Ball Bearings | Volume 3 Issue 1

BALL BEARINGS Volume 3, Issue 1 / Fall 2011 / Ball State University

inside :: women in the ROTC :: glass blowing :: permaculture

VM PHOTOGRAPHY headshots | seniors | family | kids | weddings | events

valeriemariephotography.com vmcarnevale@gmail.com on facebook: vm photography on twitter: vmphotography

BALL BEARINGS THE CONTENTS

FACES

INTERRACIAL LOVE

4

MAKEUP ARTIST

8

Couples talk about the challenges they face

Theatre instructor shares his passion

FREEDOM

OPINIONS ON WAR

10

INDIANA V. FOOD

12

Students are more jaded about war than ever before

Restaurants offer challenges for competitive eaters

FEATURES WOMEN IN ROTC

Female students discuss life in the Cardinal Battilion

GLASS BLOWS Chris Horn’s love of glass blowing began in Italy

PERMACULTURE Student shares her story of living and working in Hawaii

MOVEMENT UGANDA

30

Ball State professor helps children in need

MARCHING BAND Students create close-knit family through performing

SUSTAIN

HYDROPONICS

Couple grows alternative food source in their closet

16 24 30

35 38

42

CONTRIBUTORS

BALL BEARINGS Volume 3. Issue 1. Fall 2011

editor-in-chief

Kelli Bennett

Kelli is a junior magazine journalism major. She wrote, “Love knows no color” (page 4). Her biggest dream is to be a voice for the voiceless while making a difference in people’s lives.

Her dream job is to be a writer for Essence magazine.

Matthew Holden

managing editor Megan Capinegro

assistant editors Brandi Terry Lauren Hardy Lindsey Gelwicks

design editor Katelin Carter

assistant design editor

Tyler Varnau

Tyler is a sophomore photojournalism and journalism graphics double major.

He took photos for “Marching for each other” (page 38) and “The secret garden” (page 42). His biggest dream is to be able to play with one of his bands for the rest of his life and be able to support himself with music.

Sara Ling

photo editor

Valerie Carnevale

assistant photo editor Jenelle Bickel

advertising director Jeffery Hurst

copy editor Kelly Dickey

pr director

Greg Hudson

Greg is a senior journalism graphics major. He designed “The secret garden” (page 42). A random fact about him is that he knows most of the lines in the movie “Spice World.” His dream job is to work in the creative department at Walt Disney World.

Haley Williams

advisor

David Sumner

CONTRIBUTING STAFF writers

Sam Harsh, Jace Harlow, Taylor Ellis, Kelli Bennett, Catherine Greis, Jess Mahanes

photographers

Kristin Hayes

Kristin is a junior advertising major.

She helped find advertisers for this issue of Ball Bearings. In the future, Kristin hopes to work in the creative department in a small advertising agency in the Indianapolis area. Her goal right now is to find the courage to go skydiving.

Camille Germain, Matt Amaro, Ben Dehr, Michelle Zeman, Stephanie Tarrant, Tessa Tillett, Colleen Bradburn, Tyler Varnau

designers

Jessica Thompson, Emma Kate Fittes, Katelyn Lepper, Amy Cavenaile, Greg Hudson, Stephanie Meredith, Kylee Cress, Christine Bradway, Stephanie Stamm, Chelsea Kardokus and Kate Roesch Ball State University Muncie, IN 47306

Printed by Ball State University Printing Services

WHAT WE LEARNED THIS ISSUE Detour’s “Triple Bypass” challenge consists of eating a

that holds Italian beef, spicy giardiniera and mozzarella and then a side of waffle fries in 45 minutes. is an art form that does not allow you to directly touch the piece during the creation process

There are 20 female members in the Cardinal Battallion out of a total 111 members.

D

uring the first week of school, a few of our visual editors and I were sitting around my apartment living room eating tacos. We shared stories of our summer experiences doing internships, climbing mountains, shooting photos for weddings and more. But we were really there to discuss the up and coming year with Ball Bearings. We all agreed that we wanted to step up the storytelling within the magazine and give our readers more. Now, more than a month later, all of our ideas have to come together in this first issue.

This year, we wanted to give Ball Bearings a whole new look and feel. If you haven’t noticed, we changed our departments to better represent all that you do. Faces, freedom, movement and sustain, as well as our features, will offer you a variety of things each issue. Our freedom section is twofold. It will discuss those who are fighting for our freedom and tell you everything that students are doing in their free time. Are you up for a food eating challenge? Find out what restaurants near Muncie to visit (page 12). Sustain centers around being environmentally friendly and green. Want to learn more about growing your own food? Discover how two students use hydroponics to grow vegetables in their closet (page 42). Our faces section introduces you to people who you see every day around campus, as well as people in the Muncie community. Movement focuses on not only physical activity, but also a movement for a cause.

Read about Professor Kabadaki and the work she does for Uganadan children (page 35). Lastly, our features section will have stories that change with each issue and will focus on a variety of topics.

I hope you enjoy our first magazine of the school year! We’ve worked extremely hard to give you compelling stories and teach you something new about the students at Ball State University.

ermaculture is a sustainable land use system. It’s all about learning how to work with and not against nature to sustain yourself.

Megan Capinegro, Managing Editor

WHAT’S ONLINE

www.ballbearingsmag.com

MAKEUP ARTIST

After reading about where Robert Dirden finds inspiration, watch him in action in our time lapse video.

GLASS BLOWING

Check out our video to discover the process it takes to create a work of art out of glass.

FOOD CHALLENGE

Watch as one competitor attempts to complete Scotty’s Brewhouse’s “Big Ass Brewhouse Burger” challenge.

THE HELP Learn more about janitor John Riggin in the first part of a series on the lesser known people who keep Ball State University running smoothly.

ALL SMILES, Tommario Davis and Stephanie Gray fully embrace their interracial relationship.

FACES | ball bearings

Love knows no color

Interracial couples cherish relationships in spite of adversity { story } Kelli Bennett The beautiful purples and crisp oranges accent the elaborately decorated church. The sister of the groom, 20-year-old Stephanie Gray, prepares for the ceremony as the bridesmaids’ excitement dances through the dressing room. The 200 wedding guests patiently wait for the bride to make her way down the aisle when a disheartening scene plays out in back of the church.

Gray’s grandparents ruthlessly demand that the two be sat far away from Tommario Davis, Gray’s African-American boyfriend. After discovering that Davis was seated so close to them, Gray’s grandfather strictly instructs Gray’s cousin to escort them down the aisle and seat them away from their family. Enraged at their blatant racist views, tears of rage roll down Gray’s face as she watches the scene unfold.

As interracial relationships increase, racism is visibly decreasing. Scenes like what happened at the wedding are becoming less Robert frequent, but it has not always been this way.

As early as the 1600s, anti-miscegenation laws prohibited the marriage of two different races. Despite the overturning of these laws in 1967, there are still those strongly against interracial relationships. Pat Mitchum, a 59-year-old mother of two biracial children, has endured racism throughout her 30 years of interracial relationships, beginning with explicit phone threats from a supposed Ku Klux Klan member in 1975. The caller knew confidential details about Mitchum’s personal life. She vividly remembers the furious man promising to string both her and her black date up after seeing them together at a social event. As this daunting memory lingers in Mitchum’s head, she admits that there has been an immense change in views about interracial relationships. “Blending of the races is more accepted,” she says. “I can see the change within the last 30 years.”

Mitchum, Gray and Nicole Grogan shared similar experiences when they introduced their interracial relationships to their loved ones. The three approached their families with caution out of fear of offending them.

Grogan has been with her black boyfriend Robert Jones for two years. His first introduction was rocky when Grogan’s brother refused to join the family dinner because of Jones’ presence. Grogan’s brother is slowly accepting their relationship: he now realizes that his sister is happily in love.

{ photo } Tessa Tillett Gray and Davis credit their backgrounds for the impact that race has played on their relationship. Davis comes from Annapolis, Md., where the number of Hispanics has increased along with other minorities. Gray grew up in predominantly white Huntington, Ind.; her graduating class of nearly 2,000 students consisted of only one biracial student.

Smiling in the face of adversity, the racism endured in an interracial relationship is not for the weak-hearted, they say. “It takes a really strong person to deal with what society will dish out,” Mitchum says. “Relationships are hard enough to begin with; being interracial will add to the complexity.”

College freshmen Alyson Austin and Mya Mayfield say they experience twice as much skepticism for their lesbian relationship. “We’re not only gay; we’re interracial. We’ve got a lot of looks, but it has not been as bad as I thought it Jones would be,” Austin, who struggled emotionally at the beginning of their relationship, says.

Their first attempt to attend their junior prom was crushed by her apprehensive mother, but Austin and Mayfield persisted in their fight. A year later, Austin, dressed in a purple and zebra print prom dress, and Mayfield, in an all-black tailored tuxedo, were able to enjoy their senior prom. They proved to their families that they were truly content with themselves and their relationship.

Grogan describes interracial relationships as a door to change. Jones agrees that it positively affects society.

“It’s breaking down barriers that people are afraid to break down,” he says. The couples have noticed a new intrigue from their family and friends. They pride themselves on their faith-based relationship. After attending a predominately black church service with Jones, Grogan’s excitement and fascination persuaded her friends to learn more about the African-American culture.

Born to a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas, President Barack Obama serves as a reminder of interracial relationship’s growing impact. But for those against the evolution, Davis believes acceptance will come in due time. “If their [those against interracial relationships] hand is forced and their grand kids are all mixed, they have no choice but to accept that this is the way our country is,” he says.

“It’s breaking down barriers that people are afraid to break down.”

FALL 2011

| 5

Andy Brindley // slackliner { story } Sam Harsh

{ photo } Jenelle Bickell

He lurches forward, catching his balance. The rope sways underneath his feet. He doesn’t look down. Andy Brindley feels right at home.

Brindley takes part in a unique hobby known as slacklining. Slacklining, like tightrope walking, relies on a rope hung between two points. Some slackliners attach their equipment to what’s already there, while others bring their own anchor points so they can hook up ropes and slackline where they want.

Once on the rope, the slackliner can walk or even do tricks.

Brindley’s favorite move is called “surfing,” where he rocks the line back and forth similar to how a surfer moves back and forth on a surfboard.

Brindley became interested in slacklining during his junior year of high school. While he was at an architecture workshop at Ball State University, a workshop leader had set up a slackline and was slacklining for the students. “I saw it, and I was hooked,” he says.

His junior year of college, after he had been slacklining for a few years, he and his girlfriend, junior Kelsey Cox, decided to start a slacklining club to get more people involved.

“A lot of people we meet are just passers-by that are curious about what we’re doing,” Brindley says.

The summer before their junior year, Brindley and Cox jumped through all the hoops to start the club, getting it approved just before fall semester. This is the club’s first year.

Balancing on a rope a couple feet off the ground isn’t easy.

“The hardest part is just standing up on the rope and getting up there,” he says.

Even though it can be challenging, Brindley still enjoys the hobby and the friends he has made as a result.

“Doing it and watching people do it is fun. It’s interesting to do something unusual and that you haven’t seen before, and it pushes you out of your comfort zone. It makes you a stronger person.”

Josh McGarvey // printmaker { story } Nick Von Foerster

{ photo } Camille Germaine

Josh McGarvey has been drawing all of his life. However, it wasn’t until his college years that his passion and interest for art actually sparked.

“There was always an interest within me, but it was naïve,” the print making graduate student says. “I didn’t know the culture of art and it wasn’t until my first introduction class in the major that I fell in love with it and actually started participating in my education.”

When McGarvey first visited Ball State, he took a tour of the College of Architecture and Planning (CAP) as well as the Department of Art. As he walked through the halls of CAP, his interests began to shift from architecture towards print making. Prints are made by transferring ink through a matrix or prepared screen or other material.

Near the end of his tour, McGarvey visited the art department where he says it fit him comfortably. In order to be admitted to the art department as an incoming freshman, he had to send in a portfolio. A couple months later, he was accepted to the program as a fine arts major with an emphasis in print making.

Since his admittance, McGarvey has had a long list of credentials including first place prize at Minnetrista’s Annual Juried Show for his artist book called “Swine Flu.” However, McGarvey says it was his senior project, a triptych “Campus Crusade,” that he considers his biggest accomplishment. The triptych was three pieces that work together, with one main image and two side images that commented on society’s views about the Crusade.

“I honestly had little to no expectations coming to Ball State,” McGarvey says. “I found something I loved and worked incredibly hard at it.”

Jeff Riggin // janitor { story } Jace Harlow { photo } Colleen Bradburn After arriving to work in his ML320 Mercedes Benz, Jeff Riggin walks into work to find toilet paper clogging up the bathrooms and the aftermath of a shaving cream fight on the second floor. On top of that, he still has to complete his daily workload of cleaning bathrooms, taking trash out and other miscellaneous jobs.

Riggin started at Ball State University as a volunteer remodeling kitchenettes in LaFollette Complex. The supervisor liked his work ethic and hired him four years ago as a full-time janitor. Riggin was recently promoted to head of maintenance in Woodworth and Noyer.

Riggin’s worst cleanup took him more than 18 hours, but he says he will not share what happened.

“I don’t want students to get ideas,” Riggin says.

Kevin Mullaney, a resident assistant in Brayton/ Clevenger Hall, describes Jeff as outgoing and down to earth.

“I love how he’s approachable,” Mullaney says.“When I first met him, he came up and introduced himself to me before I even had a chance when I was still unpacking.”

Riggin mentions he will not be a janitor forever, just like students will not be students forever. “Life is full of stepping stones,” he says.

“Every day at Ball State’s an adventure,” Riggin says.

“It’s fun to watch you guys develop over the semester.

We love to see you come back just because of the bonds we build with you.”

Caitlyn Pohland // nursing student { story & photo } Valerie Carnevale Caitlyn Pohland, Ball Sate’s Homecoming Queen, spends another late night in the library, writing out study guides and memorizing diseases and medicines that most people can’t pronounce (such as spironolactone—a medicine that stops heart failure) for an early-morning exam. It’s a routine the senior nursing major knows well. While she says the library hours get boring after awhile, the end result is worth it. “It’s so rewarding to be able to help someone feel better in a time of pain or illness,” she says. “That keeps me going when it gets tough.”

The workload never stops for Pohland, who does two clinicals in addition to her regular classes. This semester, she is doing clinicals at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital and St. Vincent Stress Center in Indianapolis, a psychiatric center where she rotates between youth and adults. While she’s worked with mostly adults so far, Pohland is excited to begin working with kids. She will do her first clinical with children next semester.

Nursing majors have many options when it comes to choosing a field to go into, but Pohland has her sights set on helping children. “They just bring so much joy to my job,” says Pohland, who started college as an elementary education major. After college, she hopes to work as a registered nurse in pediatrics at a children’s hospital. “Probably not somewhere like Riley, though,” she adds, noting the Indianapolis children’s hospital that handles the most severe child illnesses. “I shadowed a nurse there, and the cases were just really intense.”

Pohland makes sure to schedule time for a life outside of nursing school. She is a member of the Code Red Dance Team, who performs at football, volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball games.

J.P. BECHTEL models instructor Robert Dirden’s body art. Photo provided by Robert Dirden

8 |

BALL BEARINGS

FACES | ball bearings

The man behind the makeup Theatre instructor shares his passion with students { story } Lindsey Gelwicks Long mirrors line the white walls of the dressing room in the basement of the Arts and Communication Building.

The bright lights surrounding them highlight 14 students’ faces as they begin to apply a coat of base foundation.

As they start to spread the flesh-colored makeup across their faces, Robert Dirden sits down beside a counter in the middle of the room to observe.

“What’s the thing you need to remember when applying base?” the instructor of theatre asks his students. After thinking for a moment, one replies.

“Don’t stretch the skin with the sponge,” the student says. “Right, your skin should not move when you put on base,” Dirden replies. “Unless you’re my age; then it moves with the wind,” he continues as the class bursts into chuckles.

Although Dirden focuses on teaching and applying makeup, his career didn’t begin that Robert way. “The year was 1986,” he begins as he settles down into the green room couch while his teacher’s assistant takes over the class. “I was 13. And I was taking some art classes.” When Dirden entered Muncie Central High School, he discovered they didn’t have an art program. Instead, he hoped to design sets for the theatre department, but the program director had another plan and put him in charge of costumes.

Throughout the next four years, he costumed every single show. After graduating in 1991, he enrolled at Ball State University and continued to costume their shows and those at Muncie Civic Theatre.

When costuming shows, he would work with a different makeup designer each time. “What I found was my ideas did not translate to working with a different designer,” he says.

In 1993, he went to PJ’s College of Cosmetology on North Walnut Street and started doing his own hair and makeup designs to accompany his costumes. “The vision doesn’t stop at the neck for me,” he says.

Designing for theatre The youngest of 10 children, Dirden is the only one not to have any of his own. And while all of his siblings work with their hands, he is the only one in theatre.

“Each show I do is my baby,” he says. “You get connected to what you’re creating. So my birth process is opening night. When all the research is done, all the work I’ve done, someone else gets to see it. I get to let it go and go on to my next show. I guess you could say I never get bored with my children. After six to eight weeks, they’re gone and I get another one.”

Dirden has been involved in more than 100 shows either through costumes, makeup or both. One of his favorites to design makeup for was “Camino Real” at Ball State in 2008.

He got to experiment with all types of makeup including glamour, gore, basic reality and, his favorite, fantasy makeup.

“Everything you ever wanted to put in a show, you put in the show. Every gimmick you ever wanted to try, you got to try,” Dirden says. “And to get that all in one show, it was like [being] a kid in a candy store for me.”

Finding inspiration One summer night at 9 o’clock, Dirden was riding his bike through campus. As he passed by Frog Baby, he paused, noticing the way the shadows hit the water and the way the spotlights reflected off Frog Baby’s face. He immediately went home and began sketching ideas for the upcoming Strother show “Evil Dead: The Musical.”

Dirden “The zombies are all about these shadows on their faces, the difference between the highlights and the shadows on the faces, the sunken in parts, the bones protruding,” he says. “And that’s what I actually saw, when I rode past.”

Dirden says it’s common for him to find inspiration everywhere he goes. From downtown Muncie architecture to the vine-shaped swirled pattern on a table runner, he gets ideas for sets, costumes and makeup.

Beginning this past summer, Dirden has been working on expanding his portfolio by painting back tattoos and body paintings on volunteer models. The designs range from a dragon to vines, from angel wings to tribal shapes.

Recently, a photograph of someone with a single black brush stroke across the face inspired him. He took that idea and expanded it across the entire upper body of his model. With his “Evil Dead” student assistant Levi Parks helping him, Dirden painted geometric shapes across the back, arms, chest and neck in black acrylic paint.

Parks, freshman theatre design technology major, worked with Dirden on several projects over the summer. “He’s one of the first people I’ve ever met who actually knew more about makeup than I did, and I love that,” Parks who taught himself on the Internet, says.

For now, Dirden continues to experiment with different techniques to add to his portfolio as well as perfect his designs for “Evil Dead: The Musical,” which runs until Nov. 5 in Strother Theatre.

“It’s kind of like the costume designer is the baker. I’m icing the cake,” Dirden says. “And we all know that without a good icing, the cake doesn’t taste as good.”

“The vision doesn’t stop at the neck for me.”

FALL 2011

| 9

FREEDOM | ball bearings

Wikimedia Commons

DISCONNECTED Students show apathy toward War on Terror { story } Jessica Mahanes Any given memory of a Ball State University student just before dawn. The lighting in the gym is harsh, could vary between vague and vivid, depending on making the grogginess of the morning more noticeable. where and how old they were when it happened.

Cadet Aaron Farnsworth is among the platoon. A year When the World Trade Center and Pentagon were ago he was in Iraq, actively participating in Operation attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, the class of 2012 was Iraqi Freedom. At approximately 7:45 a.m., he leaves around 12 years old. The class of 2015 was around 9. PT and attends classes, rubbing elbows with other The events of the day, the deaths that ensued and the students whose minds are far from the Middle East. fear became a catalyst for over a decade of war in the “It’s definitely a transition,” Farnsworth says. “You definame of freedom. nitely meet the people who are on the edge of what’s “Everyone here was probably too young to remember, going on over there and are so informed, but then you but patriotism was so high also see the distance people between 2001 and 2005,” have between the war.”

“When there is not a Master Sgt. Mark Hamil says.

Apathy among Ball State clearly defined enemy, “Now it’s an economic issue.” students is not a set fact. But Hamil went to Afghanistan Ball Bearings asked people are more likely to when soon after the attacks. “I was 123 students who Ayman albecome apathetic.” one of the first sent to Iraq in Zawahiri was, only 12 students 2003 and I’ve been back from knew the correct answer and -Richard Petts Afghanistan for about a year,” he only 24 attempted to guess. says. Now the master sergeant (He is the head of al Qaeda and oversees physical training and serves as a professor for America’s most wanted terrorist.) The same students the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps [ROTC] program were asked if they knew that 22 of the Navy SEALs at Ball State. accredited to the capture of bin Laden had been killed One platoon shouts in unison, counting the crunches in action. Eleven knew they had. in their daily physical training (PT). Another just left Ball Gerald Waite, professor in the Center for Peace and Gym, no inhibitions on speed, preparing for a 19-mile Conflict Studies, was a leader in Veterans for Peace and foot march. Despite the hour, it’s bleak and dark outside, also served in the United States Army in Vietnam.

10 |

BALL BEARINGS

Vietnam, though never declared a war, lasted nearly 20 years.

And while the war with the Middle East has lasted just as long, there have been no Kent State or American University protests.

This difference of generations’ reactions has multiple supposed roots.

“Vietnam was the first war that was covered live by television,” Waite says. “It brought the war right into people’s houses.”

Waite says the government and media have learned their lesson. “[Today] you may have a ten second bit of coverage over a car bomb in Kabul or a picture of a blown up market somewhere in Iraq, but you don’t have pictures from the so-called embedded reporters with the troops,” he says. “And if you do… it’s very controlled.”

“You had a lot of stuff [during Vietnam] that made it a lot more personal,” he says.

Farnsworth also explains the lack of accuracy in the media.

“The media used to have tremendous support for the war, but because of ratings or viewers have not been covering the war at all recently,” he says. “And if they do, they spin the information.

They’ll tell you a school has gone up in Afghanistan but they won’t tell you how many soldiers died to put it up, or that the Taliban is six months from regaining control of the area. They’re fairly selective in what they project.”

Richard Petts, assistant professor in the sociology department, says that the confusion surrounding the current war keeps students at a distance.

“When there is not a clearly defined enemy, people are more likely to become apathetic,” Petts says. “This war is one of those cases. The goal is to defeat terrorism, but terrorists by their very nature are not a well-defined enemy— spread out, not cohesive...”

Farnsworth was surrounded by support from family and friends during his term in Iraq and knew they were aware of the status of the war.

“I was lucky to have that support, and everyone I was in Iraq with had support,” he says. “I’m kind of at a loss of how you would get people to be more aware of the war. Understanding that the media doesn’t cover things very accurately or very well— but I don’t know how you would make them [students] concerned if they’re not already.”

Kevin Kittleson, a therapist and psychologist at Ball State’s Counseling Center, attended a conference in Illinois about veterans of the war in the Middle East returning to the United States and attending college.

“Often times they [veterans] can feel disconnected or, because their fellow students don’t have the same life experiences they have had, unwelcome,” he says.

Farnsworth noted veterans of Vietnam and organizations that reach out to the returning soldiers of Iraq and Afghanistan, but none that came necessarily from the school.

The first step to students’ engagement to the war is awareness.

Kittleson brought some ideas back with him from his conference— with the potential for more outreach to returning veterans on college campuses.

“Some of the things we discussed were maybe getting some veteran groups started that were conversation groups, not therapy groups. They’re not broken. They’re here. They want to go to college, they want to have the experience and they want to learn,” he says.

“So how can we make that environment the best for them to learn. I’m new here to Ball State, but we try to do things for campus awareness. On the anniversary of 9/11 we had different things for that. We want this to be a place where people feel connected.”

The number of youth

with parents on active duty is

1.5 MILLION

47,424 4,083

COMBAT DEATHS

in Vietnam War

COMBAT DEATHS

in War on Terror

OPERATION

ENDURING

FREEDOM

BAGHDAD

is the official name of the Iraq War.

average age of US troops:

27

Sources: Department of Defense, iraqibodycount.org

FALL 2011

| 11

STUFFED Are you up for the challenge? { story } Lauren Hardy { photos } Michelle Zeman, Ben Dehr, Matt Amaro

O

n a busy Saturday afternoon in downtown Carmel, Ind., rain descends on the city like au jus dripping from soggy bread. The downpour ruthlessly drenches Todd Sweasy, adding to his misery with each steady drop.

As he walks away from Detour, a local restaurant and bar, Sweasy clenches his mid-section. “I don’t think I am going to eat for another three days!” he exclaims. The food dwelling inside him could feed an entire family and still leave leftovers.

Forty-five minutes prior to the rain, Sweasy delightfully sank his teeth into a 30-inch spicy and succulent Italian beef baguette—but that was only the beginning of the “Triple Bypass” challenge.

Around 3:45 p.m. on May 14, Todd Sweasy, 44, of Carmel, beat Detour’s Triple Bypass challenge, becoming the first person to eat the restaurant’s sandwich in less than 45 minutes.

Sweasy completed his first food challenge one week after Detour’s grand opening. Although Sweasy considers himself competitive, it was his mother who prompted him to try the challenge. “[My mother] told me I didn’t have a choice,” Sweasy says. “And she told everyone that I could do it already, so I felt obligated to give it a shot.”

Avid food challenge participants like Sweasy have helped turn organized competitive eating into a popular, televised sport. According to Major League Eating, in recent years, an estimated 40,000 fans have made the pilgrimage to Coney Island to watch the Nathan’s Famous July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest. An additional 1.7 million people watched the live ESPN telecast of the event in 2010.

With the help of the Food Network and shows like “Man v. Food,”—now “Man v. Food Nation”—local restaurant contests have also gained national recognition. Several restaurants in Central Indiana, such as Detour and Best Bet Breakfast, drew inspiration from Adam Richman’s Man v. Food to develop their own food challenges.

Detour American-Grille

Gasps of shock reverberate from around the restaurant as three workers escort the 30-inch sandwich to the table.

Stretched out on a shiny silver platter, the “Triple Bypass” is just how Tim Fogleman, the general manager of Detour, describes it, “a spectacle.”

Detour employees say the menu is “not for the faint of heart,” and the same can be said of their sandwich. To win, competitors must eat the baguette topped with spicy slow-cooked Italian beef, giardiniera (a spicy pickled blend of peppers, carrots, celery and onions) and mozzarella, in addition to a side of waffle fries in 45 minutes.

In the six months since Detour opened for business, four people have completed the “Triple Bypass” challenge. Fogleman says that about 85 people have tried it, with Todd Sweasy as the first and Jim DeFalco as the fastest with a time of 44 minutes and three seconds.

Fogleman says challengers are usually male. “I would love to see four women try it, but usually, a guy comes in with his buddies and they spur him on,” Fogleman says.

“They’ll say, ‘Oh man, did you see they have a 30-inch sandwich? I bet you can’t do that.’”

But don’t underestimate the “Triple Bypass,” says Rob Byrne, a server at Detour. “Food enthusiasts come in and think, ‘Yeah, it can’t be that big.’ Then it comes out, and they are shocked. I think people who do the challenge are insane,” he says.

The Detour staff makes a big deal about the challenge, bringing stopwatches and cameras to the competitor’s table. Sweasy, who ate the first third of the sandwich in four minutes, says he did not expect all of the attention.

“It was a neat environment. People kept stopping by to give me motivation and tips,” he says.

There is a strategy behind eating the behemoth “Triple Bypass,” and those who are not aware often fail to finish.

“Usually, people start big,” Fogleman says. “Those are the people who never finish. The four people who have finished ate the bread last.”

To help get the food down, competitors are encouraged to dip the bread in water or au jus. This dipping strategy is important for challenges that involve bread products because it helps regulate digestion.

Those who succeed get their name in the menu and

FALL 2011

| 13

Weight of Scotty’s “Big Ass Brewhouse Burger”

ounces

pound

Number of shakes or sundaes someone must consume to join Ivanhoes’ “100 Club”

Weight of Best Bet Breakfast’s “Double Dog Dare You All In”

inches, pounds

months

Length and weight of Detour’s “Triple Bypass” sandwich

Time given to drink 100 different beers at the Heorot

Weight of Bub’s “Big Ugly” burger precooked

ounces

picture on the “Bypass Wall of Fame.” Fogleman says Detour plans to open two more restaurants within the next year, which will give many others the opportunity to try the challenge for themselves.

Next Stop: Best Bet Breakfast

It starts with a double dog dare. The challenge? Eat a fourpound breakfast before time runs out. But there is a catch: no two challenges are the same. The time limit is not up to the competitor, but up to the luck of the draw.

At Best Bet Breakfast in Noblesville, Ind., customers who order the “Double Dog Dare You All In” are given anywhere from 25 to 55 minutes to consume four pounds of fried Ava taters, three eggs, diced ham, sausage, green peppers, onions, jalapenos and cheese served with Burman’s Louisiana Style Hot Sauce, sour cream and gravy.

The Best Bet Breakfast staff brings a special card box to the poker chip lined table to decide the time limit for the challenge. Then, the competitor must blindly choose one of the cards to determine their fate. An ace is 55 minutes, and jacks are 25 minutes.

In the three and a half years since Best Bet Breakfast opened, no one has completed the “Double Dog Dare You All In” challenge within the allotted time. Danny Bishop, the owner of Best Bet Breakfast, says that about 80 people have tried it. Only one group of students has come close to finishing.

At least one or two people will order the “Double Dog Dare You All In” each week. “And if they don’t finish it, they can just take it home and eat it later,” Bishop says.

Bishop sits Texas Hold ‘em style, hands folded and eyes hidden behind mirrored red shades and a black cap. He admits he has never thought to take-on the challenge. “Oh no, no, no, no, no, that’s way too much food for me,” he says firmly.

Although Bishop is doubtful he will attempt the feat, others are anxious to take a stab at this type of food challenge. “I think the challenge is all about pushing your limits. It’s that ultimate push and the ultimate challenge in an abstract sort of way,” Bishop says.

Faint-of-heart customers have no need to worry. Customers are welcome to order the half size version, the “All In,” if they do not think they have what it takes to attempt the challenge. Caitlin Conley, a server at Best Bet Breakfast, says it takes her at least three days to finish the half order when she takes it home.

Those who succeed gain more than just bragging rights: they get the meal for free, name on the wall and a T-shirt.

“Everybody Eats”

Both Detour and Best Bet Breakfast hope that someday, Richman will become the next person to grace their wall of fame.

After all, if Richman’s show, “Man v. Food,” did not exist, the “Triple Bypass” and “Double Dog Dare You All In” may not have been created in the first place.

The jury is still out on why anyone would want to stuff themselves with tons of food. Fogleman thinks some people do the challenge for the novelty because it’s fun, while Sweasy sees competitive eating as the perfect American sporting recipe.

“Eating is a big social thing in America’s culture. And anybody can do these [food] challenges. You don’t have to be athletic, and you don’t have to be a big person either. It’s something that everyone can do, because everybody eats,” Sweasy says.

DETOUR AMERICAN-GRILLE

BUB’S BURGERS AND ICE CREAM

SCOTTY’S BREWHOUSE

Location: Carmel, Ind. Challenge: The Triple Bypass Rules: Must finish sandwich and side dish by yourself within 45 minutes Prizes: Detour will put your picture up on the wall and record your name, date and time it took you to finish it in their menu Number of people who have completed the challenge: Four Time to beat: 44:03, set by Jim DeFalco on June 6, 2011

Location: Carmel, Ind. Challenge: The “Big Ugly” One Pound (22 oz. pre-cooked) Rules: Finish the burger(s) Prize: For one: picture on the wall; for two: headshot on the wall; for three: poster on the wall; for four: life size cut-out on the wall Number of people who have completed the challenge: Thousands, according to Jim McMillan, the manager Fun fact: Bub’s was featured on the show “Man v. Food”

Location: Muncie, Bloomington, West Lafayette, Indianapolis North and Indianapolis Downtown, Ind. Challenge: Big Ass Brewhouse Burger Rules: Finish the 24 oz. burger Prizes: A marked bib and picture on the website

THE HEOROT IVANHOES Location: Upland, Ind. Challenge: The 100 Club Rules: Must try all 100 varieties of their shakes or sundaes Prizes: Members receive a free “Ivanhoes 100 Club” T-shirt and have their name added to the “100 Club” plaque on display in the Ivanhoes dining room Fun fact: Ivan, Carol and Mark Slain have owned and operated “Ivanhoes Ice Cream and Sandwich Shoppe,” formerly “Wiley’s Drive-In,” since 1965

BEST BET BREAKFAST Location: Noblesville, Ind. Challenge: Double Dog Dare You All In Rules: Finish the four-pound breakfast within the time frame given Prize: Meal for free, name on the wall, a t-shirt and a gift certificate Number of people who have completed the challenge: Zero

Location: Muncie Challenge: 100 Beer Club Rules: Consume 100 different beers in six months Prize: Get a plaque with your name, a catch phrase of your choice, and the date you completed the challenge on the “Bar of Fame” Fun fact: There are more than 350 kinds of bottled beer to choose

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Ball State women prepare to fight for their country {story} Brandi Terry

{photos} Valerie Carnevale

ortia Brubaker sits in a small room in the basement of Ball Gym, taking a rare moment to rest in the middle of her hectic Tuesday. The senior criminal justice major looks like many other young women on Ball State University’s campus, dressed in a pink North Face fleece and jeans, her long blond hair pulled back in a messy braid. However, Brubaker is a member of a small, select group of women on campus, which is evident by the camouflaged accents – posters, brochures, photos – that sprinkle the room.

She is a member of the Army’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), training to become a leader in the United States military.

Brubaker joined the ROTC her freshman year in spring 2009. Having older brothers in the military, Brubaker saw her decision as carrying on a family tradition.

Unlike Brubaker, Elaine Gemple is the first in her family to join the military. A senior nursing major, Gemple says she was a tomboy growing up and those who knew her well weren’t surprised by her choice. It’s the new people she meets that are shocked.

“I’m kind of a scrawny girl myself,” she says, a smile flickering across her delicate facial features. “You’re expected to look a

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BALL BEARINGS

{design} Chelsea Kardokus

certain way in the Army…I don’t think I fit the stereotype.”

The stereotype of large, muscular women is something Brubaker has encountered as well, but she says that people are usually pleasantly surprised. “They grow to like the fact that there’s women that are in college and that don’t fit the image of who they think would be in the military,” she says. “It’s kind of a nice thing to be separated from this image that has been there in the past.”

Brubaker and Gemple are two of the 20 female members of the Cardinal Battalion, the ROTC unit that includes Ball State, Indiana Wesleyan University and Indiana UniversityPurdue University Fort Wayne. These women make up less than 20 percent of the total number of students in the battalion. This number is comparable to the Army at large; in 2009 women made up only 15.5 percent of the Army as a whole. While more positions in the Army are open to females, women still make up an underwhelming percentage of those enrolled. With these numbers and stereotypes, what compels these women to join the ROTC? For Capt. Stephanie Sandoval, Cardinal Battalion’s recruiting operations officer, it was an attempt to fill a gap in her college experience. As a freshman at Saint Mary’s

CADET ESTELLE ARMSTRONG, whose grandfather, father and brother have all served in the Army, is in her second year at Ball State. She is studying criminal justice.

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“My thoughts were, if I stick with the military, I could have a good solid career, good retirement. They would help me move, if I want to move to different places. They’ll take care of my family if anything ever happens. If I stay here for 20 years, that will put me at retirement at like 46. So I’d still have the rest of my life to do my art ventures.” - Capt. Stephanie Sandoval

ALL CADETS have physical training Monday-Thursday at 6:15 a.m. Women, like Cadet Estelle Armstrong, are included in platoons with men.

College, Sandoval felt that something was missing.

“About two weeks in, I just hated it,” she says. “I missed the camaraderie of sports, I missed having boys around.

So I went to a convention kind of thing, where they showed a showcase of all of the different kinds of clubs you can join and things like that, and I ended up talking to an ROTC recruiter.”

Sandoval’s sister was in the ROTC program at Indiana University, and after talking with her, Sandoval decided to give it a shot. She went to the physical training session one morning and never looked back. “I just loved it,” she says. “It was exactly what I was looking for.”

Despite earning a bachelor’s degree in photography, Sandoval went on to make a career out of the military.

“I felt like not only was I getting something out of it for myself, but it was training me to do something else, to

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have a skill set that I could use in the future,” she says of her decision to pursue a military career. She says this choice doesn’t limit her interest in photography entirely.

“My thoughts were, if I stick with the military, I could have a good solid career, a good retirement,” she says. “They would help me move, if I want to move to different places.

They’ll take care of my family if anything ever happens.

If I stay here for 20 years, that will put me at retirement at like 46. So I’d still have the rest of my life to do my art ventures.”

For Estelle Armstrong, sophomore criminal justice major, the decision to join the ROTC was embedded in family tradition. Her grandfather, father and brother have all served in the Army. “It was kind of like a bonding sort of thing,” she says. “It gives a sense of pride and it makes you feel good. Not only are you doing this for your country,

but you’re doing it for yourself, to better yourself.”

Katie Essex has also been looking to carry on a family tradition since she was young. “My brother is in the military, and he’s a huge role model in my life. He’s currently in Iraq with his wife, and they both have... chosen that as a career,” the junior French education and Spanish education double major says. “I really thought that I should be in the military as well, I’ve always had a passion for it.”

Despite the high hopes, females have traditionally faced many obstacles to serving in the armed forces. In 2004, National Public Radio cited a study that found that 71 percent of female veterans had been sexually assaulted while

serving. Bryanne Moore, a member of the U.S. Army Reserve Command, recently said in a teleconference sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that she has faced ridicule by her male peers. “Women are still seen as weak, whiny, hormonal and incapable,” she says.

These things are not issues in the Cardinal Battalion, Essex says. “If anything, it’s more the opposite. We’re kind of seen as one of the guys,” she says. “It’s kind of like our gender is ignored…not in a bad sense or anything like that, but we all are just friends, and we are accepted for who we are. We’re all equal.”

That’s not to say that the women were unaware of the

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Women have served in the United States Army since

In 2009, women made up only

percent of the Army as a whole.

percent

Currently, women serve in

of all Army occupations.

percent of the active Army are women

There are only

female members of the Cardinal Battalion, the ROTC unit that includes Ball State, Indiana Wesleyan University and Indiana UniversityPurdue University Fort Wayne. source: army.mil/women

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BALL BEARINGS

challenges they were up against. “It [being a female] just made me realize I was going to have to work harder to gain respect from the outside and from the inside too,” Gemple says.

Sandoval elaborates on this idea. “If you come in as a female you kind of have to prove yourself a little more,” she says. “You don’t want to be the last one in a run. You don’t want to be the reason why people have to slow down for anything. You don’t want to be the one that has to have things explained to them again.”

Autumn Tolliver, senior biology major, says while most of the time her gender is not an issue, she has had a few bumps along the way. “Some males treat females differently,” she says. “I think it’s the males who don’t think women should be in charge. This experience has taught me to become more dominant than I already was.”

Leadership is only one of the many things women in the ROTC learn, Armstrong says. She cites the Army acronym LDRSHIP: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage.

“Learning what each of those are and how to apply them in daily life gives you the feeling of honor,” she says. “If everyone lived by these values, and applied them, it would be a better place here. You don’t have to wear the uniform to apply those.”

Gemple says that the ROTC has had a tremendous impact on her.

“I think overall, I just grew up,” she says. “I look at life completely differently now. It’s just made me a more grounded person.”

After graduating Ball State, the women will go on to the ROTC program to become Army lieutenants.

Following this, the women will receive their branching assignments, which determines where they will be placed: active duty, the National Guard or the Army Reserve. During their junior year, cadets make a “wish list,” detailing what they hope to do after graduation. They pick the Army branch they wish to work in (infantry, aviation, military police, etc.), what location they want to be in, and what they hope to do. Their names

are then placed on a merit list, containing the names of every ROTC cadet in the country. According to Sandoval, this list is ranked on a few different criteria, such as GPA, physical training test scores and extracurricular involvement. Those near the top of the list are more likely to be given the assignments on their wish list than are those near the bottom. The final branching list is announced in January, and cadets can work with the ROTC program and the Army to make their assignments fit their wishes, but it’s dependent on what the Army needs at that time. According to Sandoval, this serves as a motivator to make cadets work as hard as possible while in the ROTC. “At the end of the day, it’s how bad you want it and how much you put in,” she says. “Not just during your last year, but all three years before that. It depends on the person.”

Gemple hopes to make a career out of the Army and eventually become an Army nurse. Essex wants a military career also, striving to work in military intelligence, specifically linguistics. “Through the military itself, I’ve learned that I can do whatever I put my mind to,” she says. “There have been many challenges in things I’ve done in the military that I never would have thought I was capable of doing.”

Challenges like this can test commitment to and happiness within the military. It can be hard to know whether they’ve made the right choice, but with the recent 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the women have starkly been reminded of why they’ve chosen this path. “Looking back on 9/11, especially since it’s been 10 years, made me really proud to be in the military,” Gemple says. “It made me really proud of everyone else that’s in the military. I was kind of young when it happened, so I don’t think I really appreciated everyone who was in the military then, and now I do. It was a defining moment.”

Essex says the military response to tragedies like Sept. 11 make her proud to be in the ROTC. “When you

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“

My motivation at home is when I see parents walking with their little kids down the street, people walking their dogs…my motivation is the little things.

That’s what I want to fight for, this is why I’m here. I want to protect the sanity and the innocence of the American people. - Estelle Armstrong

see people on the television and they’re hurting because of a tragedy that struck, or anything of that sort, and you see the uniform right beside it, you think, I am represented in that, and I represent that as well,” she says. “9/11 was a huge thing, so when you see stuff like that, or you hear of soldiers getting killed, it just emphasizes that pride. I love the feeling of pride that I have for the military and the uniform.”

Thankfully, events like Sept. 11 don’t happen every day.

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Living day in, day out as a part of the military, Armstrong says she finds the nuances of daily life to be a strong motivator behind her military commitment. “My motivation at home is when I see parents walking with their little kids down the street, people walking their dogs…my motivation is the little things,” she says. “That’s what I want to fight for, this is why I’m here. I want to protect the sanity and the innocence of the American people.”

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s the metal rod is retracted from the kiln, the emitted heat fills the entire room. The kiln, which is turned up to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, melts the glass shards and turns them into one cohesive unit. When the rod is removed, the artist swings it like a pendulum, evening out the thickness and consistency of the molten glass. After this, the artist must blow into the rod, causing the glass to bubble up into the shape of a bulb.

The ability to improvise in glass blowing is a must, as every piece that comes out of the kiln is shaped a little differently and must constantly be nurtured and handled until it is ready to set out. This process takes place over a span of roughly 10 minutes, and in that time the chaos of forming a solid object out of molten liquid must be controlled using a set of basic tools.

CHRIS HORN ISN’T EXACTLY SURE WHAT HE WANTS to make today. Horn and his lab partner have six hours reserved in the shop, so he uses this time to make simple objects; he will then sell them to make some money on the side.

“I’m working on doing some art fairs around Cincinnati, as well as here and in Indy,” Horn says. “I’ve been making a lot of vases. Vases work well. So do bowls and cups.”

Horn is one of the few students at Ball State University who found a home in the new glass program within the art department. After a donation from the Glick Foundation, the Marilyn K. Glick Center for Glass was constructed in 2010. It was created to help support and promote the practice of contemporary glass arts at Ball State and in East Central Indiana.

“There is a lot of equipment you need in order to be

able to do all the different processes of glass art, but we’ve managed to fit just about all of it in this building,” Michael Hernandez, the facility manager, says. “This is definitely one of the top buildings in the area, which is quite a statement since the Midwest is home to glass art and glass blowing. In fact, the first glass art program was at Toledo University.”

Currently, Horn is in the hot shop with his lab partner, where he has the kiln fired up to the appropriate temperature. In the Glick Center, every artist is required to work with a partner in order to help cope with the lack of control the artist has over the piece. Although only one person controls the creative vision, it is up to their partner to help keep a high level of safety at all times.

Glass blowing is one of the many techniques Horn has learned during his time in the glass program. So far, in his quest for a degree, he says the experience in the program has been a good one as he’s learned more about the art of producing glass. He was the first person to claim glass art as his major.

WHEN HORN WAS A JUNIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL, HE went on a school trip for spring break that took him all over Italy: Florence, Venice and Pisa. He says his experience in the Piazza San Marco, the most well known public square in Venice, was the most interesting place he visited. It was there that he was introduced to the art of glass blowing, where turning a hot liquid into roomtemperature works of art captured his attention.

“We went into this small shop near the plaza and in the back they had this room where the glass blower was doing everything by himself. I thought it was amazing; I was blown away by the skills of this master. That’s where

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SUITED UP in preparation to be near the kiln, Chris Horn catches his still scolding piece. He must walk quickly, but carefully, and place his glass cup into the kiln before it cools.

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HORN SHAPES his piece with the metal tongs, while his partner blocks the heat from burning his hands. The glass has to be reheated several times during this process to keep it from cooling and cracking. it all started for me, really,” Horn says.

Horn says the thing that separates glass art from other forms is the fact that the artist only has so much control over the medium. Hot glass isn’t stable the way paint or clay are stable he says.

“You can’t actually touch the medium with your hands.

You’re always experimenting with different forms, different ways to do things, but the biggest thing is that you can’t touch it,” he says. “You have to use these tools that are tools artists have used since they started blowing glass; none of the tools have changed so it’s mesmerizing to be working with something the same way people have been doing it since glass art has been around.”

Glass blowing is not easy to pick up. The techniques used can take numerous attempts to fully master. The process of creating in this complicated art form can intimidate many, which is why the introductory level courses in the

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glass art major focus primarily on the different styles of the art and how to use the techniques specific to each process of shaping and shifting the glass.

“I definitely struggled when I first started, it’s such a huge learning curve. You really have to start learning how to let the glass work for you rather than you work for the glass. I think that mystery of how it’s constructed is what draws people to it,” Horn says.

AS HORN TAKES A BREAK FROM HIS PIECE, HE TURNS his attention to a different type of glass product, a bottle of root beer. He is drinking out of this glass bottle, one that has been molded and dipped, set on fire and blown into.

“I can touch this now but until you get it out of the kiln you don’t really associate with making it until you can

actually feel it and touch it. It’s fascinating,” he says.

This attraction to improvisation and using tools to methodically shape the glass carries over into Horn’s other hobby, snowboarding.

As a member of the Outdoor Pursuits club, Horn has become accustomed to toeing the line between control and chaos.

These hobbies are helping to shape Horn’s career and what he hopes to do after graduation. With glass art there are a few different career choices; there is the starving artist’s approach of building a studio and selling the art made within it, or there is the option to join a business that does commercial glass art much like the one Horn did an internship for. “I really hope to be able to own my own studio and sell my work off that and commissions…as well as live up north so I can snowboard when I’m not making my art,” Horn says. In the end Horn hopes to become a master glass blower by learning all he can through Ball State’s new major, getting him one step closer to finally controlling the chaos.

1. HORN POURS bits of color to add to his glass piece.

2. ROLLING THE PUNTY with a fresh dip of molten glass, Horn makes sure the color is evenly distributed. The punty is the rod that holds the glass.

3. HORN CHECKS to make sure a starter bubble is being formed. A starter bubble is the most important part of blowing glass. It must be done in the early stages.

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{ story + design } Megan Capinegro { photos } Stephanie Tarrant

On the big island of Hawaii, near Pahoa, it was mid-morning when Allie Hubert, her roommate Kayla and Biko, a community member, drove on a small road through the jungle. When they got closer to the beach, a grove of coconut trees appeared on the side of the road.

Biko pulled the truck over and began examining the trees. After a few moments, he turned to the girls and said, “We are going to get the coconuts out of this tree,” pointing at the ones he wanted. He then grabbed a rope and a machete and began to scale the more than 20-foot tree. He was barefoot.

This was Hubert’s first day at her internship at the La’akea Community on the main island of Hawaii. Collecting naturally grown fruits such as coconuts was only a small part of the work that she did this summer.

The La’akea Community is a permaculturebased community that prides itself on learning how to work with and sustain oneself off of the land. After stumbling upon the community’s web page, Hubert, a fourth-year landscape architecture major, spent a month there learning the ways of permaculture with nine other interns. This internship wasn’t a typical internship filled with business suits and paperwork; this internship was all based on living off the grid.

A typical day

Around 7 a.m., Hubert would awake to the sounds of birds chirping and the ribbits of coqui frogs. She’d step out of her bed and look through the screen at the dense vegetation in the jungle around her. The light from the sun was the only thing allowing her to find the clothes she wanted to wear. There were no lights in her hut; in fact, the only things in this larger alternative to a tent were two beds and two plastic bins full of clothes.

Instead, solar panels surrounding the houses supply electricity to the main house, known as the community center. It is on a self-owned plot of 23 acres, which is home to large jungles, wild animals and about nine permanent residents. They use as much from the land as they can and try not to use things that will harm the environment.

After waking up, Hubert would grab a T-shirt, shorts and gym shoes and go to her rudimentary groundation (RG) class.

An RG class is optional for community members to partake in before breakfast.

It could be a yoga class, meditation exercises, or anything that gets someone’s mind in the right place and ready for the day ahead, Hubert says.

After class, she’d grab breakfast at the main house and wait for check-in at 8:30 a.m. All of the community members sit together at the mandatory check-in and talk about how they are feeling and what they are planning that day. When it was Hubert’s turn, she’d say, “Hey I’m feeling really good, remind me to call my mom today.” Another community member, Bernie, would often explain a dream that he had and what it meant to him.

“It’s a good way to get everyone on the same page, and I think that was one of the key reasons why this community was successful,” Hubert says.

After check-in, the work began. First, Hubert would grab food scraps from the kitchen and walk to the jackfruit orchard to feed the chickens. When she got to the chicken coop, she’d mix the compost with grains and feed it to them. Then came the tricky part: getting eggs from the chickens.

Some of the chickens were usually out of the coop, so it was easy to collect their eggs, but Fern was never out of the coop.

“The chickens were really hard to deal with at first, because I had never dealt with them,” Hubert says. “Fern was the meanest.

I hated Fern. She pecked me every time, and she was always in her roost. Always like, ‘I’m going to beat you up.’”

After finishing her various morning chores, it was time for work party. A work party is a time that community members get together

“

They accepted me. They not only accepted me, they embraced me. They

“

to work on the land, but they want it to be fun so the term “party” is used.

It lasts for about three hours every day.

Hubert’s most memorable work party was harvesting pineapples.

In a large field in the community, pineapples are nested in shrubs with leaves two to three feet high. The job of the community members and interns was to wrestle these plants to free the pineapples so they can eat them later on. The challenge was to crouch low enough to the ground to avoid getting scratched by the pointy leaves, but when roaming the field she had to be high enough to avoid getting scraped.

After pulling off the tops of pineapples, freeing them from the shrubs, Hubert came away with many holes in her shirt and scratches on her arms and legs.

“I know it sounds like slave work, but it really wasn’t. You’re working with fun people, and you can stop and take as many breaks as you want,” she says.

Pineapple harvesting lasted three days, so it wasn’t the only thing that happened at work parties. The tasks could vary, but they usually had to do with picking food, planting food or weeding the land. Hubert says that with all the weeding that was done, she became really good at using a machete.

“It was very cool to be able to pick food out of the garden and then just fry it up.

Or just cook it up, boil it, do whatever with it,” Hubert says. “I actually feel very confident in the kitchen now because of that, which is pretty cool.”

After work party, she normally cleaned up and took a shower. The water does not come from the city. Gutters on the few houses in the community and cisterns at higher elevations capture rainwater that the residents use.

The shower is outside in the middle of the community so residents use biodegradable soap and hair products so it does not harm the environment.

The community shower has three shower heads, so that members can take a shower at the same time. But if someone wants privacy, community members gladly give it to him or her.

It was odd at first, but Hubert quickly adapted to these habits.

“I made the switch permanently now to biodegradable body products and hair products. It’s expensive but it’s worth it, ” she says.

There is one indoor shower residents can use, which is in the community

were very loving and wonderful people.

It was the best month of my life.

Allie Hubert

AT THE LA’AKEA COMMUNITY, Allie Hubert lived in a hut during the duration of her internship. At the permaculture community, she did things such as feed the chickens in their coop as well as harvest pineapples from the community’s land.

- PHOTOS PROVIDED BY ALLIE HUBERT

center. All of the water is turned off at night, so if Hubert wanted to take a shower in the morning, it was cold.

After getting cleaned up, lunch was served around 1 p.m. The community members ate together and an assigned person prepared food. The food for the community mostly came from the plants that grew on the property. There are pineapple plants, many green-leafed plants, jackfruit orchards, bananas, mango trees and more. Almost anything growing on the 23 acres can be eaten.

After lunch, community members held different classes for the interns.

Topics could range from permaculture to non-violent communication. But one that stands out in Hubert’s mind is cocounseling class. This class is open to the Pahoa community, and about 35 people usually show up. Each person

is paired with a partner and the two sit together to talk. Hubert describes it as a “therapy session,” where each person acknowledges that there is something they need to get off their chest. Each person is given 30 minutes to talk about anything they want.

“You are the counselor and the client.

With co-counseling neither person is trained, but we are understanding, and we are loving, and we are open,” Hubert says.

Weekends were spent traveling with the interns to organic farms or the beach. Overall, the summer was a learning experience and she says she enjoyed all of it.

Back on the grid

For Hubert, it wasn’t that difficult to adjust to living off the grid, doing manual labor every day during the week or living

in a hut. It was coming back to Indiana that challenged her.

“I didn’t have a hard time adjusting to the people, or the community or their lifestyle. I had a great time because I was really open minded going in,” she says. “I just think the hardest part was actually coming back and readjusting to my consumer, wasteful lifestyle.

Realizing that there are so many things that I don’t need in my life and I know how to live off the grid.”

Her roommate, Andrea Venderley, who talked to Hubert once a week during the summer, says that she noticed a change in Hubert when she came back from Hawaii.

“As long as I have known her, she has always led a healthy lifestyle filled with healthy food, but when she came back, her healthy view of life evolved even

ON THE LA’AKEA PROPERTY, community members and interns ate meals together at the main house.

- PHOTO PROVIDED BY ALLIE HUBERT

more,” she says. “She had a focus with creating peace in everyone’s life.”

From the one-month experience, Hubert brought knowledge on healthy and sustainable living back to Muncie.

She tries to meditate every day, sitting in silence and taking deep breaths to focus her energy. In fact, she uses the meditation techniques she learned at La’akea in some of her yoga classes, which she teaches at Ball State and the Cornerstone Center for the Arts. She has also tried to minimize her way of life while still living on the grid.

“We don’t need half of the crap that we have,” she says. “That’s something that I’m trying to do is minimize, only go with the bare minimums if I can. I don’t drive anymore if I can help it. I try to carpool or bike everywhere.”

In the future, Hubert plans on getting permaculture certified so that she can use those skills when doing landscape architecture projects. She wants to focus on regenerative systems in her designs to promote growth and health.

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BALL BEARINGS

“I went to a place and did a bunch of manual labor. That’s a really weird thing to do. I’ve been really interested in permaculture and that’s what started it for me,” Hubert says. “I’ve always liked being able to work with my hands. Not necessarily saying I prefer it to an office job, but having a job where I would be able to do both would be really cool and ideal. I know that I do want to sustain myself. Having that experience, having the ability to connect with the land and the earth and to understand the source of the food that I’m eating and fully understand it.”

But perhaps, what she will always remember is the relationships that were created that summer.

“They accepted me,” she says. “They not only accepted me, they embraced me. They were very loving and wonderful people. They knew how to work together.

They knew that working together was way more successful than working independently. It was the best month of my life.”

MOVEMENT | ball bearings

A HELPING HAND Professor reaches out to war-torn Ugandan homeland { story } Brandi Terry Kyama Kabadaki sits at a long white table in an empty classroom at Ball State University. Behind her, a sign reads, “Social work: A dynamic profession.” She leafs through a thick photo album, glancing through orange-rimmed glasses at times that have passed. Every now and then, a photo sparks a memory, parting Kabadaki’s pink lips into a smile.

The photos show an assortment of children, some clutching school supplies, wearing ripped, dirty school uniforms. One photo shows a young boy happily clinging to a T-shirt. In one way or another, these children all benefited from Kabadaki’s work in Uganda.

Kabadaki’s voice shakes with passion as she speaks about them. “Can you imagine giving a kid a pen?” she says, her thick Ugandan accent echoing off of the walls. “It’s a pen, it doesn’t mean anything, but they were so excited to have pens from America.”

Kabadaki is the founder of a program called AK Scholars, which helps elementary students in Uganda earn an education.

In Ugandan villages, educational opportunities are few. Poverty is

extreme, and many parents can’t afford to send their children to school due to the prices of tuition or uniforms. Due to a lack of government funding, village children are not as likely to succeed in education as children in bigger cities. City schools pay higher salaries than village schools, thus many village teachers have fewer resources.

“I know they’re capable,” she says of the children. “They’re capable like anyone else. But they just don’t have a chance.”

Kabadaki feels a special connection to these children because she used to be one of them. Born and raised in the Ugandan village of Kakindo, Kabadaki attended the same school as the children smiling in the photos.

The Early Years

Kabadaki, an associate professor of social work at Ball State, attended Kakindo Primary School in her home village. Because the village was so small, it had no middle or high school. Kabadaki went to the neighboring town, Hoima, for her middle school years.

For high school, she attended the prestigious boarding school

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KABADAKI takes a quick drink break with a few students. She supplies the AK Scholars with snacks they generally wouldn’t get otherwise.

King’s College Budo in the southern city of Kampala.

While attending King’s College Budo, Kabadaki began volunteering; this, she says, sparked a passion. She wanted to do more, to branch out and help others.

Social work seemed like the perfect career. However, there was one small kink in the plan – Kabadaki’s chosen college, Makerere University in Kampala, did not offer a social work degree. Kabadaki chose to earn a degree in sociology instead. What she didn’t know was that while she was there, she would have the opportunity of a lifetime.

A New Journey

At Makerere, Kabadaki excelled in her studies, earning high marks in her courses and graduating in three years.

Shortly after getting her bachelor’s degree, she was drawn to the school once again. The university wanted to recruit her as a counterpart lecturer, meaning they would send Kabadaki to the United States to earn a master’s degree in social work. Following her training, she would come back to Makerere and facilitate the development of a social work degree. After applying, interviewing and being accepted, Kabadaki was on an all-expense-paid trip to America.

Kabadaki earned her master’s in social work at Washington University in St. Louis. A year and a half after arriving in America, she returned to Uganda to fulfill her commitment to Makerere, working to change the social work diploma to a social work degree. Three years into this endeavor, political turmoil began to shake Uganda.

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At this time, the leader of Uganda was Idi Amin, who was nicknamed the “Butcher of Uganda” because of his widespread brutality. Between 1971, when Amin took power, and 1979, when he was ousted, his regime imprisoned, tortured and killed anywhere between 100,000 to one million people he considered political opponents. His administration caused the collapse of Uganda’s economy and destroyed schools and hospitals.

Because of this ongoing struggle, Kabadaki left Uganda in 1975, intending to get a doctoral degree in America.

She had no plans to stay in America permanently—she intended to return to Makerere and finish her teaching commitment. She had hopes that by the time she had earned her Ph.D., the turmoil would be over. But these hopes were in vain.

“It didn’t change—in fact, it kind of got worse,” Kabadaki says. “It became difficult for me to uproot and go back.

Because I was thinking, ‘I may pack my things and go back, and then there will be another turmoil, and it will be difficult for me to get back.’ So I stayed.”

Uganda Remembered

Despite her deep love for her homeland, Kabadaki began to adjust to a permanent American life. While living in St. Louis, she found a full-time job in the social work department at Ball State through a friend.

Her American life became routine, but Kabadaki never forgot about Uganda. From her experiences with war and from American news reports, she knew that Uganda had been ripped apart by conflict and hardship. She knew

“Kids were sitting on the floor, crowded around one book and that’s what they were trying to read,” she says. “I was not surprised by the condition the school was in. I just wanted to do something for my village children.” that life was not as it was before and, most of all, that education was more limited than ever. Going back to visit was not easy—especially seeing the schools.

The school in her home village had no desks or tables.

Students sat on logs, and teachers and principals had empty offices. There were very few books, if any, and students had no supplies.

“Kids were sitting on the floor, crowded around one book, and that’s what they were trying to read,” she says. “I was not surprised by the condition the school was in. I just wanted to do something for my village children.”

Motivated to help, she started with small steps. Using her own money, Kabadaki bought some desks and tables for the school. After this, Kabadaki’s attention turned to school supplies. She gave the teachers red pens, erasers and rulers. Excited to do more, Kabadaki spoke with Sandra Shelly, instructor of social work, asking for donations—planting the seed for an idea.

“I’ve only known about it kind of off-hand because Kayama’s so humble that she doesn’t talk about it very much,” Shelly says. “But when she said that, it clicked for me that the student social work organization needed a project, and it was really a good match for them to find, collect, gather up pencils from all the students here at the university.”

The Student Social Workers Association immediately took on the project. Working out of Shelly’s office, they put together presentations for different classes and student organizations to promote the cause, deemed “Pennies for Pencils.” They worked tirelessly, hanging posters and distributing donation boxes throughout campus. The project collected more than 2,500 pens and pencils. Encouraged by this success, Kabadaki began to make bigger plans.

Kabadaki helps her Scholars with more than education; she personally reaches out to students. One girl in the program attracted Kabadaki’s attention because of her leadership skills. This girl is very poor. She lives with her grandmother and only has one uniform—the one Kabadaki bought her. Kabadaki sent the girl and her family $30 for Christmas so that she could buy some extra clothing. The next time she visited, Kabadaki also took her bed sheets and dress material.

“I want her to look nice, to be proud of her body instead of not having much like other people,” Kabadaki says. “Something like that, I feel like it is giving her hope and motivation…maybe she’ll say, ‘I am something. I can move on.’”

Kabadaki also works to keep up the appearance of the school. Built in 1928, the school has not seen many repairs. During her first visit, she found that the stairs leading to the classrooms were crumbling, and the only partition between classes were iron sheets riddled with holes. Through donations, Kabadaki used her visits to the school to repair the stairs and install walls between the rooms, as well as paint the outside of the facility. Her next goal is to replace the rusted roof.

After retiring, Kabadaki hopes to spend more time in Uganda to foster her project’s future. Having land left to her by her father, she hopes to raise enough money to build a small boarding school for her AK Scholars and their teachers. The scholars would have a place to stay near their school, and she hopes that providing housing would attract capable teachers. Kabadaki would then also have a place to stay on her visits. She has nothing but high hopes.

Dreaming Big

Kabadaki was glad to supply students with school supplies, but she wanted to reach out to them on a personal level. She wanted to encourage them to do well in school and to stay motivated. With this, a program called AK Scholars was born.

Through AK Scholars, Kabadaki, with a committee of village locals, works to identify exceptional students to give them extra help. Teachers identify academically strong students from each class for the program, and the committee chooses those students they think are best. Three students are chosen based on skills other than academics, such as soccer and music. Currently, there are 15 AK Scholars. These students receive extra tutoring, as well as school uniforms and books.

A STUDENT POSES with his mother holding a lantern he just received. Kabadaki rewards students who do well with items they might need, such as the lantern.

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MOVEMENT | ball bearings

MARCHING FOR EACH OTHER Ball State band creates close-knit family

A

{ story } Catherine Greis { photos } Tyler Varnau

cool, crisp autumn wind blows across Scheumann Stadium as the final beats resonate from the drums. The last bass note echos through the entire stadium. It’s quiet, and the “Pride of Mid-America” is frozen in place, instruments down, waiting for approval from their director.

“When you hit it, damnit, knock this stadium down… and play the right notes too,” Shawn Vondran, the band director, says.

The band of nearly 200 students lets out a sigh of relief and slight chuckles as they re-position to play the section again. This is normal for a marching band rehearsal at Ball State, especially during football season. They rehearse for precision and use repetition to build confidence. However, their season starts many months before the first football game. It all starts with band camp.

In the final week of their summer, the marching band isn’t spending their last few days pool side; they rehearse 12 hours a day for seven days straight. This is when Vondran, or Dr. V as the students call him, sees changes in the students’ relationships. Vondran says once band camp really starts, he can see the groups getting together and bonding during this grueling week.

The drumline in particular shares many different relationships and memories with each other. They are 22 members strong with four section leaders playing different instruments. Outside of the regular band practices, the drumline holds their own rehearsals to perfect their lines and beats.

Jeremiah Boes, a senior and the snare drum section leader, is in his fourth year with the marching band. He is

in charge of the students within his specific instrument and likes to keep them all connected. Boes says he and his friends spend the majority of their time practicing, eating and drumming together.

The group gets dinner together in between rehearsals every Tuesday at The Locker Room for 75-cent burgers.

After spending much time together, they slowly started to develop inside jokes. Drumline members often quote lines from movies like “Step Brothers” or give nicknames to fellow drumline members. Sophomore Brandon Tomlins was given the nickname Channing when people on the drumline thought he looked like actor Channing Tatum from the movie “Step Up.” Eventually, the name stuck and even now Vondran calls him Channing.

After four years in the marching band, Boes loves what he does. He even brushes off the physical toll the marching band can take on his body. With nearly 10 hours of rehearsal every week and the amount of commitment required, Boes would not trade his experience for the world.

“After so many years, it’s what you do; you just want to get better every year, and every year you meet new people that come in and meet freshmen just starting out,” Boes says. Seeing Boes and a group of other drumline members, the group’s deep connection is clear. Whether it’s finishing each other’s sentences or laughing at words that make them think of funny jokes, this group acts just like a family of brothers and sisters. “[The] relationships you build [here] are everything,” Boes says “After a while you forget the lines and the music, but you don’t forget the friends.”

Tim Bennett, a senior and section leader for the tenor

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THE DRUMLINE PREPARES for the start of pregame at a rehearsal in Scheumann Stadium.

I’M WITH THE BAND Aaron Alexander drum major

Jeremiah Boes snare drum section leader

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“The whole Marching Band is a unique organization because it is one of the largest student organizations on campus and is made of majors from all different disciplines. In this way and in our actions we truly represent Ball State University.”

“We can all quote certain movies all the time for each other and know exactly what movie the other person is talking about. We end up having a lot of inside jokes.”

BALL BEARINGS

Emily Gooch

clarinet section leader

Sara Hubbard

color guard section leader

“Our section goes out to dinner quite often; for instance we will go for pizza as a whole section on the weekends...it becomes a whole different experience when the section you’re in genuinely gets along.”

“What makes my section unique is that we do not play instruments.

When someone asks me what instrument do I play in the band I say ‘flag’. Even though we don’t play an instrument we are still a huge part of the band. We are the visual effect to the music you are hearing.”

drums, says the strong bond comes from the same dedication and mind set shared by each member in the drumline.

Bennett says Vondran emphasizes the importance of bonding as a family, encouraging them to take pride in everything they do for the band.

For junior bass section leader Becca Carter, this is the best part of band – putting aside everything that goes wrong during the day and letting out a little aggression with some of her best friends.

“Who wouldn’t want to bang on a snare drum all day?” Carter says. “It’s the biggest stress reliever, and I look forward to just being here with all of my friends at rehearsals.”

To Carter, the drumline’s family is similar to any family; people might get annoyed with each other at times, but they still love each other just the same.

“The weird thing is that you get frustrated with these people sometimes, but you are all friends somehow in the end…I don’t understand how it happens, but it does,” Carter says.

She says everyone comes from different schools and backgrounds, even from different majors outside of the music department, but they all eventually come together to complete the drumline. Whether it is nursing or telecommunication majors, members of the drumline can take the skills they use in class and bring them to rehearsal to help them in any aspect of their music.

Although drumline members come from different academic backgrounds, they have no problem cultivating personality

and tradition within their section. They make their own family, comprised of people who would do anything to support the other. While they may poke fun at each other, there is no doubt that these drumline members have each other’s backs 100 percent.

“It’s okay to poke fun at each other, but if you poke fun at us as a marching band, we will give you some grief,” Carter says. “You better just steer clear of a band kid.”

That kind of dedication and camaraderie is what has made Carter’s college experience a time in her life that she will never forget.

“You may think what you want about us, but I know what I love to do, and that’s being in the band,” Carter says.

Under the red and white uniforms, under the straight gaze and synchronized walking, lies a family. They are a strong community and a band of brothers and sisters. They can be heard from dorm rooms across campus and from the football field at home games, pumping up the crowd for a Cardinal win.

And as the sun starts to set behind the stadium and rehearsal comes to end, the band gathers around, joining arms with each other as they quietly start to sing the alma mater. They end with this at every rehearsal, leaving the stadium a place for tradition and family.

“We don’t march for the fun of it,” Vondran says. “We march for the people marching beside us.”

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SUSTAIN | ball bearings

BEN PEARSON observes his pea plants, the largest of his hydroponics systems, which he grows in a closet in his Scheidler apartment.

THE SECRET

GARDEN Couple’s closets are home to hydroponics systems, an alternative food source that provides them with vegetables

T

ucked away in a tiny closet in newlyweds Ben and Emily Pearson’s one-bedroom Scheidler apartment lies an eco-junkie’s dream. Instead of a collection of freshly opened wedding gifts lies a flourishing secret garden that showcases the couple’s passion for sustainable living. But this isn’t a typical garden with soil and pots; Ben’s garden is built with an up-and-coming greener way of growing plants called hydroponics.

Hydroponics has been around for more than 15 years says Jeffrey Johnson, owner of Muncie’s WineN-Vine Hydroponics and Brewing. In its simplest form, hydroponics is an indoor climate-controlled gardening system that uses a mineral and nutrient rich solution instead of soil. Johnson says while

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BALL BEARINGS

hydroponics have been popular on the West Coast for years, the concept is just now starting to catch on in Indiana.

“I’ve had this store open for six years in Muncie, and I’m really starting to see an increase of people using hydroponics,” he says. “But it’s not just students that are interested; I have 70-and 80-year-olds in here who can’t believe that they can grow a year-round garden in their home.”

Both Pearson and Johnson started hydroponics out of a desire to grow their own produce while also conserving water. With hydroponics, the water-based solution is changed only once a week versus using large amounts of water daily to grow plants in soil.

However, Johnson says the biggest perk of

HYDROPONICS

HOW-TO

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using mineral solutions in water without soil.

Here’s what you need to start your own hydroponic garden.

WHAT YOU NEED • seedlings • a container • growth medium (such as oasis cubes or coconut fiber) • nutrient solution • a pH test kit

1

Drill six to 10 holes in a clean bucket about 1.5 inches above the bottom.

2

Add your growing medium.

If you can’t find oasis cubes or coconut fiber, any soil-free fertilizer will work.

3

Plant your seedling in the growing medium.

4

Mix your nutrient solution per the instructions on the packet. Check the pH level periodically; the desired level will vary.

5

Add your mixed solution to the bucket until you see excess solution flow out of the bottom holes. Repeat this step as needed to care for your plant.

Source: simply hydro.com

hydroponics is the peace of mind in knowing exactly what he is consuming.

“With hydroponics you don’t have to worry about what you are eating because you grew it. Most produce sold in stores is injected with flavorings, insecticides and pesticides,” he says. “It’s not safe what people are consuming. With hydroponics you save money, you save water, and you have a peace of mind knowing you aren’t poisoning yourself.”

For Pearson, his passion to grow his own garden comes from memories of his parents growing fresh produce in their home garden. However, due to the limited amount of space outside of his apartment, Pearson had to come up with a new way to start his own garden indoors, which led him to begin researching all things hydroponics.

After countless hours of research, Pearson put his knowledge to the test and began his first hydroponics project last summer. He says a lot of it began as a trial-and-error process, which soon turned into one of his favorite hobbies. Pearson says it’s a relatively low maintenance hobby to have. He only spends five to 10 minutes a day checking on the plants, and he usually changes their water once every two weeks. It’s a fairly cheap hobby to have after the initial expenses of buying the lights and the system.

Pearson says he hasn’t bought growing solution or supplies in more than a month.

“The greatest part about hydroponics is that you can make it as big as you want,” he says. “You can start with only one plant and slowly add more. The best way to start hydroponics is to just do it and learn as you go. I would definitely say that I’m dedicated to it, but it really doesn’t take that much work and the product you get is worth it.”

Pearson has two tiny closets overflowing with hydroponics, and continues to add more plants to his garden. He grows zucchini, tomatoes, green beans and lettuce, which he says are better than what people can get in stores.

However, Pearson’s wife, Emily, didn’t share his hype for hydroponics at first when she found out mini-gardens would slowly kick her shoes out of the closet. She says it’s something she has had to learn to love and sacrifice for her husband.

Emily says sustainable living is not something she thought about before meeting Pearson; however, he has helped her learn small ways to be resourceful in everyday life.

“I wasn’t into this at all before we got married,” she says. “He is the mastermind behind it all and it’s his baby. But he has helped me become more resourceful and more aware of what’s going on in our world.”

Today, Emily can be found buzzing around Muncie

{ illustration } Greg Hudson on a tiny orange scooter. She says it’s one thing she consistently does to lessen her impact on the environment around her. Pearson says it only takes two gallons of gas per month and doesn’t put off the large amounts of pollution into the air like a car would. The couple’s car stays in the parking lot almost every day.

These small steps to live sustainably are a big part of Pearson and his wife’s relationship, but they are not something that can be learned immediately.

Pearson says his habits have developed slowly, and Emily says she is starting to catch on to them.

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THOUGHTS | ball bearings

{ illustration } Sara Ling

44 |

BALL BEARINGS

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