USC Times November 2017

USCTIMES

NOVEMBER 2017 / VOL. 28, NO.9

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Research: Data: Policy

Meet & Three

The Tenth Thanksgiving

The Institute for Families in Society translates evidence-based research into real-world policy, page 6

Have lunch with the Howells, a three-generation Gamecock family, page 10

USC’s international students get a taste of an American holiday, then come back for seconds, page 16

USC TIMES / STAFF

FROM THE EDITOR USC Times is published 10 times a year for the faculty and staff of the University of South Carolina by the Office of Communications & Public Affairs, Wes Hickman, director.

Managing Editor Craig Brandhorst Creative Director Bob Wertz

SETTING THE TABLE

Designer Brinnan Wimberly Contributors Chris Horn Page Ivey Megan Sexton John Valentine Photographer Kim Truett Printer USC Printing Services Campus correspondents James Raby, Aiken Kerry Jarvis, Beaufort Jeanne Petrizzo, Greenville Shana Dry, Lancaster Jane Brewer, Salkehatchie Misty Hatfield, Sumter Annie Smith, Union Tammy Whaley, Upstate Jay Darby, Palmetto College Submissions Did you know you can submit ideas for future issues of USC Times? Share your story by emailing or calling Craig Brandhorst at craigb1@mailbox.sc.edu, 803-777-3681.

Here we are, November again.

Term papers will start coming in after Thanksgiving break, final exams will follow, and then the sprint to the finish: grading, paperwork, planning for 2018 — Whatever your position at the university, ‘tis the season for getting it done.

And it’s not just a campus thing. Holiday travel plans are taking shape. Suitcases are being packed; guestrooms still need tidying up. And if you’re playing host, there’s that all-important shopping list to consider: Green beans or Brussels sprouts? Oyster stuffing or cornbread dressing? Pumpkin pie or pecan? Or apple? A 20- to 25-pound bird — or should the bird be bigger?

Time for a headcount. Just how many people are we expecting this year? Yikes. Really? Think we’ll need a 30-pounder? Or do we need two?

Depends on the size of the family.

If you’re among the USC volunteers putting on the 10th annual Thanksgiving for Internationals at Immaculate Consumption, a couple turkeys won’t cut it, no matter the weight. The organizers typically plan for around 50 international students but always end up welcoming many more. Learn more in “The Tenth Thanksgiving,” page 16.

By comparison, adding a chair for our Meet & Three with a multi-generation Gamecock family was small potatoes — we just told the folks at 1801 Grille that Uncle Albert would also be joining us and made our roundtable square. “All in the Family” starts on page 10.

When you’re talking family, there’s always room for a few extra folks. Witness Parents Weekend, which drew more than 8,500 attendees this year. See “Weekend at Cocky’s,” page 4.

But this issue isn’t all reunions, family portraits and holiday dinners. Family matters can also be serious matters, as many of our research faculty can attest.

By providing federal and state agencies with evidence-based research about the effectiveness of family services delivery, the Institute for Families in Society shapes policy in ways that directly affect some of society’s most vulnerable members (“Research: Data: Policy,” page 6).

The Center for Child and Family Studies, on the other hand, helps the Department of Social Services develop curricula for caseworker training, improving frontline services for vulnerable children and adults across the field (“A Case of Good Training,” page 14).

See, we’re not just getting it done, we’re getting it done right, and that’s something for the entire Carolina family to celebrate this holiday season. Now let’s eat before everything gets cold.

The University of South Carolina does not discriminate in educational or employment opportunities or decisions for qualified persons on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation or veteran status.

Pass the drumstick,

CRAIG BRANDHORST MANAGING EDITOR ON THE COVER: A Meet & Three isn’t complete without at least one group shot. Left to right, that’s Andrew Howell, Lea Howell and Janice Neely. Uncle Albert’s snapping the picture. Lunch will be served on page 10.

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TIMES FIVE

BLEED

Garnet & Black Under the Affordable Care Act, taxpayers now have to show that they have "minimum essential" health insurance coverage. Employees who were enrolled in the State Health Plan or BlueChoice HealthPlan from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2014, can simply check the box showing "Full-year coverage" on tax return forms 1040, 1040A or 1040EZ form.

No further action or documentation is required.

Employees who were enrolled in a health plan through the Health Insurance Marketplace and who received a subsidy for their coverage will receive a 1095-A from their provider in the mail.

RISE to the Occasion Proposals are being accepted for the 2018 Research Initiative for Summer Engagement (RISE) grant program. Initiated in 2012, RISE supports summer research for faculty at all system campuses except Columbia by providing funds for salary, supplies, travel and student support through a competitive application process. Proposals for 2018 RISE projects are due by Dec. 12. To learn more visit the Office of Research website and click on internal funding and awards, opportunities for faculty, then click on RISE.

Still time to FLIP

Don't Stress, Decompress Wrapping up the semester, family obligations — the holidays come with added stress. Ease into Winter Break with a little help from Human Resources’ Stress Management class, set for 11:30 a.m.12:30 p.m., Nov. 30. In this interactive workshop, participants will analyze good stress vs. bad stress and how to cope in our busy, fast-paced, demanding lives. The class is free, but you must register.

Go to sc.edu/hr and click on the Training and Professional Development link on the left. Classes are listed by subject and date offered.

Speaking of the holidays...

There will be no classes Nov. 22-26 (Wednesday-Sunday) and the university is closed that Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday. Dec. 8 is the last day of classes. Final exams are Dec. 11-18.

Commencement exercises in Columbia will be Dec. 18. The university will be closed Dec. 21 (Thursday) through Jan. 1 (Monday). University offices reopen Jan. 2 and classes begin Jan. 16.

There are still two meetings of FLIP — the Focus on Learning, Innovation and Pedagogy study group — this semester. FLIP is open to faculty members, instructors, postdocs and graduate students who want to discuss or try out evidence-based approaches to instruction, including student-centered learning, discipline-based education research, flipped classrooms and problem-based learning.

The last two meetings are Nov. 21 and Dec. 7, 11:45 a.m.–1:15 p.m., in the Center for Teaching Excellence in Room L511 of Thomas Cooper Library. For information, email group facilitator and biology professor Alan White at arwhite@mailbox.sc.edu.

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WEEKEND AT COCKY'S

Gamecock families come home to roost For a long weekend in October, Gamecock families took over campus. They mingled at a Parent’s Weekend reception outside the President’s House, strolled the Horseshoe, danced at the Strom and cheered on the Gamecocks at WilliamsBrice. But the connection goes deeper than one weekend each fall. USC’s Office of Parents Programs understands the role parents play in their students’ success.

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MORE THAN 8,550 Number attending Parents Weekend 2017. The biggest individual event was the tailgate party before the Carolina football game, with 6,157 attendees.

36,233 Members of the university’s Parents Association, up from 18,847 in 2012. Members receive monthly e-newsletters and other email communications.

2,703 Number of downloads of the University of South Carolina parents app that was released in late September in advance for Parents Weekend.

8,383 Followers on the Parents Programs Facebook page.

1,445 Number of undergraduate students who attended dinner at faculty members’ homes last fall as part of the Dinner Dialogues.

The program encourages faculty to invite a class to dinner in their home — with the cost paid by a grant from the Parents Fund.

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RESEARCH | DATA | POLICY The USC Institute for Families in Society has a simple goal — find solutions to help vulnerable families in South Carolina. But the work, much like the issues faced by families, can be anything but simple. BY MEGAN SEXTON

G

ood policy is informed by evidence-based research. At USC’s Institute for Families in Society that's almost a mantra. That’s because the recommendations made by the institute's faculty and staff are shared with policy-makers and stakeholders dealing with such serious issues as mental health, trauma, abuse and neglect.

“We try to put all our efforts into translating research from an ivory tower setting into practice in the real world,” says Cheri Shapiro, the institute’s interim director. “For me, if research doesn’t impact the real world, personally, it’s not worth doing.”

At the heart of the institute’s work is addressing the need for excellent services for children and families who are facing challenges,

Integrated Health and Policy Research, led by Ana Lopez-De Fede, which concentrates on policy analysis on health and family issues that affect South Carolina and the nation. The work involves using geographic information systems to collect and quickly analyze health services research, particularly in the area of Medicaid policy.

Information pulled together by the team has been used to develop interactive health websites, such as SCHealthViz, which provides easy-to-access data about Medicaid enrollment. The geo-coded health data developed by the institute makes it easier to visualize Medicaid or health disparity data, allowing users to see data from communities around the state in myriad ways, such as by age, Medicaid enrollment, the number of in-patient hospital visits and diagnoses. That’s especially important in “THE ULTIMATE GOAL IS TO HELP CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES THRIVE AND BE HAPPY AND HEALTHY AND SAFE AND SECURE. WE DO ANYTHING WE CAN DO South Carolina, where Medicaid covers 52 percent of all births and a large portion of longTO MOVE A POLICY OR A PRACTICE TOWARD THAT GOAL.” - CHERI SHAPIRO term, nursing home care. whether those are health issues, anxiety, trauma, depression, disrup“What we do touches a large portion of our families, and it has tive behavior or substance abuse. That means working with nonproffor 27 years,” Lopez-De Fede says. “We continue to try to figure its, plus federal and state agencies, such as the departments of Social out how to translate research in ways that different stakeholders will Services, Juvenile Justice and Health and Human Services. understand. By using methodology that allows individuals to explore “It’s really important that we get all possible hands on deck information and formulate questions, that leads to changes. At the delivering the best possible services. And those best services are what end of the day, if it doesn’t lead to policy research and impacts, then we call evidence-based,” Shapiro says. “It’s a dream to have every we haven’t done our jobs.” provider have access to the training and support they need to deliver Through the institute’s Division of Children, Youth and Famithose kinds of services. It is not inexpensive to make that happen, lies and its Center of Excellence in Evidence-Based Intervention, but I think we have to take the long view." researchers work with state agencies to help identify and support the At USC, the multi-disciplinary research institution falls under use of evidence-based practices to improve the lives of children and the College of Social Work. Among its focus areas is the Division of families in South Carolina.

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The institute also works with the S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice to promote family-friendly approaches to working with DJJ youth. It operates within the agency to elevate the importance of families, while the DJJ Youth and Family Environmental Scan, developed by the institute, is an example of using data to assist with policy making and program development.

“The ultimate goal is to help children, youth and families thrive and be happy and healthy and safe and secure. We do anything we can do to move a policy or a practice toward that goal,” Shapiro says.

“It’s not just about eliminating suffering; I think we have to think bigger than that. It’s about creating joy and happiness and fulfillment. That’s why we do what we do.”

investigator for the Center of Excellence in Evidence-Based Intervention, which helps identify and support the use of evidence-based practices for children, youth and families in South Carolina, and which is supported by the Palmetto Coordinated System of Care and the state Department of Health and Human Services.

Her work involves implementing evidence-based intervention programs for children and youth with behavior and health challenges by working to create training opportunities for clinicians.

“The heart of it is that we have dire need for excellent services for children, youth and families who are facing behavioral and health challenges, whether it be anxiety, depression, trauma, challenging behaviors or substance use,” Shapiro says.

Shapiro says researchers at the institute are constantly honing their skills and techniques to stay current and relevant.

“If I can make the world a better place, that is my goal. That is what drives me. And when I found the institute, it was like coming home,” she says. “This is what I’ve been striving for my whole career. And I get to pull it all together in one job.”

CHERI SHAPIRO | EVIDENCE-BASED INTERVENTION Growing up as the child of physicians, Cheri Shapiro says she was raised with a strong understanding of the importance of a career grounded in service to families. She fell in love with psychology as an undergraduate and became a clinical psychologist.

“I saw it as a different way to carry forward a mission that has been steeped in me since I was very small,” she says.

Shapiro ran a statewide office for the Department of Juvenile Justice before coming to Carolina in a research role. She joined the institute in 2011, became the associate director shortly thereafter, and became interim director in October 2016. She also is the founder and principal

ANA LOPEZ-DE FEDE | POLICY IN PLACE Ana Lopez-De Fede moved to the United States when she was 10, coming from a family that was actively involved in community issues and medical issues, including pharmacy and nursing.

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“It’s the sense that you work to improve the lives of individuals, that’s a strong value of mine,” Lopez-De Fede says. “For me, choosing health services and health policy research is about those linkages between community and place. It’s also about looking at individuals holistically.”

Lopez-De Fede, who has a background in psychology and health policy, came to Carolina in 1987, before the institute was created.

She initially worked with various departments at the university, training clinicians on treatment of abuse and neglect of children, and domestic violence.

As the leader of the institute’s large health policy research section, she explores the links between health, health service delivery systems and well-being. Her team's work focuses on using geographic data to understand healthcare issues, guide discussions and explore options.

“Early on, we made this connection to health and place before others were beginning to think about it. Our work always looked at the role communities play in shaping and delivering services, in looking at the ways they can foster one another,” she says.

“Back in 1987, people were not talking about use of geography with health care data, and yet early on we began to locate individual conditions within the context of community. For us, that’s always been an important thing. Now, so much of the research and dialogue is around population research.”

Lopez-De Fede, who was one of Carolina’s 2015 Breakthrough Leadership in Research honorees, says it is important that the applied research make connections with those in and outside of academia.

“Being at the University of South Carolina, the state university, we have to look at how our work improves and shapes the lives of individuals in South Carolina,” she said.“We all have the ability to influence.

That’s the motivation — to see discussions taking place over an idea. I also feel very strongly that data should be used to guide and formulate those discussions, to explore options and alternatives.”

While she knows these innovative and creative approaches work, Lopez-De Fede realizes that progress in these areas can’t be measured in leaps and bounds. “We often say, at the heart of changes is a perspective of patience. I can’t think of a single day when we don’t say, ‘Yes, that’s why we’re are doing this.’ We can put our finger on it and say that was our research that’s changing lives in South Carolina.”

KATHLEEN HAYES | JUVENILE ENGAGEMENT Kathleen Hayes says she has spent her entire career trying to make sure children are well parented.

“If anything drives me, it’s trying to get children into good, loving and caring families,” she says. “The message I always carried is a good family is one with parents that love their children and care about that child’s needs.

“It’s not somebody who is rich, not somebody who has all the pretty things in life. It’s how regular families can be excellent parents. It is a marvel that I can still watch a family that is really doing well and with joy watch what’s going on.”

Trained as a psychologist, she has gone from working on child abuse and neglect issues in Denver to various roles in the S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice and Department of Social Services, where she focused on adoption and foster care issues before becoming director.

She saw up-close how children who aren’t supported by families can develop mental health and attachment issues and end up in the juvenile justice system. That helped her understand how vulnerable families can be.

“That led me to the institute, because the mission of the institute is to try to help all families thrive through our research,” Hayes said. “It’s different to talk about helping families through data-driven decisions versus talking about just helping families. Families need a lot, and how can you help them if you don’t have data?”

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At the Institute for Families in Society, she serves as associate director, focusing her research on improvements in juvenile justice that involve greater engagement of families with youth being served by DJJ. “Even though I didn’t intend to have a life that follows a trail, in my own mind I can draw it as somebody who’s been concerned about families and parenting and helping children in one way or another for my entire life,” Hayes says. “I love the field. I love things that can be done to make agencies better.

“And I love the fact that we have expert staff at the university who can provide results and data about families that tend to motivate policy makers in trying to inch forward in terms of progress. To me, it’s very exciting. And everybody I work with feels that way.”

KATHY MAYFIELD-SMITH | ACCESS AND DELIVER Her early work helping families who have children with disabilities navigate the system started Kathy Mayfield-Smith on the path to research and advocacy for better health care delivery policies.

She earned master’s degrees in both psychology and business, and began her career in the university’s Department of Pediatrics. There, she worked to help improve services for people with disabilities, with much of her work focusing on information and referral fields in South Carolina and across the country.

“In some ways, I fell into it. I grew up in the ‘60s, so I’m kind of a product of that generation,” Mayfield-Smith says. “In my early years in psychology I got a sense of some of the struggles that people were

facing. As I began to work in creating information systems that helped people get connected to services, I began to see how cumbersome the system could be.”

“In many ways, it was like a foreign language. It was so complex. So, a family that has a child with disabilities is thrown into that world and has no idea where to start.”

She saw the difference her work could make in the lives of families who would be lost if someone wasn’t there to help them figure out the system. She soon began working on Medicaid issues, partnering with the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a waiver program designed to allow people who qualified for nursing home care to stay in their homes, with Medicaid helping to cover the costs.

In 2004, she came to the institute to continue her work with Lopez-De Fede. Mayfield-Smith is now a research associate professor and associate director of the Division of Integrated Health and Policy Research. Her research looks at improving quality and access to health services, disability and caregiving policy development, and access to and development of community based services to increase health outcomes, independence and support for caregivers — particularly respite services.

“What’s most satisfying is being in this university environment and really being able to be creative and innovative and really push the needle and be on the cutting edge on some of this research,” she says.

“Particularly with the GIS work. We know that geography matters in terms of people’s health, and geography matters in terms of the types of services accessible to them.” T

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MEET&THREE

ALL IN THE FAMILY LEA HOWELL Education senior, University Ambassador Class of 2018

ANDREW HOWELL Owner of Angelo's Greek & Italian Restaurant, Class of 1994

Lea Howell almost didn’t come to Carolina — she was afraid it might be too big and too overwhelming. But after an impromptu tour of campus, led by her father, Andrew Howell, a 1994 graduate, Lea applied and soon realized this was home. Now a senior and a University Ambassador at the Visitor Center, she sat down with her dad, her Uncle Albert — Andrew’s twin brother and fellow USC graduate— and her grandmother, Janice Neely, ’71, to talk about their family connections to Carolina.

It's still a Meet & Three — we just set an extra place. B ­ Y CHRIS HORN

RN, Department of Juvenile Justice

Lea, you’re the only current Carolina student from your extended family — and you’re a University Ambassador, as well.

Class of 1971

Any future Carolina students in the family?

JANICE NEELY

Lea: I had eight family members on a tour with 30 people. So y’all took up about a fourth of my tour!

Was this the first time all of you saw Lea

Andrew: Lea’s little sister, Alena, will be attending Carolina next fall. In fact, Lea led the tour.

Albert: And my daughter was on the tour, as well. My daughter and his daughter are the same age.

ALBERT HOWELL Sales manager, Patterson Fan Co. Class of 1993

Janice: And me — I went on the tour, too.

lead a campus tour?

Albert: Yes, and she did great. I might be a little prejudiced, but even the people walking around with us were making comments about it being one of the best tours they ever had.

Andrew: I gave Lea her first tour of Carolina.

She wasn’t even considering coming here at first. She was scared of the city. So after school one day, I said “Just ride down there with me,

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and we’ll just walk around.” We parked on the street, and I said, “It’s not as bad as you think. Your first two years are going to be right here around Gambrell Hall, and you’re going to be right there at Capstone.” And I think after walking her around the campus, she applied that night. And now she’s giving tours. Hers are better than mine, though.

Lea: Honestly, I was just looking at smaller schools. I grew up in Gilbert, and that’s what I was used to — knowing everybody and being on a first name basis with my teachers.

So the thought of coming to a school with 25,000 students was very intimidating.

I’d been to football games, I’d been to the Colonial Life Arena, I’d been around campus but had never taken the time to see it for myself. So I was kind of doing myself an injustice, not really giving Carolina the opportunity. But, like Dad said, that one day I was like “Fine, let’s go see it, let’s go check it out.” I mean, Carolina offered me a good bit of scholarships, and once I finally came out and saw it, it seemed to be a good decision.

Looking back on it, it’s the single greatest decision I’ve made up this point in my life.

So, thanks for that, Dad. That’s why on my tours I feel like I can relate to the students. I say, ‘I’ve been in your shoes, I know what you’re going through. You’re trying to make this really big decision but just take it one day at a time.’

What was the most surprising thing that you guys experienced on the tour?

Janice: The appearance — they’ve planted flowers!

“If I had it to do all over again, I wish I could have stayed on campus. My dad couldn't afford to have two daughters living on campus at the same time.”

Albert: It’s always looked pretty in between Gambrell and the Russell House, but everything is neat now. A lot of the buildings are the same, especially around Gambrell and that side of campus.

Janice: I was shocked because I remember when the Honeycombs were built, and then I saw the Honeycombs torn down. It was kind of like, whoa! Now they’ve kept up with building nice dorms for the kids, and they’ve spread out.

What else has changed since you were students?

Janice: I was taking my nursing courses down here at the Coliseum and then walked up to the main campus for my 101s and other courses. I did a lot of walking then — uphill both ways.

Lea: That part hasn’t changed — lots of walking.

Albert: And a lot of parking tickets.

Albert: There are some new buildings, but a lot of it still looks the same. There’s that nostalgia, and that’s good. The Horseshoe and Gibbes Green. A lot of it still feels the same. I think joining the SEC years ago kind of made us up our game some. Not just in athletics but with everything.

Andrew: Keep up with the Joneses. That’s when I saw USC really change for the better.

Albert: We were behind the eight ball when we first joined the SEC. I mean, WilliamsBrice Stadium was a nice stadium but it was stuck in an industrial area, surrounded by asphalt — but look at it now.

Janice: Well, parking period – that hasn’t changed.

Andrew: I think I paid more in parking tickets than tuition.

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Albert: Me and you had it easier, though, because we preferred 8 o’clock classes. That’s why we always tried to get 8 o’clock classes — you could find parking and be done by lunch.

Janice, Andrew and Albert — tell me about your first experiences with sports at Carolina.

Albert: Our father got football tickets when we were young, and we started coming to the games, and we fell in love in with it. The first game we saw was when USC, with George Rogers, was playing Pacific [in 1980], and we beat them 37 to nothing.

Andrew: Jim Carlen was the coach. The West Side upper deck is all they had at the time. They didn’t have the East Side Upper Deck.

Janice: I went to Carolina football games, but by the time I graduated, Carolina was best known for basketball. That was when Frank McGuire was the coach. Carolina won the ACC championship — John Roche and all of those. Football wasn’t that good back then. It went up and down.

Albert: We’ll tailgate every football game, and Lea will pop by, and Andrew tailgates with us, as well.

Janice: I don’t go to games — not anymore.

I used to have tickets with y’all.

Lea: I have a really good friend who’s the senior Cocky. He’s the one who comes out of the box the past two years. He’s always like, "If you guys ever want to come out and tour the stadium…"

Janice: Have you done it?

Albert: In fact, years ago we were tailgating together for the first time, and said, ‘OK, we’ll see everybody after the game.’ We all walked off to our seats, and there they were — [Janice] and her husband had seats right beside us. What were the odds of that happening? Maybe we should have played the lottery after that!

Janice: I know the best football game I ever went to — our next-door neighbor knew the band director at that time — so we went down to Carolina and rode to the game with the band bus, and once we got there he took us on a tour through the stadium, then we went upstairs to the press box and you couldn’t say a word — that’s where they were taping the game. Carolina scored a touchdown and I wanted to scream so bad but I couldn’t! And then he took us down on the field with the players on the Carolina side. That was exciting, like being a cheerleader down on the field.

Lea: No, too busy!

Lea, you graduate in May. Will it be hard saying goodbye to Carolina?

Lea: Next semester I’ll be student teaching every day, so I won’t be on campus much.

I’ve been treating this semester like my last semester because in a lot of ways it will be.

It’s very bittersweet to see it come to an end so soon. I’m not ready to leave the campus.

What was the vibe on campus when you were students — Janice, you were here during the May 1970 riot when students took over the administration building.

Janice: Because I didn’t live on campus, I did not participate in any of that. I would have been shot by my father if I had (laughs).

I just went to class. It didn’t affect me like it did a lot of the students living on campus.

Lea: But it sounds like the atmosphere on campus when you were here was different because of all that.

Janice: But students still knew what they had to do to stay in school back then. So you didn’t know if students were out sick or if they were not in class because they were protesting something.

“I think Lea's love for her university is displayed in her presentation. Her passion for Carolina comes out on every campus tour she leads.”

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“My freshman year I started joining things and probably that was the best decision I made because that exposed me to new people and new opportunities.”

every day, that’s fine. Not that I do this, but if I want to wear the same T-shirt on Monday and Tuesday, no one is going to know because the Monday people are different than the Tuesday people in my classes.

Andrew: Columbia looked like a ghost town on Sundays — very quiet. The library was very popular. You had to go to a card catalog and find a big table and spread the books out to do your term paper. And use a typewriter.

Lea: It’s so interesting. I didn’t have any ideaany of that happened. I can’t imagine.

Coliseum, and afterwards there was just a haze of smoke. There were ashtrays on desks.

Andrew and Albert — what was your

Janice: I never saw smoking in classrooms but they smoked everywhere else. I’m trying to think if you could smoke in the library.

undergrad experience like?

Albert: We had a lot of friends who were in fraternities, so a lot of get togethers.

Andrew: We went to Five Points a lot back then — it was a different place than it is now.

We used to play basketball a lot, too, outside the Blatt P.E. Center, and inside.

Lea: You once told me that the Russell House had a bar. Really?

Albert: The drinking age was 18 back in the day. But we were right there at the cutoff. It turned to 19 right after we turned 18, and then 20 right after we turned 19.

Lea: It’s just so odd. A bar on campus wouldn’t fly these days.

Andrew: Well, you could smoke at Williams-Brice Stadium back then. And I remember going to a game at Carolina

Albert: At nighttime, at that house in Cayce where we lived, that typewriter was singing — clack, clack, clack, clack.

Andrew: They might have had a smoking floor…

Andrew: When we were in college, we used pay phones. You always had quarters in your pockets. You had to make arrangements with people if you wanted to meet up with them.

Albert: They did, because me and you studied for exams on the bottom floor, and we were smokers.

Lea: In Capstone, down in the lobby, there's a row that used to have payphones, but they’re not there anymore.

What else was different back in the day?

Lea, if you get married and have children, will you persuade them to come here?

Janice: All my life up to to that point girls had to wear dresses or skirts. So when I got here, I was, like, ‘Yay! I can finally keep my legs warm in the winter!’ I remember my sister, though, wore gym shorts to a P.E. class here and had to put on a raincoat to walk out to her car because girls couldn’t wear shorts, but you could wear slacks.

Lea: That sounds terrible. Freshman year for me, one of the simple freedoms was wearing whatever you wanted to wear to class. If I want to wear a T-shirt and shorts to class

Lea: Of course. That’s not even a question.

I’ve already been thinking about bridal pictures on the Horseshoe. It’s a given because I want them to see that we have a passion for something greater than ourselves, even if it’s just something as simple college football. I want them to have the same experiences that I have had and develop a passion for something — that’s very important to me. If one day they decide to become Gamecocks, that will be even better. T

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A CASE FOR GOOD TRAINING

By Page Ivey

S

South Carolina’s Department of Social Services works with families in some pretty tough situations, but they don’t have to go it alone — thanks to support from USC’s Center for Child and Family Studies.

The social workers and policymakers at DSS rely on the longstanding USC center to stay up-to-date on the latest developments in caring for vulnerable adults, children and families.

“We don’t work directly with the families, but we do work with those who do,” says Cynthia Flynn, interim director of the center, which is housed on campus in the former Benson Elementary School.

A recent case in point: While training social workers to do intakes for adult protective services, center staffers recognized the need for an interview protocol to create a standard for determining when a vulnerable adult is endangered.

“We called attention to the fact that they needed a tool for structured decision-making,” Flynn says. “Then we looked to research for instruments that assess vulnerability. We used

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DSS’s maltreatment screening criteria, and we incorporated these into an interview protocol for intake.”

The center trained caseworkers on using the new tools, which are now used in intake hubs across the state, and will continue to help the agency evaluate how well the tool is working.

In another example, DSS asked the center to help design a curriculum to train their staff to better monitor the impact of psychotropic drugs on youth in foster care.

In many cases, these youth have suffered trauma, the symptoms of which can mimic the symptoms of other mental health issues that would benefit from medication.

“Our design goal was to create interactive training materials that would combine knowledge pieces with critical thinking but package it in a way that it could be successfully handed over to the agency’s clinical specialists,” says Beck Sullivan, manager of the center’s curriculum and instructional design team, which creates interactive online training materials, and produces print, video, web, multimedia and instructor-led training materials.

“In our training, we present them with scenarios that could be the basis for discussion among foster parents and health care providers,” Sullivan says.

Many of the center’s staff come from a social work background, including Brenda J. Amedee, whose team reviews cases to

“We don’t work directly with the families, but we do work with those who do."

- Cynthia Flynn determine how well the child welfare system is functioning to help children and families.

“The team gathers and assesses a range of information through reviewing case records and conducting case-related interviews,” Amedee says.

The purpose of the reviews is to assess the quality of casework practice, and compliance with federal and state standards. As with all work that the center does for the state Department of Social Services, the center’s team adapts its work to what the agency needs.

“They come to us with needs and we help design solutions,” Flynn says. “We’re particularly proud of that.”

In addition to working with state agencies, USC’s Center for Child and Family Studies has partnered with other areas on campus, including the Office of the Study of Aging in the Arnold School of Public Health, to help make a training for home health aides more sustainable.

“They developed the training and we produced 13 learning modules they will use to teach personal care aides to recognize chronic conditions that could become acute,” Flynn says. “It will allow people to stay independent longer and give the older trainees a new career.” T At left, Brenda J. Amedee (center) manages the Quality Assurance staff at the Center for Child and Family Studies. Her team conducts quality assurance reviews for the S.C. Department of Social Services.

16 USCTIMES / NOVEMBER 2017

The Tenth Thanksgiving USC's international community gets a taste of an American holiday.

M

aybe you’re familiar with the annual Thanksgiving for Internationals dinner at Columbia restaurant Immaculate Consumption; maybe you’re not. Either way, you can appreciate the spirit of the event.

Started in 2007 by USC immigration adviser Travis Weatherford and several university colleagues, the off-campus feast introduces international students to the American holiday and gives them a place to enjoy it.

Ten years on, it has become something even greater.

“We try to find the people who are here short-term, but we’ve had students show up for four or five years consecutively,” says Weatherford, ’93. “We’ve become like their surrogate family.”

Narges Kaveshgar is a prime example. A native of Iran, Kaveshgar came to Carolina to pursue a Ph.D. in civil engineering in 2010

and attended half a dozen of the dinners before moving to Memphis, Tenn., in 2016.

“It made me feel at home, even though I was thousands of miles away from home,” says Kaveshgar, now a project engineer at FedEx. “This is going to be the first year that I’m away from USC on Thanksgiving, and I definitely will miss the warmth that you feel sitting around the table with your friends and family.”

The volunteers return year after year for similar reasons: to break bread with people who might otherwise be alone, to share American holiday customs, to watch guests smile after their first-ever bite of pumpkin pie.

“It’s always thrilling,” says Weatherford.

“It’s terrifying to see the huge crowd lined up for the food, but we always manage to make it through, and there’s always enough for everyone.”

That means more than enough cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes, courtesy of Thomas Cooper Library reference librarians Marilee Birchfield and Sharon Verba; more than enough collards, courtesy of South Caroliniana Library manuscripts cataloger Brian Cuthrell; and more than enough pies, courtesy of English professor Ed Gieskes and his wife, Lisa, ’02 master's.

There’s also more than enough turkey — courtesy of Weatherford, who roasts five or six birds each year in the Immaculate Consumption ovens, and Greg Wilsbacher, a curator at USC’s Moving Image Research Collections, who prepares a Norman Rockwell-caliber “show bird” for wow factor photographs.

Everyone pitches in on the big day, but Weatherford, who also holds a degree in pastry making from the Culinary Institute of America, is chef de cuisine. In addition to

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turkey roasting duties, he prepares additional sides and desserts.

Not surprisingly, he and his girlfriend, Julia Richardson, ’93, are in high demand.

“Our main goal is to dish out and explain the food, and frankly, insist that Travis go out and enjoy his extended family, because they want to talk and laugh with him,” says Wilsbacher. “By the end of the meal, groups of students are seeking him out to have their picture taken with him, sometimes even wielding a drumstick!”

One appreciative student, Naveed Sadiq, came to USC’s Arnold School of Public Health on a Fulbright Scholarship in 2010 to pursue a Ph.D. in Health Services Policy & Management. He attended the event twice before returning to Pakistan.

“I can still recall in my mind Travis, Julia and the supporting staff beside him, introducing themselves, talking about the roots of the event, and the food,” he says. “And at the end of the party, he thanked all of us for being part of his Thanksgiving, with everyone standing there to bid us goodbye.”

But gratitude is a circular deal. Weatherford thanks restaurateur Rob Reed, ’87, ’92, for donating the kitchen at Immaculate Consumption, and he thanks his guests for sharing traditions from their own cultures around the American holiday table.

“I grew up in York County, just imagining all these places around the world,” Weatherford says. “Now, we have 1,400 or so international students who have chosen to come to my state, to my university, when they could have gone anywhere. It’s the least we can do to show our gratitude because they enrich the university so much and they enrich the community so much.”

All of which makes this year bittersweet for Weatherford, who has announced that the tenth Thanksgiving for Internationals will likely be the last.

“I don’t want it to keep us away from our own families,” says Weatherford, whose parents

live in Rock Hill and have an increasingly hard time making it to Columbia. “It’s not as meaningful to me if my own parents can’t come. And ten years is a nice even number to end with.”

But won’t he then just miss his other family? The students whose RSVPs fill his inbox every October and then line up at the buffet in November, excited about their first Thanksgiving?

“Yeah, absolutely,” he says with a chuckle.

“Which is probably why November next year I may be saying, ‘Why don’t we do another one?’” T

“We try to find the people who are here short-term, but we’ve had students show up for four or five years consecutively. We’ve become like their surrogate family.”

-Travis Weatherford

18 USCTIMES / NOVEMBER 2017

BREAKTHROUGH BREAKOUT

TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT Understanding different types of relational conflict can lead to more effective counseling.

By Chris Horn

As many as one in four women have been

“There are far more instances where couples

we think of domestic violence as a subset

or will become victims of domestic partner

engage in violent-related behaviors simply

of intimate partner violence,” Carlson says.

violence in the U.S., the Centers for Disease

because they don’t know how to resolve

“Domestic violence is about power and control,

Control reports, and South Carolina traditionally

conflict in a healthy way. There’s pushing,

and it’s much more difficult and even dangerous

ranks in the top 3 among states with the

shoving, name calling and yelling — it heightens

to address in a traditional counseling protocol.”

highest domestic violence homicide rates.

and then calms down. There are distinctive

For marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors, evidence of battering

While the data is still incomplete, he says

differences between that and situations where

patterns are emerging. “Typically, we don’t

one person fears for her life.”

see people who have argued for years where

or abusive control in a relationship is a red flag

From the outside looking in, those different

that traditional counseling techniques are likely

typologies of partner violence might seem too

choking the other,” he says. “Whether it’s safe

too dangerous to employ, says Ryan Carlson,

subtle to matter, but for professional counselors

to talk about an incident after the fact is a

an assistant professor of counselor education in

the differences are powerful. Couples

key indicator — if someone isn’t punished for

the College of Education.

experiencing conflict but without the more

bringing up a past incident and the person who

insidious elements of abusive power and control

was in the wrong admits to being in the wrong.

“Violence, whether it’s physical or verbal, is a complicated thing,” Carlson says. “The majority of my research focus has been on helping

can often benefit from traditional counseling.

“I think we can do a better job training future

it suddenly escalates and one of them starts

“But if the perpetrator says, ‘Well, you forced my hand' instead of taking responsibility, that

counselors better understand who they’re

counselors, to give them effective tools so

sitting across the table from — to understand

that they can see if the violence is situational

would be troubling.”

the different types of intimate partner violence.

or if it is more about control,” says Carlson,

therapy session years ago who recounted how

“The danger is that we might place a victim

Carlson remembers a couple in a group

who teaches graduate students studying to

their 3-year-old daughter surprised them one

in a situation to share something that he or she

become school counselors, marriage and family

day by repeating what she had heard them say

might be punished for later. When one person is

therapists and mental health counselors.

to each other.

exerting control over the other, there’s no even playing field.”

Working with researchers at the University

“She told her mom that she appreciated that

of Central Florida on a five-year grant funded

she always made dinner for her and told her

by the federal Office of Family Assistance,

dad that she appreciated him always taking a

can be more safely addressed in traditional

Carlson has helped develop an assessment of

shower when he got home from work,” Carlson

counseling, Carlson says, especially those that

different types of intimate partner violence. The

says. “The parents had been practicing that

don’t fit the classic pattern of one partner

assessment includes an intervention aimed at

affirmation with each other; kids pick up on

exerting power and control over the other. In

reducing relational conflict.

healthy behaviors as well as unhealthy ones.”

But some forms of intimate partner violence

fact, most violence that occurs in relationships is not about either of those things, he says:

“People routinely use the term domestic violence, but from a scholarly perspective

T

VOL. 28, NO.9 19

SYSTEM EQUATION

USC LANCASTER: GOOD CHEMISTRY

BY PAGE IVEY

Chemistry instructor guides lab assistant to satisfying conclusion.

Jill Castiglia had known Ashley Garris since Garris was in high school. That's how the University of South Carolina Lancaster chemistry instructor knew she wanted to hire Garris as her lab assistant when Garris arrived on campus as a freshman.

Garris worked in Castiglia’s lab for three years, helping to prepare and set up for student experiments.

She learned more than chemical formulas from her former high school teacher.

“Ms. Castiglia knows what you’re capable of before you do,” Garris says. “She was always there to encourage me. Office hours were irrelevant to her.”

For Castiglia, this extra involvement is giving students something she never had.

“I did not have a good mentor,” she says.

“So I try to help students as much as I can.

Sometimes, they hate chemistry. And I tell them it’s just as important to find out what you don’t like as what you do like.”

Castiglia found her love of chemistry and teaching quite by accident.

“I was a teaching assistant for a professor and I was scared and nervous, but I had so much fun,” Castiglia says.

For Garris, Castiglia was key in a very big decision she had to make: Changing from a nursing major to pharmacy. She now is in her second year at the College of Pharmacy on the Columbia campus.

“I was very nervous about switching majors,” Garris says. “But Ms. Castiglia talked me through it. She encouraged me to be a leader.”

All the extra time to spend with students is in part simply a function of the size of the campus, Castiglia says.

“One of the advantages of USC Lancaster is students have more interaction with professors,” she says. “The chemistry club has its office just down the hall and is surrounded by professors’ offices.”

In Garris’ case, the connection was double because Castiglia had taught her in high school.

Castiglia has spent 28 years teaching — 22, high school; six at USC Lancaster. She even found chemistry by accident: It was her minor but when she first applied for a

Ashley Garris and Jill Castiglia

teaching position, chemistry was open and not her major, biology.

Now at Lancaster, Castiglia teaches chemistry 101, 102, 105, 107 and 111 and 112 for science majors.

She was awarded the 2017 John J. Duffy Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes innovative teaching at a USC system campus.

“I probably do nag more than the typical college professor, but part of my job is to teach them how to be college students — what to do and what not to do.” T

ENDNOTES The 107 student ambassadors in the University Ambassadors program, run through USC’s Visitor Center, provide hundreds of campus tours to parents and prospective students each year. In the process, they develop a greater appreciation not only for their university but for what it means to be part of the greater Carolina family, as we learned talking to senior Lea Howell at this month’s Meet & Three (page 10).

“I feel like this university has the best of both worlds — you can get a personalized education and the best opportunities of a large public institution. You might sit in a classroom with 250 people, but they’re never 250 strangers. They’re 250 fellow Gamecocks, and if you needed anything you could ask any one of them and they would do whatever they could to help you in any way.”