Berry Magazine - Winter 2019-20

BERRY

Winter 2019-20

Alexa, is John Herd there?

The electronic diva’s shopping abilities come to you compliments of John Herd (06C)

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BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

VOL. 106, NO. 1 | WINTER 2019-20

BERRY Features

12 Distinguished Alumni Awards

Presenting the 2019 recipients

13 Alexa, is John Herd there?

The electronic diva’s shopping abilities come to you compliments of John Herd (06C)

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16 Santa suit-ers

19 Who done it? (or didn’t) Forensics expert Chris Robinson (95C) solves mysteries

39 Alumni Weekend and Work Week

Tristan Olarti

Elizabeth Rasmusson (02C) and her Kris Kringle costume company, J&R Santaprises

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Berry traditions in photos

45 In the end, it’s about the students State Department internship provides global view Brant Sanderlin

Departments 2

Inside the Gate

• Ford Auditorium: Tuning up a treasure • $2 million gift for new animal science facility • Angel Mason named athletic director • BCIL gets first director

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Well Done!

10 President’s Essay

The miracle in the mountains

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STUDENT Matthew McConnell

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27 News from You

Class notes – the original social media

22 The Campaign for Opportunity

• Animal Science: Taking the next step • Alumni show how they’re “Always Berry”

Brant Sanderlin

40 Thank You

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Student photographer Emily Thompson Cover photo by Tristan Olarti, Amazon BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

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INSIDE THE GATE

BERRY magazine

Published for alumni and friends of Berry College and its historic schools Editor Rick Woodall (93C) Contributing Writer and Editor Karilon L. Rogers Staff Writer Debbie Rasure Design and Production Craig Hall Chief Photographer Brant Sanderlin News From You and Gifts Listings Justin Karch (01C, 10G), Jeff Palmer (09C, 11G), and students Cassie LaJeunesse and Kendall Aronson Contact Information News From You: submit online at berry.edu/classnotes or email classnotes@berry.edu Change of address: 706-236-2256; 800-782-0130; alumni@berry.edu; or Berry Alumni Office, P.O. Box 495018, Mount Berry, GA 30149.

Editorial: rwoodall@berry.edu; 706-378-2870; or Berry magazine, P.O. Box 490069, Mount Berry, GA 30149.

BERRY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION President: Jonathan Purser (85C) President-Elect: Patricia Tutterow Jackson (82C) Vice Presidents: Alumni Engagement, Chris Hayes (04C); Berry Culture and Heritage, Dr. Jennifer Dickey (77A, 80C); Financial Support, Aaron Chastain (15C); Alumni Awards, Stephen Williams (86C, 90G) Chaplain: Emmett Long (98C) Parliamentarian: Tim Howard (82C) Secretary: Chad Nash (13C) Director of Alumni Engagement and Philanthropic Marketing Jennifer Schaknowski Vice President of Marketing and Communications Nancy Rewis Vice President of Advancement Cyndi Court President Stephen R. Briggs

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TUNING UP A TRE A CEREMONIAL “WALLBREAKING” DURING ALUMNI WEEKEND

marked the beginning of an important LifeReady project meant to breathe new life into Berry’s signature venue for music education and perfor­ mance, historic Ford Auditorium.

Following a plan developed

by Kirkegaard Associates of Chicago – one of the nation’s foremost acoustics consulting firms – workers for JE Dunn Construction took to scaffolding high above the auditorium floor to install a new oak tongue-andgroove radius ceiling for the 91-year-old performance hall.

This addition, combined with new wood-carved paneling, adjustable banners and sound reflectors, will result in an enhanced acoustical experience for performers and audience members alike.

As part of the comprehensive $6.3 million project, Berry’s physical plant staff renovated classrooms, practice rooms, offices and hallways within the adjacent music department, completing their work in time

for students and faculty to return found expression through their for fall semester. The auditorium experiences as students in Ford remains closed as work Auditorium and the surrounding continues.

Ford Complex.

In addition to the acoustical Those women include Betty enhancements, other renovation Anne Rouse Bell (52H, 56C), an highlights include an enlarged, accomplished vocalist whose accessible stage; new arched name will grace the interior seating configuration; redesigned recital hall thanks to a surprise balcony with improved gift from her husband, Robert; sightlines; refurbished entrance and the late Margaret Weaver hall and restrooms; restored Faison (36C), whose family – led historical features such as the by daughter and son-in-law building’s stained-glass cathedral Nancy and Vaughn Bryson – windows; and new mechanical have named the entrance hall in and multimedia systems. Project her memory. There’s also Dr. completion is anticipated in Ouida Word Dickey (50C, FFS), early January. whose 90th birthday challenge “Our students deserve a venue spurred significant support for that inspires their instrumental the renovation in 2018. and vocal performances and Bell and Dickey took turns enriches the experience for the with mini sledgehammers at the listening audience,” said May “wall-breaking,” as did President Steve Briggs. “This Audrey Morgan, an honorary renovation achieves that goal alumna and Berry Board of while renewing and celebrating Visitors member whose late the features that make this such a sister, M. Bobbie Bailey, will be memorable and venerable place.” remembered with the naming of More than 400 alumni and the Ford stage. friends have supported the project to date, many giving in Betty Anne Rouse Bell raises her hammer honor of alumnae whose lives at the "wall-breaking" for Ford Auditorium.

Brant Sanderlin

ALL SMILES ...

$2 MILLION GIFT spurs momentum for new animal science facility

ASURE

Brant Sanderlin

AN ANONYMOUS $2 MILLION COMMITMENT has

Leif Atchley (19C), a talented trumpeter now pursuing graduate study at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, is excited to see his alma mater make such a lasting investment in its students and the arts.

“I think this is a really powerful statement,” he said, “that Berry believes in the power of music to change the lives of the students who come here.”

sparked excitement for the new classroom and laboratory building planned for animal science, the final capital priority in Berry’s LifeReady Campaign. That gift – combined with support from Berry board members and other alumni and friends – has pushed fundraising for the $15.7 million project past the halfway mark.

Summer 2020 is the goal for completion of funding and start of construction on what will be a 23,000-square-foot addition to McAllister Hall, home of the rest of Berry’s School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences. Turn to page 22 to learn about the need – and opportunity – presented by this new space for Berry’s largest major, as seen through the eyes of a 2019 alumna.

Rome Tennis Center at Berry College:

INDOOR COURTS, HOTEL TO COME

Rendering of new indoor facility

NEWS EARLIER THIS YEAR THAT THE CITY OF ROME WAS MOVING FORWARD WITH PLANS FOR SIX INDOOR COURTS at the Rome Tennis Center at

Berry selected for public good initiative BERRY IS ONE OF JUST 25

student photographer Matthew McConnell

COLLEGES NATIONWIDE

tapped for participa­tion in the Humanities Research for the Public Good initiative of the Council of Independent Colleges. The program is an effort to promote student research; Brant Sanderlin address issues of public signifi­cance; and showcase the rich archival, library and museum collections held by participating institutions.

Under the guidance of Associate Professor of History Dr. Christy Snider (pictured with student Cameron Mallett), Berry’s project will highlight some of the most significant events and residents from Rome’s local struggle in the 1950s and 1960s to achieve racial justice and interracial harmony.

Mallett, a history and secondary education doublemajor, is leading a small team of undergraduate students researching material in the Berry Archives and ultimately producing a portable exhibit, lesson plans and workshop materials for use by Rome City Schools.

Berry College – already one of the nation’s largest facilities of its type – has been punctuated by confirmation that a hotel will rise on college-owned property adjacent to the site.

Planning for a best-in-class branded hotel is in its early stages, with completion expected in 2021.

Hotel Equities Group in Atlanta, which works closely with widely recognized top-tier hotel brands, will manage the facility.

The center, a public-private partnership involving Berry and other entities, is one of a handful of complexes nationally honored as a United States Tennis Association “Outstanding Tennis Facility” in 2019. It has welcomed thousands of players and spectators for local, state, regional, national and international events since opening in 2016 as a 60-court outdoor facility located on 30 acres of Berry-donated property adjacent to Mount Berry Mall. The addition of indoor courts will make it even more competitive in the bidding process for major national events, which typically require the availability of indoor courts in case of inclement weather.

The indoor courts will be completed in time for the 2020 and 2021 Atlantic Coast Conference men’s and women’s tennis championships, which have been awarded to the center.

BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

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INSIDE THE GATE

viking News MASON NAMED DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS June 1 as the program’s director. Identified through a national search, Mason assumed the role “excited to join a team of professionals that is focused on serving students first.”

“There is a bright future ahead for Vikings athletics,” she said of the program, which has enjoyed notable success as a member of the Southern Athletic Association and NCAA Division III. “And I am honored to have the opportunity to grow with the athletic and greater campus community.”

Mason came to Berry from Pomona-Pitzer in California, where she served as senior associate athletic director and senior woman administrator. Previously, she was associate director of athletics and professor of physical education at Hamilton College, assistant coach at Butler University, and head women’s basketball coach and assistant athletic director for operations at Vassar College.

She is active nationally in service and leadership for the NCAA, Women Leaders in College Sports and the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association.

Mason holds a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from Butler, where she played Division I basketball, and a master’s degree in sports management from California University of Pennsylvania.

“Building on her experience as a player and coach, Angel has established a strong national reputation through administrative positions at top colleges across the country and in her leadership work with the NCAA,” said President Steve Briggs. “She is well-poised to help our program flourish.” student photographer Matthew McConnell

Professional payoff BEASLEY (20c) AND ELIJAH HIRSH (19C) both had aspirations of

playing their sports professionally – Beasley on the baseball diamond, Hirsh on the basketball court. Both worked hard for those goals, and that work is paying off big-time.

Hirsh, who made history as the first member of Berry’s men’s basketball team

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to be named Southern Athletic Association Player of the Year, signed a two-year professional deal with Elitzur Kiryat Ata, which competes in one of the top Israeli basketball leagues and is a member of FIBA Europe, a zone within the International Basketball Federation.

Beasley, son of Berry baseball Head Coach David Beasley, became the first Viking Leigh Hadaway (19C)

BERRY STUDENT-ATHLETES DYLAN

in the NCAA Division III era selected in Major League Baseball’s First-Year Player Draft when the Washington Nationals took him in the 32nd round.

Notably, he was the only junior in Division III drafted in 2019.

The right-handed pitcher and shortstop was previously chosen by the Atlanta Braves

in the 40th round of the 2016 draft but opted to play at Berry instead.

This summer, he got his first taste of professional baseball with the Nationals’ rookie affiliate in the Gulf Coast League and quickly earned promotion to the Auburn Doubledays of the New York-Penn League.

courtesy of Cindy Beasley

student photographer Rette Solomon

BERRY ATHLETICS HAS A NEW LEADER IN ANGEL MASON, who joined the staff

CHAMPIONSHIP for Allie

Robertson (19C) headlined an impressive list of individual accomplishments for Berry studentathletes last spring.

Robertson closed her Berry equestrian career in whirlwind fashion, walking with her classmates at spring commencement before jetting to Syracuse, N.Y., to compete in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) National Championships the following day. The new animal science graduate made the most of the experience, claiming top honors in novice western horsemanship – her second national title at Berry – to help pace a sixth-place team finish.

Afterward, she once again donned her gap and gown to take part in a special commencement just for teammate Sarah Cooper (19C), whose IHSA competition schedule prevented her from walking with her classmates at Berry. Chief of Staff Debbie Heida flew to Syracuse to oversee that ceremony.

“We had caps and gowns on top and boots and spurs on the bottom half, which was so perfect for us,” Cooper said. “It really made up for the sadness of missing the real graduation. It was the perfect way to wrap up nationals and my Berry career.”

TRACK AND FIELD

Genesis Leggett was named Southern Athletic Association Women’s Field Athlete of the

Year for the second time in her Berry career after winning SAA titles in the hammer throw and shot put, breaking the school record in the latter with a toss of 42 feet, 2.25 inches.

Other Berry SAA track champions included Will Knowlton (19C) in the 1,500-meter race; C.J. Stone (19C) in the 100 and 200; Tucker Smith in the pole vault; and the men’s 4x100 relay team of Stone, Collin Mathis, Kelvin Wilson and Jordan Wilson.

EQ Media

A NATIONAL EQUESTRIAN

SOFTBALL

Kaitlin Seger (19C) earned recognition as SAA Softball Player of the Year after ranking in the conference top 10 in nearly every offensive category, including hits (59), RBIs (46) and batting average (.418). The sports administration graduate closed her Berry career with the third-most home runs in program history (87) and ranks inside the top-five with 118 RBIs. GOLF

Preston DeSantis was a men’s golf honorable-mention AllAmerican and SAA Newcomer of the Year, as well as one of six players nationally to earn an individual bid to the NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championships. He also qualified for the 119th U.S. Amateur Championship, held this summer in Pinehurst, N.C. His dominating freshman season included a third-place showing in the SAA Championships.

Brant Sanderlin

Highest honors

Berry Center for Integrity in Leadership gets first director Dr. NATHANIEL PEARSON’S HIRING AS THE INAUGURAL ELVIN AND FLETA PATTERSON SIMS DIRECTOR of

the Berry Center for

Integrity in Leadership is the realization of the vision of many and the culmination of years of planning.

A major priority of Berry’s LifeReady Campaign, the center is dedicated to helping students develop a better understanding of ethical leadership in all aspects of life. Through classroom study, real-world mentoring, guest speakers and other programming, the center already has begun cultivating a deeper grounding in values and integrity while also providing practical experience in the day-to-day decision-making that integrity in leadership requires.

Existing initiatives include the Gordon and Joyce Carper Mentoring Program, a national model of excellence now in its seventh year of pairing Berry students with community leaders; the Cecil B. Wright III Lecture Series; and the Bowen and Barbara McCoy and Ted A. Owens faculty development grants.

Pearson began working June 1 to further the impact of the center through collaboration with faculty, staff, students and community partners.

His position is named in memory of Elvin (35C) and Fleta Patterson (35C) Sims and was endowed by a $2 million gift from their son, John Edward Sims, a retired Union Pacific executive.

Pearson is the former executive director of the Nerney Leadership Institute at Cabrini University and also has served as assistant professor of leadership studies at Cabrini and West Virginia University. He holds a doctorate in leadership studies from Gonzaga University and has taught a variety of courses on leadership development and theory. He also has a background in child and family counseling.

BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

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INSIDE THE GATE

Restoring a Berry landmark BARNWELL CHAPEL – THE SITE OF COUNTLESS WEDDINGS, CHURCH SERVICES AND OTHER EVENTS – HOLDS A SPECIAL PLACE IN THE HEARTS OF BERRY ALUMNI,

so it should

come as no surprise that many have invested in its ongoing restoration, both through gifts to the project and “sweat equity” during Alumni Work Week.

This comprehensive project began in March and will continue through year’s end. Work includes replacement of exterior logs, restoration of windows and installation of a new roof, as well as foundation repairs, updated electrical wiring and a new handicappedaccessible entrance.

“I think Martha would be very happy,” said campus preservationist Dr. Jennifer Dickey (77A, 80C). “We’ve tried to do things in such a way that she would say, ‘Oh, that’s how I’d want this done.’”

More than 200 alumni and friends have supported the effort to date, committing approximately $160,000 toward the $600,000 project.

Additional gifts can be made online at berry.edu/gift.

Before work began, planners analyzed archival photos to ensure historical accuracy when restoring the 1911 log structure.

According to Mark Simpson, assistant director of physical plant, one of the most challenging aspects was also among the most important – selection and preparation of the lumber, all of which was culled from Berry’s own slow-growth pines. Harvesting took place last winter, and processing was a lengthy undertaking.

“It took six months to get that done, but it’s worth it that the logs came from Berry,” he said.

While general contractor Crown Commercial Services has been responsible for much of the work, alumni have also lent their time and expertise, with Al Christopher (61c) leading a crew of 13 tasked with the challenging job of restoring the chapel’s windows during Alumni Work Week.

Barnwell is the latest in a long list of campus projects that have benefitted from Christopher’s considerable skills as a craftsman and woodworker, including the Christopher Browning Pavilion at Oak Hill. by student writers CASSIE LAJEUNESSE and KENDALL ARONSON photography by students NATALIE WEGNER and ALEX KILLINGSWORTH

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Logs used in the restoration of Berry's beloved Barnwell Chapel were harvested from the college's stands of slow-growth pines.

ALUMNI FEEDBACK drives new engagement initiatives A MESSAGE FROM YOUR ALUMNI RELATIONS STAFF

Earlier this year, we conducted a survey of Berry alumni to determine what events, resources and digital content would be most valuable to the entire community. More than 1,800 of you took the time to share your feedback and suggestions with us, resulting in actionable data that we have already begun to use.

One message we heard loud and clear is that you want more alumni events, particularly ones near where you live. And with such a large proportion of our alumni living in and around Atlanta, it only makes sense to host more events in that area.

With the support of a team of local alumni and under the leadership of a new staff member dedicated to alumni events, we are moving forward with a series of Atlantabased club events. We’re kicking things off this fall and are excited to host additional events in the spring.

A DIGITAL TAKE ON THE “BERRY BUBBLE”

Alumni who live within easy driving distance of Berry have many opportunities to stay connected with their alma mater, but not all of our alumni are able to make it back to campus on a regular basis. For that reason, we are developing a way for you to connect with fellow alumni digitally.

Nearly 1,200 of you expressed interest in joining a digital community, with 85% voicing a preference for Facebook. Based on your input, we are excited to be moving forward with plans to launch a new Facebook group for alumni that will provide a space for you to network, reconnect with former classmates, find alumni living in your area, share photos from your time at Berry and more. Keep an eye on your email for more information!

THANKS FOR YOUR FEEDBACK

Finally, we want to say thank you to all alumni who took the time to share your thoughts and opinions with us. Our goal is to foster a community in which you can connect with your fellow alumni and feel connected to your alma mater; your feedback and participation are key to our success.

Make sure to follow @BerryAlumni on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and check your inbox for emails from alumni@berry.edu for future updates!

HISTORY INSPIRES NEW LOOK

The results are in, and we have a new Berry Alumni logo! As part of the overall new branding for Berry College, we sought your input on the design of a new mark specifically for Berry Alumni; 83% of survey respondents chose the version above, utilizing the historic Berry shield. Look for it in such places as alumni mailings, event brochures and t-shirts, and, of course, Berry magazine.

Editor’s Note: We are honored that so many survey respondents – 78% – read Berry magazine, and that, in an increasingly digital age, this publication remains a primary channel through BERRY which you keep up with Berry AND each other.

Thank you for your support!

Five new proven leaders are lending their expertise and advice to Berry through membership on the Board of Visitors, an advisory group of alumni and friends that meets annually on campus. The board is headed by Chair Wanda Riggs Mack and Vice Chair Brian Brodrick (97C). New members are: • Gretchen Corbin, president and CEO of the Georgia Lottery Corp. and former commissioner of the Technical College System of Georgia.

• Jason McMillan (98C), BB&T senior vice president and regional corporate banker for the State of Georgia.

• Robert Swarthout (04C), co-founder of ShootProof, which assists photographers with such services as online photo proofing, studio branding and gallery security.

• Seth Turner (06C), a real estate professional in Washington, D.C., (formerly of Manhattan) who in 2019 earned placement on

Fall 2018

Summer 2019

Work of art

The love of Al (61c) and Becky (61C) Christopher

Miss Rodeo America Keri Sheffield (15C) ropes her future as a medical missionary

Alumni Awards 2018

SWAT

TEAM Baseball alum Clay Culpepper (07C) focuses on faith, family and the ultimate in teamwork

BERRY PEOPLE BOARD OF VISITORS ADDS NEW MEMBERS

BERRY

Doing it all

Micah Studdard (14C) breeds excellence at Lyons Bridge Farm

Washingtonian’s regional list of Best Realtors and Top Producers.

• Steve Wherry (80C), senior vice president and CFO for the Goldfield Corp., a provider of electrical construction and maintenance services in the energy infrastructure industry.

RETIREES EARN EMERITUS RECOGNITION

The following 2019 retirees have received emeritus recognition from the Berry College Board of Trustees: • Dr. John H. Graham, Professor of Biology Emeritus • Dr. Karen A. Kurz, Associate Professor of Teacher Education Emeritus • Mr. W. Rufus Massey Jr. (75C), Dean of Student Work Emeritus • Dr. Jeanne Schul, Artistic Director of Dance Troupe Emeritus • Dr. Chaitram Singh, Professor of Government and International Studies Emeritus • Dr. Martha Tapia, Associate Professor of Mathematics Emeritus

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WELL DONE!

Photos courtesy of Parker Roberts

Plasma physics for Goldwater Scholar Senior physics and math major Parker Roberts has big goals and even bigger dreams. He plans to earn a Ph.D. in plasma physics and then “contribute to the development of new technologies that will help humanity explore our universe and power our societies in grander ways than ever before.” Whew!

Currently, however, he is “merely” finishing his senior year at Berry after working this

summer on a powerful new thruster at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a 2019-20 Goldwater Scholar. Yes, we said Goldwater Scholar! He is the second Berry student in as many years to receive the nation’s preeminent undergraduate scholarship in the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics. Sarah Cooper (19C) was a Goldwater Scholar last year, and Daniel Alligood (17C) earned honorable-

Brant Sanderlin

The right stuff

Dr. Alan Hughes works with psychology student Caroline Stiles.

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Psychology Chair Dr. Alan Hughes has the right potential and credentials to be one of just 41 higher-education administrators nationwide chosen to participate in the Council of Independent College’s yearlong 2019-20 Senior Leadership Academy. The opportunity is meant to prepare prospective leaders to assume positions as the chief officers in any division of independent higher education, including academic affairs, student affairs, finance, enrollment management and advancement. Hughes has taught at Berry since 2007.

mention status as a junior in 2016.

“To receive the Goldwater Scholarship is to be inducted into a community of Americans who have done great things for the world by courageously pushing forward the bounds of what is known and possible,” Roberts said. “I find it simultaneously inspiring and humbling to be granted this opportunity.”

Posters don’t lie Director of Sports Information and Promotions Blake Childers (15C) brought national recognition to Berry when his decidedly “I am pumped” football poster earned third place and his “We definitely mean business” women’s soccer poster took sixth in the 2018-19 College Sports Information Directors of America Publication and Design Contest. The football poster also claimed first-in-district honors.

Berry’s division included institutions in NCAA Divisions II and III, the NAIA and the National Junior College Athletic Association. Photo credit for both winners goes to Berry student Matthew McConnell.

SHOTWELL

Brant Sanderlin

They are the champions

If you were going to name the most remarkable campus structure in the entire state of Georgia, what would it be? If you said what we think you said, then you affirmed USA Today’s decision to put Berry’s beautiful and beloved Ford Buildings on its list of America’s “51 most amazing university and college buildings.”

The list features one campus structure from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, including – just to drop a few impressive names – Duke University Chapel (North Carolina), The Cronkite School building at Arizona State, Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (Connecticut) and Notre Dame’s LeMans Hall (Indiana) with its majestic, often-photographed bell tower. Travel Channel was similarly impressed, including Berry on its list of “Stunning College Campuses in All 50 States (Plus D.C.),” while MSN, Trip Trivia and The Princeton Review joined the chorus by featuring the college on their lists of America’s most beautiful campuses.

When it comes to type 1 diabetes, Berry Trustee Steve Cage (74C) and his son, Spencer, truly are champions, especially in the eyes of the Indiana Chapter of JDRF – the leading global organization funding Type 1 diabetes (T1D) research.

The duo was honored with two very special awards at the chapter’s May Hope Gala in Indianapolis. The senior Cage received the Living and Giving Champion Award for his advocacy and generosity on behalf of JDRF, while Spencer was named T1D Champion in recognition of his accomplishments as a hockey player since his T1D diagnosis at 13. Several Berry friends were in attendance, including President Steve Briggs and Board of Visitors member Jeff Jahn (07C).

Like the champs they are, father and son (pictured center and left, respectively, with JDRF Board President Mike Manion) will continue their fight to help JDRF turn “Type One into Type None.”

What a value!

College Factual has ranked Berry in the top 10.4% of 1,510 colleges nationwide for value. So, if you have ever made a gift supporting Berry students, pat yourself on the back!

College Factual’s reasoning for the high ranking: Berry’s quality of education, combined with its overall low net price, delivers students a good value for the money when compared to other colleges and universities of similar quality nationwide.

That simply would not be possible without the century-plus tradition of support from alumni and friends. Why? Because during the 2017-18 academic year, Berry awarded more than $38.1 million in institutional financial aid, up more than $1.6 million from the previous year. Both merit and need-based scholarships are offered, and 98% of students receive financial aid. Donors make that aid possible. Also, students have the opportunity to engage in eight semesters of hands-on, skill-building, paid learning experiences through the LifeWorks (student work) program. Thank you!

Play it again, Sam Viking Fusion staffers have once again scored “Emmy-level” recognition from the Southeast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Zoe Robinson won in the News: General Assignment – Light News category of the organization’s annual Student Production Awards for “The school within a school: Berry students devote their time to early childhood education.” And Noah Syverson, Erika Becerra and Megan Duncan won in the Sports category for “Runs in the Family,” a feature story about Berry sprinter C.J. Stone (19C) and his Olympian mother, Dannette Young-Stone. In addition, Beth Anne DeKeizer (19C) earned a nomination in photography.

Student photographer Matthew McConnell

Name dropping (with USA Today)

Science education with bite Who knew that something sharing a name with a large-fanged venomous snake could be a positive force for student learning?

And that a Berry professor would be a VIPEr Fellow at the forefront of its goals? ’Tis true. Associate Professor of Chemistry Dr. Kevin Hoke is one of 18 scientists nationwide participating in an innovative study to develop, test and refine a flexible, foundation-level chemistry course through VIPEr (Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource): A Community for Teachers and Students of Inorganic Chemistry.

The study, titled “Improving Inorganic Chemistry Education,” is supported by the National Science Foundation’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program.

And whatever you think of the group’s reptilian acronym, the important bottom line is that Hoke and his colleagues will join forces with other inorganic chemists across the country interested in improving student learning.

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Dr. Stephen Briggs

The miracle in the mountains

I

t has been 77 years since Martha Berry was buried next to the college chapel, and yet her presence on campus remains strong. How is it that her ideas and actions continue to inspire when few other founders of peer colleges have had such lasting visibility?

First and foremost, Martha had a vision – of what could be, and so should be, and thus must be. She had eyes for the poverty and despair close at hand, and she turned away from personal aspirations and contentment in order to create a place of opportunity for others. Comfortable conversing with both wary mountainfolk on the backroads of Appalachia and people of privilege in the finest drawing rooms, she had a gift for seeing the potential in others and bringing out their best.

According to one description, this was one of her arts: “You rose to the occasion because she wanted you, willed you, to it.”

Such was the effect she had on Henry Ford, the richest industrialist and entrepreneur of that day. According to Pulitzer Prize-winning editor Ralph McGill, it was at Berry that Ford “somehow found ways to express best, and with most enjoyment, his gentle and humane qualities and instincts.”

Martha’s story has been told in multiple biographies, the most popular of which is Miracle in the Mountains, by Harnett Kane with Inez Henry (21H). First published in 1956, this account was reissued in 2002 but

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now is out of print. Because we continue to receive requests for copies, the college has decided to reprint the book, adding relevant photographs to various sections.

To be clear, this is not a professional biography. Written more than a decade after her death, it is based on firsthand research and interviews with a number of Martha’s contemporaries, but it is certainly fictionalized.

Some of the stories may well be truer in spirit than in fact. Still, these stories capture the essence of Martha’s resourceful and intrepid spirit, and they point to the nature of the “miracle” that occurred in the mountains.

The biography reminds us of the qualities and values that first defined the Berry Schools and remain central to Berry College’s mission today. Martha cared about the character of her students, and she believed responsibility was the backbone of character. She meant for Berry to be a community that thrived in its interdependence, with individuals discovering the best in themselves as they brought out the best in others – intellectually, practically and relationally.

In her mind, Berry was given in trust, and every member of the community was responsible to steward that trust: to care for one another, to keep the campus beautiful, to contribute to a particular area of work, and to run willingly toward a problem in someone else’s area when needed.

These are the themes woven throughout the book, and they find their roots in Martha’s own mindset and life’s work.

MARTHA’S CALLING

Kane tells a pivotal story about Martha immersing herself in a troubling and unfamiliar world shortly after the death of her father. Martha spent part of a summer with her friend, Emma, visiting the secluded homesteads of mountain folks and experiencing firsthand their generational poverty and hopelessness. Weeks later, Emma chose those very life circumstances, with tragic consequences.

Forever moved by these experiences, Martha came to believe that education was the only path out for children born into this cycle of poverty. For several years she labored to establish a handful of day schools, but with time, she understood that a more intense form of educational intervention was needed to provide a true gate of opportunity.

She envisioned an education that would give rise not only to a better life for individual students but also to healthy and prosperous communities. That insight led her to create a residential school, a community that could shape character as much as intellectual development and work skills. Such a community would serve both as a fertile medium in which students could thrive and as a model for them to emulate later in their lives.

In this sense, Martha’s aim was to educate and improve individual students in order that she might establish a new generation of healthy families and communities throughout the region.

MARTHA’S SINGLE-MINDEDNESS

Call it what you will – stubbornness or determination – but Berry’s very existence is the result of Martha’s tenacity. Ignoring the strenuous objections of her brother-in-law, Judge Moses Wright, she deeded away her land inheritance to start the schools. She launched the residential program despite the pessimistic reservations of her good friend and chief teacher, Elizabeth Brewster. She ignored a unanimous negative vote by her board of trustees and opened the school for girls in 1909 when funding for the nascent boys’ school was still precarious. Later on, in the Depression years, Martha continued to admit students without adequate funds to support them. One of her trustees, married to one of Martha’s strongest supporters, suggested pointedly that she be more prudent if she wanted to continue receiving gifts from the couple. According to Kane, Martha calmly replied, “I will keep on opening the gates wider for boys and girls who need it so desperately, even if I must lose the backing of some of my best friends.” The couple renewed their support.

MARTHA’S GENEROSITY OF SPIRIT

From an early age, Martha’s father noticed that she had “giving hands,” and he sought to guide her toward the kind of giving that would transform people: “How to give the wise way – that’s the question. If you simply hand things to somebody you destroy his pride, and when you do that you destroy him.

Let him take charity and he comes to expect charity. … But if you lend him seed and tools and let him make his own crop, he’ll keep

his self-respect.” How best to help those with need remains a contentious issue to this day.

Martha absorbed her father’s mindset, and it became the tenet of her life’s work and a founding value for Berry. When confronted with true need, no matter how dire, she felt an urgency to act and a confidence that something could be done.

“My simple desire to do something … became a determined resolution to devote my entire time and means to teaching [students] a way to help themselves.”

MARTHA’S EXPECTATIONS

Not surprisingly, then, Martha’s cardinal principle for her schools was that everyone must work. At heart, it was not a matter of finances. It was an ethic about how to improve the world, starting at your own doorstep. “We all work for one another here, and that’s the basis of the schools.”

This was the lesson that would extend far beyond the Berry campus. Kane tells the story of Carrie, who worked in a destitute community with little but a ramshackle school. Carrie had learned from Martha to work for a higher Master and higher pay than her salary check. She bought a stove out of her meager pay and organized a community work day. “The school needed furniture, and so I made those things. I learned at Berry to take what I had and make what I need.” This intrepid spirit is what Martha hoped for from an education of the head, heart and hands.

MARTHA’S WELLSPRING

Martha’s vision and life’s work were deeply rooted in her own faith, and she located her own work within a larger story. She kept a sign on her desk, “Prayer changes things.”

She also embraced humility. When the boys early on refused to wash clothes on the grounds that “we don’ do no women’s work,”

Martha offered them a seat in the shade while she set to scrubbing and splashing. They soon had a change of heart.

She was not afraid of doing the hard things and saw value in that for others. When she had a special interest in a student, she would find a way to give that person a tough challenge. For Martha, “The pursuit of easy things makes us weak. It is the pursuit of the difficult that makes us strong.”

MARTHA’S HOPE

Toward the end of her life, Martha expressed concern about the mission of Berry. She knew things would change necessarily but was resolute regarding its enduring values. She told the chair of the board: “My fear isn’t death, but that people, perhaps well-meaning ones, may try to make just another school out of Berry. I’d rather see the doors close.” She founded the schools to be different, and her prayer was to keep Berry as Berry.

What, then, was the miracle in the mountains? Perhaps it was the life-altering experience of a young woman daring enough to venture down remote highland paths. Or maybe it was Martha’s willingness to put aside her own rights and privileges to provide a way forward in the world for the 10,000 youth who attended Berry in her lifetime. Then again, perhaps the real miracle is how one person’s selflessness was multiplied beyond measure in the lives of those 10,000 individuals who ventured from Berry to improve the places where they lived and worked, to say nothing of the many thousands more who have continued to follow.

Martha conveyed her vision of what could be, and so should be, and thus must be in the form of a simple directive for life that defines the heart of Berry to this day: “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” B

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2019 BERRY’S HALL OF HONOR

Distinguished Alumni

Awards

Alexander “Whit” Whitaker (81C) King University president and retired U.S. Navy captain whose 25-year military career included decorated service in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps; he has contributed time and expertise to many civic, community and professional organizations, including work at Berry in advancement, as chief of staff and as secretary to the Board of Trustees.

Timothy B. Lusby (84C) A lifelong entrepreneur, first in the fields of biologistics and spinal and orthopedic devices and most recently as one of three founders of JRL Energy and subsidiary JRL Coal, the 2018 Harlan, Ky., Business of the Year that he serves as CEO.

Brant Sanderlin

Mandi Mitchell Photography

Outstanding Young Alumni

Service

Brant Sanderlin

Entrepreneurial Spirit

Brant Sanderlin

Achievement

Bekah Fortney Baxter (18C) A true servant-leader who started the Chosen Vessels nonprofit in 2016 while a Berry student and continues its work fulltime today by endeavoring to encourage, equip and empower leaders around the globe, with focus in Romania, Ghana and Greece.

Adam D. Newton (07C) An associate partner at Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting recognized equally for the impact of his investment portfolio management and his work on behalf of nonprofits – from Atlanta investors to Liberian cocoa farmers and from Fortune 100 companies to Myanmar refugees.

To nominate a deserving classmate for a future award, go to berry.edu/alumni/awards.

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Alexa, is John Herd there?

Are you an Amazon customer?

“Alexa, order batteries.”

“Alexa, add paper towels to my cart.”

“Alexa, reorder dog food.”

That Alexa. When it comes to voice shopping, it seems she can do more for you every time you turn around. And while you aren’t required to say please, even Alexa likely would appreciate it.

The truth is, Alexa’s expanding feature set actually stems from the rapid evaluation of her customers’ wants and needs.

“We are inventing new experiences, and we are continuously evaluating our current experience to find additional ways customers want to use this technology; we learn a lot from customers about how to move forward,” said John Herd, who leads a team of user-experience designers charged with developing your friend Alexa’s newest shopping features.

Alexa first was able to help customers reorder something already purchased through Amazon, like your usual paper towels or your dog’s favorite treats. Now, she’s learned to

Well, if you’ve ordered anything through Alexa lately, your entire experience – from Alexa’s replies to how she helped you check out – came to you compliments of Berry’s own John Herd (06C), designer of the electronic diva’s shopping abilities.

By Karilon L. Rogers

order new items, provide information on the best-selling items, and surface the best deals for you. Still, she can’t do everything for you that you can do for yourself on Amazon – at least not yet. But she’s trying.

“Ambient computing is a powerful technology that really aims to recede into the background of people’s lives, instead of forcing them to hammer away at their phones or computers,” Herd explained. “So if you’re, say, making biscuits, hands covered in flour, and you notice that you’re low on butter or milk, you can easily ask Alexa to buy the item right in that moment or add it to your shopping list so you can pick it up when you’re at the store later. But across the globe, customers are living unique everyday experiences and requesting that Alexa search for and purchase all manner of goods. This requires an amazing amount of intelligence.

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Photos on this and previous page by Tristan Olarti, Amazon

“Our global retail catalog contains literally billions of petabytes of information. Think about translating that to voice, to something that customers would find friendly and easy to navigate! One way we are attempting to do this is through something we call voicefriendly titles for each product. A simple, easyto-understand representation of each product on Amazon. From there, we start getting into more complex conversations around how to use natural language understanding and machine-learning models to predict what customers actually need to know about a product to help them make a purchasing decision or discover other products.”

You get it, right? And you knew that a petabyte is 1 quadrillion or, to say it differently, 1,000 billion. No? Well, it is complicated! Anyway …

If you use Alexa’s Shopping List, thank Herd and his team. They designed it. If you’ve attached your voice profile to your account so Alexa understands who in the family is putting what on the shopping list – a brand spanking new technology – thank Herd and his team. It helps you buy the right coffee for your spouse or lets you know which kid keeps adding all those candy bars.

His team also is focused on making online grocery shopping more convenient with Alexa through partnerships with Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market.

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Simply put, Herd’s imprint on a technology primed to explode is significant. Experts predict that the voice shopping industry will go from what is a $2 billion industry in 2019 to $40 billion by 2022.

“We are in a land-rush business with an emerging technology,” Herd stated. “There is a lot of ground to cover, and we can’t fish with just one pole, as the saying goes. We need to take risks, be willing to fail, and be in a state of constant learning from our customers. For us, it’s not about purchases, but engagement. We want customers to love using our product so they can spend more time with what matters – their family.”

Experts predict that the voice shopping industry will go from $2 billion in 2019 to $40 billion by 2022.

A NEW WAY TO TALK

Herd has always been a talker, so it’s no surprise he is leading the way in voice shopping. Born in Greenville, S.C., he came to Berry on a forensics scholarship and immediately found his calling. The communication major with emphasis on design, film production and speech participated in theatre and intramural sports as an undergraduate and held multiple student work positions, but for him, the forensics team was “home.”

“We went to something like 16 tournaments a year, which normally ran from Thursday to Sunday,” Herd recalled.

“Sometimes we would drive 12 hours or

more in a 15-passenger van on little sleep and too much coffee. We’d spend our college weekends competing from sunrise to sunset, performing for small crowds in the best suit our parents could afford, and then we’d turn around and drive 12 hours back. We bonded a lot, and I loved every second of it.”

His senior year, he placed third nationally in Persuasive Speaking for a piece on homeless veterans and had the opportunity to go to Boston with then-Forensics Director Dr. Randy Richardson. Herd met some of those veterans personally, and it affected him deeply. Such experiences – and the mentoring he received from Richardson and then-Assistant Director Chip Hall (95C) – stand out for him.

“Randy and Chip were big influences in my life,” Herd said. “Randy was like my second father, helping me become more professional, guiding my missteps and teaching me what it means to be an informed citizen.”

John and wife Samantha

LIFE BEFORE AMAZON

After graduating from Berry and earning a Master of Arts in interactive design and new communication technology from Florida State University (where he served two years as assistant director of forensics while pursuing his degree), Herd worked as marketing director for PIA (Professional Insurance Agents) of Florida and as an adjunct professor at FSU. He then served as an art director and senior UX designer for Bright Red/TBWA, a creative agency in Tallahassee, Fla. “At the time, I didn’t feel like I was reaching my goals. I really wanted to make a larger impact through my work, and I have always been a big believer in Amazon,” Herd explained about heading west to the high-tech giant. “Also, a big city like Seattle appealed to me with such a proximity to the outdoors. I like backpacking, fishing, skiing – getting lost somewhere deep in the woods helps me find balance and joy with the pace of Amazon.”

Photo by Xerxes Irani, Amazon

John and wife Samantha enjoy that lifestyle with their two dogs, Bailey and Bruno. Bailey is famous in Amazon circles as one of the “404 Error page” dogs (pictured above).

NICHE ACHIEVED

Herd has been with Amazon more than five years now, serving first as an art director with Amazon Media Group and then as editorial creative director of the Amazon homepage before moving to his present role with Alexa Shopping. He sees clearly how each of his past experiences – including his work in theatre, writing speeches and so forth – feed into what he does now.

“The steps I’ve taken in my education and career have led me to a job that inspires me and uses my skill set every day,” he mused.

“Those experiences in speech, business and design were interesting to me at the time, and now it’s incredible to see them come together. They help me in everything, from creating delightful experiences with Alexa to presenting my design to executive leadership.”

And he is more than happy with where he has landed.

“I think a lot of people wonder what it’s like to work for a company like Amazon.

It’s grown immensely since I joined, and we’re growing every day. I think the thing that makes Amazon really successful is our leadership principles that every employee takes to heart. They drive continuous improvement, and I think in many ways Berry’s values are similar.

“Just like we use our head, heart and hands at Berry, we use principles like Think Big, Customer Obsession and Deliver Results at Amazon. It’s a regular balance of being sharp, relating to customers and getting it done. One of our internal slogans is ‘Work Hard. Have Fun. Make History.’

Every day is making history. I walk in and design new experiences with a new technology that no one has ever worked on before – and if that’s not a reason to wake up and go to work in the morning, I don’t know what is.”

Editor’s note: Alexa, please ask John Herd if Berry is the best undergraduate college. B BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

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Elizabeth Rasmusson (02C) gets Santa fitted into his new suit.

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SANTA SUIT ERS By Debbie Rasure

Photography by Brant Sanderlin

E

lizabeth Rasmusson (02C) remembers the day her career took an unexpected turn as if it were yesterday, even though it was actually a very full seven years ago.

Her new direction? Due north. All the way to the North Pole.

An assistant professor of costume design and production at Kennesaw (Ga.) State University at the time, she was in the costume shop talking with colleague Brittany Johnson when a man called asking about having a handmade velvet suit altered. Busy with theatre shows and filled with dread at the prospect of sewing velvet, the pair turned him down without a second thought.

Two weeks later, the man appeared in their workshop wearing a red polo shirt – all rosy cheeked, with twinkling blue eyes and a snowwhite beard. Rasmusson and Johnson looked at each other and knew they had to help.

“Who can say no to Santa Claus?”

Rasmusson asked with a laugh.

The pair took “Santa Lou’s” suit completely apart and reassembled it, and he was delighted with the result. They sent him merrily on his way, never expecting to hear from him again.

But Santa is full of surprises.

A few months later, Santa Lou was back, asking for a custom spring look to wear to a Santa convention. Rasmusson and Johnson outfitted him with a pair of

crimson golf knickers, a matching vest and a Scottish tam o’ shanter cap. Not long after the convention, they realized their reputation as Santa’s tailors had snowballed and before long, they were buried in a blizzard of requests from professional Santas across the country.

“We thought, ‘If we’re going to do this, we might as well do it the right way,’” Rasmusson recalled.

Today, she and Johnson own J&R Santaprises, a Marietta-based costume company specializing in clothing for Santa and Mrs. Claus. Nearly all of their clients are from the United States, but this year they received their first request from an international Santa, a man from the Cayman Islands.

MAKING SANTA’S DREAMS COME TRUE

While many companies outfitting Santas simply alter factory-made suits to fit and, perhaps, add some bling, every J&R Santaprises suit begins with a roll of fabric and a customer’s dream. Rasmusson and Johnson talk with the clients about their wishes and the environment in which the suit will be worn.

“We want each customer’s suit to be truly special, created just for him or her,” Rasmusson said.

But sometimes getting that idea across to the client is difficult.

“People are so used to just buying off the rack that we have to work hard to get them to think big,” she said. “It’s almost like a bride getting a wedding dress. We encourage them to make a Pinterest board of suits they like, then we work with them to create that vision. It’s really exciting.”

While the classic red suit is a perennial favorite, some Kris Kringles want to be more distinctive, like the Texas Santa who requested a suit based on a Civil

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A complete suit takes J&R Santaprises an average of 200 hours to make.

War drawing. Rasmusson and Johnson recreated the look, making a Navy-blue coat embroidered with white stars to go with red-and-white striped overalls that he already owned, creating a patriotic look that the Santa wears for Independence Day parades.

As a special touch, the duo embroidered tiny snowflakes within each star, which are only visible close up.

Another Santa was missing the traditional “belly full of jelly,” or as Rasmusson likes to call it, “the cookie zone.” He wanted a suit to show off his body-builder physique, and the pair obliged with a tailored military look that included a cavalry bib and real fur.

Surprisingly, calls from Mrs. Claus aren’t that frequent. Rasmusson believes that’s because Mrs. Claus’ look isn’t as specific as Santa’s. Only about 10% of their customers are female, and the duo usually fashions Victorian-style dresses for Santa’s better half.

J&R Santaprises also is adept at designing suits that resolve some of Santa’s most vexing wardrobe issues, such as too-tight collars, jackets that prevent full range of motion, too-hot suit linings, and too few loops to support heavy leather belts adorned with extra-large brass buckles.

The pair has fixes for all these problems.

Their current challenge is to make fur trim removable so Santa suits can be dry cleaned without risk of the white fur turning pink.

A complete suit of pants or knickers, jacket, vest, shirt, boot cuffs, and hat takes J&R Santaprises an average of 200 hours to make and is not inexpensive.

“Their look is part of their job,” Rasmusson said about their professional customers who portray Santa for a living.

“The suit is a business investment, a tool to help make them look more authentic and be more successful in creating a magical experience for children.”

With such labor-intensive stitchery, Rasmusson and Johnson can take only 10 to 12 orders annually. And that schedule keeps them busier than a workshop full of Christmas elves all year long. To ensure 18

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delivery by Nov. 1, orders must be placed as much as a year in advance; J&R Santaprises keeps a waiting list.

FROM MOUNT BERRY TO THE NORTH POLE

Neither theatre nor costume making was on the Augusta native’s radar when Rasmusson came to Berry.

“I had no idea what I wanted to do,” she said. “I took a costume history class my freshman year and fell in love. It combined everything I like: history, research, drawing and creating designs.”

By her sophomore year, she was working in the theatre’s costume shop, an experience that sealed the deal and introduced her to Alice Bristow, associate professor of theatre, who became her mentor.

“She was a huge influence on my life,” Rasmusson recalled. “I still talk to her on a fairly regular basis. I admire her as a person, especially now that I’m a mother. I see how she handles work-life balance as a mother, wife and an amazing costume designer.”

Rasmusson, who graduated with a degree in theatre with an emphasis in costume design, went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts in costume design and technology from the University of Florida. She says the time she

spent working in Berry’s costume shop and on productions helped her become a wellrounded theatre artist.

“Other schools allow students to focus on one area,” she said. “Berry’s approach enables students to understand what others in the company are doing and experiencing, from the lighting designer and stage hand to the actor on the stage. It improves your ability to collaborate and makes you a better artist all around because you can appreciate the different aspects of all jobs. It teaches empathy for your colleagues that you can carry into your work beyond Berry.”

Rasmusson has spent her entire professional life working in theatre. During her graduate studies, she served at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta as an intern, then was hired as a design assistant. From there, she went to Kennesaw State where she served 10 years on the faculty. Over the course of her career, her designs have been recognized for excellence, winning the Atlanta Theatre Fans Award for Best Costume Design in 2013 for Kiss of the Spider Woman and the Suzi Bass Award for Best Costume Design in 2018 for Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley.

Rasmusson is now focusing her efforts on son T.J., her business, doing freelance work with professional theatres in Atlanta, and teaching sewing at the trendy Top Stitch Studio in Ponce City Market. This spring, she will bring her talents back to Berry as the guest designer for the Berry College Theatre Company’s production of Tartuffe.

It will be her first opportunity to work in Berry’s new Sisters Theatre, which opened in 2017.

Bristow couldn’t be more pleased with the career path her protégé and friend has chosen.

“Her work is fabulous,” Bristow enthused.

“Have you seen those suits? They’re Santa couture. Anytime one of my students takes a skill they’ve learned from me and turns it into a business or a creative venture, I’m all for it!” B

Who done it? (or didn't)

The Case of the Grieving Groom

There’s been a shooting. Point-blank range. Deadly. You were there, and so was your gun. But it was an accident!

You were arguing with your bride-to-be about the seating chart for your wedding, just six days away. You tried to walk away from the quarrel, and ... well, it’s complicated and sort-of hard to believe. You didn’t draw your weapon on purpose, let alone aim it at her. But you were careless, and the next thing you knew, she was dead on the floor.

Now you’re under arrest for murder, the State contending the evidence points to a heinous crime. That’s the moment you hope your defense team calls in forensic consultant Christopher N. Robinson (95C).

C

hris Robinson has analyzed evidence in more than 9,000 criminal cases since he launched his forensic-science career at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in 1998, and he still gets downright excited about it. Now a consultant expert in firearms, tool marks, and the analysis of gunshot residue, blood spatter, and the reconstruction of crime scenes and shootings, Robinson used each of these skills to prove that the case

of the “Grieving Groom” was, indeed, an accidental – if absurdly careless – shooting.

You see, when the accused pulled his hand out of his pocket to move his beloved out of the doorway so he could escape the argument, the gun came out with it. Flat against her chest when he pushed her away, the hairtrigger weapon discharged upward, killing her.

Robinson’s analysis proved that the State’s assertion that he shot her as she lay

By Karilon L. Rogers Photos by Matthew McConnell Student Photographer

on the ground was impossible, and that the evidence upheld exactly the accused’s almost unbelievable version of events.

Based on Robinson’s expert, animated and energetic testimony about blood spatter, gunshot residue, cartridge position and other “crime-scene” evidence, the “Grieving Groom” received five years for his irresponsible but not murderous act – rather than 25 to life.

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Chris Robinson at work.

“I’m eager and excited about what I do,” Robinson acknowledged. “That is what makes me desirable to defense teams and for TV. I believe in what I do and get excited about finding the answers. And it comes through when I testify. It is the reason I have been called by so many different lawyers and entities in so many different states.”

BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE

Robinson has testified nearly 700 times over the course of his career, the vast majority for the prosecution, having spent 10 years with the GBI and two as director of the Atlanta Police Department’s crime lab. Since 2010, he has worked out of a Sharpsburg, Ga., home laboratory and office as a forensic consultant and instructor, as well as a guest commentator for CNN and Headline News and such crime-related programming as Nancy Grace, Primetime Justice, Cold Justice, Reasonable Doubt and Forensic Files.

“I now work mostly with the defense because the State has its own people,” he explained, “although I have been hired by

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State’s attorney’s offices in three different states to consult for the prosecution.

And I’ve worked a bit with the Georgia Public Defenders Council and the Georgia Innocence Project. I love what I’m doing. In my work before, I would handle one piece of the mystery, such as the firearm analysis.

But now I get the entire case file and

know the whole story rather than just one piece of the puzzle. I love it – unraveling the whole mystery, finding the answers.

Discovering if the answers fit with the testimony or not.”

Robinson is plenty busy: He had 45 cases, eight evidence reviews and three court appearances in the works during one given week, as well as a crime-scene examination in Miami. However, the majority of his time is spent reading case files, after which he advises his clients about what adds up and what doesn’t, what questions to ask, if any evidence should be re-examined, and so on. He is only called

to testify if what he discovers would help the client.

“I never skew things,” he declared. “I didn’t turn in my morals because I now testify for the defense. If attorneys tell me, ‘This is what we want you to say,’ the answer is, ‘No.’ A couple of times I’ve met with the accused,

and I’ve told them, ‘I don’t care what you did, just don’t lie to me about what happened.’

They start talking, and they are lying, and I tell the defense team I am off the case because forensically, I can’t help them.”

FIRST THE LADDER, THEN THE ENTREPRENEUR

Robinson’s career has not always been smooth sailing. The chemistry major always planned to go to graduate school to study orthodontia, but after not getting accepted right out of college he took a chemistryrelated job in a carpet mill instead. It was not work he enjoyed.

“Then I saw that the GBI was hiring people to serve as firearms examiners,” he enthused. “I’d been shooting guns all my life.

Imagine being paid to do it!”

He interviewed with a legend in the field of forensic science, Kelly Fite (68C), a fellow chemistry alumnus and the 2017 winner of Berry’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement. Robinson had the good fortune to be hired by Fite, then the firearms section manager, and to be trained by him.

“Kelly is one of the best-known forensic specialists anywhere in the U.S.,” Robinson stated. “One of the best in the business. We spent 2½ years together at the GBI; he was one of my two primary trainers and guided me to take more and more training. After he left the GBI, he did consulting work and was a big name. Now any cases that come his way he sends to me.”

After serving at the GBI as firearms identification section technical leader and

The CSI Effect

as coordinator of the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, Robinson left to lead the Atlanta Police Department’s crime lab. After two years of raising the lab to new levels, an administrative snafu led to his departure and the decision to go out on his own.

The switch to consulting paid off as he works to support his family of five, including his wife of 25 years and “the reason” for his success, Nicole; son Chandler (19); and twin daughters Camryn and Addyson (12). Over the last nine years, Robinson has testified in 17 different states – from Georgia to Alaska and from Maine to Minnesota – and has served as a guest speaker at law schools, defense lawyers associations and the Institute of Continuing Legal Education.

USING WHAT HE LEARNED

Robinson loves solving mysteries based on the statements of the accused and the

evidence at hand, determining what story is most plausible based on the forensic evidence.

He enjoys ballistics most of all because he delights in using the microscope and keeping up on all the different types of guns and ammunition on the market.

And although he uses chemicals in various forms of testing, as well as trigonometric functions and other math learned at Berry, it is his ability to think analytically – honed in courses taught by Dr. Larry McRae (60C) and Dr. Charles Earnest – that he credits with being most important to his success.

For today’s Berry students, Robinson has a simple message: “You need to enjoy what you’re doing and do the best you can at whatever it is. Life didn’t go the way I expected, but I’m doing better now than if it had. You have to be open-minded and make the most of opportunities that come your way. Pay attention and do your best.” B

The long-running CSI: Crime Scene Investigation forensic-science crime drama changed the way juries relate to and believe forensic-science evidence, according to expert Chris Robinson (95C).

“We call it the CSI Effect,” he said. “A lot of what is shown is procedurally accurate to a degree, but nothing is done in a single hour. Also, a machine doesn’t match bullets like it did on the show; human beings use microscopes to match bullets. And you simply cannot get fingerprints off an eyeball!”

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Animal science:

Taking the next step

By RICK WOODALL Photography by BRANT SANDERLIN AND STUDENT MATTHEW MCCONNELL

W

hen Nabilah Curtis (19C) talks about the strengths of Berry’s animal science program, she is quick to mention caring faculty, content-rich course work, high-quality work experience available in the college’s large-animal units, and opportunities to conduct research alongside her professors. All played key roles in her Berry education, which culminated in acceptance to the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine, the next step toward her goal of one day providing veterinary care in high-need communities.

“My professors at Berry were amazing, not just in helping me prepare for my career and guiding my research, but overseeing the veterinary school application process,” said Curtis, whose dream of a career in veterinary medicine took root in childhood when her pet cat, Oscar, was treated for a urinary tract infection. “Berry has given me so many resources, and I’m excited to share them – for the good of animals and the people who own them.”

Conspicuously absent from her list of strengths is the Lamar Westcott Building, the current home of Berry’s largest and most distinctive major. Tucked behind the iconic Ford Complex, the former laundry and foodprocessing facility was built in 1955 and last renovated in 1999.

Within its walls, faculty members who excel as teachers and researchers have built a program with an enviable reputation for producing graduates like Curtis who are well equipped for the rigors of veterinary school and other advanced-degree programs, as well

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as careers in agri-business and animal-related fields. Unfortunately, the outdated facility offers no room for further development of the high-performing major.

Recognizing the challenges presented by Westcott, the urgent need for space created by explosive growth in program enrollment and the growing importance of laboratory science to the major itself, college leaders made new facilities for animal science a strategic priority of the LifeReady Campaign.

Already, donors have funded a 4,600-square-foot field laboratory adjacent to the Rollins Ruminant Research Center.

Now the focus has shifted to a 23,000-square-foot classroom and laboratory building to be added to the McAllister Hall science center. Fundraising for the $15.7 million structure has now surpassed 60%, spurred by a $2 million anonymous gift. Summer 2020 is the goal for completion of funding and start of construction.

Asked how Westcott affected her Berry experience, Curtis recalled “cramped” laboratories, a distinct lack of study rooms, and minimal interaction with students and faculty in other majors due to the building’s location separate from Berry’s academic core.

“Now that I look back on it, it’s kind of endearing,” she joked of her lab experiences in Westcott. “It’s like, ‘Aw, we all struggled in a tiny space,’ but at the time it was annoying. You’re trying to focus on your work, but you have to weave through all of these people to do what you need to do.

That’s frustrating.”

Nabilah Curtis (right) works with Dr. Jay Daniel, professor of animal science

“The facilities must reflect the quality of the program.

That’s how we’re going to continue to get great students.”

Dr. Gary Breton Dean, School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences

187% 171

While Curtis herself won’t benefit from the new building – which will feature greatly enhanced laboratory spaces and technology-enabled active learning classrooms, among many notable advances – she is excited by the potential it represents for the program that did so much to fuel her own dreams and ambitions.

increase in animal science majors since 2004

veterinary school acceptances since 2009-10, an average of 17 per year

23

144

98%

veterinary schools nationally and internationally have accepted Berry students in the last decade

students employed annually in animal science-related oncampus work positions

veterinary school acceptance rate for students with a 3.3 GPA or higher since 2009-10

Furthermore, she believes the presence of such an enhanced learning environment will send a strong message to future students: “We value your time here and your commitment to animal science, and we want to make sure you have all of the resources and opportunities to get what you need out of your education.”

Dr. Gary Breton, dean of the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, echoed that sentiment while noting that the new

building will both preserve the strong bonds of the animal science students and faculty and encourage research collaborations across the sciences.

“The facilities must reflect the quality of the program,” he stated. “That’s how we’re going to continue to get great students.”

To learn more about the project, visit berry.edu/lifeready/animalscience

Planned 23,000-square-foot animal science building BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

23

Alumni show how they’re

By JENNIFER WRIGHT

I

f you ask any alumni about their time at Berry, they will likely tell you the same thing: there’s something special about this place that continues to shape them years after graduation. The lessons learned and the community formed here last forever – and that’s why we say we are “Always Berry.”

Earlier this year, we asked our alumni to demonstrate how they’re “Always Berry” by supporting our students and celebrating our amazing community. They showed up and stepped up.

Alumni and friends supported Berry students through crowdfunding projects, displayed their Berry pride by purchasing new, collectible alumni gear (with proceeds

“I would not be where I am today without the love and support of my Berry family."

– Chardonnay Copeland (13C)

24

going to the Save a Student Scholarship), and celebrated what it means to be “Always Berry” by posting on social media using #AlwaysBerry.

Brothers Teddy (17C) and Brandon (20c) Palmer appear in an "Always Berry" video.

WHAT “ALWAYS BERRY” MEANS TO YOU

“Berry means community and togetherness, and it will always mean family for me,” said Teddy Palmer (17C), sharing a sentiment that rang true among alumni and students of all walks of life.

Palmer was one of 24 participants in a spring video series highlighting the many things that make Berry special – and bind us together. The videos featured alumni from the high school, academy and college, as well as current students and even President Steve Briggs. Regardless of their perspective or experiences, their love of Berry shined through.

Hundreds more alumni shared their “Always Berry” stories online, from their

“I think Berry, to me, means family, and it means this group of people who welcomed me when I had no clue who I really was and they had no clue who I was either.”

“Berry was the first place I’d lived four years in a row ... so it’s always been home.

It’s where we come when we go home, both of us.”

– Emily Katherine Dalton (16C)

– Tom (55H) and Martha Wyatt (55H, 59C) Bowen

“The biggest difference Berry has made in my life is the understanding that I could do something in this world that mattered.”

“[Always Berry] means a community of friends and professors and my husband ... I think it means community because those are the people that I still do life with.”

– Jonathan Purser (85C)

– Rachel Blair Reiff (16C)

BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

first impressions of the campus to the friendships started at Berry to the mentors who influenced their lives. Amanda Bradley Howell (03C, 07G) recalled: “My first impression of Berry was when I was 6 years old, and my grandmother and her three sisters took me to visit their alma mater. That was 1986, and I never forgot the magic of the Berry Bubble.”

SUPPORTING THE NEXT GENERATION

As part of the “Always Berry” movement, more than 400 alumni and friends accepted the challenge to support students through spring crowdfunding projects ranging from the renovation of Barnwell Chapel to educational initiatives to scholarships honoring old friends like retiring Dean of Student Work Rufus Massey (75C). And with 10 different projects to choose from, many had the opportunity to support efforts with special meaning, such as Tracy Macon Bailey (92C), who gave to Barnwell.

“My husband and I were married there almost 29 years ago,” she explained.

With crowdfunding, the phrase “it takes a village” rings especially true, and many donors embraced the opportunity to give $5, $10 or $20 to a project (or two), recognizing that together with others they could make a significant impact.

“I recognize that there are a whole lot of people behind the scenes that made it possible for students like me to attend Berry,” emphasized Kelli Stansell Duncan (10C).

In addition to the “good vibes” generated by their giving, crowdfunding donors also reveled in the “Always Berry” deer magnets they received in recognition of their generosity.

“I’m not the kind of person who typically puts things on my car, but kudos to my

alma mater for this swag that’s so on point, I had to,” related Ashley Harp Sheppard (01C), pictured at right. “After all, this place is so ‘deer’ to me.”

Socks embellished with iconic Berry deer and a coffee mug featuring the beloved Ford Buildings – the first mug in a planned series – provided two other opportunities for alumni to show their Berry pride AND support students. Proceeds from all orders supported the Save a Student Scholarship, which provides emergency aid to students in unexpected financial crisis. The fund was supported by more than 2,000 donors in 201819 and benefitted three students during that academic year.

“People don’t understand what that can do for you,” said past Save a Student recipient Victoria Berrios (17C), “but I was able to graduate and then move into my field and give back to the community here in Rome. It really saved my life, saved my degree.”

Always Berry!

Stay tuned for additional crowdfunding opportunities in the spring and the second mug in the Berry Buildings series!

BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

25

Helping students become LifeReady These generous alumni and friends made gifts, pledges, bequests and estate commitments of $10,000 or more from Dec. 16, 2018, to June 30, 2019. We extend heartfelt thanks to them and to all who make a gift of any size to Berry.

George I. Alden Trust, $300,000 for the

Ford Auditorium renovation Anonymous, $200,000 for the Ford

Auditorium renovation Anonymous, $200,000 for the general fund Bobbie Bailey Foundation, $250,000 for the

Ford Auditorium renovation Randy and Nancy Berry, $23,000, with $10,000

for the Berry Information Technology Students

(BITS) Program and $13,000 for the Randy Berry

and Thomas Berry Gate of Opportunity

Memorial Scholarship Joseph Michael Bihlmier (91C), $10,000 for

the Kevin Kleine Study Abroad Scholarship Richard O. Bollam, $20,000 for the Ford Auditorium renovation Steve and Brenda Briggs, $100,000 for the

animal science building Bryson Foundation, $500,000 for the Ford Auditorium renovation Callaway Foundation, $50,768 for the F.E. Callaway Professorship Chick-fil-A Foundation, $25,000 for the Truett

and Jeannette Cathy Scholarship Leslie Jane Choitz (76C), $21,400 for the Ford

Auditorium renovation Alton H. (61c) and Rebecca Browning (61C) Christopher, $11,000, with $10,000 for the Selma Hall

Browning Memorial Gate of Opportunity

Scholarship and $1,000 for the Carolyn T. Smith

Endowed Scholarship Ouida Word Dickey (50C), $29,000 to complete

establishment of the Ouida, Angela and Jennifer

Dickey Gate of Opportunity Scholarship William H. Ellsworth Foundation, $20,000 for

the South Rome Early Learning Center Russell M. Evans (56C), $100,000 for the Ford

Auditorium renovation Ford Motor Company Fund, $250,000 for the

Henry and Clara Ford Fund for Innovation

and Entrepreneurship William R. Gaines Jr. (93C), $17,000, with $15,000

for the William R. Gaines Sr. Endowed Scholarship

and $2,000 for the Ford Auditorium renovation Dale M. (79C) and Karen Burton (79C) Garner,

$10,000 for the Ford Auditorium renovation Franklin M. (59C) and Liz Gay, $16,000 for the

Ford Auditorium renovation Georgia Independent College Association,

$56,492 for student scholarships Georgia Power Foundation, $200,000 for the

Ford Auditorium renovation Walter K. Gill (63C), $20,000 for the Ford Auditorium renovation Darrell E. Gunby (81c), $30,000 for the

Gunby Equine Center

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BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

Holly Low Hodge (88C), $20,000 for the Ford

Auditorium renovation Scott MacKinnon Jarvis (05C), $10,000 for the

Ford Auditorium renovation Dale A. Jones (71C), $13,000, with $12,000 for

the Dale Jones Expendable Gate of Opportunity

Scholarship and $1,000 for the Dale Jones

Expendable Scholarship George D. (64C) and Starlet Rhodes (64C) Jones,

$100,000 to fund the Starlet Rhodes Jones Scholarship Hubert Judd Charitable Trust, $13,500 for the

general fund Mark (82C) and Judy Howard (82C) Keappler,

$50,000 for the Ford Auditorium renovation Duane Price Kline Special Needs Trust, $19,600

for the Duane Price Kline Endowed Scholarship Andrew David Landis (06C), $12,000 for the Ford

Auditorium renovation Roger W. Lusby III (79C) and Candy Caudill Lusby (82c), $162,000, with $100,000 for the animal

science building, $52,000 for the Mr. and Mrs.

Roger W. Lusby III Endowed Scholarship, $5,000

for the general fund, $2,500 for the Rufus Massey

Student-Operated Enterprises Scholarship, and

$2,500 for the Save a Student Scholarship Paul C. and Velma Smith Maddox Foundation,

$11,000 for the Paul C. and Velma Smith

Maddox Scholarship Araya Mesfin (98C), $50,000 for the Ford Auditorium renovation Ruby Vestal Mills (61C), $10,000 for the Class of

1961C Endowed Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Montgomery Family Foundation, $300,000 for

the animal science building Audrey Morgan, $250,000 for the Ford Auditorium renovation Peter and Tamara Musser, $10,000 for the

general fund National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, $30,500, with $19,500 for the NSDAR

Expendable Gate of Opportunity Scholarship,

$5,500 for the Barnwell Chapel renovation and

$5,500 for the David Shankles Student Emergency

Relief Fund National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Junior Membership Committee,

$25,000, with $13,000 for the NSDAR Juniors

Expendable Gate of Opportunity Scholarship,

$8,000 for the Ford Auditorium renovation and

$4,000 for the Save a Student Scholarship Nichols Trust, $10,000 for the Rudge Nichols Professorship Bettyann M. O’Neill and Kenton J. Sicchitano,

$10,000, with $5,000 for the Bettyann O’Neill

Innovation Fund and $5,000 for the Gary Waters

Chaplain’s Endowed Fund

Brent (88C) and Georgia Anne Ragsdale,

$10,000 for the general fund Joe (65C) and Nelda Parrish (64C) Ragsdale,

$20,000 for the Ford Auditorium renovation Dallas (65C) and Judi Reynolds, $30,000 for the

Class of 1965C Gate of Opportunity Scholarship,

including a matching gift from State Farm

Companies Foundation Barbara S. Robertson (79C), $25,000 for the Student

Government Association Vice President of Service

Work Endowment, including a matching gift

from IBM Lowell M. Underwood (49C), $31,177 for the Ford

Auditorium renovation Marti Walstad, $75,000 for the animal science building Lenard and Bernice Ogle (53H) Whaley, $25,000

charitable gift annuity to ultimately support the

Class of 1953H Staley/Loveday Gate of

Opportunity Scholarship Steve (80C) and Cindy Snead (80C) Wherry,

$15,000, with $10,000 for the Ford Auditorium

renovation and $5,000 for the Steve and Cindy

Wherry Endowed Accounting Scholarship James L. (65C) and Charlotte Massey (64c) Williams, $10,000 for the Ford Auditorium renovation Frances Wood Wilson Foundation, $20,000 for

the Ford Auditorium renovation WinShape Foundation, $565,098, with $518,098 for

the WinShape Scholarship, $25,000 for the

WinShape Appeals Fund, $12,000 for the

Capitulum Scholarship, and $10,000 for the

Truett and Jeannette Cathy Scholarship C.B. Wright III (73C) and Janice Bracken Wright,

$285,000, with $150,000 for the Berry Center for

Integrity in Leadership, $100,000 for the animal

science building, $25,000 for the Barnwell Chapel

renovation and $10,000 for the Save a Student Scholarship Charles R. Yarbrough Jr. (80c), $50,000 for the

Ford Auditorium renovation

BEQUESTS The estate of Margaret G. Kincaid, $56,317 unrestricted The estate of Carolyn Thompson Smith (53C),

$10,085 for the Carolyn T. Smith Endowed Scholarship

News from you CLASS NOTES – THE ORIGINAL SOCIAL MEDIA

Content for this section managed by students CASSIE LAJEUNESSE and KENDALL ARONSON

1950s

Harry Wise Harry Wise (57H) has been elected president of the Rome Rotary Club for 2019-20. He is excited to lead an organization boasting several Berryaffiliated members and to serve in the same role once held by the late Dr. John Bertrand, Berry’s president during his student days.

1970s

Donna Donahue Hagerty Donna Donahue Hagerty (73C) is a retiree in Jacksonville, Fla. After being non-ambulatory for approximately two years following unsuccessful surgery, she is now able to use a walker. Her goal is to increase walker use 100 percent.

1960s

Kathy Sparks Breithaupt

Charles Hubbard

Dr. Kathy Sparks Breithaupt (77C) is the first woman to chair Trout Unlimited’s Georgia State Council – an umbrella organization supporting 12 chapters and 4,000 members statewide – and one of the few women nationwide to rise to this level of TU leadership. She is also secretary of her local TU chapter and founding coordinator of the weeklong Georgia Trout Camp, which for 16 years has served children from Georgia and surrounding states.

Charles Hubbard (79C) spent the better part of a lifetime searching for the identity of his biological father. When DNA testing helped solve the riddle, he learned his father had died just two weeks prior. All was not lost, however, as Charles also discovered he had three half-sisters, and one, although unfortunately deceased, was a fellow Berry graduate. The retired senior plant chemist for Southern Company stated: “It took me ’til I was 63 years old to find out who my dad was, but it gave me much-needed closure.”

David Asbury

Claudette West Bearden Claudette West Bearden (68C) attended her 10th Alumni Work Week in 2019. She enjoys immersing herself in the culture and history of the Berry community through her Work Week assignment in the archives and revisiting Frost Chapel – the site of her wedding – with husband of 51 years Larry Bearden (68C). Claudette’s student work experience in Memorial Library led to a 35-year career in library science. The proud grandmother of six now sings with her church’s senior choir, The Mellow Brook Singers, and has served on several mission teams.

Larry Maxey (69C) is president of Lakes Construction, a business partner of Garden Lakes Realty where he has worked for 47 years. He also serves as a Floyd County commissioner, Shorter University trustee, and director and past president of the Rome Home Builders Association.

Dr. David Asbury (77C) recently completed his 40th year as a church choir director, during which time he has led music for approximately 2,000 Sunday morning services. The California native currently serves at Christ Central Church in Rainbow City, Ala., in addition to his work as director of human resources, technology and careertechnical education for the Gadsden City Schools. David holds a master’s degree from Auburn University and a Doctor of Educational Administration from the University of Alabama.

Debbie Gainey Herbert Debbie Gainey Herbert (79C) has published Cold Waters, a Southern mystery novel with Gothic elements, through Thomas and Mercer. The book spent two weeks on the Washington Post bestseller list and three weeks on Amazon Charts.

SHARE YOUR

NEWS CLASS KEY Names are followed by a number and letter indicating Berry status.

Uppercase letters denote graduates; lowercase letters denote attended/attending and anticipated year of graduation.

C,c College G,g Graduate school A,a Academy

H,h High school FS Faculty/Staff FFS Former Faculty/Staff

Send your news to us online at berry.edu/classnotes or email classnotes@berry.edu.

Submissions are subject to editing. Photos of sufficient quality will be used at the discretion of the magazine staff. News in this issue was received Dec. 16, 2018, to June 30, 2019.

BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

27

NEWS FROM YOU

Kathy Robinson Ray Kathy Robinson Ray (79C, FFS) has retired as director of special events after 39 years at Berry. She looks forward to spending time with her family, including husband Woody, daughter Beth Ray Dunagan (03C) and son-in-law Jeremy Dunagan (00C), son Brandon Ray (07c) and daughter-in-law Anna, and six grandchildren.

Carol Patrick Michel Carol Patrick Michel (84C) made the 2019 “Georgia Super Lawyers” list for her work in civil litigation: defense. She is a partner with the firm of Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn and Dial.

1980s

Rocky DeStefano

Rebecca Nuchols Roberts

Rocky DeStefano (90C) recently opened his second restaurant as a Chick-fil-A operator in Orlando, Fla. He consults at a third. The former WinShape Scholar appreciates the opportunity his career has afforded to do outreach work in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Ukraine, Kenya and the middle of the Irish Sea, noting that Berry “shaped me to invest my all – my head, my heart and my hands.” He and wife Tricia Lynn Cook DeStefano (92C) have three daughters.

Rebecca Nuchols Roberts (94C, FFS) has been ordained into the priesthood and is serving as associate rector at St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church in Marietta, Ga., after graduating from the General Theological Seminary in New York City. She lives in Marietta with husband Brad Roberts (95C), who works for the Episcopal Church Foundation, based out of New York City.

Bill Holcomb

Bert Clark Bert Clark (82C) has been appointed to the board of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. A member of Berry’s Board of Trustees since 2002, he also currently serves on the boards of the Woodruff Arts Center and the High Museum of Art, continuing a long history of service to cultural, educational and professional organizations in the region.

Bert is a wealth management advisor and principal of Clark Financial Group in Atlanta and former president of the Atlanta Estate Planning Council. He and wife Cathy have three children.

The Rev. Dr. Jon Davis (82C) is an Episcopal priest in the Orlando, Fla., area serving as a practitioner, trainer and mission strategist with Fresh Expressions US.

Dr. Bill Holcomb (86C) received the United States Sports Academy’s Dr. Ernst Jokl Sports Medicine Award for his contributions to the growth and development of sports medicine through practice and scholarly activity. The Berry chemistry alumnus and former Viking tennis player is professor and founding director of the Master of Athletic Training program in Mercer University’s College of Health Professions. The longtime Certified Athletic Trainer and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist holds a master’s degree from USSA and a Ph.D. in exercise physiology from Auburn.

BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

Stephanie Lowery Maupin (91C) and husband Jay Maupin (91c) are operating HollyOaks Plantation as a wedding venue and Airbnb after purchasing and renovating the property – first established by a 1747 grant by King George II – on the Grove River in Savannah, Ga.

Scott Chancey (95C) earned top-10 national awards for column writing and feature photography in the 2018 Associated Press Sports Editors contest.

Scott has won five APSE awards in his career and is the only APSE member to be recognized for writing, photography and video production. He is a sports writer for the Morning News in Florence, S.C.

1990s

Jim and Niki Rue Janquish

Juli Taylor Larson Michelle Edenfield Davis Michelle Edenfield Davis (90C) is the new vice president for college advancement at Ogeechee Technical College in Statesboro, Ga.

28

HollyOaks Plantation

Robin Samples Brothers (95C) has been certified as a Park and Recreation Professional by the National Recreation and Park Association. She is director of parks and recreation for Fort Payne, Ala.

Juli Taylor Larson (92C) recently graduated from the University of West Georgia with a Master of Education in professional counseling and a concentration in college student affairs.

Niki Rue Jaquish (95C) was 2018-19 Teacher of the Year at Kennesaw (Ga.) Mountain High School. Husband Jim Jaquish (92C) works for the Atlanta Regional Commission, where he is now local government affairs manager. They live in Kennesaw with sons Rego and Mitch and nephew Matthew.

NEWS FROM YOU

Berry ‘quartet’ FOUR BERRY MUSIC ALUMNI STAGED AN IMPROMPTU REUNION

at the Georgia Music Educators Ninth District Large Group Performance Evaluation held at the Dawson County Performing Arts Center in March. On hand, from left, were Pat Gallagher (76C), Ninth District Band chair and event co-chair; Michael Brown (76C) and Rudy Wilson (79C), judges; and Neil Harrison (83C), facility coordinator.

Jeff Mathews

Jennifer McLemore Selman

Mandy Peterson Stefan Eady

Dr. Jeff Mathews (95C) has been appointed assistant superintendent of leadership development for the Gwinnett (Ga.) County Schools. He previously was principal of Peachtree Ridge High School and the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology. The Berry biochemistry major and baseball player has a master’s degree from the University of Georgia and a doctorate from Georgia State University. He and wife Cristy have two children, Maddie (15) and Witt (17).

Jennifer McLemore Selman (95C) recently completed the Graduate School of Banking program at Louisiana State University. She is assistant vice president and retail banking manager for River City Bank in Rome. Her 25-year career also includes service with SunTrust as branch manager and sales and service manager.

William Lee White

Stefan Eady (96C) joined several friends and nearly 30,000 other runners in the 123rd Boston Marathon, his 50th race of marathon or greater distance. He looks forward to many more.

Bobbie Wright Grogan (98C) has published her first bilingual children’s book, La Beluga Tortuga, through AuthorHouse. She teaches high school Spanish and has a master’s degree in secondary Spanish education from the University of West Georgia.

Mandy Peterson (99C) has been appointed executive director of the Birmingham (Ala.) Boys Choir. She has more than 15 years of fundraising and nonprofit experience, as well as a background in music performance and a master’s degree in vocal performance and pedagogy from Mississippi College.

Mandy lives in Birmingham and is also on staff at St. Mary’s on the Highlands.

Justin Bishop (99C) and wife Catherine announce the March 27, 2019, birth of son Samuel Carter. Sam joined sister Avery (10) and brother Mack (6).

William Lee White (95c) recently published Let Us Die Like Men: The Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864, through Savas Beatie.

BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

29

NEWS FROM YOU

2000s

Smith family

Jennifer Murray Chapman

Jennifer Murray Chapman (00C) has accepted a position as education manager at The Seas with Nemo and Friends in Walt Disney World Resort’s Epcot theme park.

Ryan Smith (00C) and Tricia Dillard Smith (08C) announce the Dec. 30, 2018, birth of daughter Isabella Kate. The family lives in Rome, where Ryan and Tricia are co-owners of 3 Rivers Photography. Ryan also works for Floyd Medical Center, while Tricia is project manager at WordSouth.

Dorea Hardy

Dr. Dorea Hardy (01C) recently earned a doctorate in adult and career education from Valdosta (Ga.) State University, where she was named outstanding student in her program.

Brandon Lenenski

Brandon Lenenski (01C) backpacked the 273-mile “Long Trail” from the Massachusetts-Vermont state line to the Canadian border.

Bill Morgan (01C) has been named 2018-19 Teacher of the Year by the Georgia Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German. Bill, who also serves as chapter president, has taught German for 11 years, the last five at The Walker School in Marietta.

John Harman and Jeremy Ross

Darrell and Meredith Sutton

Mary Catherine Chewning (00C) has been promoted to fire marshal with the Rome Fire Department.

Darrell Sutton (00C) is the 57th president of the 50,000-member State Bar of Georgia, the latest in a series of leadership positions he has held within the organization and his profession, including previous service as president of the Cobb County Bar Association and chair of the Cobb County Board of Ethics. Darrell practices with the Sutton Law Group in Marietta and lives in Brookhaven with wife Meredith and children Louise and Wilson.

John Harman (01C) and Jeremy Ross (01C) are co-owners of American Crawlspace Solutions in Atlanta, which they founded together in 2011. Since that time, their initial $300 investment has grown into a multi-million dollar business. They first met at Berry as incoming freshmen in summer orientation. Both were animal science majors and worked on-campus with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. After graduation, they worked together again, this time at a small pest control firm, before striking out on their own.

Duke family

Dr. Corey Duke (02C) is principal of the new Burns Middle School in Dickson County, Tenn. The longtime teacher and administrator recently completed his doctorate in leadership and professional practice at Trevecca Nazarene University.

He and wife Hilary Hiland Duke (01C) have two children.

Viking voices IF YOU’VE WATCHED A LIVESTREAM OF A BERRY ATHLETIC EVENT ANY TIME IN THE LAST FOUR YEARS, you’re

familiar with the work of Adekale Ande (19C), left, and Bryce Koon (19C). As student workers in sports information, they provided play-by-play and commentary for more than 100 Berry contests, including the football team’s first-ever NCAA Division III national playoff game.

Now they are continuing their work in athletic communications as graduate assistants – albeit at different schools. Adekale is pursuing a Master of Arts in university leadership at LenoirRhyne University, while Bryce is seeking an MBA at Valdosta State University.

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BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

NEWS FROM YOU

Amy Gerwig Walker (03C) and husband Caleb Walker (04C) recently celebrated the birth of son Finnegan James.

Tannika King (right)

Tannika King (02C) was among 11 recipients of the 2019 Heart of the Community Awards honoring volunteer service in Rome/Floyd County. She is a member of the Sexual Assault Center of Northwest Georgia Board of Directors and a graduate of the Rome-Floyd Chamber’s Leadership Rome program, among other involvements.

Mary Hope Kramer (02C) has been named executive office manager for the United States Hunter Jumper Association in Lexington, Ky.

Lori Brasile (left)

Lori Brasile (04C) is assistant director and career advisor in the University Career Center at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the 2019 recipient of the North Carolina Association of Colleges and Employers’ Furney K. James Outstanding Service Award.

Cone family

Nicole Heidler

Blake Cone (04C) and Brittany Southerland Cone (05C) welcomed Camryn Joy on Nov. 1, 2018. The new arrival joined big brother Benjamin in the family home.

Nicole Heidler (05C) successfully beat breast cancer in 2017 with support from friends, family and the Berry women’s soccer team. She recently finished the “Way of St. James,” a 104-kilometer trek from Lugo, Spain, to Santiago de Compostela.

Emily Estes McClain (left) and Jennifer Brown Kimball

Diaz/Clark wedding Mekia Troy

Mekia Troy (02C) was honored as 2019 Class 6A Athletic Director of the Year by the Georgia Athletic Directors Association for her work at Creekside High School in Fairburn, where she has served as athletic director for 10 years.

Zuly Diaz Clark (04C) married Jonathon Clark on Sept. 1, 2018, at Frost Chapel with a reception in Ford Dining Hall. The couple lives in Sandy Springs, Ga., and recently traveled through southern Africa.

Brooke Jones Harnage

Jessica Smith Bolyard (03C) has published her first book, I Don’t Know What to Say: Praying God’s Word Over Your Home and Family. She lives in Appling, Ga., with her family.

Brooke Jones Harnage (04C) started ATL Real Estate Coordinators in October 2017, assisting Georgia real estate agents and brokers with listings, contract to close, marketing, and other timesaving tasks, thus enabling them to have more face-time with clients.

Emily Estes McClain (04C) was co-winner of the 2019 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award for her first full-length play, Slaying Holofernes, which traces the parallel quests of two women – one in Renaissance Italy, the other in the contemporary United States – seeking justice in an imperfect world. Emily is co-director of theatre at Buford (Ga.) High School and is particularly passionate about playwriting in schools, spending nine years working with the Georgia Thespians to develop the PlayWorks program for high school theatre students. Her play premiered in July at Atlanta’s Essential Theatre, where Jennifer Brown Kimball (99C) is managing director.

Dr. Holly Weber Arnold (05C) was one of 80 U.S. citizens selected by the State Department for service abroad as an English Language Specialist in 2019.

Holly, who teaches undergraduate and graduate TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) courses at Kennesaw (Ga.) State University, spent three weeks in Ukraine working with the U.S. Embassy to train teachertrainers, perform observations and lead workshops, among other activities.

Merritt Elaine Jones Lauren Hill Jones (06C) and husband Josh announce the Jan. 9, 2019, birth of daughter Merritt Elaine.

Martin family

Josh Martin (06C) has been named assistant principal at Roswell (Ga.) High School. He has taught for 13 years, earning acclaim as 2015 Teacher of the Year at Roswell and 2013 STAR Teacher at New Manchester High School in nearby Douglasville.

BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

31

NEWS FROM YOU

Dana Mire Goshorn (07C) has completed a Master of Education in teacher leadership at Columbus (Ga.) State University. Husband Ted Goshorn (06C) has been ordained as a full elder in the South Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Katie Edenfield Price Dr. Katie Edenfield Price (07C) has joined the faculty at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., as medical director of the Diabetes and Endocrinology Clinic after completing her fellowship training in endocrinology and metabolism at Wake Forest.

Rhett Smith (07C) is now director of learning and organizational development at Shaw Industries. He has a master’s degree in industrial-organizational psychology from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and lives in Tunnel Hill, Ga., with wife Abbi and children Porter and Ruthie.

Dan Massey Dan Massey (07C) has been promoted to business manager for parts and accessories for the Yamaha Golf-Car Company after serving with distinction as department manager for the outdoor power equipment division of Yamaha Motor Corp.

Photo courtesty of emily barton (15C)

Ted and Dana Mire Goshorn

LifeReady indeed!

EMILY BARTON (15C) WAS ONCE THE “FACE” OF EFFORTS TO FUND NEW Hudson family

FACILITIES FOR BERRY’S ANIMAL SCIENCE PROGRAM. Five years later, the

Aubrey Hall Hudson (08C) and husband Derek have adopted two children: Maddox Cole (born Feb. 22, 2018) and Everett Jacob (born April 8, 2018).

exceptional student who also shined in her roles as dairy supervisor and dance troupe manager is showing off her LifeReady bona fides as a newly

Melissa Cowart Osborne Melissa Cowart Osborne (07C) has graduated from Georgia State University with a Ph.D. in public health, concentrating in epidemiology. Her dissertation examined factors associated with adolescent weapon carrying. She now works in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s viral hepatitis division and lives in Acworth, Ga., with husband Kevin and son Edgar.

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BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

minted Doctor of Veterinary Medicine working for the Foothills Large Animal Hospital, a mobile practice serving nine counties in and around Marion, N.C. Ever the achiever, Emily was offered the position nine months before graduating from the Katie Bell Dr. Katie Bell (09C) earned a Doctor of Philosophy in counselor education and supervision from Mercer University in

University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine after shadowing the owner for three summers.

Editor’s note: See page 22 for an update on Berry’s push for new animal science facilities.

NEWS FROM YOU

2018. She is the lead teacher for pre-kindergarten and middle-school girls soccer coach for Charles Drew Charter School in Atlanta, a Licensed Professional Counselor, and a National Certified Counselor. She is also a triathlete, competing this summer in the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships in Cleveland, Ohio.

Taylor Rose Martin Charlotte Taylor-Martin (09C) and husband David Martin announce the Dec. 27, 2018, birth of Taylor Rose.

Darling family Shawn Carroll Darling (09C) is head volleyball coach at Pope High School in Marietta, Ga., where she led her team to the 2018 Georgia High School Association Class 6A state championship. She is celebrating 10 years of marriage to husband Zach Darling (09C), a teacher and coach at the Westminster Schools in Atlanta. The couple has three children: Aidan (9), Brooks (7) and Carson (5).

Skye Hannah (09C) is a senior reporter at Gavilan Media in the Los Angeles region.

Rome Life Magazine

Luke Martin (09C) and wife Sarah Conn Martin (09C) were featured in Rome Life Magazine's “20 under 40” issue for their work as attorneys in Northwest Georgia.

Dr. Jessica Crumbley Brooks (11C) and her colleague placed third in the Medical Devices and Life Science Track of the Tufts Gordon Institute 100k New Ventures Competition. Their biotech company, Vivo Sango, is developing paper-based tools for blood processing, storage and analysis with potential to permanently alter the way blood and plasma samples are collected on a global scale.

Jenevieve Kimmal Hornsby with new daughter Jenevieve Kimmal Hornsby (11C) and husband Tommy welcomed daughter Ruth Joan on Feb. 5, 2019.

Lynn Roney and Nicolai Pineda

Bradley Pierson

Lynn Roney (09C) married Nicolai Pineda in Buford, Ga., in March 2019.

The bridal party included maid-of-honor Rebekah Bullock (09C, 11G) and bridesmaids Ashlea Mayer (09C) and Jacque Clarke (10C). Berry’s track and cross country programs were well represented at the wedding. An international studies major at Berry, Lynn accepted Nicolai’s proposal at the Lincoln Memorial.

Bradley Pierson (11G) is in his first year as head cross country coach at Darlington School in Rome, where he has served as assistant athletic director and head boys basketball coach since 2017.

2010s

Luke and Sarah Conn Martin

Jessica Crumbley Brooks

Dr. Jessica Nguyen (10C) has earned an Ed.D. in higher education administration from Northeastern University and started a new position as associate director of career development at the University of West Georgia.

Anna Grace De Kleine Randall De Kleine (11G) and Morgan Briggs De Kleine announce the Feb. 18, 2019, birth of daughter Anna Grace. She joined brother Isaac at the family home in Goshen, Ind. Anna is the third grandchild of Berry President Steve Briggs and his wife, Brenda.

Gabriel Steinmeyer Gabriel Steinmeyer (11C) is finishing his first year as director of workforce development for the Norfolk (Neb.) Area Chamber of Commerce.

Tribb Robison (10C) has been promoted to technology services manager at Harbin Clinic in Rome.

Theobald/Goodwin wedding Kari Theobald Goodwin (11C) married Jake Goodwin on Dec. 21, 2018, at Estes Chapel in Wilmore, Ky.

BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

33

Emily Caldwell (13C) has accepted a position in the development sector of the World Food Program, the food assistance branch of the United Nations. She has a master’s degree in human rights and international politics from the University of Glasgow.

Beth Anne Dunagan

exclusively exotic animal practice in Pooler, after successful completion of an internship there.

Trevor Sutton (14C) has started a new job as assistant director for residence education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He and wife Emily are excited to be back in the Southeast after three years in Dallas, Texas, where Trevor worked at Southern Methodist University.

Beth Anne Dunagan (12C) has moved from Alabama to Pasadena, Calif., to serve as a recruitment manager with Teach for America.

Alex Middleton (12C, FFS) has taken a new position as creative director of video for the Georgia Tech Athletic Association, responsible for production and quality of video content promoting 17 different sports. He previously served as senior producer/editor for the Atlanta Braves.

Nobles/Lubbers wedding Alyssa Nobles (12C) married Daniel Lubbers on June 1, 2019, in Rome.

Kathryn Dugger Nobles (82C, FS) performed the prelude, while Dr. Stan Pethel (FFS) did the processional and recessional. Dr. Barbara Carter (FS) prepared the flowers, and Carrie Nobles (16C) and Lisa Connors Townsend (12c) were in the wedding party.

BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

Abby Thomas (14C) is manager of strategic partnerships for Special Olympics International in Washington, D.C., where she directs corporate fundraising efforts for an organization serving more than 5 million athletes worldwide.

Stephen Gaylor Stephen Gaylor (14C) has completed his first season as a hitting, outfield and base-running coach with the New York Mets’ rookie affiliate in Kingsport, Tenn.

The former Viking baseball standout played professionally from 2014-18, reaching the Class AAA level and appearing in major-league spring training games with the Atlanta Braves organization.

Mary Cate Miller Dr. Mary Cate Miller (14C) is the new associate veterinarian for Avian and Exotic Animal Hospital of Georgia, an

34

Abby Thomas (left) and colleagues

Gordon Donovan

Alex Middleton

Blount/Childers wedding Blake Childers (15C, FS) and Elizabeth Blount (15C) married on May 26, 2019. They met as Berry freshmen in a class taught by Dr. Curt Hersey (93C, FS), who attended the wedding.

Chris McSwain Chris McSwain (13G) was named Cartersville (Ga.) City Schools Teacher of the Year for his work as a sixth-grade math teacher. The 13-year classroom veteran said this is proof that Berry College breeds success.

Mary Claire Stewart (14C)

NEWS FROM YOU

Chase Doscher Chase Doscher (15C) is practicing family and criminal defense law at the award-winning firm of W. Scott Kimberly in Murfreesboro, Tenn. He earned his law degree from Belmont University, serving as editor-in-chief of the Belmont University Health Law Review.

Ingrid L. Zambrano Ingrid L. Zambrano (14C) works in the infectious disease department at Emory University School of Medicine after graduating with honors from the New York University College of Global Public Health, where she earned a Master of Public Health with a concentration in epidemiology. The Berry Bonner Scholar previously worked with the Rand Corporation’s Connections to Care (C2C) project and later with J&M Global Solutions in Puerto Rico, where she assisted with recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

Rachael Hearn Rachael Hearn (15C) is researching chronic traumatic encephalopathy while pursuing a Ph.D. at England’s Manchester Metropolitan University. The former Berry student athletic trainer also works at the university’s physiotherapy clinic and volunteers for an American football team at Leeds-Beckett University.

Previous experience includes work with the Atlanta Hawks.

NEWS FROM YOU

Brittany Huckle (15C) is in her first year teaching physical science, chemistry, biology, and human anatomy and physiology at Lanier Christian Academy.

Rayburn/Whitlock wedding

Krista Miller Pfau (15C) married David Pfau in March 2019. The couple then moved to Ohio, where Krista is a physician assistant first assist in the operating room at University Hospital St. John Medical Center in Westlake.

Ryan James Christopher Photography

Miller/Pfau wedding

Ellen Rayburn Whitlock (15C) married Ragan Whitlock in Newnan, Ga., on Nov. 3, 2018.

Dorris/Harris wedding

Ashley Ray Ashley Ray (15C, 19G) is putting her Berry environmental science degree to work as outreach coordinator for the Coosa River Basin Initiative, focusing on environmental advocacy in a communitydriven way.

Greg Robbins Greg Robbins (15C) is a jazz vocalist living and working in New York City and touring the East Coast and Midwest. He has a weekly residency at New York’s Rue B club and continues to take regular lessons via Skype with Berry mentor Harry Musselwhite (FFS).

Rachel Dorris Harris (16C) married Kyle Harris (16C) on June 8, 2019, in the Berry College Chapel. The Berry cross country and track alumni now live in Atlanta, where Kyle – who recently earned his Master of Architecture degree from Virginia Tech – works for the Cooper Carry architecture and design firm, and Rachel teaches fifth-grade math and science at Mt. Bethel Christian Academy.

Emily Katherine Dalton (16C) has written Let’s Be Real: Cultivating Authenticity in a Journey from Loss to Life, for publication through Morgana James Publishing. The book focuses on processing grief in an authentic and vulnerable way, recounting Emily’s own experience losing her father two weeks before graduating from Berry.

Dreaming of a white Christmas There’s no better place to ring in the holiday season than Berry! If you agree, then the ONLY place you want to be Dec. 14 is our annual Young Alumni Christmas Party.

If you’ve attended Berry any time in the last 20 years, we hope you will join us as we ring in the holidays at Oak Hill’s Christopher Browning Pavilion. This year’s theme is a wintry Russian Christmas. We’ll provide the music and refreshments. You just need to get yourself here (and cross your fingers for snow!).

5 to 7 p.m.

Register today at berry.edu/alumni/christmas-party BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

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NEWS FROM YOU

Holley Powell DuPre (16C) graduated from Vermont Law School on May 11, 2019.

Allison Moore

Monica Maldonado (16C) has completed an internship with the U.S. Department of Education’s White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. She is pursuing a master’s degree in higher education at the University of Maryland.

Allison Moore (17C) graduated from the University of Washington in June with a Master in Museology. For her thesis, she curated “Hero’s Feast: Finding Community through Dungeons & Dragons,” for the Renton History Museum.

Dan Harris Photoart.com

Monica Maldonado

Jennifer Cortez

Katie O’Rourke Price Katie O’Rourke Price (16C) is head volleyball coach at Rome High School.

Graham Johnson (17C) is spending the 2019-20 school year as an English language classroom assistant in Spain after completing his M.A. in Hispanic linguistics at the University of Georgia.

He will begin pursuit of his Ph.D. in fall 2020.

Jennifer Cortez (18C) spent five months teaching English classes in the Galapagos Islands after graduating from Berry. She is now working in the Gwinnett (Ga.) County Schools and saving for her next teaching-abroad trip.

Nathan Hirsh (18C) married Megan Radosta (19C) on Aug. 17, 2019. Both are working in Woodstock, Ga. Nathan shared: “We are both so thankful for our experiences at Berry and so happy we met each other on the world’s largest campus!”

In praise of Berry WE’RE ALWAYS THRILLED TO SPOTLIGHT ALUMNI ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN NEWS FROM YOU. Sometimes, they

choose to shine the spotlight back on us. Enter Lynda Harris Smith (71C), a Berry home economics major and retired teacher who recently shared: “Berry College helped form me into the person I am today. With a caring faculty, a wonderful oncampus work experience and living in the home economics home management house, I gained world-class knowledge, valuable organizational skills and fabulous leadership qualities. I sincerely loved my college experience and would highly recommend Berry College to everyone!”

Bethany Karnowski Bethany Karnowski (17C) completed a summer internship in New York City as part of her graduate program.

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Rachel Mayo Rachel Mayo (18C) is sharing her love of music with more than 320 students as the chorus teacher at Osborne Middle School in Gwinnett County, Ga.

Thank you, Lynda, for reminding us yet again that alumni are our greatest ambassadors.

NEWS FROM YOU

Jason Rose (18C) works for the Toronto Blue Jays, recording video and creating reports for the Major League scouting department at one of the team’s minor league affiliates. The Berry sports administration alumnus also assists the coaching staff with player development strategies.

Leigh Hadaway Leigh Hadaway (19C) is a first-year history teacher and head swim coach at Darlington School in Rome.

Rice/Regennitter wedding Hannah Rice Regennitter (19C) married Tanner Regennitter on May 18, 2019. The couple lives in Rome.

BERRY ALUMNI SOCIAL MEDIA

Connect with @BerryAlumni on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Kristian Brooke Willingham and Ethan Hawkland Kristian Brooke Willingham (18C) is an admissions counselor at Oglethorpe University, where she works with Ethan Hawkland (18C).

Laura Combs Laura Combs (19C) chose to remain at Berry after earning a B.S. in marketing.

She is now pursuing a second degree in nursing and providing part-time assistance with programming, cohort management and student selection for the Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Program.

Jordan/Miller wedding

Porter Wilbanks

Maddie Brielle Jordan (19, FS) married Noah Shane Miller on May 11, 2019, at the Berry College Chapel with a reception at Ford Dining Hall. The wedding party included maid-of-honor Gracie Jordan (21c); bridesmaid Adelia Weber (19C); Thomas Johnson’s (12C) daughter, Addy, as flower girl; and father-of-the-bride Cameron Jordan (FS), director of digital marketing and media, who walked Maddie down the aisle. This fall, she accepted a position at Berry as assistant director of alumni events.

Porter Wilbanks (19C) is pursuing a master’s degree in veterinary biomedical science at Lincoln Memorial University.

Erin Wolf (19C) is pursuing a Ph.D. in bioorganic chemistry at The Ohio State University.

Dominic X. Miller Jake Doiron Jake Doiron (19C) was accepted to the highly competitive and fully funded M.D./Ph.D. program at Louisiana State University Health and Sciences Center – New Orleans.

Erin Wolf

Dominic X. Miller (19C) is working in the small business loan underwriting department at Ameris Bank in Jacksonville, Fla. The finance/economics alumnus completed an internship with the bank in summer 2018 and accepted an offer of full-time employment three months before graduation.

Do you follow @BerryAlumni on social media?

Be the first to know about upcoming events, stay up-to-date on Berry College news, enter our alumni-only contests, see our latest #TBT photos and much more! @BerryAlumni

BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

37

Condolences

Berry College extends sincere condolences to family and friends of the following alumni and former faculty and staff. This list includes notices received Dec. 16, 2018, to June 30, 2019.

1940s

Ada Moss Holmes (40C) of Melbourne, Fla., Oct. 1, 2018.

Estelle Smith Wright (42c) of Loris, S.C., March 20, 2019.

Lillian Purcell Johnson (44C) of Alma, Ga., June 12, 2019.

Shirley Martin Swope (44H) of Saint Augustine, Fla., June 9, 2018.

Josephine Skinner Dowell (45c) of New Rochelle, N.Y., May 3, 2019.

James Richard Keyes (45H) of Saint Augustine, Fla., May 27, 2019.

Samuel Hoyt Brown (46H) of Charlotte, N.C., March 9, 2018.

Elizabeth Quarles Carlton (46C) of Rockmart, Ga., May 21, 2019.

Sarah Strickland Duckett (46H) of Covington, Tenn., Oct. 29, 2018.

Doris Boyd Gilbert (46c) of Stone Mountain, Ga., May 21, 2019.

Sidney Davis Baxter (47H) of Rocky Face, Ga., Feb. 8, 2019.

Doylene Hill Broughton (47C) of Calhoun, Ga., Dec. 23, 2018.

Lucille Strickland Parkes (47C) of Brunswick, Ga., July 11, 2018.

William C. Bradford (48H) of Conyers, Ga., Jan. 2, 2019.

Elouise Hucks Causey (48c) of Lexington, S.C., Dec. 22, 2018.

Betty Sue Cook (48C) of Dalton, Ga., March 9, 2019.

Billy McDow Roberts (48C) of Frederick, Md., March 10, 2019.

Frances Crook Yates (48c) of Roopville, Ga., Feb. 17, 2019.

James D. Chandler (49c) of Thomasville, Ga., April 4, 2019.

Mary Quarles Douglas (49C) of Dublin, Ga., June 13, 2019.

Betty Swearingen Hurdle (49C) of Macon, Ga., Feb. 19, 2019.

Albert Leon Morris (49C) of Cedartown, Ga., March 1, 2019.

1950s

Gwendolyn Norris Hutcheson (50C) of Athens, Ga., June 5, 2019.

James E. Jackson (50C) of Athens, Ga., June 7, 2018.

J. Donald Jones (50H, 55C, FFS) of Atlanta, March 28, 2019.

Charles Dempsey Strickland (50c) of Covington, Ga., June 29, 2019.

Wilhelmina Hansard Burleson (51H) of Maiden, N.C., Oct. 7, 2018.

Charles L. Cooper (51C) of Saint Simons Island, Ga., Nov. 15, 2018.

Leora Evans Dalton (51c) of Jefferson, Ga., Oct. 20, 2018.

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BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

Eugenia Robinson “Genie” Huff (51C) of Columbus, Ga., Feb. 19, 2019.

Richard Paul Abernathy (52C) of Greensboro, Ga., June 15, 2019.

Joan Kelly Burch (53C) of Dacula, Ga., Jan. 6, 2019.

Gwin Herman Cumbie (53H) of Theodore, Ala., Dec. 4, 2018.

Robert Hartwell Jones (53c) of Louisville, Ky., March 7, 2019.

Julian Marion Cosper (54C) of Gulf Breeze, Fla., April 20, 2019.

Barbara Calhoun Wade (55C) of Morrilton, Ark., July 25, 2018.

Joyce Cureton Daponte (56H) of Hanahan, S.C., Dec. 19, 2017.

William Lawrence Grantham (56C) of Yorktown, Pa., March 21, 2019.

Shirley Murray Kelly (56C) of Wilson, N.C., May 20, 2019.

Bessie Rish Herring (58C) of Brunswick, Ga., Oct. 25, 2018.

Lanier L. Davenport (59c) of Perkins, Ga., July 13, 2018.

1960s

Cecil T. Brinkley (60C) of Cairo, Ga., Oct. 14, 2018.

Malcolm L. Foss (61c) of Rome, April 20, 2019.

Charles Dean Gibbs (61C) of Macon, Ga., April 29, 2019.

Jeanette N. Haggard (61c) of Covington, Ga., June 25, 2019.

Norman Thompson Holloman (61c) of Elberton, Ga., June 1, 2019.

Tommie A. Chandler (62C) of Palm Bay, Fla., Jan. 20, 2019.

Richard Marton Weller (62H) of Hixson, Tenn., Jan. 28, 2019.

Irene Fleming Dutton (63c) of Decatur, Ga., Dec. 5, 2018.

William Young “Bill” Edison (65C) of Bainbridge, Ga., Feb. 4, 2019.

Celeste Norris Florence (66C) of LaFayette, Ga., April 18, 2017.

Melba Wheat Herbert (66C) of Rome, May 23, 2018.

Laura Williams Boynton (67c) of Palm Bay, Fla., April 14, 2019.

Elaine Cox Burdette (67c) of Villa Rica, Ga., Dec. 24, 2018.

Adrian A. Fanjoy (67c) of Rome, June 10, 2019.

Thomas Lawrence Mitchell (68C) of Flowery Branch, Ga., June 3, 2017.

Thomas L. Nowling (68C) of Saint James City, Fla., Nov. 17, 2018.

William Edward “Eddie” Scott Sr. (68A) of Rome, Jan. 24, 2019.

Lydia J. Stephens (68C) of Jacksonville, Fla., March 4, 2018.

Stevan Rodney Davis (69C) of Mentone, Ala., Feb. 25, 2019.

In Memoriam

1970s

Carroll Eskel Martin (70C) of Cherry Log, Ga., April 14, 2019.

Frederick A. Leavitt (71C) of Oxford, Ga., Feb. 21, 2019.

Cecilia Diane Chambers (72C) of Lindale, Ga., April 13, 2019.

Barry David Mullis (72A) of Panama City, Fla., March 15, 2019.

Shelia Eleam Smith (72C) of Rome, Feb. 13, 2019.

Douglas S. Murray (75C) of Black Mountain, S.C., Feb. 21, 2019.

Kay Louise Williams Roberts (76C) of Newnan, Ga., Sept. 5, 2018.

Janet Jones Smyth (76C) of Charleston, S.C., Jan. 15, 2019.

Richard Oliver Coley (77C) of Old Hickory. Tenn., June 2, 2019.

Valerie Hovey Tolbert (78A, 82C, FFS) of Rome, April 25, 2019.

1980s

Tamara Patton Bates (81C, 10G) of Rome, March 5, 2019.

Carol Dunagan Steier (82c) of Gainesville, Ga., May 22, 2019.

Joe Thomas Harmon (83C) of Batesville, Ark., Jan. 2, 2019.

Michael David Ragland (83C) of Cave Spring, Ga., March 16, 2019.

Students, faculty and staff lost a loyal friend when Kay Williams of Rome died May 23, 2019, at the age of 70. She was an active supporter of many efforts across campus, and the Berry softball field is named in her honor. In addition to her husband of 42 years, R.H. “Bob” Williams Sr. (62H), survivors include four daughters, two sons, 19 grandchildren and six greatgrandchildren. The family asks that any memorial donations be made to Berry.

1990s

Ralph Edwin Helser (90c) of Rome, Dec. 23, 2018.

2000s

Megan Boyd Franklin (05G, FFS) of London, England, Jan. 9, 2019.

2010s

Jacqueline “Jackie” Lauren Runningen (10C) of Atlanta, Jan. 14, 2019.

John Mabry “Jack” Morgan Jr. (17C) of Hoover, Ala., May 22, 2019.

Faculty and Staff

John L. “J.L.” Brock of Lindale, Ga., Feb. 28, 2019.

Ondina Santos Gonzalez of Atlanta, March 21, 2019.

James F. Ridenour of Guilford, Md., March 10, 2019.

Bruce Dane Roaden of Atlanta, Dec. 18, 2018.

The Berry community mourns the April 25, 2019, passing of Dr. L. Doyle Mathis (58C, FFS), who served as vice president of academic affairs and provost from 1975 to 2000 and later co-authored two books about the school with Dr. Ouida Word Dickey (50C, FFS).

Survivors include wife Rheba Burch Mathis (57C), a son and a daughter, three grandchildren, and one great granddaughter.

The family asks that any memorial donations to Berry be made to the Dr. L. Doyle Mathis Gate of Opportunity Scholarship.

&

ALUMNI Weekend

WORK WEEK

What a weekend (and week!)

More than 260 alumni and friends returned to campus May 17-19 for Alumni Weekend. Highlights this year included the kickoff event for the Ford Auditorium renovation (page 2), presentation of the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Awards (page 12), and special recognition for the following individuals and reunion classes: • Frances Richey (83A, 87C) – Virginia R. Webb Service Award, Alumni Association • Frank Campbell (posthumous) – Outstanding Faculty/Staff Award, Berry High Schools/Academy • 1969A and 1969C – Golden Guard induction • 1969A – Reunion Cup (attendance) and Martha Cup (percent increase in giving participation) • 1959C – Viking Cup (giving participation) • 1964C – Ford Cup (total giving)

Another long-running tradition – Alumni Work Week – followed May 19-24, with more than 130 participants assisting with 17 campus projects, among them the restoration of Barnwell Chapel (page 6).

Alumni BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

39

Providing Opportunity Berry College is grateful for the following memory and honor gifts and gifts to named scholarships or work endowments. Gifts in this issue were received Dec. 16, 2018, to June 30, 2019.

MEMORY GIFTS Mr. Walter Byron Addison Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Mrs. Doris Tarvin Allen Joe Frank Allen (55C) Mrs. Katherine Young Armitage Mary Alice Ivey Blanton (58C) Mrs. Mamie Atkinson DAR – Sam Houston Chapter Mr. Jack Banister Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Miss Betty Barbour Joyce Pierce Fitzgerald (68c) Mr. Reginald M. Barrineau Nancy Taylor Roberts (71c) Mrs. Rheba Woody Benoy Jean Benoy Lacey (67C) Mr. Henry Chaney Berry Berry Perkins Dr. and Mrs. John R. Bertrand Sidney (60C) and Nancy Harris (61C) Wheeler Ms. Frances Berry Bonnyman Anne Bonnyman Mr. Dan Leslie Bowden Ruth Howell Hilson (50c) Mr. J.W. Boyd Gerald (64C) and Sonya Terry (67C) Boyd Mr. John L. Brock Tom and Betty Carver Rebekah Clemons Mary Outlaw Ree Palmer (16C) Mrs. Elaine Cox Burdette Jimmy Sanders (68C) Dr. D. Dean Cantrell Steven Strickland (83C) Dr. N. Gordon Carper Todd Carper (87C) Jeff Cavender (90C) Paul (86C) and Anne Selman (85C) Raybon Mr. and Mrs. A. Milton Chambers Angela Dickey (75A, 79C) Mr. Tommie A. Chandler Dana Keller Mr. George H. Clark Paul (88G) and Shannon Clark Mr. William J. Combs Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Mr. Charles L. Cooper Faye Cooper Mrs. Beatrice Kerby Crow Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Mrs. Joann Hunter Del Re Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Mrs. Jessiruth Smith Doss Jack (46H, 49C) and Phinalia Hunter Mr. Carey Dunn C. Warren Dunn (77C)

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BERRY MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019-20

Mrs. Mildred Morton Durden Vera Lowery Pennington (48H) Mr. James David Eunice John and Brenda Cannafax Mr. William Ebbert Evans Jack (46H, 49C) and Phinalia Hunter Dr. James David Fite Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Maj. Donald Fitzgerald Faye Weaver Mr. Robert E. Fleming Kaye Fleming Mr. James R. Fletcher Carol Graham Minshew (68C) Mrs. Alma Watkins Foster Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Mrs. Sandra Gresham Frost Leon Frost (63C) Mr. Charles Dean Gibbs John (61C) and Ann Fite (61C) Whitaker Dr. and Mrs. Jorge A. Gonzalez Angela Dickey (75A, 79C) George Donigian (74C) Dr. Randolph B. Green Richard and Susan Green Mrs. Bettie Joyce Garrett Harris Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Mrs. Myrtle Rose Hibbs Ethan Allen Operations – Pine Valley Division Mr. Christopher N. Holcombe Rachel Phillips Holcombe (90C) Mrs. Anna Slemp Holland Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Rear Adm. and Mrs. Lewis A. Hopkins Aaron and Amy Britt Mr. Jonathan Colin Howard William Lin (07C, 09G) Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Huff Tim Howard (82C) Lynn Wilkes (77C) Mr. Millard Harold “Hal” Hunter II John and Brenda Cannafax Mrs. Gwendolyn Norris Hutcheson Billy and Tina Barrs Barbara Benson Carrie Bloodsworth Margaret Brantley Philip and Teri Crosby Jennifer Dickey (77A, 80C) Ouida Word Dickey (50C) Betty Hutcheson Gordon and Margreate Smith Mary Stakes Jim Ann White Stewart (48H, 51C) Adrienne Zlatkiss Georgia Council for the Social Studies Mrs. Juanita Starling Ivey Charles (64A) and Jane Downey

Mrs. Lillian Purcell Johnson Kathy Comito Henry (55H, 59c) and Jan Deen (60C) Howell Mary Deen Reece (59C) Mr. Jesse R. Jones Mary Alice Ivey Blanton (58C) Harlan (58C) and Doris Reynolds (57C) Chapman Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Mr. Alfred T. Kamajian George Donigian (74C) Mr. Atlas Jesse King Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Mr. and Mrs. Maurice King Fran Bible Scheidt (48c) Mr. Erwin Kitchens Larry Posey (54H) Mrs. Lois Arnold Lamb Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Mrs. Elizabeth H. “Betty” Lee Mary Outlaw Mrs. Lisa Bridges Leskosky Jenny Young Noblit (82C) Ms. Nancy Lewis Sarah Harpring Mr. and Mrs. Fred H. Loveday Everett (61H, 65C) and Donna Solomons Dr. L.E. McAllister Carl Franklin (67C) Mr. Kenneth James “K.J.” McClellan Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Mr. John Mabry “Jack” Morgan Jr. David (84C) and Kelly Asbury Cameron Askew Lori Barefield James Barnes Janet Barnes Kim Baker Barnett (91C) Joe and Cathryn Brady Chris and Kelley Bullock Jim Calmes Jennifer Cash David Clark (85c) Jean Etherton Clark (70C, 74G) Mike and Linda Crain Tom Defnall Tim and Angie Denton Jill DeRamus Colin Duling Rich Duncan Peggy Edmonds Russ and Lisa Edwards Leslie Ellison Bryan and Meredith Enfinger Kelley Fry Daniel and Marguerite Gordon Malcholm Graham (17C) Nelson and Ann Grice Stuart and Cathy Griffin Toni Gruber

Steve and Deborah Haight Trey Hamer Sammy and Catherine Harris Robert Hastings Debbie Heida Misty Hittie Jennifer Hodges Tammie Jackson Adam Kleiner Mikee Knoll Tony Kunczewski Jodie Lackey Eliza Lowe Claude and Kelee Majester Claude Majester Scott and Carol Marlow John and Virginia Martin Nate Masters Katie McNamara Monique Meadows David and Dale Miller Megan Mitchell (12C) Bill Morgan John and Missy Morgan Kelly Neely Rachel Newman Amy Pollard Jordan Pritchard Andrea Ray Charlene Ray Brittany Roberts Issa Scott Ben Short Zack Smith Susanna Stanbury Alexandra Stephens Heidi Straughn J.B. and Frankie Thrasher Monica Tinker Ken and Katie Todd Pamela Tuggle Patti Vines Ashby Watkins Roy and Lisa Weaver Paul and Tracie West Charles Wingard Mike and Robin Wood Alabama Fertility Specialists – Janet Bouknight, Beth Malizia, Mamie McLean and Michael Steinkampf Kassouf and Co. CPAs Mr. Albert Leon Morris Reg (51C) and Maxine Strickland Mrs. Nan Lipscomb Nelms Frank Nelms Mrs. Eudora Parrish Parks Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Mrs. Mary Camp Patrick Sidney (60C) and Nancy Harris (61C) Wheeler Ray Jameson

THANK YOU Mr. Tom Arthur Phipps Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Dr. Willis N. Pirkle Tom (71C) and Cathy Wright (73c) Hall Mr. Melvin Lee Plunkett Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Mr. Thomas E. Poe Reg (51C) and Maxine Strickland Mr. and Mrs. Neal Q. Pope Dick and Bobbie Pope Mr. A.E. “Art” Pugh Reg (51C) and Maxine Strickland Mr. Jere M. Richardson Jack (46H, 49C) and Phinalia Hunter Mr. William Edward “Eddie” Scott Sr. Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Mrs. Patsy B. Self Franklin Self Mrs. Laura Sexton Elaine Foster Dr. Gloria M. Shatto Lois Miller Dr. Ira H. “Dutch” Slade Jr. George and Rosalind Simpson Mrs. Carolyn Thompson Smith Larry (56H, 60C) and Louise Adams Ruth Andel James Philip Beamer III (90C) Mary Beth Blalock John (62C) and Geraldine Johnson (62C) Bridges Harlan (58C) and Doris Reynolds (57C) Chapman Leslie Choitz (76C) Al (61c) and Becky Browning (61C) Christopher Annilee Compton Bart Cox (92C) Angela Dickey (75A, 79C) Jennifer Dickey (77A, 80C) Terry and Dee Goodwin Linda Gaston Hanson (69c) Jean Miller Hedden (52C) Sandra Hofmann Tim Howard (82C) Mark and Pat Tutterow (82C) Jackson Walter (95C) and Malinda Perritt (94C) King Sarah McCown Melvin (64C, 76G) and Anita Wray (66C) Merrill Paula Morrow Kathy Robinson Ray (79C) Deborah Willis Rogers (73C) Lee Shackelford (52H) Don (54C) and Grace Mitchell (54C) Stinson Reg (51C) and Maxine Strickland Debbie Richardson Teal (85C) Earl (52H) and Carolyn Tillman Bill (57C) and Mary Charles Lambert (58C) Traynham Carol Waddell (72C) Mark (83C) and Chris Bailey (89C) Watters

Lenard and Bernice Ogle (53H) Whaley Terry (72C, 75G) and Betty Gordy (69c) Williamson Kim Woolbright Daughters of Berry Mrs. Evelyn Spradlin Standridge Donald Rhodes Lt. Col. John Stein John and Brenda Cannafax Mr. Philip Sike Storey Harold Storey Mr. Jerry Swinney Vince and Maureen Stafford Mr. and Mrs. Maurice B. Thompson James and Malinda Pennington Mrs. Susan Keene Timberlake Jack Timberlake Mr. and Mrs. Clinton Tutterow Roger Tutterow (84C) Mrs. Millie M. Vaughn Lisa Vaughn (98C) Mr. Richard Martin “Dick” Weller Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Dr. Darwin G. White Mark White (76A, 80C) Mrs. Katherine C. Williams Leslie Carver (65A) Susan Chambers (77C) Harlan (58C) and Doris Reynolds (57C) Chapman Don Collins (65A, 69C) Ouida Word Dickey (50C) Raymond Douglas (50C) Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Debbie Heida J. Ruel and Lucy McMillian Stan and Jo Ann Pethel Jack Pigott (69A) John Pillsbury (74G) Kathy Robinson Ray (79C) Reg (51C) and Maxine Strickland Larry and Betty Jane Taylor Bill (57C) and Mary Charles Lambert (58C) Traynham United Community Bank – Blairsville Mr. Robert J. “Bobby” Wright Donna Bishop Wright (73c)

MEMORY GIFTS TO NAMED SCHOLARSHIPS Frank Campbell Memorial Fund Mildred Campbell Tietjen (61C) A. Milton and JoAnn Chambers Endowed Scholarship Allyson Chambers (80C, 84G) Sammy (77C) and Holly Wood (73C) Freeman, with a matching gift from the Coca-Cola Co. Karen Bourland McCarthy (78C) Percy N. Clark and Family Scholarship Paul Norman Clark (88G) J. Mitchell and Cleone Elrod Scholarship Marion Thomas (86C)

Al and Mary Nadassy Scholarship in Memory of Mrs. Ralph Farmer Steven Strickland (83C) Rani Partridge Woodrow (88C) Ray F. Faulkenberry Scholarship Milton (60C) and Evelyn Cureton (60C) Sowell Jorge A. and Ondina S. Gonzalez Family Endowed Scholarship J. Tom Bertrand James Blacksher Rick and Fran Formby Buice Bob Cooper Georgette deFriesse Ouida Word Dickey (50C) Susi Edwards Ondina E. Gonzalez (76A) and Karl Lehman Jim and Ann Gunsalus Elizabeth Heimburger Bill and Sara Hoyt Katherine Hudspeth Gregory Kirby Harold Murphy Stanley and Marita Murphy Christine Nolan Larry A. Green Memorial Scholarship Janna Johnson (81C) Melanie Green Jones Debbie Richardson Teal (85C) Lewis A. Hopkins Endowed Scholarship Steve and Linda Hawkins Howard A. Richmond II Ruby Hopkins Outstanding Student Teacher Award Steve and Linda Hawkins Howard A. Richmond II Percy Marchman Scholarship Emily Marchman (75C) Dr. L. Doyle Mathis Gate of Opportunity Scholarship funded by the Class of 1958C Tom and Betty Carver Steven Cumbee Tim Farnham Emily Hulsey Rheba Burch Mathis (57C) Bill (58C) and Joan Stokes (58C) Priester Reg (51C) and Maxine Strickland Bill (57C) and Mary Charles Lambert (58C) Traynham Dr. R. Melvin and Sarah E. Rozar Endowed Scholarship Melvin Rozar (57C) Dr. Sam Spector Endowed Scholarship Fred (09G) and Nancy Mercer Charles (76C) and Terri Albright (77c) Wilkie Alexander Whyte Whitaker III Endowed Scholarship Sylvia Howard Whit (81C) and Maria Crego (85c) Whitaker Nell Gilreath Williams Scholarship Pamela Hefner

Jeff Wingo Memorial Scholarship Janna Johnson (81C) Kirby Peden (93C) Kay Wingo Craig Allyn Wofford Scholarship Ron Dean

HONOR GIFTS Mrs. Rachel White Araiza Claire Zimmerman (09C) Ms. Summer Nicole “Nikki” Beckham Sam Beckham Mrs. Betty Anne Rouse Bell Reg (51C) and Maxine Strickland Ms. Meridith Elise Beretta James and Jacqueline Beretta Ms. Grace Caroline Bowers Brad and Julie Lich Mrs. Debbie Allen Brackett Joe Frank Allen (55C) Mr. Riley Bernard Brogdon Wade and Deborah Brogdon Ms. Melodye G. Brown DAR – Atlanta Chapter DAR – Georgia State Society Mr. and Mrs. Alton H. Christopher Marti Walstad Dr. John T. David Mary Sue Couey Ward (74C) Ms. Wendy Davis Jeffrey Horn (87C) Dr. Ouida Word Dickey Dottie Clark Gregg (69C) Brenda Geraldson Jenkins (97C) Reg (51C) and Maxine Strickland Charlie (57C) and Keitha Davis (58C) Weatherford Mr. Richard Duncan Tom and Betty Carver Mrs. Mary Fite Avon Garden Club Mr. and Mrs. Brad S. Freemyer Jeffrey Horn (87C) Mr. Clayton A. Hightower Tommy (85C) and Ann Jackson Ms. Harriette R. Hoyt Nancy Thames Lippard The Rev. and Mrs. Timothy Hoyt-Duncan Nancy Thames Lippard Mrs. Melanie Green Jones Gayla Green Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Knox Kellie Knox (89C) Mr. Anton Z. Kunczewski John and Missy Morgan Mr. Taylor E. Lee Mary Outlaw Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Leidlein Nancy Thames Lippard Ms. Kayla Ann Low Holly Low Hodge (88C) Mr. Ross A. Magoulas Mary Sue Couey Ward (74C) Mr. Brian McCormack Nancy Thames Lippard Mrs. Susan Torell Miscio Michael and Julia Kimple

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THANK YOU Mrs. Mary I. Nadassy Brad and Jennifer Harte Dr. Paul Andrew Neal Mary Sue Couey Ward (74C) Mrs. Kathryn D. Nobles Jonathan Pascual (04C) Mrs. Bettyann O’Neill Brenda Geraldson Jenkins (97C) PMA Kappa Gamma Chapter Britt Ozburn (08C) Mrs. Betty Hawkins Pugh Reg (51C) and Maxine Strickland Mrs. Kathleen Robinson Ray Tom and Betty Carver Ms. Allison Kathleen Robertson Debbie Heida Mr. William E. Roseen Bud Hall (79C) Ms. Samantha Lauren Schoppy George Pickard Dr. Jeanne Mar Schul Marsha Dempsey Ms. Kendall Diane Scott Michelle Hull Mrs. Suzanne White Sella Mary Sella Mrs. Stacey Jones Spillers Jeffrey Horn (87C) Mrs. Grace Mitchell Stinson Jo Ann Clayton Tumlin (54C) Mr. James B. Way Reg (51C) and Maxine Strickland Work Week Participants Jean Benoy Lacey (67C)

HONOR GIFTS TO NAMED SCHOLARSHIPS Julie Ann Bumpus Endowed Scholarship Marcia Rary McConnell (83C) Laura Phillips Katherine Powell Jordan Shivers (05C) Carol Story Dr. Robert L. Frank Legacy Scholarship Donna Thompson Braden (96C) Steven Hames Genyth Travis (96C)

OTHER GIFTS TO NAMED SCHOLARSHIPS AND WORK ENDOWMENTS Dr. Frank and Kathryn Adams Endowed Scholarship Frank (54H, 58C) and Kathy Adams Tina Bucher Jim Watkins African American Alumni Chapter Scholarship Shakarah Boswell (16C) Wilhemia Seals (74C) Sharronda Thompson (05c) Agriculture Alumni Endowed Scholarship Arvile and Charlotte Smitherman

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Pat Alderman Scholarship Pat Alderman Leo W. Anglin Memorial Scholarship Jacqueline McDowell Lemuel, Mary and James Banks Endowed Scholarship Wayne (61C) and Madeline Banks (63c) Canady Theresa Kornegay Pittman (63C) Glenn W. and Hattie McDougald Bell Scholarship Bob Thesing W.L. Bell Sr. and B.B. Hill Jr. Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Jimmy (60C) and Luci Hill (60C) Bell Berry High Schools and Academy Work Scholarship Glenn Hess (58H, 68C) Cleo Leonard Ray (44H) Ron (64A, 68C) and Judy Senger Martha Berry Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Glenn Hess (58H, 68C) Marti Walstad Randy Berry and Thomas Berry Gate of Opportunity Memorial Scholarship Randy and Nancy Berry John R. and Annabel Hodges Bertrand Endowed Scholarship Fred and J’May Rivara Dan Biggers Distinguished Actor Award Reed (77A, 82C) and Shannon Walburn (81C) Biggers Karen Baird Carter (87C) W.S. Black Conservation Scholarship Margie Black Glenn Hess (58H, 68C) Billy and Carol Blair Endowed Scholarship Billy (58C) and Carol Buchanan (56H, 58c) Blair Joshua Bradshaw-Whittemore Memorial Endowed Scholarship Alfred and Gloria Bradshaw- Whittemore Selma Hall Browning Memorial Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Al (61c) and Becky Browning (61C) Christopher Ed (60c) and Benita Hall (60c) Sims Emily and Jerry (66A) Bullock Endowed Scholarship Jerry (66A) and Emily Bullock Capitulum Scholarship WinShape Foundation N. Gordon Carper Endowed History Scholarship Garry Osborne (71C) Kathryn Roseen (76C) Michael Tumminelli (71C) Carpet Capital Chapter Scholarship Harlan (58C) and Doris Reynolds (57C) Chapman Tim Howard (82C) Sue Killcreas (78C)

Pamela Millwood Pettyjohn (81C, 85G) James Spence Lenard and Bernice Ogle (53H) Whaley Truett and Jeannette Cathy Expendable Scholarship Chick-fil-A Foundation WinShape Foundation Class of 1951C Memorial Endowed Scholarship Reg (51C) and Maxine Strickland Class of 1953C Scholarship William (53C) and Bonnie Pierce (54c) Bell Class of 1953H Staley-Loveday Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Lenard and Bernice Ogle (53H) Whaley Class of 1954C Endowed Scholarship William (53C) and Bonnie Pierce (54c) Bell Gene Johnson (54C) Jean Mitchell Sheffield (54C) Lois Eason Woodcock (54C) Class of 1955C Scholarship Fay Logan Chandler (55C) Fred (55C) and Pat Brooks (59C) Maddox Lynn Thurman Mazzucchi (55C) Ed Parkerson (55C) Class of 1956C Endowed Scholarship Ginny Atkins (56C) Jean Adcock Curran (56C) Bobby Walker Fulmer (56C) William Keith (56c) Emmett (56C) and Opal Poss (56C) Sims Kenneth (56C) and LaDonna Smitherman (56C) Strickland Class of 1957C Scholarship Ellen May Partridge (57C) C.L. (57C) and Doris Little (57C) Tate Frank Windham (57c) Class of 1960C Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Lowell (60C) and Dee Hysinger (60C) Loadholtz Roy Parker (60C) W.C. (60C) and Sylvia Davis (60C) Rowland J.B. (60C) and Helen Rice (60C) Stanley Wayne Stevenson (60C) Jerry (56H, 60c) and Louise Conaway (57C) Winton Class of 1961C Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Ruby Vestal Mills (61C) Elaine Overman (61c) Class of 1963C Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Wesley (63C) and Ruth King (65C) Martin Dorothy Stinson Nolen (63C) Midge Johnson Raiford (63C)

Class of 1965C Endowed Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Stan (65C) and Wanda Scott (65C) Aldridge James (65C) and Susie Cook (65C) Campbell Jim (65C) and Lottie Snow (65C) Finney Faye Lovinggood Hood (65C) Herb Jones (65C) Wesley (63C) and Ruth King (65C) Martin Dallas (65C) and Judi Reynolds, with a matching gift from State Farm Companies Foundation Larry (65C) and Jerry Sculley Guy Sims (65C) Everett (61H, 65C) and Donna Solomons Class of 1966C Assistant Gardener Endowed Work Position Daniel (66C) and Joyce Lemons (68c) Bius Raiford Cantrell (66C) Rufus Cantrell (66C) Werdna Hill (66C) Class of 1967C Endowed Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Janett Cofer Fauley (67C) Jerrie Walker Fowler (67C, 81G) Garland Meeks (68C) Allan (67C) and Ellen Thomas (67C) Richardson Class of 1969C Endowed Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Bill Abernathy (69C) W.C. Blackmon (69C) Diane Poole Blair (69C) Nancy Merk Bruce (69C) Giles (66C) and Iva Madden (69C) Chapman Don Collins (65A, 69C) Larry (69C) and Nadine NeSmith (71c) Covington Doris Talley Davis (69C) William (69C) and Sally Schwartz (69C) Epps Pat Barna Holland (69C) June Griffin Lewis (69C) Victor F. Mulinix (69C) Mr. and Mrs. Frank Rubino Steve Salmon (69C) John (64A, 69C) and Jo Shahan Raiden Sherman (69C) Mary Sullens Shores (69C) Roark (65A, 69C) and Karen Summerford Bruce Treadway (69C) Ray (69C) and Pamela Tucker Del Tull (69C) Michael (67C) and Penny White (69c) Walker Class of 1979C Internship Scholarship Mary Reid (79C) Barbara Robertson (79C), with a matching gift from IBM Robert (78C) and Janet Neighbors (79C) Wilson Carla Banister Wyatt (79C)

THANK YOU Class of 1994C Scholarship Betsy Kays Bottomley (94C) Michelle Palmer Griffith (94C) Johnny and April Campbell (94C) Oatts Trevor Scoggins (94C) Karen Turner Sherman (94C) Freddie (94C) and Jennifer Helton (95C) Villacci George W. Cofield Memorial Scholarship Fund Margie Grogan Pope (57C) Hetty McEwen Coleman Scholarship Warren Coleman Fund Dames of the Court of Honor Expendable Scholarship National Society Dames of the Court of Honor, Georgia Society De Berdt-Naidenko Award George Donigian (74C) Gertrude C. Dellar Endowed Memorial Scholarship Robert Dellar Garland Dickey Endowed Scholarship Jacque Terrill (65C) Ouida, Angela and Jennifer Dickey Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Ouida Word Dickey (50C) Jessiruth Smith Doss Scholarship Calvin Doss (49C) Carolyn Denise Edwards Scholarship Ron (56H) and Robbie Barber (56H) Edwards B. Leon Elder Endowed Scholarship Joe (63C) and Shirley Bowen (63c) Elder Ed and Evelyn England Endowed Scholarship Ed (57C) and Evelyn Quarles (57C) England First Families of Georgia Expendable Scholarship First Families of Georgia Jimmy R. Fletcher Memorial Endowed Scholarship Alvin and Patsy Grindle (68C) Bryan Clinton (66C) and Sue Dell (68c) Cole Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Lamar Fletcher (66A) Jim (68C) and Ruth Hairston Terry (68C) and Charlene Head (67C) Lingerfelt, with a matching gift from State Farm Companies Foundation Emma Fears O’Neal (68C) Carol McElroy Powell (68C) William R. Gaines Sr. Endowed Scholarship Will Gaines (93C) Robert W. Gardner Endowed Scholarship Pamela Gardner Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Jeanette Ballard Thomas (66C)

Georgia State Society DAR Gate of Opportunity Scholarship DAR – Georgia State Society DAR – Old Noonday Chapter Gail Howard Gibson Endowed Scholarship Ann Daniel Gail Howard Gibson (82C) George M. Glover Endowed International Scholarship Dwight Glover (84C) Ed and Gayle Graviett Gmyrek Scholarship Ed and Gayle Graviett (67C) Gmyrek Hamilton/Smith Scholarship Evelyn Hamilton (69C) Beverly Philpot Smith (69C) Jonathan Randall Hardin Endowed Scholarship Fund Jonathan and Leisa Withrow (90C) Baggett John and Brenda Cannafax Daniel Carpenter Lee Carter (76c) Laurie Hattaway Chandler (95C) Kerrie Hartline Dalrymple (17C) Harrison Dupree Penny Evans-Plants (90C) Cindy Gillespie Randy and Nita Hardin Steve Hatfield Marvin Howlett (72C) and Annette Axley Jeff Smith James Terrell Heneisen Service Award Laurie Hattaway Chandler (95C) Edna F. Hetsko Scholarship Russ (02C) and Dana Migliore (01C, 07G) Hunt Howell Hollis Scholarship Howell Hollis Becky Musser Hosea Scholarship Susan Parker William R. and Sara Lippard Hoyt Scholarship Bill and Sara Hoyt Harriette Hoyt Nancy Thames Lippard Michael Tumminelli (71C) Barbara Ballanger Hughes Scholarship Barbara Ballanger Hughes (71C) Emily T. Ingram Endowed Scholarship Emily Thomason Ingram (47c) Walter B. and Flossie R. Jennings Memorial Endowed Scholarship Buford Jennings (58C) Amy Jo Johnson Scholarship Fund Malisa Hagan Walter and Mabel Johnson Scholarship Walt Johnson (41H) Dale Jones Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Dale Jones (71C) Dale Jones Scholarship Dale Jones (71C)

H.I. “Ish” Jones Endowed Agriculture Scholarship Joy Jones Neal (83C) Kerry (72C) and Gloria Noles Starlet Rhodes Jones Scholarship George (64C) and Starlet Rhodes (64C) Jones Kappa Delta Pi Endowed Award Mary Clement Keappler Family Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Mark (82C) and Judy Howard (82C) Keappler Kevin Kleine Study Abroad Scholarship Joe Bihlmier (91C) Jean Etherton Clark (70C, 74G) Bob Frank Maggie Flores Heimermann (94C) Joshua Pham (05C) Kathy and Randy Richardson Susan Wiley Sherman (91C) Lois and Lucy Lampkin Foundation Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Lois and Lucy Lampkin Foundation Land Management Scholarship Anonymous Vince Griffith (81C) and Angela Hartley Dr. Peter A. Lawler Endowed Scholarship Brad (96C) and Nicole Alexander Michael and Julianne Bailey Matt Barrett (97C) Jody Bishop (89C) Rob (99C) and Katie Dillon (00C) Crowe Darla Fox Jeffrey Horn (87C) Rita Lawler Dave Rowland (87C) Emma Sulkowski (13C) Mandy Tidwell (93C) Delta Air Lines Foundation, matching the gift of Alan Matthew Ratliff (02C) Fred H. and Mary Loveday Endowed Scholarship Gordon Kennedy (48H, 52c) Waymon Morris (54H) David and Nancy Smith Alfred Wallace (51H) Mr. and Mrs. Roger W. Lusby III Endowed Scholarship Roger (79C) and Candy Caudill (82c) Lusby Frazier and Deeter Foundation Paul C. and Velma Smith Maddox Scholarship Paul C. and Velma Smith Maddox Foundation Ross Magoulas Endowed Scholarship Darlene Daehler-Wilking Ashley Dekle (69C) Virginia McChesney Cecily Nall (77C) Jacque Terrill (65C)

Dr. Charles Scott Markle Award Wetlands Restoration Willisa Marsh Future Educator Scholarship Fund LPL Financial Willisa H. Marsh Scholarship Fund LPL Financial Martha! Centennial Scholarship Reg (51C) and Maxine Strickland Rufus Massey Student-Operated Enterprises Scholarship Karen Bachus Jennifer Tucker Beard (93C, 00G) Larry (82C) and Janet Finello (80C) Brown Jennifer Buscemi (15C) John (04C) and Jackie Feit (05c) Coleman Michael Contreras (76C) Bas De Vuyst (14C) Rita De Vuyst John (90C) and Camille Clark (91C) Dent Jean Druckenmiller Walter Ehmer Brin Enterkin (12C) Sylvia Howard Adam (01C) and Sandra Tobey (02C) Hunt Steve Hunter (83C) Homer Key (75C) Daniel (84C) and Sharon Perkins (86C) Lynch Kate Adornato Malone (08C) Daniel Massey (07C) Grace Massey Kelly Massey (97C) Rufus (75C) and Mary Anne Schimmelmann (75c) Massey Kim Terrell Melton (04C, 06G) Crystal Jones Milby (06C) Kseniya Shakhova Montgomery (14C) Bonnie Massey Padgett (01C) James Randall (82C) Joanna Palatinus Richardson (96C) Mary Chambers Smith (14C) Arvile and Charlotte Smitherman Laky (84C, 87G) and Kay Hurst (85C) Spas Tricia Steele (09C) Grover Stewart David (91C) and Kathleen Hightower (94C, 98G) Sundy Karen Thorpe Truitt (91C) Chances Waite (15C) Sue Wilder (85C) John (78C) and Cheryl Massey (78C) Williams Damon Wood (84C) Rick Woodall (93C) Jennifer Wright Math and Natural Science Alumni Award Andrew Bowen (03C) Frank Miller Memorial Scholarship Stan (65C) and Wanda Scott (65C) Aldridge Bill (65C) and Betty Rozar (65C) Banks

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Baxter and Beverly Burke Glenda Huggins Davis (65C) Ron (65C) and Evonne Dyer (65C) Dayhoff Gail Miller Rebecca Miller Tim and Ann Miller Jeff (75A) and Tara Miller (79A) Smith Tammy Miller Stine (77A) Jacque Terrill (65C) Luther and Jane Miller Endowed Scholarship Rob Brock (83C) Roy Miller Endowed Entrepreneurship Scholarship Roy Miller (58C) Linda Mills Memorial Endowed Scholarship Stacey Spillers Amos Montgomery Endowed Scholarship Iris Kinnebrew (72C) Hubert and Minnie Willis (72C, 77G) Marsh Stacey Spillers Mary and Al Nadassy English Scholarship Tina Bucher Mark Taylor Jim Watkins NSDAR Gate of Opportunity Scholarship National Society Daughters of the American Revolution NSDAR Juniors Gate of Opportunity Scholarship National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Junior Membership Committee NSDAR Scholarship DAR – Anan Harmon Chapter DAR – Ann Simpson Davis Chapter DAR – Anna Stickney Chapter DAR – Ardmore Chapter DAR – Arrowhead Valley Chapter DAR – Beaver Chapter DAR – Brunswick Town Chapter DAR – Bryan Station Chapter DAR – Canton Chapter DAR – Colonel Polk Chapter DAR – Colonel William Candler Chapter DAR – Conejo Valley Chapter DAR – Franklin County Chapter DAR – French Lick Chapter DAR – Gaspar De Portola Chapter DAR – General James Breckinridge Chapter DAR – Jacob Braselton Chapter DAR – Jean Ribault Chapter

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DAR – John Bell Chapter DAR – John McKnitt Alexander Chapter DAR – John Percifull Chapter DAR – Kanyuk Sa Chapter DAR – Kentucky State Society DAR – Lakeland Chapter DAR – Liberty Hill Chapter DAR – Longs Peak Chapter DAR – Mary Chesney Chapter DAR – Michigan DAR – Nancy Anderson Chapter DAR – Peter Meyer Chapter DAR – Rhea-Craig Chapter DAR – Sam Houston Chapter DAR – San Antonio Chapter DAR – Sandhills Chapter DAR – Sauk Trail Chapter DAR – Six Flags Chapter DAR – Skokie Valley Chapter DAR – Valley of Fire Chapter DAR – Watauga Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Tim and Mary A. Page Scholarship Mary Page Bobby Patrick Endowed Scholarship Anne Johnson Coffman (68C) Willis and Nora Pirkle Endowed Scholarship Alice Suroviec Neal Quitman and Emily Lowe Pope Scholarship Fund Karen Gerald Pope Neal Pope Pope Automotive Family Foundation Kelley Bennett Poydence Endowed Scholarship Raytheon Co., matching the gift of Dan and Kelley Poydence Amber T. Prince Memorial Scholarship Janna Johnson (81C) Jamie (97C) and Elisha Wright (98C, 04G) Lindner Vesta Salmon Service Scholarship Allen and Maki Tokiwa Reynolds Jason (00C) and Ashley Harp (01C) Sheppard Save a Student Scholarship A total of 1,284 gifts from current students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends were made to this scholarship aiding students facing sudden financial distress.

Visit berry.edu/giving/sas-donors to see each donor’s name.

Jeanne Schul Endowed Dance Scholarship Jason (98C) and Renee Spurlock (97C) McMillan

Jerry Shelton Endowed Scholarship funded by the Class of 1958C Elizabeth Ashe Cope (58C) Charles (64A) and Jane Downey Ray (58C) and Judy Fewell Charlie (57C) and Keitha Davis (58C) Weatherford Ranjit and Anjani Singh Award for Christian Minstry Rodney (90C) and Jill Duffy (90C) Chandler Colleen Curlee (16C) Thomas Fitzpatrick (88C) Nancy Johnston (02C) Sagar Mody (10C) Kathryn Jordan (87C) Pitman Tricia Steele (09C) Rick Woodall (93C) Tom and Barbara Slocum Endowed Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Thomas and Barbara Slocum, with a matching gift from Delta Air Lines Foundation Robert Earl Stafford Scholarship Myra Stafford Pryor Charitable Trust Maxine Strickland Endowed Nursing Scholarship Deborah Hill Reg (51C) and Maxine Strickland Reginald E. Strickland Endowed Gate of Opportunity Scholarship Reg (51C) and Maxine Strickland Student Government Association Vice President of Service Endowed Work Position Barbara Robertson (79C), with a matching gift from IBM Student Scholarships Rhea Clemmons Aronhalt (07C) Belvinia Attaway Kristen Diliberto-Macaluso Lei Parsons Eason (61C) Alisa Elmore Jennifer Harris (93C) Timothy Larsen Michael Maney (98C) Jason Marion Mac McDowell (59C) Matt Ragan (98C) and Shelly Driskell-Ragan (96C) Earnest Rodgers (60C) Charles Russell Julia Pouncy Sapp (70C) Georgia Independent College Association Price/Blackburn Charitable Foundation Study Abroad Award Vincent and Mary Gregoire

Larry and Betty Jane Taylor Endowed Scholarship Larry and Betty Jane Taylor Texas Society DAR Scholarship DAR – Texas Society Fred J. Tharpe Endowed Scholarship Fred Tharpe (68A), with a matching gift from Turner Broadcasting System Grace and Maurice Thompson Scholarship Estate of Maurice Thompson (40c) Michael and Elizabeth Thompson Scholarship Michael (87C) and Elizabeth Thompson The Trey Tidwell Experience: A Scholarship for Musical Discovery Mandy Tidwell (93C) Microsoft Corp.

Ted Touchstone Endowed Work Position Bill and Martha Collins Jimmy (72c) and Pam Woods (73C, 74G) Treglown Troy/Gardner Endowed Art History Award Virginia Troy Courtney M. Urquhart Endowed Communication Scholarship Randy and Judy Urquhart James Van Meerten Study Abroad Scholarship Jim Van Meerten (70C) Steve and Cindy Wherry Endowed Accounting Scholarship Steve (80C) and Cindy Snead (80C) Wherry Lettie Pate Whitehead Scholars Fund Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation WinShape Scholarship WinShape Foundation Richard Wood Scholarship Kelly Cochran (88C) Sammy (77C) and Holly Wood (73C) Freeman, with a matching gift from the Coca-Cola Co. David (68A, 72C) and Alta Breeden (70C) Wood

In the end, it's about the students.

Photo courtesty of Abby Trzyzewski

By student writer CASSIE LAJEUNESSE

PERSPECTIVE

GLOBAL

bby Trzyzewski is no stranger to diverse cultures. Her family traveled frequently when she was growing up and hosted exchange students for four years. Last spring, however, she gained fresh insight into the world – and further defined her career path – through a U.S. State Department internship abroad.

For 16 weeks, Trzyzewski worked at the U.S. embassy in Bern, Switzerland, gaining experience in a variety of tasks, including preparations for the World Economic Forum.

“Most of my time was spent on internal operations and functions,” she explained. “It was a very eye-opening experience seeing how the government works from the inside. There are so many different moving parts, and that is only made more complex with being abroad.”

Trzyzewski excelled in her work, earning praise on her performance evaluation as “an invaluable asset” and “the very best intern I have ever had the privilege of working with.” She credits skills learned through her work as a student assistant in Berry’s LifeWorks office with helping her to succeed in the role.

“I felt well prepared for working in a real-world setting,” said Trzyzewski, who discovered the internship opportunity through a job-search assignment completed as part of a Berry careerdevelopment class. “The problem-solving skills I learned from my student work experience were especially helpful. My work supervisor at Berry has helped me figure out the path that I am interested in pursuing and has given me tasks to prepare for that.”

Additional support was provided by Dr. Joyce Heames, dean of Berry’s Campbell School of Business, a “tremendous mentor” who helped her make the most of the experience.

“She was my academic advisor for the semester,” Trzyzewski said. “She was able to put together an outline for a directed study that would adapt to my internship responsibilities and also challenge me to experience the culture and differences in work environments.”

The management major and French minor had many opportunities to live out Heames’ challenge while living in and navigating the city of Bern. She was able to easily communicate in a country in which the dominant languages are English and French and found travel by rail to be smooth both within Switzerland and to nearby countries. She also had the opportunity to reconnect with one of her family’s exchange students, who traveled from Cologne, Germany, to help her settle in.

The internship provided affirmation and confidence as Trzyzewski looks ahead to graduate school and a career working internationally. It also deepened her appreciation for the perspective of others.

“I learned that diversity is a fact of life,” she said. “We can learn valuable lessons from people of different cultures, different religions and different political backgrounds. In order to succeed in a global arena, I need to be aware of and respect those differences. While I do not have to agree with the opinions expressed by others, I have to understand that they have the right to have those opinions.”

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Wave the banner!

Junior Mitchell Brice channels his inner Viking during the Berry football team’s early-season win over LaGrange College, played before an overflow crowd of more than 3,000 fans at Valhalla. Follow Berry athletics online at berryvikings.com.

Photo by student photographer Matthew McConnell.