SCOOP
The Magazine of the University of Tennessee’s College of Communication & Information
Spring 2015
13 UNDER 30 Young, restless and rocking their careers
The
Goal-Getter Lady Vol Cierra Burdick shoots for success
What’s Cool on Campus Our exclusive trends matrix
+How Students Consume Media Now +Emojis We’d Like to See +An Alternative Paper is (Re)Born
SCOOP HannahCather Editor-in-Chief
HayleyBrundige Managing Editor
LivMcConnell Deputy Editor
MelodiErdogan Research Chief
ClaireDodson
Design Director
MorganGalbraith Art Director
ElsonMei
Deputy Art Director
BrandonCrawford Photo Editor
YiqinChen
Deputy Photo Editor
LaurenMoore CortneyRoark
Department Editors
HannaLustig
Features Editor
PatrickMaccoon JasmineHead NicoleHedger Staff Writers
PeterFinch
Editorial Director What was the last magazine you bought?
4 • SCOOP Spring 2015
Dear reader,
We’ve got a lot on our plate. Anyone who knows me is familiar with my food obsession. So it should come as no surprise that I’ve approached SCOOP in that context. But it’s true: Reading a magazine is like eating, in more ways than one. You could flip through these pages, stopping occasionally to nibble hors d’oeuvres and check out the photographs. Or you could join us for a multicourse meal. We’ve got a range of appetizers — sections like After Class and On the Hill — to tempt your tastebuds. When you’re ready for the main course, turn to our features. We hope “Facing the Music” (about a pair of Knoxville music festivals), “Forward-Looking Forward” (on our cover star Cierra Burdick) and “13 Under 30” (notable recent alumni) will hit the spot. Be sure to leave room for dessert — we think The Col-
lege and Alumni House sections have just the right amount of sweet. Before we invited you to the table, my classmates and I were hard at work in the kitchen, erh, classroom. It was like organizing a potluck. We hashed out our favorite subjects, figured what we wanted to see on the menu, sent back a few dishes, and finally served up this issue of SCOOP. Despite the different flavors — some spicy, others savory — we think they complement one another well. Though the classroom was full, there were never too many cooks in the kitchen. Probably because our skill sets are varied, and I’d be toast if I went at it alone. So please, pull up a seat and enjoy our feast. Maybe even come back for a scoop of seconds. –Hannah Cather, Editor-in-Chief
Front row: Hayley Brundige, Hanna Lustig, Cortney Roark, Hannah Cather, Morgan Galbraith, Lauren Moore, Yiqin Chen Back row: Brandon Crawford, Melodi Erdogan, Claire Dodson, Patrick MaCoon, Liv McConnell, Jasmine Head, Nicole Hedger, Elson Mei
What is SCOOP?
SCOOP is a magazine published for College of Communication & Information alumni, students and faculty. It strives to keep readers up to date with what’s happening around campus and in the University of Tennessee’s School of Journalism & Electronic Media, School of Advertising & Public Relations, School of Communication Studies and School of Information Sciences. SCOOP also functions as an educational tool for students interested in magazine journalism.
SCOOP Spring 2015 • 3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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4 • SCOOP Spring 2015
EDITOR’S LETTER 3 TRENDING Butch Jones Approval Rankings. 5 steps to make sure the online you is ready for the professional world. CCI students use fashion as creative platform. Skipping class, not buying books, texting during lecture ... Just how bad is it? Because we knew you always wanted a Josh Dobbs emoji. UT students move away from traditional methods of consuming media.
6 9 10 12 15 16
AFTER CLASS
18
Honing comedic flair, video production through Volunteer Channel series.
20 22
Transgender icon Laverne Cox inspires students with her journey.
58
Exchange program gives UT, international students a unique journalism experience.
60
Data sharing project gets $2.73 million to move to next phase.
62 64
CCI student society focuses on diversity, prepares members for global leadership.
ALUMNI HOUSE Sharon Price John Communications, 1986 Alan Greenburg, Anne Holt Blackburn, David Bohan, Dan Hellie
Elizabeth Bibby Information Sciences, 1996 Viola Gienger Journalism, 1984 Sharrie Williams Journalism & Electronic Media, 2001 Knight Stivender Journalism & Electronic Media, 1999
65 66 69 70 71 72 73
CLASS 74 NOTES
ON THE HILL Fans fight to keep Lady Vols logo despite switch from Adidas.
How can JEM ever replace Deborah Douglas, retiring after 27 years?
Dana McCullough Advertising, 1995
Student finds UT pride in recruiters’ program.
The frenetic rhythm of PR major Patrick Tice’s daily life.
THE COLLEGE
24 26
THE BACK PAGE Remembering an esteemed professor’s “Teeter-isms.”
77
S
FEATURES
Lady Vol Cierra Burdick confers with her teammates.
FORWARD-LOOKING FORWARD Cierra Burdick, a 2015 Comm Studies grad, combines big dreams and even bigger determination.
A GOOD ALTERNATIVE Tracing the history of Metro Pulse, shut down in 2014 and reborn as the Knoxville Mercury.
13 UNDER 30 Catching up with some (very accomplished) recent College of Communication & Information graduates.
FACING THE MUSIC A pair of local festivals bring big names—and more than a little visibility—to downtown Knoxville.
PHOTO ESSAY: FIGHT CLUB
28 36 38 48 54
Inside UT’s 35th annual Boxing Weekend.
SCOOP Spring 2015 • 5
TRENDING
Butch W * Jones Approval Rankings
e all know that as the reigning king of campus, Butch Jones’ opinion is really all that matters. Jones waded through the post-Philip Fulmer chaos that was our football team and created something with moderate potential. He cheers on other sports teams, he makes quick decisions about teammate conduct, and his bull-headed visage is making UT better, brick by brick. We took a look at the trends and topics that have been hot on Rocky Top this year, and then we put them in order the way we think Butch would have wanted, from worst to best. Here are the Butch Jones Approval Rankings. S
By Claire Dodson and Melodi Erdogan
*The football coach played no part in the selection of these rankings. He is merely our inspiration.
Unnecessary policy forced on students by an ultra-conservative and outof- touch state government.
OPT-IN
A week of snow, ice, slush and Jimmy Cheek-bashing.
0 -1
-2
ICEPOCALYPSE 2015
-3
TINDER
Awesome, conven and yet undenia creepy.
-4 -5 CONSTRUCTION
6 • SCOOP Spring 2015
We get that it’s good for UT’s future. Top 25 and all that, rah rah. Still sucks.
THE STRIP Formerly an eyesore with cheap drink specials. Now an eyesore with two years of terrible traffic.
This year’s week of free condoms, free sex toys, free STI testing and free health education was refreshingly free from certain state politicians stirring up controversy. Why did UT take away funding in 2012 again?
SEX WEEK 2015
5 Lupe Fiasco, Cold War Kids and Bad Suns — a nice blend of indie and hip-hop.
4 3
VOLAPALOOZA
2 1
0
TAX SLAYER BOWL VICTORY
LAVERNE COX VISITS UT
nient ably
Volunteers beat the crap out of Iowa, fans get (potentially) false hope for 2015 football season. Still exhilarating.
We’re going to need a few years to recover from the “Orange is the New Black” star’s absolute awesomeness.
JOSH DOBBS’ NONEXISTENT EYEBROWS CHACOS Literally everyone has a pair of these sandals. Literally every pair smells horrific. Neutral ground.
The empty spaces above the star quarterback’s eyes are beloved by Vol fans everywhere.
SCOOP Spring 2015 • 7
Make sure the online you is ready for the professional world By Brandon Crawford
I
t just hit you: you’re graduating. This means real life, which means real bills, which in turn means you need a real job. And that means you need an online presence that looks respectable. Dr. Phyliss Shey, the University of Tennessee’s Student Success Administrator, suggests removing anything that could potentially offend a “reasonable person,” such as party scenes or revealing too much skin. “I would also consider changing email addresses or avatar names if they are less than mature,” Shey says. “I don’t believe it is necessary to curtail posts about political issues, social justice issues, etc., so long as they are constructive and show a level of maturity (no trolling).” To help make your job search easier, here are five steps for cleaning up your social media profiles so employers will love you that much more.
Make your grammar count.
Just because you are not in a classroom or in the office when you are tweeting doesn’t mean the rules of grammar can be thrown out the window. Misspellings and grammar mistakes reveal your apathy about your professional appearance on social media or suggest you just don’t know any better. Read over your posts multiple times to make sure everything is correct — it could save you a job opportunity.
2
TRENDING
5 WAYS TO STEP UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME
1
Never complain about professors or bosses.
Students express themselves via social media, and sometimes that filter just isn’t there. Negative comments about your professors or bosses suggests you’ll speak negatively about the next person who hires you. Job recruiters and employers don’t want to worry about you publicly bad-mouthing the company. If you do not have anything good to say about your professional life, don’t say anything at all. Simple.
3
Upload professional photos.
G-rated photos only! Sure, the shirtless mirror selfie or the keg stand photo will get all the likes, but those photos will not get you the job. Employers see the type of pictures you upload to your Instagram and think, “Will this be a good representation of my company?” Refrain from posting pictures from that amazing Saturday night you barely remember.
4
Remove inappropriate comments and posts from friends.
We all have that one friend who just hasn’t grown up yet — the one who is always looking for a reason to embarrass you online. Unfortunately when it comes to the business world, that friend has to go. Employers check out your social media profiles for inappropriate content. They’ll likely be disinterested even it it’s not your post. It may not be entirely necessary to block your friends, but it’s wise to monitor the content they share with you on social media.
5
Post links to your LinkedIn account and portfolio.
You want to be able to show you are professional even before you are expected to be. Most social media outlets allow users to have a profile where they can post links. Potential employers can use these to help them better understand you as a professional. Prioritize creating an online portfolio and resume — your future boss would love to see it. S
SCOOP Spring 2015 • 9
TRENDING “I love wearing quirky accessories like bow ties or body chains because I like to experiment with different things and see how they look.”
#VOLS Story and photos by Melodi Erdogan
S
tudents at the University of Tennessee express themselves in a variety of ways, from their majors to the organizations they join to the sports teams they play on. One of the easiest and most creative platforms of self expression, however, is through the clothes students choose to wear while hiking Rocky Top. There’s a major change
—Rebecca Fechino, junior in Public Relations
“I would describe my style as ‘comfy chic.’ I really like taking basic, comfortable clothes and mixing them to make an outfit interesting.” —Taylor Rife, senior in Journalism & Electronic Media
10 • SCOOP Spring 2015
Travis Miller, senior in JEM
Simon Mire, senior in
TRENDING
“Recently I’ve been trying to put stuff on that is business casual because you never know who you’re going to run into, and since I’m graduating, I am trying to get into the habit of getting dressed like I’m going to work every day instead of getting dressed for classes in (sandals) and shorts.” —Rilwan Balogun, senior in Journalism & Electronic Media
STYLE during our spring semester, from cold, dreary winter to bright, budding summer. UT students know how to dress accordingly, whether they’re rocking leather jackets and cascading cardigans or cute skirts in floral patterns. We spotted some well-dressed CCI students and asked about their favorite trends and unique personal style. S
n JEM
“I wear the bandana because it’s cold, and I’m always cold. And I think that I need to be fashionable, so I put on the bandana. I have a few different kinds.” —Chris Allen, senior in Journalism & Electronic Media
“I’m just more laid-back and not super trendy — pretty classic. I like how the burgundy goes with the season and the darker, colder weather but gives it a little more color than just being so plain.” —Kaley Williams, senior in Public Relations and Psychology
Chris Allen, senior in JEM
SCOOP Spring 2015 • 11
TRENDING
How bad is it... Answers to the questions you’ve been too afraid to ask* By Jasmine Head
...to skip class?
A: It is never a good idea to completely skip
...not to buy textbooks? A:
According to Jasmine Milligan, senior in biochemistry and molecular biology, it’s not as bad as it sounds. “It depends on the class, the level you’re at and how you feel about the class,” says Milligan. “I try every year to not buy textbooks, but if I fail the first exam, then I will buy it. If not, then I don’t need it.” On the other hand, journalism professor Jim Stovall insists textbooks are a fundamental part of the course and a requirement for a reason. “When you don’t buy the books you miss a lot of class content,” Stovall says. “We know that textbooks take money and time, but the hope is that the student will read the assigned parts of the textbooks and come away with something that the professor wouldn’t be able to get across in class.” The College Board reports that the average college student at a four-year public university spends roughly $1,200 on books each year. Students have options like Chegg, an online book outlet, or they can rent their books for the semester. While books are an integral part of the college experience, a student can still make a good grade without one.
BOTTOM LINE: sorta bad! 12 • SCOOP Spring 2015
class, whether you’re sleeping in or playing hooky, but occasionally missing class in unavoidable. “I hated being late and getting death glares,” student Marcellus Shaw says. “But if I’m more than 20 minutes late, then I’m skipping.” Skipped classes equal unused tuition dollars, which means you’re practically throwing your money away. “Only in college is the consumer happy to get the very least amount for his money,” she says. “If you were paying for yoga lessons but didn’t go or if you went and slept instead of doing yoga, then you aren’t getting your money’s worth.” If you do have to miss, your best bet is to notify your professor and let him or her know what’s going on. Because if we keep skipping class then UT could go the route of Lynn University and create an app that texts your parents to tell them you’re not in class. Scary.
BOTTOM LINE: pretty bad! S
TRENDING
...not to buy the parking pass?
A: Buying a parking pass definitely has its perks,
but do the benefits outweigh the cost? Isiah Rankin, sophomore in music education, thinks parking passes are “definitely overrated.” “They don’t have enough parking on campus for those with parking passes but have plenty of parking for staff,” he says. “I feel like that’s crazy because yes, they work here, but we do the same thing plus pay for it.” During the 2014-2015 school year, a student commuter parking pass sold for almost $200. Along with the inconvenience of having to search high and low for a space that is barely close enough to class — that is not in one of the million staff lots — the idea of spending so much money on a plastic mirror ornament seems crazy. S
...to text in class?
BOTTOM LINE: not so bad!
A: We’re all guilty of it, but texting in class is
a major distraction for everyone, and we have to stop. According to a study released by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 86 percent of students reported they text in class and 68 percent admitted to using social networks while in class. Ninety percent of students also said they don’t pay attention, and 80 percent said they miss instruction. “Why bother to come to class?” says public relations professor Candace White. “You pay $30,000 a year to go to UT, so why would you come and not get full value for your money? It make no sense.” So that LOL you just sent your BFF equals an SOL for your grade. Put the phone down, maybe even on airplane mode, and focus.
BOTTOM LINE: really bad!
*Inspired by our friends at HGTV Magazine
SCOOP Spring 2015 • 13
TRENDING
These 16 UT-themed additions would be so [high five hands, thumbs up, dancing lady] Try it! This game isn’t going well. Let’s meet at the Torchbearer and take the T to Cook-Out.
Did you see The Rock? Go look, it’s so cute!
Emojis we wish existed
Send
Recently Used
Angry Butch
Coonskin Cap
The Sunsphere
The Rock
Josh Dobbs
Big Orange Screw
Red Solo Cup
Cook-Out Milkshake
The Torchbearer
The T
Smokey
The Strip
Power T
Illustrations by Katrina Roberts
Endless Stairs
Ayres Hall
SCOOP Spring 2015 • 15
TRENDING
Instant Gratification
UT students move away from traditional media
C
By Cortney Roark
hloe Kidd spends every Thursday at 7:59 p.m. in front of her television waiting for the week’s installment of “Scandal,” followed by “Grey’s Anatomy.” “That’s the only time I turn on my TV,” says Kidd, senior in Communication Studies. “I plan my Thursdays around it.” Kidd’s Thursday night ritual, however, began with the very thing that is responsible for the downfall of weekly television — Netflix. More than 57 million users from almost 50 countries consume more than 2 billion hours of Netflix content each month. It’s the most popular Internet television network in existence, beating out Hulu, Amazon Prime and other on-demand platforms. There are no commercial breaks, and the “next episode” feature makes binge watching effortless. “I originally started watching them on Netflix and caught up to the point where they are on TV,” she says. Melanie Faizer, lecturer in the School of Journalism & Electronic Media and fellow Netflix binge watcher, says she prefers it over traditional television, but says there’s one aspect missing in the universal use of Netflix. “Everybody watched the
16 • SCOOP Spring 2015
same show on a given night, and the next day everyone would have something to talk about at work,” Faizer says. “I think we view things in a vacuum all the time.” Netflix, Faizer adds, plays into the “instant gratification” mindset that threatens viewers’ discipline. SCOOP surveyed students in the College of Communication & Information and found nearly 70 percent said they prefer Netflix for their TV and movies. As for the most traditional outlet — books — technology’s influence hasn’t been as invasive. More than 80 percent of students said they prefer paper books to electronic books. Graduate student Michelle Garland, who has read a book in a single night on multiple occasions on her Kindle or phone, says she sees use for both reading platforms. “The stuff I read on my Kindle are brainless entertainment things,” Garland says. “When it comes to reading for school and research, I feel like you are able to retain and have a deeper understanding when it is there in your hand.” Kidd’s preference for paper isn’t easily described. “There’s just something timeless about flipping through the pages of a book.” S
Movies: 20.6%
What do you watch more of Yes 82.35% on Netflix?
Television shows: 79.4%
No: 17.7%
Do you read for fun? Yes: 82.4% Some form of electronic book: 19.1%
If you do read for fun, which do you prefer? Physical book: 81.0%
Other: 4.1%
No: 5.9%
Yes: 94.1%
Do you have a Netflix account?
How do you watch most TV and movies? Someone else’s Netflix account: 30.9%
Other: 14.52%
No: 17.6% Movies: 12.90%
Cable television: 27.9%
If you have cable, what do Yes you watch more of?
HOW ARE STUDENTS USING MEDIA? Do you have cable television?
Yes: 82.4% Television shows: 72.58%
My own Netflix account: 36.7%
9+: 10.3%
0-2: 30.9%
6-8 20.6%
3-5: 38.2%
How many hours a week do you spend on Netflix?
Data: 2015 SCOOP survey of CCI students (totals don’t always equal 100 because of rounding)
SCOOP Spring 2015 • 17
AFTER CLASS
Vol Team For Life By Morgan Galbraith
M
Malak Al Duraidi with a brick symbolizing head coach Butch Jones’ rebuilding plans. Photo by Brandon Crawford
18 • SCOOP Spring 2015
alak Al Duraidi, senior in Journalism & Electronic Media and Sociology, has attended every home football game for the last three years — for free. It’s just one perk of joining Volunteer Team, one of three organizations under the university’s student recruiters program, VolCorps. Vol Team specializes in prospective football players; its members show recruits a taste of UT as they give campus tours and accompany them to home games. Joining in the spring of her freshman year, Al Duraidi started as a team member and has worked her way up to team captain. She, along with three others, now leads a team of about 40 student recruiters throughout the year. After nearly four years of Vol Team recruiting, Al Duraidi shares a look inside her experience:
“
What has been your favorite part about being captain? My favorite part I guess is having that responsibility, just because I feel like responsibility is good for anyone in order to grow as an individual. Having that pressure on me is definitely a good thing. Do you think your participation with Vol Team has enhanced your journalism skills? Having to talk to people I don’t know has been very good interview-wise, because I have to get to know these people and pretty much have to interview them throughout their visit to kind of see what they’re looking for in a school. Just getting to know people by asking questions has helped me a lot in journalism.
“
Vol Team just made me appreciate college a lot more.
How do you think the whole Vol Team experience has made college better for you?
AFTER CLASS
Can you explain what you do on each athlete’s visit? When recruits visit UT we give them a tour of the entire school so they can get a feel for student life outside of athletics. We show them buildings based upon their intended major, athletic facility and stadium tours.
For me personally, it enhanced college tremendously. As a freshman before I joined Vol Team, I didn’t really go to too many games, and I didn’t really have a lot of school spirit because I didn’t have to have it. Being on Vol Team and having to be at every game rain, sleet or snow every Saturday, having to be super happy and cheerful and cheering on the team, and sitting in the end zone, Vol Team just made me appreciate college a lot more. What would you tell someone who is thinking about joining? I would tell them to do it. You can’t lose. And I just think it’s an all-around great experience — a really great networking experience, especially if you want to do sports broadcasting, because the SEC Network is located right in the heart of the football complex. What has been your favorite memory from Vol Team? I really think the defining moment for me is just when a recruit commits to the university, and I’ve helped him. A lot of these recruits come from low income areas that might not have had the chance to go to college, and then they end up going to a big SEC school, and it’s the start of a terrific journey to become a Volunteer. I think that’s something that will imprint my life forever, just making a difference in these kids’ lives in order for them to have the best college experience that they could ever imagine. S SCOOP Spring 2015 • 19
AFTER CLASS
Another
Conner Thompson, left, runs through a skit with Josh Lampley, second from right, and other cast members.
A
student who spontaneously eats a jar of mayonnaise. A “six-star” Tennessee football recruit who becomes an impassioned Raising Cane’s employee. These are the kinds of characters you’ll encounter on The Volunteer Channel’s most viewed program, “Not A Sport Show.” Senior in philosophy and aspiring stand-up comedian Conner Thompson developed the pitch for the show last fall with the help of Josh Lampley, rising senior in Journalism & Electronic Media. TVC picked it up and, five episodes later, Thompson is now a director, editor and actor in “Not a Sport Show.” The average episode lasts around 20-25 minutes and
20 • SCOOP Spring 2015
is comically themed around narrative stories. It also includes parody commercials and shorter sketches. “Not a Sport Show” was created with the premise of being a mixture of relatable stories with an “absurd twist,” Thompson says. “It gets a little bizarre,” Thompson says. “I like taking people on a bit of a ride and thinking, ‘Where is this going?’ and then surprising them with comedy.” One episode starts with an intervention put together by a group of friends. Thompson stars as the interventionist, but through the video it becomes clear he is not fit for the job, because he is actually a washed-up movie actor.
sports show? Think again Students hone comedic flair, video production through Volunteer Channel series By Patrick MacCoon
Photo by Brandon Crawford
“I think our show is special simply because there aren’t many college comedy shows out there,” says Lampley, who also acts on the show. “ I think our show is one of a kind and can voice the opinions of students freely and in a funny way.” As of May, “Not a Sport Show” has averaged 414 views per episode on TVC’s Vimeo account and is among the most viewed shows on the student television station that reaches nearly 7,000 students and 100,000 surrounding area residents on Comcast Digital Channel 194. “The production value, the intelligent writing and general feeling of the show definitely makes ‘Not a Sport Show’ one of our most popular series in a long time,” says TVC General Manager Mike Wiseman. “It’s pretty awesome what Josh and
Conner have been able to do so far with them being the only two on staff.” Working long hours is part of the job for both Lampley and Thompson but something they find helpful as they both want to break into the TV business one day. Wiseman says the two record the show on location or in the studio shortly after they complete each script. Thompson edits the footage, sends the final product to Wiseman and finally, the audience sees “Not a Sport Show.” While the name spells out that the show has nothing to do with sports, the two co-stars came across the title in a funny way. “I went to the TVC page to look at all the other names of the shows and half of them were sports talk shows,” Thompson says. “Josh and I were like, ‘It’s not a show about sports,’ so it kind of just stuck right then and we rolled with it.” Thompson hopes this is just the beginning for the show, which is also available for viewing on YouTube, and that it will continue to be featured for years to come. “We want to keep hauling in an audience and get the idea out there that UT has a television station,” Thompson says. “I hope next year Josh can bring someone else in, and they can keep it going. Maybe in the future we will have a set-in-stone sketch show to where anyone that likes humor and acting can jump on and keep it going.” While “Not a Sport Show” offers a new look of comedy, it also gives a view into the creative minds of students at UT. “Our show benefits the College of Communication & Information because it showcases some of the college’s brightest minds,” Lampley says. “The creators of campus television prove that the technical skills learned in the classroom can translate to something really entertaining.” With their raunchy and witty humor, Lampley and Thompson have elevated the standards for TVC, according to Wiseman. “You get a show like ‘Not a Sport Show’ maybe once every 10 years or so,” Wiseman says. “ Conner and Josh pull off some of the funniest stuff I have ever seen. ‘Not a Sport Show’ is our version of ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.’ You’re either going to like intelligent humor or you’re not. Josh and Conner are ‘lightning in a bottle.’ I see big things ahead for both of them.” S
SCOOP Spring 2015 • 21
AFTER CLASS
Music & Lyrics
The frenetic rhythm of PR major Patrick Tice’s daily life
P
By Liv McConnell
ublic Relations student and social media intern by day, rock musician by night. Welcome to a February 2015 day in the life of Patrick Tice, a senior at the University of Tennessee and guitarist with Johnny Astro and The Big Bang, one of Knoxville’s most popular homegrown bands. 7:37 a.m. — It’s Friday morning, and it’s time for Tice to get ready for his internship with local advertising agency Tombras Group. Early mornings don’t faze him much. “I don’t like to sleep past 9 a.m. anyway,” he says, “because I know I have so many things to be doing.” 8:30 a.m. — After a quick stop for a Chick-fil-A chicken biscuit and a large, black coffee, he pulls up to the sleek office building, its clean lines evocative of a Frank Lloyd Wright daydream. As one of the top 35 independent advertising agencies in North America with clients like McDonald’s and ESPN, the resume point alone makes his time here well worth it.
22 • SCOOP Spring 2015
Patrick Tice plays with his band Johnny Astro and the Big Bang at a show in February at Preservation Pub downtown. Photo by Brandon Crawford
8:40 a.m. — In the office’s social media hub on the first floor, there’s already work waiting for him. “A big thing we have him do is content creation, taking care of the planned content we know we need to push out for clients in the next month or so,” says Katie Allison, social media community manager. Today, that means mapping out future posts and tweets for a tourism association. As he gets to work, a giant screen overhead flashes Google’s most popular search terms in real time in a mesmerizing, colorful display. “I made that,” he jokes.
8:03 p.m. — Dinner over, he races to the band’s practice spot to pick up his equipment before heading to Preservation Pub, where Johnny Astro and two other bands will play tonight. Guitar case in hand, he enters through the pub’s back door to meet his bandmates and help them set up. A decent crowd has already formed, and the pub’s ubiquitous thick layer of smoke flanks the stage like curtains.
3 p.m. — Tice takes advantage of a lull in intern work to study for his upcoming AP style test in Public Relations 320. “Patrick is definitely one of the busiest students I’ve met,” says intern coordinator Caitlin Riddell.
10:15 p.m. — Tice navigates the crowd surrounding the first floor bar, smilingly thanking people he recognizes for coming out. “I’m so excited to play,” he beams, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “It’s been three months since our last live show.” While schoolwork has made it difficult to keep a regular performance schedule lately, Tice looks forward to the day he can fuse his Public Relations degree with his love for music. “I love people and I just like the idea of contacting people and understanding relationships on a mass scale,” he says. “That’s kind of what you do with songwriting, is trying to figure out who you’re speaking to and find that happy ground of unique and relatable.”
5:15 p.m. — His day at the office over, Tice heads to his next destination — an early dinner with his parents, Karen and Dan, who drove in from Edwardsville, Ill., for Johnny Astro and The Big Bang’s show tonight. “They support me and love that I do what I love, while at the same time kind of worry about me in the future,” Tice says. “With the whole idea of sex, drugs and rock and roll — as a parent, you’re going to worry about that.”
11:20 p.m. — Showtime. “We’re Johnny Astro and The Big Bang!” shouts singer Bradley Wakefield as the band wails into its first song. Tice, sporting a vest and rolled up shirtsleeves, runs his fingers up and down the neck of his guitar. Laying on the whammy pedal, he looks back at drummer Nathan Gilleran, grinning broadly. Someone asks Karen, who’s standing a few rows back from the more diehard dancers, how it feels to see
11:30 a.m. — It’s time for lunch. Tice drives down to Trio Cafe in Market Square, where he does social media work on the side. After snapping a few pictures to upload to the café’s Facebook account later, he scarfs down a chicken sandwich and heads back to Tombras.
her son on stage. “It doesn’t feel weird at all, considering I’ve seen him play since he was this tall,” she responds, indicating a height hitting at her thigh. 11:47 p.m. — Apparently in an impassioned frenzy, one of their front-row fans has lost his shirt and deemed it imperative to get on stage. He unsteadily clambers up and continues to dance, much to the bemusement and even irritation of some audience members. The Johnny Astro boys don’t try to attract the attention of the pub’s bouncer, however. They dig it. Wakefield even lets the inebriated fan belt a few lyrics into the mic with him. Tice’s eyes search out those of his girlfriend, Natalie, in the crowd, and they share a laugh. 1 a.m. — A happily exhausted Tice is ready to leave. He’s played a solid set, worked a long day and is ready to turn in. Grabbing his guitar case and Natalie’s hand, he heads out into the night. This is his life — until graduation in August. Then, who knows? “In my mind’s eye, I’ve always seen (the band) finishing our schooling and then taking a serious stab at getting on the road and really pushing the album,” he says. “Like, let’s learn while we’re here and once we have that, let’s go ahead and push the music out.” * Tice has since been promoted to a part-time social media community manager at Tombras Group. He will be hired full-time following graduation. Johnny Astro released its first full-length album, “Monuments,” in April. S
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ON THE HILL
NIKE’S ROCKY TOP TAKEOVER Fans fight to keep Lady Vols logo despite switch from Adidas By Patrick MacCoon
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well known and nationally recognized logo will be changing for all women’s sports, except one, as a new era in Tennessee athletics takes place this summer. On July 1, 2015, not only will UT Athletics officially change its branding from Adidas to Nike, but it will also mark the date all women’s teams, except basketball, will be known simply as “Volunteers” and share the Power T logo with the men. Last April while evaluating the Tennessee brand, Nike said it believed “the continued use of Lady Volunteers further segments an athletic institution that is striving to be united as ‘One Tennessee.’” Tennessee’s athletic department made its first announcement of the branding change on Nov. 10, 2014. UT signed an eight-year deal with Nike, including a $2 million signing bonus, that ended a partnership with Adidas dating back to the mid-90s.
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Nike will play nearly $4 million per year will be paid in merchandise credit and cash, with a $3.4 million allowance the first year for new equipment. Since then there have been substantial negative reactions from both former and current Tennessee athletes, along with the community and fan base. Former Lady Vol volleyball player Leslie Cikra spearheaded bringbacktheladyvols.com, a website sparking a
rally for the Lady Vol logo. It also hosts a collection of letters from current and former athletes. To date, a total of 34 Lady Vols and Vols have written letters on the blog site, which has received over 100,000 views since the first letter was posted on Nov. 27, 2014. Some of the former players to voice their displeasure with the change include Glory Johnson, Chris Walker and Tauren Poole. “I have been working with a handful of other former Lady Vols to bring awareness to the Tennessee athletic department’s decision to remove the Lady Vol logo,” Cikra says. “We are all deeply disappointed and hurt by the university taking away this tradition for all women’s sports — with the exception of basketball — in an attempt to rebrand athletics.” In addition to the website, Tricia Weaner created a petition to try to reinstate “Lady Vols” in all women’s sports. It has been signed by over 15,000 supporters in an attempt to keep alive the
“I loved being a Lady Vol because I get to be a part of a legacy that Pat Summitt created.”
case for bringing the Lady Vol name back to all women’s sports. Despite the uproar, UT still plans to drop the Lady Vol logo and brand all sports together except for women’s hoops. The decision to switch from Adidas to Nike, otherwise known as the Swoosh and the most popular brand in sports, is expected to help draw in athletes because of the popularity of the logo. Athletic Director Dave Hart and the athletic department contend they did plenty of research before making the final decision, as they considered both sides of the branding situation. “We were very thorough and deliberate in assessing and evaluating our options with our apparel partner decision,” Hart said in a Tennessee release. “Nike is the right partner for the University of Tennessee moving forward.” The color palate for Nike will be orange and white. The trim of jerseys will be Smokey Gray and Anthracite Gray. This summer Head Football Coach Butch Jones and the team will introduce the new modifications to the jerseys. “The jerseys will embrace the traditions of Tennessee football,” Jones says. “They will be very traditional and there will be nothing that is over the top. They are basically in line with everything that we have here. Adidas has been a tremendous partner for us for many many years, but we are excited about moving forward as well.” S
ON THE HILL
see to be “Lady Vols.” “The athletic community as a whole is generally upset about the change,” Coco says. “It was part of our identity as athletes. I was kind of heartbroken when Athletic Director Dave Hart told us that – Claudia Coco, volleyball team member we weren’t going to be the Lady Vols anymore because we’ve worked hard for this and we were excited to repreLady Vol tradition, which began in the sent the logo.” 1976-77 season. A “Bring Back the Lady Vols” rally was Rising sophomore Claudia Coco, who is a member of the volleyball team and a held at the Pat Summit Plaza on camJournalism & Electronic Media major, is pus before a Lady Vols basketball game frustrated with the loss of a name for her against Stanford in December. Fans came together to voice their displeasure sport that is so well recognized. “To be a Lady Vol is an extreme hon- with the change. “I don’t think our fans will change the or,” Coco says. “I loved being a Lady Vol way they view us as Lady Vols,” Coco because I get to be a part of a legacy that Pat Summitt created. One of the main rea- says. “People are always going to acsons I committed to the school was so that knowledge us as Lady Vols and I think they are more proud of it now that it has I could be a Lady Vol.” Coco is not the only current female stu- been taken away.” On Feb. 11, Tennessee Rep. Roger Kane, dent-athlete to voice her displeasure with R-Knoxville, hosted “Lady Vols Day on losing what they feel should be an identhe Hill,” allowing former Tennessee athtifier of all women’s sports at Tennessee. Sisters AJ and Anna Newell, on the golf letes to talk to lawmakers about the name team, told local and national media the change. Kane’s daughter, Kelsey, ran track move came without warning and took at UT from 2008-2014. He has looked to away their purpose of coming to Tennes- find ways to help female athletes make a
More Big Orange Changes in Store?
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ince the announcement of the switch, a fire sale has taken place at all Tennessee athletic stadium shops and at four different locations: UC VolShop, Team Shop, 17th and Cumberland VolShop and University Commons. The first discount of 30 percent off all Adidas gear increased to half off all items, where the discount will remain until the switch to Nike is made. VolShop assistant director Drew Sims believes the stores will be able to sell nearly all the remaining units by the time of the transition. This summer the VolShop will move into the new Student Union, and the shop will be twice the size of the current UC store. The Team Shop inside Gate 20 at Neyland
Stadium will also be completely renovated to launch a Nike concept shop that will provide a “premier game day experience” for fans. “For years, fans have asked our employees when and if we could get Nike and that day will arrive on July 1,” Sims says. “Nike is the No. 1 apparel line for a reason and our fans recognize that.” All the new Nike products will be launched on shop.utk.edu July 1. “We have something very special planned for the July 1 launch, and we expect to draw a major crowd throughout the entire day,” Sims says. “We have been with Adidas for over 17 years and realize everyone, including me, will want to change out their closet.” —P.M.
Photo by Brandon Crawford
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ON THE HILL
“I was just being me in the most authentic way.”
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Laverne Cox during the meetand-greet after her talk at the Cox Auditorium in February. Photo by Hannah Cather
BIG Orange Is The New Black Transgender icon Laverne Cox inspires students with her journey
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By Jasmine Head
amously known for her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix original series “Orange is the New Black,” transgender actress Laverne Cox has broken barriers both on and off screen and given a voice to a minority group typically underrepresented in media. “All the things that make me trans are beautiful and should be celebrated,” says Cox, who visited UT on Feb. 11 for a speech sponsored by UT’s Women’s Coordinating Council and the Issues Committee. Growing up in Mobile, Ala., Cox’s early life was challenging. “Every single day, I was called names by the other kids,” she says. “I was taunted and chased home by kids who wanted to beat me up.” Cox says the bullying, the death of her grandmother and her internalized shame led her to attempt suicide by swallowing pills in the sixth grade. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality reports that 41 percent of individuals who identify as transgender have attempted suicide, more than 10 percent higher than the lesbian, gay and bisexual national suicide attempt average. “I was just being myself. I was just being me in the most authentic way,” says Cox, who has used her struggle to become an outspoken LGBT activist, traveling the country to discuss the issues the transgender community faces. Her lecture at the 900-seat Cox Auditorium sold out, and she has more than 10 additional college lectures scheduled this year. “I feel that I am proud of the things that I have accomplished so far,” Cox says. “I am very ambitious, and there is a lot that I want to accomplish. I feel I’m just getting started.” Alexandra Chiasson, member of the Issues Committee, saw Cox speak at Vanderbilt University in 2013 and thought she would be a great choice for a keynote
speaker at UT. “I’m personally not trans, but I was able to learn something about her life and learn from her,” Chiasson says. “I wanted others to have the same opportunity.” During the Q&A session, Cox mentioned a college she visited in the past that had a “name change” policy, which allows students to choose a preferred name for class rosters. Organizations at UT like SGA, volOUT and UT’s Commission for LGBT People are working to establish a similar policy at UT. This kind of policy, which is present at more than 130 colleges and universities across the nation, according to campuspride.org, would demonstrate UT’s commitment to creating an inclusive environment for all students. Sean Ray Esch is the lead sponser and presenting senator of the Preferred Name bill at UT. He says the bill would help students feel safer and more comfortable on campus. “When you think about transgender people, if you are male to female and you want to go by a female name, this would take some of the risk and danger out of that,” says Esch. “For example, if you are in class and your professor calls you by your male name, but you identify as female then he is kind of outing you and putting you in danger. This bill would help with that.” The policy would allow students to use names other than their legal ones as long as they are not used for the purpose of misrepresentation or avoiding legal obligations. Such a policy, says Cox, is imperative to support the transgender community. “Pronouns matter when we talk about and with transgender people. It’s a respect and safety issue,” she says. “Preferred name policies give people who are transgender the respect and privacy they deserve, while also allowing them to live as their true selves.” S
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FORWARDLOOKING
FORWARD Cierra Burdick, a 2015 Communication Studies graduate, combines big dreams and even bigger determination By Lauren Moore
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Cierra Burdick looks for an open teammate. Photo courtesy of The Daily Beacon
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t was just an ear infection. Or so they thought. Yet, as the doctors finished their routine heartbeat check, they found something else. Rather, they heard something else—an unusual rhythm for a child’s heart to produce. Further tests confirmed the diagnosis. Cierra Burdick was battling an atrial septal defect. This congenital condition, usually manifested as a hole in the wall of the heart, often proves fatal unless discovered early. Burdick underwent open-heart surgery just before turning 2 years old. The strength she demonstrated at this early age has since become a signature trait. Eventually a 6’2” Lady Vols forward and a 2015 grad in Communication Studies, she “just always had a real strength about her,” says Lisa Burdick, Cierra’s mother. “I think some of that obviously
Ciarra Burdick interacting at the Volunteer Court dedication at Camp Montvale.
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came from being raised by a single mother, but she has never been afraid of anything. Never. I would drop her off at summer camp and she would just walk in there like she owned the place. She’s always been confident, but I also worked really hard to make sure she is confident. No fear.” She hasn’t missed a beat since. As a clumsy but outgoing 5-year-old girl growing up across the street from Harris YMCA in Charlotte, N.C., Burdick played every sport from soccer to gymnastics — anything for a chance to dive into the foam pit. But basketball made the strongest impression on the adventurous young athlete. In fact, it was love at first sight. “I remember playing since I was 5 years old … I just stuck with it, continued to play and I fell in love
with it,” she says. While Lisa had no athletic talent herself, she encouraged her daughter to try different activities, including ballet (a fact Cierra usually doesn’t mention). After school, some kids went to daycare programs, but instead, Burdick walked to the “Y” and shot baskets. In 6th grade, she told her mother she wanted to play basketball for Duke University. “I was like, ‘What, are you crazy?’… I didn’t say that to her, I was just overwhelmed,” Lisa recalls. “I didn’t know if she was good enough or academically strong enough, either.” A weekend in San Diego proved otherwise. After being personally invited to an Adidas-sponsored event, Burdick was named most valuable player of the tournament. Not long after, she received her first letter from a college — the University of California at Los Angeles.
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he had just started 7th grade. “I knew nothing about basketball, so I never knew if she really had what it took or not,” Lisa says. “People would tell me and I kind of stayed skeptical. But when the colleges started sending letters, we were just blown away. We didn’t even really know that happened.” The letters kept coming — from Baylor, Stanford, Princeton and, yes, Duke University. But Burdick turned them all down. “I grew up only knowing Chapel Hill, North Carolina State and Duke. If you weren’t a fan of those, you were crazy,” Burdick says of living in Charlotte. “But when I got into the recruiting process, I explored other options like Tennessee and South Carolina. I never thought I would ever end up in the SEC.” As a freshman in high school, Burdick’s sports management teacher asked her if she planned to pick Tennessee. “No. That lady yells too much for my liking,” she replied, referring to the Lady Vols’ legendary head coach, Pat Summitt. That conversation, however, put UT on Burdick’s radar. Intrigued, she soon attended a Lady Vols basketball camp followed by an unofficial visit. When Summitt asked Burdick why she was waiting to make her choice, she couldn’t think of a reason not to go to Tennessee. Even before her official visit and before attending her first Lady Vols basketball game, she chose Tennessee. “We fell in love with Tennessee, and I say ‘we’ because I did too,” Lisa says. The history of the Lady Vols basketball empire was central to Burdick’s decision. “I love the fact that the ‘Lady Vol’ [name] has so much prestige, tradition and excellence built into it,” she says. “They are going to do everything they can to help you achieve on and off the court. I think that’s the legacy Pat (Summitt) built and Holly (Warlick) is continuing on: that we are going to win, and we are going to be prepared for life after basketball as well.” During her four years as a student-athlete at the University of Tennessee, Burdick channeled her competitive nature. She topped off her great run at UT by being the 42nd Lady Vol to score more than 1,000 points in her career. She consistently looks to out-rebound her opponent and looks for the open pass before adding points to her score column. It was always a dream of hers to make a SportsCenter Top-10 play. She had to wait four years, but in her senior season,
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she made it as No. 6 in the SC Top-10 plays with a no-look, behind-her-head pass to her teammate Bashaara Graves against Florida. “I love passing the ball. I would rather get a great assist than a bucket any day,” she says. Besides basketball, a favorite of Burdick’s has always been theater. “I’ve been acting as long as I’ve been playing ball,” she says. Though she wasn’t able to stick with acting throughout her full four years at UT, she enjoyed the time she did have taking theater as an elective. “The time I had to get away from the court a little bit and explore a different horizon with the acting, plays and monologues ... you know, that was fun for me.” Excelling in class every day is equally important, a value that has secured her a place on the SEC Academic Honor Roll every year. She’s also a 2015 College Sports Information Directors of America second-team Academic All-American, as well as CoSIDA Academic All-District 3 selection. “You keep competing and working hard because you see the success it brings,” she says of excelling in the classroom and on the court. “It may not come right then and there, but that is where trust in the process and faith in God’s plan, that is where that comes in. It is a challenge. I’m stimulated by challenges, I love them and I love working hard and seeing the results.” Burdick was one of nine students selected for the Torchbearer Award, which is the highest honor a student can receive from UT. Torchbearers are chosen because of their academic achievements and commitment to others by their contributions to the university and community. While Burdick is the 25th student-athlete Torchbearer, she is only the second Lady Vol basketball player to receive it after Kara Lawson in 2003. Each day Burdick wakes up and goes to class. But unlike other students, she also has to seek treatment from trainers, watch game film and practice, as well as find time to eat and do homework. “We definitely live two lives and you have to merge it into one somehow,” she says. “You have to take advantage of each and every moment you get, even if it is typing a paper on a plane or catching up on books on the bus. Every opportunity you get, you are taking it because we don’t get much time. It’s boom, boom, boom.” When Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts came to Tennessee in 2011 to do a docu-
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“I learned from her that being a student-athlete teaches you how to be well-rounded in all aspects of life, work and play.” Sonny Mullen, Good Morning America Producer
mentary on Summitt, Burdick joked she was going to steal Roberts’ job while goofing around with Roberts off-camera. She hasn’t stolen it — at least not yet — but she did snag an internship.
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ast summer, Burdick interned with GMA in New York for two months. There, she helped open mail (Roberts likes to respond to all her fans), logged her old ESPN videos and helped with fact checking. She even did the obligatory intern Starbucks run. “GMA was awesome. The people and experience was great,” she says. “The business that they run there is built on love and getting the facts right by bringing passion to the network every single day. It’s the way news should be. They do a phenomenal job, and I was able to learn a lot from them.” Sonny Mullen, production assistant of GMA, noticed how Burdick’s athletic background affected her work ethic. Even though it was the summertime, she
Cierra Burdick helping at Hoops for Hope Below: Burdick and the GMA cast.
didn’t relax her stren“I would see her uous routine. every day doing “Having a stuthings for school, dent-athlete as an going to a workintern was great, but out, spending I think in particular time keeping in having Cierra made it touch with fameven better,” Mullen ily and friends. says. “Cierra brought I learned from a drive and determiher that being a nation to work evstudent-athlete ery single day that I teaches you how don’t see in everyone to be well-roundher age. She came ed in all aspects in early to the Good of life, work and Morning America play.” studio almost every morning, worked a full day helpHer teammates see those same traits in Burdick, too. ing me in the office with things for Robin, then offered She pushes them on the court, leading the team by help wherever else it was needed, and then went and example. worked out most nights.” “Cierra is a leader in every way,” teammate Andraya
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Above: The summer 2014 interns gather around Robin Roberts for a picture. Left: Robin Roberts and Cierra Burdick joke around in the Good Morning America offices.
Carter says. “It is just the way she behaves. The way she plays and the character that she has. She plays really hard, so she leads by example. She is an emotional leader, you can tell, and she is probably the most passionate on the team. She is a leader in every aspect for us.” In those spare moments of free time, Burdick doesn’t stop inspiring others. Her junior year of high school, she joined the Daring to Role Model Excellence as Athletic Mentors (DREAM) Team at Butler High School in North Carolina. It affected her so much, she decided to start her own DREAM Team in Knoxville alongside fellow athletes like men’s basketball’s Derek Reese, softball’s Ellen Renfroe, baseball’s Dalton Saberhagen and others. These student-athletes are dedicated to being drug-, alcoholand violence-free. Burdick works to help those from Emerald Youth Foundation and Water Angel Ministry, among other organizations. Several hours a week, Burdick enjoys visiting with students around Knoxville, even if it is just going and having lunch. In back-to-back years, she’s been named
to the SEC Women’s Community Service Team. Following graduation, she hopes to start her own nonprofit organization for kids. “Those kids have so much potential, but because of their home lives they don’t always have the opportunity to expand their goals and dreams,” she says. “Those kids over there are special, and they love people just as much as I love doing it.” Another dream of Burdick’s was reached April 16 when she was drafted into the WNBA 14th overall by the Los Angeles Sparks as the fifth Lady Vol drafted by that organization. After basketball, she aspires to pursue a career in sports broadcasting, like former Lady Vol and Torchbearer Lawson. “The sky is the limit for her,” Lady Vols assistant coach Kyra Elzy says. “That kid is driven. Any challenges she is going to step up to. If someone says she can’t, she will make a point to prove him or her wrong. I see her excelling in whatever she decides to do.” That drive, it seems, was inherited. Childhood memories with her mom shaped her in all the right ways. “My mom is like my best friend … that is what happens when you grow up in a single-parent household,” Burdick says. “She’s been my rock throughout everything … she is the one who pushed me in everything I did. I owe a lot of what I am doing to her.” True to form, Burdick credits her success not to her talent, but her support network. She’s a team player to the core. “The relationships I was able to build through this round ball and the love that I got from all across the board is definitely what made me who I am today.” S
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1991
A Good
Alternative Tracing the history of Metro Pulse, shut down in 2014 and reborn as the Knoxville Mercury By Hannah Cather
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ast year, Knoxville lost a vital part of its media community — Metro Pulse — when previous owner E.W. Scripps Co. pulled the plug on the 23-year-old alternative news weekly. But three of its staff members fought to keep their editorial voices alive. Here’s the story of a Knoxville institution’s birth, death and resurrection. (Photos courtesy of former Metro Pulse staff archives.)
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Ashley Capps, at the time a public-radio DJ and music promoter, and Ian Blackburn (pictured under “1992”, at right), a print-shop technician who had published his own magazine, The Lame Monkey Manifesto, hatch plans for an alternative weekly over pizza. That summer, the team uses Blackburn’s apartment in Fort Sanders to assemble Metro Pulse’s first issues.
1992 In early 1992, Cory Turczyn joins the staff as managing editor. By March 1992, Jack Neely has begun his soonto-be famous column, “Secret History.” In November, Investor Joe Sullivan, former Wall Street Journal reporter, buys Metro Pulse. Content begins to include political reporting.
1994-95
Metro Pulse presents the first edition of its locally renowned Best of Knoxville awards in March. That same year, they win several awards for journalistic excellence from organizations like the Society of Professional Journalists, surprising some in the journalism industry who are hardly aware of the paper. In 1995, MP changes from biweekly to weekly publication and publication moves from Friday to Thursday.
2014 2003-12
In 2003, Sullivan sells Metro Pulse to Brian Conley, an entrepreneur and occasional novelist. In 2007, E.W. Scripps Company buys Metro Pulse from Conley. Turczyn returns to editor-in-chief role. In 2012, MP wins 11 awards at the Golden Press Card Awards, conducted by the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists, in competition with “large” circulation (over 25,000) daily newspapers for 2011 work.
E.W. Scripps announces the end of Metro Pulse. Staff is dismissed, office locks are changed. Turczyn (pictured above), Neely and fellow editor Matthew Everett reject E.W. Scripps’ severance offer of $20,000 due to a “non-compete clause.” Editors reveal plans for the nonprofit Knoxville History Project, which will offer lectures, tours and conduct research ... and publish the weekly Knoxville Mercury.
2015
The community raises $61,532 to help get the project going through Kickstarter. The new paper launches on March 12 with 25,000 copies printed in Bristol, Tenn. The first issue focuses on the history of newspapers and the creation of new alternative newspapers. It is offered at 250 locations. S
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UND 38 • SCOOP Spring 2015 22 • SCOOP Spring 2015
DER 3 0 These alums are making it big — in Knoxville and beyond
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ach year, hundreds of graduates depart the College of Communication & Information’s hallowed halls, sporting orange-colored glasses and leaving Rocky Top behind. They go on to do great things, like innovating in an ever-changing media landscape. They organize giant music festivals like Bonnaroo and Forecastle. They move to New York to work for media giants like Condé Nast. They return to the South to write for Sports Illustrated. They work at companies big and small in Knoxville, leaving every job better than when they arrived. We selected 13 young alums who are representing the University of Tennessee in the best possible ways. They are young, but they are ambitious, driven, hard-working, passionate. They are making names for themselves and their university so that when people say they went to UT, it means they are the best of the best. —Claire Dodson
Hannah Margaret Allen, 24
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THE EARLY BIRD
annah Margaret Allen (BS/JEM ’13) knows what the office looks like when it’s empty. She’s usually the first one to arrive at 1 World Trade Center, where she works as an editorial assistant in the editorial development group that creates special interest publications. “We can use a Vogue (feature) story with some small things from the New Yorker paired with an Architectural Digest photo,” Allen says about the types of stories she helps produce. Immediately after graduating in 2013, Allen moved to New York City to pursue a career in the mgazine business. She had already signed a lease on an apartment before acquiring an internship with Men’s Journal. “I just kind of weaseled my way in there,” she explains. “I made my own place there, and I was like ‘I’m not leaving.’ I didn’t leave. Then slowly the internship ended, and I was still there.” But after a year, Allen felt the need to move on. The magazine world is a tightknit place, and Allen’s network helped her secure her current job at one of the top publication companies. Condé Nast attracts more than 95 million readers across its multiple publications, including Vogue, GQ and the New Yorker. Allen’s daily tasks range from “finding high-resolution images or calling in products so we can shoot them to finding someone Post-It notes.” She works closely with all the members of the team to assist with their editorial tasks. Some of her responsibilities may be trivial, but when she feels frustrated, Allen reminds herself that she’s the “bottom of the totem pole in one of the best magazine companies in the world.” —Hannah Cather
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TICKET TO RIDE
onnaroo, Forecastle, Big Ears — Brandy Blaylock has seen (and ticketed) them all. As Ticketing and Box Office Manager at Knoxville’s AC Entertainment, Blaylock plays an integral role in events ranging from four-day festivals to concerts at venues like the Bijou and Tennessee theatres. Blaylock (MS/IS ’09) worked her way up from the bottom, starting in the box office as an undergraduate at UT. After mastering small, daily tasks on the ticketing side of the music business, she earned more responsibility. She now oversees ticketing for the whole company, including events at Asheville’s the Orange Peel and Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. For festivals like Forecastle in Louisville, Ky., this means build-
Brandy Blaylock, 30
UP IN THE AIR Adam Ponzurick, 26
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ing a box office onsite — literally. Blaylock also does data analytics and works with management systems to ensure the process with customers and management is “robust and professional.” She says CCI’s research and information management training helped her slide easily into working with data systems. Plus she gets to work alongside the people who bring some of her favorite bands to stages where everyone can appreciate them. “That’s the best part, getting to have relationships and work with the venues,” Blaylock says. “I get the opportunity to see music myself that I might not otherwise see. I love what I do.” —C.D.
dam Ponzurick (BS/ ADV ’11) likes being in charge. The advertising graduate says he likes making the big decisions — the ones that affect his career. As director of digital media and sales at Cumulus Media in Knoxville, he gets to do just that. “Recently we’ve decided to partner with a third partner company to allow us to sell a bunch of new digital products,” he says. “It was a big decision because it has completely shifted the focus of the department and the sales team. We’ve now taken a much deeper step into digital waters.” The company is the second largest operator of radio stations in the U.S., with offices in all 89 markets including New York, Dallas and Atlanta. Ponzurick began working there in 2013, after leaving his first postgraduate job at WBIR-TV. Through WBIR and his work in CCI, he gained the skills to succeed in his career. “Everything I did at WBIR revolved around advertising and
digital media,” Ponzurick says. “Everything that I learned in school, ways to target a specific audience, to find your target market and ways to speak to the audience, were all put into action. When I was able to succeed at that, it opened up more doors.” Currently, Ponzurick is focused on working his way up the corporate ladder — but his eventual goal is to own his own business. As an adult, Ponzurick is now watching his younger brother enter the job market and says he realizes now more than ever the value in planning and making every work experience count. “I’ve been able to see in hindsight that everything you do leading up to now affects your career whether it’s on your resume or not,” he says. “Stay laser-focused, work incredibly hard and always be mindful that nobody owes you a thing. Set lofty goals for yourself and your career and achieve them.” —C.D.
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THE BIG PICTURE
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lizabeth Smith (BS/ JEM ’14) credits part of her success in the radio business to an unlikely hobby — modeling. “Modeling develops confidence and forces you to be outgoing,” Smith says. “Everyone is looking at you so you have to develop into a different type of person. Having that exposure and experience helped me to be better on camera.” The 2014 grad is now the promotion assistant at 92.9 The Game, an Atlanta sports radio and CBS affiliate. Landing your first job is not always easy, especially in the field of journalism. Smith was on a job search for nine months before receiving a single job offer. Patience and timing, she realized, are the first rules of becoming a successful journalist. “I had a lot of opportunities and I was very close but I guess it was not where I was meant to be at the time,” she says. “I failed so many times but soon enough your time will come.” She learned a lot while being a student at UT, but there are some things that she wished she could have done better. “I really wish I would have been more aggressive,” she says. “You have to be very aggressive in this field. Looking back, I wish I would have been more aggressive in seeking opportunities to do more on-air work. You have to scout a lot of things out on your own.”
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The 92.9 The Game sports radio station was the perfect fit for the recent graduate. She markets and hosts on-site events with contests and prizes, as well as updating web content and assisting with duties inside of the station by helping with whatever is needed at the time. “I was so consistent and persistent to get this job,” she says. “I reached out to several people at the station. I also had someone put in a good word for me who had previously worked there. It was a combination of a lot of things but more importantly, I was so determined to get the job.” — Malak Al Duraidi
Elizabeth Smith, 23
Zac Ellis, 26
AHEAD OF THE GAME
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ac Ellis (BS/JEM ’11) has voted for the Heisman Trophy for the past three years. At 26 years old, this is no small feat. The 2011 journalism grad is a writer for Sports Illustrated magazine and website, where he covers college football and basketball — and votes for the highest award in college football. “It’s really cool to be so young and get to do that,” Ellis says. He started at the magazine between his junior and senior year of college, when he interned with the American Society of Magazine Editors’ program for college students. After spending the summer at Sports Illustrated’s office in New York, he returned to Knoxville to serve as Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Beacon, UT’s student newspaper. He says it’s “all of those experiences combined” that readied him for postgraduate success, first as an intern at Men’s Journal and then as a full-time online editor at SI in Atlanta. Now that the magazine has moved its Atlanta office up to New York, Ellis works from home in Atlanta, where he lives with his fiancee. He says he enjoys being close to friends and family in Knoxville and has no plans to move back to the Big Apple anytime soon. “I’ve just kind of been raised in the South,” he says. “I spent time in New York and it’s a fun place, but I didn’t really
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wo years since graduating from UT, Taylor Presley (BS/CS ’13) has moved to New York City, hung out with Usher at the Macy’s Day Parade and sat in the front row at “The Colbert Report.” After leaving Knoxville for the Big Apple, this jack-of-all-trades has also worked as a nanny, a media coordinator at a public relations company, a freelancer for a non-profit, and currently, as a communications assistant at a lifestyle management company called GYST. GYST matches personal assistants from its team with people in New York City who need help with errands, book keeping,
want to live there long term.” With the experiences he has had in sports journalism, he advises up-and-coming sports writers to first, build their social media brand and second, remember that being a fan can sometimes be a hindrance. “You can be a huge fan and do this, but you have to separate your fandom from your professional work,” he says. “I’m a huge Tennessee fan and trying to cover Tennessee football can sometimes be a conflict of interest. Being able to separate and being a professional about it is the easiest way to be seen as a credible guy in this industry.” —C.D.
household management or travel planning. Presley works for the founder and CEO, a job that involves helping with company operations, scheduling and digital strategy planning. “GYST has many exciting things coming down the pipe, and I’m thrilled for the opportunity to be along for the ride,” she says. Since graduation, Presley has networked with hundreds of New York professionals (she has more than 500 LinkedIn connections), including many from her alma mater. “UT alums, no matter how far you go from Tennessee, are always willing to lend a helping hand,” she says. And when Presley does return to
Taylor Presley, 24
MAKING IT PERSONAL Tennessee to visit friends and family, she says the best part of coming home to New York is the incredible view. “Anytime you’re driving over the bridges in and out of the city, it’s exceptionally moving to me because it’s like, ‘Wow I live here,’” Presley says. “When you leave, you enjoy your time away and you appreciate the magical experience all over again when you cross back over the bridge.” —C.D.
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Miriam Kramer, 26
OUT OF THIS WORLD
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ero to four — G-forces, that is. “I got to fly in a fighter jet that was like a trainer aircraft, but you pull like 4Gs, which feels like a gorilla sitting on your chest,” Miriam Kramer (BS/JEM ’11) explains. “I completely forgot how to be a journalist as I was in this crazy airplane, because I was just sitting there completely stunned by where I was, and also really scared.” The young science journalist has covered everything from rocket launches to spaceflight training. Kramer just started a new job as a space reporter at Mashable. She previously was a staff writer for the science news website Space.com, a position she held for nearly three years. Now residing in Brooklyn, she seems content to call the Northeast her home base, but Kramer’s path toward zero-gravity parabolic arcs began at the University of Tennessee. The daughter of an anthropologist father, Kramer never gave a thought to science as a career path, but soon found her passion for writing was fulfilled in the intricate and innovative
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world of science. “At first I thought I wanted to be a music journalist and follow bands around and be all ‘Almost Famous’ about it and stuff,” Kramer says with a laugh. Immediately following an undergrad career filled with practical experience, Kramer headed to New York University for an elite graduate program in science writing. Though her science education had previously focused on the fields of microbiology and anthropology, Kramer found herself pursuing a position in space and technology writing. And it’s Kramer’s passion for these stories that has carried her through superstorms, abbreviated astronaut training camps and reporting into the wee hours of the moonlit morning. “I don’t ever get bored by something that I’m writing because it’s always something interesting,” she says. “There’s always weird and different stuff we get to write about. One day it’s a robot with legs on the international space station, and the next day it’s like some crazy Russian problem with the United States or something like that.” —Emilee Lamb
Adam Moussa, 25
#SPORTS
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SPN’s X Games Programming Coordinator Adam Moussa (MS/C&I ’13) can tell a story in 5,000 words. But more importantly for today’s media, he can also tell it in 140 characters. After graduating from the University of Memphis in 2012, Moussa enrolled in the master’s program at the University of Tennessee. He says the main reason he chose UT was the school’s focus on the ability to tell stories across multiple platforms, such as social media. He believed there was the possibility to actually tell stories in a new way through social media. After graduating from UT, Moussa was among a sea of thousands of applicants for a position at ESPN. One of four selected, Moussa became a digital media associate. He covered college football for ESPN’s print magazine and online. Moussa worked in this capacity for a year before being placed in charge of social media for the X Games in June 2014. Though this is a long way from where he thought he would end up at ESPN, Moussa says it was his ability to
adapt to changing situations that helped him get to this position. He was thrust into the middle of the world of the greatest thrill seekers on the planet. No longer was he solely covering his first love, football, but instead athletes ranging from the highest-flying cyclists to the life-risking surfers atop the largest waves in the world. ESPN has turned to social media to help tell these stories. Moussa says the need for a social media presence is absolutely critical. The demographic for the X Games is younger, and thus far more likely to pay attention to coverage on social media, he says. Although he is unendingly grateful for the opportunities he has been given, Moussa isn’t ready to throw in the towel on football reporting just yet. “Ultimately, I want to get back in the college football realm,” Moussa explains. “But sometimes the track isn’t always just straight and narrow. Sometimes it’s going to take you in some wild directions.” —Justin Daugherty
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Megan Napier, 23
LET’S GET DIGITAL
or Megan Napier (BS/ADV ’13) , a really fun perk of working at Scripps Networks is the Food Network kitchen. “The white subway tile, the Food Network logo,” she jokes (sort of ). “And they serve a lot of stuff that’s in the magazine and on the website.” It sounds like a dream for foodies who watch any of Scripps’ major channels, like HGTV, Food Network and DIY Network. Napier admits to being a fan of all three, especially after she and her husband started house hunting. She first delved into advertising after changing her major from journalism during her sophomore year. The following summer, with the help of a UT professor, she landed an internship at the Young & Rubicam ad agency in New York City. As
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Brooke Fraser, 24
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ttending Saturday Night Live after parties, interviewing the vice president of the United States, covering the Boston Marathon bombing — Brooke Fraser (BS/JEM ’12), Today Show researcher and assistant, has mastered journalism at 30 Rock. Fraser knew her goal was to work at a national news show, but she applied for internships and jobs for almost four years before her dreams began to take shape. These internships included working for Congressman Chuck Fleischmann in Washington D.C., and Fox News in New York City. She had heard about the NBC Page program for many years and knew the internship's elite reputation — only 212 pages selected a year from the more than 16,000 applicants. While in search for a direct contact, she came across the name of the program's coordinator while reading the newspaper. Immediately, Fraser
a senior, she interned at Scripps, doing research and analytics for HGTV and DIY Network. Upon graduation, advertising professor Mariea Hoy connected her with a former student who worked in a different department at Scripps. That department in Knoxville had a job opening. Napier now works on the digital side of the company, piecing together ads and making them live on the website. It’s a job Napier enjoys, though it’s one she didn’t know existed before she started. Just because you major in advertising, she says, doesn’t mean you have to work at an agency. “There are more jobs out there than you think,” Napier says. “Search for new opportunities. Digital, digital, digital — that’s the way to go.” — C.D.
wrote down her name and emailed her personally with a resume and cover letter. A few weeks later, she received an email back with an invitation for an interview in New York. Fraser now lives in the city and says she's happy to help UT grads who also harbor big city dreams. “Apply anywhere and everywhere,” Fraser says. “I had a list and an Excel spreadsheet. You have to remember that you have to start small and go up from there.” Fraser's love of journalism blossomed at UT's on-campus television station The Volunteer Channel and eventually carried her to one of the biggest media corporations in the world. But no matter how far she strays, Fraser will remain a Vol for Life. “New York is very different. It's the best time of my life to be here,” she says. “But Knoxville will always be my home.” —Hannah McCulley
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t’s a story that reads like a myth: The summer internship actually becomes a post-graduation job offer. That is reality for Samantha Smoak (BS/CS ’14), who graduated last December. Before her final semester, Smoak took a summer internship at Pyxl, a digital marketing firm. “I started asking about job openings ... they weren’t hiring,” Smoak says. “I mentioned it every once in a while and got the same answer: not hiring right now.” In November, her boss surprised her with a full-time offer as a digital communication specialist. Now, she creates content for clients across industries like higher education, healthcare and entertainment.
The job, which has a heavy writing and editing bent, is one one she says she could not have done without her work experience as online editor and managing editor of The Daily Beacon, where she “got to apply the communication skills I was learning in class and hone written and oral communication skills.” Because Pyxl is a small company, Smoak has the chance to take on more responsibility and interact with higher ups, like the company president. Oh, and they regularly have Nerf gun fights in the office and answer internal emails with funny GIFs — every recent college grad’s dream. —C.D.
MEMBERS ONLY
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s the member relations director at a country club, Sookie Park (BS/ADV ’13) has befriended politicians, lawyers, marketing professionals, doctors, bankers and CEOs. “I like people,” Park says, “and I like talking to them, befriending them and helping them.” The Minnesota-native with South Korea descent is used to being around local celebrities — she interned with the Knoxville Ice Bears during her junior year at UT. While there, she wrote a blog called “Sookie’s Snap Shots,”
Samantha Smoak, 22
ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE
A NOSE FOR NEWS Sookjo Park, 25
which highlighted players’ lives on and off the ice. Park knew she wanted to use her communication skills to build relationships and help people. That’s when she began working at Holston Hills Country Club. So what’s her dream job? “I want to end up in Europe, especially Germany, working at an international soccer club like Bayern Munich or Manchester United doing marketing,” she says. “It’s a big dream, but hopefully I can achieve it.” — C.D.
Jonquil Newland, 30
F
or Nashville News Channel 5 anchor Jonquil Newland (BS/JEM ’08), a typical work day starts at 9:30 a.m. By 10 a.m., she and the other reporters are in conference with the directors and producers of the station, pitching story ideas. Then, they make the news: all part of the job for someone in broadcasting, a field Newland has been in for seven years. Newland started her first postgrad on-air job in Jackson, Tenn. She was a “backpack” journalist who cre-
ated stories all on her own by carrying equipment like cameras and recording devices. Newland also carried around a “sweat rag.” “I would just wipe the sweat off and keep going,” Newland says. Newland said she was prepared thanks to experience she gained through working at WUTK radio and WBIR during her later years of college. For now, Newland is back in her hometown, doing what she loves and hoping to further her career. “This is my home. Nashville is where I grew up,” Newland says. “I look forward to see where life takes me.” S — Courtney Anderson
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Festival-goers outside the Bijou Theatre at Big Ears. Photo by Taylor Gash
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FACING THE
MUSIC
A pair of local festivals bring big names—and more than a little visibility—to downtown Knoxville By Nicole Hedger Delta Spirit lead singer Matt Vasquez at Rhythm N’ Blooms.
Photo by Hannah Cather
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wanging guitars, soaring strings and amplified vocals are the new sounds of spring in East Tennessee. Each year, Knoxville hosts two unique cultural experiences: Big Ears and Rhythm N’ Blooms. These multi-day music festivals fall within two weeks of each other. And not only are they entertaining for fans, they have also helped raise Knoxville’s profile in the music world. Big Ears founder Ashley Capps, a University of Tennessee alumnus whose company A.C. Entertainment co-produces Bonnaroo music festival, says drawing attention to his hometown was a major motivator. “This balance between highlighting our city and then bringing the world to this city is a large part of why I wanted to create the event,” he says. Rhythm N’ Blooms co-producer Chyna Brackeen feels the same way. At her festival, guests can experience the Old City in a brand new way. “One of my favorite things about this festival is seeing people fall in love with Knoxville because they’re having such a great time at this event.” While some may view the two festivals as competing with each other, WUTK general manager and program director Benny Smith argues they are complementary. Big Ears draws buzz on the national level and Rhythm N’ Blooms is focused more on a local market and regional performers, Smith says. They provide entertainment for every consumer, making spring in Knoxville a music lover’s dream. “Big Ears is this music festival that really pushes the musical boundaries,” Smith says. “(Rhythm N’ Blooms) features more Americana music, but also has a very healthy, incredible lineup of local musicians…to go along with all the national headliners.” Still, separated by just one weekend in the spring, they do force some consumers to make a choice. Mike Zaczyk, a senior in communications at UT, is one of many who would love to attend both but couldn’t afford it. Last year he decided to attend Rhythm N’ Blooms and, to his disappointment, skip Big Ears. But his story had a happy ending anyway. “I ended up volunteering for a couple shifts (at Rhythm N’ Blooms) and got passes that way, so I
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used the money I was gonna spend on that pass for a Big Ears pass,” Zaczyk says. “It was awesome.” Big Ears debuted in 2009 with performances by the legendary composer Philip Glass, among others. Its lineup consisted of “major artists in classical music and music throughout the world that you see often in a big city like New York, London, Chicago or Paris,” Capps says. “These artists perform in large cultural centers all the time, but there’s something special, I think, that stands out when you bring them to a city like Knoxville ... There’s an opportunity to create a kind of unique festival experience.” The Bijou Theatre on Gay Street was the largest venue that first year with about 750 seats, and the shows drew modest numbers. After the 2010 festival, Capps set Big Ears aside. For a few years, it sat dormant until the nonprofit Aslan Foundation decided to resurrect it. “They felt like it was a shame it had gone away,” Capps says. “So they came to me … (and) made some amazing things possible by helping to fund it.” Big Ears returned in 2014 and saw double the turn-
out of the 2010 festival, and its popularity has only continued to grow. Capps says the 2015 tickets sales were a 40 percent increase from last year, most likely because of the growing interest and appeal it has on a national level. Many of these artists have large fan bases who are willing to travel to see them perform live. Venues this year included the Tennessee Theatre, the Square Room, the Standard, the Bijou Theatre and more. Kronos Quartet, an American string group, played a major role in this year’s Big Ears festival as the artist-in-residence. The group collaborated with several of the other artists including Wu Man, a Chinese pipa player and composer; Laurie Anderson, an American experimental artist and composer; and roots artists Rhiannnon Giddens and Sam Amidon. These collaborations along with dozens of other performances to choose from over the weekend, like Mix Richter, tUnE-yArDs and Ben Frost, gave Big Ears attendees plenty of opportunities to experience something different. Capps admits the diversity of the festival could prove unappealing to listeners who prefer more predictability. That’s why Big Ears hosts free musical teasers at the Knoxville Museum of Art on Saturday and Sunday during the event. “To me the challenge, and I mean that in the best sense of the word, is drawing people into the new experience,” Capps says. “I don’t want it to be this insulated ‘in-crowd’ kind of thing. The experience, ultimately, is about being open and exploring, and everyone will tell me that no matter why they came to the festival last year, they saw something that completely amazed them that they didn’t know existed before, so that’s a victory for me.” The festival has earned national recognition in The New York Times, LA Weekly and Rolling Stone, con-
DJ Nosaj Thing rocks Big Ears. Photo by Justin Keyes
firming the value of bringing well-known acts to smaller venues. This contrast creates a rare feeling of intimacy between the artists and the audience – something hard to find in sold-out, arena-size concerts in big cities. While Big Ears promises an experience like no other, it doesn’t come cheap. Day passes are $65 and weekend passes range from $135 to $199 plus a $2 charity fee that is donated to Knoxville’s Joy of Music School and the Community School of the Arts. Rhythm N’ Blooms is more moderately priced. Weekend passes go for $60 and day passes are $30. Also, anyone can sign up on Rhythm N’ Blooms
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“To me, the thing that’s always exciting is that people discover their next favorite band here,” Brackeen says. “They might come for the headliners, but because there’s such a focus put on how great the performances are, you’re going to go away discovering a band that you’ve never heard of and you’re going to fall in love with.” website to volunteer for four-hour shifts to earn day have a high percentage of bands with ties to Knoxville.” passes, making the event all the more accessible. Among the local acts who performed at this year’s These volunteers often take ownership of the event Rhythm N’ Blooms: The Dirty Guv’nahs, Cereus and stay longer when extra help is needed. “Every Bright, Jill Andrews, Subtle Clutch, Mike McGill & single year I feel that (from volunteers) and I hear it the Refills, Hudson K and Lil Iffy. from other people who feel it too,” says Brackeen. “I In the end, that’s really what both Rhythm N’ Blooms can’t think of another event in Knoxville that feels and Big Ears promise: a chance to broaden your mind. quite the same way. It’s a product of so many people With music ranging from complex symphony pieces to around Knoxville who love the festival and love this rock and roll to Americana and roots, they guarantee community coming together to work on it.” you’ll discover something new—and come away with a Rhythm N’ Blooms’ spirit celebrates the history of new appreciation for the Scruffy City. S and enthusiasm for music in the city, as well as the beauty of a blooming East Tennessee spring. One of the many features of Knoxville’s annual Dogwood Arts Festival, Rhythm N’ Blooms has become a high-interest event since its inception in 2007. This year’s lineup boasted headliners such as the Decemberists, Drive-By Truckers and Delta Spirit. Brackeen says she books only artists whose performances combine talent, entertainment and stage presence, something you’re sure to witness at the festival. “The number one thing I look for is live performance,” explains Brackeen, a former employee of A.C. Entertainment who now runs her own company, Attack Monkey Productions. “To me, the thing that’s always exciting is that people discover their next favorite band here. They might come for the headliners, but because there’s such a focus put on how great the performances are, you’re going to go away discovering a band that you’ve never heard of and you’re going to fall in love with.” Brackeen hopes it’s a local one. “The festival was started because we wanted to honor the history of Knoxville’s place in musical history and heritage,” says Brackeen. “One of the Colin Meloy of The major ways that we do that is to make sure we Decemberists at
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Rhythm N’ Blooms
Photo by Hannah Cather
Capturing
BOXING WEEKEND
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s a photojournalist — and photo editor at The Daily Beacon — I’ve had the opportunity to witness a lot: football games, student protests, concerts, a visit by Laverne Cox, new restaurants, basketball games, Sex Week, music festivals and SGA debates. My camera and I have ventured far and wide. The University of Tennessee’s 35th annual Boxing Weekend was a new beast, though. Sigma Alpha Epsilon organized the three-night event in February to raise money for charity, and the crowd loved it. Most of the boxers and attendees had a Greek affiliation, something I do not. A lot of them enthusiastically shouted crude encouragements; I looked away in disgust when lips busted and blood smeared on opponents’ gloves — but my camera kept on clicking. These are some of the photos from a world where I didn’t belong. S PHOTO ESSAY BY HANNAH CATHER
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Junior Welterweight champ Andrew Marini of Kappa Sigma after one his rounds.
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1
2
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3 1. Robert Parr of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, left, and Sam Lannom of Phi Sigma Kappa fight for the Welterweight championship. 2. Andrew Veal, “Middleweight A” champion from Alpha Tau Omega, makes a comment to Alex Lee of Sigma Nu after their first match on Friday. 3. Featherweight competitor Patrick Costa of Sigma Alpha Epsilon confers with his trainer and mentor between rounds. 4. Enthusiastic crowd members during one of the boxing matches. (Hannah swears she saw the man in the Predators jersey cry.)
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THE COLLEGE Deborah Douglas at her desk in Com 333. Photo by Brandon Crawford
Mission Impossible
How can JEM ever replace Deborah Douglas, retiring after 27 years? By Hayley Brundige
I
t takes someone special to keep the School of Journalism & Electronic Media functioning — someone who can truly do it all. Deborah Douglas is just that someone special. “She’s organized. She knows the process here. She knows where the bodies are buried,” Peter Gross, director of the School of Journalism & Electronic Media, says. “She knows just about everything that it takes to run a unit such as the School of Journalism.” Douglas, administrative support assistant for the School of Journalism & Electronic Media and a vital part of the college since 1989, is retiring at the end of next school year.
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For now, Douglas acts as the linchpin of the journalism school, paying the bills, scheduling classes, handling travel and reimbursements for visitors, and keeping track of personnel paperwork. She has no set schedule on a daily basis, but there’s one thing that never changes about her job: “Going crazy,” she says, laughing. Sharp-witted and sassy, Douglas sits at her desk in Com 333, taking care of “whatever needs to get done,” as she puts it. From her seat, she’s seen the department transform into the School of Journalism and Public Relations to its current incarnation, the School of Journalism & Electronic Media.
THE COLLEGE
“
Everything’s going to be lost, we might as well close our doors...” — Peter Gross, Journalism & Electronic Media director
Douglas grew up in Newport News, Va., with two brothers and two sisters. After attending Virginia Commonwealth University for two and a half years, her father underwent major surgery, and she decided she didn’t want to “press the finances.” “I wouldn’t say we were poor,” Douglas says of her childhood. “But we always teased my father that he was so tight with a penny he made it cry. But he’d say, ‘You had everything you needed.’” Instead, she joined the workforce, moving around the country with her husband who works as a construction engineer for nuclear plants. In 1989, she came to the University of Tennessee and took over for the journalism department’s secretary who went on maternity leave and decided not to come back. And Douglas has been here ever since. Douglas isn’t an official adviser, but she says she often acts as the voice of reason for students who are struggling with academic decisions. “Some feel more comfortable coming to me than they do
going to their adviser,” she says. Gross says she’s very plugged in to the life of students, aware of all their “trials and tribulations.” “She’s sort of the first person that anyone who comes in meets, so it is important that we have someone who’s open, friendly, knowledgeable, responsible, caring — all those things,” Gross says. Not afraid to deliver a dose of tough love, Douglas used to have a designated “crying chair” for students who found themselves one credit shy of graduation or just struggling with coursework. “A lot of tears in that chair,” she says. “I’d always talk them down.” After decades of hard work, Douglas is trying to “get through one more school year” before she retires. She says the daily work can be monotonous, and she finds herself wanting someone to share the workload. “Getting up in the morning and putting one foot in front of the other to come in is hard,” Douglas says. “Every single day.” Douglas, candid and unapologetically honest, says she’s looking forward to just being at home and relaxing. She enjoys snuggling up with a good book, especially mysteries and “some of the steamy stuff.” “I just look forward to not coming in here,” she says, bursting out in a laugh. “I can get up and sit in my pajamas all blessed day if I want to.” While retirement is something for Douglas to look forward to, the loss of her presence and institutional knowledge is something for the college to dread. “Everything’s going to be lost, we might as well close our doors,” Gross says, half seriously. “She’s so essential to having the school function that I don’t even want to think about what it would take to even get close to replacing her. “It’s going to be an impossible task.” S
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THE COLLEGE
Double
Dutch
Exchange program gives UT, international students unique journalism experience By Hannah Cather
I
n a land far, far away — or 4,271 miles way to be exact — there’s a school not so different from the University of Tennessee. Sure, they speak Dutch. Sure, most of the students ride bikes to school and sure, there isn’t a 102,455-seat football stadium on campus. But when you focus on the journalism courses, those differences fade away. Hogeschool Utrecht and UT both offer exemplary journalism programs for enthusiastic, curious students. For those who want to see the world, there’s an exchange program between the two. Since the spring semester of 2002, 23 UT students and 24 Hogeschool students have participated in the program, says Sarah Knight, a coordinator with the UT Programs Abroad Office. Current students like Travis Miller (Knoxville) and Lu-
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igi Zanin (Utrecht, which is 27 miles from Amsterdam) had the opportunity to spend time studying and living in a completely different culture while continuing their academic programs. At UT, the Dutch exchange students can take the classes that suit their interests and academic needs, but UT students studying at Hogeschool follow a specific curriculum: European Culture and European Journalism. Both groups, however, spend their time and energy focusing on growing as journalists. Miller, a fifth year Journalism major and Cinema Studies minor, paid his UT tuition rate and participated in the ECEJ program in Utrecht with 13 other international students in the spring semester of 2014. “It was a good experience because of the final project
THE COLLEGE Illustration by Haley Hudgins
where you get to travel to a city of your choice and report about culture,” Miller says. “I was doing journalism in a foreign city that I’d never been to. I was by myself, and I didn’t know anything about Vilnius, Lithuania, but I was able to produce two stories.” Zanin, the only student from Hogeschool for the spring of 2015, didn’t know anything about Knoxville or the workings of American media before he arrived in December. “In Holland, we have this idea of the U.S.’s news being really dramatic and over-reacting,” Zanin says. “It’s interesting to see how journalism courses are being taught here and how students are being trained to become journalists.” Although he is now more familiar with life in the States, Zanin still thinks the news broadcasting here is a bit over the top.
“When I watch CNN, for instance, I almost always see a banner with ‘BREAKING NEWS’ on the screen, even when the news just isn’t that big or relevant to many people,” Zanin says. “In Holland, the words ‘breaking news’ are used way less. The goal of television news shows is more to inform than to draw the most viewers.” For 10 years, Els Diekerhof has been the ECEJ coordinator. She greets the students on their first day and guides them throughout the semester. Diekerhof believes the program offers an invaluable experience for journalism students. “One of the important things for journalists is that they do not have a narrow view on the world, but that they have a global view,” Diekerhof says. “The world is global now, and so is journalism.” S
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THE COLLEGE
Breaking Barriers Data sharing project gets $2.73 million to move to next phase By Nicole Hedger 62 • SCOOP Spring 2015
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or the past seven years, The University of Tennessee’s College of Communication & Information has been involved in the nationwide creation of the DataONE project. In 2014, after the completion of phase one, CCI received $2.73 million from the National Science Foundation to continue the project into phase two. DataONE stands for Data Observation Network for Earth. Its goal is to provide a worldwide scientific data archive for ecological and environmental data, a place where earth and environmental scientists and researchers can deposit their data to be shared and accessed by virtually anyone. Topics encompass everything from air quality statistics to mosquito population growth. Beyond building the data repository network, DataONE seeks to explore the cultural bounds of data sharing, according to DataONE colead Carol Tenopir, chancellor’s professor at the School of Information Sciences. “That’s the physical part, building the cyber infrastructure,” Tenopir says. “The other part is to build a culture of data sharing, and in some ways that’s even more difficult. [The goal is] to find out what the barriers to finding and reusing data are, the cultural barriers, and to help provide educational materials systems that are responsive to anybody’s concerns
about data.” CCI has worked with several other colleges, including the University of New Mexico and the University of California, Santa Barbara, to produce the system. The network is up and working after phase one, and phase two will focus predominantly on the cultural aspect and proving the system to be self-sustainable. “The idea is open data so that any earth and environmental scientist would deposit their data in a repository that DataONE can communicate with, and anyone would be able to come and access the data,” Tenopir says. Apart from having its hand in all areas of DataONE’s ongoing creation, CCI is particularly involved in the usability, assessment and sociocultural issues of the project. CCI also laid the groundwork for the international project. Working closely with Oak Ridge National Lab, the college helped write the initial grant proposal and follow it into production after its approval. It has worked on the project for more than seven years, two of which were spent in the grant-writing phase. With the collective effort of Oak Ridge National Lab, CCI and several other universities, DataONE will be fully functioning and accessible within the next five years. It will continue to grow as earth and environmental researchers add and deposit data for years to come. S
THE COLLEGE
white,” says Brittany Jaimungal-Singh, co-president of DSLS. “There is a whole world out there. I try to recognize and welcome diversity culture every day in my life.” Jaimungal-Singh, a senior in Communication Studies, joined DSLS her sophomore year and says she has seen the club grow more each year, both in size and diversity. Now there are more than 45 members, with 22 to 26 members who attend meetings regularly. One of the most interesting parts of the club, says Jaimungal-Singh, is that members often agree about issues— but for different reasons. For instance, while members generally agree that poverty in the U.S. is a major problem, they have different ideas about why. The society sponsors events each semester to discuss and promote various aspects of diversity, such as its annual Experience Diversity Banquet held in February, assisting with the College of Communication & Information’s Diversity Week in the fall, and the Mock Interview/Dress for Success Event as well. At the ban2015 honoree quet, students and faculty share their Dr. Tom Kim experiences involving diversity at UT. They also raise funds for DSLS through a silent and live auction that Photo by Logan White help defray cost for field trips and help provide scholarships for students in the organization. This year marked the seventh banquet and honored Dr. Tom Kim, who was born in Korea and now runs a free medical CCI student society focuses on diversity, clinic for low-income citizens. A major event for DSLS students prepares members for global leadership was their March trip to Washington, By Yiqin Chen D.C. They visited CNN, the FBI, Microsoft, the United States Institute for ithin the College of Com- Bowling Wirth, director of DSLS. “We Peace and the National Community munication & Informa- also want to create an environment or Reinvestment Coalition. This year, they tion, there is a group of atmosphere that forms and endorses also visited Atlanta. Next year, DSLS is students who prepare for global work diversity.” planning a trip to New York City. by focusing on diversity—the CCI DiDSLS focuses on all aspects of diver“The expectation of the trip is stuversity Student Leaders Society. sity, including religion, ethnicity, race, dents will come away with increased “We want students to stand out in- sexual orientation, age, socio-ecoknowledge about the companies we dependently... as well as practice di- nomic level, ideology and lifestyle. visit as well what it takes to make it in versity-conscious skills,” says Alice R. “It doesn’t just have to be black and the professional world,” says Wirth. S
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Build-A-Career CEO’s can-do attitude takes her to the top at retail company By Hannah Cather
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hen she went to college, Sharon Price John didn’t picture herself becoming the future CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop. John had a knack for leadership and a willingness to fill the role, but since the company wasn’t founded until 1997, it wasn’t on her radar. When John enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of Tennessee, she was originally studying art
“I can’t say that I was ever so lofty in my 20s to say, ‘I’m going to be CEO of a company,’” John says. “But I wasn’t unambitious or I never would have gone to New York. You look back on it and say, ‘I must have thought I could do something.’ “I think at that point just being a vice president would have been so Sharon Price John
“You have to inspire, you have to be a leader...
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and architecture. But as plans often do, hers changed. “I did have a transitional process through UT, like a lot of people do,” John says. “You go in thinking you’re going to do one thing and you come out doing something else.” Instead of getting a degree in design, John switched to advertising and communications after her freshman year. Post-graduation, she made her way to New York to find a job and her place in the ad-world. Two of her first advertising gigs were with Hershey’s and Mars accounts working at firms DDB/Needham and Backer Spielvogel Bates, respectively.
outrageous to me,” John says, reflecting on her college years. “I was probably just thinking , ‘If I could be a VP in a big ad agency, then that’ll be the best thing ever.’ Then I became one and thought, ‘Well, I can do more than this.’” That she did. Between climbing the ranks at ad agencies, John earned her MBA from Columbia University in New York. With that degree, she moved on to hold executive positions
at Mattel and Hasbro. When she switched to Stride Rite and became president of the shoe company’s children’s group in 2010, John increased licensing and turned around the brand’s wholesale and retail businesses. John’s high-profile experience prepared her for her biggest challenge yet: becoming CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop in June 2013. Build-ABear, a St. Louis-based retailer, is an interactive store where customers, generally children, make customized stuffed animals. Within a year, she was able to turn the company from a $50 million loss to a profit. Her ability to communicate and execute plans was a contributing factor. “You have to inspire, you have to be a leader,” she says. “If you do all those things and don’t get out with the people and make sure that strategy is something they can wrap their hands around, then none of it matters.” Because of her business success, John received the 2014 Donald G. Hileman Alumni Award from UT’s College of Communication & Information. “Sharon Price John has a remarkable ability to innovate, manage change and turn around corporations,” says Mike Wirth, dean of the College of Communication & Information.“In recognition of her many accomplishments as a leading business executive, we were proud to present her with the college’s highest alumni award. She is a true role model who serves as an inspiration for our students.” S
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ALUMNI HOUSE Alan Greenberg, Anne Holt Blackburn, David Bohan and Dan Hellie
Fantastic Four
CCI-affiliated alums clean up in university-wide awards By Liv McConnell Last fall marked a special period for the College of Communication & Information when, for the first time, top awards from the Alumni Board of Directors went to CCI graduates Dan Hellie, Alan Greenberg and Anne Holt Blackburn as well as David Bohan, a member of CCI’s Board of Visitors. They were recognized for their singular career accomplishments in an October 2014 ceremony. Here are the stories of their successes, past and present.
Entrepreneurship through global education
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or Alan Greenberg, the best days on the job don’t involve walking into his office in New York City. No, his favorite days are the ones beginning on a plane, thousands of miles away. “I greatly enjoy flying into a new city and trying to figure that city out from the standpoint of how we can be successful there,” he says. “That’s highly, highly stimulating and interesting to me — discovering the culture of that
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city, the traffic patterns, where our target market is.” Greenberg has become a regular globetrotter in an effort to further his latest international business endeavor, Avenues: The World School, of which he is co-founder and president. Currently operating from its New York City campus, Greenberg aims to expand the Avenues schools to international cities like London and Beijing. “We’re hoping to build the world’s first global system of schools reaching children ages 3 to 18,” he said. “And we’re not cobbling together a collec-
tion of schools, either. We’re building a brand from the ground up.” At Avenues schools, children will receive a worldly education in a “true immersion” environment, Greenberg, himself a father of three, says. “You’re taking math in Mandarin or history in Spanish, for example,” he says. “Students will have the opportunity to study at other Avenues campuses around the world. It all revolves around preparing our children for the coming century they’re going to be living in.” Founding Avenues was a somewhat unexpected career turn for Green-
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“Every year of college is important. How will you use each one of your summers? How will you go beyond the norm? You need to be thinking about that from the time you step on campus.” – Alan Greenberg, Avenues: The World School
berg, who graduated UT in 1972 with In his work, Bohan says he seeks ditional departmental clusters — like a bachelor’s degree in Advertising. “powerful ways to manifest the truth,” Media, Account Service and Digital Since then, he has enjoyed a var- looking to campaigns like Dove’s Real departments — and implemented ied and illustrious career, including Beauty for inspiration. “brand villages.” These mini-office serving as Vice Chairman of Whittle “If you’ve got a product that really communities meld all aspects of the Communications and publisher of Es- can have an impact, and communica- advertising and marketing process, quire magazine. UT recognized these tion that’s going to be relevant to the with each group “living out” its asmany feats by honoring him with the consumer,” says Bohan, a long-time signed brand. UTK Distinguished Alumnus/Alumna member of CCI’s Board of Visitors It appear this approach is working. Award. and a 1970 UT grad with a bachelor’s In 2014, his firm took home AdvertisThe key for success after coling Age’s award for Southeast lege, Greenberg says, is capitalSmall Agency of the Year. A few izing on every available oppormonths later, he was present“Discovering what the tunity while enrolled. For him, ed with the UTK Alumni Protruth is and presenting it in fessional Achievement Award. that meant starting his own advertising business as an under“The strong belief we hold is a way that’s interesting to graduate, which he eventually that the area where communiexpanded to three campuses. consumers, I think, is what cations can really flourish and “Every year of college is imeffective is where the conwe ultimately need to do.” be portant,” he says. “How will you sumer’s desire intersects with use each one of your summers? the brand’s promise in a way the How will you go beyond the competitors really don’t,” Bohan – David Bohan, norm? You need to be thinking says. “We strive to find that point Bohan Advertising about that from the time you of intersection.” step on campus.” degree in business administration. “That’s when you can really have You only get what you give powerful work going on that’s going Grounded in reality to be transformational.” or Anne Holt Blackburn, reThe ability to harness bigger, potent cipient of the Distinguished avid Bohan, chairman and truths through ads is a talent he beAlumni Service Award, the founder of Nashville’s Bohan Advertising/Marketing gan to develop after an undergraduate path to success came riddled with unconsumer behavior class.“That was likely odds. agency, is a storyteller. Blackburn was one of 13 children However, unlike the common per- the course that really helped me understand the intersection of advertisborn to a family of sharecroppers in ception of professionals in his field, Bohan believes advertising’s best sto- ing, communication, psychology and West Tennessee. Today she is the lead rytelling is grounded in something sociology,” he says. “Current cultural news anchor for WKRN-TV in Nashanthropology and social sciences re- ville, where she has worked for 39 truly radical — the truth. “Advertising is the truth well told,” ally fit into the understanding of con- years. Mike Wirth, dean of the College of Bohan says, quoting a favorite indus- sumer behavior and how the application of that could really manifest.” Communication & Information, hertry adage. “Discovering what the truth At Bohan Advertising/Marketing, alds her as one of UT’s “most accomis and presenting it in a way that’s interesting to consumers, I think, is this multidisciplinary approach is ev- plished graduates.” ident. In 2006, the agency cut out tra“She exemplifies what it means to what we ultimately need to do.”
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Blackburn “has generously supported her alma mater with her time, talent and treasure.” – Mike Wirth, Dean be a pioneer and a volunteer and richly deserves recognition,” he says. After graduating from UT with a bachelor’s in Broadcasting in 1973, Blackburn went on to win eight Emmy Awards for her work. In 2007, she was the recipient of the Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences highest honor. She has also been honored with a Distinguished Service Award from the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters, making her the first woman, African American and news anchor to receive the award. Blackburn’s accomplishments were formally recognized at UT in 1994, when she became the first College of Communication & Information’s Donald G. Hileman Distinguished Alumni Award winner. In 2008, she was the CCI commencement speaker. Her most recent alumni award, the UTK Alumni Service Award, pays tribute to her lifelong volunteer spirit. “In addition to the awards, Anne has been a great community servant through her service to the University of Tennessee, the city of Nashville and the state of Tennessee,” Wirth says. She has led the WKRN 28-year part-
nership with the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee and served as a member on numerous boards, including UT’s Board of Trustees and the CCI Board of Visitors, Leadership Nashville, Cumberland Valley Girl Scouts and United Way of Middle Tennessee. In addition, Blackburn and her husband, Kenny, have also served as benefactors to UT students by creating the Anne Holt Blackburn Endowed Scholarship. “She has generously supported her alma mater with her time, talent and treasure,” Wirth says.
If at first you don’t succeed ...
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ow one of the NFL Network’s most popular hosts, Dan Hellie can remember the day he was turned down for a sportscaster position at UT as an undergraduate in the late ’90s. “I actually lost out to another guy for the sports anchor job on the show we had,” Hellie says with a laugh. “It motivated me. I was like, ‘Wow, I’m not going to be a shoo-in for everything I do,’ and I was far from it at the time. The other guy was better than me, he beat me out and it was always something I remembered.” Given the number of prestigious sports-related positions and awards that have since characterized his career, it is perhaps befitting young Hellie found impetus in a little healthy competition. After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in Journalism in 1997 and holding various sports reporting and
directing roles, he went on to become the sports director at WFTV in Orlando, where he was named best sportscaster in Florida. Later, he was hired by NBC’s late George Michael, of “The George Michael Sports Machine” fame, to work for WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., before accepting his current position with the NFL Network. In October, Hellie added the UTK Alumni Promise Award to his list of accomplishments. He credits the several internships he held during his time at UT for equipping him with the tools for success. “I learned a lot in school, but the practical things you needed to succeed in the television world you had to learn in the real world,” says Hellie, who interned for 99.7 FM’s Tony Basilio, among others. “Because I went to UT and was able to get those internships, that really helped me down the road, obviously.” He encourages current CCI students to develop a strong background in writing and, above all, to not procrastinate. “Do as much as you can, because all those connections you make are going to be the things you’ll be able to harken back to down the road when you’re looking for job openings,” he says. “I can’t tell you how many former interns of mine I’ve helped get jobs, including a couple at the NFL Network.” Today, Hellie lives in Manhattan Beach, Calif., with his wife, 8-yearold daughter and 7-year-old son. He is the co-anchor of NFL Network’s “NFL Total Access” alongside Amber Theoharis. S
“Do as much as you can, because all those connections you make are going to be the things you’ll be able to harken back to down the road.” – Dan Hellie, the NFL Network
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‘It’s a Great Big World’ Advertising grad encourages early experience, professional exploration By Elson Mei Dana McCullough
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dvertising is a complex, ultra competitive business. But Dana McCullough, 20-year veteran of the New York ad world, has some simple advice for those who want to make it their career: “Always be yourself, and never stop being curious,” she says. “It’s a great big world out there for you to explore and experience.” McCullough is a vice president and account director at the McCann Erickson advertising agency, leading the U.S. advertising efforts for Nespresso, Nikon Inc. and the United Way, among others. Having achieved her professional goals, McCullough advises those with similar aspirations to remember to make time for themselves even as they climb the corporate ladder. “It’s hugely important to strive for
a sense of work and life balance,” McCullough says. “Quality of life is something we often wax poetic about in the advertising business. Achieving it is not always easy, but
including AT&T, Pepperidge Farm, Fisher Price and Chevron. As the 2014 College of Communication & Information Advertising Alumna of the Year, McCullough considers herself fortunate she’s kept in touch with her alma mater. “What a great feeling to be recognized,” she says. UT advertising students still travel to New York yearly on a faculty-led trip where they meet with professionals. McCullough enjoys the opportunity to encourage students to learn from and capitalize upon college’s experiences. Two aspects of her own time at UT stand out as most significant. “First, making lifelong friends ... with whom I’m close no matter how far apart we live,” she says. “Second, having the realization, ‘I can absolutely achieve what I set out to do with my major in the real world.’” S
“It’s hugely important to strive for a sense of work and life balance.” it can make for much harder workers and much happier individuals.” Before graduating in 1995, McCullough went to New York with a group of advertising students and visited the marketing and communications agency Young & Rubicam. Postgraduation, she was offered a position within the company. At Young & Rubicam, McCullough worked with top-notch companies
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A Life in Libraries
Decorated UT alumna looks back on a distinguished career
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By Nicole Hedger
hen you think about librarians, the sound of aggressive “shh-ing” and aisles of stacked, dusty books may come to mind. But for the recently retired Elizabeth Bibby, her long career as a librarian was a much different experience. “I wanted to go work in a company somewhere where I’m helping them with a prestigious project and it’s actually going to help the organization with the answer I find for them,” Bibby says. Bibby has a long history in libraries. Her father was a public librarian and she also spent some time as one. She studied at the School of Librarianship, Liverpool College of Commerce, but there were no master’s programs in the U.K. at the time, so when she and her husband moved to the U.S. for her husband’s career in the late ’60s, she was interested in the programs offered by many universities here. She received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Northwestern University and became a reference librarian at the main public library in Akron, Ohio, where she helped kids with homework and answered patrons’ questions that fell into her “science and technology” department. She also spent several years working various library jobs in Atlanta (where she lived for several years for her husband’s job), including Head Librarian/Coordinator for the professional services firm Labat-Anderson, where she managed a staff of around 35 people onsite at the Environmental Protection Agency. “I really like managing people,” she says. “That was what prompted me to get my master’s degree so I could get a job in academia, so I quit my job and went to school full time.” She graduated from the University of Tennessee’s School of Information Sciences in 1996. She went on to Boston College to work as the head of reference and instructional services, a position where she supervised other reference and bibliography librarians in specific departments. She also held a position on UT’s SIS advisory board and in 2002 was named SIS Alumna of the Year. After two years at Boston College she was recruited by Baker Library at Harvard University, one of the oldest business libraries in the country. She served as the director of the Business Information Services Center instruct-
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Elizabeth Bibby ing students and aiding faculty with various research projects. She stayed at Baker Library for about seven years until a colleague told her about an opening with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. “I wasn’t particularly looking to go back to Atlanta at that stage, but I knew I wanted to retire back there someday.” Bibby says. “They called me up and asked me if I would apply for the job. I read the description, and said, ‘Oh yeah that sounds interesting, I’d be interested in talking to them at least,’ and it ended up working out.” She enjoyed working for the Federal Reserve because it needed tailored research. “I knew that kind of environment was very rewarding to me personally as opposed to being a kind of jack-of-alltrades in a public library or in an academic library,” Bibby says. “I’m very goal oriented, I like to know what we’re trying to build and then know we built it, that we nailed it. It feels good.” Bibby continued working for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta until she retired in December 2014. She now spends her time biking, playing tennis and reading the books she was ironically too busy to read as a librarian. She particularly likes fiction about immigrants in the U.S. S
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The Globetrotter Journalism alum uses talent to educate, further world peace By Jasmine Head
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ome are drawn to journalism for the power, others for the glamour. For Viola Gienger, who graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1984, it was because she felt her foreign background combined with growing up in the United States prepared her well for helping explain the world to Americans. “I really wanted to play a role in educating and informing Americans about a lot of different issues and especially about the world,” she says. “It’s nice to come full circle to that.” Gienger, 54, works as a senior writer and editor for the United States Institute of Peace and is overlooks the institute’s Olive Branch blog, which describes itself as “an exchange of ideas about how to build peace and end or prevent conflict.” The USIP works to prevent, mitigate and resolve violent conflict abroad through non-violent means. Based in Washington, D.C., Gienger reports, writes and edits stories related to conflict in foreign countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. She won the College of Communication & Informa-
Viola Gienger
worked as a reporter for Bloomberg News covering the Pentagon and State Department. She has also traveled in the press corps with four Secretaries of State and Defense. Plus, she spent five years training and consulting for independent media in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Gienger has reported from more than 30 outposts, including the Middle East, Poland, Bosnia and Asia. She has served as a moderator on the Voice of America, the official public broadcast institution of the federal government. Her writing has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post and The “The education I received at UT New York Times. She credits much of her success to the variety taught me the skills, history, ethics and of roles she has held in her career. discipline required for the pursuit of the “I went through various iterations in my career and reported on a lot of different things,” truths we must wrestle with to maintain Gienger says. “I spent seven years in eastern Euour democracy.” rope, five of those years doing training and development working with independent journalists in the newly independent countries of the former Eastern Bloc and the former Yugoslavia.” While attending UT, Gienger worked at The Daily tion’s 2014 Journalism & Electronic Media Alumna of the Year award for her distinguished accomplishments Beacon, The Knoxville Journal, The Associated Press in Nashville, The Birmingham Post-Herald and Maryville’s in the field. “I was very honored and very appreciative,” Gienger The Daily Times, where she oversaw its 1982 coverage of says. “I wasn’t aware how what I had done ranks in respect the World’s Fair. She also served as president of the student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and to some very talented peers.” Every year, each school in CCI picks an alumni award was on the organization’s national board of directors as a student member. recipient, explains CCI Dean Mike Wirth. Gienger says UT was a launching pad for a career that “It is done in consultation with the faculty and director of each school. Faculty nominate possible award candi- has propelled her across the world. “The education I received at UT taught me the skills, dates, and then they vote on the one who best represents history, ethics and discipline required for the pursuit of excellence in their field.” we must wrestle with to maintain our democGienger has more than 20 years of experience as a the truths S news writer and editor. Before her position at USIP, she racy.”
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Aiming
High How focus, determination and hard work carried this news anchor to the top By Lisa Gary
Sharrie Williams
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hen Sharrie Williams began her first full-time job in television, covering the news for a small station in Jackson, Tenn., she had a plan: The 2001 University of Tennessee Journalism & Electronic Media grad wanted to learn everything she could about television news in exactly one year. Then, she would move on to a bigger market. Today Williams, 36, is an anchor-reporter at WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, the nation’s fourth largest television market. And she’s still working toward her ultimate goal: network television. Her career has led to interviews with sports stars and celebrities like Barbara Walters. While interviewing glamorous subjects is exciting, she says, it’s often ordinary people who appeal most to viewers. Her interview with the parents of a baby who had a severe birth defect that would allow him to live for only a few hours went viral. People across the country cared about “the bucket list baby.” Interviewing people dealing with tragedy and grief requires special skills,
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says Williams, winner of a UT Accomplished Alumni Award in 2014. “You have to balance being a factual journalist, not getting involved in a story, with letting interviewees know, ‘I’m a person, too.’ Don’t forget, these are people. Ask yourself, if it were my family, my situation, how would I want to be treated?” Professionalism and compassion are a given, Williams says, but her ultimate expectation for herself is perfection. “The stakes are high,” she says. “People don’t forget.” Her best news director was the one who “was on me all the time,” who would call her the moment a live segment ended to critique her performance. “I saw that woman in my dreams,” Williams says. Being a woman and a minority in the newsroom has been a challenge. Even though times have changed, “some barriers still need to be broken.” In her second job, she became the first black female to do television sports in the Birmingham, Ala., market. That year, 2007, was her hardest. “When you are first, it will be difficult,” Williams says. “But the level of support I got was just as loud as
the people who didn’t get it. We have to choose what we focus on.” Her focus, as always, was on excellence. “Do your homework. Come in early. Stay focused. Be your best,” she says. “This business is not for weak people, or for people who can’t deal with conflict. You have to be grounded in who you are and be ready.” Williams, who was born in Albany, Ga., and grew up outside Memphis, was one of the six students who helped found The Volunteer Channel and was also a reporter with UT Athletics for Fox Sports Network South while at UT. After her early jobs in Jackson and Birmingham, she jumped to stations in Miami, Dallas and then Philadelphia. She still works hard to tell a story better than anyone else, she says. That means learning social media platforms and other new ways of sharing information. She maintains a Facebook page and live-tweets just before she goes on the air. To students, she advises: “Knock it out of the park every day. You never know who’s watching you.” S
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It’s Alive!
UT alumna helps create a living, breathing Nashville magazine
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“magazine come to life” is how Knight Stivender describes 12th and Broad. She is the general manager of the arts and culture magazine and says it is, to put it simply, modern journalism: it’s a culture and community journal complimented by a live events series and digital magazine. A lot of the content readers see in the print magazine and online content can be experienced in the real world at venues around Nashville, the company’s home base. “We started 12th and Broad because ... we realized in order to get people to fund our content — to fund our journalism — we need to create experiences that they can be a part of themselves,” says Stivender, who previously worked at the Tennessean newspaper. One such event held by 12th and Broad was called “Gothic Circus.” The magazine content told the story of off-thegrid performance art, and the readers were able to attend “Gothic Circus” to watch performers such as aerial dancers and contortionists, and even sign up for lessons. Members of 12th and Broad, not unlike subscribers, receive a daily email itinerary, a quarterly print magazine and access to 12th and Broad events around Nashville. Stivender says the goal is to fully engage 12th and Broad readers on levels a print magazine cannot do itself and provide a consistent connection to Nashville creativity. A subscription to
By Cortney Roark 12th and Broad costs $14 a month and comes with digital access to the Tennessean. You can also pay $132 for a year, or $216 if you want to bring a guest to its events. What led Stivender to the task of running 12th and Broad started back in 1995 when she was a brighteyed freshman at the University of Tennessee, where she got a bachelor’s in Journalism in 1999. She spent four years working at the Daily Beacon and interned every summer at The Tennessean, the paper that would pave the way for the rest of her journalism career. Chandra Hayslett, managing supervisor at G&S Business Communications, was editor-in-chief at the Beacon then and says Stivender was not only a strong writer, but always
saw the human interest element in her stories. “She’s always been personable, which means people were comfortable around her,” Hayslett says. “That makes for a good journalist. Journalism is storytelling and to get the best story … you have to approach people in a way where they feel comfortable letting their guard down.” At her first Tennessean position, Stivender worked late nights, weekends and reported anything editors gave her – including the Y2K scare. “I was a reporter on call on the best, biggest New Year’s Eve of the whole millennia, and I had to be the sober person with the pager waiting for the world to explode,” she says. By 2003, Stivender was a bureau chief supervising a staff of about 40 editorial workers under a boss who shared supervisory responsibilities. Shortly after, she was promoted to senior editor of digital. There, she was part of the team that had the task of reinventing the Tennessean’s website and digital products. The next step in her career? Leading 12th and Broad. As for what led her there, she credits one thing and one thing alone – hard work. “No one does this job because it’s going to make them a lot of money,” she says. “They do it because they’re hard workers. They’re passionate. They care.” S
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CCI CLASS NOTES: January 2015 – April 2015 The College of Communication & Information wants to hear from you. Find us at www.cci.utk.edu/webform/keeptouch. Here’s the latest news from our graduates.
2005 Rececca Sanders (BS/JEM) is a communications specialist for Vanguard Healthcare Services in Nashville.
1964 Wallene Leek (BS/JEM) was one of 24 agents nationwide elected to represent 12,000 New York Life agents on the 2014 New York Life Agents Advisory Council.
2007 Erin Hauck (BS/ADV), group director of digital investment for OMD USA in NYC, was selected as one of the first inductees into Cynopsis Media’s inaugural “Top Women in Digital” awards.
1978 Joey Ledford (BS/JEM), U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Southeast Region II public affairs officer, has published his debut novel, “Speed Trap.” A long time journalist, Ledford has already begun writing his next novel. Rex Repass (MS/C&I), CEO of R.L. Repass & Partners, Inc., was recognized in Cincinnati Business Courier’s list of Fast 55, the fastest-growing companies in Cincinnati. 1982 Daren Rabiner Redman (BS/JEM), a Nashville, Indiana resident and texile artist, was recently interviewed by TextileArtist.org about her work and upcoming Artist in Residency at Grand Canyon National Park. 1994 Rick Wallace (MS/IS), assistant director at the East Tennessee State University (ETSU) Medical Library, received the Elise Draper Barrett Award from the Boone Tree Libary Assocation. 2002 Erin Burns Freeman (BS/PR), senior account executive at Ackermann PR was named to the Greater Knoxville Business Journal’s “40 Under Forty.” Anne LeZotte (BS/PR), communications manager at Pilot Flying J, was also named to the Greater Knoxville Business Journal’s “40 Under Forty.” 2003 Isaac Wright (BS/PR) was named one of the “40 best and brightest campaign professionals under 40 years old” in American politics at the annual AAPC Pollie Awards. His project, Correct The Record, also won the top Pollie awarded for SuperPAC online communication in 2014. Nakia Joy Woodward (MS/IS), senior clinical reference librarian at the ETSU Medical Library, was named among the “2015 Movers and Shakers’” by Library Journal.
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2011 Nicholas Hunt (BS/JEM), associate editor of Arkansas Life ,won the 2015 Great Plains Journalism Award for Best Magazine Feature Writing for a piece on amateur storm chasers and the destruction of a small Arkansas town. He was also a finalist for Magazine Writer of the Year. Charli Kerns (BS/JEM) is now the digital media editor (on-line editor) and business reporter for Blue Ridge Now, a Hendersonville-Asheville newspaper. Miriam Kramer (BS/JEM) was recently named as Mashable’s first space reporter. Kramer, who lives in NYC, will pioneer a new beat on space sciences for Mashable as it expands its science coverage. 2012 Krystyna Barnard (BS/JEM) is an assistant account executive for Edelman. She is graduating from Georgetown University with a master’s in public relations and corporate communications in May 2015. Senwhaa Lim (BS/CS) is a public relations and sponsorship specialist for Caesars Entertainment in Memphis. 2013 Tyler Summitt (BS/CS), head coach of the Louisiana Tech Women’s basketball team, was featured in a story on NBC’s Nightly News on Feb. 15, 2015 for his early success as a head coach. 2014 Casey Black (BS/JEM) has been selected for the UT Congressional Internship Program. The Memphis JEM graduate will work in the office of Senator Lamar Alexander on Capitol Hill. Alex Driver (BS/CS) is the marketing coordinator for Toyos Clinic in Memphis.
Teeterisms
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Recalling the quirky quips of Prof. Dwight Teeter
wight Teeter, journalism professor and former CCI dean, passed away at age 80 on Feb. 27. A leading First Amendment scholar, Teeter spent more than 50 years teaching at seven different universities and co-authoring several scholarly books. He was also known for peppering his lectures with quirky, off-the-cuff sayings. Here are a few from fall 2014, his final semester of teaching Media Law and Ethics.
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Keep your “My time on earth has told me that it’s probably words soft. You not what you’re reading or watching that you might have to find sexy. It’s probably another person.” eat them.”
“It’s better to be lucky than good, but if you can, be good.”
“It doesn’t matter what you intend, it’s what you do.” “You can’t undo what you
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do—not on the Internet.”
If you’re in Alaska and you’ve got 24 inches of snow and your snowmobile’s broken, you better have a good stash, right?” SCOOP Spring 2015 • 75