VOL. 1 NO. 1 OCTOBER 2021
Julia Rubin
IN UNCERTAINTY EDITOR IN CHEIF proustjmu@gmail.com
Joanna Sommer MANAGING EDITOR proustmanaging@gmail.com
Sidra Swift ONLINE MANAGER proustwebsite@gmail.com
Writers
Jake Conley
Cooper Crowell
Grant Johnson
Caitlin Rutherford
Kylee Toland
Eleanor Weber
Taylor Curtis CREATIVE DIRECTOR proustcreativedirector@gmail.com
Madison Root PHOTO EDITOR proustphoto@gmail.com
Riley Cook
Kate Harwood
Sam Kubica
Eric Shellhouse
Margaret Willcox
Marco Kemp PUBLISHER proustpublisher@gmail.com
Jenna VanWagner SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER proustsocialmedia@gmail.com
Rachel Dennis
Maddie Edwards
Caroline Shelly
Madisen Hughes
The past two years a backdrop of blue light illuminated our lives as we worked, connected and learned — a backdrop that forced us to keep moving when the realities of the pandemic felt like we had no choice but to stop. The digital world has kept us afloat and while we can all recognize and appreciate the beauty that comes with that, it’s hard to be excited about the world becoming more and more digitized and the mediums that will be left behind. This issue marks the start of Proust, and with that, the challenge we took on of choosing to ignore trends and publish our magazine in print.
It’s easy to forget in amid our new reality not just the value, but the comfort that comes with picking up a magazine: the ease of reading on real paper, the smell of fresh print, the escape of getting lost in type without distractions. There’s no Netflix tab open tempting you to click away in the middle of a story or pop-up ads catching you off guard. The vehicle of print gives us all an opportunity to unplug and recharge. Proust moments come with print and sharing those experiences are values we hold closely at Proust.
Building a brand, a team and business on a dying medium has been hard, I have never been the Editor-in-Chief and founder of a magazine, and I’m learning as I go, but it’s a challenge I can’t turn my head away from. So now, I challenge you. I challenge you to look away from the screen and look to print. Consume it, hold it, trust it. Take time and pass it to a neighbor or a friend. Print may be dying, statistically speaking, but that doesn’t mean it has to. Escape from the buzz of your busy life and the struggles that come with it. Read about a small business owner, the best food deals or stay up to date on the latest trends and read it in print.
This issue’s cover features BJ Beckwith, a senior media arts and design major. BJ spent a month in London this past summer at the Condé Nast College of Fashion and Design and completed the Vogue summer intensive program. He said he was able to hear, learn from and shadow people in the industry every day, learning about fashion, design and what goes into creating a magazine. After a summer surrounded by Vogue and being able to look inside the Vogue archives, print began to mean more to him. As he said, “It also made me appreciate print more and the physical value of buying print, flipping through it and the excitement of a new issue each month”.
Close your eyes, and take a deep breath, slowly. Feel the rush of air that fills your lungs. Take in the sounds, smells and energy around you. Are you reminded of something?
In Marcel Proust’s “Swann’s Way,” he recalls an afternoon drinking tea and eating a Madeline cookie, and he transforms it into something far greater than satisfying his sweet tooth. Proust reflects on this memory, writing:
“No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me.”
The vivid flavor of a forgotten childhood treat transports him to another time and place, just as a song you haven’t heard in years can take you back to your first school dance or the smell of coconut and pineapple sunscreen can remind you of blissful summer days spent with grandparents at the beach.
Researchers call this the Proust Effect.
For the first time as freshmen, we anxiously walked across campus, intimidated by the tall bluestone buildings on the Quad that were once just unknown portals to places we hadn’t experienced yet. Before long, we discovered the fastest way to Festival Food Court and how to avoid 8 a.m. classes at all costs — all while transforming a new and unfamiliar place into a home that we always can’t wait to get back to.
Someday after we graduate, after late nights working toward our degrees and even later nights bonding with lifelong friends, we’ll think back to a time capsule of memories and cherish the moments when we feel the Proust Effect. Every fall, we’ll crave the crisp valley air at a nearby vineyard, we’ll miss waking up to canceled classes and a blanket of snow and we’ll wish we could wait in the dreadfully long line for a bagel from Mr. J’s Bagel & Deli on a Sunday morning. As JMU alumni, we’ll live across the world, but as we walk to work or raise families, Proustian moments will reconnect us to the piece of our lives spent at JMU.
At “Proust”, we’ll capture the essence of our community — inside and outside of school. Filled with a collection of stories about the best food and activities around town and features on our peers, athletes, musicians and local business owners, we’ll discover and highlight the best ways to fill our time capsule with memories — cherished and challenging, complicated and joyful — so that someday, we can all look back on the “good old days,” knowing that we took advantage of every moment we had as Dukes.
French proost]
BY JULIA RUBIN
With Halloween right around the corner, our staff knows figuring out costumes is often a last-minute decision. Here are four DIY costumes for you and your friends. If you don’t have everything you need for a quick trip to your roommate’s closet or Walmart, you’ll be able to put together the perfect outfits for Halloweekend without breaking the bank.
photos by madison root
the rock SANDY & DANNY
Painted black and white with accents of greenery, Village Juice and Kitchen is bringing a new atmosphere to Harrisonburg. A bar full of fruits, vegetables and protein, customers will have endless options to create their salad and smoothie bowls.
Franchise owner Tina Johnson and her husband and fellow owner Bill Johnson said they’re working to promote award-winning, high-quality, innovative food and beverages — as well as unparalleled hospitality.
“We want to strive to make the customer’s experience so inviting,” Tina said, “so they’ll just want to return to eat and meet friends or work on a daily basis.”
Tina said Harrisonburg was chosen as the new location for Village Juice because both she and Bill have been a part of the community for a while, with Bill being a Harrisonburg native and Johnson having moved here in 1987. Village Juice was started in 2014 by co-founder and creative director Lonnie Atkinson and her husband Nate. Tina said Nate started selling coldpressed juices out of a tent at a local farmers market, and since the community reaction to the juices was immediate and overwhelmingly positive, it led to an investment that later developed into their first brick and mortar location in WinstonSalem, North Carolina, in 2016.
Currently, the Harrisonburg location has about 23 employees, and Tina said she now has a waiting list for people wanting to be hired, including a mix of JMU and non-JMU students. Tina said its tentative opening date will be sometime this fall. As for what the restaurant is wanting to accomplish as a new restaurant in the Harrisonburg area, Tina said she and Bill want to provide a positive place that people want to be a part of when they enter, along
with promoting clean, healthy foods that will make customers feel good.
“We believe superfoods make you feel superhuman,” Johnson said. “We feel it takes a village to raise a happier, healthier community.’
Village Juice offers smoothies and juices with real fruit, with a menu full of pressed, squeezed, ground, pureed, mixed and chopped meals. Smoothies are blended when ordered, and Johnson said the fruits aren’t packed with sugars and the coconut and almond milk are made in the restaurant and pressed daily. Popular meals include overnight oats, chia pudding and a breakfast burrito called “Quit Your Job” that has homemade mango salsa. For lunch, Tina said the Avocado Chicken Bacon Wrap is a best seller for the restaurants, as well as several signature bowls and a “create-your-own” option. Tina said they recommend the “Avo-Vegan Open-Faced Toast” topped with their locally grown microgreens.
Tina said her inspiration for wanting to run the restaurant came from her family’s multiple health issues throughout the years, and it’s become a priority for the family to examine their food — where it comes from and how it’s made.
“We just feel that this meets our needs and we wanted to share with our community and actually educate them on what it means to be healthy,” Tina said.
Owning Village Juice has brought
Tina excitement — she said she’s seen the enthusiasm from the Harrisonburg and JMU community as they’ve walked by the restaurant during construction. Meeting new people in the community has been one of her favorite parts, she said, since she and her husband have lived in Harrisonburg for over 20 years. She said she hopes to get involved with other health restaurants as a
way to integrate themselves more in the community.
“I would love to team up with other restaurants that share our vision, share our health journey to educate our community and serve our community in ways that maybe not have been met before,” Tina said. “We can work together as a team to get that accomplished.”
film photographs submitted by JMU students capturing their experiences
ords have power. This reality is commonly taught to us from the time we’re small children.We take spelling tests in elementary school because words are important. We learn that we shouldn’t call people names because words can be hurtful.
Education is, at some level, entirely about learning to use the right words so we can communicate complex ideas and make delicate distinctions. As an educational institution, JMU — specifically, the Office of Disability Services (ODS) — has a responsibility to choose its words with caution.
The Student Success Center (SSC), an optimistically named building, houses a variety of administrative offices, student services and learning spaces. One of those offices, however, has a far less achievement-oriented name: ODS. The mission of this center is to “be the strategic campus partner for removing barriers and building capacity to ensure inclusion and equity for people with disabilities,” according to its website.
As a freshman, I took advantage of the resources and accommodations it provides and have had first-hand experience with the staff. I learned important lessons about self-advocacy and resiliency through my interactions with ODS. It was empowering to know that the university had my back at a challenging moment and that the staff could help me to become an academically successful student.
According to Merriam-Webster, the root dis- means to “do the opposite of.” So, disability really means the opposite of ability
or a lack of ability. I wasn’t lacking ability when I walked into ODS, but I needed support to realize my abilities. No student — whether they’re suffering from a temporary impairment or face long-term challenges — should be additionally burdened with a word that emphasizes what they lack. An inclusive community values all of its members, and that means focusing attention on their contributions and potential — not their “lack of.”
University of North Carolina’s Accommodations, Resources and Service, University of Wyoming’s Accessibility Committee, Stanford Universities Office of Accessible Education — all accompany universities and offer similar accommodation services to JMU while having a more thoughtful name.
It isn’t always easy to ask for help, and taking that step while a sign hangs over the door saying “disability” makes an already challenging circumstance even harder. ODS has a responsibility to the community and to those registered to create an environment that feels comforting and safe. While its services do just that, its name does not.
ODS wasn’t able to provide a comment before our print deadline. We’ll update the online version of the story when we recieve their comment.
Ian Buchanan stands on stage, holding his guitar and setting the tempo with quick snaps of his fingers. It’s fast, and the rest of the band nods their approval. Buchanan snaps one more time, the drummer taps his snare and the band’s in on “Tenor Madness” — the last tune of the set.
Owen Brown, the trumpet player, takes the first solo. After a few loops through the tune’s structure, Halen Anderson, the trombone player, takes over. He starts calmly, with the drummer, bassist and Buchanan on guitar giving him a light backing. As Anderson moves through the choruses, his playing grows increasingly intense and the musicians behind him follow the cue. Suddenly, he starts to swing his trombone down on the beat — after a few hits, the other musicians catch on and punch each beat with him. Four of those sharp, punched beats later, he’s back in with a screaming run akin to a hard bop saxophonist’s style of play.
Devin Esleck, the trumpet player, takes the next solo after Anderson, leaving space between his phrases before escalating in intensity. Before long, though, he’s using the entire range of the trumpet, running notes together like a runaway train with no brakes. As he blows, the three horn players off stage — Anderson, Brown and Evan Bertoglio, a saxophonist — come in behind Esleck, lightly playing a background melody to accompany his solo. It’s the melody — the “head,” in jazz terminology — to “C Jam Blues,” another popular Blues standard, this one by Duke Ellington, the composer, pianist and bandleader of the 1920s and ’30s.
Jazz’s performance culture is built on homage to the players who came before. Young musicians learn the solos off famous recordings from the “greats,” and players often quote phrases from those solos.
As Esleck solos on “Tenor Madness” and Anderson, Brown and Bertoglio play the backgrounds behind him, the crowd — mainly made up of other jazz musicians — laughs. He just quoted a passage from George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”
Musicians like Buchanan and Esleck are somewhat of a rare breed. In 2018, only approximately 11% of respondents aged 1829 reported listening to jazz within the last month, according to data from Statista, an organization that compiles statistics for use in business and research markets. A 2014 report from Nielsen, a global research firm, found that jazz only made up 1.4% of musical consumption in the U.S. “Jazz is dead” and its variation, “Jazz is dying,” have become popular monikers for the genre.
Jazz was once the pop of its day, roughly from the 1920s through the 1950s. Though jazz bands and jazz clubs continue to function, and contemporary jazz musicians such as Esperanza Spalding and Christian McBride continue to release music, the genre no longer enjoys a place at the top of the charts as it used to.
Across the country, however, groups of college-aged twentysomethings continue to listen to the classic recordings, learn the famous solos and seek opportunities to perform — fighting to keep the musical form alive and push it forward. In Harrisonburg, that culture is centered around JMU’s jazz program and Clementine Café.
The JMU jazz program groups that play downtown at Clementine every week are small ensembles of musicians called “combos.” They’re most often made up of 5-8 musicians: a full “rhythm section” — a drummer, bassist and pianist or guitarist — and a horn line, composed of some combination of trumpet players, saxophonists and trombonists. Oftentimes, a singer is thrown into the mix as well.
Buchanan is a jazz performance major, a minority even among JMU’s jazz-music community — many of the players in both the combos and the big band ensembles are music education majors. For him, jazz has lasted this long, and it’s going to keep on lasting, and he challenges the notion that it’s a “dead” form.
“YOU CAN THINK IT IS OR IT’S NOT, I’M NOT GOING TO ARGUE ABOUT IT … BUT I DON’T THINK IT’LL EVER DIE...”
Jazz has long been the arena of young artists coming behind an older generation to reinvent and push the style forward, and now a new cadre of college-aged musicians are trying to keep it vibrant, innovative and alive.
CONLEY
“Maybe it is dying, but that’s a very close-minded thing to say,” Buchanan said. “You can think it is or it’s not, I’m not going to argue about it … but I don’t think it’ll ever die.”
Johanna Bagay, a trumpet player, is in the same rare class as Ian — a senior jazz performance major. She also refutes the idea that jazz is dead.
Her argument rests on a simple concept: The conception of “jazz” in the popular realm rests on the image of ’20s swing big bands and ’50s nightclubs, or the avant garde sounds of the ’60s presumably only for the musically educated, but jazz today is instead a constantly developing arena blending hip-hop, traditional jazz form, funk and other musical styles.
“It’s commonly talked about it being dead because it’s ‘old people music,’ but there’s so much new stuff happening now and [people] blurring the lines between jazz and pop,” Bagay said. “I think people are scared away from it because it’s seen as intellectual music, but it didn’t start like that.”
The live performance part of jazz is crucial to both Buchanan and Bagay. Whereas in pop music and other genres songs and performances are often fully scripted out, jazz is based around improvisation — a constant back-and-forth conversation between the players. The musicians will all play through the head of the tune, then someone will take the first solo. A saxophonist plays a certain short musical phrase, or “lick,” in their solo, and the piano player answers, quoting that lick back in the space between the phrases from the saxophonist. A trumpet player plays an increasingly intense line and the drummer reacts, crescendoing alongside the trumpet player.
“It’s literally like having a conversation,” Bagay said. “I’m like ‘Oh shit, you just said something really funny,’ and I’m going to say this back and it’s a real dialogue — it’s literally language. When you’re improvising, you’re talking to each other and communicating, and it’s the most coherent form of that communication.”
The musicians in the combos maintain eye contact constantly as they play, nodding and gesturing at each other to signal who’s soloing next,
a change in volume or the repetition of a phrase. Many tap their feet along with the drummer and some bop their heads — especially on fast tunes from the hard bop repertoire, a style characterized by aggressive playing and quick tempos.
Though they don’t speak to each other, they communicate constantly with movements of their instruments and shoulders and small hand gestures, such as tapping the top of your head to tell the group to go back into the “head,” the melody.
As Buchanan put it: “It’s just about interaction and conversation.”
Jazz follows a history of generational innovation and normbreaking. Miles Davis came up playing with classic bebop musicians such as Charlie Parker before releasing his record “Birth of the Cool” in 1957 as bebop was fading, pushing cool jazz to the forefront. Just over 20 years later, Davis released “In a Silent Way” in 1969 and “Bitches Brew” in 1970 with a new group of younger musicians, pushing jazz in a new electronic direction, moving toward the advent of fusion.
Today, the innovators in the industry are often the names who play in both the jazz and hip-hop worlds — musicians such as pianist Robert Glasper, saxophonist Kamasi Washington and bassist Stephen “Thundercat” Lee Brunner, all of whom worked with rapper Kendrick Lamar to record Lamar’s 2015 record “To Pimp a Butterfly.” Musical guru Jacob Collier, who writes and performs within the jazz tradition, has 450,000 followers and five million likes on TikTok.
Tomorrow, it’s twenty-somethings like Buchanan, Esleck and Bagay fighting to keep jazz alive and innovative, playing in college town bars, learning the standards and solos and debating the merits of an obscure 1960s recording. They’ll be the ones pushing the sound and style forward, searching for the next expression of a genre that’s history is built on continuous evolution — that innovation comes from these groups of twenty-somethings.
During the height of fall festivities, Charlottesville, Virginia, will host the 34th annual Virginia Film Festival (VAFF) from Oct. 27-31. The five-day celebration will feature 80 films from a variety of time periods and genres.
The festival will feature highly anticipated documentaries, classics and foreign films featuring rising stars. There will be discussion panels and Q&A sessions with film critics, actors
and other film industry professionals. All events will be held inperson, and ticket sales are processed through the UVA Arts Box Office (in person or over the phone at (434) 924-3376), supporting the arts departments and programs at the University of Virginia. Tickets can also be bought online on the VAFF’s schedule page and can be purchased up to two hours prior to each film.
Following the Virginia filmmaker highlight, attendees of the festival can check out “How the Monuments Came Down” (2021), directed by Hannah Brown Ayers and Lance Warren, the founders and owners of Field Studio. Field Studio is a collaboration by Ayers and Warren — an Emmy award-winning married couple and documentary filmmakers based in Richmond, Virginia.
In this timely documentary, the directors sit down with historians, activists and descendants to
explore why the Confederate soldier monuments went up and how they’ve come down since. During the summer of 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement swept through Richmond and called leaders to rethink the presence of the statues.
Guests can also follow up the showing by attending a discussion with the filmmakers and Joseph Rogers, one of the film’s four story advisers.
In an ode to Virginian filmmakers, “The Machinery of Dreams” (2021) directed by Charlottesville, Virginia, native Eric Hunt, will be shown at 11 a.m. on Saturday at the Culbreth Theatre.
Eight-year-old Lily (Cora Metzfield) lives with her grandmother (Kate Monaghan), who has dementia. Lily’s grandmother shares fantastical
Attendees can view “Spencer” (2021), starring Kristen Stewart, at The Paramount Theater at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 29. The film has received critical acclaim, scoring 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, and praise for Stewart’s accurate performance. Not only is Stewart the first American actress to play the role, but she also relates on a personal level to the constant press Diana faced, as Stewart herself has been in the industry since she was nine. The film is a biographical psychological drama that follows Diana (Stewart), Princess of Wales, as she
tales, but the line between reality and fantasy begins to blur for Lily. The story examines grief and acceptance as Lily searches for her mother and finds herself in the same world as her grandmother’s fictional stories.
Attendees can look forward to a discussion with Hurt and Metzfield following the showing.
navigates her marriage to Prince Charles (Jack Farthing). “Spencer” dives into Diana’s decisions to end her marriage and leave the British royal family. The film is an imagining of how a woman decides, somehow, not to be the queen over the course of fateful last days before her death.
“Spencer” made its world premier at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 3. It’s set to be released in the U.S. on Nov. 5, so attendees will be able to view the film early.
For even the best known beauty brands, creating clean products is becoming the new standard. From makeup to skincare, the industry is growing. Irina Dovganetskiy, the founder of withSimplicity, said clean beauty became a necessity in 2014. She immigrated from Russia when she was 12 years old, only able to say “hi” and “yes” in English. She learned English, started a family in Harrisonburg and eventually opened her store that now ships nationwide.
After having her third child, Dovganetskiy was worried about “the harmful ingredients found in her products,” not just for herself, but for her children — who could eventually be exposed to them. Not being able to find skincare, makeup or bath products that met her standard, Dovganetskiy took it upon herself to create them using natural ingredients.
withSimplicity was founded in 2015 as an Etsy shop and eventually moved to an airstream — a silver, RV-like trailer, in a parking lot on
This face mask has a matcha scent “that gives off fall vibes,” McMahan said. It’s made with hyaluronic acid, promoting hydration and removing dead skin cells.
South Main Street. After one year in the airstream, Dovganetskiy moved into a storefront on the same street with a 10-person staff.
From ingredients to packaging, withSimplicity focuses on clean ingredients and sustainable packaging. The company’s body and skincare products come in amber glass that protect the product from harmful UV rays. After starting to rebrand last February, the team is working to switch all boxes to a 100% compostable package. For anything that still comes in plastic, the team collaborates with Terracycle, a waste management company. Everything is made in house with natural ingredients; they’re cruelty- and fragrance-free and vegan.
Mary McMahan, marketing director for withSimplicity, shared the business’ favorite fall picks that are safe for you and your skin.
Infused with blue tansy, McMahan said this beauty balm is the “Goldilocks of moisturizers — not too heavy, not too light.”
Skin gets flakey and dry in the cold weather, McMahan explained, so the calm ingredients like oatmeal and calendula are gentle on the skin and remove dead skin cells.
Made with locally sourced coffee from Chestnut Ridge Coffee Roasters, withSimplicity’s Coffee Scrub is made with Chestnut Ridge’s leftover coffee grounds, McMahan said, and it reduces the appearance of cellulite while removing dead skin. “When you shower with it, it will smell like you're in a coffeehouse,” she said.
The Oatmeal Spice Botanical Soap is made with cloves, oatmeal and rosemary and “smells like fall,” McMahan said, and the Blood Orange Bergamot Botanical Soap has a warm citrus scent and cranberry color that “screams fall.”
McMahan said it's best to utilize this product on your skin after showering because when your skin is still damp, it enhances moisturizing properties. She also said Serenity Body Oil is great for shaving because it cools razor bumps.
This lip gloss shade is perfect for fall and made with vanilla, so not only does it smell great, but McMahan said it has anti-aging properties. “It is like your lips but better shade, just a little deeper,” she said.
The tristicks are a three-in-one product, McMahan explained — perfect for eyes, lips and cheeks — and she emphasized their new bronze shades are “great for fall.” For cool, pink undertones, McMahan recommends Havana, and for those with warm undertones, she recommends Dubai.
Whether its skin, makeup or bodycare, take advantage of pampering your body with products that will help you feel fresh this fall.
The change in season from summer to fall can be the perfect excuse for us to reevaluate our routines, check in with our mental health, write new affirmations and, of course, indulge in pumpkin spice everything.
Lack of light can be detrimental to one’s mental health; without sun exposure, our serotonin levels tend to lower, which can cause sleep problems, anxiety and depression, according to Mayo Clinic. Plus, being a college student means there are a lot of late nights studying or doing homework in your bedroom or dorm, and it’s hard to be motivated when there’s no sunlight. One of the easiest, most affordable ways to combat the lack of sunlight is to buy a simulated sunlight lamp that mimics natural light. Amazon is one online retailer that has a variety of lamps to choose from, and most of them are extremely affordable — some are less than $30. One study from The National Center for Biotechnology Information reveals how these lamps have increased the quality of people’s lives, helping with seasonal affective disorder, sleeping habits, anxiety and depression.
Romanticize this fall season and relish in its stereotypical festivities like apple picking, eating and drinking every pumpkin spice flavored product ever made, going to pumpkin patches and haunted houses, having scary movie marathons and eating comfort food. But for those who don’t enjoy any of these activities, maybe they’ll find comfort in the fact that it’s finally “sweater weather” — time to break out all those sweaters and sweatshirts that have been neglected the last five months. Fall could also be a great excuse to splurge and revamp your closet. Buying a new sweater, jacket, pair of boots or any other fall wardrobe must-haves will undoubtedly add some excitement to the season.
Movement is huge. We generally can feel much happier and grounded when we’re getting consistent exercise, so try to make physical activity a priority if you’re able. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, either. Whether it be going on a walk at the arboretum, working out at UREC, or trying a yoga workout that you find on YouTube, you’re doing something constructive for your mental and physical health by getting your heart rate up.
Most importantly, check in with yourself. Be reflective. Maybe list some things you’re grateful for, journal, meditate, read, set goals, write new affirmations and think about how you’re making yourself proud. Remember, this is college during a global pandemic, and you’re doing your best.
This fall, take care of yourself, and romanticize the small things. Oh, and also take advantage of the Halloween candy on display in every store.
BY GRANT JOHNSON
He sits outside Hartman Hall every Tuesday and Thursday — hat on, headphones out. Accompanying him is a clear tupperware containing his lunch — cut-up chicken, brown rice, broccoli, diced onion and carrots.
Senior accounting major Erik Zeltner began meal prepping during the beginning of the pandemic in quarantine. He continued the practice when in-person classes started again once he realized how convenient it was for him, Zeltner said.
Meal prepping is less expensive than eating out or getting a JMU meal plan for Zeltner; he said he’ll spend about $65 at Walmart getting his ingredients in a typical grocery store run. Beyond the practicality, Zeltner said, there’s a more personal reason for taking up meal prepping: After his high school athletics days ended, Zeltner said he had a “void to fill” regarding a healthy lifestyle.
Zeltner isn’t alone. Senior kinesiology major Thomas Aguila also started meal prepping during COVID-19 and said it was “therapeutic” to do so during the pandemic’s uncertainty. Now that classes are back on campus, he said he loves having his meals premade so he can simply stick them in the microwave after returning home from a long day.
Jeremy Akers, JMU dietetics professor and veteran meal prepper, recommended additional meal prep-aiding supplies, such as a sealed mason jar for shaking salads and a microwavable, glass tupperware set.
To save money Akers said he’d buy food in bulk in graduate school. Doing so, he said, made the “staples” of his per-meal prices well under $1: One cup of quinoa was 20 cents, and his normal breakfast of oatmeal with peanut butter, cinnamon and flax seeds equated to 30 cents because he bought overnight oats in bulk. Akers’ budget forced him to be disciplined in his food choices, and this meant sacrifices like sometimes turning down eating out with his graduate school lab group.
“The biggest thing is making sure if you want to be on that budget is taking the time to really think about your meals,” Akers said. “[An] impulse could cost you $15.”
Being a disciplined meal prepper extends beyond making frugal purchases — much of the time, it means eating very similar food every day. For Akers, he said being a “creature of habit” helps him eat the same thing day in, day out. However, different spices and seasonings can jazz up basic meal prepped dishes for low prices without adding too many calories. Zeltner said he adds lemon pepper to “mostly everything.”
Off-shoot recipes incorporating bases Akers provided include making a Mexican-inspired quinoa dish with corn, tomatoes, beans, chili powder and hot sauce. With chicken, he said whipping up a barbeque sandwich can be practical for a portable lunch.
JMU dietetics professor Michelle Hesse said an easy way of prepping is to pick two or three dishes, make them and store the whole dishes separately as pre-portioned meals in the refrigerator. Aguila said he separates his meats and vegetables in different containers so he can decide how to mix and match them right before eating.
“If you spend the time upfront at the very beginning, [then] during the week, when you’re studying and going to class and hanging out with friends and doing everything else, you just don’t
have to worry about it,” Akers said. “It’s already done.”
Taking just two hours out of your Sunday — the day most students are free, he said — can save students from having to walk to D-Hall, making what can be a 45-minute to 1-hour detour just 15 minutes when they have food on them.
“Anyone can meal prep,” Zeltner said. “Meal prepping is associated with lifting and being into working out, but it doesn’t have to be.”
“MEAL PREPPING IS ASSOCIATED WITH LIFTING AND BEING INTO WORKING OUT, BUT IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE.”
Many entrepreneurs and CEOs have walked through the doors on the set of ABC’s Shark Tank and back out into the real world without a deal in hand, struggling to find their next move and success in business.
However, not everyone has been able to replicate the success of Chris Ruder, the founder of Spikeball, who went on the show in 2014 and even struck a deal only for it to fall apart off camera before any paperwork was officially signed. Luckily for Ruder, not selling a share of his company paid off as sales began to soar, and he got to watch the game and his company skyrocket in popularity.
Though Ruder didn’t invent the sport, he started off selling equipment for the game before eventually purchasing the rights to what was at the time an unpatented product. The game requires only two players per team, a net and a ball — the teams take turns exchanging hits and striking the ball into the net before waiting to see if their opponent can return it. At JMU, students can often be seen playing on campus.
JMU’s club Spikeball team is one way
for students to meet new people and make friends while staying active. Cam Hale, a club Spikeball member, said his first time playing was in middle school, but he didn’t get more involved until his senior year of high school. Pouya Parsinejad, club Spikeball’s treasurer, had “zero [experience] — none at all” before coming to JMU.
Sam Snyder, club Spikeball’s secretary, said the members are kind and easy to talk to — and Hale agreed, saying, “I hadn’t even met this guy yet, and he was already inviting me to an awesome community of peeps who like to spike … I have met some awesome people through it who are now my best friends and housemates.”
Parsinejad explained the responsibilities are divided relatively evenly among the executive members, with no one holding too much power or taking on too much responsibility.
“It’s not like, you know, the president just runs everything, the treasurer just does money — we’ve all been doing similar things in terms of getting the club to run,” Parsinejad said.
As secretary, Snyder’s responsibilities include “getting the word out when practices
are happening and writing down important dates for college tournaments we’re looking forward to,” he said.
These tournaments often produce some of the best memories for club members, Snyder said — he listed last year’s trip to Nationals and watching JMU’s best players compete and place in rankings as his best memory so far. Though the drives for tournaments can sometimes be demanding, Hale said they’re well worth the sacrifice.
“Sure, I’ve lost some sleep in order to grind out some school or to randomly drive to Hatteras or Snowshoe or a spike tourney in the middle of the night or really early in the morning,” Hale said, “but I definitely don’t regret it ’cause those have been some of the best times of my life.” ***
Becca Graham, Harrisonburg native and innkeeper for Friendly City Inn, has played at Spikeball’s highest level in the women’s advanced division. Graham has been a national Spikeball champion for three years in a row. She and Alli Kauffman won from 2016-2018, and she won another national championship with a new teammate, Jordi Vigna, in 2019.
Her husband, Joel Graham, also competes at a high level and even played a founding role in the growth of Spikeball. Becca said Joel started out interning for the company with a friend back when they were in college; they worked as Spikeball ambassadors, teaching others on campus how to play while also selling Spikeball equipment.
From there, Becca said they “wiggled their way in,” contacting the CEO, and eventually, Joel worked his way up to customer service manager before taking on international operations, which has remained his role for over four years.
The two moved to Harrisonburg together after completing college. Although they don’t get to play as much as they once did, Becca said Spikeball has transformed their lives and makes up much of what they put a lot of their time into.
While Becca played in college, she said her school didn’t have an intramural Spikeball team at the time, making it more difficult to play
regularly and with a consistent group. She encouraged students here to take advantage of the opportunity before them to be able to play with classmates on a team.
“When college ends, all the sports kind of end, and it’s harder to find competitive outlets,” Becca said. “Spikeball is one thing you can keep competing in, keep training and going to tournaments after college.”
Though some may be concerned about balancing their academics with another extracurricular activity, they can be reassured that their new friends and teammates will be able to help. Players can join regardless of their experience, and their full time commitment isn’t required, Snyder said.
“My advice to those that would be worried about balancing Spikeball with everything would be don’t be worried,” Snyder said. “We don’t enforce commitment, and if you’re not able to show up a few weeks, then that’s perfectly fine.”
“WHEN COLLEGE ENDS, ALL THE SPORTS KIND OF END, AND IT’S HARDER TO FIND COMPETITIVE OUTLETS. SPIKEBALL IS ONE THING YOU CAN KEEP COMPETING IN, KEEP TRAINING AND GOING TO TOURNAMENTS AFTER COLLEGE.”
Finding a supportive community to help motivate students to be the best version of themselves during a highly transformative time may be vital for self-fulfillment and making a big campus feel small. JMU Changing Health, Attitudes, and Actions to Recreate Girls (CHAARG) is one organization on campus attempting to foster a supportive environment many students might crave.
On top of the numerous challenges that college students are confronted with — such as a heavy workload, learning to live independently and balancing a social life — additional external societal pressures can be the breaking point for many. The toxic nature of diet culture and workout programs have begun to consume our everyday lives, whether we’re witnessing it in person or on social media. According to the University of Michigan’s Public Health publication, The Pursuit, “Diet culture focuses on body image, claiming one will be happier if they are thinner, setting often impossible or unattainable goals.” This harmful mindset has taken advantage of an already vulnerable demographic. College students are at a higher risk for developing eating disorders due to major life adjustments, according to The Pursuit. CHAARG is working to change this narrative and put an emphasis of fitness back into personal wellness and empowerment, Nicole Anderson said. Anderson is a senior marketing major and the president of CHAARG.
CHAARG started on JMU’s campus in the fall of 2019. Brittany Gaughan, senior hospitality management major and a member of the founding executive council, said it was created after a desire to find “a club that supports anyone and everyone to be their absolute best self.” To put it simply, the club’s mission, in the words of Gaughan, “is to support women through every aspect of life and learn how to be our healthiest selves.” Anderson emphasized the organization’s focus on “empowering women, wherever they are in their journey.”
Starting an organization from scratch can be challenging, Gaughan said, but the founders had many members who were excited to get involved in a club that “wants the best” for their members, which made it an easier transition. Currently at 230 members, CHAARG has doubled in size since just last semester, and interest is growing. Gaughan said the group’s hardest challenge this year has been finding a space to fit all of its members due to the chapter’s size.
The organization is built on three main features: weekly workouts, small groups and socials, Gaughan explained. The weekly workouts are held in partnership with various workout studios in the Harrisonburg area, where employees volunteer their time to lead workout classes for CHAARG members. Small groups also meet weekly, consisting of roughly 10 women in each group. Gaughan said this smaller setting
JMU’s female fitness group works to promote a healthy lifestylephotos submitted by JMU CHAARG
gives members the opportunity to build closer relationships within the chapter and engage in activities such as hiking, getting dinner or just hanging out. Socials occur about every two weeks, consisting of movie nights, game nights and other fun activities in an attempt to foster a close and supportive environment. Anderson added that members are also given another opportunity to stay engaged through social media with “inchaarg” Instagram accounts that cover “workouts they have done, what life has been like, struggles they are facing, etc.”
Even with COVID-19 setbacks, Anderson said that having a social media presence helped the members during the pandemic, saying, “Honestly, our community blossomed during the pandemic. By having a community on social media, we are able to learn about someone and get to know them before even meeting them in person.”
Anderson said the group was well prepared coming into the year with COVID-19 uncertainties, and their leadership grew because of it.
“[CHAARG had] a plan A, plan B and plan C before the year even started,” Anderson said. “The pandemic was hard on the exec team … but gave us a once-in-a-lifetime experience to show how strong our leadership skills were.” During the pandemic, Anderson said the club’s members created workout guides to keep the club members active and that they wanted to ensure the safety of their members by hosting virtual workouts and social events. Anderson said it was “an awesome way for us to stay connected and have something to talk about.”
As an organization founded to empower women to be the best versions of themselves, it seems as though members have felt the effects
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of being a part of this club radiate into other aspects of their lives. Anderson describes her change in mindset that’s resulted from the positive atmosphere, saying that “being surrounded by people who provide consistent love and support in turn makes you feel those things toward yourself.”
While the club has an obvious focus on fitness, it has a strong focus on mental health and confidence building, and, as Anderson said, “Veteran members begin to love themselves in all stages like they never have before, and new members see that and want that.”
Gaughan said the bonds in the club have strengthened — even while online —and they’re only getting stronger, saying “CHAARG has helped so many people, including myself, consider JMU home.”
Hokkaido: All you can eat sushi for $13 from 11-3pm every day
Macado’s: 39 Cent boneless wings on Thursdays and Sundays
Latin’s Flavor: All you can eat taco Wednesdays for $7
Cupcake Company: $1 cupcakes on Fridays
Magnolias: $5 Monday Margaritas Mr.J’s: Punch card, buy 10 lunch sandwiches and get the 11th free
Vito’s: From 5-9 p.m., enjoy 15% off dine-in or carry out with JACard.
O’Charley’s: Free pie on Wednesdays, all you can eat chicken tenders on Tuesdays
