Centenary Magazine Winter 2017

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Welcoming

Dr. Christopher L. Holoman & Mrs. Connie Holoman

­Centenary’s intercultural ­programs strengthen students’ ability to communicate, work, and live with others.

Photo taken by Dr. David Havird on the island of Naxos in Greece during the 2016 May ­Module “Life Amid the Ruins.”

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Centenary Magazine is published by Centenary College of Louisiana for alumni and friends of the College. © 2017 CENTENARY COLLEGE

WINTER 2017

ALUMNI & FAMILY RELATIONS Saige Wilhite Solomon ’05, Director of Alumni & Family Relations MARKETING & COMMUNICATION Tim Kershner, Associate Vice President for Marketing & Communication Sherry Heflin, Visual Identity & Publications Manager Jeremy Johnson, Director of Digital Media Matthew Lofton, Athletics Writer & Sports Information ­Coordinator Candace Metoyer, Digital Media Specialist Kate Pedrotty, Director of Strategic ­Communication

CENTENARY MAGAZINE Office of Marketing & Communication 2911 Centenary Blvd.

Shreveport, LA 71104 PHONE

318.869.5073 WEB SITE centenary.edu/magazine EMAIL news@centenary.edu

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Welcome to the new year… and a new Centenary Magazine!

There is much to look forward to at Centenary College in 2017, and one way we’re celebrating is with an update to ye olde College magazine. We’ve added some new features, including sections dedicated to campus news and athletics, and also freshened up the design elements for a clean, contemporary feel.

The cover story for the year – literally and figuratively – is the arrival and upcoming inauguration of Centenary’s 31st president, Dr. Christopher L. Holoman. If you haven’t had the chance to meet Dr. Holoman in person yet, you can get a glimpse of his vision for the College in the article on pg. 12.

Please also make plans to attend his inauguration at the Gold Dome on Friday, March 17. A full inauguration schedule will be available soon on Centenary’s recently redesigned website, centenary.edu.

In this issue, you’ll also find a recap of Homecoming 2016, student and alumni success stories, and the traditional class notes. Our goal in producing Centenary Magazine will always be to celebrate the heart and soul of Centenary by showcasing the accomplishments and innovations of our students, faculty, staff, and alumni. As we plan for future issues, let us hear from you about content that you’d enjoy reading and sharing with others who need to know the Centenary story, especially prospective students and families.

You can send us an email at news@centenary.edu.

Best wishes for a wonderful 2017, and enjoy Centenary Magazine!

COVER PHOTOGRAPH Pictured in front of Magale Library are Dr. Christopher L. Holoman, the 31st president of Centenary College, and his wife, Mrs. Connie Holoman.

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Kate Pedrotty Director of Strategic Communication

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FEATURES

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The 31st president – Christopher L. Holoman, Ph.D.

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Centenary’s Veterans Day Tribute honored those who have served

18-21 12 COLLEGE NEWS (pages 6-11)

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Centenary College Choir Celebrates 75th Anniversary

Homecoming 2016 in Review

Centenary

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Alumni Profile: Brandon Larson ’05

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Fall exhibits at Meadows Museum

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Athletics Recap

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Theatre Department concludes fall season

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Exciting Season for Hurley Music

10-11 Centenary in Paris 2016

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Centenary gets a new website!

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Centenary student is finalist for Rhodes Scholar program

MORE ALUMNI NEWS

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Class Notes

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In Memoriam

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Centenary College Choir celebrates 75th anniversary

Current and alumni Choir members perform during the 2016 Rhapsody in View performance at Shreveport’s Riverview Theatre.

Centenary’s Singing Ambassadors, the Centenary College Choir, celebrated the 75th anniversary of the group’s founding by A.C. “Cheesy” Voran in 1941 in conjunction with Centenary’s Homecoming October 28 – 30.

Festivities began on Friday evening with three Decade reunions hosted by choir alumni: 40s/50s/60s at the home of Gene ’63 and Charlotte ’63 Bryson; 70s/80s at the home of Cindy Gleason Johnson ‘81/’11; and 90s at the home of Todd ’97 and Leah Frierson ’98 Muslow.

The celebration continued Saturday evening at the 68th annual Rhapsody in View performance. A pre-concert reception gave Choir alumni and friends an opportunity to visit before enjoying the show. In honor of the 75th Anniversary, the program included Choir favorites from throughout its history as well as a new work by alumnus James

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Eakin ’99. Eakin’s composition, Twitterlieder, is a suite of short pieces based on tweets ranging from profound to humorous. More traditional selections included a medley from Les Miserables, hymn arrangements, and patriotic favorites such as Salute to the Armed Forces and Battle Hymn of the Republic. A highlight of the evening occurred when over 300 alumni joined current choir members on stage to perform during the second half of the concert. This Rhapsody tradition reflects the strong legacy of the Choir as alumni and current members blend their voices in song. Choir members, choir alumni, family, and friends attended a banquet at East Ridge Country Club following the performance.

A large number of Choir members and alumni extended their observance Sunday morning

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Centenary president Dr. Christopher L. Holoman speaks during Centenary Sunday at First United Methodist Church in Shreveport.

at Centenary Sunday at First Methodist Shreveport where current Choir director Dr. David Hobson ’98 is the director of music ministry and immediate past Choir director Dr. Will Andress ‘61 is director of fine arts. Finally, those who were unable to attend the Saturday evening performance had a second opportunity to hear the program at the Rhapsody matinee. Both the Saturday and Sunday performances concluded with another moving Choir tradition: surrounding the audience as they sing “May the Lord Bless You and Keep You.” n

New exhibits and literary events at Meadows this fall The Meadows Museum continued its tradition of complementing its vibrant exhibition schedule with educational programming this fall.

The season began in August with a timely exhibition of politically themed works from the Museum’s permanent collection, Election Humours: Prints by William Hogarth. Centenary’s new political science professor, Dr. Mark Leeper, presented “Are They Still Hitting the Spot?

An Historical Glance at the Use and Effectiveness of Political Ads in Presidential Campaigns” in association with the exhibit.

Alexander from the Psychology Department and Professor Jessica Hawkins from the Department of Art & Visual Culture.

October saw the opening of two related exhibits: Birds of the Enlightenment: Predecessors and Rivals of J. J. Audubon and Nine Birds by Don Brown. Birds of Enlightenment guest curator Dr. Tom Puryear presented a gallery talk in October, and Dr. Victoria Cummins, professor of history at Austin College, shared her extensive research on Don Brown, one-time chair of Centenary’s Art Department, in a talk in November. Both exhibits ran through January, with Nodie Williams, vice president of Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Louisiana teaching visitors about how and how not to rescue birds on January 10.

In late October, the Museum debuted Acceptable Losses by the arts collective Critical Art Ensemble. The exhibition statistically examines causes of American deaths to question why some sacrifices are more “acceptable” than others and draws awareness to the veteran suicide epidemic. Corresponding programming was presented by Overton Brooks VA Suicide Prevention Team and Centenary’s director of counseling and disability services. This exhibition ran through January.

November brought the opening of Shades of Despujols: The Art and Science of Color in the Work of Jean Despujols, which featured work from the Meadows’ own Indochina Collection of Jean Despujols. The exhibition ran until February 4 with two free lectures

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The Museum also hosted two literary events during the fall semester. Poet Jericho Brown (pictured above), recipient of a Whiting Writers Award and fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard and the NEA, returned to his native Shreveport in November to present a reading of his awardwinning work. In December, Shreveport author Ashley Mace Havird included a stop at the Meadows as part of her national book tour for her new novel, Lightingstruck, winner of the Ferrol Sams Award. n

Find information on upcoming exhibits at centenary.edu/ meadows.

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Centenary students Christian Roberson and Aiden Poling perform in The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket at Marjorie Lyons Playhouse.

Theatre Department concludes fall season Centenary’s Marjorie Lyons Playhouse had a busy fall semester with three productions. The theatre opened its season with a performance of The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket, staged a modern interpretation of Romeo and Juliet complete with special effects, and concluded the fall season with “An Evening of Scenes,” showcasing the talents of the Directing 1 Class.

The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket explores the childlike sense of wonder and ambition and how those childlike feelings are often lost through adulthood. The play centers around Daniel Rocket, an imaginative 12 year old who believes he can fly. He is often bullied by his peers because of his wild imagination. The play advances 20 years into the future as Daniel Rocket returns to his hometown in an attempt to find the child he used to be.

“The role made me learn more about myself as both an actor and a human being.”

AIDEN POLING Centenary senior Aiden Poling was “honored” to play Daniel Rocket, explaining that, “Daniel is a character that deeply resonated with me, and living through him on stage was indeed a challenge; he is so complex and so beyond this world and unlike anyone else I’ve ever met in real life. The role made me learn more about myself as both an actor and a human being. It took an immense amount of research, commitment, belief, and concentration to bring him to life—but every ounce of work was worth it.

Every night when a performance had ended, when I would run onto the

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stage for curtain call with tears still welling in my eyes, I would reach for the hands of my wonderful cast mates and look out into the crowd and think to myself: ‘This is why I do what I do.’”

After wrapping Daniel Rocket, MLP began to prepare a provocative performance of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Heather Peak Hooper ’95, Shreveport community member and Captain Shreve High School teacher, directed the fast-paced effort that brought together Centenary and Captain Shreve students to produce a Romeo and Juliet exploring gender and race while staying true to its Shakespearean roots.

MLP completed the fall season with an “Evening of Scenes.” Eight students enrolled in the Directing I class directed ten-minute pieces serving as their final project. n

An exciting season for Hurley School of Music Centenary College’s Hurley School of Music celebrated the fall 2016 concert season with a full array of programs, including spectacular choral performances, orchestra and brass ensemble concerts, a world-class cello recital, the everpopular Christmas Candlelight service, and the annual Wideman International Piano Competition.

From October 13-15, Centenary hosted the 64th Annual Convention of the Louisiana Music Teachers National Association (LMTA). The convention featured clinicians Martha Hilley from the University of Texas and Helen Marlais from Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

LMTA and the Greater Shreveport Music Teachers Association, in conjunction with Centenary College, sponsored a recital by international award-winning cellist John-Henry Crawford on Thursday, October 13. The concert, which was standingroom only, featured Crawford and pianist Victor Asuncion in a varied program of sonatas by Brahms and Poulenc, preludes by Gershwin, and the beautiful and moving Seventh Avenue Kaddish for Solo Cello by David Sanford.

“Hosting the LMTA Convention at Centenary College allows teachers from all over the state, many of whom teach high school students, to experience our campus and our School of Music,” said Dean Gale Odom of the Hurley School of Music.

“We hope they will keep us in mind as they recommend colleges to their students. The convention also enables our own Centenary students to attend special events like the John-Henry Crawford recital. It’s a win-win situation.”

On Saturday, November 5, Centenary College’s Camerata choral ensemble presented a program of great musical settings of Psalm texts, including Leonard Bernstein’s well-known 1965 work Chichester Psalms with harp, percussion, and organ. The concert in Centenary’s Brown Chapel also included Tarik O’Regan’s Dorchester Canticles and Ēriks Ešenvalds’s Psalm 67. The O’Regan Dorchester Canticles were written specifically as a companion to Chichester Psalms.

Helping Camerata prepare for the program were Centenary Religious Studies professor Dr. Spencer Dew and Cantor Neil Schwartz of Shreveport’s Agudath Achim congregation. The performance featured Shreveport boy soprano Karlo Penales.

John-Henry Crawford

to high musical standards, we always strive to connect with our supportive audience in a meaningful way,” said Wikan.

This spring Camerata will perform Johannes Brahms’s Neue Liebeslieder (New Love Songs), the second of his two famous choral waltz collections.

On Saturday, December 10, the Fall 2016 class of Singers’ Workshop presented an Opera Showcase. Opera, laughter, a touch of stage combat, rhythm,

“In addition to high musical standards, we always strive to connect with our supportive audience in a meaningful way.”

CORY WIKAN Cory Wikan, Camerata director, described the performance as “rewarding.” “We were pleased to learn how much the audience enjoyed the music. In addition

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mildly adult situations, and beautiful music were all on display in Anderson Auditorium as the students performed arias, scenes, and ensembles. n

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As the third cohort to experience Centenary’s unique Centenary in Paris program, the Class of 2020 enjoyed the usual sights, sounds, and tastes of Paris with an added bonus this year: cool weather. On August 4, 2016, approximately 150 students, faculty, and staff members traded in a classic Louisiana late-summer heat wave for an uncharacteristic cold snap in the French capital.

The breezes were a welcome complement to the 20,000+ step days spent exploring some of Paris’s most iconic historic landmarks, museums, parks, waterways, theaters, places of worship, and sidewalk crêpe stands.

All first-year Centenary students in Paris were enrolled in one of eight rigorous, four-credit-

hour courses with topics ranging from history to music to environmental sustainability. Whether they were navigating Europe’s second busiest subway system, hiking up Montmartre for the best view in the city, or navigating narrow streets on a trotinette (scooter), learning and exploration were their constant companions. Bruce Allen’s course celebrating Bohemian artists sketched Parisian life during a leisurely boat ride through nine locks on the St. Martin canal, while a daylong walk with Steve Shelburne helped students tangibly experience how 17th century ideas about city planning and preservation shaped one of Paris’s iconic neighborhoods, the Marais.

Chris Ciocchetti’s Revolutions class visited the Grand Mosque of Paris (pictured at left), where two students jumped in and used their language skills to help classmates understand a tour that was delivered in a mixture of French and Arabic.

A stroll on an elevated railway-turned-greenspace gave David Bieler’s environmental sustainability students a unique perspective on city life, and Cory Wikan’s Listening in Paris course led new Centenary College Choir members on a musical tour of Paris that included stops to see the famed Paris Opéra and France’s largest organ in the stunning Gothic church, St. Eustache.

Students in Dana Kress and Andia AugustinBilly’s Paris Noir course read poems by expatriate African-American writer Victor Séjour at his

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grave in the famous Père Lachaise cemetery, and Chad Fulwider’s history students explored the French perspective on World War I and II through evocative artifacts in the army museum adjacent to Napoleon’s tomb at Les Invalides.

Student presentations on the French Revolution in Katherine Brandl and Matt Murphy’s course exploring culture, identity, and nationalism took on a greater significance when they were delivered in front of the French National Assembly – it’s a rare privilege to be able to gesture directly at a piece of history you’re trying to bring alive for an audience! And – sore feet and blisters aside - students in David Havird and Jeff Hendricks’s Writing Paris, Writing Home course know that the many hours they spent exploring the same streets and neighborhoods frequented by Ernest Hemingway have given them a glimpse into his creative process (and an awareness of their own) that simply cannot be achieved by sitting in a classroom.

Students in Professor Bruce Allen’s class explored Paris’s famous Cathedral of Notre Dame.

These brief snapshots are the essence of the Centenary in Paris experience, a unique program that introduces students to college coursework while bonding them to their classmates and professors in a shared project of immersive, experiential learning. See and learn more at centenary.edu/paris. n

Students visit the Rodin Museum with Dr. Jeff Hendricks and Dr. David Havird.

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Advocate for the liberal arts

becomes Centenary’s 31st President

Centenary College’s new president will not say with certainty that it was the Strawn’s strawberry pie that convinced him to come to Shreveport, but Dr. Christopher L. Holoman admits that it will be a definite perk.

Centenary students (l to r) Trey Llorence, Sabrina Handal, LeRoy McCray, Simone Byrd, and John Curtis Creed join Dr. Holoman for strawberry pie at Strawn’s.

The Centenary College of Louisiana Board of Trustees named Holoman the College’s 31st President in April 2016. On the job since July, Holoman has visited with faculty, staff, students, alumni, members of the community, and others who have a stake in the College’s success and future. In the process, he’s learning about what makes the College distinctive and uncovering the challenges and opportunities ahead.

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“Centenary has a wonderful long tradition as a liberal arts institution,” Holoman says. “I am profoundly committed to a liberal arts education. It is the best foundation for student success.”

Former board chair George Nelson said that commitment to the liberal arts was evident to the trustees and the search committee, noting that Dr. Holoman’s ”… passionate enthusiasm for the liberal arts and his commitment to the social justice, service, and intellectual traditions that tie Centenary to the Methodist church really impressed both the search committee and the campus community.”

Since his arrival in July, Holoman has met with a number of campus groups, community groups, and individuals, even accompanying the first-year students

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to Paris in August. As he learns more about Centenary’s past, he remains impressed by the campus, the people, and the community who have made Centenary great and shares their optimism for the College’s future.

utility. While this response is still true, he now uses a phrase he credits to Centenary Provost Dr. Jenifer K. Ward: “The liberal arts teaches students to be practical thinkers and thoughtful practitioners.”

First Impressions

“Employers are realizing that the flexibility of the soft skills obtained in the liberal arts have been undervalued in the market place,” says Holoman. “We have to be smart moving forward and respond to the demands of the marketplace and the demands of students.”

First impressions are important, and Holoman’s first impressions of Centenary College were positive (beyond the visit to Strawn’s). He learned much during the search and interview process; he learned much more when he arrived on campus. He points to almost 200 years of service preparing students for success in both their professional and community lives.

The Centenary academic and student experiences have seen many changes over the years, a testament to the College’s ability to respond to the needs of both students and employers and to the resiliency of a liberal arts program to stay relevant in an ever-changing world.

An unabashed advocate for the liberal arts, Holoman suggests that “there is a narrative that tries to draw a distinction between a liberal arts education and a preprofessional education. I reject that distinction.”

The usual support for the value of the liberal arts focuses on the benefit of acquiring communication and critical reasoning skills. Holoman has often offered a version of the “liberal-arts-teaches-a-studenthow-to-think” response when faced with questions about its

“The liberal arts are essential to preparing students for the world in which they live.”

Research continues to show that Centenary graduates will face a job market where jobs are created and go away quickly, where leadership and management skills are as important as communication and critical thinking, and where a global perspective is no longer an option but instead a necessity. There has been a tangible shift in the conversation around what is the best training for the workplace, and Centenary College needs to be part of the conversation.

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for a college degree continues to grow. Society absolutely needs people trained in very specific skills, but people who succeed must also have habits of mind to adjust to workplace changes.

The liberal arts are essential to preparing students for the world in which they live.”

Meeting the Challenges “I am convinced Centenary has a great future,” says Holoman, but he also acknowledges that Centenary’s optimistic future is not without its challenges.

Holoman cautions that “private higher education is hard right now. Many schools are in truly desperate shape.” Addressing Centenary’s challenges and creating a roadmap to the future will be accomplished through a strategic plan. “It is not magic to say that we need plans. We need to understand where we want to be and how to get there and how to engage the campus community in the process. Without a plan, we run the risk of lurching from point to point.”

Strategic planning is an opportunity for the campus community to assess the current state of the College and propose a path to the future that addresses academic and student programs and the resources needed to sustain them. Holoman has participated in and led a number of strategic planning processes over the years. For this plan, he has called on a team of Centenary faculty, students, staff, and others from on and off campus to create a blueprint for the College’s future.

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Dr. Holoman and his wife, Connie.

Holoman notes that an effective strategic plan is broad, encompassing many aspects of the College’s operation. It is also more than a list of dreams and ideas.

The plan will identify achievable goals, outline activities needed to achieve those goals, and describe resources required. He expects the College strategic plan to trigger a number of other plans, such as those for facilities, technology, athletics, and academics.

A plan is also flexible. “I expect as we work the plan, we will encounter some ideas that work better than others. The environment may change in the

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middle of the plan, making some of our ideas no longer feasible.

We need to be able to identify what parts of the plan may not be working and be able to reallocate resources.“ Above all, the plan must be used.

“It is important that a strategic plan not sit on a shelf; it must be put into action.”

The Strategic Planning Committee began its work in the fall by reviewing comments solicited from campus constituent groups and from the community. Submissions included comments related to academic programs, student life

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and activities, athletic programs, the future of the physical plant, and how the College relates to the Shreveport-Bossier City community. Holoman sees the process of gathering input as continuing. “We received a phenomenal amount of ideas from people. The committee will look at all of those, plus many ideas of their own, and distill them down to a workable number. Then they will say ‘here are our broad strategies’ and solicit input again.”

“The role of the plan is to answer the question: how do we put these ideas into practice? It will not happen overnight.” Which ideas

will make it into the plan? “I have my own ideas, but part of the strategic planning process is to hear other people’s ideas and work together to find the best of those ideas.” Holoman does indicate that there are four “top level” goals that he expects to guide the steering committee’s efforts.

These are items for which there is already considerable campus and community consensus. These include growing enrollment, enhancing academic excellence, engaging the Shreveport-Bossier community through partnerships, and remaining a great place to work.

Of the four goals, enrollment is the top priority. The primary issue is size: Centenary is too small. “We will always be a small college, and we’re not going to apologize for being a small college. But at some point we run the risk of not having a critical mass in a variety of ways.” These risks include limited course selection and reduced opportunities in academic programs and some campus activities due to low student populations. How much bigger Centenary should or will become is a question for the strategic plan, but, Holoman says, “We need to grow.”

He expects Centenary to recruit a series of larger classes to get to a level of enrollment that is sustainable and allows the College to thrive.

Being small does have a benefit: “We can be nimble.” Nimbleness is important since “a vibrant academic program requires an

31ST PRESIDENT OF CENTENARY COLLEGE

Christopher L. Holoman, Ph.D. Dr. Holoman comes to Centenary College from Hilbert College, Buffalo, N.Y., where he served as vice president and provost since 2006.

At Hilbert College, Dr. Holoman was previously an assistant professor and then full professor in the college’s Department of Law and Government. He also served as interim vice president for academic affairs for a year before being named permanently to the position of vice president and provost in 2007. He also served as a member or chair on numerous college committees including the Middle States accreditation self-study steering committee and the service learning committee. Holoman also chaired the Western New York Chief Academic Officers Council and served as a mentor in the Council of Independent Colleges’ New Chief Academic Officer program.

Prior to joining Hilbert College, Holoman served on the faculty at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

A native of Raleigh, North Carolina, Dr. Holoman earned both doctoral and master’s degrees in political science from the University of Chicago. He also holds a bachelor of arts from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, majoring in international relations with a focus on economics. His scholarship focuses on international policy, cooperation, and monetary policy. He and his wife, Connie, are proud parents of two grown daughters. In addition to being a first-time president, Dr. Holoman, along with Mrs. Holoman, also became first-time grandparents shortly after their arrival in Shreveport.

A football fan, he has not yet decided how (or if) to choose between the Cowboys and the Saints, but don’t be surprised to find him wearing his UNC Tar Heels colors on a fall Saturday afternoon.

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as curricula in the pre-med and pre-law programs.

academic portfolio that responds to the needs of the community.”

Creating new programs, enhancing existing programs, and other changes can happen more quickly than on larger campuses.

“We have a limited number of majors,” Holoman notes, “so we need to be smart about the mix of programs we offer.”

“Graduate institutions know our students and want our students because they know they are great students. We need to build on that.”

Holoman also sees opportunities in engaging the ShreveportBossier community. “We need to take advantage of the fact that we are in a metropolitan area with great businesses and activities. We also have great resources and activities on campus. How can we create partnerships that benefit both?”

He believes that Centenary should be regarded as Shreveport-Bossier’s College.

Undergraduate majors are always part of the discussion, but Holoman sees added value to students in our relationships with other institutions. “We need to be in partnership with other colleges and universities to offer clear paths to advanced degrees.

We’ll continue to examine options for our own advanced degrees, but we also need to make it easy for our students to transition to other institutions that offer advanced degrees that we don’t provide.” These programs could be similar to the current 3/2 program in engineering as well

Beyond the region, he also anticipates continued emphasis to engage students in international issues and opportunities since “we need

to prepare students to live in a global world.” More than 82% of Centenary students have had an international educational experience, with many having more than one experience. These include spending a semester (or more) abroad with an educational partner or participating in a course with a travel component offered in the May and August immersive terms.

Holoman expects a draft strategic plan to be presented to the Board of Trustees for discussion in the spring and a final plan to serve as the basis for his inaugural address in March.

Holoman admits that becoming a college president is not on a lot of people’s career paths. “My calling is not to the presidency. My calling is to lead at a strategic level a liberal arts institution that helps a diverse population of students succeed.”

That calling has brought him to Centenary. n

Presidential Inauguration The Inauguration of the Thirty-First President

Christopher L. Holoman, Ph.D.

JOIN US ON MARCH 17, 2017 11:00 am - Worship Service • 2:00 pm - Installation Ceremony Full details at centenary.edu/inauguration

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An Annual Tradition Veterans Day

Tribute

Centenary observed its 5th annual Veterans Day Tribute on Friday, November 11. The free and opento-the-public event in Anderson Auditorium featured a keynote address by Brigadier General Jonathan Ellis, mobilization assistant to the director of operations, Air Force Global Strike Command. Honored guests included veterans among Centenary’s student body, faculty, and staff. Centenary students and Army veterans Luke and Cherie Groninger delivered the official Presidential Veterans Day Proclamation.

Audience members from Centenary and area communities also enjoyed music performed by the Centenary Choir.

Following the Tribute, a fundraising luncheon sponsored by Barksdale Federal Credit Union

Brigadier General­ Jonathan Ellis speaks during ­Centenary’s annual Veterans Day Tribute on November 11, 2016.

benefited Centenary’s Yellow Ribbon Scholarship program.

The Yellow Ribbon Program is a provision of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008. In 2015-16, the Post9/11 GI Bill paid up to $21,085 toward tuition at Centenary.

Under the Yellow Ribbon agreement, Centenary then contributes up to 50 percent of the remaining tuition expense, and the Department of Veterans Affairs matches that amount, meaning that 100 percent of a qualified student’s Centenary tuition is paid.

Army veteran and current Yellow Ribbon Scholarship recipient

Dannie Cox informed table sponsors and their guests of the significance of the College’s participation in the Yellow Ribbon and other VA Benefits programs to students like him. Centenary president Dr. Christopher Holoman expressed his admiration for the active duty and veteran members of the Shreveport-Bossier community and his pride at being able to assist them in furthering their educations through the Yellow Ribbon program. He thanked attendees for their contributions to the program and invited them to continue partnering with Centenary in support of the Yellow Ribbon scholars. n

Veteran members of the Centenary community pose with Bossier City Mayor Lo Walker (front row, third from left), Centenary ­President Emeritus Dr. Donald Webb, and representatives from Barksdale Air Force Base.

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2016 Homecoming and Parents and Family Weekend Alumni and family members of current students from all over flocked to campus on the weekend of October 28-30 for our ­annual Homecoming and ­Parents & Family Weekend. On Friday, eight alumni and friends of the College were honored during the Alumni Awards Luncheon. Famed Centenary announcer Dennis ­Boddie ’81 was post­humously inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame along with former ­Centenary softball alumna Lacy Crouch ’98 and softball and volleyball alumna Robin Rackley ’98. Eric Huffman ’01 was honored with the ­Christian Leadership Center (formerly Church Careers) Bentley Sloane Award; long-time ­Centenary ­Trustee John E. ­Atkins was ­recognized as the 2016 ­Honorary Alumnus; Alumni ­Council member Kristy Jackson ’03 received the Young Alumni Leadership Award; and Rev. Kenneth M. Fisher ’70 was honored with the Alumni Loyalty Award. Dr. Fuller Bazer ’60 was recognized as the 2016 Alumni Hall of Fame Inductee although he was unable to be present because he was on a research appointment in Israel. Bazer will be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame on March 16, 2017, at the annual Legacy ­Luncheon.

On Saturday afternoon ­hundreds of alumni, faculty, staff, students, and family ­members enjoyed hamburgers and hotdogs and the

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Senior Cheredith Rhone is crowned Homecoming Queen during the 2016 Homecoming tailgate.

music of local band Shayliff outside of the Gold Dome and Mayo Soccer Field for the annual tailgate party. Seniors Cheredith Rhone (daughter of alumnus Cherokee Rhone ’96) and Rykley Crowe were crowned Homecoming Queen and King.

The Classes of 1966 and 2006 celebrated their 50th and 10th reunions, respectively, with reunion parties on Saturday evening following the annual Quinq Club Brunch that morning where members of the Class of 1966 were inducted into the Quinq Club.

Perhaps the biggest celebration of the weekend was the 75th Anniversary of the Centenary College Choir. Over 300 Choir alumni joined current choir members on stage for the second half of Rhapsody in View which was, in part, conducted by Choir Director Emeritus Dr. Will K. Andress ’61.

Choir alumni celebrated with decade reunions on Friday night in various homes and over 400 gathered on Saturday evening following Rhapsody for the annual banquet along with families of current choir members.

Save the Date for ­Homecoming and Parents & Family Weekend 2017 – October 20-22. If you are a member of the Class of 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, or 2007 and are interested in planning a reunion, please let the Office of Alumni & Family Relations know ASAP so we can help you with planning and promoting your reunion. We look forward to celebrating with you next year! n

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Beth Bonner DeVille ’99 and Robin Rackley ’98 pose with former Centenary Volleyball Coach Fran Blackburn Flanagan at the Alumni Awards Luncheon where Robin was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame.

Lacy Crouch ’98 poses with former softball coach ­Michael Bastian at the Alumni Awards Luncheon where Lacy was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame.

Centenary Senior and Homecoming Queen Cheredith Rhone poses with her f­ ather, a ­ lumnus Cherokee Rhone ‘96 at the H ­ omecoming ­Tailgate.

SAVE THE DATE! HOMECOMING OCTOBER 20-22, 2017

Centenary President Dr. Christopher Holoman addresses guests at the conclusion of the annual Alumni Awards Luncheon.

Choir alumni pose for a photo before Saturday’s Rhapsody in View Concert.

Pictured above are the current Centenary College Choir members who performed for the first half of Rhapsody in View. More than 300 alumni joined in the second half of Saturday’s Rhapsody in View concert in celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Centenary College Choir.

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Eric Huffman ‘01 gives remarks after ­receiving the 2016 Bentley Sloane Award for leadership in a church-related vocation.

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Alumni Awards Luncheon

Robin Rackley ’98, 2016 Athletic Hall of Fame Inductee

Lacy Crouch ’98, 2016 Athletic Hall of Fame Inductee

Kristy Jackson ’03, 2016 Young Alumni Leadership Award Recipient

Now accepting ­nominations for the 2017 Alumni Awards!

Email nominations to alumni@centenary.edu.

Recipients will be chosen in April.

Eric Huffman ’01, 2016 Bentley Sloane Award Recipient

Kenneth M. Fisher ’70, 2016 Alumni ­Loyalty Award Recipient

Not pictured, Centenary’s 2016 Alumni Hall of Fame Inductee Dr. Fuller Bazer ’60. Dr. Bazer was conducting research in Israel during Homecoming 2016 but will be honored at the 2017 Legacy Luncheon on Thursday, March 16, 2017.

CLASS OF 1966 QUINQ CLUB ABOUT THE QUINQ CLUB: ­Pronounced “Kwink,” “Quinq” is a shortened version of two Latin words that relate to the number fifty or a 50th reunion. QUINQUAGINTA is Latin for ‘50’ and QUINQUAGENARY is a noun for a 50th anniversary. The Club first met in 1997. Each year, the Quinq Club honors Centenary graduates who are celebrating their 50th ­anniversary of graduation from the College. Anyone who has graduated 50 or more years ago is invited to the free event; however, the honorees for the day are those who are celebrating their 50th reunion that year.

Members of the Class of 1966 pose after being inducted into the “Quinq Club.”

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Tailgate and Homecoming Court Left: Centenary’s 2016 Homecoming Court.

Right: Homecoming Queen Cheredith Rhone and King Rykley Crowe pose with President Chris Holoman and First Lady Connie Holoman.

Left: Twin students Alicia (left) and Erica (right) Coker pose with their parents.

Left: Ashlie Daigle ’04 prepares to introduce the 2016 Homecoming Court.

Right: Students Holly Pham and Mason Kay pose for a photo.

Alumni Zack Ingrim ’05, Justin Beckham ’05, and Kristy Jackson ’03 pose with Dean of Students Mark Miller.

Centenary students and alumni enjoy the tailgate.

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The Creativity Engineer: A Centenary graduate promotes the liberal arts

Brandon Larson encourages young people to fail. A lot. “Epically,” if possible. When he speaks to college students, he happily recounts his own history of productive failures and explains how a liberal arts education – like the one that he received at Centenary – creates a safe space for the creative cycle of exploration, redirection, and achievement that has led him to career success and, more importantly, helped him construct a meaningful and fulfilling life.

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A journey that started in Centenary’s 3/2 engineering program has led Larson to a unique opportunity studying the science of human performance alongside a dynamic team at international energy drink company Red Bull.

It’s a result that at first glance seems incongruous but in fact makes perfect sense, especially to anyone who understands the powerful logic of the liberal arts.

Growing up in Greenwood, Louisiana, Larson wasn’t always so comfortable with uncertainty and the unknown.

By his own account, he lived a relatively sheltered life and was often fearful of venturing too far from his home and family. After graduating from Caddo Magnet High School in Shreveport, Larson remembers feeling terrified to go anywhere out of state for college. At the same time, he knew that he needed a place that would challenge him intellectually and open opportunities to put knowledge into action. The outstanding liberal arts college in his own backyard was an obvious choice. “I only applied to Centenary,” says Larson. “I didn’t realize there was magic to this until later.”

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That “magic” – the Centenary difference – came into sharp focus when Larson continued his 3/2 degree program at Washington University in St. Louis, eventually earning both a B.S. and an M.S. in mechanical engineering. He recalls that the other 3/2 students also came from liberal arts colleges and that they were noticeably different, (more creative), from the four-year engineering students. “We were just this merry band of excitable, life-loving engineering students, and the four-year students avoided us like the plague. I think that they were getting so much knowledge in one particular thing that their experience level was shrinking.

So their ability to think creatively and outside the box and be open to experiences was very narrow.”

Meanwhile, Larson’s mind was on fire, relishing in the excitement of new engineering concepts but also finding surprising applications for ideas from some of his Centenary courses, like philosophy, that at first seemed wholly unconnected to his career path as an engineer. During liberal arts courses that challenged him to exert his brain in unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable ways, there had been many moments at Centenary that seemed like “failure.” But Larson remembers that he had the benefit of professors who were always willing to take the time outside of class to help him work through difficult concepts and come to a deeper understanding.

Again and again during his Centenary years, Larson found that this relationship with professors was the rule rather than the exception. In those conversations, Larson was not only learning the subject matter but also practicing that skill that he now prizes so highly: tumbling down intellectually, but brushing off and

trying again – each time armed with deeper, more nuanced knowledge.

In other words, he was learning how to think.

As he measured his multi-faceted and intentionally exploratory Centenary education against that of some of his peers, Larson was unconsciously in the very early stages of forming his own theory of creativity and human performance.

“Creativity, in my opinion and Brandon Larson, son Owen, and wife Melanie observation and experience, is the overlap between the things he had grown accustomed to at you know and the things you Centenary and still craved – he felt experience,” says Larson. “So the stifled by the inefficiencies of a big more things you can experience corporation as well as disillusioned and the more things you can with the culture. After eight years, learn about, the bigger the circles. he left Boeing and joined the startAnd then you just pay attention up world, collaborating on some to the world around you and the small businesses that still exist intersection of those creates this today. Larson was even part of nice little overlap, like a Venn diagram. And that’s the idea engine. a team with a product featured on the TV show “Shark Tank,” That’s the creativity engine.” an opportunity that tested the capacity for creative thinking that he had first developed at Centenary.

“We found that high performers are highly creative.

The best are very creative.”

Larson’s post-Centenary path provided plenty of raw material for his own creativity engine, as he turned an early internship at Shreveport’s SciPort museum and a similar position in St. Louis into an opportunity at NASA. After completing his M.S., he moved to California and worked in research and development at The Boeing Company. Over time, though, he realized that the conditions weren’t ideal for the kind of experiences

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One of Larson’s favorite outlets for keeping his creativity engine in high gear is entering online contests, and in 2012, one of these contests dramatically changed his path. “Red Bull, the energy drink company, said: ‘We want big ideas.’ I pitched the idea of a human interactive, global-scale Rube Goldberg machine that would chase the New Year around the globe, uniting the entire world in 24 hours of celebration of athleticism, sport, culture, music, science, and technology. There were 3,600 people who entered.

The top five got to go to California, and somehow I made it through all the different gates to the top five. I pitched and in essence got

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second place, but they said, ‘Do you want to be the first engineer that’s ever worked at Red Bull – do you want to come and be part of an R&D team in the background?’”

Larson replied with, “Yeah, that’d be awesome!” launching an adventure that has clarified his convictions about human creativity, potential, and happiness.

For the past four years, Larson has been a member of a Red Bull team working to, as he puts it, “unlock the secrets to human performance.”

Under the direction of Dr. Andy Walshe, a legendary figure in the athletic world, the team analyzes high performers and achievers in an attempt to understand the characteristics, attitudes, and habits that set them apart. “Our goal is to learn from the best, understand the best, and distill that into information we can give to the rest,” says Larson, the team’s technologist.

“We hope that we can eventually inspire 1% more environmental consciousness, 1% more education, 1% more health, and 1% more

adventure in the general population.

We think if we can get a 1% increase and make just that small effect, that the world would be a pretty awesome place to live.” One of the team’s most important findings is something that Larson already knew intuitively, because he had long observed it in action, even back in college: “We found that high performers are highly creative. The best are very creative.” But Walshe’s team is committed to studying human performance on an even more profound level. “Too many people focus on the performance.

They don’t focus on the human being,” says Larson. “And that’s where I see a lot of issues with new technology – everybody has a Fitbit or a wearable, but all it does is give you a number and then you’re left alone to figure out what to do with that number. So it’s too focused on the technology and not focused on the human being, who has passion, and curiosity, and creativity, and drive – all the components of humanity. So we follow a development model that

Brandon Larson speaks to Centenary student-athletes in the Gold Dome in October 2016.

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incorporates creativity, spirituality, life skills, medical science, ecology, and a lot of other components in order to figure out how you can make somebody a better person, and then let them figure out how to be a better performer.”

The professional opportunity with Red Bull has presented Larson with the ideal conditions to fire his own creativity engine on all cylinders, and he’s become something of an evangelist for the idea that humans can be taught, incrementally, to get better at being human, growing steadily more confident, more resilient, and more content.

Inspired by his team’s work, Larson has made it his personal mission to distill and disseminate the information originally developed for elite athletes to as many “regular” people as possible, especially young people. “There’s no instruction manual for being a human being – at all,” says Larson. “But there are a lot of techniques that we teach and have explored that help people deal with everything from the stress of finances, breakups, bad days, lost games, and depression. If you can give somebody a customized toolset that allows them to deal with the human stress response, then you’ve made a lot of progress that works for a lot of people. So in essence you’ve just given them the chance to make themselves a slightly better person, which in the end affects everything else they do.”

Larson returned to Shreveport recently, speaking to classes at the Caddo Career Center and making two presentations at Centenary, including one specifically for student-athletes. His goal as a mentor is to reach people at the

Brandon Larson consults with surfer Jake Marshall about a test of pressure sensing booties during the Red Bull Surf Science project in 2014. The test helped the Red Bull High Performance Team gain insight into how surfers control their boards to optimize power and speed.

high school and college level, before “the noise gets really loud” in the socalled real world. His presentations are infused with the power of personal testimony. “If I look back at myself four or five years ago and I look at the things that were hot buttons – the things that would stress me out, the things that would disturb me and cause me to not sleep at night – they don’t bother me anymore,” says Larson. “I just realized that there are things I can control and things I can’t. I have created a pretty decent filter – it breaks down from time to time, but it’s way better than it used to be.

Nowadays I’m just happy to be alive, I’m happy to be sharing my life with the people I’m sharing it with, I’m happy to be able to contribute whenever I can contribute. I’m happy to focus on things that matter and not on things that don’t, and that’s brought a lot of contentment.”

What Larson is able to share and promote, and has woven beautifully into an eclectic yet coherent professional and personal life, is the power of creative, critical thinking. “We’ve always had to have people who can think on their feet, who can think broadly, who can take a systems approach,” says Larson. “If you can do this, you’re not sitting in the forest with all the trees, you’re in a hot air balloon above the trees going, ‘Oh that’s interesting…’ From that, you can provide value as an integrator, a connector.” Larson’s work at Red Bull places him in conversation with many innovators and researchers working in future technologies in the corporate world, and he encounters some who believe that the current pace of development in artificial intelligence (AI) is hurtling the world toward “singularity,” a point at which there will be no distinguishable difference between a human mind and a computer mind. In that scenario, the value of coming up with solutions and providing answers “goes to zero,” because a computer will be available to do all the work and processing. But the computers will have a hard time coming up with the right questions – that takes creativity.

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Imagining this new reality may be thrilling, or terrifying, or a little of both. In Larson’s opinion, it’s largely premature but also ripe with possibility for new frontiers of human performance and achievement. In this tense space between a human-ascendant present and a possible AI future, he also recognizes a traditional liberal arts education as both timeless and timely. “Most researchers in the field of AI realize that the challenge will be that computers are not going to be as efficient as a human being to come up with an idea and come up with a question, because they don’t have the experience and they don’t know how to link things, and no one knows how to program that yet,” says Larson. “So the value of a thought, the value of an idea, the value of the ability to think and ask a question is going to go exponentially through the roof. The better you can prepare yourself to ask questions and come up with ideas, the better off you’re going to be in tomorrow’s workforce, and tomorrow’s workforce needs people who are creative. And the way you get creative is you learn a little about a lot, and you experience things. And that’s what Centenary did for me.”

Brandon Larson likely never expected to be an engineer studying human performance for an international energy drink company, but he celebrates this unpredictability as perhaps the most valuable thing that Centenary did for him. Trained to think and connect, not afraid to try and fail, Larson is proud to share his belief that “a liberal arts education is the most valuable education you can get!” n

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sportsRECAP LADIES VOLLEYBALL POSTS BEST RECORD IN FIVE SEASONS The Centenary volleyball team raised the bar this past season, finishing 2016 with a 9-22 record and a 3-11 mark in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play. The Ladies’ nine victories are the most in five seasons, while the three wins in SCAC play are the most in program history, regardless of conference affiliation.

Sophomore Hailey Lawson led the conference while classmate Makenzie Shaw finished fifth in the SCAC with 0.61 and 0.42 aces per set, respectively. In fact, the Maroon and White led the SCAC with 2.28 aces per set, the only

team with more than two aces per set.

It was a record-setting day for the Centenary volleyball team when it entertained Texas College and Rust for a tri-match on Wednesday, October 19.

Lawson broke the school record for aces in a match, hitting ten in a straight-set win against Texas College. She also moved into the top ten for career aces after that match and sits eighth in that category following her sophomore season.

Against Texas College, junior Desiree Frey broke the 700-kill mark for her career. She has 755 kills in three seasons, which sits sixth in the Ladies volleyball annals.

Sophomore Allison Lazewski etched her name in the Centenary volleyball record book after three seasons. She ranks second with 1,619 assists and ninth with 104 aces in the career record book after three seasons with the Ladies.

Lawson finished the 2016 season with 62 aces, the fourth-most for a single season in Ladies history.

For the second-straight year, Frey led the team in kills. She led the team with 292 kills and ranked eighth in the SCAC with 2.86 kills per set.

In four seasons in the SCAC, the Ladies had only one conference win entering the season. Despite a conference which boasted one of its strongest seasons ever, including three teams in the NCAA Tournament, Centenary won three matches in conference play. That included a straight-set triumph at Schreiner on Sunday, October 23.

To close out the season, the Maroon and White tallied a 2-1 record in their annual Halloween Tournament. Wins included straight-set victories over regional-rival LeTourneau as well as Rust.

Ladies volleyball competes in the Gold Dome during the 2016 season. Pictured left to right are Hailey Lawson, Marissa Sandoval, Shannon Orlopp, Makenzie Shaw, and Michaela Brantley.

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The Ladies will return all current players next year and look to build upon a successful 2016 season.

GENTS SOCCER GETS OFF TO FAST START Centenary Gents Soccer finished a banner year under the direction of interim head coach Kyle Symczak.

The Gents began 2016 with three straight wins, the best start to a season in nearly 30 years. The Maroon and White finished the season 7-12 overall and 3-11 in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play.

The 2016 season featured many memorable moments. Sitting 3-4 overall and 0-3 after three conference road games, the Gents excited the crowd in their first home SCAC contest in September. After Centenary and Schreiner tied at one at the end of regulation, Gents freshman Scott Halper scored the golden goal in the 92nd minute.

The third straight shutout by the Gents made for quite the Senior Day on October 29 against Austin College. Sophomore Nick Hammond scored the gamewinner in the 86th minute. In the final game of his Centenary career, Whan grabbed five saves.

The Gents finished the season just as they began, with three straight wins. All games were thrilling 1-0 victories, including the final two home games of the season.

On October 23 against Dallas, Centenary scored on an own goal in the 67th minute. Senior goalie Rylan Whan added eight saves to preserve the shutout.

With a save in the 17th minute against the ‘Roos, Whan tallied the 400th save of his career. He finished his career as the Gents all-time leader in that category with 404 stops. The Maroon and White also recognized fouryear starters Shane Edmondson and Jeremy Klespis for their contributions to the program.

In the final non-conference game at Hendrix on October 25, freshman Lamarr Meza made his first collegiate start in goal memorable. He grabbed five saves, while freshman Travis Schantz found the back of the net in the 63rd minute in the 1-0 victory against the Warriors.

Despite a mid-season lull that saw the Gents lose eight straight games, Centenary came up just short of two monumental upsets at Mayo Field. On September 25, the Gents took undefeated and top-ranked Trinity to double overtime. However, the Tigers scored in the 103rd minute to

Freshman midfielder Gabe Rodriguez in action against Belhaven.

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thwart the Gents’ upset bid.

The Gents almost pulled off another historic upset on October 21, as Centenary and #20 Colorado College stood tied at 1-1 at half. Unfortunately, the Tigers scored the game-winner in the second half to pull out the 2-1 win.

For the season, the Gents defense allowed nearly a goal less per game than in 2015. The Gents, who turned in their winningest season in five years, ended 2016 on a high-note winning their final three games all by 1-0 shutouts.

LADIES SOCCER MAKES SCAC CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT The 2016 Ladies soccer team recorded its winningest season in five years and grabbed the fifth seed in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament.

Despite a heartbreaking 3-2 loss

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Wright and Marissa Hughes both recorded at least a goal and an assist. Coker recorded her fourth and final shutout of the season against Dallas on October 23, helping Centenary officially clinch an SCAC Tournament berth.

The Ladies look forward to a successful 2017 season, culminating when Centenary hosts the SCAC Women’s Soccer Tournament at Mayo Field, November 3-5.

CENTENARY HOSTS SCAC VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT

Junior Liz Knight.

in double overtime to Schreiner in the tournament, Centenary finished 7-11 overall and 4-8 in conference play, the most successful season to date for third year head coach David Orr. Sophomore Kati-Jayde Cunningham finished with a team-leading 11 goals and 26 points in her first season with the Ladies soccer team. The 11 goals were the most for a Ladies soccer player in five years, ranking Cunningham second in goals and third in points in the conference (120th and 152nd in the nation, respectively).

Senior Marissa Hughes finished second in goals scored (five) while leading the team in assists (five) in 2016. A defender her freshman season, Hughes finished her Centenary career with 12 goals and six assists.

Classmate Hannah Jo Wright ended her four seasons with four goals and four assists.

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Senior Erica Coker finished her career as one of the most decorated goalies in Ladies soccer history. Logging more than 5,000 minutes between the pipes for the Maroon and White, she finished with the most saves (444) in the career annals. Her 10 saves in the SCAC Tournament against Schreiner gave her a career-best 120 for the year, the second-most in a single season in Ladies history.

Coker’s eight career shutouts rank sixth all-time in Ladies soccer history.

Looking to make their first conference tournament in three years, the Ladies needed one win in their final two home games of the regular season against Dallas and Austin College. Centenary responded, outscoring the opposition 6-1 to wrap up the fifth seed for the SCAC Tournament. In those two games, seniors Hannah Jo

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On Friday and Saturday, November 4-5, Centenary staged the 2016 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference volleyball tournament. Despite finishing with a program-best three SCAC wins, the Ladies volleyball team fell short in their bid for the tournament. However, the SCAC proved once again it is one of the best volleyball conferences in the country, as all three nationally ranked teams made the NCAA Division III Tournament.

With four games on Friday, the action started fast and furious with Austin College beating Dallas, #9 Colorado College beating Texas Lutheran, and #16 Trinity beating Austin College in straight sets. However, the match of the weekend was the second semifinal on Friday night, featuring #9 Colorado College and #4 Southwestern.

Southwestern won the first two sets, and even had a match point

in the third set, but Colorado College rallied for a 26-24 set three win. Colorado College dominated the Pirates in the fourth to set up a winner-take-all fifth set.

Southwestern led by as much as six in the fifth, but a 12-5 run put Colorado College on match point at 14-13. Southwestern scored the next two points for its second set point. The Tigers fought off the match point, but a Southwestern kill and a Colorado College hitting error ended the match.

Texas Lutheran claimed the fifthplace match in straight sets.

Having previously broken the single-season SCAC record for digs earlier in 2016, Dallas senior Jessie Koster broke the SCAC career mark for digs in her final collegiate match.

Koster easily leads the nation with 7.49 digs per set, nearly half a dig better than the next player in NCAA Division III.

GENTS TAKE THE COURT IN NEW HOLIDAY CLASSIC Centenary Gents basketball was involved in a very special tripleheader at the CenturyLink Center in Bossier City on December 17. The Holiday Classic Men’s Basketball Showcase, hosted by the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission, featured Millsaps, ULM, Northwestern State, Grambling State, and Louisiana Tech in addition to the Gents.

Centenary wasted no time exciting the crowd in an 80-54 win against Millsaps in the tip-off game of the Classic. The Gents recorded triples on four of their first five buckets and never trailed in the game against the Majors.

The Gents finished the contest with season-bests in both threes for the game (11) and an opponent-low

field goal percentage. The 27.1 mark (19-for-70) for the Majors is the lowest allowed by Centenary since February 4, 2014, when the Gents held Austin College to 26.7 percent on 16-for-60 shooting.

Freshman Cedric Harris secured his second double-double of the season with 20 points and a career game-high 11 boards. He shot 8-for12 from the field, including 4-for-7 from behind the arc. Sophomore Treylan Matthews added 17, while senior James Sapp came off the bench for a season-best 17 rebounds. His 12 points completed the double-double.

Sapp currently leads the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference in scoring and rebounding, attempting to become the first player in nine years to accomplish this feat. n

After #9 Colorado College easily disposed of Austin College in the consolation match, the fans were treated to a titanic match-up of #4 Southwestern and #16 Trinity in the Championship Match. After Southwestern won the first set, Trinity won the final three sets to claim the championship.

Centenary athletics would like to thank the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission, Raising Cane’s, Marilynn’s Place, Papa John’s, Jimmy John’s, Brookshires, and Super 1 Foods for their support of the 2016 SCAC Championships!

KJ Boyd drives against Millsaps in the Gents 80-54 win over the Majors during the Holiday Classic Men’s Basketball Showcase in December 2016.

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Website redesign adds style and functionality If you have visited centenary.edu recently, you may have noticed that things look a little different!

The Office of Marketing and Communication has spent the past year working with Baltimore-based web firm Fastspot to redesign an engaging website attractive to prospective students, current students, alumni, and community members.

Fastspot visited campus in February 2016 to get an initial feel for Centenary’s campus and atmosphere. The web firm met with students, faculty, and staff to develop a website that was representative of our campus and student body. Fastspot dissected the old website and decided what worked well and what could be improved. Everyone agreed that the new site should feature Centenary’s exceptional faculty, engaging student life, and diverse student body and have pertinent information easily accessible for prospective students.

As Fastspot worked to develop a website that would fit the college’s needs, staff prepared other valuable website features.

After a thorough internal website audit, content was revised to complement current admission recruitment materials and vital forms such as the online giving form were re-designed.

Centenary also brought in photographer John McKeith, who specializes in higher education photography, for a two-day

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photoshoot to produce a wide selection of engaging photos for the web and future print publications. McKeith spent time with both students and faculty to capture student life and academics in a visually engaging way.

The new website is vibrant and offers information in a clean, easy-to-read format, achieved by what Fastspot refers to as “Content Components.”

These bright visual elements feature student and faculty achievements, campus photos and videos, and student, faculty, staff, and community member testimonies.

The homepage showcases our students in an interactive feature area that displays their academic goals, interests, and campus involvement while providing a glimpse into the quirkiness and uniqueness of each Centenary student. Important links for prospective students such as “schedule a visit,” “how to apply,” and “costs” are easily accessible. The navigation has been restructured in a hierarchy for easy access and navigation for both internal and external users The new centenary.edu has been renovated with the 21st century prospective student in mind, also taking into account our current students and our variety of alumni and community members to create a user-friendly experience for all web users. n

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Centenary College senior chosen as finalist for Rhodes Scholarship Ben Green, a senior at Centenary and a Shreveport native, was chosen as a finalist for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

Green traveled to Birmingham, Alabama, for an interview on November 19, the final stage in a rigorous application process that also required him to submit a personal statement, an institutional endorsement, and eight letters of recommendation.

The Rhodes Scholarships are the oldest fellowship awards in the world and provide full funding for international students to pursue degrees at the University of Oxford in Great Britain. Each year, an application process representing all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories selects 32 young scholars for this coveted award.

Centenary has had just one previous Rhodes Scholar, Hoyt Duggan, who graduated in 1960.

At Centenary, Green has had the opportunity to work as an intern at the Meadows Museum of Art and to curate the critically acclaimed #exhibit.

“Working in the museum, creating the #exhibit, and researching Clementine Hunter showed me that scholarship doesn’t have to be insular,” says Green. “It can be advocacy-based and really does have the potential to change the ways that people think about themselves and their culture and society.”

Green’s success in the Rhodes Scholarship competition came as no surprise to his academic advisors.

“I remember Ben seated in my office, asking insightful questions, during his first campus visit. He showed a rigorous intellectual drive; he started taking dual-enrollment college courses at around age sixteen,” says Dr. Lisa Nicoletti, Green’s art history advisor.

“He’s excelled in coursework and in campus politics, and has thoughtfully and conscientiously represented student concerns since arriving on campus.”

“Being named a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship is an uncommon honor, and Ben Green is an uncommon student,” DR. JENIFER K. WARD Green has also impressed College administrators throughout his career at Centenary, serving as a student representative on several key administrative policy

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Centenary senior Ben Green.

committees and leading the Student Government Association as president in his senior year.

“Being named a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship is an uncommon honor, and Ben Green is an uncommon student,” says Dr. Jenifer K. Ward, provost and dean of the college. “He is quietly ambitious: for his college, for his classmates, and for his community to be part of needed change in the world. Refreshingly, he does not seek credit for his works—he seeks to have his works lead to something that is credit-worthy; to be a part of bringing about change; and to leave his present corner of the world in better shape when he moves on to other corners.

Centenary College could not be prouder of this recognition of his strength as a candidate for the Rhodes.” n

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Class Notes The following class notes were submitted by alumni between June 9, 2016, and January 20, 2017. Class notes are subject to content editing by the Offices of Alumni and Family Relations and by Marketing & Communication.

The Centenary Alumni Association seeks news of Centenary alumni.

Please send news and information to alumni@centenary.edu Office of Alumni and Family Relations Centenary College of Louisiana 2911 Centenary Blvd.•Shreveport, LA 71104 318.869.5028 • 800.259.6447

bayou led to the birth of a new Christmas tradition, Indian Santa.

The book is the first in a series of twelve books about using the power of our thoughts, emotions, and ­actions to find success. Each book includes features of life in the rural South and incorporates traditions of Native American cultures.

Indian Santa, The True Story, is for sale now for children of all ages at southriverstories.com.

Martha Goza, Shreveport, LA, was named the 2016 Warren E. Shull National High School Adviser of the Year in June 2016.

1971 Susan Glanville Dardard, Saint ­Francisville, LA, reports that South River Stories, Inc. has released a new book, Indian Santa, The True Story, written and illustrated by Susie Marie PhD (her nom de plume). The story describes how hurricanes blowing across three generations of one N ­ ative American family on the L ­ ouisiana

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Carla E. Alsandor, The Woodlands, TX, successfully defended her dissertation in November 2016 after four years of course work, research, study, and preparation at Our Lady of the Lake University and is now a Doctor of Philosophy in Leadership Studies.

2007

1979

1966

2003

Emily Cardin, Bossier City, LA, is a teacher in a multi-grade classroom for grades 3-5 reading, language arts, and math and grades 3-8 science at New Life Academy of Shreveport.

Perry Smith, Tyler, TX, retired in ­December 2016 from his position at the Small ­Business D ­ evelopment Center at Tyler ­Junior College in Tyler, Texas.

Noel Tipton, Eastham, MA, has written an anthem for choir, This Place, My Anchorage which was published

by Paraclete Press and is now available for purchase. He is also the featured pianist in the movie A Year

By The Sea, scheduled for release in spring of 2017.

James Eakin, Los Angeles, CA, composed the soundtrack for the upcoming film Cut to the Chase. It is available on Spotify and iTunes.

2005

1950

1954

1999

Ginny Burnett, Austin, TX, has been chosen as the new director of LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections. A faculty member at The University of Texas at Austin since 1990, she is a professor in the departments of History and Religious Studies and a faculty affiliate of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS).

1985 Brad Hoge, Spring, TX, has published a book of poetry now available on Amazon.com: amazon.com/Nebular-HypothesisBradley-Hoge.

1991 Tricia Matthew, Brooklyn, NY, recently completed a book entitled Written/Unwritten: Diversity and the Hidden Truths of Tenure that was published in ­November 2016 by UNC Press.

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Nic Clark, New Orleans, LA, owns his own tour business called Civil War Tours of New Orleans. A recent travel article/blog featuring Nic and his business was published online at: kriswilliams.com/ discovering-new-orleans-throughits-civil-war-history.

LeeAnn Rossi, Brooklyn, NY, executive produced the film Contemporary Color (about a ­performance event that she co-produced) that premiered at Tribeca Film Festival this year and won Best Documentary Editing and Documentary Cinematography.

2008 Rachel Powell Cronmiller, Raleigh, NC, recently finished graduate school and received her Ph.D. in sociology.

2010 Ashley Ramsey, Los Angeles, CA, is currently pursuing her master’s ­degree in choral music at the University of Southern C ­ alifornia where she currently serves as co-conductor of USC’s Oriana W ­ omen’s Choir. Upon graduation, she hopes to teach choral music at the high school and community college levels and continue her p ­ osition as music director at West Los Angeles United Methodist Church.

JR Ramsey, Los Angeles, CA, has been hired recently by Warner Bros. Entertainment as a communications and marketing specialist.

Having recently graduated with a master’s degree in public relations from the University of Southern California, he has spent most of the last two years promoting film and television properties globally as well as regionally within the Southern California area.

2011 Michelle Junot, Baltimore, MD, has published a new book entitled Notes from My Phone through ­Mason Jar Press. Michelle kept notes on her phone for years – what to pick up at the store, ­work-out logs, prayers, hopes, thoughts on life and death – all the while creating a snapshot of her life with an honesty that only occurs when not paying attention.

This collection of essays, to-do lists, vignettes, reminders, and dreams mixes heart-felt memoir with the everyday marginalia that makes up a twenty-something’s life and day planner.

Beth Allen Guidry ’06, her husband, Carey, and their two sons Andrew and William.

MARRIAGES

BIRTHS

Lori May ’95, Fayetteville, AR, ­married Sarah Webb-May on ­September 25, 2013.

Lenard Adams ’13, Shreveport, LA, welcomed son Austin Andre Adams on October 6, 2015.

Brooke Earles Rust ’00, Baton Rouge, LA, married Kenneth “Ken” Rust on January 31, 2015.

Elizabeth Allen ’06, Little Rock, AR, and husband, Carey, welcomed son, Andrew Joseph, on January 19, 2014. He weighed 9 pounds, 5 ounces and was 21.5 inches. Baby brother William Allen was born on January 25, 2016. He weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces and was 22 1/4 inches.

Jessica Coker ’08, Little Rock, AR, married Ramon Barreto on June 6, 2015.

Joshua Coco ’08, Boynton Beach, FL, married Marlena Coco on July 2, 2014, in Boca Raton, FL. Rachel Powell Cronmiller ’08, Raleigh, NC, married Derek Cronmiller on May 7, 2016, in Raleigh, NC.

Jessica Coker ’08, Little Rock, AR, and husband, Ramon ­Barreto, ­welcomed daughter, Evelyn ­Barreto, on August 25, 2016.

Robert Hendricks ’08, Plano, TX, and wife, Sarah, welcomed son, Theodore, in July 2013 and daughter, Roberta, in June 2015.

Robert Hendricks ’08, Plano, TX, married Sarah Hendricks in ­October 2011 in Plano, TX. Cadie Hancock Gamble ’14, married Walker Gamble ’14 on ­October 1, 2016, in New O ­ rleans, LA. Jessica Lee Lisherness ’13, Dekalb, TX, and Luke Lisherness ’13 married October 31, 2015, in Hooks, TX.

Tracy Autrey Josefovsky ’00, Houston, TX, welcomed ­daughter Shelby Quinn Josefovsky on ­October 3, 2016.

Megan Lingafelt ’06, High Point, NC, and her husband, Jordan Lingafelt, welcomed a baby girl, Adelyn Isabelle, on March 7, 2016, in High Point, NC. Lori May ’95, Fayetteville, AR, welcomed daughter Shelby May on December 29, 2013.

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In Memoriam

RECEIVED BETWEEN JUNE 9, 2016 – JANUARY 20, 2017

Buck Ogilvie ’37 6/4/2016

Allan Carr ’50 11/14/2016

James Ward ’55 7/2/2016

Marc Owens ’74 12/18/2016

Dorothy Tomme Morgan ’38 4/8/2016

Joe Jackson ’50 11/29/2016

Jane Hutchinson James ’57 1/18/2017

Harold Robinson ’76 8/25/2016

Lois Rodgers Kidd ’39 10/28/2015

Lee Arnold ’51 11/29/2016

Elsa Emmerich Jamison ’57 9/25/2016

Jay Colvin ’78 11/26/2016

Charles Morrison ’40 5/2/2016

Claude Dance ’51 8/13/2016

Frances Williams Nelson ’57 7/4/2015

Paul Hearn ’78 10/26/2016

Val Borum ’41 9/17/2016

Glenn Hilburn ’51 6/7/2016

Ronnie Shemwell ’57 9/5/2016

Nancy Hillenkamp Havlik ’79 10/16/2015

Catherine Lodestro Craft ’41 11/1/2016

Betty Woody Rogers ’51 10/16/2016

Larry Teague ’57 7/29/2016

James Huggins ’81 5/19/2016

Frances Kizer Wiegel ’41 5/26/2016

Catherine Settles Bienfang ’52 10/8/2015

Larry Greene ’60 9/29/2015

Darlene Fair ’82 7/4/2016

Geneva Hearn Boyett ’44 10/4/2015

Virginia Carlisle Megarity ’52 8/10/2016

Bobby Redstone ’60 11/1/2016

Allen Pomeroy ’82 11/8/2015

Shirley Eagan May ’43 1/14/2017

Artimease Shaver Embry ’53 12/15/2016

Shirley McNeel Lambert ’61 8/5/2016

Scott Totten ’83 7/20/2016

Betty Smith Rives ’43 11/3/2016

Ava Jane Martin Fuller ’53 10/6/2015

Robert Cockrell ’63 12/10/2016

Elnora McCoy Gilliam ’86 10/10/2016

Sally Stone Treat ’46 7/11/2016

Marguerite Wilder Garrett ’53 10/13/2015

Phyllis Payne Glover ’65 11/13/2016

Patrick Long ’87 7/18/2016

Charlotte Webb ’66 7/23/2016

Mike Blackwell ’89 10/26/2015

Robert Fisher ’67 7/28/2016

Leta Cook Moore ’90 1/19/2016

Patricia Andrews Henke ’68 8/5/2016

Leif Sherry ’02 8/2/2016

Bill Harwell ’47 11/22/2016

Merrilee Hughes Warren ’53 7/26/2016

Walter Holley ’47 9/24/2015

Charles Dillman ’54 8/24/2016

Howard Dingman ’48 6/1/2016

Martha Egger-Jackson ’54 10/13/2015

Walter Hawkins ’48 9/14/2016

Mary Catherine Baskin Harris ’54 10/21/2015

Sonny Anderson ’49 12/30/2016 Sallie Victory McKenzie ’49 10/25/2016 Ann Bowden Oakes ’49 9/18/2016

Mazie Rice Gillen ’55 9/26/2016

Alice McConnell Smith ’70 8/13/2016 Michael LeComte ’71 6/29/2016 Parry Sadoff ’71 11/11/2016

Mickey Salmon ’55 10/14/2015

Barrett Haik ’73 7/22/2016

We celebrate the lives and legacies of these members

of the Centenary family.

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C E LE B R ATE O U R H I STO RY, W E LCO M E O U R F UTU R E !

LE A R N M O R E A N D M A K E A G I F T AT

CE NTE NARY. E DU/31 FOR 31

In honor of the inauguration of Dr. Christopher L. Holoman as Centenary’s 31st president, we invite you to join the 31 for 31 Campaign and make a gift of $31 (or more!) to celebrate this milestone in the life of the College.

MAY 20, 2017 • 4:30 –7:00 PM Full details at centenary.edu/beastfeast PRESENTED BY REGIONS BANK

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Save the Date

centenary.edu/homecoming Reunions Rhapsody In View Volleyball Tournament Alumni Awards Luncheon Homecoming Tailgate ...Much More!

Homecoming and

Parents & Family Weekend 2017

October 20-22

Office of Marketing and Communication 2911 Centenary Boulevard Shreveport, LA 71104

NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID SHREVEPORT, LA PERMIT NO. 696