Innovation Issue (Week 11)

SPECIAL ISSUE MARCH 23, 2017

IONS , T U L O S E VE R WITH CL OF ART S K R O TIVE W ALTERNA DS FOR N A H G N PI AN D H E L MOST, T I D E E HO N RWARD O F S THOSE W N E IVE ATH R D S R O INNOVAT

. e t a v o n n i

THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2017 OU ALUMNUS TAKES ON TOYS P7 // 'SNAPPY' APP ASSISTS SCHOOLS P8 // GRAD STUDENT DEFINES 'MOTHER' WITH ART P12

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Emma Ockerman MANAGING EDITOR Elizabeth Backo DIGITAL MANAGING EDITOR Seth Archer ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR Hayley Harding

EDITORIAL

NEWS EDITORS Kaitlin Coward, William T. Perkins SPORTS EDITOR Charlie Hatch CULTURE EDITORS Alex Darus, Sean Wolfe OPINION EDITOR Chuck Greenlee COPY CHIEF Rachel Danner

ART

ART DIRECTOR Abby Day DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Alex Driehaus GRAPHICS DIRECTOR Samantha Güt SPECIAL PROJECTS DESIGNER Matt Ryan

DIGITAL

DIGITAL PRODUCTION EDITOR Hannah Debenham SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR Hannah Wintucky BLOGS EDITOR Jeremy Hill SENIOR MULTIMEDIA PRODUCER Patrick Connolly BUSINESS MANAGER Matthew Barnett

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'Post' promotes innovation in all of its forms

M

any of us, whether that be student journalists at The Post or any other student at Ohio University, want to believe that we’re innovators, or people capable of implementing original ideas in a creative setting.

It’s a reason to go to class each day, or carry late-night ideas to early-morning hypothesis testing. For The Post, it was a partial reason to redesign our website and print product this year. When our editors made the announcement of that switch last January, it made sense to profile and feature students who were grappling with similar obstacles. Then came our first so-called “Innovation Issue.”

This year, The Post hopes to challenge the traditional definition of an innovator. Yes, an innovator might be a person who started a small business or developed his or her own app. But it could also be a student who creates art in a non-traditional way, it could be a group of professionals reaching out a helping hand to hopeful entrepreneurs in Appalachia.

Innovators, by nature, want to push boundaries and definitions. They want to see the future come a bit quicker. Of course, that can be a bit terrifying, but wildly exciting.

This year, The Post learned that innovation within our newsroom was possible, if only held back sometimes by our century-old traditions.

Often, that innovation didn’t come from the top down, it came from those fearless staffers in the newsroom who challenged — from the bottom up — what we knew, with what we should know. Staffers of The Post started to think less like a college newspaper, and more like a new business venture: what did our customers want, why did that matter and how could we give it to them?

We hope that we’ve succeeded in some ways, but still have room to improve in others. Because, honestly, finding those solutions has been fun.

We hope you enjoy reading about students, alumni and faculty who have promoted that belief in their own unique ways.

Emma Ockerman is a senior studying journalism and editor-in-chief of The Post. Want to talk to her? Tweet her at @eockerman or email her at eo300813@ohio.edu.

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Cover illustration by Matt Ryan

The Global Leadership Center is accepting applications for the 2017-2018 academic year

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Do you want to become a more engaged leader and build global awareness?

Do you want to tackle collaborative projects for real-world clients?

Have you always wanted to travel abroad?

Ohio University’s Eighth Annual Meteorological Symposium Free and open to the public!

Speakers from:

If you answered "yes" to any of these, then the Global Leadership Center may be the right certificate program for you. Visit www.ohio.edu/global/glc to learn more.

Date: March 25th 2017 Time: 12:00 – 5:30 pm Location: Walter Hall info and RSVP at More www.scalialab.com/ symposium17.html

CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

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QUITE CONTRARY

Why surprises aren't always the best idea Why do so many of our societal institutions revolve around surprise?

Surprises aren’t fun.

Surprises are stressful and impractical and WILLIAM they ruin friendships.

T. PERKINS Even the nice ones. is a senior Have you ever seen studying this sitcom trope?: A journalism dude wakes up on his at Ohio birthday, goes about his University. day and it seems like all of his friends have forgotten about him.

He’s not expecting anyone to make a big hullabaloo about the occasion. If he could find a few close friends to get dinner and drinks with tonight, he’d be happy.

But everyone says they’re busy.

He goes home depressed and frustrated. All he wants now is to collapse on his couch and watch Gilmore Girls with his

cat. He turns on the light and SURPRISE. The whole office is there. They do love him, they really do.

Of course, they made him feel miserable throughout most of his birthday. And they never asked him if he wanted a big party with the whole office. But, sure, they love him.

Here’s another scenario — the Gift of the Magi trope: a young couple is planning on buying Christmas gifts for each other. They don’t have a lot of money, but they both have possessions that they really love: he has a watch and she has a violin. She sells her violin to buy him a new watchband. He sells his watch to buy her a new violin case. Surprise.

Neither of them can use their new gifts, but that’s OK because the real gift is love and the spirit of giving.

Bah, humbug. That’s not touching, it’s depressing. If that couple doesn’t learn

some communication and budgeting skills, they’re not going to last very long.

The problem is that surprises, no matter how well-intentioned, rely on deception, and deception is a quick route to misunderstandings and hurt feelings.

I don’t even like surprising people with small things. What if they don’t like it? Am I spending too much? Too little? What if my surprise isn’t surprising enough? Or is it too elaborate? Will they feel bad for not surprising me in return?

I’m not entirely convinced that surprises are always well-intentioned, either.

I think most of the time if you’re planning a surprise for someone, you’re trying to manufacture a feeling, rather than rather than allowing a real experience happen: “They went to all this hassle of setting up a birthday party for me and hiding it for three weeks. I guess I feel happy about it.”

“He spent three months salary on a

wedding ring and surprise Cavs tickets … and we’re on the Jumbotron. I guess I love him. I guess I better say yes.”

But the feeling of “surprise” is not equivalent to the feelings of happiness or love. They’re just temporary substitutes, and sometimes make the surpriser feel better than the surprisee.

“You should have seen his face. He was so surprised.” So what?

But I know there’s nothing I can do about it. Surprises have been around for a long time, and they’re not going away anytime soon. So, if you’re planning on surprising me with something, go ahead.

Just tell me about it first, OK? Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to surprise William? Let him know ahead of time by emailing him at wp198712@ohio.edu.

AMPLIFIED OBSERVATIONS

Drake refuses to push limits in new project Four songs into Drake’s new project More Life, he follows tradition in boasting about his musical supremacy, observing “Worried ’bout takin’ my lane/They ain’t even LUKE FURMAN got on my road.” is a junior The couplet effectivestudying ly encapsulates the majournalism jority of More Life: a recyat Ohio cled cliché that’s growing University. more difficult to believe with each iteration.

The assertion on “Jorja Interlude” immediately follows “Passionfruit,” the third song on the “playlist” that unabashedly seeks to replicate the success of Views’ quadruple-platinum hit “One Dance.” But unlike “One Dance,” “Passionfruit” offers forgettable lyrics over a repetitive, Soundcloud-quality tropical beat.

And along with Caribbean music on this release, Drake retains his affinity appropriating Jamaican patois through a motif of the line “More chune for your head tops, so watch how you speak on my name, you know,” originally said by him at an American Music Award acceptance speech. He is quick to remind us of his 4 / MARCH 23, 2017

calculated moves at the top.

To some degree, Drake delivers on this promise with a few exceptional new songs, but they are packaged around songs with throwaway beats and lyrics that cover no new territory. Drake takes the tone of someone struggling through the problems of fame and relationships and expects us to feel bad for the perils and cheer for his well-deserved success.

But it’s difficult to feel empathy toward such a self-absorbed narrative that continues to thread throughout his releases.

He wants people to treat him as the favorite and the underdog at the same time, which creates a duality that is more confusing than appealing.

During his two features on More Life, English rapper Giggs upstages Drake by embodying the powerful and aggressive tone that Drake has strived for ever since If You’re Reading This, It's Too Late. In fact, most of the memorable moments on the playlist come as a relief from Drake’s long introspective diatribes of rapping and singing. Young Thug is also featured twice, once on the superb group track “Sacrifices” with 2 Chainz, and again on the penultimate track “Ice Melts.”

Skepta delivers two solid verses on his self-titled interlude and Sampha brings

his high-register smoothness to “4422,” which leads into the album’s best song, “Gyalchester.” Drake delivers signature quotables on “Gyalchester,” like “She wanna get married tonight/But I can’t take a knee cause I’m wearing all white.”

But the funniest moment on the playlist comes on the track “Portland,” featuring Quavo and Travis Scott, where Drake opens his verse with “Yeah, my side girl got a 5S with the screen cracked/Still hit me back right away.” The imagery harkens back to the cleverness that elevated Drake to the top of the conversation and is far more tolerable than his more recent image posturing.

And, after some controversy, More Life finally includes a Drake and Kanye West collaboration, “Glow.” The track marks the album’s happiest and lightest moment, with West cheerfully reminiscing about past successes and name-dropping some of his biggest songs. It seems almost as if West is emulating Drake’s reflective style only with a more positive outlook. The song is worth revisiting for both of their performances and gives some life to the playlist’s subdued and often moody production.

“Fake Love,” the playlist’s spiritual closer, shows that Drake still has a knack for creating R&B tunes perfect for a club

or uptown bar atmosphere. Undoubtedly, Drake can assemble producers and features that serve the project at hand and build a solid, cohesive product.

But “Fake Love” is also indicative of Drake's refusal to push the limits of his style. While other artists featured on the playlist, like Kanye West, Young Thug and Travis Scott, continue to explore their music’s boundaries, Drake appears comfortable in the space he carved for himself over the last two years.

This serial repetition leads to a question — will Drake ever release a project as groundbreaking as Take Care again, or will he stick the to public-approved formula of works Views and More Life?

As Drake’s playlist title promises, More Life simply delivers more of the same life.

And based on what he has already spent four releases divulging, how much more to his life is there?

Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Do you like Drake’s new release? Let Luke know by tweeting him @LukeFurmanLog or emailing him at lf491413@ohio.edu.

“AFTER COUNTLESS HOURS OF PROTOTYPING, BUSINESS MODELING AND MEETINGS AND CALLS WITH PROFESSORS, THE DREAM IN MY MIND HAS ALWAYS BEEN TO ACHIEVE THAT MOMENT OF WALKING INTO A LARGE RETAILER AND PICKING OUR PRODUCT UP OFF OF THE SHELF.” -PATRICK KELLEY

“INNOVATION TO ME IS FINDING DIFFERENT WAYS TO UTILIZE THE MATERIAL THAT SEEMS LIKE IT CAN’T BE THE THING THAT YOU WOULD USE.”

innovation.

“TO BE EXCEPTIONAL, YOU ALMOST HAVE TO MOVE AWAY FROM TECH. IT SEEMS RETROACTIVE, BUT IT’S ALSO WHAT DISTINGUISHES IT FROM ITS COMPETITION.” -ETHAN SCHULTZ

-LINDSAY KOONTZ

“THE WHOLE GOAL OF HISTORY IS TO ACKNOWLEDGE WHAT HAPPENED SO THOSE MISTAKES DON’T HAPPEN AGAIN OR TO CONTINUE ON WHAT’S WORKING.” -AMIE MUSSELMAN

DESIGNING CREATIVE SOLUTIONS, TAKING ON A NEW VENTURE OR ADVOCATING FOR A FRESH TAKE CAN REQUIRE EXHAUSTING DEDICATION. IN THE END, THERE IS USUALLY A GREAT STORY TO TELL. IN THIS ISSUE, 'THE POST' HIGHLIGHTS INNOVATION ON CAMPUS THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 5

‘INDIE’ GAINS

Kris Perez

K

FOUNDER OF THE INDIE SOUND

TONY WOLFE SENIOR WRITER

Kris Perez is, by his own admission, not a musician.

“I can’t play an instrument to save my life,” he said, laughing. “I have a guitar, and I had a drum set when I was younger, but I just never have time for it. My siblings are much better at playing instruments than me.”

With or without musical gifts, music has nevertheless always been a major part of the Ohio University sophomore’s life. Perez, who studies journalism, attended live music shows in Columbus, just outside his hometown of Pickerington, throughout high school. During his junior year, he matched that lifelong passion with another interest that was just budding at the time – journalism.

The result is The Indie Sound, a website developed and run by Perez that publishes reviews and artist features focusing on lesser-known, up-and-coming artists.

“Anybody can write about the new Adele song or the new Beyonce release, whoever’s out there who’s a big artist,” Perez, who is a former Post reporter, said. “But with this site, I want to shed some light on some of these lesser-known artists who I think have potential to skyrocket.”

The intention was not always to gain a significant readership with the site, though. In the beginning, The 6 / MARCH 23, 2017

MATT STARKEY / FOR THE POST

Indie Sound was The Indie Review, a blog Perez worked with on the side as a hobby. Then, a post on the blog about a cover of Beyonce’s “Drunk In Love” racked up 1,500 reads in its first night of being published, and Perez began to see potential to something bigger.

Months later, he bought a domain name, and had close friends contribute to help the publication gain extra voices. Before long, Perez began receiving emails from other writers who shared his passion for putting the spotlight on artists people don’t usually hear about every day. At first, they mostly came from other local music fans in Columbus, but then Perez started hearing from people as far away as New York and Chicago.

“I found The Indie Sound through my friend Emma, who also goes to OU and occasionally writes for the site,” Cory Schoonover, a contributor for The Indie Sound and a sophomore at Columbia University, said. “The editors are all great and encourage whatever content you're able to whip up. They're also crazy understanding of the time constraints and fiscal constraints that come with being in college, seeing as they're all in the same boat.”

The website carries a staff of 17 writers and has attained about 76,000 unique visits since its launch in 2015.

Perez said one of the aspects he’s most proud of in the early stages of the site has been the festivals he and his writers have already been approved to cover, such as last year’s PromoWest Fest in Columbus.

As a student at OU, Perez no longer has the time for concerts that he did when he was in high school or while he worked for the Columbus alternative radio station CD102.5 last summer. Still, Perez has big plans for the site and the direction he’d like it to take. By the end of the year, he has a goal of 100,000 visitors to the site. Beyond that, he’d like to see it continue growing as a notable and reliable destination to find music news.

“The goal I have is to turn it into something known, to have people know about The Indie Sound,” Perez said. “Maybe, one day, turn it into a well-known publication here in Ohio or a well-known online music publication that focuses on those smaller artists people don’t really know about.”

AW987712@OHIO.EDU @_TONYWOLFE_

P L AY T I M E I N N O VAT I O N

Ethan Schultz

E

TOYMAKER AND CEO

GEORGIA DAVIS STAFF WRITER

Ethan Schultz had a job offer lined up in Washington state following graduation. Instead of taking the job and traveling across the country, he decided to stay and start his own toy company in Athens.

“There will always be other places I can work,” Schultz said. “Now while I’m here in Athens and I have the resources that I do have, I feel like this is the time to pursue my dream which is to own my own toy company.”

Schultz is the CEO and founder of Opa Toys, an upand-coming company that creates wooden, magnetic tiles that can be played with on a wall or similarly to a board game. The tiles come in many shapes, such as animals, people and vehicles. His goal is to create “ecosystem of play where everything fits and can be fluid in nature” and is open ended, Schultz said.

The idea grew from Schultz’s thesis and took off in 2016, he said. He graduated from Ohio University in 2015 with a degree in sculpting.

“Going through the school of art, I never expected to be as involved with business as I am,” Schultz said. “Now I’m working with the school of business, the school of engineering, early childhood education and the school of fine arts. It’s been a real trip.”

Schultz has been working with the LIGHTS Program at the Innovation Center. Nathan Berger, the engineering and design expert for the program, has known Schultz since he was a student at OU. After Schultz graduated, Berger continued to help him develop Opa Toys by advancing his entrepreneurial education and constructing successful business models.

Berger said he is always “positively encouraging” Schultz, while also helping “drive him forward.”

“On a personal level, it is gratifying seeing a person develop a product,” Berger said.

Schultz took first place in Startup Weekend Athens for his idea in 2016 and said competition is a good way to inspire innovation. The goal of the weekend, he said, is to “solidify an idea in a span of three days” through business planning.

Schultz has been taking his toy to daycares and schools to focus on promoting education. He is still trying to find his home, he said, and he does not know if he wants his product to be in toy stores, to cater to schools directly or to be placed in cognitive museums such as COSI in Columbus.

Opa Toys earned some attention from toy companies in Chicago, where Schultz travels for meetings regularly.

Marbles: the Brain Store and ASTRA are interested in his product, but he said he is unsure of whether he wants to run a large company, especially right after college. There is a lot of potential with the product, and he is unsure of what direction he wants the company to move, he said.

Schultz would like to grow the company in Athens be-

cause there is incentive to bring manufacturing jobs into the region and he can afford to live cheaply while building the company, he said. Right now, he is looking for a team of people to bounce ideas off of.

“There’s a positive energy in this town towards innovation, towards bringing fresh ideas,” Schultz said.

Schultz has gotten a lot of positive feedback about his product and said “the passion is fueled by the positive reinforcement." He feels the simplistic toy stands out among the technological ones, and he believes there is a place for calm and quiet in today’s day and age.

“To be exceptional, you almost have to move away from tech. It seems retroactive, but it’s also what distinguishes it from its competition,” he said. “I don’t want to be flashy, I don’t want to be loud. ... It’s a place of comfort to me.”

@GEORGIADEE35 GD497415@OHIO.EDU

EMMA HOWELLS / PHOTO EDITOR THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 7

ALERT APP

Matt Benson

N

YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR

ALEX MCCANN FOR THE POST

Not many 19 year olds can call themselves a CEO, but Matt Benson can.

In high school, he recorded and sold DVDs of events. At the same time, he purchased glow sticks in bulk and resold them for a dollar.

But Benson’s latest business venture, a school communication software called SnappyCast, is both his most developed and his most successful — and he hasn’t made a single dollar yet.

Benson had always wanted to be an entrepreneur. A freshman studying business, he could never see himself working for someone else. However, he never knew exactly what his next business move would be — until he met Gage Hickman.

For three years in high school, Benson served as the student liaison for the Chillicothe City School Board of Education. He was responsible for attending meetings, traveling throughout the district to meet with students and staff to discuss issues and reporting said issues to the remainder of the board.

Benson and Hickman met at Boys State, an American Legion-sponsored summer leadership program. Hickman was a participant and Benson was a counselor.

Hickman mentioned to Benson his idea to create an application that would allow schools to quickly and easily share school delay and closing information with parents.

A lightbulb went off in Benson’s head.

As student liaison, he directly witnessed the problems that were annoying students and teachers; he understood that technology, communication and affordability were hot topics amongst them.

Benson knew Hickman had an idea, and from there, the two created SnappyCast.

Dr. Jeffrey Fisher hit a roadblock when a newly-passed federal law hamstrung his school’s ability to contact students’ parents regarding school emergencies. Fisher, the principal of Chillicothe High School, would be unable to alert parents to weather delays, school closings or emergencies unless they opted in. Fisher knew he would have to change services to stay within the confines of the law.

Then Matt Benson came along, asking his former principal if he would be willing to beta test his new software that would fit Fisher’s needs.

“Matt’s capabilities to present the app and this technology … would be, if you didn’t know him, a real calling card,” Fisher, a three-time graduate of Ohio University, said.

Fisher, impressed by both Benson’s pitch and the software’s potential capabilities, was eager to try out the application. He quickly discovered that Benson and his team had expanded SnappyCast to be more than a simple notification system.

“I can kill a fly with a bat or I can kill a fly with a fly swatter. One of those is going to be more efficient,” Fisher said. “SnappyCast is like the fly swatter.”

In addition to SnappyCast’s original school-to-parent notification system, the system has developed into a comprehensive safety and communication application.

SnappyCast now allows parents to receive messages from specific teachers, coaches and staff members. Updates can be sent through email, text message, social media and a downloadable mobile application.

The software also allows the school to send notifications to emergency responders and media outlets to confirm emergencies, such as school closings or active shooters.

In the case of an active shooter, the mobile application would allow a teacher to push a button on their phone to trigger a silent alarm that would notify the school and police.

“Instead of having to call 911 and frantically trying to get the information out, you press four buttons and it’s done; everyone’s notified,” Benson said.

Having undergone testing at Chillicothe High School and nine other Ohio schools, SnappyCast is wrapping up its beta stage and moving to full sales. Soon, Benson will be profiting off the software he and his team have been working for months — but that’s not what’s most important to him.

“We believe we’re increasing the response time of officers and we’re increasing the chance to save lives,” Benson said. “This is not us trying to make money. This is us trying to make a difference.”

PATRICK CONNOLLY / FOR THE POST

8 / MARCH 23, 2017

@ALEXMCCANN21 AM622914@OHIO.EDU

P L AY I N G W I T H H I S T O R Y

Amie Musselman

W

APP DEVELOPER AND EDUCATOR

ABBEY MARSHALL STAFF WRITER

While some teachers restrict phone usage in the classroom, Amie Musselman encourages it in the form of a history app she developed for students.

Musselman, a junior studying middle childhood education, created the app “D-Day” through a web-development site “Aris” in an attempt to educate students about the historical raid of the Normandy beaches in a unique way. The “D-Day” app is available to download through the Aris app, which is free to download on the App Store. “(D-Day is) a historical narrative that emphasizes player choice,” she said.

“The gamer gets a persona of Jack Clippinger, which is a soldier on the first wave over to France. … Depending on your choices, you either die or survive D-Day.” There are nine outcomes of the game, three of which result in the player surviving and winning the game and one of which allows the player to receive a purple heart.

The game starts with a YouTube video of U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower’s speech over footage of D-Day. The player must then select where they are going.

“You have to know where it occurred and place it on the map,” she said. “You can talk about D-Day and some people don’t know where that happened. You have to know it’s in France.”

The player is then offered an array of choices to consider in a war scenario.

The game also allows the player to interact with real historical figures, including President Theodore Roosevelt’s son, who was a key figure during the invasion of the Normandy beaches.

If the player does not survive, the game will loop to the beginning and they can try again. If they succeed, the game ends with a clip of footage from World War II. Musselman first created the app with a partner her freshman year as part of a class to incorporate education into mobile media. She hasn’t changed the content, but has made “minor tweaks” to the game.

“History usually isn’t the favorite,” she said. “People groan and grudge at the idea of history, like ‘How does it affect me today?’ That was my goal: to use a modern mode of technology to then teach history. While this is not a full invasion of Normandy lesson, it could augment it.”

As part of her education in the Patton College of Education’s honors program, Musselman is required to develop a thesis and conduct a research project. In February, she went to a high school to conduct her research study in an American history class.

Prior to her arrival, the teacher gave the students a lesson on D-Day. Musselman collected data from 87 students utilizing a pre-survey and then had students play her game. Following the game, she had students take a post-survey.

She said about 10 or 15 more participants said the app improved their enjoyment of social studies.

Musselman said teachers’ backlash is not realistic and rather than banning technology, they should embrace it.

“At school, if they’re not being used, the students will go home and use it for hours on end,” she said. “It’s a disconnect. To bridge that gap, we can use it as a tool.”

She said technology is integral to teaching in a modern-era and she hopes her app will help students become passionate about history and learning.

“There’s this stigma with using phones and or tablets in the classroom because it can be a distraction,” she said. “If you monitor it well, it could be useful. … The whole goal of history is to acknowledge what happened so those mistakes don’t happen again or to continue on what’s working.”

@ABBEYMARSHALL AM877915@OHIO.EDU THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 9

‘SUITE’ LIFE

F

Colin Espinosa and Faith Voinovich CO-LEADERS OF C-SUITE EMILY LEBER FOR THE POST

10 / MARCH 23, 2017

For many college entrepreneurs, it can be hard to scrounge up enough money and find the resources to get their ideas off the ground, but some students in the Voinovich School and the College of Business are looking to change that.

C-Suite, a project to help students on campus with startup ideas find workspaces and resources, has been in the works for two years and will launch in about a year and a half. Lori Bentz, former president of University Entrepreneurs, and Alex Kneier, an Ohio University alumnus, started work on the project after participating in the University Innovation Fellowship program, which sent them to Stanford University for six weeks to study entrepreneurship.

“The (media) that they work with ... really help you to better understand entrepreneurship and the ways that students can get involved, so that you can go back on your campus and be a change agent,” Faith Voinovich, a sophomore studying chemical and biomolecular engineering and student co-leader of C-Suite, said.

Voinovich has been working on the project for over a year now and is a student co-leader with Colin Espinosa, a senior studying accounting and finance. They were brought onto the project within six months of the startup and have been working together on the design phase.

During his sophomore year, Espinosa had been working on a similar project — a fund to help provide capital for students starting small businesses. The two projects were

MATT STARKEY / FOR THE POST

similar enough that Espinosa became the co-student lead on C-Suite, and his project is incorporated within.

“I feel (students are) just not served because TechGROWTH Ohio has these large amounts of money to fund, but there’s nothing for us students, just small micro-grants of 1,000, 2,000 dollars,” Espinosa said.

Espinosa, who will be graduating this year, hopes to continue to assist on the project and “to be an ear for people.” Espinosa said the plan is to have graduates step into an advisory role in the project.

The Center for Entrepreneurship housed the program at the beginning, but Espinosa and Voinovich are now working out of the Central Classroom Building on West Union Street, and are putting together the designs for how the program will work.

C-Suite will officially launch in fall 2018, but Voinovich said they will probably have a “soft launch” and open for business about six months before that.

“The soft launch includes programming, just kind of getting students in a little bit to see the space, kind of work on getting it figured out, smoothing out any of the bumps that we run into early on and then do the official ribbon cutting,” she said.

EL790115@OHIO.EDU @EMEMLEBER

Patrick Kelley and Josh Coury have filed for a provisional patent for their container that can hold a two-month supply of detergent, fabric softener and dryer sheets. (PROVIDED VIA PATRICK KELLEY)

REDESIGNING CHORES

Josh Coury, Patrick Kelley, Lori Bentz and Anna Sowash CO-CREATORS OF LAUNDROPACK, AN ALL-INONE CONTAINER FOR LAUNDRY ITEMS

W EMILY LEBER FOR THE POST

When students do laundry, they can be stuck having to juggle their laundry basket, detergent, dryer sheets and fabric softener while walking up or down flights of stairs or outside to a different building. Four people saw that and wanted to create a product that could hold laundry items in one container.

During the Startup Weekend Athens event at the Ohio University Innovation Center in 2015, Josh Coury, a 2016 OU alumnus, Patrick Kelley, a sophomore studying marketing, Lori Bentz, a 2016 OU alumna, and Anna Sowash, an order fulfillment specialist at Ecolibrium Solar in Athens, won third place with the Laundropack, a container designed to carry laundry supplies.

Kelley said the product is slightly larger than the average water bottle and holds a two-month supply of all materials necessary to complete the average laundry cycle. It also has a lid that serves as a dispenser.

“We decided to participate in Startup Weekend simply because we heard how fun and accelerated the weekend was developing a business concept as much as possible in just 72 hours,” Kelley said.

Kelley had the thought of the Laundropack a few days before the Startup Weekend, which made Coury decide to join in, allowing the two to work together for the first time since meeting in the OU Entrepreneurs club. The team then had 72 hours to finish its product and present it to a group of judges.

“I think we developed a pretty complete prototype for Startup Weekend given the time and resources that were available to us for the weekend,” Kelley said. “Our team really came together in a short amount of time to earn third place and crowd favorite.”

After Startup Weekend, Coury and Kelley decided to keep moving forward by surveying more than 300 students at 30 universities across the country to validate the necessity for their product on college campuses. After multiple prototype variations and countless meetings with mentors and professors, they filed for a provisional patent in August and are working toward obtaining a utility and design patent.

The team’s hope is that students across the nation will be able to see the need and importance of their product and use it in their laundry routine. They don’t have a set timeline for when the product will be released, but the hope is to have it out this fall, Kelley said.

Coury and Kelley are in discussion with a logo licensing company, manufacturer and a nationwide merchandise retailer with the goal of establishing a licensing agreement.

“Moving forward with the concept, I think I am most excited to actually closing a deal,” Kelley said. “After countless hours of prototyping, business modeling and meetings and calls with professors, the dream in my mind has always been to achieve that moment of walking into a large retailer and picking our product up off of the shelf.”

EL790115@OHIO.EDU @EMEMLEBER

2017 BAKER PEACE CONFERENCE

COMMUNISM: REFLECTIONS ON A VIOLENT CENTURY Thursday, March 23rd

Baker Center Ballroom, 7:30 PM Keynote Address: Dr. Arkady Ostrovsky Russia and Eastern Europe Editor at The Economist and author of the 2016 Orwell Prize winning book, “The Invention of Russia: The Journey from Gorbachev’s Freedom to Putin’s War”

Friday, March 24th Nelson Commons

Discussion Panels: Prophets Vindicated? • 10:00 am The Heart of Communism: A Viable Alternative to Capitalism? • 1:00 pm Reflections After the Fall • 3:00 pm Sponsored by the Baker Peace Studies Program and the Contemporary History Institute Events are free and open to the public www.ohio.edu/cas/conhist/news-events/baker-peace.cfm

THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 11

MAKING OF THE MOTHER

Lindsay Koontz

L

UNCONVENTIONAL ARTIST

REBEKAH BARNES SENIOR WRITER

LIZ MOUGHON / PHOTO EDITOR

12 / MARCH 23, 2017

Lindsay Koontz started growing kombucha “mothers” — or scobys, a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast — in a jar. Now, she’s growing them in kiddie pools.

It has become her child. She has to make sure the room she keeps it in is the right temperature and it has enough space to grow. She checks in on it daily as it feeds off a tea that it lays on.

When the kombucha is ready, she washes it and lays it out to dry, covers herself in it and then either photographs herself or has someone else take her photo.

The kombucha at that point has transformed into an almost-translucent skin, shielding her from what can hurt her. The photos are printed in breast milk.

Koontz, a third-year MFA candidate studying sculpture + expanded practice, works with materials such as kombucha, breast milk, gelatin and animal fat in order to give meaning to her work.

Koontz’s thesis is centered around the concept of “the mother.” From there, she gets her ideas of creating shields from kombucha mothers and creating prints with breast milk.

“There’s definitely a connection between all of those things that I don’t think was happenstance,” Koontz said.

Her relationship with her mother also inspires her work.

“She is why I do what I do,” Koontz said.

Koontz is originally from Youngstown and completed her bachelor’s degree in sculpture at Kent State University. At OU, she teaches an image foundation class and has a minor in psychology, which she credits to her introspective and observational nature in her art.

She said her thesis has been a goal she’s been working toward during her entire education. “(Working on these projects) definitely taught me a lot about myself and how I cope within certain situations,” Koontz said. “That’s the whole purpose of the thesis is to basically be a witness of someone who is attempting to heal themselves.”

An ability to adapt is necessary when using unconventional materials. For instance, animal fat melts and gelatin can rot. She had to figure out ways to mix animal fat and gelatin with separate materials, such as glycerin, so it can withstand handling and time in a gallery.

“I think the thing that is the most challenging about my work is that everything is ephemeral,” Koontz said.

“The biggest challenge is always changing my medium and learning how to adjust to that.”

Her work with animal fat turned into creating tiny shields that people would hold up and use to guard parts of themselves they wanted to protect. From there, she felt like her message was leaning too closely to a statement on animal rights.

To move away from that, she switched gears and looked into breast milk as a human fat.

Her partner, Josh Raftery, who is a photography in-

Top: Fermenting kombucha sits in an inflatable pool in Lindsay Koontz’s studio. Kombucha has to stay out of light and in warm temperatures to grow properly. Bottom: Lindsay Koontz runs her fingers across her fermenting kombucha, the texture of which feels like human skin.

(LIZ MOUGHON / PHOTO EDITOR)

structor at the University of Kentucky, prints images with blood. After trial and error, she found she could do the same printing with breast milk. The printing uses a gum bichromate process, which uses different chemicals and the breast milk to create an image through dark room development. She only needs about 16 grams of breast milk to produce six images.

She was able to put out a call to action on onlythebreast.com, where women can sell their breast milk and others can buy it. It is typically used between mothers who have excess milk and those who can’t produce.

Koontz didn’t want to take advantage of that process, and she started blogging and reaching out to mothers about her work.

In her most recent adventures with art experimentation, she uses kombucha. Her eyes light up as she describes the journey that she has gone with her kombucha — and discovering that she has in turn become the mother of it. As the piece continues to enlarge, she at one point wondered what would happen if she set it in Dow Lake at Strouds Run State Park.

As to not negatively affect the environment around her, she said she’s considering writing a grant proposal for a pool to put it in.

“You are so dedicated to your medium,” Koontz said.

“You treat your work like it’s your baby. … I felt such a connection with this medium because it’s the first thing that I’ve used that’s actually alive. It reminds me of the phenomenon that basically having to take care of another life gives you purpose. I’m not saying it’s to that extent, but I won’t say that I don’t feel responsible for this thing. It’s like more than a plant for me. You don’t bathe your plant.”

If the kombucha rips, it grows back. When it’s growing in the tea, its slimy-yet-smooth feeling is back by an almost-muscular makeup. It’s that mixture between the tough and the sensitive that creates the message she’s looking for.

Her photographic series will be printed in the breast milk using the gum bichromate process. Some other pieces of dried kombucha will hang during her thesis gallery as well.

Koontz’s art, and artists’ work in general, has a common theme: Everything is thoroughly researched.

“We all know that art takes a lot of time,” Koontz said. “But … you have to back all of your work with research. Whether that be theory or philosophy or biology or psychology — I feel like it’s equally as important to be a good writer and a good marketer … as it is to producing good work.”

With her drive to create and find new media, innovating in her field doesn’t look it’s going to stop an time soon.

“Innovation to me is finding different ways to utilize the material that seems like it can’t be the thing that you would use,” Koontz said. “So, if I had an idea that I need something that’s associated with breast milk and the maternal ... I become innovative by using that thing and then working toward learning how to manipulate the material in the correct way.”

@REB_BARNES RB605712@OHIO.EDU THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 13

TEAM TRANQUILO

Abby Young, Brenna Innocenzi, Fithi Embaye and Ellen Haile GROUP HOPES TO COMBAT FLOODING IN PARAGUAY WITH 'BOTTLE BRICK' DESIGN MARGARET MARY HICKS FOR THE POST

PROVIDED BY ABBY YOUNG

14 / MARCH 23, 2017

T

“Tranquilopa” is a phrase many Paraguayans use to describe their way of life. It also served as an inspiration to four members of the Global Health Case Competition when they decided on their team name.

“Tranquilo” means tranquil in Spanish, and “pa” means everything in Guaraní, which is an official language of Paraguay. The phrase means, “All is good” and is usually accompanied by a smile and a thumbs up, according to Discovering Paraguay.

Thus, Abby Young, Brenna Innocenzi, Fithi Embaye and Ellen Haile decided to call their group “Team Tranquilo” to promote their work to the Paraguayan people.

The team holds the title of first-place winners in the 2016 Global Health Case Competition.

“One of the key points for the Paraguayan people was ... they are always, ‘Tranquilo,’ ” Embaye, a second-year graduate student studying social work, said. “They’re never in a hurry, they’re very relaxed. … Tranquilo is like, probably like their favorite word.”

Embaye added that they decided on that name because they thought it would be more engaging when they present their solutions to the Paraguayan people.

The specific area they chose to focus on is called Bañado Sur, which is a squatter settlement located near a landfill, known as the Cateura Dump, which is one of the largest in South America.

Embaye said Bañado Sur is prone to flooding due to the low elevation and the proximity of water.

According to the group’s research, Bañado Sur receives 1,500 tons of garbage each day within its community, and there are 2,500 families who have homes that cannot withstand floods.

“Everybody’s just kind of living among each other outside and basically, like, the worst conditions you could think of,” Young, a junior studying communication studies, said. “So our goal was to find solutions to these problems. … So we took it from a standpoint of, like, how do we make their daily life easier? And that’s when we came up with a bottle brick.”

Innocenzi, a senior studying exercise physiology, said she had gotten the idea of "bottle bricks" from a friend who had seen children making such structures while traveling the world.

Innocenzi added that a bottle brick is made by taking a plastic bottle and packing it with as much inorganic plastic, such as empty chip bags, as possible. The result, Innocenzi said, is a bottle of plastic that is almost as strong as concrete, which can be used for structures such as houses, community centers and privacy walls.

Embaye also emphasized the need for education on living a healthy lifestyle in Bañado Sur. “This will hopefully help people clean the community, reuse/ recycle plastic that would otherwise harm the environment, and build low-cost structures to improve their quality of life,” Innocenzi said in an email.

Team Tranquilo will spend about two weeks in Paraguay, from May 7-24, to research whether the plan is actually viable in the Bañado Sur community. The total proposed budget of the project is about $80,000.

Haile, a junior studying political science, said she is looking forward to making connections and working with people from different countries.

Embaye said she is thrilled that the group’s ideas may soon become a reality.

“It feels like living large,” Embaye said. “It touches so many people, so many lives and they can go on and go on into the future … that is pretty exciting for me.”

@MMHICKS19 MH912314@OHIO.EDU

A P PA L AC H I A N ‘ L I G H T ’

Jennifer Simon

T

INNOVATION IN SMALL TOWNS

ALEX MEYER SENIOR WRITER

The LIGHTS program has fairly simple goals: building small businesses, creating jobs and attracting private investment to Southeast Ohio and nearby Appalachian counties that otherwise might not see such resources.

The program, officially known as “Leveraging Innovation Gateways and Hubs Toward Sustainability,” was established through a $2 million grant to Ohio University from the Appalachian Regional Commission in August. The initiative, collaboratively organized with OU’s Innovation Center, aims to help “coal-impacted communities” across 28 counties in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.

But for Jennifer Simon, those goals carry even greater significance in that they apply to residents living in towns like Waterford in Washington County, where she grew up.

Twenty-five years ago, a nearby coal mine shut down, Simon, the executive director of regional innovation said, and the American Electric Power plant near the town closed in 2015 as well, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

After those big-time regional employers closed up shop, Simon said there was a large cohort of people left without jobs.

“Even though it’s gone, the skills remain and the people are still there,” Simon said.

“People in our region know how to use their hands.”

Through LIGHTS, Simon aims to provide entrepreneurs in the region with places where they can use those hands — whether that be to make products or to start their own businesses.

LIGHTS offers business assistance to entrepreneurs while helping them to create the products they design. The program also serves up “makerspaces” where those products can be manufactured.

Makerspaces, listed on the program’s website, are community hubs where people can use 3D printers or practice their woodworking, fabrication and jewelry-making, among other skills.

One of the makerspaces associated with LIGHTS is the Building Bridges to Careers Epicenter in Marietta, which began in January.

Tasha Werry, the organization's facilitator, said the Epicenter works with three entrepreneurs in-residence to provide incubation and development. Among them are an online magazine, a videographer and an insurance company, she said.

LIGHTS has three main “hubs,” including the Marietta Epicenter, the Innovation Center in Athens and the Muskingum County Business Incubator at Zane State College.

“The reason why we did this is because a lot of people aren’t going to drive (an) hour and a half, two hours to the campus of Ohio University to start a business or to make something,” Simon said. “They want to do it in their backyards.”

The program has lofty goals: create 1,100 jobs, start 125 businesses and bring in $25 million in private investment to the 28-county area within six years.

Between its start in October and the end of the calendar year, LIGHTS created 10 new businesses and about 10 new jobs, generated $191,000 in private investment, held 13 training events and involved 317 participants, Simon said.

Stacy Strauss, director of the Innovation Center, said the incubator works closely with LIGHTS to support entrepreneurs as they develop products.

Simon says she aims to expand the centers, acquire equipment and look for funding sources. But her main goal is still to help people living in towns like Waterford.

“If we don’t come in and make sure that people in communities like mine have an opportunity to connect with different types of resources that fit with what they’re doing, then we’ll lose people.”

EMILY MATTHEWS / PHOTO EDITOR

@ALXMEYER AM095013@OHIO.EDU

THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 15

MAP MAKER

Hashim Pashtun

T

MODERN-DAY CARTOGRAPHER

JESS UMBARGER FOR THE POST

The Green Mappers, a team of three, aims to create an interactive map for environmental problems in their Scripps College Innovation Challenge.

The challenge they chose was to create a system or idea to increase the Natural Resource Defense Council’s donation rate. The council is a nonprofit international environmental advocacy group. The team chose to build an interactive map that targets donor’s interests.

“I feel like their social media platform or the awareness is not as good as it should be,” Hashim Pashtun, a graduate student studying civil engineering, said.

The NRDC has eight different sections — such as oceans, climate and health — that people can choose to donate to. People can also donate to smaller projects within the sections.

“We came up with this idea of mapping those projects in such a way that people who have an app can go and look around for projects and connect accordingly,” Pashtun said.

The map they are creating covers the entire globe, not just Athens. There will be pinpoints all over the world showing different environmental projects. For example, a pinpoint at Flint, Michigan, would show the environmental projects in the area to help provide clean water.

The team will use openstreetmap data, a free, opensource map of the world created by volunteers, to make the map, Linsey Edmunds, a first-year graduate student 16 / MARCH 23, 2017

PATRICK CONNOLLY / FOR THE POST

studying environmental studies said.

“The map has everyone you need in one place,” Edmunds said.

Pashtun said the app will only alert people to what they subscribe to and that they can personalize the map to their specific interests.

“People can subscribe to specific projects of (their) interest rather than be bombarded with emails or updates,” Pashtun said. He believes it is important to not send out too many emails because many people find that annoying.

The Scripps College Innovation Challenge is a university-wide competition where students solve real-world issues.

The team has also created a live feed to show how much money is being raised, connect with others and share their stories.

The team chose the NRDC’s challenge because they have backgrounds in environmental concerns. Pashtun himself has been interested in the environment for more than five years.

Edmund chose to join the challenge because she was encouraged by her professor, Bernhard Debatin. She also chose to join because it was “something new (to her) and something challenging.”

Along with being interested in environmental problems, Edmund said it is important for people to have a

place to help the different problems.

“The environment is not a concern for this (current presidential) administration and so people need a place to donate,” Edmund said.

The Innovation Challenge is not the only thing Pashtun has been a part of. He was also involved in the Meditation Room on the fifth floor of Alden Library. The room has no signs or symbols of any religions to keep it a neutral space. It is also a place where people can relax and reflect, Pashun said.

“As a practicing Muslim, it was hard to find a good place to pray,” Pashtun said. “There was no certain place.”

Pashtun has also helped introduce a zero-waste initiative within the International Student Union. The international dinner only had compostable plates and utensils as well as paperless advertising. The effort saved ISU between $500 and $1,000 by going paperless for the event.

Edmund believes the challenge is an opportunity to work with others who are involved with different parts of the university.

“You don’t have to have a great idea when you start, it just kind of evolves,” Edmund said.

@JESS_UMBARGER JU992415@OHIO.EDU

The revolution will not be televised...

AAS AAS AAS AAS

1010 1060 1100 2100

African American History I, 1526-1875 Introduction to African American Studies Introduction to African American Literature Slave Narrative and Freeman/Freewomen Fiction of the 18th and 19th Centuries AAS 3450 The Black Woman AAS 3460 Black Men and Masculinities AAS 3500 African American Arts and Artists

Join us for a summer of history, literature, and culture!

OUTSTANDING ADMINISTRATOR AWARDS and Recognition of Service Milestones

2017

OUTSTANDING ADMINISTRATORS

Dianne Bouvier Patricia McSteen Richard Neumann Roderick McDavis, HON

Retirees Patricia A. Burnett (33 yrs) Randy M. Gastin (38 yrs) Elizabeth Haehl (4 yrs) Don Hone (33 yrs) Patricia A. Leib (20 yrs) Chris Matter (11 yrs) Douglas E. McCabe (25 yrs) Melinda D. McDowell (18 yrs) David A. Resler (16 yrs) Zofia H. Starzyk (28 yrs)

Service: 40 years

Administrative Senate invites you to attend Mark L. Wienberg the ceremony celebrating this year’s Service: 35 years Outstanding Administrators, administrative retirees, and administrators marking significant Dean Dupler Patricia Fox years of service milestones.

David Mould

Thursday, March 30, 2017 • 3 – 5 p.m.

Walter Hall Rotunda Reception to follow ceremony

Joanne Bray Jeffery R. Brown Susan A. Calhoun Howard Dewald Susan N. Downard Bryan D. Jordan Gerard Anthony Krzic Rita LaValley Arvil Robert Miller Jr. Chris Reghetti-Feyler Judi Rioch Elaine F. Saulinskas Stephen Thomas Trotta Martin Tuck Jeff Whitehead Charles C. Wilson

Service: 25 years

Susan Palsa Cheryl Ann Riley Linda K. Shapiro Mark (Rusty) Smith Duane Starkey

David Scott Carpenter Sandy Dowler Greg Fialko Barbara A. Harrison Jody Lamb Wendy Merb-Brown Trent A. Skidmore Mary Stout

Service: 30 years

Service: 20 years

Jay Beam

Leigh Atkinson

Jewell S. Barlow Tony Benton Bruce N. Brown Lynnette Bush Clouse David Scott Carpenter Wayne Chiasson Michael E Dixon Jenny Hall-Jones Janelle Harmon Stephanie Kearns Carolyn Khurshid Jill L. Lallier Keith W. Leffler Mark A. Mace Jim McCumber Valerie Miller David Pratt E. J. Schodzinski John D. Schriner Cynthia Anne Strickland Phil Swatzel Dennis Washington Alan Watts E. Hugh Woods III

Service: 15 years David J. Belville Michelle Bobo Donna M. Capezzuto Floyd J. Doney

Michael S. Elliott Jack L. Fulton Todd L. Gardner Becky Gill Christopher S. Guder Cheryl A. Hanzel Sharon Hopkins Rosanna L. Howard Terry Johnson Lisa R. Kamody Cheng Yen Khoo Shelly Lowery-Rowan Roxanne Male’-Brune Catherine Marshall Barbara K. Mash Barbara Nalazek Jane H Palmer Michelle Pate Nick Pero James B.W.P Phillips Carrie Preston Ryan Ridgely Teddy Ross Michael Roy Kris Sano Leslie L. Scripp Daniel Sheets Danny T. Smith Cammie Starner Stacy Strauss Shauna Switzer

Nate Thomas Joseph Wakeley, III Dawn Werry Jessica Wingett Rebecca Zuspan

Service: 10 years Tony M. Adami Carissa M. Anderson Jean Andrews Caitlin B. Barnhardt Nathaniel Berger Shawna A. Bolin Bob Bulow Carey L. Busch Robert Callahan John M. Canter Ken Cash Winsome M. Chunnu Jennifer R. Cochran Akos Z. Csete Kelly C. Czack Dwayne Dixon Heidi Fischer Lisa Flowers-Clements Kevin Funk Stephen Goss PJ Guthrie Stacy Haney Chris Hayes

Lowell M. Jacobs Candy Johnson Jenny Klein Becky L. Martin Kelly Martin Marjorie Mora Bandie Nance Cornelia Patterson Marty Paulins Patrick Polinski Michelle Pride Lisa A. Quinn Chris Quolke Thomas E. Riggs Lindsey Siegrist Cindy M. Smith Tamala A. Solomon Melissa Standley Annie Stanley Phil Staten Elizabeth R. Tragert Ginny Valentin Nathan Watson Nicole Yandell Mary S. Zawodny

THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 17

NEWS BRIEFS

APD releases annual report; OU athletics signs new contract with Adidas JONNY PALERMO FOR THE POST

T

he Athens Police Department received three reports of sex-related crimes this week, and the release of the APD annual report for 2016 showed an increase in service calls from 2015. The OU’s athletic department announced a new apparel sponsorship.

CITY SEES SPIKE IN SEXUAL ASSAULT REPORTS During the past week, APD received three reports of sexual assault.

On Monday, a juvenile girl reported that a man she knew sexually assaulted her on the south side of Athens. The incident allegedly occurred Sunday, according to an APD report.

The department also received two re-

ports of rape Wednesday.

Two women reported the incidents at 2 a.m. and told an officer that someone they knew raped them on the north end of Athens between November 2016 and February 2017.

RAPE, NUISANCE AND SUICIDE CALLS INCREASED IN 2016, ACCORDING TO APD ANNUAL REPORT APD released its annual report Tuesday, and statistics show an increase in calls for service for rape, nuisance party violations and suicide in 2016.

The department received 40 rape-related service calls in 2016, continuing a trend of annual rape report increases in the past five years. The department received 18 reports of rape in 2013, 26 in 2014 and 33 in 2015.

Local police have indicated that an increase in rape-related service calls does

not necessarily mean there has been an increase in rape incidents. The reports could mean that rape survivors are becoming more comfortable coming forward.

Nuisance party service calls have increased in 2016, with a total of 130 calls, up from 99 in 2015, which is above the department’s 12-year average of 32.

The department also saw an increase in calls about suicide and suicide attempts, with 78 total calls in 2016, up from 48 in 2015.

In total, the APD received a total of 11,843 service calls in 2016, an increase from 10,972 in 2015 and above the average of 11,262 per year from 2004 to 2016.

OHIO SPORTS TEAMS WILL WEAR ADIDAS APPAREL The OU athletic department signed an eight-year apparel contract with Adidas,

lasting through the 2024-25 athletic season.

The new deal will end a 10-year partnership with Russell Athletic, which provided the university with jerseys and other equipment over the past decade.

OU was the only school in the Mid-American Conference that had a sponsorship deal with Russell. The deal was the most lucrative contract in the MAC, with OU receiving $397,500 in athletic gear per year, according to a previous Post report.

“Russell has been a great partner over the past ten years and we appreciate all that they have done for Ohio,” athletic director Jim Schaus said in a news release. “Our teams will continue to wear their products through June of 2017.”

@HEEEEERES_JONNY JP351014@OHIO.EDU

POLICE BLOTTER

PRIME LOCATIONS

Deputies led on high-speed chase; man arrested after stealing from parked car LAUREN FISHER FOR THE POST While Ohio University students and their countless visitors were busy festing the weekend away in the heart of Athens last weekend, the Athens County Sheriff’s Office spent their week responding to numerous incidents throughout the county.

The Sheriff’s Office was called to the Coolville boat ramp location for reports of a “suspicious vehicle” on more than one occasion during the week, at one point of which they observed a car “doing doughnuts” in the parking lot.

Deputies approached the four vehicles — three of which were from West Virginia — before issuing two of the drivers

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criminal charges for “tearing up the grass” around the parking lot. Four of the individuals were issued forms to prevent them from returning to the boat ramp, according to the report.

HIGH-SPEED HIJINKS Deputies found themselves engaged in a high-speed chase last Wednesday when the department was contacted by the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office, which requested assistance in locating a vehicle at the Torch roadside rest area that was purported to belong to a man sought for crimes in the county.

The vehicle was found at the rest area at about 4:10 a.m., but when deputies entered the building about 15 minutes later, the man fled in his car “at a high rate of speed,” leading multiple police departments on a chase near Belpre, where stop sticks were set up. The suspect vehicle avoided the stop sticks, however, changing directions and fleeing onto an exit into West Virginia, where deputies were forced to terminate their pursuit.

Later reports, however, note that the

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chase continued when the suspect allegedly stole a vehicle in West Virginia and was pursued back into Ohio, where he drove through Athens County and into Meigs County, where Athens deputies waited on county lines with tire deflation devices ready in case the suspect tried to re-enter.

The suspect was eventually apprehended in Meigs County, according to the report.

TREASURE HUNTER While on patrol at about 6 a.m. Friday, officers from the Athens Police Department observed a man’s legs “hanging out of the driver’s side” of a parked vehicle in the northwest neighborhood of Athens. Upon contacting the man, officers learned he was “ransacking that vehicle” and taking spare

change, according to the police report.

After detaining the man, officers discovered he possessed an active arrest warrant, and he was taken into custody. According to the report, the man’s pockets were filled with “various items” from other vehicles, including $4 worth of spare change and a gemstone. The 34-year-old was transported to Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail, and he was arraigned on failure to appear for a fifth degree felony theft charge. He was also charged with misdemeanor theft and criminal mischief, according to the report, which notes the department expects more victims to come forward in the case.

@LAUREN__FISHER LF966614@OHIO.EDU THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 19

POST MODERN

“ I have

some bad news…

HCOM students are trained to break the toughest of news now to better serve their patients later JESSICA JOHNSTON FOR THE POST

When Amy Kish was told she had breast cancer, she had a difficult time processing the daunting news. // “When they tell you everything, you’re listening, but you’re not,” Kish, an administrative assistant at Trimble Middle School, said.

“Your first thought is: ‘Am I going to die?’ ” 20 / MARCH 23, 2017

Kish was diagnosed in November 2008. She had a 3 centimeter (just over an inch) lump on her breast and had a bilateral mastectomy the day after Christmas in 2008. Although the lump was only on one of her breasts, she had both removed in case the cancer spread to her lymph nodes. Regardless of all the support after the news was delivered, she will never forget the initial moments after her doctor told her she had cancer.

“I had an excellent doctor … he didn’t make me feel like I was just a number. He held my hand and sat with me and told me, ‘We’re going to do everything we can,’ ” she said.

In addition to the daily tasks of recognizing symptoms and prescribing medication, physicians also need excellent communication skills in order to disclose results to patients.

Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine is dedicated to equipping students with the skills they need to be successful physicians — which includes breaking bad news to patients.

D

LAB EXPERIENCE

octor-patient communication is defined by the U.S. National Library of Medicine as “a central clinical function in building a therapeutic doctor-patient relationship, which is the heart and art of medicine.”

That type of communication encompasses everything from casual exchanges to explaining to a patient they may only have months to live.

“Doctor-patient communication is so important because … we all use different language, and medical jargon can be very complicated,” Dr. Charee Thompson, an assistant professor at OU who specializes in interpersonal and family communication and health communication, said.

“So when they need to communicate that to other people who don’t have that experience, it’s really important that they’re able to break it down.”

HCOM requires all of its students to go through a series of six labs, accompanied by specific lectures, throughout the course of their first two years of medical school. The courses are designed to enhance students’ doctor-patient communication through a hands-on and patient-centered process, with the ‘bad news’ lab being the final step. The series of labs is led

by Dr. Judith Rhue, a professor and head of psychosocial medicine in HCOM. “I teach the importance of empathy, of active listening, of open-ended questions, of support and of good non-verbal (communication) because we read a lot from looking at each other,” Rhue, who has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, said. “More is passed visually than verbally. So we work on all of those things.”

For the bad news lab, HCOM uses community members acting as patients and has students deliver the news of cancer. Each patient is set in a separate office room, and the students are given folders with the patient’s tests results just before they are sent off to the room. The student has a short period of time to review the folder of information before entering the room

“

Doctor-patient communication is so important because … we all use different language, and medical jargon can be very complicated. So when they need to communicate that to other people who don’t have that experience, it’s really important that they’re able to break it down.”

- Dr. Charee Thompson, an assistant professor at OU who specializes in interpersonal and family communication and health communication

for a 15-minute session where they are recorded informing their patient of the news.

The lab is unscripted. The patients are told they will be receiving some bad news from the medical student assigned to their room and are asked to react as if they were receiving the information in a real visit.

“I remember, you open the patient’s folder, and you kind of see all the patient’s labs ... and we weren’t told ahead of time what the patient had, we just knew that it was going to be bad news,” Ashley Bonamer, a fourth-year medical student, said. “You get that first emotional flood of like, ‘I have all this information and they don’t know any of it.’ You have to walk in the room, and you don’t want to look sad, but you’re nervous now, so you have to figure out where you want to go with it in a short amount of time."

W

STUDENT SELECTION

ithin a medical student’s first two months of schooling at HCOM, they are already interacting with standardized patients at OU, while many other medical schools don’t offer that kind of clinical experience until later in their training, Jill Harman, senior director of admissions and recruitment at HCOM, said.

“We train outstanding physicians that have great communication skills, that are culturally competent and that make a difference in their community,” Dr. John Schriner, associate dean of admissions of student affairs and an assistant

professor of social medicine, said. “It’s fun to be a big player in that process.”

During the application and interview process of being accepted into HCOM, a student's communication skills — both verbal and nonverbal communication — are taken into account, Schriner said.

“The curriculum really requires that you be a good communicator because it’s a engaged and very dynamic learning environment here,” Schriner, an alumnus of OU, said.

K

REAL EXPERIENCES

ish was one of 12.7 million people who are diagnosed with cancer every year, according to The Huffington Post. The American Cancer Society estimated that in 2016, 1,685,210 new cases of cancer were discovered in the U.S. Kish has been in remission for the last eight years after her surgeries followed by chemotherapy.

The mother of three said she was fortunate to have the doctors and healthcare professionals by her side through the process along with a large group of friends and family making up her support system. Her friends and family rallied around her and even started an organization called Chix 4 a Cure and honored Kish as their first walk fundraiser nominee.

Despite the extensive efforts of HCOM, there is always more that can be done to better a student’s communication for their future patients, Thompson said. She suggests using feedback from people like Kish who have lived through the experience from a patient’s perspective. Thompson also encourages increasing the number of labs in which students are required to participate.

Rhue emphasizes to her students the effects such news will have on a patient because not only do they have to deal with the initial shock of the news, but the patient has to break the same news to their families. Kish agreed and said the most difficult part of hearing the news was telling her children. “(My kids) were very confused. I have a daughter, and she was 11 at the time, and so you’re thinking, ‘If I have the gene, am I going to pass it down to her?’ ” Kish said. “And trying to explain to them that I’m going to be OK.” Upon coming out of her initial surgery, Kish was told the cancer had not spread to her lymph nodes. She decided to go through chemotherapy anyway to reduce the likelihood of the cancer coming back.

“If I could give any advice to anybody who has to tell somebody this; put yourself in their shoes, or in a family member’s shoes and know that this is one of the scariest times of their life,” Kish said. “They’re scared to death, and they need to hear reassurance.”

@_JJOHNSTON JJ940914@OHIO.EDU

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the weekender Bagel Street to host annual Pickle Fest eating competition Pickle Fest will take place this Friday, and donations will go to the winner’s charity of choice Travis “T-Starr” Starr, right, Daniel “the Maniel” Schumacher, center, and Danielle Myers, left, compete in Bagel Street Deli’s annual Pickle Fest on March 18, 2016. Starr said “I put the sunglasses on so I can’t see my fear of the pickles.” The overall winner was Keaton Vagedes, who ate eight pickles. (PATRICK CONNOLLY / FILE)

LYNANNE VUCOVICH FOR THE POST

O

hio University has been known for its Spring Semester fests, but Bagel Street Deli’s Pickle Fest might be the wildest of them all.

Pickle Fest is an eating contest at Bagel Street Deli that will take place March 24 starting at 4 p.m. There are multiple rounds for contenders and the goal is to eat as many pickles as possible in ten minutes, without vomiting. Competitors must pay a $5 entry fee.

The winner of Pickle Fest will donate the proceeds of the day

22 / MARCH 23, 2017

to the charity of their choice, receive a t-shirt and create a bagel sandwich to go on the Bagel Street menu. Bagel Street will match the total amount of entry fees before donating the money to charity. “(Pickle Fest is) about shoving as many giant pickles in your mouth as you can in ten minutes — it’s about not making relish,” Lori Linnevers, a manager at Bagel Street Deli, said.

Linnevers described Pickle Fest as gross and definitely fun.

“It’s a crazy, disgusting eating contest,” Linnevers said.

Alyssa Lions, an employee at Bagel Street, said her favorite part of Pickle Fest is getting to

count for the competitors.

“We count for the person eating the pickles while the MC yells out the numbers and (we watch) people try to eat these huge dill pickles and fail,” Lions, a junior studying news and information, said.

Lions said that the pickles are really salty, and that makes them difficult to eat. By the third pickle, many say they can’t go on.

“It’s a lot of vinegar in your system in a short amount of time,” Linnevers said.

This will be close to Linnevers’ 15th Pickle Fest, and she has seen lots of craziness at the contest.

IF YOU GO WHAT: Bagel Street Deli’s Pickle Fest WHEN: 4 p.m., Friday WHERE: Bagel Street Deli, 27 S. Court St. ADMISSION: $5 for competitors “The grossest thing I’ve seen was two years ago and he projectile vomited all over (those counting for him). I’ll never for-

get it,” Linnevers said.

If a contestant throws up during the contest, they are disqualified. Linnevers said someone has gone the extra mile to stay in the competition.

“There was a girl, and she took the bucket that she puked in and started eating the puke out of the bucket,” Linnevers said. “We couldn’t believe that she did it, but it really happened.”

Lions said Pickle Fest will be just as fun as Congo Fest.

“Just come out and do it, it’s really fun,” Lions said.

@LYNANNECLAIRE LV586814@OHIO.EDU

WHAT’S GOING ON? ALEX MCCANN FOR THE POST

Friday Yemen: A Journey to Arabia Felix presentation 5 p.m. at Baker Center, Room 231. The OU Muslim Student Association will host its fifth presentation about Muslim diversity and the Middle East. Yemeni food will be available.

Admission: Free.

Indian Tampura and Restorative Yoga 5:30 p.m. at Bodhi Tree Guesthouse & Studio, 8950 Lavelle Road. The local yoga studio will host a spring-themed flow yoga class, accompanied by live music. Admission: donation.

The Crooked Spines, Gaptooth Grin and The Sloanes 9 p.m. at Casa Nueva, 6 W. State St. Three Athens-based bands will rock Casa Nueva: psychedelic rock fourpiece The Crooked Spines, indie group Gaptooth Grin and grunge band The Sloanes. Admission: free; food & drinks for sale.

Rockstead, Caution Step, Comisar and Mild Movements 9 p.m. at The Ranch, 87 1/2 W. State St. Four musical acts will perform at The Ranch on Friday. The headliner, Rockstead, is a reggaerock fusion band from Cincinnati.

Athens-based group Caution Step and Cincinnati funk act Comisar will perform, plus electronic musician Mild Movements, the stage name of Tyler Blanck, an Ohio University senior studying music production. Admission: free.

Mobile Home with Mr. Phylzzz 9 p.m. at The Union Bar & Grill, 18 W. Union St. Columbus-based band Mobile Home will bring its garage country music to The Union on Friday night. Lo-fi rock duo Mr. Phylzzz will open the show. Admission: $5.

Relay For Life Glow Run 5K 11 p.m. at Walter Fieldhouse. Relay For Life of Greater Athens will host its fifth Annual Glow Run 5K. The first 50 participants will receive free glow sticks, glow bracelets and glow necklaces. Registration opens at 10 p.m. at Walter Fieldhouse, and the race will take place on the bike path. Admission: $20 in advance, $25 day of.

Saturday Community SafeZone Training 9:30 a.m. at Athens Public Library, 30 Home St. The OU LGBT Center will host a three-hour workshop that will help attendees to better understand sexual and gender identities and to learn how to be an ally to LGBTQ people. Admission: free.

9th Annual 5cacia 10:30 a.m. at TailGreat Park. 5cacia, hosted by OU’s chapter of the Acacia social fraternity, is the ninth iteration of the 5K run to benefit pancreatic cancer research. Admission: $17 in advance, $20 day of.

Girl Scout Cookie Pairing 2 p.m. at Devil’s Kettle Brewing, 97 Columbus Rd. Local craft microbrewery Devil’s Kettle Brewing will host a pairing event Saturday. Attendees will receive five kinds of Girl Scout cookies and five corresponding beers.

Admission: TBD Nowruz 6 p.m. at Walter Rotunda.

The OU Iranian Students Society will host a celebration of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. The night is set to be filled with Persian food, music and cultural learning.

Admission: $10.

Relay for Life participants take an honorary first lap around the track in Walter Fieldhouse on March 20, 2015. The fifth annual Relay For Life Glow Run will start at Walter Fieldhouse at 11 p.m. on the bike path. (ALEX DRIEHAUS / FILE)

3rd Annual White and Blue Ball 7 p.m. at the Ohio University Inn, 331 Richland Ave. OU’s chapter of Tau Beta Sigma, the co-educational music service sorority, will host its third annual White and Blue Ball. The event will feature live dancing, jazz music, appetizers and a silent auction.

Admission: $17, $30 for a couple.

Black Sheep Improv Alumni Show 8 p.m. at Galbreath Chapel.

Local comedy group Black Sheep Improv will host a comedy show featuring alumni of the group.

Admission: free.

The Picardy Thirds 8 p.m. at Donkey Coffee & Espresso, 17 1/2 W. Washington St. A cappella group The Picardy Thirds will perform at Donkey Coffee & Espresso on Saturday night. Admission: $3.

Bummers, Speaking Suns and The Bozniak 9 p.m. at The Union Bar & Grill, 18 W. Union St. Columbus-based alternative band Bummers will rock out at The Union on Saturday.

Joining the group will be dream pop five-piece Speaking Suns and one-man rock act The Bozniak.

Admission: $5.

Sunday Kids Day at Little Fish 2 p.m. at Little Fish Brewing Company, 8675 Armitage Road.

Kite and paper airplane building, bird watching, nature walks and free juice and ginger ale will all be on offer for kids at Little Fish Brewing Company on Sunday afternoon. The Cajun Clucker food truck will be present if the children — or parents — get hungry.

Admission: free.

Stop Barking Training Session 2 p.m. at Friendly Paws Pet Supplies & Grooming. Owners of ill-behaved pooches — want to learn why dogs bark at squirrels, other dogs, fire truck sirens or just plain nothing? Wonder no more.

JoAnna Sidote, an animal trainer with over 20 years of experience and an OU alumna, will teach dog families why dogs bark and how to prevent it when it becomes a nuisance. Admission: free. @ALEXMCCANN21 AM622914@OHIO.EDU

THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 23

E.W. SCRIPPS SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM SCHOOL OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION

present

03.28-29

2017 SCHUNEMAN SYMPOSIUM ON PHOTOJOURNALISM & NEW MEDIA

BAKER CENTER THEATRE

CHALLENGING LANDSCAPES TUESDAY 28 / BAKER THEATRE RICHARD OLSENIUS / Balancing Creativity in a Changing Digital Landscape / 9:00 KAITLIN YARNALL / Excellence in Visual Storytelling at National Geographic / 10:30 AM EVGENIA ARBUGAEVA / Arctic Stories / 01:30 PM PETE SOUZA / Behind the Scenes with President Obama / 03:00 PM

WEDNESDAY 29 / BAKER THEATRE WILBERT L. COOPER / No Limit Storytelling / 09:40 AM WESLEY LOWERY / They Can’t Kill Us All / 10:45 AM DANIELLE KILGO / Police Brutality, Social Unrest and Visual Journalism / 2:00 PM WILBERT L. COOPER, WESLEY LOWERY & DANIELLE KILGO / Panel Discussion / 3:05 PM ROBERT PADAVICK / Pushing Boundaries with VR Storytelling / 4:10 PM

scrippsjschool.org/symposium/2017/

2017

CHRISTINE OLSENIUS / Balancing Creativity in a Changing Digital Landscape / 9:00 AM

THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 24