those decisions but the other 80% of my job is about managing people and making sure people work well together, collaborate. I facilitate collaboration in a nutshell,” said Flint. Flint as a director has the job of making sure the show comes together and works out, and to make sure everyone else is also working.
Picture of Light Board
“Some people just don’t have the patience or don’t have the temperament for this and that doesn’t even scratch the surface of all the personalities.”
20 | Behind The Curtain
“So, I’m responsible for every audio aspect of whole theater. We have three different performing spaces and I’m responsible for the crews that run the show in all the spaces. I’m responsible for design of all the shows,” said Brock. He also manages every other audio aspect of the company, as the audio supervisor. He is responsible for audio aspects of productions to go without problem. “I don’t know if I really wish they knew anything, because I think part of the goal for technical theatre is to make it disappear right, that’s the irony of what we do. Imagine journaling, you don’t want anyone to think about the tech because as soon they’re sitting there thinking about lights and lighting cues and thinking about those parts, then we have bigger problems with our show,” said Brock. The goal of many technical theatre jobs is to make sure their parts of the show go unnoticed by the audience. The problem is everyone makes mistakes and creates issues from time to time.
“You’re going to hurt the production triangle. Imagine a triangle. You have high quality, you have short time and you have budget. You tell them pick two,” said Brock. Summed up, there is going to be a production triangle with quality, budget and time. Often a problem will cause one of these to be hurt and the other two to thrive as the solution, very frequently it will be budget because time cannot be created and quality absolutely is crucial. Even though jobs can have very negative aspects, people will find light in a dark room. “Theater is my escape, I get to disappear from all the stresses of the world for even if it’s just a moment in time and I hope that it transitions into the community they walk into the building and they go into a different world for a little while and enjoy themselves before they return into Austin traffic,” Flint said.
Behind The Curtain | 21
Transformation of the Violin
16th Century
Gaudenzio Ferrari’s “Madonna of the Orange Trees” The first clear record of a violin-like instrument came from the painting by Gaudenzio Ferrari’s “Madonna of the Orange Tree. Ferrari painted this in 1530, and a cherub is seen playing a instrument with a bow.
The cupola of Madonna dei Miracoli in Saronno The violin was originally created in Italy and France, and were called the “violino” and “vyollon”. The violin originally had only 3 strings, the G string, the D string, and the A string.
Stradivari Violin Some early famous violin makers from the 16th century to the 18th century included Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) and Jacob Stainer (1617-1683), prices today ranging from $5,000 to $45 million dollars. Transformation of the VIolin | 24
17th Century British Royal Family Violin Between the 16th and 19th century, a lot of changes occured to the violin. The fingerboard was made a little longer and wider, and the the chinrest was invented.
Modern Violin Today’s violin includes 4 strings (G string, D string, A string, and an E string), a bow with horsehair, and a chinrest.
Electric Violin The today’s electric violin has 5 strings (the C String, the G string, the D string, the A string, and the E string), with a chinrest, and a plug to plug the instrument to a speaker. Some electric violins don’t even have a body.
2016
Transformation of the Violin | 25
AMY’S ICE CREAM: THE REAL SCOOP ARUSHI HARKAWAT
Everything you want to know and more about Amy’s Ice Cream! At 23 years old, Amy Simmons decided to put her career in medicine and science on hold. She filled out a business plan template that she had received, scraped together a $100,000 loan from colleagues and local business owners, and headed south for Austin to open up what would eventually become one of the most successful privately owned chain of ice cream shops in Texas, being voted by the readers of the Austin Chronicle as the best Reader’s Ice Cream 8 years in a row. Amy’s Ice Cream, a local Austin business founded by Simmons, has been flourishing for over three decades and has over 300 rotating flavors, averaging almost $5 million in sales in 2015 alone. Practicing open book management style business which allows all the workers at Amy’s to have an input into the future success of the business, the company has employees who perform “tricks” with the ice cream as they prepare it and before the customer receives it and crazy decor. All of the unique aspects of the company combine to create a “quintessentially Austin institution”, as described by the Austin Chronicle. People like Kara Marshall, manager of the Burnet location of Amy’s Ice Cream, went from a job in the food service industry to a scoop at Amy’s Ice Cream to a manager at Amy’s. “There is night and day difference just from, like, the other restaurants I worked at, and then Amy’s culture is insanely different. My best friend and I worked at Fuddrucker’s Hamburgers together, and when you work in food service, it’s very rough and aggressive. Then when you come into Amy’s, everyone is all ‘Teamwork!’, and they want to teach you stuff and silly things and throw theme nights at the store, and it’s all fun!” Marshall says. People with entirely different backgrounds go into Amy’s and immediately start to notice a difference in the culture. 26 | Amy’s Ice Cream: The Real Scoop
Michael Hartman, CEO of Amy’s Ice Cream, says he came to University of Texas at Austin from Houston as an acting major, and then transferred to New York to become a Broadway press agent. Hartman says, “I really loved that work, I loved it and felt because I switched into a lot of different things when I was younger, I needed a new challenge, and I was drawn to this company.” One of the things that separates Amy’s and illustrates the difference felt by workers at Amy’s from other jobs is the store’s different business model called open book management, which takes input from employees and helps them share prosperity of the company.
“PEOPLE LOVE IT, PEOPLE LOVE THE SYSTEM BECAUSE IT CREATES INCENTIVE AND IT DOES NOT PENALIZE, IN ANY GIVEN YEAR, BECAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY FACTORS, LIKE WEATHER AND ECONOMY-WISE.” -MICHEAL HARTMAN, CEO This open-book management system changes the culture and experience in working for Amy’s. “Everybody has a voice, I mean that’s part of open book management is that there are no secrets and everybody has the opportunity to voice their opinion, to influence.” Hartman says. “Everybody, I mean, ideas come from everywhere in the company, so the more input the better.” Amy’s is a very real and local business. It only has one production facility in Austin, as well as another tiny one in Houston, where they make ice cream every single day. “They use all natural ingredients, so there is nothing artificial added to the ice cream,” Paden says.
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AMY’S ICE CREAM. MAKE PEOPLE’S DAY.
Amy’s 67 More Ice Cream: Than What The Real EyeScoop Can See | 27
That is also a reason why ice cream is not disPaden says, that, “At Amy’s, you’re not just getplayed in a pretty glass display when you walk ting ice cream, you’re getting an experience and into the store. “The reason why is because we an interaction. I mean, you go in there, and and don’t use any artificial colors or flavors in our employees at Amy’s are, more or less, the best ice cream. But so, with that, the majority of our and the weirdest that Austin has to offer.” ice cream is just different shades of white, tan, Hartman explains that the open book manageand brown. They’re really boring to look at, but ment that they practice is based on the book flavors are crazy awesome, and so, we want to called The Great Game of Business by Jack people to choose their flavor based on how it Stack. Hartman says it is a story of Jack Stack tastes, not on how it looks,” Marshall says, “and and how he bought a company that he worked yeah, so that’s why we are all real big on tasters, for when it was gonna go out of business and we try really not to with some of make people feel guilty colleagues, “WE WANT YOUR MOUTH TO LIGHT UP his about getting tasters. and turned the With the one larger AND NOT YOUR EYES.” business around. and one tiny produc“Stack created the -KARA MARSHALL, MANAGER tion facilities for Amy’s, business model there are three ice cream because he knew machines, which are all small-batch, single-batch, that he had to make things happen fast, and it one flavor at a time, so there is no assembly line. was the only way to keep people incentivized,” “They feel nice just to walk into because of all Hartman says. “He just opened the books and the liveliness and, well, ice cream!” Hartman let everybody know everything.” goes on to say.
The main Amy’s Ice Cream seven standard flavors menu.
28 | Amy’s Ice Cream: The Real Scoop
Amy’s Ice Cream headquarters on Burnet. Creds to photographer.
Amy’s is the epitome of homegrown and grass-rooted. It is unique to Austin and according to their workers, it is all about the experience. “That’s part of the experience of Amy’s, is that the people that work there are creative and unique, and so when you go in, you’re gonna hear music that you wouldn’t normally hear on the radio or anything like that, and that’s part of the experience,” Paden says. The management style is not the only unique aspect of Amy’s; the application process is also geared towards making it more fun for employees. The white paper bag is an application process where an employee at Amy’s gives you a white paper bag, and tells you it has to have your name and phone number on it. Other than that, they tell you that you can do whatever you want with it. Marshall also talks about how she leaves the applicants with a piece of advice about creating the application. She says, “I want to see something that represents who you are, so don’t do anything about ice cream or cows.”
If the workers at Amy’s love the application, they call back the applicants for a job interview. Once an applicant is hired, Amy’s treats each of their new employees with much care and supports them in terms of a regular job. “I think the best part of working at Amy’s is first and foremost, I get to play my own music. I work a 7 hour shift and I am listening to my music the whole time,” says Paden, long time employee at the Arboretum location of Amy’s Ice Cream. He goes on to say that Amy’s is a much cooler job compared to his previous experiences in downtown. “I was able to work at Amy’s while I was finishing up college, I just graduated from UT, and Amy’s is really flexible with their hours and working with you if you’re in school, so it was perfect from me,” Paden says. With all of Amy’s success, there are reasons it stays local and consciously chooses not to expand. Amy’s Ice Creams is not Simmon’s only business. She has several businesses, however, Marshall says that “Amy’s is like her special first born.”
Amy’s Ice Cream: The Real Scoop | 29
“Amy spends a lot of money and time educating young people and so they feel like they can go out and run businesses and we’re here to serve Austin and the greater Austin community and we do it in such a very specific way that we need all of our stores really closeby, so that way we can educate our people, and we can keep track of the quality of our product and make sure that it’s exactly what we want,” Marshall says.
“I THINK ONCE YOU START TO EXPAND AND YOU BECOME A FRANCHISE, AND PEOPLE CAN BUY INTO IT, YOU’RE GONNA LOSE TO A CERTAIN EXTENT, THE CULTURE THAT COMES WITH THE PRODUCT.” -PADEN, EMPLOYEE “When you expand out way too far, you have to trust a lot that the people that you place in management really far away, because you can’t check on them all the time, that they’re upholding your brand, and if they’re not, then it will take a long time for you to find out.”
30 | Amy’s Ice Cream: The Real Scoop
The weird and quirky things about Amy’s can slowly start to go away. “I mean you think about like a music artist that goes mainstream, and they stop making the music they want to make and start making the music that’s gonna sell more; you lose some of that authenticity,” Paden says. Amy’s is not about the money and fame. Paden says, “they all look at you, not as an employee, but as a human being and as a person, and that is how they treat you.” “Amy’s philosophy is she wants the company to be based on values, customer service, and the mission of education and personal development of all the employees,” Hartman says. There is a heavy focus of the company to make even the entry position employees feel comfortable and excited to come to work; that fun environment. It is all about employee empowerment . Amy’s philosophy, when it comes to expanding and growth, is ‘100 years not a 100 stores’. “The point is to make every store, every experience, everybody that works here, the best it can possibly be, to enrich peoples’ lives, not just to make money, not just to make profit, so we’re not a growth for growth sake company,” Hartman says. Amy’s Ice Cream’s mission statement is ‘To make people’s day’. “We can talk about the product that our competitive edge, and I would stand by the product any day of the week. It’s my favorite ice cream, it always has been. I’ve lived in New York, I’ve traveled all around the world, and Amy’s is still my favorite ice cream,” Hartman says.
Amy’s is a very real and local business. It only has one production facility in Austin, as well as another tiny one in Houston, where they make ice cream every single day. “They use all natural ingredients, so there is nothing artificial added to the ice cream,” Paden says.
“AT AMY’S, YOU’RE NOT JUST GETTING ICE CREAM, YOU’RE GETTING A EXPERIENCE AND AN INTERACTION.“ -PADEN, EMPLOYEE With the one larger and one tiny production facilities for Amy’s, there are three ice cream machines, which are all small-batch, single-batch, one flavor at a time, so there is no assembly line. “They feel nice just to walk into because of all the liveliness and, well, ice cream!” Hartman goes on to say.
Interior of the Arboratem Amy’s Ice Cream location. Creds to photographer.
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Healthier Choices Nuts
By: Raphael Stone
Nuts are easy things to eat anywhere you go. You can carry them around anywhere you go, they have a long shelf life compared to fruits and vegetables, and nuts are extremely high in protein.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is one of the healthies spices in the world. It can lower blood sugar levels, reduce heart disease risk factors, and has an abundance of other impressive health benefits. It is extremely affordable, and is delicious with fruits like straberries and rasberries.
Grapes
Instead of eating rasins in the morning, try eating grapes. While rasins are easy to eat when traveling, grapes keep you satisfied for longer. Grapes keep you full for longer due to the water concentration that the rasins lack. 32 | Healthier, Easier Choices
Being a healthy person may seem like a hard thing to do, but by just using these few things, you can become a healthier person. People say it is hard to be healthy, but with these things intertwined into your daily foods, you can become a healthier person. Snacks don’t always have to be fruits anymore, now they can be nuts and tea!
Green Tea
Green tea isn’t just something that keeps you awake, but it helps to prevent many deaseases like Alzhiemers, Diabetes, and Cancer. Along with that grean tea helps increase your matabolism, which can help with weight loss.
Quinoa
Quinoa is a great food to eat, and it is a good source of protein, fiber, iron, copper, thiamin and vitamin B6. Along with that, quinoa costs about four dollars for roughly 16 servings. Quinoa expands to over twice its size when cooked, and can be made with a variety of vegtables.
Oatmeal
Oatmeal is a food that is high in carbohydrates, making it an ideal food for breakfasts giving you energy for the day. It also keeps you full for very long time in comparison to other foods because it takes so long to digest, and it doesn’t have all that many calories as long as you don’t add too many calories. Healthier, Easier Choices | 33
Letter from the
EDITOR
34 | Letter From the Editor
I’ve lived in five different cities growing up. The passion, dynamic, and warmth I felt halfway across the world with my family in India was one thing I thought I would never be able to achieve again. I am very much a family oriented person; I love spending holidays with my cousins, and living on your own in the United States can be a difficult thing to get accustomed to. Moving from Reno, Nevada to Austin, Texas nearly seven years ago could quite possibly be the best decision I’ve made in my entire life. When it comes to people’s hometowns, you hear it all. Crimes done everywhere at every minute, dirty environment, climate so hot already due to global warming, low class society, rich being so rich that they grow absolutely corrupt, and corrupt politicians being everywhere. Austin is the dot blue amongst the red sea in Texas. The laid back, liberal, friendly and action packed city that I am proud to call home is packed with thousands of Austinites, great food and restaurants, great parks, hiking, and cycling trails, scenic river and overall good vibes. Great BBQ, great food, great music, great people, great cost of living. First coming to Liberal Arts and Science Academy, electronic magazine was a foreign concept to my brain. It was a huge endeavor; something I never in a million years imagined enjoying., and it was so unexpected.
Spending dozens of hours researching, interviewing, transcribing, planning, designing, exploring, and learning; I loved every minute of it. I have grown so much from the process, and working for over half a year with amazingly talented peers on discovering everything that Austin has to offer, I have been truly blessed. As for Austin; Austin is a city I feel like my home away from home. Fun story: Amy’s Ice Cream is one of the first local places I fell in love with in Austin before I moved here when I was around three years old. I have loved it ever since. Amy’s, in my opinion, will always be the heart and soul of Austin’s locality and uniqueness. Getting to interview the CEO and manager of Amy’s Ice Creams and hear their story made me realize something huge: anyone can do anything. Amy Simmons, local college student went on to make the most successful local business in Texas. Michael Hartman, Houston theatre, went from a Broadway business agent to CEO. The story, the roots, the journey behind the success of the truly grass rooted and home grown business was the best story for me. It had a sentimental connection, and I am sure each story in this magazine has the same heart and soul put into it. After nearly half a year, this group presents Insight, an Insight into Austin; a glimpse, behind-the-scenes look for tourists and Austinites.
Thank you for your time!
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Arushi Harkawat, Editor in Chief of Insight
Letter From the Editor | 35