The Profile | February 2016

February 8, 2016

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THE HENDRIX COLLEGE

Volume 104 | Issue 4

PROFILE

THE ALUMNI ISSUE

THE PROFILE

CONTENTS

Volume 104 Issue 4 February 2016

Photo courtesy of Mary Richardson

NEWS 3 Marshall

Senior receives scholarship

3 Chaplain

J.J. Whitney accepts new position

4 Student Congress

Longtime sponsor receives award

5 Model UN

Group excels at conference

5 Dr. Peszka

Arkansas Professor of the Year

OPINION 6 Ivan the Warrior Mascot debate

6 Senate Notes

By Mimi Spjut, Senate President

FEATURE 8 The Alumni Spotlight on four HDX grads

9 Camille Wrinkle 10 Anna Strong 12 Nathan Thomas 13 Paula Card-Higginsin

SPORTS 14 Football Conference champs

15 Volleyball Final Four contenders

15 Lacrosse Gearing up for tough season

CULTURE 16 Blaze Pizza

pg.4: Student Congress

THE PROFILE STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

MARY KATHERINE BARKER 501-213-5885 BarkerMK@Hendrix.edu

MANAGING EDITOR

LAYOUT EDITORS JACKIE OAKLEY LUCY MORGAN

PHOTO EDITOR

MEGAN PRETTYMAN

CASEY HAWKINS 501-231-6216 HawkinsCT@Hendrix.edu

COPY EDITOR

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

PHOTOGRAPHERS

CHIRAG LALA

Restaurant review

17 Oscar Predictions Guessing this year’s winners

18 Calendar ISSUU.COM/THEHENDRIXCOLLEGEPROFILE

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JAMES OWEN

MADISON DEALING JORDAN MAY

STAFF WRITERS

CONNOR NEWTON GINNY GREER MCKENNA JACQUEMET BAYLEY KRELL SARAH GILMOUR MARLEE BIRD GREER VEON

Making a Marshall Scholar

NEWS

Hendrix senior named one of the 2016 Marshall Scholars

By Greer Veon Photo by Maddison Stewart

T

he Marshall Scholarship: hundreds of undergraduate students applied, but only 32 students were accepted. Among the list of names were students from Ivy League schools like Harvard and Princeton, as well as students from other big name schools like the University of Chicago and New York University.

The top of that list reads ‘Sean Alexander, Hendrix College.’

“When people look at the list of scholars, they’re going to go, ‘yeah, okay, heard of it, Hendrix College – where is that?’ and that’s a great opportunity for us to get our name out there because if you consider what a small school we are, to have someone at that level is truly amazing,” President Bill Tsutsui, a former Marshall Scholar, said.

The scholarship has been considered highly prestigious since its inception in 1953 through an act of Parliament. The Marshall draws its name from former U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall, who organized aid to help rebuild Britain after World War II. Those selected for the scholarship participate in a program in which American graduate students can study for two years in the United Kingdom as a way to keep a lasting connection between the two countries.

Alexander plans to work towards a degree in food security and economic development at the University of Reading, and then go on to the University of Oxford to pursue a degree in comparative policy. His ultimate goal is to apply these new ideas in Arkansas, and he noted that his personal experience as a sixth-generation Arkansan helped develop his passion for policy.

“I have this really distinct memory of my grandmother and I sitting in the back porch of a farm house in Scott, Arkansas, where my family’s from, and being told that no matter your own circumstances it’s important to help people,” Alexander said.

However, it was not until Dr. Jay Barth told Alexander about an Odyssey opportunity that his call to service became food policy.

“The opportunity came along for the [Arkansas] Hunger Relief Alliance for their No Kid Hungry campaign, and they were looking for summer interns,” Barth said. “It ended up being a very important thing for [Sean].”

The internship was important enough to influence Alexander’s next three years. He worked on research projects, made connections with faculty, and eventually saw the Marshall as his ultimate opportunity.

“I always felt that growing up in Arkansas, there’s somewhat of an intolerance to new ideas and I felt like I needed to get out of here to fully understand the world and the way that I could impact my state in a more profound way,” Alexander said.

Dr. Marjorie Swann, defacto chair for the Marshall Scholarship at Hendrix, agreed.

“It’s going to change his life,” Swann said. “He is going to be pushed even harder to develop new ways of looking at the world. He’s going to be amongst not simply the best in the country but now part of the best in the world, and he’s going to have the experience of living and learning in a foreign culture surrounded by a truly international group of other colleagues. He’s going to meet people and make connections that are going to transform his career path.”

J.J. Whitney Named Chaplain Associate director of the Miller Center gains new role

H

endrix College knows J.J. Whitney as the voice of faith and charity on campus. Whether running Fellowship on Thursday nights, organizing community outreach opportunities, or simply listening and guiding students when they need it, Whitney has been a vital part of the Hendrix community for many years.

On Nov. 10, Whitney took on a new role when she was named chaplain of the college.

After a search process that included numerous meetings and interviews starting last May, Whitney was chosen as the best candidate for the job. Seniors Ty Spradley and Elizabeth Forester served as the student voices during the selection process.

“As a student representative, I felt really strongly about having someone who understood the Hendrix community, who had a love for it, and who was willing and open to work with every student, not just Methodist or Christian,” Forester said.

Having known Whitney since their freshman years, both Forester and Spradley felt that she exemplified these qualities.

“The deciding factor in choosing J.J. was her true heartfelt connection to Hendrix,” Spradley

By Marlee Bird

said. “While her many years of experience working here may have helped form this connection, her current position and connection to students did not itself sway the decision.”

An alumna of Hendrix, Whitney’s connection to the community is deeply rooted. As associate director of the Miller Center, Whitney has worked over the years to strengthen the religious life program and make it a more welcoming place for people of all faiths.

“When I was a student, the religious life program was very minimal,” Whitney said.

“There was not much going on, such as chapel, Fellowship, bible study, and the other things we have now.”

Forester included Whitney’s innovation while working in the Miller Center as another deciding factor in the process.

“The services for students have really grown.

Community life has really grown,” Whitney said. “I do think that the programming offered through the chaplain’s office and the Miller Center did attract [prospective] students who were interested in that.”

Whitney played no small part in the growth of these programs.

Having been assistant chaplain while Reverend FEBRUARY 2016

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J. Wayne Clark was chaplain, Whitney was already familiar with many of the chaplain’s duties. However, as the head chaplain, her role has been enlarged to include “PR work,” as she put it. Now, Whitney must attend more meetings both in the Hendrix community and in the larger community.

“Anytime there is a call in the community for religious life of Hendrix, then I am going to represent that,” Whitney said.

Along with familiarity with the position, Whitney brings new goals to address during her tenure as chaplain.

“I think we are growing in religious diversity on campus and I want to see more interaction and understanding between groups,” Whitney said.

Whitney started working on this goal with the Better Together campaign through Interfaith Youth Core, which came to campus in the fall and worked to break down boundaries between groups. She also mentioned the growth of small discipleship groups, increased dialogue between Christian groups, and more departments and teams on campus participating in community outreach as goals she hopes to see accomplished in the coming years.

Adjournment Sine Die:

Photo courtesy of Mary Richardson

Award named for departing Richardson

By Ginny Greer

M

ary Richardson has been teaching students how to create policy through the Hendrix Student Congress team for nearly four decades.

Every year, in the same seats and at the same podium where senators deliver speeches and promote bills, college students from across Arkansas defend the ideas for legislation they have written and speak for or against the bills proposed by their colleagues.

“Students write bills that they are interested in, and then they come to [Student] Congress to work in committee to have the bills reshaped, reconsidered, or maintained,” Richardson said.

“Our hope is that the bills will come out of committee—and if they do, they will be passed on to the senate floor for debate.”

The students must articulate the merits of their bill and debate them.

“Students also run for office,” Richardson said.

“They have a caucus on Sunday night and they run for office through either the Republican or Democratic party—which is randomly assigned so that no one caucus has majority.”

Richardson indicated that the goal of the program is to generate political interest in young people, teach them how to articulate their ideas, and improve their ability to speak in public.

“The program teaches students the fundamentals of parliamentary procedure, ways of expressing their beliefs and the confidence of presenting them—which is very important, both in and outside the world of policy,” Richardson said.

Richardson expressed that over the decades, she has watched students be molded and fortified by their experience with Student Congress.

“Some students start in their freshman year afraid to stand up and overwhelmed by the process of parliamentary procedure, but with time I’ve seen those same students become outstanding public speakers and go on to be very successful in their own fields,” Richardson said.

“A huge number go on to law school.”

One such student is Shawn Johnson—a Little Rock attorney who works for the Attorney General. He reflects fondly not only on his experience with Student Congress but also the mentorship of his sponsor.

“Professor Richardson’s leadership of the Hendrix Student Congress program helped me to begin developing a knowledge of government relations and the legislative process,” Johnson said. “I and countless other Hendrix alumni have been improved by the lessons that she taught us both inside and outside the classroom.

The Hendrix College family has been deeply enriched by Mary’s tenure.”

Richardson expressed that she has been deeply impressed by the innovation and creativity her students have demonstrated in authoring bills over the years. Many of their ideas have grappled with social issues that politicians did not begin debating seriously for years.

“I was looking back at old proposals the other day and the biggest surprise was that we had a bill for gay marriage fifteen years ago,” Richardson said.

Some of the proposals have been quite controversial.

“In the 1980s, we had a bill regarding chemical castration for rapists,” Richardson said. “We’ve had many dense issues addressed in our bills.”

Richardson said that it is important to her not to be too involved in the generation of ideas because she wants her students’ voices to be the driving force behind their creation.

“I don’t get involved except to offer corrections so that the bills will follow the correct format and have the highest chance of success in the Senate,” Richardson said.

That’s not to say Richardson doesn’t have her own (somewhat less heady than chemical castration) dreams for legislation.

“My idea for a bill that no one would ever do would be to have plastic toilet seat covers on every public bathroom in Arkansas,” Richardson said. “Everywhere in California has plastic covISSUU.COM/THEHENDRIXCOLLEGEPROFILE

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ers—even the most off-the-wall places. I want that for us.”

One of Richardson’s favorite bills came from a student named Carter Price.

“He wrote a bill for ‘There is no just war’—and he wrote it in 2002 when we were headed to the second gulf war in Iraq,” Richardson said. “I loved that bill.”

As Richardson is completing her last year with the Hendrix Student Congress team, she has received one of the greatest honors in the program.

“The program instituted an honor in my name,” Richardson said. “The award goes to the highest scoring Senate delegate.”

“Because of that, I’ve been able to get in touch with more than one hundred students,” Richardson said. “It’s the students that make the experience for me.”

“One of my former students presented me with the award, and she’s now a Student Congress coach herself,” Richardson said. “It’s so incredible to see the work we started decades ago continuing for more students.”

In addition to the award, Richardson received a letter of appreciation from Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. Richardson emphasized that organizations such as Student Congress should be given the same respect and devotion as athletic activities.

“The hard work students are putting forth is not only important for them, but for Hendrix College,” Richardson said. “It’s as much a competition as any sports team, and it’s extremely important that students be recognized for it.”

Even though Richardson is saddened to leave Hendrix and the Student Congress team, she has high hopes.

“My students are already planning for the future of Student Congress,” Richardson said.

“They’re persistent and devoted. We have a dynamic president who leads with immense enthusiasm for the student body. That only bodes well for the future of Student Congress and the Hendrix community as a whole.”

UNmatched Success

NEWS

Model U.N. students shine at national conference

By Sarah Gilmour

Dr. Peszka:

H

endrix has many selling points for potential students: small class sizes, a beautiful campus and excellent faculty.

Giving credence to the latter, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching named Dr. Jennifer Peszka, a professor in the psychology department, the 2015 Arkansas Professor of the Year.

“I’m very flattered,” Peszka said. “There are so many really fantastic teachers at Hendrix. The whole state of Arkansas -- that’s a pretty fancy number of people -- so that’s really exciting.

Even just knowing how great my colleagues are at teaching on the list is pretty impressive. So, I’m really humbled and flattered that I might make that list.”

Although she has taught classes in statistics and learning this academic year, Peszka’s main interests and teaching subjects mainly fall into the category of sleep and behavioral neuroscience.

Specifically, she is interested in what is called the sleep onset period.

“When I was in graduate school, sleep was pretty young as a scientific field,” Peszka said.

“People had only really been studying sleep for about 50 years. A little less than that even.

No one had really studied that period of falling asleep, and the problem with sleep onset or

Whelan said. “It’s a lot of group work and team work. It’s really a different kind of animal.”

Junior Andrew McWard was one of two students who served as a mentor for the new students throughout the course and the conference.

“This year, there were only two mentors, myself and Cameron Meek,” McWard said. “Since we had two mentors this year and we also had two countries, the Netherlands and Poland, each mentor took a country. I took the Netherlands; Cameron took Poland. We were sort of the official leaders of our delegation.”

After a long process of preparation, the students went to the conference and performed quite well, winning four awards in the process.

“We won four awards this year, which Hendrix hasn’t done since 2010, I believe,” McWard said.

“One was for GA [General Assembly] Committee One for the Netherlands. That was Chirag Lala and Sarah Logan. That’s for the best delegations for that committee specifically. Six delegations win that award for each committee, and there’s about 150 teams.”

But that was only the beginning of the awards.

“The second award was Jolyon [Larson] and

Faraz [Arif], who won GA Two for Poland,” McWard said. “And we had Jacob [Neeley] and Madyson [Haskins] who won Best Delegation for Poland again for the U.N. Habitat committee . . . And we also won best Outstanding Delegation for Poland.”

With the start of the new semester, McWard is optimistic for the next delegation.

“It is offered every year,” McWard said. “We are going to be Switzerland next year. We are also hoping to have newbies who did it this year to come back as mentors… because we had so many new people this year who were really good . . . I have very high hopes for Model U.N. next year and for future years.”

Whelan believes that the course is an important experience for many Hendrix students.

“It’s about learning how to work with people,” Whelan said. “These students walk into a room in this conference with like 400 people and just start negotiating. That can be really intimidating. People who do this experience usually get a lot out of it, and it leads them to great things. I really encourage students to think about it, not just students who study politics.”

Hendrix psychology professor named 2015 Arkansas Professor of the Year By McKenna Jacquemet sleepiness is that it changes really rapidly… and that makes it super hard to study.”

Peszka is nationally renowned for her research and has inspired a passion for research in countless students, as evidenced by student involvement in the Hendrix sleep research lab.

“I think it’s nice to work here with college students and have people interested in the lab because even if you’re not really interested in sleep, if you just want some research experience, sometimes working in the sleep lab is cool because everyone’s interested in sleep because you are all sleep deprived,” Peszka said.

A member of the faculty committee that created and launched the Hendrix Odyssey Program, Peszka’s devotion to student learning is clear.

Upon meeting her, I found her to be funny, warm, and engaging. I learned a lot about a plethora of topics even from our short conversation.

“I don’t think that I have any secrets,” Peszka said when asked what she thought was the difference between a great teacher and a good teacher. “I think all of us have students who we are a good fit for . . . In a way, I think, for all of us, to you I might be someone great and to someone else, like, she stinks.”

Peszka attributed some of her success to the environment of transparency she attempts to

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provide.

“I think that maybe you can be more motivated [as a student] or meet a challenge in my class if you have some notion of why I am doing it,” Peszka said. “And so I try to be really transparent….this is why I am making you do this crazy thing, this weird thing.”

Perhaps it is her ability to motivate students to achieve that makes her a memorably great teacher and an integral part of the Hendrix community.

Photo by Madison Dealing

I

n November, a team of 32 Hendrix students competed in the American Model United Nations (AMUN) conference and won several awards for their work in the conference.

Dr. Daniel Whelan, a professor in the politics and international relations department, teaches the Model U.N. course, which he described as an unconventional experience for the students involved.

“Basically, everything we do in the classroom is preparing the students to go to the conference which is basically at the end of the semester, so students have actually quite a bit of writing and research to do that has to be presented in different ways,” Whelan said. “What we do inside the course is we do a lot of simulations in the classroom. They learn rules and procedures, they learn how make floor speeches, how to caucus, how to write resolutions and that kind of stuff.”

Beyond the research and simulations, the collaborative nature of the class is part of what differentiates it from other classes in the department.

“It’s really different from the typical classroom experience where you pretty much work alone,”

We Should Talk About Ivan: Carl Napolitano:

W

ho is Ivan the Warrior? This might seem silly, but let’s answer it honestly. Ivan is Hendrix’s mascot.

Our mascot. He’s a leather-clad, face-painted man wielding a sword, described as a “classic, barbaric vision of a warrior,” in the same vein as Mel Gibson’s Braveheart.

He appears on Hendrix apparel, sports uniforms, and banners. This makes sense. Mascots are people, animals, or things used to represent sports teams with a common image and identity.

In the case of collegiate athletics, they also represent the entire school. Hendrix’s athletes and coaches aren’t just Warriors. We all are Warriors.

But this begs the question: who isn’t Ivan the Warrior?

Ivan the Warrior isn’t Black, nor is he Latino.

He isn’t Asian, nor is he Native American. He is not Middle Eastern. He is not a woman. He doesn’t seem to be physically or cognitively impaired. And he isn’t queer or trans* as far as I can tell.

He’s a white man who exudes masculinity. Is that so wrong? Perhaps not.

Before we had Ivan, Hendrix’s Warrior mascot was an Indian chief since the 1930s. (Before

that, our mascot was the Bulldog. Why it was changed, I don’t know.) As recently as 2001, such “traditional Native American warrior imagery” was discontinued as our mascot due to faculty and student concerns about being ethnically insensitive. This was “well before the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) implemented its ban on such imagery in February 2006,” as an article from 2008 on the Hendrix website so graciously points out.

There is a whole history of negative stereotypes, cultural appropriation, and oppression surrounding the use of Native Americans as mascots throughout the U.S. that I won’t get into. What I’m concerned with now is Ivan.

It makes sense when you imagine it, how Ivan came to be. Whoever was in charge of the school’s branding must have thought in stroke of epiphany, “Well, if a Native American is offensive, what can we do? Of course! A Braveheart warrior! There’s nothing historically/culturally offensive about that!”

You can give them credit for trying. However, as I have pointed out, while Ivan isn’t offensive, he isn’t particularly inclusive either. Inclusiveness and diversity have become burning issues in academic institutions lately, including at Hen-

F

* This is a freelance article written by guest writers. The Profile gladly considers any and all freelance proposals received.

If interested, please contact the Editorin-Chief.

Student

The State of the riends, I’m proud to report that the Student Senate kept their promise of working hard for you this term.

We tackled a wide variety of issues ranging from campus security to printing quotas.

Our Committee on Committees has hired many student positions and our Financial Committee is doing a marvelous job of managing our student activity fee.

You may have read the live Senate tweets with the Communications Committee or have had a constituent concern processed by our hardworking Committee on Student and Academic Affairs (CSAA).

If you have stopped by for a Senate meeting,

drix. President Tsutsui has assembled a Task Force on Inclusion and Climate and made statements about addressing concerns of diversity.

Ivan, in a way, represents the challenges our campus faces: Hendrix is an institution (like most institutions) where white, straight, cisgendered men represent and control our school and where those who don’t fit that description have to fight for their voices to be heard and their concerns to be addressed.

I’m not demanding Ivan be changed at this very moment. I am simply acknowledging that while Ivan the Warrior is a small issue in the grand scheme of Hendrix College, he is emblematic— a mascot, if you will—of what we are and the things we must change.

you may have noticed our new agenda format.

With a partnership between the Senate Executive Committee and your hardworking senators, we have redesigned the way that Senate meetings function. Senators like Off Campus Representative James Owen and Vice President Sean Alexander put in extra time and talent to create the new system.

Committee chairs, senators and even guests joined our conversations and offered valuable input on how to implement the most effective system for our meetings and notes.

You may have read in your Senate notes that senators are now able to draft and vote on resolutions about any issue their constituents

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request.

Our first resolution honors a Hendrix alumna, State Senator Linda Pondexter-Chesterfield, for her outstanding career and personal bravery.

The second was a resolution that addressed campus security and the support for passive campus security cameras. This resolution, the work of the Committee on Gender and Sexuality (COGS) and your voices helped us begin the process of installing campus cameras in the Huntington and Clifton apartment complexes.

The conversations that we have each Tuesday night are inspired by your submitted concerns.

We cannot function effectively without your opinions, ideas and concerns. No matter the top-

OPINION

How committed is Hendrix to inclusion and diversity?

By guest writers, Carl Napolitano and Evan Mitchell

Evan Mitchell:

W

here to go from here? How do we begin changing something that is so important to the Hendrix identity?

The first step, I believe, is to acknowledge that the current mascot, Ivan, has some problems and as a community, we should be open to change. So often at Hendrix it seems that issues arise and are discussed for a couple of years, but as soon as the people spearheading the initiative graduate, the issue falls off the radar.

For example, I remember two female students that really wanted a Mr. Hendrix to complement the “boys club” that is Miss Hendrix, but after a year and a half of arguing and lack of understanding between student organizations, the initiative faded away and has yet to come back.

Ivan narrowly represents our campus. That is a fact, and issues regarding him are in front of us now. I say it’s about time we address them.

The way I see it, we have five options. The first is to tone down Ivan in almost every aspect as he exists currently. Take the word “barbaric” out of his description and rebrand them as a sexually and racially ambiguous warrior.

The second is to grow the warrior family. Give Ivan brothers, sisters, and friends who are different than him, such as foreign or LGBTQ. Sort of

like how Disney has been slowly expanding their princesses to be more representative of all kinds of women.

Third, we could completely revert to our original mascot, the Bulldog. Because animals are not a part of any specific group of people, they are inherently more inclusive (and less offensive) as mascots than human-based mascots. We could even have a bulldog show up to some of our sporting events!

Fourth, we could hold a competition for alumni and current students to submit new proposals for a mascot, similar to how Ole Miss started a new mascot competition and ended up replacing their plantation owner with a more inclusive black bear.

Lastly, the fifth option would be for us to reevaluate whether or not we even need a physical or visual representation of a warrior. We could still be the Hendrix Warriors, but have a description that included everyone. A description that focuses on how every person regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, economic background, physical ability, is a

Hendrix Warrior. This would require that we rid ourselves of the current narrow depiction of what the school thinks a Warrior looks like.

This is not an easy task.

It will be hard for people to adjust to or accept the change, but if there is something I’ve learned over the past couple of years, it is that being an active ally to those who are different than you is extremely hard.

One great first step for the Hendrix community to take is to realize that it is our responsibility to actively look for opportunities to make everyone at Hendrix feel like they belong. If that means making changes to the school mascot, I say we go for it.

Make a Difference

By Student Senate President MiMi Spjut

ic, we each do our best to address your concern thoroughly.

Alas, our term is coming to an end.

Rest assured that your Senate is continuing our promise to best represent you. Look forward to continued discussions on large issues like campus safety, diversity concerns and financial matters.

It is my goal to streamline the constituent concern process, publicize campus security updates and to encourage more resolutions on issues constituents want represented.

Come join us in the Campbell dining room on any Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m., and let us know what you think.

You can catch me and any other Senate Executive member during our office hours or you can schedule a meeting via our Hendrix emails. We look forward to hearing from you!

And of course… I am pleased to report that the State of the Student is strong!

The Hendrix Noyce STEM Teacher Education in the Arkansas Delta (N-STEAD) program prepares high-achieving Hendrix science and mathematics students to become effective – and employed – teachers.

* While this column does talk about Student Senate in generalities, please note that it does not reflect the views of all of Student Senate or the views of The Profile. The writer’s opinions are her own.

Interns earn a $1,800 stipend for participating in summer science education. Scholars receive up to $15,000 in scholarships prior to graduation or a tuition-free post baccalaureate experience.

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Application Deadline March 4th, 4 p.m.

Mills 105

www.hendrix.edu/n-stead N-STEAD@hendrix.edu (501) 450-1379

LIFE AFTER HENDRIX

“Unto the whole person� is a motto that is familiar to every Hendrix student.

These are the words that encourage us to diversify our interests, challenge our minds, and step beyond our comfort zones. The 2016 Alumni Issue features four Hendrix grads that have kept this motto in mind after their years on campus and continue to cultivate their passions in the world that exists beyond Hendrix.

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All alumni photos provided by the alums

Spotlight on Alumni:

FEATURE

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Hendrix alumna Camille Wrinkle follows her passion for non-profit work from accountant to executive

By Greer Veon

I

t doesn’t take long for banter between a Warrior student and an alumna before the topic shifts to Hendrix.

As I sit with Camille Wrinkle, a Hendrix graduate of the class of 2000, it only takes a few minutes before she brings her Hendrix experience into our conversation.

“I think had I not had that liberal arts education and been able to think about things from all different aspects, there are a lot of areas within this job that I don’t know if I would be as able to do as I currently am,” Wrinkle said.

Wrinkle sits as the CEO/Executive Director of the Harvest Regional Food Bank, a non-profit organization that works to provide hunger relief to about 60,000 food insecure individuals within its ten-county regional area. The nonprofit’s warehouse is located near the state line of Texas and Arkansas in our common hometown of Texarkana.

“I’m from Texarkana, but I kind of migrated to Little Rock after I graduated,” Wrinkle said.

“I was there for several years until about a few years ago, and this opportunity came up to stay in the non-profit world but also stay close to family and be back in the community where I grew up, so it was just a win-win.”

The Harvest Regional Food Bank is definitely a win for the community. A large percentage of Arkansans suffer from food insecurity: one in six seek hunger relief, and one in four are children. The organization estimates that it annually serves about 3 million pounds of food via 75 other hunger relief agencies, 62 shelters, and a backpack program for weekend meals that

reaches 25 schools.

“The ongoing job is definitely a rewarding experience,” Wrinkle said.

But Wrinkle never initially planned on working as a CEO. She majored in business, and went on to complete the one-year master’s degree in accounting. But the Hendrix grad attributes her educational experience, along with participating in Student Council, as preparation for community service work.

“I worked in non-profit pretty much soon after I graduated from school,” Wrinkle said. “I did a couple of years in public accounting, and then switched over to non-profit fundraising, so I was in non-profit development for a little over ten years before kind of switching gears and taking the role of executive director. I was already volunteering and I learned that at Hendrix – just that atmosphere of community that I experienced really, I think, lent itself to teaching me to be that kind of person outside college life.”

Of course, the Hendrix campus has definitely changed since Wrinkle was a student, which she expressed made her proud to be part of the school’s alumni. Yet, while we discussed her Hendrix experience, we found more commonalities than differences.

“There are so many things that have evolved and progressed [at Hendrix] academically, but I still feel like from what I’ve heard and seen, there is that same community atmosphere of everyone pulling together, everyone feeling like your neighbors,” Wrinkle said. “You only have a set group of neighbors there and you have to learn to really pull together for a cause.”

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This kind of compassion for community is what Wrinkle again claims led her to a successful career path after graduation.

“I owe so much of where I am now to what I gained at Hendrix,” Wrinkle said. “I don’t know what you can attribute to specifically, but I think it’s all of the things pulling together and what you’re exposed to and the liberal arts part of things where you’re taught to both learn and think outside the box, to be resourceful, and to look at a challenge from different aspects and think of different solutions.”

Wrinkle adds that she was a perfect example of being open-minded – a trait Hendrix encourages in its students.

“I wouldn’t have even thought to have changed from being in public accounting where I have majored in to switching to non-profit development and fundraising, and starting over in that arena,” Wrinkle said. “I don’t know that I would’ve had the confidence to do that, the analytical thinking that ‘okay, you know, I want to go into this path.’”

Like any student who thinks about life after Hendrix, I only thought it was fair to get her advice on how to succeed in any kind of career path.

“Get out there and work hard,” Wrinkle said.

“When it all boils down to it, that’s another thing I learned at Hendrix: is to follow through with a project, to keep going, until you get it solved. I would encourage that for any graduate and that you don’t have to end your career in the field where you started.”

ARKANSAS ADVOCATE: Alumna Anna Strong finds inspiration advocating for children’s health care

By Ginny Greer nna Strong sits opposite me at a coffee shop in Little Rock early in the morning just a few days after New Year’s, chatting with me before a busy workday as the Executive Director of Child Advocacy and Public Health at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. In other words, Strong directs a team of employees working to solve issues of health care accessibility to children around the state.

As she details her experiences advocating for plans to bring health care to children and families across the state, it’s hard to believe that around a decade ago, she danced for her residence hall (she’s a proud Veasey girl) in Shirttails like me and so many of my fellow freshman.

In fact, when Anna matriculated Hendrix, she was upholding a family legacy that would put sorority families to shame.

“My mother attended Hendrix, my grandmother attended Hendrix, and my great-grandmother was a student when it was still called ‘Galloway College,’” Strong said.

Strong grew up in Searcy, Ark., and although when her college search began she was initially unsure of attending a school so close to home, the Hendrix community quickly became a place where she could grow into a multi-faceted and socially conscious young adult.

“My roommate was involved in lots of service work, so I started attending Saturday sessions with the Volunteer Action Committee,” Strong said. “What I really enjoyed was being able to apply my skills in organization and math to help the committee maintain a budget. “ Indeed, the unique emphasis that Strong’s liberal arts experience at Hendrix placed on developing interdisciplinary study became an ongoing theme in her career. Anna worked for several years as a support analyst for Acxiom, where her time spent poring over mathematical strategy at Hendrix became highly valuable.

“Although I enjoyed my work there, I had always wanted to work in an environment where I could use my skills to help people,” Strong said.

Anna began working as the Assistant Director at Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in 2010. As part of this job, she worked with a team of consultants to advocate for the imple-

A

mentation of the Affordable Care Act in Arkansas.

“When the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, it provided all states with an insurance option for higher income families, on a kind of sliding scale,” Strong said. “Each state got to choose whether or not to extend its Medicaid—which typically covers low income families, mothers, and people with disabilities to working age adults.”

Strong expressed that Arkansas’ health care accessibility was egregiously limited prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act. “Arkansas had one of the lowest health care availability in the nation—a quarter of adults [aged] 19-64 were uncovered,” Strong said.

“And when you looked at lower income adults, it was as much as half.”

Strong and her colleagues recognized that the insurance accessibility affected not only the adults without coverage, but by extension, their children.

“The reason my organization was advocating for it was because we knew that a lot of times, children and parents share the same insurance status,” Strong said. “So if kids’ parents have insurance, they do too, and vice versa.”

The advocacy work took place at the Arkansas State Capitol in both the House and Senate, where Strong worked with a coalition of people

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to convince legislators to work in unison to pass the proposal.

This was no small task.

“In Arkansas, our big state budgets require 75 percent approval in the House and Senate, which is the highest threshold in the nation,” Strong said.

“Assembling a coalition of people and organizations [from] different backgrounds and perspectives but all working for the same end proved to be a successful strategy in bringing change to Arkansas,” Strong said. “AARP was at the table, the hospitals were at the table, the Disability Rights of Arkansas organization was at the table, physicians were at the table—and it took all of those groups forming a collective voice to accomplish such a big goal.”

Indeed, the mission was not without challenges. The Affordable Care Act was a highly

FEATURE polarizing political issue.

“There was a loud vocal presence from the other side, and Arkansas is a largely conservative state,” Strong said. “Passing anything connected to President Obama isn’t easy in southern states.”

Strong emphasized that one of the cornerstones of advocacy work is reaching out to people. By creating pockets of awareness and support in many places, understanding and sympathy can swell quickly.

“I did dozens and dozens of presentations to Sunday school classes, social justice groups, and other interested groups to explain what the Affordable Care Act is and how it could benefit Arkansas,” Strong said.

Strong believes that it is important to translate policy into language that people outside of the political sphere can understand—this way, more people can make informed decisions on key issues and advocate for their beliefs.

“Being able to break complex policy decisions down into a clear message that people can understand is a great way to promote your cause,” Strong said.

Strong expressed that much like Hendrix requires grueling levels of research to formulate informed ideas for projects and papers, creating and advocating for social policy demands cooperative work and study. Strong and her team discussed plans with other states who had implemented the policy and national experts who could predict how the policy would affect Arkansas.

“We had to figure out if it was feasible for the state, and how to implement it,” Strong said.

Ultimately, the time that Strong and her coalition spent working on the project proved fruitful, as Arkansas implemented the proposal.

“Arkansas ended up doing something really neat,” Strong said. “We ended up doing what’s called the private option—this means that instead of getting Medicaid coverage through a Medicaid office, Arkansas bought an insurance plan through a market established by the Affordable Care Act. Arkansas really forged a new path.”

This unique choice came with a price.

“After this option was chosen, I spent up to six hours a day in meetings with insurance companies ensuring that their policies met federal standards,” Strong said.

This somewhat tedious process was not entirely thankless for Strong. She believes that this experience gave her a new appreciation for the many elements that go into policy implementation.

“It really was like the merging of worlds,” Strong said. “It was interesting to think about how after a policy gets passed, you have to consider the rules and criteria that it has to comply with.”

While spending long days in conferences with

insurance companies, Strong found the ability to combine the skills of previous experience with budgeting and organization. She also managed to keep in touch with the human element of her work.

“The people in the meetings were asking question after question: What do we do about the hospitals? What do we do about the insurance? ,” Strong said. “But I spoke up and asked if we could make a column on the spreadsheet for consumers—the families who will actually be buying this coverage?”

Strong said that sometimes, conversations involving policy have to be brought back to focus.

“In meetings like that, it’s easy for companies to think exclusively about money and logistics of the big interest groups, but it’s important to

“The Hendrix math major and the public health director are pretty much on opposite ends of the spectrum... but having the ability to break data down and analyze how certain elements of it would impact particular populations really made me more skillful in my work.” remember that the consumers are who matters most,” Strong said. “And that’s my job—to do all of the nerdy policy work ultimately for the benefit of consumers.”

Strong found that although the content of her work has been quite diverse, every experience has enriched her ability to do what she loves.

“The Hendrix math major and the public health director are pretty much on opposite ends of the spectrum,” Strong said. “But having the ability to break data down and analyze how certain elements of it would impact particular populations really made me more skillful in my work.”

This versatility in cross-disciplinary work that began with Strong’s education at Hendrix has proved lucrative to her career.

“In a small advocacy organization, it’s always beneficial to be multi-faceted,” Strong said.

“That way, you don’t have to contract out portions of the work, but [you] can address a range

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of issues competently within that environment.”

Through all of the exhausting hours of research and advocacy, Strong identifies this experience as one of the most rewarding in her adult life.

“Being able to make a change in Arkansas so that a quarter million people have an option for affordable health coverage is really amazing,” Strong said.

And the positive effects of this policy implementation are already evident.

“Arkansas has lowered its insurance rate more than any state in the nation,” Strong said. “We started out in a very low place in terms of health care, but now we are on par with other states.

We had one of the biggest gaps between other states, but that gap has begun to close rapidly.”

As Strong and the Advocates for Children and Families predicted, the extension of coverage to so many working age adults brought new possibilities for Arkansas youth.

“Somewhere around 30,000 children in the state got coverage under the Affordable Care Act,” Strong said. “It’s such a fantastic change for Arkansas.”

Today, Anna is the Director for Child Advocacy and Public Health at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. She is in charge of a team of people who strategize and partner with other groups to revolutionize children’s health around the state.

“My department at Children’s is part of the ‘Natural Wonders’ partnership: a coalition which looks at the big picture for kids’ health in Arkansas,” Strong said. “We’re interested not only in treating children who come into the hospital, but also getting to the root cause of why they’re there.”

Some of the projects at the hospital have included analyzing why some children come into the hospital repeatedly with similar complaints, informing families of practices for good health, changing accommodations for families stuck in unhealthy environments and bolstering up school health departments.

“We want to change the focus of medical care from treating issues in the emergency room to changing life for Arkansans in a long term way that prevents continuous health issues,” Strong said. “It’s a puzzle with many pieces, but the work I get to do with people in and outside Children’s walls is helping to solve it.”

And sometimes, walking through the hospital is just what Strong needs to put things into perspective.

“When I’m having a stressful day, and I’ve sent too many emails and sat through too many meetings, I leave my office and walk down the halls of the hospital, observing the families and children,” Strong said. “Seeing them helps me remember that it isn’t about me or my partnerships, it’s about what we can do to change the lives of children in our state.”

NEW RULES FOR SCHOOL: Class of 2010 graduate Nathan Thomas seeks innovation in childhood education

By Casey Hawkins

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typical day for Hendrix class of 2010 graduate Nathan Thomas might invove watching “Scandal,” taking pictures with his fancy customized camera, or trying out a new restaurant around town.

Otherwise, he can probably be found at his job at the Clinton Foundation in dowtown Little Rock, where he’s attempting to put a new spin on childhood education.

Thomas is the Educational Programs Associate for the Clinton Foundation. He has a multifaceted role that involves building curricula, lesson plans and outreach for the educational programs offered through the Clinton Library.

When the library’s exhibits are rotated every four or five months, Thomas trains his team of docents, who are the library’s guides, to become experts in those fields to teach visiting students. He also recently authored the first comprehensive educational programs manual for the library, which is given to every educator and principal in Arkansas to give them an idea of the temporary and permanent exhibits the library is offering.

“Here we have dynamic programming from dinosaurs to Coca-Cola to Oscar de la Renta to the Olympics to the Beatles, and those are so different but they’re all related to [President Bill Clinton] in some way or shape or form,” Thomas said. “Everything is inspired by the man on the wall, and I get to work with him a lot. Everything that I do has to represent him and also represent our galleries, and that’s why I’m here with my manager to make sure that everything flows and ties together and makes sense to a kindergartner and to a nationally certified educator.”

Thomas said that he personally speaks with President Clinton about twice a year to help plan his local events. In the past, he has helped lead his presidential advance team, which is responsible for showing up to events ahead of

time to ensure little details such as the microphone, lighting and seating are all arranged perfectly for the president’s arrival. He delivered President Clinton to the stage at last year’s Boys State program at UCA, as well as to the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce’s most recent annual luncheon.

The Clinton Library sees about 35,000 students come through its doors every year.

Thomas hopes to increase this number to at

least 37,500 this year by coming up with innovative programs that attract different types of students. One example is a fashion show he came up with in 2012 called Curbside Couture, which has seen sold out attendance every year since its inception.

“It’s cool working here because I’ve never been told no,” Thomas said. “I had this idea of making a fashion show back in 2012, and they asked me what I needed to make it happen, and I put a budget together, and they let me try it. We had a really hard time trying to tie in fashion with curriculum, because couture fashion doesn’t make sense to anyone who’s not into fashion.”

That didn’t stop Thomas from making it work.

“I thought of a recycled fashion show, like have students source the materials from bottles or cardboard or broken CDs or vinyls and kind of understand the math behind building a dress,” Thomas said. “We also challenged ISSUU.COM/THEHENDRIXCOLLEGEPROFILE

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students to sell their designs, so when they’re done, the runway could be a place to sell what they made.”

Thomas’ interest in education was sparked after his freshman year at Hendrix when he traveled to the Arkansas Delta with the late Dr. James Jennings to help him teach third graders during the summer. In Forrest City, he saw firsthand the poverty that has led to the detriment of the Delta’s educational system.

“I knew but never really realized how unfortunate these children are, and it wasn’t their faults,” Thomas said. “They were born into poverty-stricken households with generations of poverty on top of that. I just happened to be born into a pretty well-todo family, and I happened to also be black because of that. I was fortunate because we had what I needed growing up. My cousins, who didn’t have that, can’t read and they’re 25 years old. It upset me because I wanted to understand what I could do or how I could better help them grow.”

Thomas majored in sociology and anthropology, and after he won the Watson Fellowship, he traveled abroad to South Africa, Australia, Finland and India to study education. He studied schools that were performing well in areas that weren’t typically renowned for their educational systems, and the experience gave him a new perspective on education in the United States.

“I kind of realized that there’s not a secret sauce to education,” Thomas said. “It’s just really being honest with your population and honest with your history. These schools did that, and to me, it didn’t seem that difficult to figure that out domestically in the Delta. If we just didn’t pretend that these kids didn’t come to school hungry and that these kids didn’t have broken households or didn’t know how to read, we might be able to address some of the issues instead of passing kids along.”

FEATURE

PLAYING THE FIELD:

Hendrix alumna Paula Card-Higginson explains her journey from math major to freelance editor

By Sarah Gilmour

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reelance editor and Hendrix alumna Paula Card-Higginson is, in many ways, a poster child for the importance of a liberal arts education.

She is currently working parttime as a technical editor for the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, as well as freelance editing. This was not initially what Card-Higginson planned, as she was a math major during her time at Hendrix.

“I never really planned to be an editor,” Card-Higginson said.

“While I was at Hendrix, I think the most important thing I did was some summer internships… based on that research experience, I got a job at a technical writing firm in Little Rock because of my math and data background. Through that firm, because they were doing technical writing as well, I trained to do technical editing. That just snowballed into a career in editing.”

Her summer internships were performed in a variety of institutions in a number of disciplines including math, physics and statistics.

“I think that was what got me the job – the fact that I had that work experience in real life dealing with data,” Card-Higginson said.

“Through the physics internship the math internship not as much because that was studying the esoteric theory of math - but the work at NCTR [National Center for Toxicological Research] gave me experience in statistics. That experience was what qualified me for the job.”

In addition to her internships, Card-Higginson stated that her education at Hendrix helped prepare her for her career.

“At Hendrix, at least back then, and I’m sure it’s the same now, we had to write in almost all of our classes, so I could provide writing samples for the firm as well,” CardHigginson said. “So they knew I could handle written material and interpret data into writing.”

The depth of education provided by a liberal arts college like Hendrix is something Card-Higginson appreciates.

“Although I had a major in math, I’ve been able to use the breadth of experience to have a career in very different fields,” Card-Higginson

said. “I think the exposure to different fields and concepts really helps you to translate one side of a field of knowledge to another.”

Although the primary focus of her work is in writing and editing, her math background is still pertinent in her career.

“I do use math in my work. I think that’s one of the things that the scientists and authors that I work with really like, is the fact that I can look at their data and know if it makes sense,” Card-Higginson said. “I work on grant proposals too, so when I’m working on those, I can take their data and present it in a way that makes it easier for the reviewers and for the readers to understand. So I am using those

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skills, even though I’m editing.”

When asked to give advice to current Hendrix students, CardHigginson stressed the importance of extra-curricular activities.

“I think joining extra-curricular activities is important. That’s probably one thing that I wish now I had done more of,” Card-Higginson said. “Not just your course work, but the things you do outside, like getting into college, when you’re getting a job, the things you do outside are important, too. Like I said, I think the internships I had were what allowed me to get my first job very easily.”

Card-Higginson was a member of several extra-curricular activities herself.

“I remember being on the Potpourri staff,” Card-Higginson said.

“I know I tutored, which was more of a work-study thing. I did some volunteer work for the theater.”

The Potpourri was the name of the literary magazine earlier in Hendrix’s history. It is now known as the Aonian.

Although the Odyssey program was not yet in existence during Card-Higginson’s time at Hendrix, she believes that the program will be very beneficial to current students.

“I think the Odyssey program will be great for Hendrix students today because it is going to be an unusual accomplishment for somebody just getting out of an undergrad program to have that kind of experience,” Card-Higginson said.

Photo from Athletic Department

Hendrix Brings Home A Ring: What makes a conference champion

By Bayley Krell

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hree years ago, Hendrix reintroduced football after a 53-year absence. The fledgling program grew under the influence of head coach Buck Buchanan.

The Warriors went 8-2 during the 2015 season, posting the team’s best record since restarting the program. But having a winning season was only the beginning. The Warriors had, after only three seasons, also snagged a conference championship.

“I wasn’t sure what to do [when we found out], but after a few seconds I just started jumping up and down and celebrating with my teammates around me. And then, of course, all our fans were there so we ran over to all of them and took pictures,” junior Gray Stanton, defensive end, said. “It was just a moment where you’re [on] cloud nine; it’s just an amazing feeling.”

For a small starter program without a full roster, this is a major accomplishment that is welcomed by both coaches and athletes. But how had Hendrix managed to come in and win a conference title?

The health of the team contributed. Junior quarterback Seth Peters stayed healthy for the entirety of the season, as did junior running back Dayton Winn.

In addition to the backfield, the offensive and defensive linemen remained healthy throughout the season. Junior Max Cassidy, center, believes that age was a contributing factor to their winning season.

“We’re finally up there,” Cassidy said. “We’re

not 19 or 18 years old trying to play 21 and 22 year olds. We’re finally competing at the same level [as everyone else].”

With age and experience come major improvements that make it possible to win a ball game when it comes down to the wire. Coach Buck has his own opinions on what made this season a success.

“We learned how to travel better this year,” Buchanan said. “Every one of our longest trips was in one year and then we had to play Berry and Chicago back to back and those are two very long trips. I was really proud of our guys for . . . overcoming those obstacles to win on the road there at the end of the year and to be able to win the conference title that way.”

However, going into the last game against Sewanee, there was no guarantee for a title, even if they won. In order for Hendrix to be the conference champions, Centre had to beat Berry, which they did.

“Going 8-2 is great. We won conference, but at the end of the day we got lucky that we won conference,” Cassidy said. “I want to have that feeling when we’re 10-0, and there’s no dispute about one team losing a game or one team winning a game and that’s why we won. I want to be able to say we went 10-0, and we were the first class to do it and we were the first class to start football.”

While the team is most certainly enjoying their conference title, they are aware of the pressure that this creates for their upcoming seasons.

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“It’s nice to have that trophy in there,” Buchanan said. “But that trophy won’t make any plays next year. It won’t catch any throws or tackles. I challenged our guys and us as coaches: don’t let success change who we are.”

With this in mind, the team is looking forward to the upcoming season. Having a conference championship under their belt, the team’s next goal is to go 10-0 in conference and have a home playoff game.

Coach Buck has a plan to make this dream a reality.

“We need to work on being more efficient and making sure we can go out there and outpace our opponents. We need to be better on defense. We need to make tackles. We need to keep them out of critical situations,” Buchanan said.

This is especially poignant for the rising senior class. They will be the first class to play with Hendrix across their chests for all of their collegiate careers. This upcoming season will hopefully be monumental for Hendrix as a whole but especially for this class.

“We’ve got a lot of leadership and experience,” junior left tackle Jared Lincoln said.

“Those two things put together with drive and determination, great coaching staff and a great support group we have throughout the school and from our parents and everything, will help us stay focused and stay on top of our game and hopefully everything goes right.”

High Hopes:

SPORTS

HDX lacrosse team faces tough upcoming season

By McKenna Jacquemet

T

he Hendrix men and women’s lacrosse teams might be poised carry out winning seasons after coming up just short last

year.

There is no doubt that the committed players have the right mindset to accomplish their goal.

After months of preparation and training, the lacrosse season is upon us.

“I have extremely high expectations for this season,” senior Travis Rabun said. “This is the most talented team in the history of Hendrix College and I am excited to see how we do.”

Hopes are just as high with the women’s lacrosse team.

“This year, I expect to be more successful than last year,” sophomore Reilly Frazier said. “This group of girls is amazing and we all get along really well. I expect that alone will take us far. Last year was very different from this one. I expect we will win more and not be underestimated as much as in the past. At least, that is my hope.”

Throughout the fall semester, both teams have engaged in team lifting sessions, working on

strength training and conditioning, as well as additional scrimmaging and regular practices.

Meetings, team bonding, scrimmages, and practices have all taken place in order to prepare the respective lacrosse teams for their upcoming seasons.

“The coaches are awesome and have made sure that each athlete is successful in the classroom and has found their spot on the field,” freshman Russell Riley said. “They all have great knowledge of the sport and have done a great job preparing the team during the offseason.”

Despite high expectations, both teams face challenges.

“This season is going to be our toughest season yet,” Rabun said. “We have the toughest schedule in the history of Hendrix and that’s going to be a lot to handle. We need to stay focused and play well together as a team in order to get the wins.”

At time of press, the tough schedule was slated to start with a scrimmage against the University of Arkansas men’s team in Conway on Jan. 30.

“One thing that any sports team can work on is to focus less on blaming certain people on the team for any issue that comes up and instead to come together and take responsibility for any mistake or loss as a team,” Riley said.

The Hendrix women’s lacrosse season begins Feb. 6 at home against Piedmont. The men’s lacrosse team kicks off the regular season the same day at Southwestern.

“I think one of the biggest obstacles we have to overcome is that we are an underdog,” Frazier said. “I feel like no one in our conference or at Hendrix really thinks we are a force to be reckoned with. It is hard to think that you can be successful when no one else besides your team and coaches think you can do it. The difference between us and other teams is that we are fighting to prove that we belong in this conference when other teams have been around for years.”

It is that spirit of competition that both teams hope to harness to ensure they feel the thrill of victory.

Warriors Volleyball Makes it to Final Four

By Jordan May

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olleyball is one of the most popular sports on the Hendrix campus. From Charlie and his camel, Mike, to the football players dressed as a gospel choir, Hendrix volleyball games are always a memorable event and pastime.

This year, the Warriors made it to the Final Four in the 2015 NCAA Division III Tournament, a great feat for a school with only about 1,300 students.

Hendrix came into the tournament ranked third in the southern region in the polls, having won the Southern Athletic Conference (SAA) before sweeping Covenant three sets to zero in the first match of the NCAA Tournament.

They then went head-to-head against Berry, a fellow SAA member, winning in the second round by a close three sets to two. In the Sweet 16 round of the tournament, the Warriors faced Emory, ranked second in the country at the time and also the runner-up in last year’s NCAA Tournament. In an exciting game, Hendrix was victorious, beating Emory three sets to two.

Junior MC Rogers is captain of the volleyball team.

“The feeling of beating Emory was truly

indescribable,” Rogers said in the wake of the triumph over Emory, a school at least five times the size of Hendrix. “By the end of the fifth set, I had to stop looking at the score because I was starting to freak out that we were going to beat Emory. When LP hit the last kill of the game, she fell to the ground, and it took me a second to realize that we won. That’s when my legs gave out. Almost all of us were on the ground, unable to comprehend what just happened.”

With regard to how Hendrix won, Rogers said it really came down to the Warrior mentality.

“Serving tough and passing accurately were our main tactics for the season, so we didn’t change much for the Emory game,” Rogers said. “At such a high level, however, volleyball is mostly mental. It doesn’t matter what your tactics are if you don’t have confidence and a competitive spirit. During our game against Emory, we knew we could win and we were ready for a fight.”

But the Warriors’ work was not done after Emory. They went on to defeat Bethel in the quarterfinals of the tournament, securing their place in the Final Four.

Hendrix played Wittenberg in a tough Final

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Four matchup. Unfortunately, Hendrix’s volleyball season came to end in this game, losing to Wittenberg three sets to one.

“Wittenberg had some great players, one of which had an incredible top spin serve that was nearly impossible to see, let alone pass effectively,” Rogers said. “It was a disappointing loss because we were so close to the National Championship, but it was such a blessing to have made it that far in the tournament.”

Despite losing to Wittenberg in the Final Four, Hendrix had one of its best volleyball seasons in history.

Throughout the season, Hendrix defeated Emory, the highest ranked adversary that the volleyball team has ever beat. They also finished the season with a 29-9 record, and were ranked eighth in the final polls at the end of the season.

To put the cherry on top of a great volleyballl season, coach Meek was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III Coach of the Year for the 2015-2016 season.

Blaze Pizza

“Three minutes; 180 seconds”

T

hat’s all it takes once your pizza has been thrown into the inferno of the Blaze Pizza oven. The wait is minimal; the options are plentiful; the pizza ain’t half bad.

Blaze Pizza, located at 455 Elsinger Blvd. in Conway, next to the Target, is the latest trend in dining to reach Conway. Working off the mantra of “Fast Fire’d Custom Built Artisanal Pizza,” Blaze Pizza is, as it was described to me, the Subway sandwich shop of the pizza world.

To test out this new restaurant concept, I recruited the help of one Eli Kessler, feeling that a bro-date was long overdue.

When we walked into Blaze, we immediately fell into a queue, which is a good sign if you ask me. It’s never a good sign to show up to a restaurant around the time of the dinner rush and not see other costumers.

Thankfully, Eli and I weren’t waiting for long.

Blaze is speedy. From our first conversation with our “greeter,” Sasha, to the end of the line when Ty handed me my pizza, drizzling some BBQ sauce on top, took about 5 minutes, including paying for the meal.

After being greeted and receiving an explanation of their simple menu, we started to build our pizzas. Basically, Blaze works as follows: pizza with no toppings is five bucks. Pizza with one topping is six bucks. Pizza with as many toppings as you want is seven bucks. Needless to say, of course Eli and I went for the all-youcan-top pizza.

We worked our way down the counter; I met Cheryl at the cheese station. She covered my pizza with a spicy red sauce followed by shredded mozzarella, but that’s just standard. I also added some feta cheese for a salty contrast to the mozz, and I added ricotta cheese to add some creamy texture to my ‘za.

Moving along, I got to the toppings section where I felt it was necessary to specify with Cheryl: “So…I can have as many toppings as

I’d like?”

“Yep!” Cheryl said with the enthusiasm of many Blaze employees.

Well, I wasn’t bashful. Applewood smoked bacon, Canadian ham, Italian sausage, jalapeños, sautéed onions, pineapple (if you don’t like pineapple on pizza then you don’t understand the true bliss that that sweet fruit can induce from a 3 a.m. Toppers delivery), roasted garlic, and then topped it off at the end with BBQ sauce.

Our pizzas went into the oven, and Eli graciously paid for the meal, earning some bonus points for purchasing two s’more pies for dessert. Right after grabbing our drinks we sat down at a nearby table, but only to get right back up as our names were called—the pizzas were ready.

Mine was sweet and salty, juicy and creamy, spicy and slightly smoky from the woodburning oven they place it in. By far though my favorite part was the thin, crisp crust that a wood-burning oven gives a pizza. And the s’more pie wasn’t bad either.

“They don’t make you a pizza,” Eli said when I asked what he felt about his carefully crafted pizza (which also had pineapple on it). “They make you a 14-inch friend that you grow attached to and then slowly eat.”

Honestly, what more could you ask for?

Blaze is cheap. Blaze is quick, and also looked to be a good place to grab a quick take-out meal: customers were coming in, getting a hot pizza, and walking right back out in under 10 minutes.

I’d say Blaze works as a cheap alternative to a pizza place like ZaZa’s, plus you get to place some personality on your pie (they should really hire me for marketing). I think with a couple of trips you’d be able to craft some tasty pizzas for less money and less time than other restaurants.

Thanks for dinner, Eli.

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Photos by Megan Prettyman

By Connor Newton

CULTURE

Oscar Predictions:

An Action-Packed Year

By Connor Newton

I

’ll admit, this year I haven’t been as diligent as last year about seeing some of the Oscarnominated movies. Moreover, the movies I have seen from the official list of nominations didn’t initially register as “Oscar” movies to me.

Just looking at the eight films nominated for best picture, some names stick out to me: “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “The Martian.” Both are great films, no doubt, but when trying to think of a film to compare “Fury Road” to I think about “Pacific Rim” from a few years back.

“Pacific Rim” wasn’t catching anyone’s attention for any Oscars.

To deduce it down, I believe there are arguably two action movies nominated this year for best picture.

Amongst this year’s list of nominations there are a couple staples. The proverbial Oscar-bait: the war film “Bridge of Spies” this year to complement “American Sniper” last year. There’s the period piece with great acting: “Brooklyn” this year compared to “The Theory of Everything” last year.

Some things won’t ever change.

Compared to last year, this year’s nominations look to focus more on revealing true stories like

in “The Big Short” and “Spotlight.” However, both films’ posters are riddled with the names of famous actors - past Oscar winners - looking to attract people towards the stars and away from what might be a subpar movie.

Compare the posters for “The Big Short” and “Spotlight” to the posters for “Room,” which sounds like my favorite (I’ll be seeing it soon) you’ll see exactly what I mean.

You wouldn’t know who was in “Room,” but I’ll tell you. It’s Brie Larson, who I can assure is a fabulous actress. Go watch “Short Term 12” on Netflix, and you’ll see what I mean. I’d compare Larson’s performance to a young Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone,” which she should have won an Oscar for instead of “Silver Linings Playbook.”

Oddly enough, there are a couple films missing from the best picture nomination list that I would have expected to be there.

“Steve Jobs” seems like it was meant to be on the list, but poor box-office sales seems to have set it back.

“The Danish Girl” and “Carol” both have multiple nominations for best actor and actress, respectfully, yet they aren’t in the running for

Best Picture:

Best Director:

Mad Max: Fury Road

I’d like to see, as I said before, either “Mad Max” or “Room” take the nomination, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Oscar-bait won.

“The Revenant” also deserves some attention.

Best Actor:

Michael Fassbender / Leonardo DiCaprio I’ll take Michael Fassbender, but I could see Leo stealing one this year…it would be about time (did people watch “The Departed?”).

Best Actress:

Brie Larson Best Actress goes to Brie Larson, and I’ll call that for both options.

The Revenant I think the Oscar will go to “The Revenant.”

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who won last year directing the hit “Birdman,” could win this award again. He shot the film using only natural lighting (“The Revenant” could make a run for Best Cinematography, too).

Best Animated Feature:

Anomalisa I’d like to see “Anomalisa” win. I haven’t seen it yet, but have been dying to. It’s written by Charlie Kaufman (“Adaptation,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”). Though, I could easily see “Inside Out” winning.

Best Documentary:

The Look of Silence

FEBRUARY 2016

17

best picture. If the decision was made that the acting was good, then what must be lacking from those films is a good story and plot, which strikes me as odd when thinking about the plots of the other nominated films.

My biggest disappointment has to be that “Creed” only finds itself with one nomination. It was one of my favorite films of the year, and if you’re letting “Mad Max” and “The Martian” on the ballot, then I believe “Creed” should find a place there, too.

To lay it all out there, I’ll be pulling for either “Room” or “Mad Max.” I’d love to see the fast paced, gender-warping spectacle of “Mad Max: Fury Road” take home an Oscar or two. I’d also like see an up-and-coming actress in Brie Larson get some attention.

In the section to follow, I’ll be giving my Oscar predictions - most of which are very ill-informed – but we’ll see if my blind guesses and hunches are right. I’ll be providing two separate lists: what I’d like to see win and what I believe will win... Unfortunately, these are two different things.

See my predictions below:

Oscar Picks Best Supporting Actor:

Sylvester Stallone Best Supporting Actress:

Rachel McAdams Best Cinematography:

Mad Max: Fury Road / The Hateful 8 I’ll say “Mad Max: Fury Road” or “The Hateful Eight” will win. To be frank, both films were gorgeous!

Arkansas Times Showcase

FEB. 1 - FEB. 7

FEB. 8 - FEB. 14

Chicken Shack. Little Rock.

Sunday, February 14

8 p.m. Scott H. Biram. Stickyz Rock ‘N’ Roll Chicken Shack. Little Rock.

5 p.m. Warrior Men’s Tennis. Hendrix vs Harding. Conway.

8 p.m. Scott Stapp. Metroplex Event Center.

Little Rock.

Warrior Men’s Golf. Conway Cup. Conway.

12 p.m. Warrior Women’s Basketball. Hendrix vs Centre. Conway.

2 p.m. Warrior Men’s Basketball. Hendrix vs Centre. Conway.

7 p.m. Marty Friedman. Metroplex Event Center. Little Rock.

8 p.m. The Steepwater Band. Stickyz Rock ‘N’ Roll Chicken Shack. Little Rock.

5 p.m. Warrior Women’s Tennis. Hendrix vs Harding. Conway.

FEB. 15 - FEB. 21

5 p.m. Arkansas Small Works on Paper - Reception. Art A Lobby. Conway.

9 p.m. 2016 Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase Semifinals Round 2. Stickyz Rock ‘N’ Roll Chicken Shack. Little Rock.

9 p.m. 2016 Arkansas Times Musicians showcase Semifinals Round 3. Stickyz Rock ‘N’ Roll Chicken Shack. Little Rock.

Monday, February 15

Monday, February 1 3:30 p.m. Arkansas Small Works on Paper. Art A Lobby. Conway.

Tuesday, February 2

Wednesday, February 3 Thursday, February 4

Friday, February 5

9 p.m. Little Rock Salsa Presents: Salsa Dancing.

Metroplex Event Center. Little Rock.

Saturday, February 6

3 p.m. Warrior Women’s Lacrosse. Hendrix vs Piedmont. Conway.

8 p.m. Hat Trick Music Festival. Kings. Conway.

9 p.m. Bully. Stickyz Rock ‘N’ Roll Chicken Shack. Little Rock.

Sunday, February 7

Monday, February 8 Tuesday, February 9

Wednesday, February 10 Thursday, February 11

Friday, February 12

6 p.m. Warrior Women’s Basketball. Hendrix vs.

Sewanee. Conway.

8 p.m. Warrior Men’s Basketball. Hendrix vs Sewanee. Conway.

9 p.m. Little Rock Salsa Presents: Salsa Dancing.

Metroplex Event Center. Little Rock.

Saturday, February 13

Warrior Men’s Golf. Conway Cup. Conway.

3 p.m. Warrior Men’s Lacrosse. Hendrix vs Rockhurst. Conway.

9 p.m. Mountain Sprout. Stickyz Rock ‘N’ Roll

ISSUU.COM/THEHENDRIXCOLLEGEPROFILE

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7:30 p.m. Chamber Orchestra Waltz Night.

Trieschmann. Conway.

8 p.m. Y&T. Metroplex Event Center. Little Rock.

Tuesday, February 16 Wednesday, February 17 Thursday, February 18

9 p.m. 2016 Arkansas Times Musicians showcase Semifinals Round 4. Stickyz Rock ‘N’ Roll Chicken Shack. Little Rock.

Friday, February 19

2 p.m. Warrior Men’s Tennis. Hendrix vs John Brown. Conway.

5 p.m. Warrior Women’s Tennis. Hendrix vs

february

CULTURE

CALENDAR CONWAY, LITTLE ROCK, & CENTRAL ARKANSAS Steepwater

5:30 p.m. Warrior Women’s Tennis. Hendrix vs Ozarks (Ark). Conway.

Sunday, February 21

12 p.m. Warrior Men’s Baseball. Hendrix vs Washington (MO). Conway.

12 p.m. Warrior Women’s Softball. Hendrix vs Washington (MO). Conway.

2 p.m. Warrior Women’s Softball. Hendrix vs Westminster (MO). Conway.

FEB. 22 - FEB. 28 Monday, February 22 Tuesday, February 23 8:30 p.m. Seratones. Stickyz Rock ‘N’ Roll Chicken Shack. Little Rock.

Wednesday, February 24 Thursday, February 25 Friday, February 26

9 p.m. Little Rock Salsa Presents: Salsa Dancing.

Metroplex Event Center. Little Rock.

Saturday, February 27

9 a.m. Warrior Men’s Tennis. Hendrix vs Rhodes. Conway.

9:30 a.m. Warrior Women’s Tennis. Hendrix vs Rhodes. Conway.

12 p.m. Warrior Women’s Softball. Hendrix vs Centre (DH). Conway.

2 p.m. Warrior Women’s Softball. Hendrix vs Centre (DH). Conway.

9 p.m. Boom Kinetic. Stickyz Rock ‘N’ Roll Chicken Shack. Little Rock.

Sunday, February 28

12 p.m. Warrior Women’s Softball. Hendrix vs Centre. Conway.

Monday, February 29

Photos courtesy of: Boom Kinetic John Brown. Conway.

9 p.m. Little Rock Salsa Presents: Salsa Dancing.

Metroplex Event Center. Little Rock.

Saturday, February 20

11 a.m. Warrior Women’s Lacrosse. Hendrix vs Berry. Conway.

12 p.m. Warrior Women’s Softball. Hendrix vs Washington (MO). Conway.

1 p.m. Warrior Men’s Baseball. Hendrix vs Washington (MO) (DH). Conway.

2 p.m. Warrior Women’s Softball. Hendrix vs Westminster (MO). Conway.

2:30 p.m. Warrior Men’s Tennis. Hendrix vs Ozarks (Ark). Conway.

4 p.m. Warrior Men’s Baseball. Hendrix vs Washington (MO) (DH). Conway.

FEBRUARY 2016

19

Arkansas Times Showcase

http://www.rockcitylife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ARK_show_2.jpg

Steepwater

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Boom Kinetic

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1600 Washington Ave Conway, AR 72032