The Daily Beacon

Proving that ‘Big Ideas’ start with students Victoria Wright Arts & Culture Editor

Melodi Erdogan Assistant Arts & Culture Editor Tuition increases, football coaches come and go, and bulldozers tear the campus down around us, but at the end of the day, it’s the student body that keeps the Volunteer spirit alive.

This year, The Daily Beacon has created an issue honoring the students across campus that keep UT in motion. What started as a creativity issue grew into a 12-page feature compilation of various students and their achievements outside of the

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classroom. The Beacon chose to highlight students who truly embrace their own big ideas.

They are the student artists, the campus trailblazers, the quiet innovators and the people behind the scenes who have made great accomplishments and reflect the big orange spirit of the school in their own uncompromising ways.

From all-around all-stars like Lucy Boateng, who balances late night study sessions and leadership roles on campus, to student-band Cerulia, who take their music beyond jam sessions and to the heights of symphonic melody, UT students get the job done. Take few minutes to learn about the only doctor

on campus who knows how to perform surgery on the radio waves through his work at “The Rock” at WUTK. To the artists, the managers, the entrepreneurs: we appreciate you.

UT students are not simply points plotted a graph tracking UT’s path toward the Top 25, but they are also innovators and visionaries whose contributions appear as more than GPA points and credit hours.

These students are sure to make more headlines in the future, bearing UT’s torch wherever creativity, imagination and innovation are welcomed.

The Daily Beacon is printed using soy based ink on newsprint containing recycled content, utilizing renewable sources and produced in a sustainable, environmental responsble manner.

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2 • THE DAILY BEACON

Thursday, February 21, 2013 News Editor RJ Vogt

CAMPUS NEWS

rvogt@utk.edu

Assistant News Editor David Cobb

dcobb3@utk.edu

Dancer f inds career path with hula hoop Samantha Trueheart Staff Writer

Glenda Jordan, a senior majoring in studio art with a concentration in drawing, figured out early in life where she could be herself and grow as an artist.

Jordan is a performance hula hooper, who learned of the art in 2007 when she was participating with her family in RAGBRAI, an event where teams bike across Iowa in seven days. During the day teams ride approximately 80 miles, but at night the groups participating get the chance to let loose and have fun.

“A girl hoop danced as a part of the show, and I had never seen it before,” said Jordan. “And I just thought it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen to that day. I knew at that moment, I just wanted to do it.”

Once Jordan received a hoop of her own, she began searching the Internet for websites and videos to learn more about the community and the art itself.

“I don’t know how long I sat there watching every video I could get my hands on,” said Jordan. “I practiced everyday in my living room and pulled aside the couches. It was this obsession, like I couldn’t stop doing it and every new trick I learned was this total new thrill of learning something.”

When Jordan came to UT in the fall of 2008, she quickly became known as the “hula hooping girl.” She used her hooping to win the 2010 show, “UT’s Got Talent,” and won against the popular local musician, Brad Blackwell.

Hooping has allowed Jordan to experience a variety of opportunities she would not have received without the art.

In 2011, she was featured in a music video by the band The Ghost Ballerinas, and placed fourth in “Hooping Idol”, a global Internet competition.

Jordan studied abroad during the 2010 spring semester where she had the opportunity to perform at Club Queen, a Paris nightclub. Jordan was treated like a celebrity when she received her own hair, costume and makeup stylist to get ready for her fire hooping performance.

“I got put on the podium and I did a fire performance in front of 500 people and everyone stopped and watched in the middle of the club,” said Jordan. “I felt so on top of the world. I remember that moment as knowing absolutely without a doubt that this is exactly what I wanted to do with my life, and I had never felt so empowered, excited and exhilarated and pumped up about performing.”

Because hula hooping is a rare performance practice, the Internet has helped aspiring artists to connect and learn about the evolution of the movement.

“The Internet is your friend and it’s an incredible resource because there are so many forums and chat rooms,” said Jordan. “It’s a growing movement, but often you don’t find other people who are doing it and the Internet is a great way to do that. And even if you live in the middle of nowhere, we do video jams and we will all dance in our living rooms together.”

Not only does the hula hooping community have an outlet

Tia Patron • The Daily Beacon

to meet new people and share interests, the community teams together in philanthropic events as well. World Hoop Day is on the first Saturday every October and raises money yearly for a charity of their choice.

“Right now there is a big national campaign called ‘One Billion Rising.’ A lot of them are getting together to help end violence against woman,” Jordan said. “‘Hoops for Haiti’ was a program that Hoopers started; that after the earthquake there was so much aid as far as with food and shelter but hoopers were concerned with people being happy in the element of play in their life. Hoops are so cheap if you make them in the most basic way and it’s a sturdy toy that you don’t need any batteries you need to play with, so we sent over thousands and thousands of hoops so these children could have some sense of play and still be a child in the midst of all this turmoil.”

Jordan’s mother, Gayle Jordan, said she has had the opportunity to see her daughter grow into a unique artist and recognizes the importance of supporting Jordan in doing what she loves most in life.

“If I truly describe my favorite way to watch her hoop, it’s in

the yard, when she’s not trying to learn a new skill, but she’s doing it just for the absolute joy it brings her to hoop,” Gayle Jordan said. “She’s smiling and happy, and you can watch her lose herself in the flow.”

Jordan said hula hooping has helped her find who she is as an artist and find happiness.

“I don’t who I would be without it,” Jordan said. “When I found hoop dance, it was this little plastic ring that I could manipulate my body and enjoy doing it; I enjoyed getting up and moving around and excising. It just made me so damn happy.”

Once Jordan graduates from UT this summer, she plans to launch her career as a performance hula hooper in Las Vegas,.

“I am 100 percent in support of her move to Las Vegas,” said Gayle Jordan. “She is right about having a limited amount of time in her life to have a career in performing, and she is wise beyond her years to take advantage of capturing that moment.

Not only do I support her move, I’ll do everything I can to help her when she gets out there to connect with contact people at clubs and events.”

Thursday, February 21, 2013

THE DAILY BEACON • 3 News Editor RJ Vogt

CAMPUS NEWS

rvogt@utk.edu

Assistant News Editor David Cobb

dcobb3@utk.edu

Tia Patron • The Daily Beacon

Fraternity brother bikes across country for charity David Cobb

Assistant News Editor When Stephen Blythe signed his bid to UT’s chapter of Pi Kappa Phi in the spring of 2012, he admits that he had very little knowledge about Push America, the fraternity’s philanthropy.

A year later, Blythe, a sophomore in business management, is preparing to spend his summer traveling from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., in order to aid that philanthropy in raising money and awareness for those with disabilities.

And he is going to do it on a bicycle.

“Yeah, it’s kind of scary that I have to ride 4,000 miles,” Blythe said. “But it’s worth it.”

Blythe isn’t an avid biker or one prone to whimsically jump at being presented with an athletic challenge.

Even if he was, the minimum of $5,500 he was required to raise in order to participate in the ride — dubbed “Journey of Hope” — and the surrender of his last summer as a teenager probably would have been enough to deter him from participating.

Rather, Blythe’s motivation for pedaling an average of 85 miles a day for more than 60 days during the year’s hottest months stems from another

source.

That source is Stephen’s 22-year-old sister Lexie Blythe, who suffers from tuberous sclerosis, a genetic disease which causes tumors to grow on vital organs, subsequently impeding social and mental development.

“It’s stopped her brain development very severely,” Stephen Blythe said as he explained the effect the disease has had on his older sister. “She’s 22 and has the mentality of around a 6-yearold.”

So when an older brother in the fraternity taught Blythe’s pledge class about "Journey of Hope," the daunting task of

biking 4,000 miles — which equates to 22 trips between Nashville and Knoxville — didn’t seem so insurmountable.

“It kind of made me think about it more,” Blythe said.

“But I realized what kind of opportunity I was being presented, and I knew it was something I couldn’t pass up.

“How many people can say they’ve not only raised thousands of dollars for people with disabilities, but they got to do it and ride across the country on a bicycle?” he asked rhetorically.

Scott Hatfield, a junior in business, completed the trek last summer and will ride

along in a van this year as a crew member. For Hatfield, the "Journey of Hope" offers a unique perspective.

“It's a summer experience unlike any other offered to college-aged men,” he said.

"The fact that you get to see the country in a way not many get the chance (to) and do something to impact people's lives is a feeling unmatched."

The Blythe family, including Lexie, is planning to travel to the West Coast to see Stephen begin his journey, and will be in Washington, D.C., as all the participants converge on the nation’s capital at the end of the journey.

In between, there will be

numerous “friendship visits,” where the crew stops to interact with disability groups with the intention of leaving behind more than just the money they’ve raised.

“One of my brothers that did it last year said that just seeing the joy that people get who know that you’re coming, the happiness it brings them is unreal,” Blythe said. “So that’s what I’m looking forward to.”

More information on Push America is available online at pushamerica.org.

The link to Stephen’s personal profile on the site can be accessed via the online version of this story on utdailybeacon.com

4 • THE DAILY BEACON

Thursday, February 21, 2013 Editor-in-Chief Blair Kuykendall

OPINIONS

bkuykend@utk.edu

Contact us letters@utk.edu

Going

Somewhere...Hopefully End draws childhood memories into reflection

Preston Peeden Associate Editor With graduation around the corner, I’ve started to do some soul-searching recently and I’ve come to a revelation — I am a huge nerd.

And by that, I don’t mean like a “Lord of the Rings” geek or a “Star Wars” fanboy, but rather much worse. I’m a LOTR reader, a George Lucas lover, a “Game of Thrones” fanatic, a Guy Ritchie movie aficionado and, though it pains me to admit this, a “Pokémon” player.

Before I go any further, I must admit that I only pick up my old handheld video games when I’m on a road trip or a flight, but I still can’t help but feel excessively awkward as I try to shield Ash Ketchum popping up on that two-inch screen from the judgmental looky-loos behind me in coach seating.

The reason I bring up “Pokémon” is not to set myself up as a social pariah, because, well, I already did that in high school, but also because I recently started to look back on my childhood hobby, and to be honest, I didn’t like what I saw.

I don’t think I need to explain “Pokémon” to anyone, because we were almost all alive for the initial boom that turned Pikachu into a monolithic childhood figure on the scale of Mickey Mouse and created the false idol of Professor Oak, so I’ll jump into my cognitive dissonance. Until about a month ago, I never realized how messed up the world of “Pokémon” truly was.

Think about it: the game is predicated on the belief that it is perfectly acceptable for preteen children to be turned out by their families, abandon all hopes of an education or a career, and join the road as a traveling dog-fighteresque character, who forces animals to live inside tiny little balls and fight other wandering

travelers’ animals for money and badges. It’s like the Boy Scouts mixed with cockfighting and hunting. So essentially it’s a set of values that every red-blooded American boy would need in a McCarthy America.

I doubt the creators of “Pokémon” were advocating the mid-2000s career path of Michael Vick as an occupational paragon, but there had to be some consideration for the actual content of the game based on the fact that “Pokémon” is actually short for “Pocket Monsters” (which, ironically, is a very inappropriate sounding name for a children’s game).

This realization was the most shocking blow to my childhood since I realized how creepy the entire premise of “Legends of the Hidden Temple” was (think about it, half naked men grabbing children in a maze, and only releasing them if they have enough money; it’s the Marquis de Sade coupled with Pablo Escobar kidnapping techniques). I was just so taken aback that something I took to be so innocent, and truly central to a part of my childhood, was not as innocent as I believed it to be.

I once had a teacher who told me, “Near the end, we all turn back into children,” and I guess that right now is my time for regression.

In three months, I will be a college graduate, a real person saddled with debt and a receding hairline; and that scares me.

Maybe I’m self-conscious about where my future will take me, or maybe I’m trying to poke holes in my idyllic past to make the uncertainty and the gravity of the future less scary, I don’t know. Either would be a natural response to what will amount to the first true independence I’ll have in my life. But whatever the reason, I can’t help but look at things like “Pokémon” and be skeptical at the lessons I learned from it.

One think I do know for certain is that if I try to emulate W.W.A.K.D. (What Would Ash Ketchum Do?), I’ll probably get a couple animal cruelty charges on my record.

— Preston Peeden is a senior in history. He can be reached at ppeeden@utk.edu.

SCRAMBLED EGGS • Alex Cline

RHYMES WITH ORANGE • Hilary Price

Columns of The Daily Beacon are reflections of the individual columnist, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Beacon or its editorial staff.

‘Harlem Shake’ videos corrupt original Urban Landscapes by

Lindsay Lee So there’s this new viral sensation called the Harlem Shake. It involves someone dancing around by him or herself for 15 seconds, sometimes in a crazy costume, followed by 15 seconds of a whole crowd dancing like crazy to the tune of Baauer’s electronic dance song, “Harlem Shake.” I still don’t really get it. It looks like it is more fun for the people in the video than anyone watching. But maybe I’m totally soulless, who knows.

But did you know that the “Harlem Shake” was actually originally a dance move from the 1980s? It is really hard to find footage of the original dance, but from what I can tell it involves stepping side to side while your shoulders move up and down quickly and rhythmically. The dance originated in Harlem, N.Y. Most claim the dance was created by a man named “Al B,” an alcoholic who would perform the dance on demand. The dance was named “albee” after his name, but then eventually was called the Harlem Shake.

The dance became mainstream in 2001 when rapper G. Dep featured it in his music video for the song, “Let’s Get It.” The real Harlem Shake is a piece of 20thcentury black urban culture and history. But this new song and the resulting “dance” phenomenon surrounding it has taken that piece of history and all but erased it from our public consciousness. It is next to impossible to find footage of people doing the dance outside of a couple of music videos from artists like G. Dep, Eve and Jadakiss, but with one click you can find thousands of videos of this new

“Harlem Shake.”

Obviously the vast majority of the people in these videos do not realize it, but all this flailing and shaking that these (predominantly white) people are doing is a parody of the original dance, which actually required skill and rhythm to master. Knowing about the original dance now, it is hard to watch these videos and not feel a bit uncomfortable at the sight of a bunch of white people culturally appropriating a piece of black culture for their own joke.

There are ways one can borrow pieces of a different culture and create something new while still giving credit where it is due and developing a creative dialogue. Plenty of examples exist of this positive inter-textuality between black culture and white culture: music that was originally solely part of black culture like jazz and rock ‘n’ roll was introduced into white culture, which in some cases helped promote the original black artists — though not always. Some black artists were completely and deliberately obscured when their music was stolen for the use of other white artists. For instance, Little Richard’s music was repeatedly taken by white artists and used for their own success.

This new version of Harlem Shake seems more a product of ignorance than of a blatant desire to erase a piece of black culture for the artist’s own gain. However, that doesn’t change the fact that this is exactly what is happening. But the damage is done. At least until another artist comes along and reworks the dance in a responsible, creative dialogue with the original, this nonsensical flailing is what people will think of for the next however-many years when they hear the words “Harlem Shake.”

— Lindsay Lee is a junior in mathematics.

She can be reached at llee26@utk.edu.

Gaps in journalistic skill threaten writing Committee of Infractions by

Greg Bearringer

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Blair Kuykendall

editorinchief@utdailybeacon.com

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LETTERS POLICY: The Daily Beacon welcomes all letters to the editor and guest columns from students, faculty and staff. Each submission is considered for publication by the editor on the basis of space, timeliness and clarity. Contributions must include the author’s name and phone number for verification. Students must include their year in school and major. Letters to the editor and guest columns may be e-mailed to letters@utdailybeacon.com or sent to Blair Kuykendall, 1340 Circle Park Dr., 11 Communications Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-0314. The Beacon reserves the right to reject any submissions or edit all copy in compliance with available space, editorial policy and style. Any and all submissions to the above recipients are subject to publication.

Some sports fans may remember the debate about whether Mike Trout, the precocious rookie, deserved the MVP award or if it should be given to eventual winner Miguel Cabrera. What made this debate particularly intense was that Trout was the favorite of statheads, while more so-called “traditional” baseball fans could not ignore the triple-crown, itself a combination of statistics (home runs, batting average and runs batted in) which are considered by the statisticallyinclined as a relatively useless set of statistics.

What was jarring about this debate was how bereft of intellectual capital the “traditionalists” were in any discussion about the definition of “value.” Every time someone familiar with what statistics are and what they do tried to explain why Trout was more valuable, “traditionalists” demurred. Skeptics were largely baseball writers, many of whom somehow still work for newspapers. Now, I don’t mean to compare all journalists to baseball writers; I wouldn’t dare do so. But they represent a significant gap in ability between old-line journalism and the modern blogosphere.

If you ever wonder why newspapers are becoming more and more obsolete even as they realize they are becoming more and more obsolete, the answer isn’t the Internet.

Well, OK, it is the Internet, but that is only the distal cause. The proximal reason is that the Internet made a better source of information available, of which “statistics” is only the most discordant with traditional news media.

Traditional journalism does relay information and opinions from people in the know to those who aren’t. Increasingly, though, those in the know are opening up another document

window and are just writing themselves.

Statistics, if described in terms of its most basic purpose, is merely a record of what happened. On that level, it is something very much like history, only stripped of narrative structure. However, once a set of data hits a certain threshold, it does something more than provide a narrative of the moment; it does in fact give you one measure of significance. A singular event is just that; it can only be unique if normal can be defined.

Of course, the only specialized knowledge available on the Internet is not limited to statistics. Historians, economists, philosophers, sports fans, politicos, movie snobs and even just generic, intelligent dilettantes are using their special skills and knowledge to write pieces of more substance than mere rumor mongering or off the cuff impressions of events. Telling me that Candidate X “looks uncomfortable” isn’t exactly worthwhile analysis of a politician’s speech.

If you want to be a writer, I suggest that you consider adding this series of courses to your schedule if you haven’t already: logic, statistics, physics and biology. Maybe even throw in a course on economics. I am not saying that these will come in specific use for you, or that your education is lacking if you don’t take them. Indeed, move your eyes a few inches in any direction to find a better writer than myself, and that is sort of the thing you need to be good at if you want to write for a living. But having a good grasp of even rudimentary math and science will place you above a shocking number of writers around today. You need not know enough to elucidate the finer points of matrix theory; you ought to know enough that when these topics come up, you can have a conversation instead of appealing to narratives which no longer achieve the rigor of amateur enthusiasts.

— Greg Bearringer is a graduate student in history. He may be reached at gbearrin@ utk.edu.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

THE DAILY BEACON • 5 News Editor RJ Vogt

CAMPUS NEWS

rvogt@utk.edu

Assistant News Editor David Cobb

dcobb3@utk.edu

Dance goes from hobby to ‘form of communication’ Emily DeLanzo

Managing Editor For most students, creativity is an idea on campus that often comes in the form of introductory paragraphs in essays and group projects.

For Chelsea Milligan, however, creativity comes from her favorite extracurricular activity and lifelong passion — dance. “My parents put me in dance for more of a social hobby to teach me patience to stand in line and wait my turn kind of thing,� Milligan, a junior in communication studies and theatre, said. “But over the years, it turned into something completely different.�

Around the age of 13, Milligan realized that dance was more than just an output for energy. “Eventually dance became my passion, and it forever changed my outlook on life,� Milligan said.

Dance helps Milligan express her emotions and provides a positive outlet for creativity.

She has experience dancing in ballet with pointe, jazz, tap, contemporary and hip-hop, but her favorite dancing styles are contemporary and jazz. “I think that those two specific styles are what communicates the beauty of dance by the wide range of possibilities and choreograph,� Milligan said. “Those two styles are the most provocative as far as emotion goes.�

As a full-time student, Milligan still manages to squeeze in time throughout the week in the studio. “At this point in my life, dance is a form of communication,� Milligan said. “It’s not just a hobby. It’s something I look forward to each and every day.

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or essays, I know that when I am in the dance studio nothing else matters. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s my life in that moment in time.â&#x20AC;?

One of the few initial downsides to attending UT for Milligan was the fact that the university does not have an official dance program. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The first few weeks I had at UT were hard because I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t find an outlet for my dancing,â&#x20AC;?

Milligan said.

After attending and viewing several dance studios, a dance teacher asked Milligan if she had heard about BOSS Dance Company on campus. Shortly afterward, she became involved with BOSS and discovered her niche at UT. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As a Vol and a member of BOSS Dance Company, I managed to develop so many relationships with other students who share my passion in dance that I will cherish forever,â&#x20AC;?

Milligan said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I had a teacher tell me that â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Once you share a stage with someone, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a friend for life.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; And that couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be more true about BOSS.â&#x20AC;?

Caitlin Burke, the 2010 to 2012 BOSS Dance Company president and graduate student in education, said Milliganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s love is evident through her dancing.

Burke met Milligan at the BOSS Dance Company audition. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She was just so captivating to watch. She just completely owned the stage and gave it her whole heart,â&#x20AC;? Burke said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s such a dedicated dancer and dances with life.â&#x20AC;?

Milligan was recently elected the president of BOSS Dance Company for the 2013-14 year.

Her love of dance extends further than just a night ballet class and choreography. Dance has been a part of her life, and Chelsea Milligan plans on continuing to share her love of dance with others. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Outside of the world of dance, Chelsea has the same great qualities,â&#x20AC;? Burke said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wherever she goes, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always full of joy and passion.

She lives her life in the same way.â&#x20AC;?

Tia Patron â&#x20AC;˘ The Daily Beacon

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD â&#x20AC;˘ Will Shortz 1 7 14 16 17 18 19

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ACROSS Knock on wood, say Arizona product â&#x20AC;&#x153;Gotchaâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hoo-oo-ey!â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;No clueâ&#x20AC;?

One who made the crew cut?

Locational nickname with origins in horse racing Amount to be divvied up Operation time Christian of film Antarctic body named for an Englishman Ring Raid target Noted series of paintings by Andrew Wyeth Face seen on many T-shirts 500, e.g.

39 Preparing to be shot, say 40 Capital of Australia: Abbr.

41 Googly ___ 42 Medical subject of Time magazine covers of 1967 and 2010 44 Wear down 47 Ă&#x2030;checs pieces 48 Symbol of might 49 Dweller on the Straits of Johor 55 Shipwreck cause, perhaps 57 Let up on 60 Melancholy, say 61 Private business, in slang 62 Tube warning â&#x20AC;Ś or an apt title for this puzzle?

63 Manages DOWN 1 Lightly roast 2 Enzyme suffix

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE W O O D A L F A D E F Y S P O A T E T R A D T A K E B P F F T U R L P E A R P I N U E G G B T H E Y S T S

P E C C K H A I T N A U R A N L P S E A N G

A P E R V O K E E R E B S D T O I O N A A P E X M L E O L O N I V E D E E R A T E R S O F E E I F T S

B R A I L L I L B A R D A R S E P H A N G

V E L V E T Y

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3 One encouraged to drink on the job 4 Midsize moon of Saturn 5 â&#x20AC;&#x153;As I Lay Dyingâ&#x20AC;? father 6 Dead center?

7 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Come hungry.

Leave happyâ&#x20AC;? sloganeer 8 Kentucky export 9 Being, in Bordeaux 10 License to drill?

11 Battle of Fort Brooke locale, 1863 12 Text alternative 13 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bonne ___!â&#x20AC;?

15 Chinese dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period

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21 Bummers

43 Encomium

22 Food with an inedible center?

44 Automaton of Jewish folklore

23 Censor, in a way

45 Feminist Wolf

25 Inconclusive

46 City intersected by I-76 and I-77

26 Like some extreme coincidences 27 Composer Menken and others 28 Loop of lace

49 Cut open 50 Architect ___ Ming Pei

29 Bitcoins, e.g.

51 Lucky figure in Chinese culture

30 Stuck, after â&#x20AC;&#x153;upâ&#x20AC;?

52 Ball

33 Top-of-the-hour broadcast, maybe

53 Roger of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Cheersâ&#x20AC;?

34 Reason for a food recall 35 Emulates a bear 37 Menu with zoom options

54 Gen. Robert ___ 56 Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about when you leave: Abbr.

58 Brewery sight 59 Prefix with thermal

6 • THE DAILY BEACON

Thursday, February 21, 2013 News Editor RJ Vogt

CAMPUS NEWS

rvogt@utk.edu

Assistant News Editor David Cobb

dcobb3@utk.edu

Lucy Boateng works for students, community Blair Kuykendall

Editor-in-Chief In 2010, Lucy Boateng sat in an upper-level political science class and declared she would go to law school. This spring, that vision she held for her future is becoming reality.

“With any college experience, what you make it is what you get out of it,” Boateng said. “I came here with the intent to do certain things. … It’s been fulfilling because I came here with a plan and I went for it.”

Boateng says she is motivated by a desire to contribute to the growth of the judicial system one day.

“I developed a passion for law at an early age with the desire to see justice everywhere I went,” Boateng said.

“This passion grew deeper as I got older through experiences that have helped me realize the reason behind it. I believe that everyone has a calling

and mine is to advocate for others.”

On campus, Boateng can be found working for others through her work as a residents assistant in Humes Hall.

As in most of the activities she discussed, Boateng’s focus is on her relationships with the people around her.

“It’s been so amazing in so many different ways,” she said of her experience. “Words can’t explain how amazing and impactful it’s been for me. The people that I have been able to come into contact with have really shaped who I am today and helped me grow in so many different ways.”

Boateng’s extracurricular involvement is extensive, including the Office of Minority Student Affairs, Catholic Student Ministry, SGA, the Black Cultural Programming Committee and several honors societies.

Mary Mahoney, the adviser of Phi Eta Sigma National

Honor Society, believes that Boateng has done an excellent job as the organization’s president.

“It has been a delight to work with Lucy Boateng,” Mahoney said. “Lucy joined Phi Eta Sigma in spring 2010 and immediately became involved as an officer fall of that year. Lucy takes her role seriously and works hard to be sure the members receive information and have opportunities to be actively involved in the organization.

Mahoney said that she has seen growth in the organization thanks to Lucy’s leadership and enthusiasm.

“She challenges us to do more and find ways to serve the university and Knoxville community,” she said.

Boateng is excited to see her work pay off.

“It’s been really amazing,” she said. “Since becoming president, I’ve seen participation go up, which is every

president’s dream.”

Outside of life in Knoxville, Boateng has worked to give back to her community in West Tennessee as well. During her summers in Memphis, Boateng worked as a law clerk at Martin, Tate, Morrow and Marston. She has also served as a fellow at the division of community enhancement in the Memphis Urban Fellows Program. While her experiences away from campus have been enriching, Boateng still refers to her experiences in management at the Black Cultural Center as broad.

“I was an office assistant and I was also a receptionist, so I was able to do a little bit of everything,” Boateng said.

Whether Boateng is shuffling sensitive documents for a law firm or pinning up glittery letters to a poster board in Humes, she works to advocate for the betterment of those around her. In essence, she’s a true Volunteer.

Tia Patron • The Daily Beacon

Young scientist turns tragedy into ambition Brooke Turner

Staff Writer

Tia Patron • The Daily Beacon

If ever students find themselves wandering the halls of Walters Life Sciences, chances are they have seen Melissa Lee, a junior in College Scholars with a focus on integrated neuroscience. Lee admits she is there more than any person should be.

“I spend most of my time in Walters because I have classes upstairs or I’m down in the lab, all the time,” she said. “My free time is either spent doing research or homework.”

Lee explores circadian rhythms and the disorders dealing with circadian rhythms that come about as a result of the misfiring of proteins in the brain. She said that, although she once planned on becoming a teacher, she found herself involved in research as a rising high school junior.

“I started doing research the summer after my sophomore year of high school at Vanderbilt,” Lee said. “I actually hated it at first, but it has become what I want to do for sure. … I want to go and do academia and do research.”

Lee hopes to merge fields

not traditionally combined in the scientific and medical communities, such as neuroscience and philosophy or poetry and psychology. Although some courses are a given in the field, she explained, combining these vastly different courses will hopefully give her a wider understanding of the brain.

A first-generation student born to immigrant parents, Lee has a unique perspective on the value of hard work.

After losing her father to cancer at age 11 and seeing her mother battle the disease as well, Lee refuses to overlook the opportunities she has.

“Don’t take your time for granted,” she said. “If you can do it, do it. If you can’t do it, do it anyway. Push yourself, because if you are not pushing yourself, if you’re not at your limit, then you can always do more.”

This refusal to waste time was reinforced by the former director of the Chancellor’s Honors and Haslam Scholars Programs, Dr. Stephen Dandaneau. As a member of the third class of Haslam Scholars, Lee said the program lit a fire under her.

“Dr. Dandaneau basically told us that the weight of the world was on our shoulders and we were responsible for it,” she laughed. “And that really pushed me into doing things — that was actually what got me and Mark Remec talking about starting our undergraduate research symposium.”

On March 16, Lee and Remec, also a College Scholar, will host the 4th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. The event provides students the opportunity to participate in research and present oral presentations on their subjects. The newly appointed vice chancellor for research and engagement, Taylor Eighmy, will serve as the keynote speaker.

“In the past,” Lee explained, “it was an honor’s symposium, restricted to honor students, but this year we opened it up to everyone. We’re hoping to make it a much bigger event, and maybe even start inviting other schools.”

Through working closely with Lee, Remec has experienced firsthand Lee’s conviction to push herself.

“She cares a lot about making this symposium the best it can be,” Remec said. “She wants to make it worth everyone’s time.”

Despite her impressive academic achievements, Lee said she does not necessarily “have it all together.” She struggles with time management and mentioned that all the hard work does take a hit on her social life.

Still, the ambitious Lee continues to feel the burn of the fire to enact change.

Her most recent undertaking, UTK Swipes for the Homeless, aims to bring an international 501(c)3 organization to UT. The program provides a means to convert unused student dining dollars and meals to much needed food for the local homeless. Although the program is still in its beginning stages, Lee has hope.

With a work ethic like hers, it seems that nothing — not cancer, research symposiums or even the hunger of the homeless — is too much to handle. It just may require a little more time in Walters Life Sciences; don’t be surprised if you see her there.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

THE DAILY BEACON • 7 Arts & Culture Editor Victoria Wright

ARTS & CULTURE

vwright6@utk.edu

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor Melodi Erdogan

merdogan@utk.edu

Comic artist features in numerous publications Thomas Cox

Contributor

• Photos courtesy of Alex Cline and Stephanie Phillips

“I guess you could say I am interested in three big things: illustration, animation and comic making.”

Two years ago, Alex Cline, senior majoring in studio art with a concentration in drawing, heard from a friend that The Daily Beacon was looking for comic artists. After submitting some comics, he was given the position and ever since Alex has made a comic for all five weekly issues of the Beacon and in that time became a design editor for the paper as well.

However, that was not his first foray into the art form. He had years of experience making comics well before then. It all started, he said, when he was given a project.

“A friend of my parents knew I could draw … and commissioned me to make a comic or something about their dog or something really stupid like that. I did it and really liked it,” Cline said. “I was probably like 8 or 9. I’ve been making them ever since I could gather thoughts enough and put them into picture form.”

He also says that watching

“a ton of cartoons” when he was young, and still to this day, contributes to why he makes comics.

Cline, at only age 21, already has a hefty resume. His third comic in MAD Magazine is about to be published, and his first comic in Sunday Morning Comics, a publication that publishes comics in “an authentic format,” is coming out as well.

“Alex’s illustration and comic work is extensive and worth a thorough investigation. His visuals are incredibly appealing in color, texture and content,” wrote Sunday Morning Comics on Cline’s work.

Beyond comics, Cline also has published illustration in MetroPulse and the Phoenix Literary Arts Magazine. Cline has also done additional work for music projects.

“My friends have a band called Calico Cat and I’ve done a lot of work for them in the past. I really like doing album artwork,” he said. “I also have friends who make movies and I like making the posters for that. Movie stuff is cool, but I suck at shooting actual video of people, but I can have that same kind of mindset on an animation ‘set.’”

Cline’s creative process goes

against the idea of doing what is expected. He said he tries not to make art about what he knows.

“People say write what you know, or draw what you know, or whatever but I try not to do that because I feel it is kind of unoriginal,” Cline said. “If artists only did what they knew, never experimented and went further, we wouldn’t have much of the art we have today. So what I try to do is just jot down the first thoughts in my head and try to get some stream of consciousness going and then link words together and get new ideas like ‘Oh, that’s interesting. I’ve never drawn anything like that before’ or ‘I’ve never seen anybody make a comic about that before.’”

This process creates original comics that, as Sunday Morning Comics said, “always prove for an oddly hilarious read. They travel through loose narrative from strip to strip, either concreting the relationship between characters or detracting from it.”

Cline’s comics and more of his illustration and animation work, as well as more information on him, can be found on his website, www.babycline. com.

‘The Doctor’ hits airwaves at WUTK Melodi Erdogan Assistant Arts & Culture Editor Graham Smith, a senior in communication studies, goes

by Dr. John Zazu on air, but you can call him Dr. John.

Production assistant and on-air radio disc jockey for WUTK’s “The Rock” radio station, Smith is in no way a doctor like his name implies.

But he does have a passion for performing surgery on music charts and dissecting the best albums for songs to air for listeners on campus and the Knoxville community.

“Just being Dr. John Zazu, it’s like an alternate persona for me,” Smith said of his favorite part of working at WUTK. “It’s probably just the goofy side of me. A lot of people say the voice doesn’t sound like it would come out of me, but I feel like it’s just me talking normal. I try to be energetic and get people into it.”

When Smith first started out at “The Rock,” he started as a disc jockey as many other students at the radio do so as to fulfill an out-of-class requirement for the JREM 175 class. Shiela Hawkins, office manager at WUTK, read Smith’s admission essay and let him in as a DJ. “When he first came on he was very technical, and I think that’s why he became so good,” Hawkins said. “He wanted to learn exactly how to do it and what to do so once he learned that he started to become his own person and he became his own personality.”

DJs are required to play songs from the rotations that they are given, and they only change what they play depending on requests they are sent, which is usually only one per hour. Smith said that DJs don’t get much creative freedom, which is why he enjoys being a production assistant.

“It’s pretty simple, you’re just running out songs and reading announcements and whatnot, the production staff is where it’s more fun,” he said. “You get to use programs where you manipulate sounds.

I’d be reading something and recording my voice and then I get to put it over music, it’s cool because it’s creative.”

Having hand-picked Smith at the beginning of his WUTK career, Hawkins said his personality makes him different and stand out from other DJs. “We are a student-run radio station so a lot of the time we have volunteer DJs or we have ones that have never been on the air before and are here for class credit. The difference is that Dr. John Zazu has a lot of personality on air and he distinguishes himself,” she said.

“A lot of the students that come in here are nervous and just try to follow the script and read everything perfect,

but Graham doesn’t do that.

He has more of a personality on-air and I think that’s what separates him from the rest of them. If you listen to him you know it’s him, but when you listen to the rest of them they all get mixed in with the crowd.”

WUTK, voted Metropulse’s Best of Knoxville radio station for seven consecutive years, has quite a reputation around the community.

However, Smith said he doesn’t feel pressure when on the air.

“Since we have the music department picking the music that goes on top rotation, it doesn’t really fall on most of the DJs, but a lot of them feel the pressure being on here,” he said. “There’s something about getting into the microphone when you’re not used to it and you kind of think about how many people are listening to you, it puts pressure on you, but I’m used to it.”

Publicity for Dr. John’s program and WUTK as a radio station is difficult to promote on campus, but one of the biggest things for listeners to do is continue listening, said Hawkins.

“Publicity on campus is rather hard, I’m a little bit older than most, so there’s a sort of apathy on campus towards all kinds of communications, the only pride they have for the college is in a sports team, but there

are other things that this college offers and the radio station is one. Students should be interested in this, because this is their music and this is what their generation is going to leave behind so they should jump in on the forefront instead of waiting for Top 40 to pick it up.”

Smith said that lots of listeners catch on to new bands from listening to WUTK. “A lot of stuff that we introduce through the music department, a lot of those artists end up breaking through,” he said. “Once we started playing them, people catch on to them, so those are the ones we play the most and those are the ones most people call in and ask for.”

Because listeners only hear his voice and don’t know what he looks like, Smith said it’s like having the best of both worlds, until he reveals his radio identity.

“People are starting to pick up on me,” he said. “This one guy I have been friends with for a couple months and I just never told him about working at the radio station and he asked me about what I did and I told him about WUTK, and he said ‘that’s all I listen to is 90.3’ and he asked me what my DJ name was and I said Dr. John Zazu, and he went crazy and he said ‘I can’t believe that it’s you.’”

Having had no experience with radio before, Smith said

he didn’t know how it would become something he loved.

“Anybody who thinks that they might be even a little bit interested in the radio to definitely come by the office,” he said. “It was definitely something that I never even thought I would be doing up until a year ago. It kind of popped into my life and now it made me super happy and gave me purpose. You never know what might end up being like that you for, and I feel like this is something that’s so good that if you put effort into it you’ll be repaid.”

After graduation, Smith plans on continuing in radio and pursuing his alternative, indie rock band, Spades Cooley. Singing and playing lead guitar while band mate Thomas Finn plays drums, Spades Cooley has recorded two extended plays and one full-length album in 2011 titled “God is Moving on Me.” Their next live performance will be March 16 at The Well.

“We started in 2008 and we play concerts around Knoxville all the time,” Smith said. “(Playing music) is what I love doing, more than anything I’d say.”

Smith said that he wouldn’t change a thing over his past two years of working at WUTK. “I’ve loved every little bit of this experience, I’ve worked here as much as I can and I’d do the same thing over again.”

Tia Patron • The Daily Beacon

8 • THE DAILY BEACON

Thursday, February 21, 2013

ARTS & CULTURE Folk band blossoms in Knoxville Victoria Wright

Arts and Culture Editor The cereus flower is a small desert plant that blooms from the dry land at night.

This natural anomaly inspired the name of the Knoxville band Cereus Bright, a duo comprised of Tyler Anthony and Evan Ford, who both believe that life is more than just the good, beautiful bloom — instead, it’s about the dry dirt that brought the flower to life as well.

At least this is the philosophy the two have stuck with since.

At around 11:35 a.m., Panera Bread on Cumberland Avenue is crowded with students, faculty and other lunch-goers engrossed in their personal conversations.

Ford and Anthony sit at a small table discussing their own business.

Anthony, songwriter, lead man and selfproclaimed “bearded human,” graduated from UT with a major in psychology and a minor in child and family studies.

Ford, background vocalist, instrumentalist and songwriting assistant, also manages most of the administrative matters. The junior in philosophy and economics sported thick, black-rimmed glasses and blonde hair.

The two regard Knoxville as their home despite having different birthplaces — Anthony from Memphis and Ford from Nashville.

“I guess we have all three cuts of Tennessee,” Anthony said.

Anthony had always been interested in music but said he struggled to find the style he wanted to play. Once he arrived at UT, he began playing with his former girlfriend in the summer of 2011.

“It was us singing together that really helped me find my niche,” Anthony said.

The two performed together until the end of the year, eventually deciding to part ways.

“Young romance mixed with young music endeavors just got really confusing and put a

lot of pressure on it,” Anthony said.

Once the new year rolled in, Anthony said he felt at a crossroads with what direction to take the band in. He decided to bring some friends together to play, but Ford stuck out, forming the group.

The two had randomly played together at Anthony’s brother’s house. Ford picked up the mandolin, never actually having played the instrument before, but managed to dabble well enough to impress his new bandmate.

“I’m about a year into mandolin,” Ford said, smiling.

From there, the two spent the remainder of the year solidifying plans regarding the band and making all the details concrete.

Their sound is folk, with both members playing guitar.

“Folk has this rich history of storytelling and moral education and introspection,” Ford said. “It’s sort of been lost recently, like folk has been turned into this sort of escapist love song tradition. We sort of want to go back to the communicative element of folk with stories and truth rather than trying to get away from the real world.

“Sometimes you need a mandolin to do that, I guess,” Ford chuckled.

Now with a plethora of folk artists rising to the top of the music charts, evident by the showings of various folk bands at the Grammy Awards, the current music scene has started to become more receptive to Cereus Bright’s style.

But, Ford argued, that pool of mainstream folk artists bypasses what the musical genre truly stands for, instead of maintaining the personal essence of the music.

It’s where Anthony says he pulls his inspiration from.

“I really believe that there’s a wealth of material and substance below everything we encounter,” Anthony said.

He said we live in a generation of “floaters,” those who live through life without mindful-

Arts & Culture Editor Victoria Wright

vwright6@utk.edu

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor Melodi Erdogan

merdogan@utk.edu

ness and take in the environment around them.

“They stay on the surface and kind of numb themselves from the real things,” Anthony said. “I always just kind of see the deeper things and feel the deeper things. Music helps me go to those places, but then also my hope and goal is that through the music I create or we create, we can take people there as well.”

Sometimes it’s the really menial things that inspires Anthony to write and sometimes it’s the most painful of life’s circumstances, such as performing with your ex.

But life is a range of experiences for Cereus Bright. It’s the good and the bad of life’s experiences. For them, it’s the whole journey that counts.

Even in a context of darkness and dryness a beautiful thing can still emerge, grow and thrive in that place.

Last November, the band released their first EP titled “Goldmine,” (available on iTunes), which marked the first show when the band really felt legitimate. For once the band finally felt complete as their ambitions have led them to seek opportunities outside of merely entertaining friends.

“It sort of put us in a different light,” Ford said. “We’re the real deal about this.”

“We’re trying to be at least,” Anthony said, smiling For now, the duo has plans to stay in Knoxville. In the digital age where musicians are boundless, thanks to social media mediums, they say there’s no rush to move to a bigger city to broaden their audience.

“It makes having to move to a big city less important,” Ford said. “For the time being, we’re really enjoying having a hometown that we can really count on. If we play our cards right, we can be the biggest show in the city.”

Cereus Bright will play at 8 p.m. on Feb. 23 at the Camp House in Chattanooga and again at 8 p.m. on March 8 at the Square Room in Market Square.

• Photo courtesy of Cereus Bright

Local prog band combines rock, folklore Preston Peeden

Associate Editor

• Photo courtesy of Cerulia

For the local prog rock band Cerulia, their journey through music didn’t begin with an impromptu jam session or a Grammy acceptance speechworthy eureka moment, but rather with a bet that grew out of a studio project.

“One of my friends challenged me to write an album once,” said lead vocalist and guitarist Kuyper Cummings, a senior in music. “I sat down

for like 20 minutes and started to write some stuff out, and I realized right then that what I came up with was going to be spread out for a while and need a band.”

With material in-hand, Cummings, who has a long history in the Knoxville music scene, started a selection process that would lead to the band’s current line-up of Blake Sensenbach on bass and vocals, Asher Coker, a senior in music, on drums and vocals,

and Chris Adams, a graduate student in music, on guitar.

“I had a bunch of friends who I knew were musicians and I found the best ones I could for drum, bass and guitar and was like, ‘Let’s record some music,’” Cummings said.

“I basically bugged them until they said they would play with me.”

Sensenbach, however, jokingly described the process as being more like a “draft” and less like a bugging.

“We got drafted is what we say,” Sensenbach said. “Once I got together with these guys, it all meshed really well.”

From there, the band played a few local shows and started to work on their sound, which Sensenbach described as “melodic post-metal” with a range from groove rock to heavy metal, and with influences coming from The Dear Hunter and He Is Legend.

That range, however, didn’t stop the band from having an early bump along the way.

“Our first show was at Coffee’z in Jefferson City,” said Cummings. “It seemed like there was going to be a good turnout, but there were only nine people there, and they all drove out from Knoxville.”

While the band has been touring throughout the state, they’ve also been hard at work on a grandiose four EP concept series called the “Wishing

Tree,” which is Cummings’ attempt to synthesize common folklore into under 160 minutes worth of music.

“Each volume represents a different part of the storyline that makes up ‘The Wishing Tree,’” said Cummings. “ …

Essentially it comes out of my love for mythology, folklore and historical fiction. So I took every piece of folklore that I could find and wound it into a single story line.

“It’s like how some people say that ‘behind every legend is a kernel of truth.’ Well this would be the one story that those legends would come from,” Cummings said.

So far the band has released only one EP, which was their highly metal-influenced second volume, but, like the depth of the band’s own style, the other three installments will show different creative and musical sides of the quartet.

“We wanted to have a group where we could play every single genre style we wanted too,” said Cummings. “… And that’s where the story line of our EPs comes from. As the story line progresses, so too does the genre.”

While the band works on completing the series (their next EP is expected to be released later this spring), one issue that stands out for them is the pride they take in local music and arts in Knoxville.

“I hear people say ‘Knoxville is dead,’” Cumming said. “And I don’t understand that. We have so much talent here that it’s ridiculous.”

Not only is Knoxville brimming with talent in the band’s eyes, but arts in general hold a special place in their hearts.

“Local artists, local musicians, regardless of what they do, they’re all jobs,” Sensenbach said. “And they may not be taken as seriously as other ones, but there is a lot of devotion and passion put into it. … And we may not be making a lot of money, but we get a lot of satisfaction out of it.”

Regardless of their genre, their path or even the jobs they’re holding, Cerulia will continue to make music that tells their stories, their way.

“Our musical style is always changing,” Sensenbach said.

“We might not even sound the same in 10 years.”

Cerulia will play at the Longbranch Saloon on March 1, with On My Honor and Your Favorite Hero.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

THE DAILY BEACON • 9 Arts & Culture Editor Victoria Wright

ARTS & CULTURE

vwright6@utk.edu

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor Melodi Erdogan

merdogan@utk.edu

Photographer applies unique skill to craft Victoria Wright Arts and Culture Editor Shannon Herrron, a senior in two-dimensional art, won a scholarship at the UT School of Art which took him to San Francisco this past summer.

The work he created during his stay was displayed at the Gallery 1010 in downtown Knoxville, eventually leading to 23 of his pieces being sold.

But somehow, the tall, brunette art student still feels the occasional vulnerability of having his work displayed.

“I think letting people look at your work is really difficult,” Herron said. “You do art so people can look at it, but when it’s really personal and you put it up on the wall — you really don’t know what people think about it. You may think one thing but they’re reading it completely differently. Sometimes I feel very exposed.”

While his focus is photography, Herron also adds different colors and patterns to his work to create a certain image or place focus on a particular element.

In one piece from his time in California, Herron captured a picture of buildings from the San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art. He transformed the window panes into hot pink parallel lines bordering a picture in an effort Herron said to “accentuate the two-dimensionality of the piece and de-emphasize the illusion of depth by bringing the attention to the surface.” From there, the picture was transformed to a backlight film and put in a light box for display.

“I try to make work that is just as aesthetically pleasing as it is conceptual, so that it can be appreciated just as much by an engineering major as a studio art major,” Herron said. “I know my audience and I want to make work that they can relate to and get excited about.”

Herron started art in high school, but when he arrived at UT, he never expected to make it a career path. Similar to other students, he wandered through college major limbo, never quite finding a subject that piqued his interest until

his sophomore year when he officially became an art major.

He dabbled in various art techniques until he settled in two-dimensional art.

“You have to take a lot of introductory classes so you get to explore each medium,” he said. “I was drawn most toward drawing and photography.”

So where does he get his ideas? It really depends, he said.

“A lot of it is just my life and growing up in the South and growing up specifically as LGBT in the South,” said the Maryville, Tenn., native.

But it’s not just what’s going on around him that he uses as inspiration. Herron said he also uses personal muses for his work, such as John Baldessari and professors in the art program. “(Professors) push your concepts really hard,” Herron said.

Baldwin Lee, professor of art in the photography component of photo/media concentration, has worked with Herron in three courses from introductory to an independent study class.

“It was clear from the outset, because of obvious talent, tenaciousness and originality, that Shannon was unlike other students,” Lee said. “Rather than fulfilling the requirements of assigned projects, Shannon saw the assignments as an opportunity to explore the depths of his abilities and an occasion to showcase his imagination and inventiveness.”

And he does work. During the week Herron spends about 15 to 20 hours huddled in his personal studio.

“A lot of that time is brainstorming,” Herron said. “Even if you don’t have an idea, you just have to work ... You really have to self-motivate.

It’s really difficult sometimes.”

Currently, Herron has been applying for graduate school, hoping to continue his studies in fine arts and eventually become an art professor.

As far as family support, Herron said he didn’t receive the cliche parent reaction to a child art major.

“They told me to do whatever I wanted to do as long as I do something,” he chuckled.

• Photos courtesy of Tia Patron and Shannon Herron

Student dips into business success R.J. Vogt News Editor

• Photos courtesy of Jake Rheude

Jake Rheude, a junior in marketing and entrepreneurship, believes in what he calls “The Cortés Theory,” which refers to a peculiar decision made by Hernan Cortés during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.

In front of his entire army, Cortés scuttled his ships upon reaching the shore.

“He said, ‘You’re either going to die trying, or you’re going to succeed.’ And they succeeded,” Rheude said. “I have no other source of income this summer, so I’m either going to die trying or I’m going to succeed.”

This theory explains why, instead of seeking internships and fellowships to fill the summer months, Rheude has his sights set on developing his own company, SummerSett Foods.

The Cincinnati, Ohio, native grew up snacking on buffalo chicken dip, which is a simple mix of cream cheese, chicken, buffalo sauce and cheese. Upon reaching Hess Hall during his freshman year, however, Rheude realized he would be unable to make his own dip in the dormitory.

“I only had a microwave and a fridge in my room, so I drove to Kroger because I assumed someone made frozen buffalo chicken dip that I could buy,” he said.

He was wrong; none of the aisles held a microwaveable buffalo chicken dip. He could not even find chili dip, a staple of his Ohio groceries.

“After that experience, I realized that Cincinnati is the only example of companies providing frozen dip in grocery stores,” Rheude said. “Every other dip product is either in cans or in the dairy section.”

An idea was born, and Rheude and his original business partner, Cedric Brown, immediately began developing SummerSett Foods. Their product, Tennessee Bills Buffalo Chicken Dip, provides exactly the snack Rheude searched for as a freshman: a microwaveable buffalo chicken dip.

In three years at UT, SummerSett Foods has won or won money from every business competition they entered, including the 2011 Vol Court and the Boyd Venture Fund.

After business competitions came bigtime investors, and Rheude secured a $155,000 investment from an angel investor last semester. He is currently in negotiations with Pilot, Food City and Kroger, and plans to have his dip in local stores soon.

“Hopefully in the next two to three months they’ll be on shelves somewhere,” Rheude said. “That’s the hardest part, because once we are on shelves it’s easy to go to competing stores.”

Eventually, he hopes to be acquired by a larger corporation. In the food industry, notorious for frequent acquisitions, small companies that manage to make ripples in the sales of bigger brands often receive million-dollar buy-outs.

Rheude plans to grow SummerSett enough to garner that million-dollar interest.

“It’s the kind of thing where if I can get in 25 percent of grocery stores across the nation, I’ve become extremely sellable to a big brand,” he said. “And that’s the whole goal.”

Pursuing his goal with SummerSett keeps Rheude constantly on his phone in between marketing classes, fraternity meetings and wrestling practices. Though

he said classes get in the way of making money, he noted the perspective his marketing classes give him on package design, especially after running into a market dilemma.

“I eventually went to grocery stores and started walking up to random women in the freezer aisle,” he said. “Every single one of them said they would not buy my product.”

The women cited nutrition concerns about sodium, and 90 percent said they would rather showcase their culinary talent with personal recipes.

Before Rheude could panic, however, a man interrupted one of his interviews, saying, “That sounds like it would go great with beer.”

“Then he walked over to the hot pockets and started shoveling them into his cart,” Rheude recalled. “That was the light bulb switch; I realized who my target market was. It was these men who needed easy snacks and did their own grocery shopping.”

Adrien Raucoules, a sophomore in mechanical engineering, fits into that market. Although he has a meal plan through UT Dining, Raucoules said his weekend eating options are limited.

Upon hearing of the buffalo chicken dip, Raucoules was sold.

“I would totally eat that,” he said. “I would probably eat it right now.”

With guys like Raucoules all over Knoxville and the “Cortés Theory” providing plenty of motivation, Rheude is confident in his future.

“I’m trying as hard as possible to get this generating revenue before I graduate so that I don’t have to go work for someone,” he said.

10 • THE DAILY BEACON

Thursday, February 21, 2013

ARTS & CULTURE

Arts & Culture Editor Victoria Wright

vwright6@utk.edu

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor Melodi Erdogan

merdogan@utk.edu

TVC sketch show debuts tonight Liv McConnell

Staff Writer The first of its kind, UT’s student-produced sketch comedy show, “The Chaser,” premieres today on The Volunteer Channel.

The idea for the show, which is largely the morbid brainchild of junior Sam Habib, originated when the journalism and electronic media major realized how tired he was of seeing the university’s film and production equipment go widely underutilized.

“My first couple of semesters at UT, I was bored a lot until I realized being bored is the most useless thing to be, really,” Habib said. “I had this idea to start a comedy club and I thought of how there’s a TV station here and nobody really knows about it. So that’s how the show sort of began.”

A coalition of around 45 students saw promise in this idea and banded with Habib; thus, the staff of “The Chaser” was born.

“I was really lucky to have funny friends and people around me who are comic geniuses,” he said. “Even the audio and crew members are hilarious. Everyone’s sense of humor meshes together really well.”

For Jay Brown, sophomore in advertising and appointed head writer, the show promises to fill a space that has been historically empty at UT. “It’s college humor for college students made by college students,” he explained. “That hasn’t really been done here before.”

Brown knew he wanted to be involved as soon as close friend Habib aired the idea.

“I did a lot of theater in high school and like to think I’m relatively funny and can entertain people,” Brown surmised.

“We just want to make people laugh. A lot of the material is pretty raunchy.”

Habib, who laments the fact that some of the content won’t

make it past censorship, said that while the formatting of the show could likely garner some SNL comparisons, his main intent is ingenuity.

“All of the sketches so far are ending in very morbid ways so I guess that could kind of be considered our thing, but I don’t want it to fall into a specific category,” he said. “I want it to be this completely original, student-created dark comedy.”

Mike Wiseman, director of TVC and staff adviser for “The Chaser,” sees considerable potential in the success of the show itself and in the talent of its creators.

“I think the sheer amount of time these kids have dedicated to making it happen is reason enough for people to check out the show,” he said.

“Nobody’s forcing them to make this. It isn’t a school requirement. They’ve been working their butts off over this show because they believe it’s a great idea.”

This semester, the staff of “The Chaser” has been undergoing a rigorous weekly workload of free form pitch meetings on Monday, sketch writing on Tuesday, read-throughs and role assigning on Wednesday, and studio and production time Wednesday through Monday.

Beyond entertaining his fellow students, Habib is excited by the prospect of the show actually utilizing TVC’s largely neglected amenities.

“TVC’s been around for years, and it’s frustrating because I’ve always thought they could be doing so much more with their amazing equipment than they have been,” he said. “The Studio broadcasts Jimmy Cheek’s speeches and sports shows, like ‘The Derek Dooley Show.’ But that’s all athletics, which is what basically runs this campus anyway.

All of this equipment is owned by the Journalism Department, which I think shows a crazy lack of creativity in its usage.”

“The Chaser” aims to

change this while providing the university with an honest and relevant mode of expression.

“It’s important because it’s from the community of UT to the community of UT,” Habib continued. “We’re trying to localize the sketches as much as we can. People here need something they can relate to and an outlet of sorts to better the community.”

“The Chaser” creator, whom Wiseman describes as having a “completely unique” sense of humor, sees comedy as being instrumental in pointing out the absurdity of life.

“Life’s hilarious and often ridiculous,” he said. “Why not laugh? To me most things are absurd, so I laugh at all the formalities and social norms we have.”

Habib believes that this attitude would be beneficial if extended to society at large.

“What’s the need for all of these formalities? It’s like, you’re in a business meeting and you’re gonna fart and then later on in life you’re gonna die,” Habib said. “If people were allowed to fart in business meetings without it being frowned upon by society, then people would be like, this is ridiculous, everything we’re doing here is ridiculous.”

The first episode, which promises to be rife with the aforementioned sense of absurdity, airs at 9 p.m. on TVC, or campus channel 65 and digital channel 196. Sketches will also be viewable via YouTube and Vimeo.

“People should check it out because we have poured our blood into this show,” Habib said. “Literal blood. Like buckets of it, right on the TV. I mean, if people watch it they watch it, you know? It’d be awesome if they do.”

Brown summarizes one’s reasons for watching the show more concisely.

“Watch it to be entertained,” he said. “We’re here to make them laugh and hopefully keep coming back for more.”

Tia Patron • The Daily Beacon

Thursday, February 21, 2013

THE DAILY BEACON • 11 Sports Editor Lauren Kittrell

SPORTS

lkittre1@utk.edu

Assistant Sports Editor Austin Bornheim abornhei@utk.edu

NeSmith follows sports, passion Lauren Kittrell

Sports Editor

Vincent Walker • The Daily Beacon

Graduate assistant’s job crucial to Vols Troy Provost-Heron Staff Writer

For Johnny Paul Cole, studying sports management as a graduate student at UT isn’t the only part of his daily routine.

When not in school, Cole spends his time as a graduate assistant coach for the men’s basketball team where he works closely with assistant coach Mark Pancratz, who is the coordinator of video scouting.

“I mainly help our video coordinator Mark Pancratz with film,” Cole said. “During the game, my responsibilities are live scouting our game. I’ll split it up between offensive possessions and defensive possessions, and then as soon as the game is over Coach (Cuonzo Martin) can go back and look at every time we scored, every time we gave up a score, and different things like that that he likes to at. I also help our coaches get ready for their upcoming scouts, so I get the next opponent’s last five or six games and have that on their computers ready for them to breakdown. I really do anything and everything in between.”

Helping the video coordinator isn’t the only responsibility that Cole has. He also works with Director of Basketball Operations Houston Fancher.

“My other responsibilities include helping Coach Fancher with setting up visiting team practice times and assisting the visiting teams when they come in and make sure they accommodated for,” Cole said. “My other regular duties include doing laundry every day, coming to practice, and being on call to rebound for any of these guys whenever they want to get shots.”

Cole has been with the team for six years now, getting the job before he had even attended a class here at UT. “Everybody’s path to getting a job like this is different,” Cole said. “Mine started before I was a freshman here. During my orientation visit I came to the basketball office and asked them if I could work and they said if I showed

up when I got back on campus they’d give me a job. When I was a freshman, there were 10 of us that started out and by the time I graduated three of us had survived, so it’s survival of the fittest for sure.”

For big sports fans, the idea of spending a lot of time around players that we watch and cheer for is a dream. It’s a dream that Johnny Paul gets to live every day, but that’s not the way he looks at it.

“The way I look at it is all of these guys are just kids,” Cole said. “That’s one thing you forget when you watch them on TV. You think, man they should be better or they should think about this, but the one thing I like about it is seeing that they’re all kids just like me, they’re all going to class everyday, having to do tutoring and all that stuff, but it just happens to be that they play basketball while they are here.”

One of the major perks to Cole’s job as an assistant coach is that he gets to travel with the team and has been to every game since the 2007-2008 season.

“I was put on full-time traveling duties halfway through my freshman year and I’ve traveled to every game since the ‘07-’08 season,” Cole said. “My favorite road trip that I’ve ever been on was in the ‘08-’09 (season) when we went to Allen Fieldhouse at the University of Kansas.

(Kentucky’s) Rupp Arena is up there, but Kansas was one of the most memorable road trips I’ll ever have.”

Some may think that a graduate assistant coach can’t be an important part of a team’s success, but Mark Pancratz believes Johnny Paul is a crucial asset for the Vols.

“He’s vital to our day-to-day operations and the success of our program and all the little things behind the scenes,” Pancratz said. “He’s a hard worker and he’s really good at what he does. He’s knowledgeable about his craft and the things that he helps us with, and he’s willing at any time of day, no matter the day, to come in and help any assistants our Coach Martin do whatever is necessary to be successful that day.”

When Lindsay NeSmith came to Tennessee in 2009, she didn’t know anyone.

All she knew was that she had a love for UT athletics.

Though NeSmith grew up in Atlanta, her dad was a UT alumnus and encouraged her to pursue a passion for the orange and white. NeSmith truly bleeds orange.

When it came time to choose a college, there was no hesitation.

“I’ve been a Vol fan my entire life,” she said. “I have pictures of me in little Tennessee shorts and checkered shirts. My dad went to school here so I’ve wanted to come here my entire life.

It was kind of a given that I was going to come to UT.” What NeSmith didn’t know was what her time at UT would look like. Her major and extracurricular activities were wide open spaces in her mind. The sports broadcasting major said while she always loved sports and broadcast video, she didn’t really consider the major until her senior year of high school.

“I always loved it, but didn’t really think about it as a major until my mom told me that I could get in-state tuition for UT if I majored in sports broadcasting,” she said.

“I guess it was the end of my senior year that I realized it was possible and then midway through my sophomore year (in college) I realized I could see myself doing this, that I liked it.”

So NeSmith pursued sports journalism as a career option.

She headed to Knoxville as a freshman with no idea what the next few years would hold.

“I didn’t know anyone when I came to UT, so I knew that I needed to get plugged in somewhere and I wanted to get to know people,” she said.

NeSmith began a college life filled with extracurricular activities. From joining the leadership team with her campus ministry to co-producing a sports show

Tia Patron • The Daily Beacon

with The Volunteer Channel, NeSmith filled every waking hour of her time at UT. “That’s when I joined Volunteers for Christ. It’s been a huge role in shaping my college career as far as who I hang out with and who I know and who I feel like I’ve become,” she said. “I did TVC and I was so nervous because everyone was so intimidating. I didn’t know anything. I was assigned to do a tour of Neyland (Stadium) and I had never used a camera before and I was so nervous and then, a few years down the road, I was producing a show.”

Now, NeSmith works with UT’s athletics broadcasting to produce content for utsports. com. She said she enjoys this most because she has more opportunities to be creative and work with a less structured mindset.

“With athletics, we get to use all this equipment, we get to learn and we get to make things look cool. They kind of model my favorite show on ESPN (E:60),” she said. “They have a cool feel, good stories and fun music, and it’s what I would want to do. It’s cool to be around talented people and learn from them.

“Working with athletics has changed the course of what I thought I wanted to do,” she said. “I thought I would do reporting or just different things, but I just love working there and the relationships you build with the athletes because you’re working with the univer-

sity. It’s a different feel.”

In the span of three and a half years, NeSmith volunteered at TVC, co-produced “Sports Mecca” (a show on TVC), interned at WVLT, shot and edited a show for WVLT, work with UT’s athletics broadcasting, interned at ESPN and was an active participant with her campus ministry, VFC. “It’s just cool to see the journey from freshman year to now,” NeSmith said.

Looking back, NeSmith said she feels like the luckiest student on campus.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better college experience,” she said. “From meeting friends who are gonna be friends for life, growing as a person, getting plugged in at VFC and growing spiritually, finding a passion for my career and going to a big SEC school, all across the board, I just feel like I have had a killer college experience.”

As NeSmith prepares for graduation in May, she said she hopes to work for a university, doing exactly what she does here. While she said she can get nervous about moving on from the comforts of college, NeSmith said she’s ready to learn and grow as a professional in her field.

“I think I’m gonna learn a lot on the job and I’m gonna make mistakes, but think I’ve done enough and put in enough time and experience,” she said. “I’ve prepared myself the best that I could with all the activities and extracurriculars that I’ve done.”

12 • THE DAILY BEACON

Thursday, February 21, 2013 Sports Editor Lauren Kittrell

SPORTS

lkittre1@utk.edu

Assistant Sports Editor Austin Bornheim abornhei@utk.edu

Smith, Prewitt manage team, life Austin Bornheim

Assistant Sports Editor Being a student manager for an athletic team has the propensity to be an exhausting and thankless job.

They have to arrive hours before practices each day and stay late to clean. On game day, they arrive hours before game time and are stalking the halls of the arena or stadium long after fans, media, coaches and players have all gone home.

They are forced to miss class due to travel and rarely are allowed the opportunity to visit home. All with little chance to be recognized by anyone other than those they are with on a day-today basis.

Even with all of this, Lady Vols’ basketball managers Ashley Smith and Jordan Prewitt wouldn’t trade their jobs for anything.

“This experience is one — and I think I speak for us both — that we wouldn’t trade for anything,” Smith said. “It’s awesome.”

Prewitt, an assistant manager and a junior in communication studies, and Smith, head student manager and a senior in marketing with a collateral in entrepreneurship, both took different paths to the Lady Vols’ program but share a common passion for their work.

For Smith, she has been with the program since her freshman year on campus.

“When I was a junior in high school ... I had a friend that was a manager for the Alabama football team,” she said. “Junior year, getting ready to go to college, I knew that I wanted to go to UT and he said ‘Hey, on the women’s basketball team they have a staff of managers and you should really look into it.’ Then after my senior year of high school and playing basketball for X amount of years, I was burnt out and tired of playing but knew that I still wanted to be around the game, and what better program to come to than (UT).”

In Prewitt’s case, he began his college career involved in student organizations before joining the athletic department in the media relations and eventually

finding his way onto the operational side this year.

“I was an orientation leader, a welcome leader and an alternative break trip leader. I did the whole student involvement thing with SGA,” he said. “Then, I kind of found my niche in athletics for Debbie Jennings last year on the media side. I was fortunate enough to be asked to come to the operation side and come here and work for a specific team.

“I loved doing the media side, but at the end of the day I was like ‘I want to be in there. I want to be with the team, know the team.’”

While in season, the majority of their time is spent in the gym or on the road, but the two try to find time to live a regular college life as well.

“People always think that we hang out with the team constantly when we are outside of work but no. We want to hang out with our own people that aren’t wearing orange and white,” Prewitt said.

“When we don’t have practice or a game we are like ‘OK guys, we’ll see you later,’” Smith laughed.

The two try and get out around Knoxville, but most of the time they just enjoy taking a breather from their busy schedule.

“Honestly, I just like to relax and take it easy,” Prewitt smiled.

“Today my class got canceled this morning and it was like ‘finally, I get to sleep past 8 a.m.’”

Trying to juggle working a job with long hours and school work has taught Smith and Prewitt to manage their time as best as they can.

“We receive a schedule before each week that gives us an idea of when we’ll have practices, what days we’ll be off and whatnot,” Smith stated. “So we just learn the importance of using a planner, prioritizing and communicating with people involved so at the end of the day you get everything done.”

Both are heavily involved in local churches too.

Smith regularly sings at Sevier Heights Baptist Church’s Wednesday night, college-oriented service, “The Walk,” but even

that hobby is time consuming.

“Usually we will rehearse on Monday nights. Basically my schedule is: class, practice, then I am rushing over to Sevier Heights Baptist Church to rehearse for a couple of hours,” she said. “Then Wednesday, getting there about an hour before we actually have the show and then doing it.”

Smith also occasionally sings the national anthem at Lady Vols’ games and other Tennessee athletic events.

“For me it’s been something that has been a big plus because I use to not get up and sing or anything,” she said. “The team is what has actually caused me to really step out and be confident.”

Prewitt is currently pledging the Christian fraternity, Beta Upsilon Chi. “It’s been a huge blessing for me to do that,” Prewitt noted.

“It is taking up a lot of my spare time right now but it’s been awesome.”

Upon graduation in May, Smith wouldn’t mind working for a business or being an event planner, but hopes to find a career that allows her to stay in athletics.

“Next step will be either be a graduate assistant with a Division-I women’s basketball program or the NCAA. If any internships, obviously sports related, come up to go for those,” she said.

For Prewitt, he is trying to enjoy his remaining time in college, but has a goal to be in sports management when he graduates in 2014.

“I will work here for another year and then I plan on getting my masters in sports management ... I’m trying not to think about it too much right now since I still have another year left,” he joked.

Most of all, the two managers try to enjoy the opportunities the Lady Vols program provides as much as possible.

“Yes you make some sacrifices along the way, but it pays off to know the team, work with the team, travel and just experience a form of life a lot of college students — and even adults when they get older — won’t get to experience,” Smith said.

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