UAFS Bell Tower - Fall 2015 by University of Arkansas - Fort Smith

Bell Tower

fall/winter 2015

The Alumni Magazine of the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith

ART Windgate Art & Design Opens

MATTERS 8 Ink in Her Veins / 15 The Next Challenge / 22 Words to Live By / 28 Class Notes

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rachel putman

Pizza, music and finals survival packs drew students to the new amphitheater at the end of the spring semester for Finals Countdown. The amphitheater, located between Boreham Library and the Fullerton Administration Building, has become the place for students to bask in the sun and professors to teach classes outdoors.

CoveR illustration

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by Laura Wattles

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IN THIS ISSUE FALL/WINTER 2015

volume 6, number 2

FROM THE CHANCELLOR Let’s Celebrate

GRAND + WALDRON first master’s degree offered | still rocking | ‘an interesting time’ | the joy of reading | an $11 million deal

5Q ‘Devouring Culture’: Jennifer Martin, ‘11

KNOWLEDGE BASE Savings Plan

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITY Arthur Wendorf II, Instructor/Gamer

SENSE OF PLACE Campus Green

LIONS LOWDOWN the next challenge | golden | give me an A

Andrew Haught

features 16

CHAMPIONING ART: WINDGATE ART & DESIGN OPENS The opening of the Windgate Art & Design building signals the first move into making the 20-year master plan a reality. by Jennifer Sicking

WORDS TO LIVE BY Maureen Didion, ‘11, keeps two quotes close to her – one framed and the other as a bookmark. Both have inspired and challenged her as she pursued a well-lived life. by Jennifer Sicking

Maureen Didion

Chris and Lolly Swicegood

UAFS BELL TOWER

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From the Chancellor

Bell Tower

Fall/Winter 2015 Volume 6, Number 2 The University of Arkansas – Fort Smith

CHANCELLOR Paul B. Beran, Ph.D.

VICE CHANCELLOR FOR UNIVERSITY ADVANCEMENT Mary Bane Lackie, Ed.D.

CONTRIBUTORS Jennifer Sicking, John Post, Jonathan Gipson, Laura Wattles

PHOTOGRAPHERS Rachel Putman, Jennifer Sicking, Tilisa Anderson

ART DIRECTOR John Sizing www.jspublicationdesign.com RACHEL PUTMAN

Let’s Celebrate

BELL TOWER fall/winter 2015

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the building. It’s not too late to give. Contact the UAFS Foundation for details. Just down Kinkead Avenue from the Windgate building, work continues to transform a parking lot into the new Recreation and Wellness Center. Students approved a fee increase to pay for this needed addition to our campus. Workouts begin there next fall. Now alumni are helping others to experience a UAFS education. With the recently founded Alumni Legacy Scholarship we want to help more of your children, spouses and parents join our growing pride of alumni. We hope that you’ll pay it forward by contributing to the Alumni Legacy Scholarship and that you will encourage your loved ones to become UAFS Lions. With Lion Pride,

BELL TOWER is published semi-annually by the University of Arkansas

–

Fort

Smith Alumni

Association, P.O. Box 3649, Fort Smith, AR 72913,

WE HAVE MUCH TO CELEBRATE this fall as we begin our 88th year of educating students. In May, 849 students graduated and joined your ranks as alumni. That was a record number for us, and it represents a 30 percent increase from 2014. In the future, we’ll be making way for a new level of graduates as our university has grown into a master’s granting institution. We began offering our first master’s degree in healthcare administration this fall. We will continue to add graduate degrees to meet the needs of the greater Fort Smith region. As you can see from the cover of this issue in your hands, we opened the Windgate Art & Design building. Now our visual art programs are gathered into one building instead of being scattered across campus. We are thankful for the Windgate Charitable Foundation’s generosity in giving the $15.5 million gift that funded this building. We also appreciate the many people who are giving to help us meet Windgate’s challenge of raising $2.5 million to establish an endowment for

ADVISORY BOARD Dr. Paul B. Beran, Chancellor Dr. Georgia Hale, Provost Dr. Mary Bane Lackie, Vice Chancellor for University Advancement Dr. Lee Krehbiel, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Dr. Dustin Smith, Athletic Director Rick Goins, Director of the Alumni Association

for alumni, friends, and faculty of the University.

Tel: (877) 303-8237. Email: belltower@uafs.edu. Web: www.uafsalumni.com.

SEND ADDRESS CHANGES, requests to receive Bell Tower, and requests to be removed from the

mailing list to alumni@uafs.edu or UAFS Alumni Association, P.O. Box 3649, Fort Smith, AR 72913.

LETTERS ARE WELCOME, but the Publisher reserves the right to edit letters for length and

content. Space constraints may prevent publication

of all letters. Anonymous letters will not be published.

Send letters to belltower@uafs.edu or Bell Tower Magazine, P.O. Box 3649, Fort Smith, AR 72913.

Views and opinions expressed in Bell Tower do not

necessarily reflect those of the magazine staff or advisory board nor of the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith.

PAUL BERAN UAFS CHANCELLOR, Ph.D.

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Grand+Waldron campus news and notes

points of pride

First Master’s Degree Offered Thirteen years after becoming the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith, the institution has continued its evolution by offering its first master’s degree program. The Higher Learning Commission approved the university’s master of science in healthcare administration degree when it reaffirmed the university’s accreditation for 10 years. Chancellor Paul Beran called the degree a landmark achievement for the institution. “The change “In just over a decade, UAFS has moved from a newly formed in our role four-year institution to a master’s degree-granting university that continues to provide quality education focused on creating workand scope is a ready graduates,” Beran said. “The HLC approval for this master’s game-changing degree is the culmination of a vision that began five years ago and opportunity for was made a reality through the hard work of the university’s administration, faculty and staff.” UAFS to expand The commission’s approval was the final step in a process its educational that began five years before. In 2010, local hospital administrators offerings to all urged the university to consider the degree due to a shortage of trained healthcare administrators. The university surveyed local residents who hospitals and found that 71 percent of respondents would have the university positions for graduates. serves.” “As the local regional university responding to our area businesses, we work to assess and respond to their needs,” Beran —Paul Beran said. “That mindset caused us to pursue the master of science in UAFS Chancellor healthcare administration, and we will continue to work with local businesses to connect education with careers as the university grows.” In May 2013, the University of Arkansas System’s Board of Trustees approved UAFS to enlarge its role and scope and begin the approval process for master’s degree programs; in October 2014, the Arkansas Department of Higher Education approved the master of science in healthcare administration. Finally, the Higher Learning Commission changed the UAFS status to a master’s level institution. “The change in our role and scope is a game-changing opportunity for UAFS to expand its educational offerings to all residents who the university serves,” Beran said. The program’s first cohort started this fall.

”

Charles Preston, ’72, a wildlife ecologist studying sagebrush-steppe ecology and golden eagles, spoke to students during the 2015 UAFS Research Symposium. He is the senior and founding curator-in-charge of the Draper Museum of Natural History at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

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By winning all three areas, students in the radiography program swept the Arkansas Society of Radiologic Technologists competition. The students won in essays and research papers, exhibits and the Quiz Bowl competition. Bestowed with 19 top awards from the Arkansas Phi Beta Lambda State Leadership Conference, 11 members of the UAFS Phi Beta Lambda chapter earned the right to represent the university at the national conference during the summer. Selected for the Scholarly Achievement Award during the Humanities Education Research Society’s annual conference, Stephen Husarik, music and humanities professor, said the award validates the university’s humanities curriculum. Husarik published a textbook “Humanities Across the Arts” in 2014 and presented a workshop on how to incorporate the textbook in the classroom during this year’s conference. Husarik receives no royalties from the book; they are used to offset the book’s cost for students.

“

“An explorer is one who goes out to solve a mystery and with every mystery uncovers more mysteries. That’s what a researcher does.”

Selected for two awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education in District IV, Wanda Freeman, editor, and Rachel Putman, photographer, represented the UAFS Marketing and Communications Office. Freeman earned an honorable mention for her story “Diving Deep” about alumnus Michael Berumen, which was in the spring 2014 issue of the Bell Tower magazine. Putman won a silver award for her photograph of the Lady Lions volleyball players after they won the Heartland Conference Championship.

Published in Complex Variables and Elliptic Equations: An International Journal, Jeanine Myers, assistant professor of mathematics, co-authored a paper titled “Taylor Series of Conformal Mappings onto Symmetric Quadrilaterals.”

Awarded the Outstanding Fraternity/Sorority Advisor of the southeast region of the Phi Kappa Phi Fraternity, Logan Davis, Greek life coordinator, was recognized for exceptional support of the fraternity or sorority and making an impact in the local community. Selected by the Higher Learning Commission, Fnu Mihir, director of institutional effectiveness, will serve as a mentor/data coach for the Persistence and Completion Academy. As a coach, he will help other

(continued on page 5)

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Grand+Waldron

Cole Sullivan, a 1st Bank Corp Scholarship recipient, meets with ArcBest Corp CEO Judy McReynolds.

Rachel Putman

“I’m 54 years old, and a 54 year-old’s perspective on life is different from a 24 yearold’s,” said Hanna. Cole Sullivan, ‘15, was surprised at discovering his mentor would be Judy McReynolds, CEO of ArcBest Corp. “ArcBest is a big employer down here, and to be able to sit down with her, it was just kind of unreal,” Sullivan said. After securing a position with ABF Freight, Sullivan has decided to stay in Fort Smith. “This feels right, and I think it’s a combination of my experiences at UAFS that have really molded that idea of Fort Smith for me,” he said. —John Post

Forging Relationships Casey Millspaugh, ’11, found his life changed by a business card during his senior year. That year, Bill Hanna, president of Hanna Oil and Gas, spoke during one of Millspaugh’s classes. He left business cards and told the students to call him if they ever needed anything. Millspaugh did. The two of them began to meet, initially for Millspaugh to have a mentor in the business world, but conversations soon grew to span their professional and personal lives. That experience provided Millspaugh with the answer for a problem he wrestled with three years later. Now an account executive at UPS, he watched many of his

Rachel Putman

Cole Sullivan meets with ArcBest Corp CEO Judy McReynolds as a part of the Mentor Connections program.

friends leave the area for job opportunities. But Millspaugh thought those opportunities were available in Fort Smith. Then Millspaugh found a connection. The bond he had with Hanna was unique, but what if it didn’t have to be? Millspaugh went to Rick Goins, alumni director at UAFS, with an idea to pair business leaders with university students to strengthen the bond between UAFS students and Fort Smith. They decided to add recent alumni to the team, to mentor and be mentored. So began the Mentor Connections program. “It’s to help them understand what it’s going to take to transition from school to the real world,” Goins said. “We hope to build self-confidence in these students, and what I foresee five years down the road is that we’re going to have a substantial number of wellconnected and engaged alumni.” The alumni office launched the program in the fall 2014 with 15 mentors and mentees who met once a month. Their conversations ranged from the professional to the personal. For the 2015-16 year, 34 students signed up for mentors. The mentorship has been eye-opening for the mentors and the students.

The Joy of Reading Amy Tan signed books and posters after speaking about “The Joy Luck Club” as part of the university’s ReadThis! program. Tan spoke about the intersection between her life and the lives of the characters portrayed in her bestselling novel. “What’s true about what I write in my stories, which may draw a great deal from my life, is that they’re the truth about human nature and the human condition,” Tan said. For the spring of 2016 ReadThis! program, the university and Fort Smith community will read N. Scott Momaday’s “House Made of Dawn.”

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^ points of pride

(continued on page 3)

SNAPSHOT Giving Back

institutions to effectively collect and evaluate data on student persistence and completion.

Charles Foster Jr.

LEGACY

TILISA ANDERSON

Charles Foster Jr. spent part of his senior year interning with the Donald W. Reynolds Cancer Support House and urging fellow students to get involved with the We Care Foundation, which provides assistance for children suffering from cancer, hemophilia and sickle cell anemia. “I like to help others out,” he said. “So many opportunities were given to me and I’d like to give back. I want to give help I received back to others, one way or another.”

Invited to present his paper “Laos, Entrepreneurship and SME Development Towards ASEAN Economic Integration,” Balbir Bhasin, the Ross Pendergraft Professor of International Business, attended the Southeast Asian Studies Symposium at Sunway University in Malaysia.

Chosen to present “Public Pedagogy of a Victorian Brothel: An Informal Learning Case Study,” Shelli Henehan, director of the early childhood pre-school program, and Micki Voekel, associate professor of computer technology, attended the Adult Higher Education Alliance’s national conference to discuss their findings on the informal learning of visitors and docents at Fort Smith’s Miss Laura’s Social Club, a restored Victorian brothel, as they reflected on gender roles and sexual politics in the 1890s and today.

SCHOLARSHIP Help support future generations of Lions through a gift to the Alumni Legacy Scholarship.

uafsalumni.com/scholarship

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Grand+Waldron

Secret’s Out: STEM has 80 percent acceptance rate to medical school Argie Nichols talks with Steven McKay, a senior paralegal major, who is relaxing in Rollie Boreham’s former rocking chair.

Still Rocking After the construction of the Baldor Technology Building in 2000, Roland “Rollie” Boreham Jr. would seek respite in the building named for the company in which he had risen from sales manager to chairman of the board. The author of “The Three Legged Stool” would sit in his second-floor office and write. At times, he would sit in a wicker rocking chair, contemplatively swaying forward and back. “He said it seemed to help him write better,” said Argie Nichols, computer graphic technology department head. The rocking chair stilled when Boreham died in early 2006 and the university locked his office. A year later, in need of space, university officials planned to move his furniture to storage. Nichols, who was moving into a storage room converted into an office, said she would use the furniture, including the rocking chair. In the years since, Nichols has rocked a baby as her mother attended classes. She’s listened as students rocked and unburdened their hearts of family illnesses and the possibility of dropping out of school. In May, faculty and staff members sought comfort in the rocking chair as they mourned the death of Lynn Lisk, head of the paralegal department. “There seems to be a common sense of peace,” Nichols said. “Mr. Boreham didn’t have a clue what he was leaving. To him it was a chair, but we’re still rocking.” In addition to personally supporting the Baldor building with a $1 million gift, the library bears Boreham’s name thanks to another $1 million endowed gift that enables the library to buy books and equipment. Nichols said Boreham’s gifts, including the rocker, have left a lasting legacy at the university. “I’m sure he never had a thought in his mind that the chair would continue on,” Nichols said.

Student Interns at D.C. Organization

Tidwell learned about the opportunity during an auditing standards class trip to Washington, D.C., in May 2014. Students visited the board and learned about internship opportunities. Tidwell stayed in contact with a representative at the board, emailing her resume. “I tried to keep in contact to let her know how serious I was about the internship,” she said. The internship gave Tidwell a chance

to apply what she’s learned in her classes as a double major in accounting and business administration. “Because of that, I know exactly what I’m looking for when we research companies and dig into their financial statements,” she said. Tidwell said the internship also helped her in other ways. “I’m also making great connections with amazing people who could help me in the future,” she said. — John Post

courtesy

Siedra Tidwell first visited Washington, D.C., with a Maymester class, but she parlayed that into a semester-long internship there with an auditing organization. Tidwell, now a senior, interned at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, a nonprofit corporation overseeing the auditing of public companies across the United States. Tidwell researched and pinpointed companies that have potential accounting issues.

Rachel Putman

Seven recent UAFS graduates have been accepted to medical school. Five students who graduated in May 2015, one who graduated in December 2014 and one who graduated in May 2014 were the university’s most recent graduates to take the next step to become medical doctors. Jim Belcher, former interm dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, said the college has an 80 percent acceptance rate by its pre-professional students into medical school. The one-on-one mentoring students receive from faculty makes the difference, he said. “Every faculty member in this place knows those students,” he said. “Here we know students individually so it’s much easier to write letters of recommendation.” Beyond those important letters, students have opportunities with job shadowing and volunteering on campus and in the community while earning good grades. “We are the best kept secret in the state,” Belcher said.

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Grand+Waldron

An $11 Million Deal

Construction begins on Recreation and Wellness Center imposed fee of $5 per semester credit hour to fund the facility’s construction. But when SGA brought the proposal to the University of Arkansas System Board of Trustees, the board requested a more broadbased demonstration of support for the facility. SGA held a special election for students to vote on the fee, and with 25 percent voter turnout, it passed. The students returned to the UA System Board of Trustees in March 2014, and the board questioned the students about the building’s necessity. “After the students answered some tough questions, the board passed their proposal,” Beran said. “And when we stepped into the hallway afterwards, I told them ‘Congratulations. You just brokered your first $11 million deal.’” The university plans to open the facility in the fall of 2016.

Rachel Putman

The effort to create a new fitness center on the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith campus began in 2013 with a group of students wanting a change. Those efforts took the next step with an April 15 groundbreaking for the Recreation and Wellness Center. Construction began this summer on the student-initiated and student-approved facility, which is located at the corner of Kinkead Avenue and North 51st Street. The 47,000-square-foot center will feature a rock climbing wall, two basketball courts, four volleyball courts and additional multipurpose space. Chancellor Paul Beran recounted the story of the center’s conception during the ceremony. The university’s Student Government Association spearheaded the initiative to build the new wellness center in 2013, passing a resolution in support of a self-

A backhoe breaks through the former parking lot to dig down for the foundation of the new Recreation and Wellness Center.

An Interesting Time Andrew Haught summer internship: “formative”

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Andrew Haught spent his summer in Washington, D.C., working for U.S. Rep. Steve Womack’s office as the 2015 John Paul Hammerschmidt Fellow. Haught handled constituent relations, gave tours

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and attended staff briefings. Haught, a junior from Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and a Chancellor’s Leadership Council Scholarship recipient, plans to pursue a career in economics. He had been searching for a path that would fuse his passion for economics with his interpersonal skills. While attending an event with Womack, Haught met a healthcare organization’s advocate. After talking with him, Haught realized working as a financial policy advocate would be the perfect avenue. “Financial policy relations would give me a way to marry my love of finance with my people skills,” Haught said. “I thought I would have to give up one to have the other, but that conversation showed me an opportunity to leverage both.” The internship gave Haught a behindthe-scenes look at legislation and changes in financial policy.

“Getting to see how legislation is crafted was hugely beneficial. With finance, the rules are always changing, and to see where those changes stem from and how financial institutions adapt to those changes will give me a huge advantage over other people in my field,” Haught said. Realizing what he wanted to do was just one experience Haught had during the summer. Escorted by Womack, he looked out from Speaker of the House John Boehner’s private balcony in the Capitol building. Following the Supreme Court’s decision on marriage equality, he witnessed the running of the interns, when news interns sprint to their respective reporters to relay hard copies of the court’s rulings since the court doesn’t allow cameras inside the courtroom. “It was a really interesting time to be there,” Haught said. —John Post UAFS bell tower

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Grand+Waldron

Ink in Her Veins

Labuda Finds Passion for Letterpress

opened the book, there was another inside it, and then another inside that one. It was like a set of Russian dolls.” Harper and Labuda were both, as Harper put it, “bit by the bug.” Harper made her first book with a letterpress in a printmaking class as an undergraduate at the San Francisco Art Institute. “I can understand what Lois

rach el pu tm an

Underground Ink, the letterpress studio, has moved into the new Windgate Art & Design building.

rachel putman

courtesy

Every morning, Lois Labuda walks into Rise and Shine Paper in Alexandria, Louisiana, and begins the complex process of fine printing. On most days, she starts by oiling the letterpress before mixing ink by hand and cutting paper to the appropriate dimensions. She makes the polymer plates — which contain the image and lettering that will be printed to the page — applies the ink to the press, then loads the paper and manually prints each sheet. The printing is the final step in an even longer preparation process. And it’s all to print text and images on a page, a task that many see as easy as clicking a button on a computer. But fine printing is far more than words on a sheet of paper. It’s an art, and one that Labuda fell in love with while a student at the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith. Labuda started college as a graphic design major, and while she enjoyed the creative aspect of the work, she craved something that would allow her to work with her hands. In Labuda’s junior year, she learned about Underground Ink, a letterpress and book arts studio run by Katie Harper, associate professor of design at UAFS. Labuda enrolled in the introductory fine printing and bookmaking course. In it, she found her passion as well as the techniques of old world printing methods. “You use more of your senses,” Labuda said. “With letterpress, there’s more texture — you can smell and feel versus just web design and working on the computer.” After seeing Labuda’s potential, Harper hired her as an assistant. “She would explore all kinds of forms,” Harper said. “One project she made was a book within a book. So that when you

felt when she first started,” Harper said. “It’s like we have ink in our blood and didn’t even know it was there.” From there, Harper pursued a career in the field, eventually coming to UAFS in 2008 and opening Underground Ink. “Fine printing is like any other art form. It takes years to master, so one or two classes is often not enough training for graduates to start their own print shop. Working in a shop is the best way to gain important skills and experience,” Harper said. “Letterpress is a growing field, with print shops cropping up all over the world. Still, it’s not an easy field to break into because competition for jobs is very tough. But Lois was bound and determined to find a job doing this.” Following graduation, Labuda joined an online community of printers and asked how to find a job in the field, which elicited a response from the owner of Rise and Shine Paper. She now works as a master printer. “At first, when I saw Katie doing this, I didn’t think it could be a career, but the more I talked to her about it, the more she encouraged me to pursue a job in this field,” Labuda said. “I couldn’t have done it without all my professors, but I wouldn’t be where I was today without her.” —John Post

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walter wright

Q 5

walter wright

‘Devouring Culture’: Jennifer Martin, ‘11 Jennifer Martin, ’11, had a degree in journalism and a master in business administration when she decided to take classes for fun at UAFS. Class led to class and then to a new career: English professor. While earning her master’s in English, Martin returned to UAFS to teach. Now she studies for her

What was the genesis for the book?

Cammie Sublette is the most brilliant and gifted scholar I know. Initially, while I was a student, she invited me to write a conference presentation with her on food studies. We were accepted at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association’s (PCA/ACA) National Conference. We went on to publish a journal article that expanded the research. At a subsequent PCA/ACA conference, a publisher approached me. That reopened Cammie’s and my discussion of compiling an edited collection.

What did you learn from the book?

It’s funny, because it’s something I stress in the classes I teach, but the key word for the book has been revision. I was naïve enough to believe that when we pressed the submit button on the manuscript the first time we were finished. We had already extensively edited the collection. Well, it doesn’t work that way. Our book manuscript was peer reviewed. Once we had readers’ comments, we worked on revising the text. However, the suggested revisions really

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doctorate and teaches at the University of South Carolina. Martin and Cammie Sublette, English department chair, co-edited the book of collected essays titled “Devouring Culture: Perspectives on Food, Power and Identity from the Zombie Apocalypse to Downton Abbey.”

strengthened the manuscript – just like I tell my students it will help their work.

How do food, power and identity intersect in popular culture?

We all assume some sort of identity. For instance, in the course of a day, I play the role of student, instructor, mother and friend. As a mother, I use food as an extension of myself to love and nurture my children. As a student, food becomes the basis of social interaction. As an instructor, I might use food as a reward. As a friend, food preparation is a place of creativity and social interaction. We also use food to identify our social position and to test other positions. For instance, our manners and outward appearance change dramatically between a meal at McDonald’s and one at Ruth’s Chris Steak House.

Why is it important to study pop culture?

Popular culture is a means to examine identity. Just as examining art or literature can reveal ideologies of a culture, so can “reading” popular culture. For instance, I have

become interested in the “Mommy Wars” taking place in blogs. I believe analyzing this rhetoric can help reveal the insecurities that women are expressing about their positions as mothers. If we can address these insecurities, then we can work toward unity with empowering actions and rhetoric that will support all women and replace the divisiveness that is commonplace in our society.

Why has Downton Abbey impacted viewers as it has?

I have a very dirty secret to reveal at this juncture. I do not watch television. When I say I don’t watch TV, I mean that I haven’t turned on a TV in at least 15 years. As a mom and full-time student, there is just not enough time to sacrifice to the television. An expert in that field, Lindsy Lawrence [UAFS associate professor of English], authored that particular chapter. My concern as the editor of the collection was contributing my own chapter in an area where I am an expert and co-writing the introduction to weave the chapters together for a unified whole.

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Knowledge Base

rachel putman

As the account holder, they pay student depositors interest and also sponsor an annual employee-customer celebration lunch. In 2014, the bank’s first year, 60 students socked away dollars in the bank. In 2015, the number of depositors grew to 80. Settlage’s oldest daughter was part of the founding staff of the Beard Lighthouse Bank, which is modeled after a similar program at Euper Lane Elementary. Her younger daughter also attends Beard. Settlage became involved at the request of Pam Siebenmorgan, Beard’s principal, who wanted to start a financial literacy program. “It is important that kids Fourth grader Emily King makes a deposit with realize you do not get instant Ethne Hester, sixth grader and the bank’s operations gratification in life and that team leader, while Latisha Settlage observes. at times you need to save and work for something that you need or want,” Siebenmorgan. The lesson seems to have taken. Several students have saved more than $100, and many make deposits each week that the bank is open. When students leave Beard for junior Settlage, UAFS chair of the department of high school, they take their money with accounting, economics and finances. them. They can withdraw their money Settlage oversees the school’s bank projbefore that, but most do not. ect, which she describes as a microsavings “Some depositors withdraw money over program. the summer or at Christmas break – for a “Savings is the key to changing our relireason,” Settlage said. “To know that we are ance on debt as a country,” she said. “One establishing a habit of saving makes me feel way we can create change is through the good.” habits we establish as young people.” It’s a project changing future families Students manage the bank, work as one child at a time. tellers, market it to other students and act as “I want to change outcomes. I want to security guards. They must apply and intermake a difference,” Settlage said. “I think view for the positions. Centennial Bank, a this project does that.” Partner in Education, sponsors the project.

Savings Plan

Settlage helps elementary students save At 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, sixth grade students sporting Beard Lighthouse Bank T-shirts settle into chairs behind their bank boxes and tally sheets. They are open for business. Until 8 a.m. these students set up a bank on the stage of Fort Smith’s Beard Elementary School cafeteria taking in deposits of $1, $2 or more from other students. At the end of the banking morning, they will count the money and balance their boxes. “They don’t leave until it does (balance), and anyone who makes a mistake understands what happened,” said Latisha

To help children establish positive money habits:

• Teach children about money, the differ-

ent coins and their amounts. Then use the money to teach basic math. Create a path, such as with allowance,

•

so children can save often.

• Give the children a piggy bank into

which they can collect money. Let them count their savings.

• When the children receive money for

chores, allowance or gifts, have them save a portion.

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extracurricular activity

Arthur Wendorf II, Instructor/Gamer

“

Arthur Wendorf demonstrates “¡Taco!,” the game that he created.

”

rachel putman

“It’s difficult to know what you’re doing wrong in class,” he said. “In a video game, you know immediately whether you’re wrong because you fall down a hole or you get shot,” he said. Effective video games must find the balance between good design and programming along with the art of teaching. The best examples of successful educational games are “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” and “The Oregon Trail.” For Wendorf, mixing education with building video games is a natural progression of his interests. He grew up enjoying playing games and after a programming class in high school began building games. “I’ve always been a gamer so the idea of building my own game was very enticing,” he said. Throughout his education, Wendorf said he has been lucky to have mentors and professors who encouraged him to combine his two passions. Now, his students benefit. Since “¡Taco!” he’s developed two additional games: “Aniquilador,” a vocabulary game, and “Vistas Verb Conjugation,” which teaches what its name states. “Students know they are going to get an assignment,” he said. “They would rather play a video game than get a worksheet.”

ow often does a person ask for carrots? In Arthur Wendorf’s video game “¡Taco!,” it’s needed surprisingly often and the player better know zanahoria. Wendorf moves his students beyond flashcards and worksheets in his beginning-level Spanish classes. They play video games that he created. In those games, he incorporates vocabulary not commonly used in conversation. “When you play them you become immersed in an environment, whether you’re fighting dragons or cooking in a restaurant,” he said. “Research has shown you learn when you are immersed, and research has also shown that video games provide that feeling.” Wendorf developed “¡Taco!” for his doctoral dissertation at the University of Texas. He used two versions of the game to evaluate the effectiveness of video game-type feedback versus classroom feedback. While students learned through both versions, not surprisingly, students preferred the video game version. Researchers have found that in classes, language learners’ mistakes are corrected 60 to 70 percent of the time, Wendorf said. Students pick up on those corrections only 50 percent of the time.

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Sense of Place

THE BELL TOWER: 20th Anniversary

that the quad made “the campus look like a college, rather than merely parking lots and buildings.” The pealing of the swinging bell marked the dedication of the Donald W. Reynolds Plaza, Tower and Campus Green on Sept. 22, 1995. 1. The Reynolds Tower, also known simply as the bell tower,

is the most photographed spot on campus. It stretches to 108 feet 10 inches and houses 42 carillon bells spanning 3 ½ octaves that toll to

RACHEL PUTMAN

WHERE STUDENTS ONCE STALKED FOR EMPTY PARKING spots now provides students respite. They stretch hammocks between trees, play Frisbee on the rectangles of grass, and study in the shade under trees that others planted. A luncheon meeting in 1991 with representatives of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation led to a $2.6 million gift to bring Westark President Joel Stubblefield’s dream of a quadrangle to life. The “University of Arkansas – Fort Smith: The First 85 Years” states BELL TOWER fall/winter 2015

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2 3

mark the hours and stir the campus with music. The largest bells are named for benefactors and past presidents. 2. The parterre, or gardens, features enclosed lines of boxwood bushes that are filled in with various flowers or plants. A sundial, the gift of Sally McSpadden Boreham, anchors the gardens. Those who stop for the time also receive words of wisdom. Philosopher Friedrich von Schiller offers, “He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times.” 3. Students and visitors can be found searching for names engraved in bricks at Lion Pride Square. Students and alumni can make a mark on the institution that changed them through buying a personalized brick from the alumni association. While most bricks simply state name and graduation year, more recent graduates have

passed along thoughts, triumph and humor. A 2013 psychology graduate queried, “And how do you feel about that?” 4. Pendergraft Health Sciences Center anchors the northeast side of the quad. Opened in 2004, it provides state-of-theart classrooms and learning laboratories for future nurses, dental hygienists and other healthcare professionals. Just south of it is the Lion’s Den, the residence hall that freshmen call home. 5. Daily, students gather in the Smith-Pendergraft Campus Center for coffee, sustenance and more. An art gallery with rotating shows brings beauty inside this campus living room. Just south of this building are the Math-Science Building and the Gymnasium. To the east, music and theater majors practice and perform their arts in Breedlove Auditorium. UAFS BELL TOWER

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Lions Lowdown

UNIVERSIT Y OF ARKANSAS - FORT SMITH ATHLETICS

Golden RACHEL PUTMAN

Give Me An A Cheerleaders win Nationals THE UAFS CHEER TEAM tumbled, flipped and danced its way to its first Collegiate Cheer Intermediate Coed II Division National Championship. The UAFS team out-performed nine teams to win the title. “There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears involved and a lot of injuries to overcome, but the kids wanted it bad enough

that they fought through everything to get there,” UAFS Cheer Coach Stacie Kohles said. State representatives Charlotte Douglas, Mat Pitsch and George McGill issued a proclamation recognizing the squad’s national championship. It was the third consecutive year for the cheer team to compete for the national championship. The team’s previous highest finish was fourth place. Kohles said the team members made the difference this year. “It was the unity that they had, it was the skill level they had going in and it was the talent that they had,” Kohles said. “It was a lot of things that just came together this year.” UAFS earned a score of 83.08 to win the championship. Tyler Junior College was runnerup with a score of 81.20. Iowa Central Community College was third with 80.68. UAFS received perfect scores in the 45-second crowd segment and collegiate image categories. After the UAFS national titles: preliminary competition, Men’s basketball UAFS was in 1981 second place to Women’s basketball Iowa Central. 1995 Only the top five Men’s basketball teams advance 2006 to the finals. “Other than winning, the kids’ attitudes after prelims was the biggest highlight of the competition for me,” Kohles said. “We were in second, and they were very positive, very motivated and ready to go back and win.” — Jonathan Gipson

Winning Tradition

N RAC HEL PUT MA

FIVE UAFS BASEBALL PLAYERS TOOK half of the Gold Glove awards handed out by the Heartland Conference. Senior third baseman Ryan Justus, senior catcher Justin Shealy and junior left fielder Josh Vanderpool were each named First Team All-Conference and named to the All-Heartland Gold Glove Team. Junior shortstop Ozzie Hurt was named Second Team All-Conference and named to the AllHeartland Gold Glove Team, and senior first baseman Brennan Rogers was named to the All-Heartland Gold Glove Team. It is the most single-season, individual honors received by the Diamond Lions since they joined NCAA Division II and the Heartland Conference. The Diamond Lions compiled a 27-19 overall record. “There’s not a better group of guys,” said Todd Holland, head coach. “They did everything we asked of them.” Justus, from Houston, Texas, started 44 games and batted 0.342 with a team-high 14 doubles and nine home runs, two triples and 37 RBIs. He led the team with a 0.627 slugging percentage, was second with 54 hits, became the first Diamond Lion of the NCAA Division II era to hit for the cycle and became the program’s single-season home run leader of the NCAA Division II era. Shealy, from Midlothian, Texas, started all but one of the Diamond Lions’ 46 regular-season games and was second on the team with a 0.355 batting average. Vanderpool, from Gravette, Arkansas, started 44 games and led the team with a 0.361 batting average, 57 hits and 50 RBIs. Hurt, from Bryant, Arkansas, started all but one of the Diamond Lions’ 46 games and batted 0.279. He compiled a 0.968 fielding percentage with only six errors in 189 opportunities. It was his third-consecutive Gold Glove. Rogers, from Greenwood, Arkansas, started 43 games and batted 0.278 with 10 doubles, three triples and one home run. He had 25 RBIs. He compiled a perfect fielding percentage with no errors in 308 attempts. —Jonathan Gipson

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“

Abby is a grinder who will play all day if she has to in order to win.

”

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the summer after graduating from high school. Tennis Coach Ben Anderson described White, who carried a 4.0 at UAFS, as the most disciplined student athlete that he’s ever known. “But what I want readers to know about Abby White is that she is one of the best people I know,” Anderson said. “She is kind. She is disciplined. She has a plan and she’s going to follow through with it. I’m so glad we had her for two years.” During her first year at UAFS, she was selected to the All Heartland Conference team and voted Heartland Conference Freshman of the Year. Her second year, she and her doubles partner, Brittaney McCasin, were named to Second Team All-Conference after they finished 10-6 in doubles play. “It’s really a great honor that the coaches picked me for that,” she said. “We played a lot of tough competition.” Anderson described the 5–foot, 1-inch White as having great court anticipation as well as being fast and strong. “Abby is a grinder who will play all day if she has to in order to win,” he said. “She has great volleys, and even though she is not very tall, she is difficult to lob over because she is so quick getting back and has a terrific overhead.” Tennis brought her to UAFS and now it will take her back to Texas. “I’m on to my next journey, my next challenge,” she said.

The Next Challenge Abby White has one regret from her time playing tennis at the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith: she wishes it had lasted longer. “It would have been nice if UAFS had a master’s program, then I could stay for four years,” she said. After two years at UAFS and a sophomore-level playing eligibility, the 20-year-old White graduated in May with her bachelor’s degree in English. In the fall, she enrolled at

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Midwestern State University to study sports administration and picked up her tennis racket for the Mustangs. Her journey toward her bachelor’s degree began during her sophomore year at Coppell (Texas) High School, which offered dual-credit classes through Northlake Community College. During her senior year, she studied full time at the college, returning to the high school for tennis practice and matches. She completed her associate degree

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by Jennifer Sicking | illustrations by Laura Wattles

ART

MATTERS Windgate Art & Design Opens STUDENTS WHO WALKED INTO Windgate Art & Design on the first day of fall classes passed into the next phase of the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith. In 2013, university officials released a 20-year master plan for how the university would grow in the future. That was soon followed by the

announcement of a $15.5 million gift from the Windgate Charitable Foundation to build a new home for the visual arts program. “The fact that we were given this gift to make the first step in the master plan says a lot about how the community believes in us,” said Chancellor Paul Beran. UAFS BELL TOWER

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Windgate Art & Design will be a game changer. —Don Lee

The building rises from the art program’s strong history of preparing artists and graphic designers while it gives the program a space befitting a university, Beran said. The three-story, 58,000-squarefoot building at the corner of Waldron Road and Kinkead Avenue gathers the art programs into one building from 18

five scattered across campus. Yet Windgate houses far more than classrooms. Three galleries and a 150-seat film theater establish the building as an art stop for the university and greater Fort Smith community. “The Windgate Art & Design building will be a game changer in the large scheme of things, especially in terms

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To have the studio artist’s opinion and the graphic designer’s opinion opens new possibilities. —Tia Johnston

of the opportunities available for the many layers of the university and community,” said Don Lee, head of the art department. “The building will provide a means to expand, enhance and qualify the art community as well as champion art, artists and the artistic process for the greater good.” Tia Johnston, a junior graphic de

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sign major from Fort Smith, welcomes the collaboration and inspiration that will come within the new space, which brings together artists. “To have the studio artist’s opinion and the graphic designer’s opinion opens new possibilities,” she said. But Windgate also serves another function beyond enhancing a UAFS UAFS bell tower

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“

Means to champion art, artists and the artistic process for the greater good. —Don Lee

education. Its opening gallery show of internationally known street artists, in partnership with the Unexpected Mural Festival, brought crowds to the main gallery. That impacts the very nature of the Fort Smith region. “Arts help make up the core of what is needed to create quality of place,” Beran said. 20

Officials know the building will do more than help prepare students to succeed or to advance economic development and quality of place. “It’s symbolic of the new master plan as it moves the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith toward the prominence it will attain in the region and the state,” Beran said.

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Arts help make up the core of what is needed to create quality of place. —paul beran

Rising to the Challenge The UAFS Foundation is working to meet a challenge by the Windgate Foundation to raise $2.5 million to create an endowment for the art program and building. The endowment will allow the program to support gallery shows, guest artists and more. Outright gifts may be made and room naming opportunities still exist. “The need is still there though the building is finished,” said Mary Lackie, vice chancellor of advancement and executive director of the UAFS Foundation. “This will enrich the experience for students.” For more information or to make a gift, contact the UAFS Foundation at 479-788-7020 or by visiting foundation.uafs.edu/giving/windgate-art-design.

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by JE N N IF E R S I CKI N G

WORDS TO MAUREEN DIDION, ’11, keeps two quotes close to her –

one framed and the other as a bookmark. Both have inspired and challenged her as she pursued a well-lived life. That inspiration aided her in becoming the university’s oldest graduate when she completed her degree in organizational

“I will say that I refer to her, generically, whenever anyone, anywhere, tells me that they are too old to attend college,” said Rita Barrett, department head of behavioral sciences. “Ms. Didion is an inspiration to us all.” But that’s only a small part of her story. “I’m not the typical grandmother,” Didion said.

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Above, Maureen Didion captures pictures of polar bears documenting their condition and numbers in Manitoba, Canada. Facing page is a photo she took of a bear cub in Alaska.

T E SY

degree in psychology.

COUR

leadership at the age of 72 and now as she chases a second

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY MAUREEN DIDION EXCEPT FOR COURTESY PHOTO ON PAGE 25

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and set off to explore. In Denali National Park, she took a picture of the tundra. “I didn’t realize a bear had walked into the picture,” she said. “Then it came down the stream.” And she had her first two bear pictures. Thus began solo trips to Denali. She camped in the backcountry, hiked and took pictures. “Having time alone may not work for everyone,” she said. “A couple of weeks in a tent alone restores me in mind and body.” Maureen Didion captured She spent time documenting bears in photos of this mother Katmai National Park but has spent the last polar bear and her two cubs several years camping at Kamishak Bay in Manitoba, Canada. on a glacier lake. She uses her pictures to document the overall health and number of bears. She’s started to see an increase in the brown bears in the “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. area she studies. Live the life you have imagined.” It’s been the reverse in the Arctic. —Henry David Thoreau Her work in Alaska led to an invitation nine years ago to photograph polar bears in the Manitoba Province of Canada. Yearly, DIDION TOPPED THE RISE AND STOPPED. BELOW HER the second week of February finds her heading north to the Arctic a mother grizzly bear clacked her teeth and saliva shone on her dark Circle. fur – signs Didion recognized of an agitated bear. “My university instructors have always been understanding of But the bear and cub faced away from Didion and her friend. me missing a few classes,” she said. Something else lurked in the undergrowth. On those trips, Didion would often see mother bears with their Then a male grizzly lifted his head above the grass and shrubs. triplets. Last year, she saw one mother bear and a cub during her trip. A second and a third did the same. Didion watched as the mother Two separate researchers have theorized that in her study area polar warned the males not to bother her cub; the males would kill it bears will be extinct by the middle of the century. Global warming given the chance. She moved her cub closer to the humans, sensing has led to ice loss, which has impacted the bears’ ability to hunt for less of a threat. When the mother bear decided to leave, she led her food. cub past Didion. “What affects one species affects us all,” she said. “I’ve never had a bear charge me,” Didion said. “You have to respect that they’re a heck of a lot bigger than you and can run faster than you.” “Within the child lies the fate of the future.” Didion has spent the past 25 years traveling to Alaska photo—Maria Montessori graphing grizzly bears. After a lifetime fascination with grizzlies and Kodiak bears, in 1990 she journeyed to Alaska for a cruise, after THE 16-YEAR-OLD DIDION SLID THE COLLEGE TUITION which she sent her friend and cruise clothes home. She rented a car check across the table to her father and told him that she didn’t want to go to school. He awoke her the next morning with, “Time to get up and go out, and don’t come back until you’ve got a job.” She found one in a bank and others found her through the years. Often they have involved children, whether working as a swimming instructor, the director of a Montessori school or now as director of the We Care Foundation. The foundation helps children with cancer and blood-forming diseases by providing year-around, non-medical support with education and referrals. It also hosts the one-week Camp Dream Street in early July. “We’re in our 26th year, so we must be doing something right,” she said. It’s the last position that she expects to have, but it’s one for which she continuously strives to learn and to do better. And she’s been helped in that pursuit at UAFS. “The university – from the teaching staff, librarians and other 24

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support staff – made me feel comfortable and confident in achieving my academic goals after an absence of 48 years,” she said. After earning her first degree in 2011, Didion continued to take psychology classes as she found they aided her job. “It helps me be a better listener,” she said. For those families with children in crises not only may need help with finding shelter or food, they also may need someone to listen. “If one person in the family is ill, it affects everyone in the family,” she said. “When we first started the camp, our kids often didn’t live more than a year or two.” Barrett first heard of We Care through a research project of Didion’s. “Her research prospectus project in my class was a passion-

ate assessment of the families of cancer survivors,” she said. “She wanted to better understand the needs of the families like those who the foundation supports.”

DIDION HAS LIVED THE LIFE SHE’S IMAGINED WITH passion and a fearlessness to make her way into life’s empty quarters. In those rooms, whether Alaska’s backcountry or a family’s hurting heart, she has challenged the future. Through it all those words of Thoreau and Montessori have beckoned and supported her. “Thoreau gave me the encouragement to return to college after a 48-year hiatus and to never give up whatever life throws at you,” she said. “Education is the key. If we can encourage the child’s potential, we can transform the world one child at a time.”

Education is the key. If we can encourage the child’s potential, we can transform the world one child at a time.

Maureen Didion explores an Alaskan glacier.

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Alumni+Friends drop us a line! Let us—and the people you went to school with—know what you’ve been up to! Please take a few minutes to sit down and tell us what’s been going on since your time at UAFS, Westark, or FSJC. Tell us about your job, your family, your hobbies, your adventures, your plans—whatever you want to share with other alumni. We love to get photos too, and we’ll happily run them in this section. Be sure to include your name (and your name while you were in school if it has changed since then) and the year you graduated or the years you attended. Email your class note to belltower@uafs.edu or mail it to Alumni Office, UAFS, P.O. Box 3649, Fort Smith, AR 72913.

1960s Greer Farris, ’63, had “Crossroads,” his 10-foot tall sculpture made of used vehicle bumpers, selected for display in the New Orleans’ Poydras Corridor Sculpture Exhibition. Larry Holt, ’68, graduated from the University of Arkansas – Fayetteville in 1970. He spent more than 40 years in industries allied with the poultry industry. He worked in all of the states in the United States as well as in South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribe. He and his wife Dorothy have three daughters and eight grandchildren. They live in Springdale, Arkansas, and enjoy traveling. Judy Howard, ’68, had her pastel painting “One Winter Evening” selected to be shown at the International Association of Pastel Societies’ 26th Juried Exhibition in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

1970s Jay Daves, ’74, retired in May from the University of Michigan after 34 years. He plans to spend time traveling. Chuck Preston, ’72, coedited a new edition of “Wahb: The Biography of a Grizzly,” which was first published more than a century ago. He is the senior and founding curator-in-charge of the

Draper Museum of Natural History at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. The book, written by Ernest Thompson Seton, recounts the life of a fictitious bear named Wahb, who lived and died in the Greater Yellowstone region. Charlotte Tidwell, ’74, founder of the Antioch for Youth and Family organization, received the University of Arkansas Outstanding Alumni Award in Health and Human Services. Her work with Antioch to feed more than 7,000 area residents a month has been featured on NBC Nightly News.

Passing It On Alumni are helping the next generation of UAFS STUdents through a recently established Alumni Legacy Scholarship. “As an association we wanted to make it easier for legacy of alumni to attend,” said Alumni Affairs Director Rick Goins, ’74 and ’07. One scholarship will be awarded each semester to a child, parent, spouse or sibling of a UAFS graduate or a former student who passed 14 credit hours from Fort Smith Junior College, Westark Junior College, Westark Community College or Westark College. UAFS Alumni Council Chair Rebecca Hurst, ’00, said her education provided opportunities for a successful career. “I think it’s important to provide similar opportunities for students attending the university so that they might have similar fortune and experiences in life,” she said. To qualify for the scholarship, applicants provide verification of the relationship to the graduate or former student. They must also be enrolled in at least six hours and have a minimum GPA of 2.75. Applications may be found at uafsalumni.com. Alumni may donate to the scholarship fund through the Make A Gift link on the alumni website. Currently there are two funds from which to choose; the outright fund and the endowed fund. The outright allows the association to give the scholarship until the endowment is fully funded. The association is planning a scholarship fundraising event in 2016. “Any gift you can give is the perfect size,” said Goins. “No gift is too small or too large.”

1990s Jesse Core, ’96, owns Core Brewery and expanded to his third pub with an opening in Fort Smith. He also operates pubs in Springdale and Rogers, Arkansas. Peter Cullum, ’94 and ’14, had his painting “Ecotone 3” selected for the 57th annual Delta Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture. It was displayed at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock. He is pursuing a master’s degree in painting and drawing at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

2000s Justin Boyd, ’02, is serving his first term in the Arkansas House of Representatives. He also works

as a pharmacist at Coleman Pharmacy in Alma, Arkansas. Sarah Drummond, ’07, became engaged to John Lovett, a reporter with the Southwest Times Record. She also began a new position as controller for Zero Mountain Logistics. She previously worked as a branch manager for United Federal Credit Union. Jennifer (Wilhelm) Dunn, ’05, and her husband Matt Dunn, welcomed Mason James Dunn on Nov. 5, 2014. He weighed 6 pounds 8 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. Jennifer also recently became the

assistant vice president/branch administrator at Simmons Bank. Matthew Garner, ’09, has been selected to participate in the 2015-16 Leadership Fort Smith class. He is an internal auditor with Baldor Electric in Fort Smith. Christie Holmes, ’03, was elected to The Gregory Kistler Treatment Center board of directors. She was born with spina bifida and was a patient at the center for many years. She also volunteers at Sparks Regional Medical Center. Katie (Schluterman) Kratzberg, ’07, and A.J. Kratzberg,

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along with big sister Allie Kate, welcomed Maggie Rae Kratzberg on Jan. 7, 2015. She weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces and was 19 ¾ inches long. Desiree Little, ’06, has taught fourth grade at Cedarville Elementary School for eight years. Jeremy May, ’07, was accepted into the 2015-16 Leadership Fort Smith class. He is a lead marketing analyst for U-Pack/ ArcBest in Fort Smith. Mitch Minnick, ’08, was named executive director of the Fort Smith Housing Authority. He previously served as development officer at the housing authority. Lacey Neissl-Clark, ’08, and her husband Josh Clark welcomed Ellison Clark on March 30.

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She weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces and was 19 inches long. Colby Pearce, ’08, earned a law degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Law and now works as an attorney for Smakal, Munn and Mathis in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He and his wife, Heather, have an energetic 2-year-old son, Asher, who keeps them busy. Katy (Schrodt) Prater, ’08, and Cody Prater, ’08, welcomed Owen Elliot Prater on June 8, 2015.

He weighed 8.4 pounds and was 20.25 inches long. Eric Smithson, ’09, was promoted to ABF logistics account manager at ArcBest. He now works in Oklahoma City. Travis Teague, ’04, became a partner at Beall Barclay Wealth Management in Fort Smith on Jan. 1, 2015. He joined Beall Barclay after graduating from UAFS. He is involved in in the analysis and implementation of client portfolios and financial plan design. He also works as the daily operations manager. Kinlee Wolff, ’09, was recently promoted to chief financial officer of ARMI Contractors in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

2010s Curtis Adams III, ’14, accepted a position as logistics scheduler with LynnCo Supply Chain Solutions in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Shawna Balazic, ’14, has joined Liberty Management Services in Fort Smith as an accountant. Karen Barrera-Leon, ’15, works as a financial analyst at ArcBest Corporation in Fort Smith. Manila Bounthanthy, ’15, accepted a position as a customized solutions coordinator with ABF Freight System in Fort Smith. Elizabeth Casanova, ’12, is attending graduate school at Harvard University. As part of the sustainable technologies and (continued on page 32)

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Alumni+Friends lion file

Keep Breathing Charlie Reutzel, ‘33, reaches into the pocket of his trousers and pulls out a flip phone as an of example of changes he’s seen in his 103 years. Electronics, from televisions to cell phones, have changed much about life for humans. “I do the simplest things on it,” he said holding his phone. “If I want to take a picture I get somebody to help me.”

jennifer sicking

At three years over the century mark, Reutzel is the university’s oldest confirmed alumnus. After a semester at the University of Oklahoma, Reutzel returned to his hometown and enrolled at Fort Smith Junior College. Classes at that time were held on the second floor of Fort Smith Senior High School and taught by 10 of its teachers who held master’s degrees. “That was before we went under the bleachers,” he said. In 1937, the high school built a new stadium with classrooms under the south bleachers. Junior college classes met there until they moved to the university’s current site in 1952. Reutzel expressed amazement at how the junior college has changed into a university. “And they’re still growing,” he said. His wife Elizabeth, “Dibby,” attended the junior college from 1931-33. And it was during that time that the couple began dating. At first Dibby was interested in a friend of Charlie’s. “She had her eye on him. She’d ask me about him, and I’d report to her,” he said. Then one day Charlie asked his friend if he was interested in Dibby. His friend thought for a minute before deciding, no, he wasn’t. He thought Dibby came from a sickly family. “I thought that was stupid,” Charlie said laughing. “Well, that turned me loose on her.” The couple were married for 69 years when she died in 2005. “If you’re real smart you get a good wife, which I did,” he said. A job offer to represent the spice and extract company McCormick led Charlie from college and into the family tradition of selling food, which began with his great-grandfather who owned a dry goods and hardware store. He stayed with the company until he was promoted to district manager over Arkansas. The new position meant a move to Little Rock, but Charlie and Dibby elected to stay in Fort Smith. He started his own business as a food broker, connecting food wholesalers to retailers. “You don’t find food brokers now,” he said. “We were pushed out, you might say.” The former Sunday school teacher at First United Methodist said he had no bad habits and doesn’t drink alcohol. He exercised, played golf and gardened. As to his secret of longevity, he said, “Just keep on breathing.” “I just take it a day at a time and give thanks,” he said. “You can’t go on forever. When you get more feeble, you’re less likely to stay around. I don’t look forward to being in a nursing home in bed completely incapacitated. There’s no thrill in that.”

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Chris and Lolly Swicegood perform at the Fort Smith Movie Lounge.

rachel putman

A Winding Road Chris Swicegood, ’00, paused to think about his musical journey. “It’s like a drug,” he said after a moment. “It got in my system, and I’ve never been able to shake it.” That journey with his wife and singing partner is starting to take them further and further from their Nashville, Tennessee home. This year Chris and Lolly, as the singing duo is known, performed their mix of rock, Americana and blues at the Hard Rock Café in Honolulu, the U.S. Marshals Museum fundraising gala in Fort Smith and a BMI songwriter’s showcase in Key West, Florida. The duo also released their new EP, “You Got Me.” Though Swicegood grew up in a musical family, he never thought

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about pursuing it as a career. He took piano lessons and participated in band and orchestra, but he preferred to play sports. That changed with one PBS program. As a 15-year-old, his father, John Swicegood, called him to the living room to watch a documentary about Texas bluesman and guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. “He’s still an obsession,” he said of Vaughan. Swicegood also found inspiration by following blues guitarist Chris Cameron, ’99, who won the International Blues Challenge and the Albert King Award for Most Promising International Blues Guitarist in 1997. “He was so influential,” Swice-

good said. “Seeing him furthered me on in music.” After graduating from Fort Smith’s Southside High School in 1999, Swicegood enrolled at Westark College. “I really grew up there during my first year at Westark,” he said. He studied with music professors Don Bailey and Charles Booker before his road took him to Texas Christian University for degrees (bachelor’s in 2005 and master’s in 2007) in guitar performance. “When you grow up in your hometown, you want to stretch out,” he said. “I’m glad that I did. At TCU, I met my wife and singing partner.” He and Lolly, who graduated with a degree in musical theater from TCU, married in 2007.

The couple didn’t start off performing together. Chris’ musical journey took them to Hudson, New York, where he learned from a mentor, performed in clubs and recorded two solo CDs, “Lila” and “Evermore,” on which Lolly sang backup. “Her voice is so strong. That’s like having Janis Joplin in your backing band,” he said. In 2011, they began performing as a duo. They recorded “Loyalty and Love” in 2012. As the pair continue on their musical journey, Swicegood reflected on the day when music directed his life. “It’s been such a winding road,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier about where the path has brought me. Through it all, I’ve been able to play my guitar and travel.”

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Creating Learners During his first class on his first day at Fort Smith Junior College, Randy Wewers, ’58, listened in astonishment. The professor, Lucille Speakman, instructed the students to take out a piece of paper for a quiz. She then asked the students to name all of thenPresident Dwight Eisenhower’s cabinet. “Frankly, I knew none,” Wewers said. A few days later Speakman handed back the quizzes and Wewers saw the “F” emblazoned on the blank page. She glanced around at the students in the class before fixing her eyes on Wewers. “Surely, Mr. Wewers you have heard of John Foster Dulles?” Speakman said. Wewers acknowledged that he had heard of the U.S. Secretary of State. He silently made a vow that she would not catch him unprepared again. Instead of just reading the sports section in the

Fort Smith Times-Record, he also began perusing the front page and news section. At mid-term, Speakman again asked the students to take out a sheet of paper and to list the cabinet members. Wewers correctly named 12 out of 15. “She made the initial change in preparing me for a college career,” he said. Speakman, who died in 1984, remains a strong memory for many alumni. The 1963 Numa yearbook dedicated to her stated, “her name, Fort Smith Junior College and education have become synonymous.” Speakman earned her bachelor’s degree from Southeastern State College and her master’s from Oklahoma State University. She began teaching at Fort Smith Junior College in 1944 and retired from Westark Community College in 1976. She served as dean of women for many years and in a page devoted to her in the 1965 Numa, students wrote of her, “Adaptable, versatile and faithful to her personal philosophy and the college, she commands the respect of all who knew her.” In addition to shepherding young lives, Speakman taught courses in western civilization, political science, geography and history. “She gave up the idea of a doctorate Lucille Speakman and used what funds and time she had to was a beloved broaden her perspective on subjects she professor during taught,” Wewers said. the university’s Her vivid lectures characterized her early years. teaching. Wewers remembers Speakman’s lecture on the pyramids of Egypt. “Man, you were climbing those things right with her,” he said. “She had been to the locations or sites of many of her lectures and you could tell she felt, not just knew, the subject at hand and its place in history.” For her impact on him and others, Wewers started the Lucille Speakman Legacy Endowment. Speakman’s travel to better teach her classes prompted the endowment’s focus. Contributions may be made to the endowment to honor other faculty or staff members who also inspired students. The endowment will fund grants to current UAFS faculty for self-guided travel, international travel, class development and research. To contribute to this endowment, contact the UAFS Foundation at 479-788-7020 or foundation@uafs.edu. For more information, please visit foundation.uafs.edu/giving/lucillespeakman-legacy-endowment.

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Called by a New Name The young girl with thick, curly black hair in the pink and yellow sari draped the fragrant flowers around Kerbi Key’s neck, before shyly watching the other girls play with the Americans at the new orphanage in India. She and 24 other girls at the orphanage shared the name Vesya Beti, or daughter of a prostitute. Key, ’15, was there as part of a team to change that. They would rename the girls. She traveled with a mission organization that opened 14 Indian orphanages in 2014. She chose to call the shy girl Prema, or love in their language of Telugu. Tears filled Prema’s eyes

when she heard her name. On her name certificate was written the Bible verse from Isaiah 62, “you will be called by a new name.” Key understands about names and beginnings. She was the first in her family to graduate from college and now teaches math at Fort Smith’s Northside High School. Call her teacher. She discovered a passion for helping others through her church. Call her missionary. “It doesn’t matter what your past was, you have a new beginning,” Key said. Key grew up in a small town in southern Arkansas before her family moved to Fort Smith. At

times the family struggled. Yet her family pushed her to do well in school. Her efforts earned her the UAFS Academic Distinction Scholarship and the Mona Fuller Alonzo Scholarship. “I was so blessed by scholarships that there was no question that I was going here,” Key said. “It’s so inspirational to me that people would be so passionate about something to help others. That’s how I feel about India.” She began experiencing the world through mission trips, first to Honduras where she worked in schools. Then she traveled with a mission organization to India. At each orphanage they threw

a birthday party for the children, giving them shoes, notebooks and candy. “Honduras was amazing, but India hit a different level with me,” she said. “I never had anything impact me like that did. I don’t think I realized how good I have it.” One afternoon as the Indian Ocean lapped against her feet and carried trash from the shore, Key knew she would return to India. Weeks after graduating from UAFS, Key again boarded a plane to India and its orphans. She came back with a new dream – to raise $31,500 to sponsor a home for 25 children. Call her difference maker.

Kerbi Key embraces girls at an orphanage in India.

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para.style The Best Shot “Head 1” As a child, Audra White, ’15, saw herself growing up

(continued from page 28) health program at the Center for Health and Global Environment in the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, she is assessing the health of regional innovation ecosystems. Her research is concentrating on the Fort Smith area. Andrew Eaton, ’15, works for the Sparks Health Systems as an electronics technician. He is responsible for making sure communication systems, microcontrollers, card readers and more function properly. Chukwukere Ekeh, ’15, was hired as a marketing assistant at Citizen’s Bank in Van Buren, Arkansas. Ryan Downs, ’12, graduated from the University of Tulsa’s College of Law in May 2015. He is studying for the Georgia Bar Exam. Spencer Hart, ’15, accepted a position as a pricing analyst with ABF Freight in Fort Smith. Minzhi Hickerson, ’15, passed the Certified Public Accountant exams in May. She now works for Frost Certified Public Accountants in Fayetteville, Arkansas, as a tax staff accountant. Lillian Howerton, ’15, plans to continue working in Mercy Hos-

The Academic Distinction Scholarship also helped her decision to attend UAFS along with that she could easily transfer from Upward Bound to the university’s Student Support Services. The services program helps students to complete their degrees through study hours in the library, tutoring assistance and class schedule planning. “If it wasn’t for them and my advisor, I’m sure I would have missed something or fallen behind.” As she prepared to graduate, she received acceptance letters from Notre Dame, Georgetown University and the University of Arkansas – Fayetteville. She accepted Notre Dame’s offer. “If I’m going to put in all the work that grad school is, I should give myself the best shot,” she said. “I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone.”

pital’s cardiac unit while studying for the MCAT and applying to medical schools. Ashley Klinck, ’11, passed the Oklahoma Bar Exam and now works for the Tulsa County Public Defender Office. She lives in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. LaTonya Laredo, ’15, began working as the over the road fleet dispatcher at OK Transportation in Fort Smith. Irvin Martinez, ’15, was hired as a carrier sales coordinator at ABF Logistics in Fort Smith. He analyzes customers’ shipments and works with third party carriers to fulfill their requirements. Eric McGriff, ’15, has continued working as a production recruiter with the Oklahoma Air National Guard after his May graduation. He is also volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. Emily (Daugherty) Nichols, ’10, and Kody Nichols, ’10, married Dec. 31, 2014, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and moved to Little Rock in May. Emily graduated with her master’s in higher education from the Uni-

versity of Arkansas in 2012. Kody earned his medical degree from University of Arkansas Medical School in May 2015. He is completing a residency in pediatrics at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Emily has been promoted to assistant director for faculty development for the operations management graduate program at the University of Arkansas. Rebecca Peters, ’15, has been hired as a staff accountant with Littlefield Oil in Fort Smith. She plans to sit for the certified public accountant exam. Melissa (Hoehne) Sanders, ’11, and Dr. Donald Sanders, ’09, welcomed Noelle Kay Sanders on June 18, 2015. Melissa is a science teacher with Broken Arrow Public Schools and Donald is a resident physician in the emergency department at the Oklahoma State University Medical Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Elissa (Johnson) Shaw, ’12, and

jennifer sicking

to be a doctor. After years of watching her mother work as a nurse, the career seemed like a good fit. While attending UAFS, she shadowed doctors as they treated their patients. “I realized I couldn’t handle the sadness of it,” she said. Now she plans to be a doctor of a different kind. White enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of Notre Dame to study cellular and molecular biology. In the future, she would like to help people by leading a research program in stem or cancer cells. White first stepped onto the UAFS campus as an Upward Bound Math and Science student. “I fell in love with the campus,” she said.

Adam Shaw, ’07, married on June 6, 2015, in the atrium of 21 West End in Fort Smith. Kaci Singer, ’12, opened Paperwerks, a store that sells custom stationary and gift items, in Fort Smith. Travis Sorenson, ’15, works as a retail donations coordinator for the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank. He works with local retail and grocery stores to increase food donations to the bank while educating store employees. Cole Sullivan, ’15, was hired as a pricing - special projects support analyst for ArcBest in Fort Smith. Eaven Ward, ’14, began working in assurance services for Ernst and Young in Rogers, Arkansas. Dale Williams, ’15, works as a dedicated account manager for USA Truck in Van Buren, Arkansas, and plans to pursue his Master of Business Administration at Arkansas State University. Leanna Zimmerman, ’15, trained as an account manager with USA Truck in Van Buren, Arkansas, before moving to the Dallas area in July 2015 to work for the company.

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The theatre program’s show “Delta-v” won two national and three regional awards from The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. It’s the fifth time in nine years that a UAFS play was chosen to perform at the advanced level. “No other school in Arkansas has been chosen more than once during that period,” Theatre@UAFS Director Bob Stevenson said.

“

RACHEL PUTMAN

This solidifies our reputation as one of the leading theatrical training programs in the state and one of the best in the region. —THEATRE@UAFS DIRECTOR, BOB STEVENSON

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Bell Tower

UAFS Alumni Association P.O. Box 3649 Fort Smith, AR 72913

NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 479 FORT SMITH, ARK CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

A Look Back Can you recognize the campus of today in this 1965 campus of Westark Junior College? We found this photo in a hallway of the Smith-Pendergraft Campus Center. Let us know what you think of how the campus has evolved. Check out pages 12-13 to see how the campus looks now.

COURTESY

Do you have any photos or memories of your favorite spots on campus that may no longer be recognizable today? Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d love to share them in an upcoming issue. Let us know your thoughts about the magazine, responses to stories and ideas for future articles. Drop us a line at alumni@uafs.edu or Bell Tower Magazine P.O. Box 3649, Fort Smith, AR 72913

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