M A G A Z I N E

ashevilleUNC Volume 7, No. 2 SPRING 2015

INSIDE

Making the Grade with Admissions

The Baseball Team Pitches In

Chancellor Grant Hits the Ground Running

Alumni Lead in the Craft Beer Industry

Brewing Success

Moving Forward Liberal arts leadership in the driver’s seat

Pitching In The baseball team hits a home run for community service

F E AT U R E S

28

Brew MastersMeet the alumni who lead the industry (Photo by David Allen ’13)

18

contents

6 12 Multiple Choice Examining the many factors in UNC Asheville’s admissions

UNC ASHEVILLE SENIOR STAFFCHANCELLOR Mary K. Grant

PROVOST AND VICE CHANCELLOR FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS Joe Urgo

VICE CHANCELLOR FOR STUDENT AFFAIRS William K. Haggard

VICE CHANCELLOR FOR FINANCE AND CAMPUS OPERATIONS John Pierce

VICE CHANCELLOR FOR UNIVERSITY ADVANCEMENT Buffy Bagwell

SENIOR ADMINISTRATOR FOR UNIVERSITY ENTERPRISES AND ATHLETICS DIRECTOR Janet Cone

CHIEF OF STAFF Christine Riley

GENERAL COUNSEL Heather Parlier

UNC ASHEVILLE MAGAZINE STAFFEDITOR Amy Jessee

DESIGNERS Nanette Johnson, Mary Ann Lawrence

PROJECT MANAGER Carol Barnao

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Aaron Dahlstrom ’09, Jon Elliston, Mike Gore, Debbie Griffith, Amy Jessee, Patricia LaHay, Steve Plever, Molly Smithson ’15, Melissa Stanz, Cory Thompson ’15

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS David Allen ’13, John Fletcher, Jameykay Huffman, Galen McGee ’08, Matt Rose, Erin Sattler ’15

UNC Asheville Magazine is published twice a year by UNC Asheville Communication and Marketing to give alumni and friends an accurate, lively view of the university—its people, programs and initiatives. Contact us at magazine@unca.edu.

UNC ASHEVILLE ALUMNI OFFICEASSOCIATE VICE CHANCELLOR FOR ALUMNI RELATIONS & ANNUAL GIVING Laura Herndon

Address ChangesOffice of University Advancement & Alumni GivingCPO #3800 • UNC Asheville One University Heights • Asheville, NC 28804alumni@unca.edu

UNC Asheville enrolls more than 3,700 full- and part-time students in more than 30 programs leading to the bachelor’s degree as well as the Master of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The university is committed to equality of educational opportunity and does not discriminate against applicants, students or employees on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, disabling condition or sexual orientation.

© UNC Asheville, April 2015

32,500 copies of this magazine were printed on paper with recycled content at a cost of $15,990 or 49 cents each.

I T ’ S B E E N A N E XC I T I NG STA RT

this spring semester, as my husband,

Jim, and I join you on this journey—

moving to our home on campus,

exploring our new hometown, and

getting to know more about the great

work at UNC Asheville. We’ve met

many wonderful colleagues, alumni,

students and supporters along the

way, and I want to thank you all for

the warm welcome. Already, we’ve

had the opportunity to contribute to our community—volunteering

for a Day On during MLK Day and announcing the impressive

statewide and regional economic impact of UNC Asheville.

It’s thanks to your hard work that we add value through the high-

quality liberal arts education here at UNC Asheville. Our students

solve real-world problems, such as the social entrepreneurship

challenge chronicled in Around the Quad. Our alumni find

meaningful, satisfying careers, such as those featured in our cover

story. Our student-athletes pitch in, with an impressive 20-year

record in the case of the baseball team.

It’s this Bulldog determination that comes into focus in this issue of

UNC Asheville Magazine—determination that combines competition

with community service, and merges classroom expertise with

compelling careers. That resiliency and grit are traits we look for in

our newest Bulldogs too, as you’ll learn in our feature story on the

admissions process. (Advance warning: there’s a quiz at the end.)

As one of the newest Bulldogs on campus, I’m also grateful to learn

more about the work of our students, staff and faculty, who never stop

in their efforts to make the campus community more efficient and

effective. This issue of the magazine introduces us to the Blue Crew

students who lead orientation, our internal auditor who volunteers

her time as an active member of the community, and our many faculty

members who flip the classroom to improve their teaching.

We have several activities and events to look forward to this year,

including the return of Concerts on the Quad this summer, and

I hope you will join me on campus this fall for the chancellor’s

installation ceremony on September 19 to celebrate our shared

path toward the future. It is a privilege, an honor and an awesome

responsibility to serve as your seventh chancellor, to become blue,

as our orientation leaders might call it, and to be a Bulldog.

—Chancellor Mary K. Grant

D E PA R T M E N TS

ON THE COVER: Chris Ivesdal ’02 on his career path in the brewing industry (Photo by David Allen ’13)

A R O U N D T H E Q UA DE X T R A C R E D I T G I V I N G B A C KP R A C T I C A L LY S P E A K I N G G O, B U L L D O G S !C L A S S N O T E S

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Spring Forward

2 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E

THE HEART OF BUSINESSStudents Succeed in Social Entrepreneurship

UNC Asheville students Madison Eddings and Ben Eisdorfer were

awarded the grand prize from the 2015 UNC Social Entrepreneurship

Conference—$3,000 to launch their business idea, Pro(TECH)t,

wearable technology designed to prevent campus assault.

Eddings, a sophomore majoring in biology, and Eisdorfer, a

sophomore management student, competed against undergrad-

uate teams from all 17 UNC system schools. The UNC Social

Entrepreneurship Conference challenges students to identify some

of North Carolina’s most pressing social problems, then take a

business-oriented approach to solving them. Teams were judged

based on market analysis and sustainability, social impact potential,

and likelihood of success, as well as their formal presentation and

question-and-answer session.

“The success of these excellent students at this year’s competition

demonstrates the value of interdisciplinarity and the liberal arts for

the development of skills in critical thinking, problem solving, and

communication,” said Edward Katz, associate provost and dean of

university programs at UNC Asheville.

“It also reflects the dedication and quality of our outstanding faculty and

staff, who worked intensively with our students throughout the academic

year to prepare for the event,” he said.

Eddings and Eisdorfer began their development of Pro(TECH)t

in an interdisciplinary studies course

at UNC Asheville on the fundamentals

of project and business-plan devel-

opment, taught by a team of faculty

leaders. The class culminated with

a campus-wide competition judged

by local entrepreneurs. Two teams—

Pro(TECH)t and the CPR-training

business HeartRacers—advanced to

the state competition.

Eddings and Eisdorfer plan to immedi-

ately invest their winnings into a pat-

ent for their device, which will feature

real-time GPS that can be activated to

send a signal to campus police when a

wearer feels threatened.

The course, Social Entrepreneurship:

Your Ideas in Action, will be taught

again in upcoming fall semesters.The statewide social entrepreneurship winners showcase their work (above). Two teams advanced from the campus competition, judged by local entrepreneurs (below).

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COLLEGE CREDITUNC Asheville Announces Dual Enrollment Agreement with Asheville City Schools

Students of Asheville High School and SILSA (School of Inquiry & Life Sciences at Asheville) will be able to take courses at

UNC Asheville while still in high school, beginning next fall as part of a new dual enrollment agreement signed in February.

“What this means is that students from the Asheville City Schools, in addition to the excellent work that’s happening there,

will be able to take real college courses for real college credits, which expedites the time toward a degree and exposes them

to a higher level of work,” said UNC Asheville Chancellor Mary K. Grant.

“We are excited that our students will be able to extend their learning throughout their tenure here at Asheville City Schools and work with a wonderful university. This is an opportunity for exposure to college. ... Our students will know there’s an avenue for success.”

—Pamela Baldwin, Asheville City Schools Superintendent

THE OUTDOOR SOUND OF MUSICConcerts on the Quad Return Summer 2015

UNC Asheville’s Concerts on the Quad, once a fixture of Asheville’s summer calendar, will return in 2015. This

summer’s lineup will feature five free concerts on UNC Asheville’s Quad, spanning many musical genres, and will

include shows by two local Asheville bands.

During its first 28 years, Concerts on the Quad had become a Monday-night tradition for many in greater Asheville,

bringing thousands to campus before the series ended at the close of the 2010 season due to lack of continued

funding. Thanks to the financial support of community partners Mission

Health and the Asheville Citizen-Times, UNC Asheville will be able to present

the concerts once again, starting this June with Asheville-based Sirius.B,

a large and eclectic ensemble.

See the concert schedule at cesap.unca.edu/concerts-quad

AROUND THE QUAD

4 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E

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EDUCATIONAL VALUEStatewide Study Shows Higher Education Drives the Economy

Public higher education institutions in

Western North Carolina injected at least

$2 billion into the state economy during the

2012–13 fiscal year through the combined

impact of payroll, operational, construction

and research expenditures by universities

and community colleges, and the spending

habits of our students, visitors and alumni.

Of this $2 billion, roughly 75 percent or

$1.52 billion remained right here in the 11

counties of WNC (Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay,

Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson,

Macon, Madison, Swain and Transylvania).

Those are among the findings of a com-

prehensive study conducted by Economic

Modeling Specialists International (EMSI)

to examine the impact of higher education

on North Carolina. The EMSI study exam-

ined the combined impact of the University

of North Carolina system, North Carolina

Community College system and private institutions, and also

assessed the impact of individual UNC campuses, private

colleges and community colleges on their local economies.

Educational leaders in the WNC region joined together on

Feb. 20, in a collaborative celebration at the Asheville Area

Chamber of Commerce, to share specific impacts, including

added income, equivalent job creation, and the benefits gen-

erated for students, taxpayers and North Carolina as a whole.

“This study makes real for all of us the extraordinary long-

term benefits to North Carolina of investing in top-quality

higher education. The financial return-on-investment is sub-

stantial, but it is really only part of the story: Graduates from

all of our institutions are making a crucial difference in the

civic and social fabric of our society, every single day,” said

UNC Asheville Chancellor Mary K. Grant.

“This study demonstrates how vital public higher education

is to North Carolina’s economy,” said UNC Asheville Board

of Trustees Chair King Prather. “It’s compelling evidence

that UNC Asheville, as a great liberal arts university, is an

engine of regional growth and economic vitality, and contrib-

utes meaningfully to the economic, social and environmental

sustainability and health of the state.”

unca.edu/north-carolina-higher-education-economic-impact

Chancellor Belcher from WCU, Chancellor Grant, and President King from A-B Tech announce a $2 billion economic impact from public institutions in WNC.

MAKING AN IMPACT UNC Asheville Rated Third Nationally on New Princeton Review List

UNC Asheville ranks third nationally on the “Best Schools for Making an Impact” list, part of The Princeton Review’s

new college rankings guide, Colleges That Pay You Back: The 200 Best Value Colleges and What It Takes to Get In— 2015 Edition. UNC Asheville is one of only four public universities included on the “making an impact” list.

AROUND THE QUAD

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AROUND THE QUAD

HONOR SOCIETYFaculty, Staff and Students Recognized for Service and Achievements

UNC Asheville senior Stephanie Watkins-Cruz has been recognized

for outstanding leadership and service

by North Carolina Campus Compact,

a statewide network of colleges and

universities that are committed to

community engagement. Watkins-

Cruz is a recipient of the network’s

Community Impact Student Award,

which honors one student leader at

each member school.

UNC Asheville Professor of Physics Randy Booker was honored for his

teaching and mentorship at the winter

meeting of the American Association

of Physics Teachers. Booker received

the 2014 Outstanding Chapter Advisor

Award issued by the national Society of

Physics Students (SPS).

Chancellor Emerita Anne Ponder was honored at the annual meeting

of the Council of Public Liberal Arts

Colleges (COPLAC) for her decades of

leadership in higher education. Ponder

served as chancellor of UNC Asheville

for nine years, retiring in summer 2014.

It was during Ponder’s tenure that

COPLAC selected UNC Asheville as its

national headquarters.

CASE STUDIESWebsites, Videos and Publications Earn Awards

UNC Asheville Magazine was recognized at the annual conference of the southeast

region of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE),

earning an award of excellence in the Magazine I category and special merit in

magazine improvement for the fall 2013 redesign. In addition, UNC Asheville earned

top honors with a grand award for the giving.unca.edu website redesign, special

merit for the recruitment video, an award of excellence for the 30-second commercial

Experience UNC Asheville, special merit for the fundraising publication Investing in Success, and special merit for media relations about The Virtual Lincoln Project.

LIGHTING THE WAYEnergy-Efficient Upgrades Bring Cost Savings

UNC Asheville is undertaking a $3.2 million project to upgrade the majority of all

indoor and exterior lighting on campus to energy-efficient LED fixtures, as part of

a University of North Carolina system-wide campaign to reduce the energy inten-

sity of its facilities by 30 percent between 2002 and 2015. The project, estimated

to save at least $468,000 in energy costs per year, is expected to be completed by

the end of May, with utilities savings guaranteed and used to pay back the debt

incurred. The lighting upgrade initiative is projected to save at least $3.5 million

annually across 12 of the system’s campuses.

Watch the recruitment video at magazine.unca.edu

6 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E

The UNC Asheville campus community first met Mary K. Grant on August 1, 2014, when she stepped into the driver’s seat of the university, accepting UNC system President Thomas Ross’ nomination to become the seventh chancellor. A four-hour bus

ride with faculty and students back to Asheville followed her

appointment by the Board of Governors in Chapel Hill. Chancellor

Grant has stayed on the move since then—learning about her new

hometown and moving into Pisgah House in January.

UNC Asheville Magazine followed Chancellor Grant during her first

months and on social media @AvlChancellor to get a glimpse at

the road ahead. Here, we share a few of the first impressions from

students, staff, faculty and the Asheville community.

MOVING FORWARD

“From the ‘Welcome Back’ video to her participation in the MLK Day of Service, she has made it clear that students are one of her main priorities as chancellor.”

BY DEBBIE GRIFFITH

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—Leigh C. Whittaker, senior, former UNC Asheville Student Government Association president, and current student body vice president of the UNC system

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BOARD OF GOVERNORS

MLK DAY OF SERVICE

From the time we first met on the bus ride up, I noticed her high energy and visibility. …

My hopes for Chancellor Grant are that she uses that amazing energy to truly listen and engage with student needs. I hope she will find that the students that truly care about the issue of diversity want to pursue improving campus with her, not without her.

—Stephanie Watkins-Cruz, senior, political science, Charlotte

I’ve always found Chancellor Grant to be a good listener, a thoughtful consensus builder, a strong and consistent advocate for college access and the value of the liberal arts and sciences.

—Bill Spellman, executive director, Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC)

I’ve noticed many times that whenever Mary Grant speaks, people listen to her. She seems never to get tired, she has the ability to continue to think creatively and to continually generate ideas.

—Joe Urgo, UNC Asheville Provost

AUG 1, 2014

JAN 19, 2015

ROTARY CLUB

Despite the long day capped with an even longer bus ride, Grant was still smiling, still chatting with

students on the bus, posing for “selfies” and jumping behind the wheel at a rest stop to pose for yet

another photo. In the middle of the journey, she took the time to make a phone call to her team at her former college, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, to thank them for their hard work.

“We’re going to have some fun,” Grant said in her acceptance of the nomination to become UNC Asheville’s seventh chancellor, “The need has never been stronger for the work that we do, and I look forward to rolling up my sleeves and being part of it. I bring to this work a deep passion for how public higher education can change lives and how the liberal arts transforms those lives in the process.”

Chancellor Grant sat on the floor with an elementary school student and patiently cut out letters and

numbers from construction paper. It was a part of the MLK Day of Service project in which dozens of UNC Asheville students, faculty and staff volunteer for community projects. “The little girl told me I wasn’t very good with the scissors, so I was relegated to glue stick duty,” the chancellor recalled. “I had a great time, and it was really special for me to talk with this little girl and to learn her story and to meet the staff and volunteers at the YWCA.”

JAN 29, 2015

Seated at the head table, Grant engaged with Rotary leadership. Her first-ever off-campus speech as

UNC Asheville’s chancellor was a hit. With self-deprecating humor and revealing stories of growing up in Massachusetts, she told the crowd why a liberal arts education is transformational—for herself and for the students she serves. “I work in the business of the future, for opportunities to make a difference, and I’m delighted to think about all the ways we can do this work together,” she said.

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8 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E

With a meeting room full of area alumni, business leaders, legislators and members of the Board of

Governors, Grant and Chancellor David Belcher of Western Carolina University stood behind the

podium with Dennis King, president of A-B Tech, to celebrate the release of a report that showed a

$2 billion economic impact from WNC public universities and community colleges. The leaders were articulate and proud, and Chancellor Grant used this opportunity to congratulate two UNC Asheville students in attendance, who recently placed first within the UNC system social entrepreneurship competition. “You can look at the numbers, but what we have is an impact that goes beyond the confines of the classroom; what we have is an impact in changing lives in this community,” she said.

BULLDOG WOMEN’S BASKETBALL GAMEJAN 31, 2015

The stands in the Sherrill Center/Kimmel Arena were pretty bare, but a valiant women’s basketball team

ran up and down the court giving it their all despite the sparse crowd. Their No. 1 fans were there however, with Grant and her husband, Jim Canavan, cheering, clapping and smiling, always smiling.

ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCEFEB 20, 2015

If I were to use one word to describe Chancellor Grant it would be ‘engaging.’ After meeting the chancellor last fall I was impressed by her desire for and interest in community engagement.

—Darin Waters, assistant professor of history

My first encounter with Chancellor Grant was at the Asheville Rotary Club meeting, She pulled off an articulate, humorous and poignant keynote speech, which smoothly intertwined UNC Asheville’s message, support for the liberal arts, service, public education, and her own backstory. I am happy to call her a fellow Bulldog.

—Gray Barrett, junior, international studies, Maryville, Tenn.

Mary is very warm and easy to talk to. She’s very obviously excited to be at UNC Asheville and eager to meet and hear opinions of the community. The one word that I would use to describe my first impression would be ‘genuine.’

—Wilma Sherrill, UNC Asheville Board of Trustees

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I was exhilarated as

Chancellor Grant described all she’d accomplished on and off campus

in just a few short weeks… She’s a whirl-wind of energy and enthusiasm. I believe

she has the ability to make lots of good things happen at UNC Asheville.

—Pat Smith, chair-elect, UNC Asheville Board of

Trustees

She clearly understands that our future success will come through building strong partnerships in the community and across the state, and I feel confident her work will solidify UNC Asheville’s status as the state’s pre-eminent undergraduate institution.

—John D. Noor ’07, attorney, Roberts & Stevens, P.A. Asheville

Photos by David Allen ’13

I predict that she will move UNC Asheville forward both as an academic institution and a community organization.

—Don Locke, retired director of Diversity and Multiculturalism at UNC Asheville

UNC Asheville has hit another home run in choosing Dr. Mary Grant as Chancellor! She obviously will be a fast study in effectively matching our student and university needs with our limited financial resources.

—Ed Broadwell, chairman/CEO emeritus, HomeTrust Bank, Asheville

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EXTRA CREDIT

Long before summer, before the first

incoming student arrives on campus for

orientation, the Blue Crew chants.

“Everybody remembers ‘Bulldog

Rumble,’ right?” says Taylor Heise, the

18-year-old sophomore from Burlington,

N.C., who serves as head orientation

leader for the team of 20 students.

“It’s the same one we did last week.”

BECOMING BLUEStudents Embark as Orientation Leaders By Cory A. Thompson ’15

The group claps and cheers as if to

welcome a parade marching beside

them along the tiled Karpen Hall cor-

ridor. When the last giggle subsides,

Heise calls the class into order and

explains another spirited chant.

In her other classes, Heise studies psy-

chology and creative writing. But every

Wednesday during the spring semester,

she trains to be a leader. Not only a

leader of orientees, but a leader worthy

of directing her peers.

“It requires an incredible amount of

preparation and follow-through to

be the head orientation leader,” says

Stephanie Franklin, the Blue Crew’s

supervisor and UNC Asheville’s director

of Transition and Parent Programs.

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EXTRA CREDIT

“Taylor’s able to clearly communicate

what’s happening with a variety of dif-

ferent groups on campus. She has really

taken the responsibility seriously and is

doing a phenomenal job.”

Functionally, embark orientation season

is a marathon running the entire month

of June. Freshman orientation sessions

are two-day affairs, which last from

8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on day one and 8 a.m.

to 4 p.m. on day two, plus a one-day

session for transfer students. Two orien-

tation leaders handle every group, and

these orientation teams are responsible

for the safety and wellbeing of the new-

est Bulldogs. Like all marathon athletes,

the Blue Crew trains all year round.

“In addition to the class, they go to a

conference every year in March to learn

how to apply certain skills to help them

become better leaders,” Franklin says.

“It’s much more of an involved process

than most people realize.”

In class, the student-leaders study the

history of the orientation program and

what it means to be a leader. They

prepare chants for midyear events like

homecoming. For orientation leaders

hired between June seasons, the class

provides newbies, like sophomore

Torey Todd, a safe space to cut their

teeth before the intensity of summer.

Todd, a 20-year-old sophomore study-

ing biology from Black Mountain, N.C.,

says he’s no stranger to being a leader

despite never leading an orientation

group. He’s served as patrol leader in

Boy Scouts and filled a leadership role

in his high school marching band. Still,

he says the Orientation Leader program

offers new challenges for someone

experienced with being in charge.

“They say some people are born leaders

and others are not, but that’s not always

true,” Todd says. “People can become

strong leaders through whatever trials

they’ve had. The biggest issue for me is

learning how to lead in a team.”

Heise says she wants the Blue Crew to

resemble a family by the time the first

orientees arrive in June, and, according

to Todd, her effort is paying off.

“We can all be leaders alone, but being

leaders together is the big goal,” Todd

says. “We’re getting together every

Wednesday night and we’re becoming

friends, but we’re also becoming co-

workers. We’re developing an under-

standing for how we lead and how our

peers lead. We strengthen ourselves by

learning our weaknesses.”

Heise says she remembers her first

class being informative, but nowhere

near as transformative as her first

orientation season. She says her family

has remarked on how much more extro-

verted her role has made her.

“I remember standing by the flagpole

in the center of campus for four hours

straight,” Heise says. “I just stood

there answering questions and giving

people directions. It really drew me out

of my shell and was unlike anything

I’d really experienced before. At home,

I lived on a farm far away from every-

body I knew.”

Heise says her transformation during

orientation is fitting, especially be-

cause orientation bookends the monu-

mental life shift of going to a university.

“I see orientation as a way for students

to realize that their entire life is about

to change,” Heise says. “They are

about to enter a new part of their life

which they’re probably not expecting

to be as dramatic of a change as it is …

UNC Asheville is school as school

should be.”

“We’re also becoming co-workers. We’re

developing an understanding for how we

lead and how our peers lead. We strengthen

ourselves by learning our weaknesses.” — Torey Todd ’17

Senior mass communication and anthropology student Cory A. Thompson and senior health and wellness promotion major Erin Sattler became blue to write and photograph this story.

Taylor Heise ’17 becomes blue for homecoming.

1 2 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E1 2 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E

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Examining UNC Asheville AdmissionsWRITTEN BY AMY JESSEE

“

”

You can tell more in the four-year portfolio and GPA about a student’s motivation and resilience than you can from four hours of taking a test. I P L E

C H O I C E

Taking a holistic approach to admissions means UNC

Asheville factors in more than numbers to find students

with the best fit and grit to succeed in college. It’s a multiple-

choice scenario with more than one answer—for students

searching for their perfect school and for a university

balancing admissions criteria with a creative approach.

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“ Finding the talent in our students

means we have to go beyond the

numbers.” —JOE URGO, UNC ASHEVILLE PROVOST

A Critical Reading of the SAT

he Admissions Office at UNC Asheville is not alone in reconsidering the weight of

SAT scores. More than 800 four-year colleges have made the test optional in recent years, according to The National Center for Fair and Open Testing, which notes growing concerns about “under-matching,” where students don’t find the best fit at a school where they could succeed.

“It goes along with the trend, but that’s not why we made the decision,” says Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Bill Haggard. “We were looking inward at our own processes and having candid discussions about why some students didn’t persist. We’ve hovered around 80 percent for our freshman to soph-omore retention rate. So we looked more closely at the 20 percent to try to discover any patterns. The pattern that we found was that just because someone has a 1400 SAT score doesn’t mean they are going to do well here. So we ques-tioned on what other variables we could place greater emphasis.”

To understand those shared qualities for the group, UNC Asheville turned to Archer Gravely, a 30-year veteran as the director of institutional research.

“In the statistical models, we find that the high-school achievement measures have more weight than the SAT. The high-school performance measures give a good signal to the student’s motivation,” Gravely says, while stressing that it’s one of many factors to consider.

“This holistic approach means we don’t rely on any single one measure, but instead we review the student’s academic performance in multiple ways,” explains Pat McClellan, assistant provost for aca-demic administration. “We seek to find strong indicators of personal responsibil-ity and achievement. The trick is, how do you measure that resilience? You know it when you see it, but it’s hard to define in any sort of quantitative way. There’s no resilience test that we are aware of.”

However, there is the SAT, an admissions standard that has been tested through the years and one recently discussed by UNC Asheville in a recali-bration of admissions standards.

“This recalibration of our criteria makes admissions much more of an art than a science. It’s not just a series of metrics,” says UNC Asheville Provost Joe Urgo. “Finding the talent in our students means we have to go beyond the numbers.”

Calculating & Recalibrating Admissions Standards

iterature and Language Professor Dee James, who is also director of the first-year

writing program and a UNC Asheville alumna, remembers her own application process and echoes this approach. “I don’t think any one factor is a good predictor.

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You need to examine an array of factors. Recalibrating makes sense because populations change, so what counts and how it counts and how we look at it and what we ask of our students needs to be revisited. This is a welcome idea, but politically it’s a tricky idea.”

James cites how easy it is to sum up academic quality in a number such as an aggregate or average SAT score for an incoming class—a number that has kept UNC Asheville on par with schools such as UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State. Plus, she’s seen the evolution come full circle, starting with her recruitment in 1969 to integrate the women’s residence halls.

“We cycle through,” she says. “By the time I had graduated, we were aiming for the more elite and high-end SAT scores. Then we went through a period of trying to serve more local and community needs through rebalancing our admissions practices. When I was a new faculty member 31 years ago, we had a large portion of nontraditional students, with an average age of 27. Then we decided as a liberal arts institution we would make a name for ourselves in the state with higher scores. We continually revisit how to serve well and who we are supposed to serve.”

According to Urgo, that focus on students as individuals remains at the forefront. “It’s also acknowledging the changing demographic of students apply-ing, including first-generation students, and setting a standard that treats them fairly,” he says. “As the American population gets more diverse—multicultur-ally and geographically—the challenge is about recognizing different ways that intelligence is manifest.”

Multiple Choices for Students

Like many UNC Asheville Bulldogs, James Whalen and Juliana Grassia studied their college options carefully to determine the best fit, but what they now know as president and vice president of the Student Government Association is that the university also studied their accomplishments across a broad spectrum of quantitative and qualitative measures. People say to have your top choice, middle

choice and last choice, but I think that’s a silly system, because no one wants to go to their last choice,” says Whalen, a senior from Charlotte, N.C., with a double major in philosophy and math at UNC Asheville. “I applied to four schools and I got into four schools, but I didn’t have a top and bottom. I had a reach for different things—one was too expensive so I looked for scholarships, one was too far away but I needed to see if I would enjoy it. UNC Asheville ended up as my top choice and the most affordable.”

When I was applying to schools, I applied to some of the bigger names,” explains New Jersey native and senior French and political science double major Grassia.

“I got momentarily focused on the name of the school, not the quality. My dad said, ‘you need to apply to UNC Asheville because it’s you. It’s everything that you believe in, in terms of education.’ So I did, and I don’t regret it. I focused on the content of the university and if it reflected my personal values instead of a big name.”

“

“

1 6 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E1 6 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E

We read everything—the essays, the recommendations,

the transcripts and the test scores ... It’s a more personal

approach. One person reads your entire application.”

—SHANNON EARLE, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF ADMISSIONS AND FINANCIAL AID

“

UNC Asheville still includes the SAT as part of its admission requirements. In fact, the 16 universities in the UNC system have a statewide standard of 800 on math and critical reading set by General Administration for fall 2013, with higher minimums decided by institutions, with some exceptions. This includes a pilot program in fall 2015 at North Carolina Central University, Elizabeth City State University and Fayetteville State University to admit stu-dents whose SAT/ACT scores are below the system’s minimum requirements but whose high-school GPAs are above the current standards.

Each university also may apply for a chancellor’s exception to this minimum for individual students, limited to 1 per-cent of new applicants accepted.

“We’ve never used a chancellor’s exception,” says Senior Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Shannon Earle. “But we take a critical look at our approach and find creative ways to make sure we are serving our students. We’ve found that you can tell more in the four-year portfolio and GPA about a student’s motivation and resilience than you can from four hours of taking a test.”

Writing the Next Chapter in Higher Education Admissions

tudents have more than a test score, GPA and transcripts to make an impression, and in

many cases the essay is the place on the application where students can show how they are the best fit for UNC Asheville.

“We read everything—the essays, the recommendations, the transcripts and the test scores,” says Earle. “Admissions counselors do not use computer soft-ware to filter applications. It’s a more personal approach. One person reads your entire application.”

That’s why admissions counselors at UNC Asheville often know students by name the first time they come into the office for a tour or an interview or call with questions. They have about 24 pages to get to know each student, for more than 2,500 applicants. These details of a student’s achievements are some-thing faculty are interested in as well.

“What I think most faculty members want are students who are committed, hard-working, responsible, well-rounded people, who intend to create lives of

S

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Test Your Knowledge of

UNC Asheville Admissions

1. What was the first essay question included on

UNC Asheville’s application for the fall 2008 class?

a. Why is UNC Asheville the place that you will feel most

content and creative?

b. What lessons did you learn from a time that you

experienced a failure?

c. How will UNC Asheville help you achieve your goals?

d. What is a special attribute or accomplishment that

sets you apart?

2. How many admissions counselors read applications?

a. 4 b. 6 c. 8 d. 10

3. How many campus tours are given in a year?

a. 156 b. 199 c. 215 d. 288

4. How many students and families attend admissions

events on campus each year?

a. 1,000 b. 4,000 c. 7,000 d. 10,000

5. As estimated by our admissions director, what’s the

total number of phone calls, emails and personal

contacts to applicants?

a. Thousands b. Millions c. Billions d. Zillions

Answers: 1.c, 2.b, 3.d, 4.d, 5.d

meaning and who embrace their respon-sibility to contribute to the betterment of the world as global citizens,” says Dee Eggers, associate professor of environmental studies and chair of the faculty senate. “Now, most high-school students don’t talk about such things, but we see evidence of those tendencies in the choices they make. For example, the courses students chose to take are quite telling. Are they in AP Physics and AP English Literature? Then they probably know how to work hard and are invested in their own futures. A background in athletics also is a good indicator of work ethic, responsibility, discipline—all factors that contribute to success in the classroom.”

Of course, the process and the ques-tions have changed. Just 10 years ago, UNC Asheville used paper applications. Now, everything is online, with options for the College Foundation of North Carolina (CFNC), common app, and homegrown application, as Earle calls it. Other schools, such as Goucher College, have pushed the paper application even further, now accepting student videos instead of test scores, transcripts and recommendations.

UNC Asheville hasn’t taken that digi-tal step yet, but creative students can still find a way to stand out and get in.

“With this holistic approach, we’ve seen an increase in accepts in Western North Carolina by 9 percent and an increase in self-reported underrepre-sented students,” says Earle. “That’s a benefit, but that was not the driving force. The driving force is to find the well-rounded student who will succeed at UNC Asheville. By doing that, we’ve opened up the door to a lot of students who will make a difference here and in the world.” 4

1 8 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E

WRITTEN BY MOLLY SMITHSON ’15 AND AARON DAHLSTROM ’09

Photo by Galen McGee ’08

MAKING IT

S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 1 9

UNC Asheville

alumni are rising to

the top of the craft

brew scene. Despite coming from a variety of

different majors, these seven alumni

prove that having a liberal arts

education is a key ingredient for a

successful career.

Evan Crutchfield ’06 manages sales for Asheville brewery Wicked Weed, but that doesn’t mean he’s completed his job once he secures a customer. Not only does Crutchfield check in with clients, he also runs outside events, helps with merchandising and even delivers some of the beer himself.

“At small breweries it takes everybody doing lots of different things to make it all work.”

Wicked Weed self-distributes its beer, which cuts costs and allows closer relations with customers. Crutchfield is especially useful to the relatively new brewery in that he’s worked in the craft beer industry as both a salesman and brewer himself for 11 years.

“Not a lot of the guys in sales and distribution have brewing experience, so that’s why I’m part of the team, to kind of bridge the gap between the brewing world and the sales and distribution world,” he says.

Crutchfield’s biology degree from UNC Asheville came in handy when he completed the Master Brewing program at University of California Davis, helping him bypass classes in biology, chemistry and physics. He also earned a professional brewers certificate.

“I learned so much and I did so many things at UNC Asheville,” he says. “The more you know, the more you can relate and understand a lot of things. A lot of my job is talking to people about beer and brewing, but most of the time when you’re drinking beer, you’re being social, so those go hand in hand.”

the Manager

MAKING IT

2 0 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E

Asheville wasn’t always Beer City, USA. Now home to more than 20 breweries, the region has become a destination for craft beer lovers worldwide. And John Lyda ’89 helped put it on the map.

As the brewmaster of Highland Brewing, Asheville’s first craft brewery, Lyda oversees the day-to-day operations of the company, making sure every drop of beer measures up to its standards. That focus on quality has been with the company since the beginning.

“[In our early days] we dumped about 6,000 gallons of beer that was drinkable but wasn’t what we were looking for,” he says. “We don’t want to release anything that isn’t up to our standards.”

Lyda has been with Highland since its inception in 1994, but his interest in brewing actually began much earlier. The person who got him started? His mother.

“I’ve always liked good beer,” he says. “Even in college I didn’t drink the cheap stuff. My mom found a home-brewing kit in the church rummage sale and said, ‘Here, just make your own instead of buying that expensive beer you like.’”

Lyda is still coming up with new recipes, as well as welding together parts of the assembly line. In fact, Highland’s brewing system was partially inspired by the industrial engineering courses taught by Professor Bob Yearout.

“It was a well-rounded education. I graduated from UNC Asheville with a business degree after thinking I couldn’t do chemistry,” says the management major who avoided science labs in favor of on-the-job experience.

“Turns out I could.”

the Brewmaster

Photo by David Allen ’13

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the Brewmaster

By some characterizations, the craft beer world is an industry of self-taught rebels never content on following the leader. That’s why when it comes to legal matters, it’s good to have an attorney like Derek Allen ’93 on your side.

“They want to do things their own way,” Allen says. “That’s what makes them great brewers. Those same things, from a business perspective, can get you in trouble.”

The political science major earned his law degree from UNC Chapel Hill in 1997. Now an attorney at Ward and Smith P.A., in Asheville, Allen has made a name for himself, and his firm, specializing in the city’s favorite frothy beverage. His firm represents some of the biggest players in the craft beer scene, including New Belgium, Oskar Blues and Sierra Nevada.

“Their job is to brew and sell beer. Our job is to make sure there are no issues that prohibit them from doing that,” he says.

Allen never imagined his legal career would focus on alcoholic beverage law. Rather, the business found him, after the owner of Oskar Blues contacted his office to help them handle some legal matters when they were opening their Western North Carolina location.

“Beer may be the end result, but behind the scenes, a whole host of legal matters could be fermenting. Manufacturing laws, trademarks, zoning and other legal issues can financially cripple a brewery if they are not careful.”

Making good beer may be the easiest part of it.

the Attorney

Photo by Galen McGee ’08

2 2 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E

For Ashleigh Carter ’07 making beer is all about balance. It’s about bringing malt and hops together in harmony, but it’s also about combining intellectual and physical work together for one purpose.

“I needed to tie mental work with physical work. Brewing does both of those things: combining physical activity and labor with thinking.”

Carter is the co-owner and head brewer at Bierstadt Lagerhaus, a microbrewery in Denver, Colo., that will specialize in lagers when it opens it taps this summer. Last year, she traveled to Germany to purchase a copper brewing system dating back before World War II.

Pairing smarts and strength is something that Carter learned well at UNC Asheville. As a member of the women’s soccer team, she was expected to be at the top of her game both in the classroom and on the field. After a sports injury sidelined her graduate school plans, Carter decided to investigate the brewing industry, apprenticing and volunteering to get her foot in the door. She credits soccer coach Michelle Cornish with teaching her how to improve upon her weaknesses and excel at her strengths.

Carter has balanced that determination with a calculated approach, applying her mathematics degree to the details of a business plan and carefully measured recipes for her signature beers.

the Owner

OPEN

Photo by Bettina Wang

S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 2 3

When Chris Ivesdal ’02 moved to Asheville in 1996, he only knew of one or two breweries in the area. Now, the UNC Asheville management graduate believes we’re on the path to universal craft beer domination.

“This area will become a world brewing center. I’m already seeing tourists from all over the world coming to experience beer.”

Ivesdal is in the perfect position to see that transition as a tour guide at Sierra Nevada, which gave Asheville a stamp of approval when they selected the area as their East Coast location. He finds his liberal arts education especially useful when telling visitors about the wonderful world of beer.

“All those presentations that I gave while in the management department really paid off,” Ivesdal says.

“I think to humanities when I’m discussing the evolution of beer styles. Any work with chemistry or biology is helpful when discussing the process of making beer.”

Plus, he needs to constantly adapt on his job, as Sierra Nevada continues to roll out various features on its 190-acre property in Mills River, which opened to the public in late 2014.

“We are very lucky to have such a thriving craft beer community in Western North Carolina, which affords a need for not just brewers but people with all kinds of backgrounds and experience to work within this industry.”

Photo by David Allen ’13

the Guide

2 4 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E

John and Michelle Savard ’11 have carried their love of craft brewing from the mountains all the way to the East Coast.

John began home brewing with a friend from UNC Asheville. He worked at Asheville Brewers Supply and Craggie Brewing Company, until a move across the state took the couple away from the mountains and their favorite craft beers.

“When we moved back home to Wilmington, we realized there was no homebrew shop and only one brewery,” Michelle says. “Having our little piece of the beer industry here in Wilmington really feels like we’ve brought a piece of Asheville with us.”

John and Michelle opened Wilmington Homebrew Supply in 2012. They expanded their store in 2014 with the Wilmington Brewing Company. Now they’re serving up some of their own creations, which draw inspiration from throughout the country.

“Our West Coast-style IPAs are our favorites and a favorite of our taproom,” Michelle says. Both credit UNC Asheville with providing tools and knowledge about running a small business. Michelle’s

mass communication degree put her in charge of getting the word out to the community, while John applied management principles to their start-up.

“No degree can ever give you all the information you’ll ever need for whatever job you do, but my management degree gave me the fundamentals that I built on to meet the needs of our business,” John says. 4

the Suppliers

Photo by Mike Spencer

S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 2 5

“I’m a believer that you need a liberal arts

background to help you understand more

than just number-crunching.”

— Monique Taylor, UNC Asheville internal auditor

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LL

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’13

Monique Taylor must stand alone—it is

a matter of professional ethics. As UNC

Asheville’s internal auditor, she must

be independent in fact and appear-

ance. But outside of her daily job, she’s

an active member of the community,

partnering on projects and leading in

teaching and service.

Taylor may be best known on the

UNC Asheville campus for her work

as the volunteer director of the uni-

versity’s VITA (Voluntary Income Tax

Assistance) program, engaging students

in providing free income tax preparation

for low- and moderate-income individ-

uals in Asheville. Students at A-B Tech

know her too—she teaches accounting

there as an adjunct faculty member.

Plus, she’s been a board member for

Asheville Sister Cities and traveled to

Nigeria to help establish Asheville’s

sister cities relationship with Osogbo.

ACCOUNTING FOR THE COMMUNITYUNC Asheville’s Auditor Balances Education and Service By Steve Plever

Taylor learned the service ethic from

her family and has carried it through a

30-year accounting career that began

almost by accident—she was talked

into applying for her first account-

ing job by Howard University’s vice

president for finance when she was

in graduate school. Taylor holds two

master’s degrees —one in taxation and

one in international development. She

also has two undergraduate degrees —

one in political science and another in

accounting. She worked for 17 years at

Winston-Salem State University, devel-

oping the audit program there before

moving to UNC Asheville in 2007.

“As an auditor, you need to understand

accounting, the foundational piece…

but I’m a believer that you need a

liberal arts background to help you

understand more than just number-

crunching. You can look for underlying

causes so your findings are more useful

to management.”

Then the YMI Cultural Center, which

was struggling financially, invited her

to join its board and bring in needed

financial controls.

As she got involved with the YMI, she

also began work on a Ph.D. in higher

education administration from the

University of Phoenix.

Her thesis-in-progress is titled The Institutional Prioritization of Service.

“The bulk of existing research is about

students who have self-selected to

do the service, and the outcomes look

great,” she says. “But if students per-

form service as a requirement, do they

still have that level of commitment to

the activity? That’s what I’m trying to

measure. … My belief is that the tone is

set at the top of the organization. When

they make service a priority, then you

see a positive result.”

GIVING BACK

2 6 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E

“Students today are different than when most of

us were in college. People want to learn about

new approaches to teaching and learning to help

them address some of those differences.”

— Melissa Himelein, Center for Teaching and Learning director

About 30 people sit in rows, listening intently as Professor of

Psychology Melissa Himelein introduces the speaker for the

day. They don’t look like average UNC Asheville students,

but they are just as familiar with the classroom. That’s

because the audience is faculty.

The presentation, sponsored by the Center for Teaching and

Learning (CTL), focuses on ways to improve teaching and

bolster student success, a frequent and popular topic.

“There is a lot going on in higher education,” said Himelein,

director of the center. “Students today are different than

when most of us were in college. People want to learn about

new approaches to teaching and learning to help them

address some of those differences.”

The Center for Teaching and Learning at UNC Asheville,

founded in 1994, offers everything from orientation and

mentoring for new faculty to programs designed to help

mid-career and veteran faculty reinvigorate their class-

rooms, become more effective teachers and balance teach-

ing with scholarship.

Public events such as lunch workshops and small-group

discussion circles are among the most visible, but the CTL

provides more personal support too. Himelein consults with

individual faculty, helps interpret teaching evaluations and

peer reviews, and even surveys whole classes face to face

to help instructors identify and address their strengths

and weaknesses.

TEACHING IMPACTA Front Seat in the Center for Teaching and Learning By Patricia LaHay

That variety may be a factor behind the high level of par-

ticipation in CTL programs, which has nearly doubled in

the last three years to nearly 65 percent of full-time faculty

during the 2013–14 academic year.

The numbers are even more impressive when stacked up

against average participation in comparable programs at

colleges and universities around the country. According to a

recent report from Western Carolina University, only 30 to 40

percent of faculty take part in similar professional develop-

ment programs nationwide.

Lunchtime Learning

Monthly lunchtime workshops are quite popular and attract

faculty from many academic departments. Sophie Mills, pro-

fessor of classics, said the chance to talk to colleagues from

other fields is the biggest draw.

“It gets me out of my office. It gets me out

of just engaging with stuff about classics,”

Mills said. “It opens up thinking about

new ways of teaching, new things that I

wouldn’t necessarily have thought of to

do myself.”

At UNC Asheville, where exploring the

connections between different subjects

is considered the cornerstone of a liberal

arts education, this kind of cross pollina-

tion is especially valuable.

Chemistry Professor George Heard calls the CTL “one of the

most interdisciplinary units on campus.”

“You’ll meet people at CTL meetings that you won’t meet

anywhere else,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to discuss

ideas with faculty in other departments, ideas that I can

incorporate into my own teaching.”

Model Teaching

Heard has presented at two lunchtime workshops to discuss

a new teaching approach called the “flipped classroom.”

In this model, students access lectures and PowerPoints—

traditionally given in class—by computer on their own time

PRACTICALLY SPEAKINGPRACTICALLY SPEAKING

S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 2 7

and spend class doing work that would ordinarily be take-

home assignments. The presentations were so popular they

had to be moved to larger rooms, Heard said.

“I said to myself, Wow! People from everywhere want to come

talk about this crazy way I’m teaching chemistry and compare

it to what they are doing in their classes,” he said. “There’s

someone from classics sitting right there, and someone from

health and wellness in the back, and biology and economics.”

CTL has recently tackled topics such as universal design

practices to increase accessibility for students with physical

or learning disabilities, issues facing first-generation college

students, and new approaches to STEM (Science, Technology,

Engineering and Math) education that have been shown to

improve student learning.

Classroom Colleagues

James Perkins, assistant professor of physics, has attended

several lunchtime workshops and discussion circles. One

of the most valuable experiences, he said, was a classroom

analysis that Himelein did during his second semester teach-

ing at UNC Asheville.

“Melissa gathered a lot of feedback from the students, who were

much more open to talking because I wasn’t there,” he said.

“She studied the results and wrote a report. We discussed it, so

she was able to soften the blow on some of the feedback and

point out some of the good things, the successes.”

Because the in-class survey came in mid-semester, Perkins

had time to adjust.

“It impacted my teaching in several specific ways,” he said.

“I implemented some things that had come out of the stu-

dents’ feedback, and that showed up in a bunch of student

evaluations at the end of the term.”

Perkins, Mills and Heard are generous in their praise for

Himelein and credit her with much of the center’s success.

But Himelein offers a different explanation for the strong

participation in the program she directs.

“I give all the credit to the faculty wanting to learn how to be

better teachers,” she said. “I am so highly impressed with

my colleagues and how their involvement in CTL programs

demonstrates their commitment to teaching.”

PRACTICALLY SPEAKINGPRACTICALLY SPEAKING

PH

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MA

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Faculty participate in a learning circle on “New Approaches to STEM Education”: (Top L–R) Greg Dillingham, manager of distance learning services; Becca Hale, assistant professor of biology, Melissa Himelein, professor of psychology and director of the CTL, and Susan Reiser, associate dean of physical sciences and lecturer in new media; (Bottom L–R) Paula Willis, adjunct assistant professor of physics; Steve Walsh, director of the NCSU Engineering Program at UNC Asheville; James Perkins, assistant professor of physics.

2 8 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E

While all Bulldogs sports programs delve into community service, few can boast of a good deed done 20 years ago that people are still talking about.

pitching inCommunity service goes hand-in-glove with Bulldog baseball

Back in January of 1995, UNC Asheville had a new baseball coach, Bill Hillier. He’d found the players’ locker room in

sad shape and sought help from local business owners, Chris Young and his wife, Nina, of Office Environments.

Hillier, who’s now a school teacher in Roxboro, N.C., remembers making his case to Young: “It’s so neglected, and it looks so bad, that it’s going to impact our recruiting. We can’t bring parents and recruits in there—we just don’t look the part.”

The company came through with donated lockers and office equipment for the baseball staff—“The coach won me over,” Young says—and the teams’ facility got a much-needed makeover.

Just a few weeks later, though, Young found his own facility facing even bigger problems: The company’s 30,000-square-foot warehouse in Biltmore Village was one among many impacted by major flooding. It was stocked with hundreds of pieces of new furniture on their way to the company’s clients.

“We knew we were in big trouble,” Young says. “We couldn’t even get to the building at first. Everything was under water as far as you could see. When we

finally opened the doors, it was like a big bathtub, with the water three-feet deep. We had furniture floating around the place.”

Dan Coker and Piedmont Paper, a neighboring business, offered a tractor-trailer to move the merchandise, and Young found a dry warehouse to relocate to. But it would take some seri-ous heavy lifting to salvage the furniture before it was ruined.

“It was pretty traumatic— you could see your business just going away,” Young says. “We were looking at ruin, to tell you truth.”

But the next morning, when Young arrived at his building, “There were two

WRITTEN BY JON ELLISTON

S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 2 9

Eric Filipek ’97, captain of the team that saved the Young’s business from flood, now captains a division of their company, Clean Environments. (PHOTO BY DAVID ALLEN ’13)

coaches and 30 baseball players standing there, waiting to go to work,” he remem-bers. The Bulldogs’ full roster would spend a week—one that was to have been their first week of practice for the upcoming season—moving the furniture and saving the business.

“You talk about a godsend: We never could have gotten that stuff out of there on our own,” Young recalls. Hillier says that it not only felt like the right thing to do, returning Young’s favor, but the furniture-rescue mission also gave him a quick sense of just who on the squad was a team player.

The team’s captain at the time, Eric Filipek ’97, agrees. “We found out more

about our team in those five days that we helped than we could have found out on the field,” he remembers. “We found out a lot about our coaches at the time as well, because they got in there first and showed us what needed to be done and worked as much as we did.”

Filipek took even more away from the experience. After graduating, he coached collegiate baseball for 10 years but then decided he’d pursue something more in line with his management major. “I called the Youngs and, without hesita-tion, they gave me an interview,” he says. Then they gave him a job, and today he runs a division of the Youngs’ latest company, Clean Environments.

Citizen-AthletesThe team roster might have changed in the past 20 years, but the spirit of giving back has not. That kind of perspec-tive, born from community service, is exactly what the university seeks for its student-athletes, Director of Athletics Janet Cone says. On the one hand, the students should succeed in the class-room, and on another, in their respective fields of athletic competition. But there’s a third component.

“That’s community service,” Cone says. “What kind of citizens are we? We stress to our staff and our athletes that we’ve been very fortunate and blessed,

3 0 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E

and therefore it’s part of our responsibil-ity to be servant leaders and give back to the community.”

Consequently, every student-athlete is required to do at least six hours per year of community service. But many do more, notes Director of Student-Athlete Services Rebecca Nelms Keil.

In the 2013–14 academic year, she reports, student-athletes and the athletic staff logged 2,500 hours of community service, supporting a wide range of local groups and institutions that tackle every-thing from early childhood education to

several kinds of cancer, from food banks to the Special Olympics.

Head-On ServiceHunter Bryant, a senior management major from nearby Leicester, who plays first base for the Bulldogs, is normally what you’d consider a clean-cut type. But last year, he grew a full-on mullet.

Bryant wasn’t making a fashion state-ment: He was putting on hair to cut it off later. He’d joined the other members of the baseball team in a pledge campaign for fighting children’s cancer. The pitch to potential sponsors: “If I raise this amount of money, I’m going to get my head shaved at the end of the game.”

And a big game at that. In what has become an annual tradition, the team schedules one of its bigger games at McCormick Field in downtown Asheville, drawing a large crowd on a night that’s dedicated to raising funds for both Vs. Cancer, a national program started by a former collegiate ballplayer, and Mission Health’s Children’s Cancer Center.

Last May, the pledge drive drew $18,000 for the cause, according to recently retired baseball coach Tom Smith, and $15,000 the year before that, including support from Neal Hanks and Beverly-Hanks. Perhaps surprisingly, it

didn’t take any prodding to get the team involved in the effort. “Most every one of them had someone who’d been affected by cancer in their own family, so it was not a hard sell,” Smith remembers.

“It’s voluntary, but everyone has done it in the past two years,” Bryant says. “It’s certainly not a task for us—I mean, we have fun with it. We actually have a blast getting our heads shaved in front of all the fans, and then we go bald for a few weeks.

“Even though all of us have a full schedule, and during the season we sometimes hardly even find time to eat, the kids that we’re doing it for are way worse off than us,” Bryant says. “So it puts things into perspective for all of us.”

The Bulldog baseball team is look-ing to the next generation of leaders too, engaging in a community service program at Asheville Middle School. Last fall, 27 players served as mentors or led “Move More” sessions there—creating activities to get kids out of their seats.

Keri Pavelock ’14, an AmeriCorps VISTA staffer who’s based at the univer-sity, coordinates their placements at the school. The benefits of the outreach and involvement are evident for both the grade-schoolers and the college students, she says.

“A lot of the student-athletes are really busy, but they like interacting with the kids, hanging out with them, and feeling like they’re giving something back,” she says. “It teaches them how to lead by example by showing that they went to college, and that their sports and their studies helped them get there. 4

Fresh from a victory and head-shaving, the 2013 UNC Asheville baseball team poses for a photo. The fundraising tradition has grown since that first year, with Bulldog fans donating thousands annually to support cancer research.

Hunter Bryant has a close shave.

S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 3 1

Bulldogs Aim for 1,000 on the Court and in the Classroom By Mike Gore

Andrew Rowsey is the first player in

UNC Asheville history and the second

player in Big South history to record

1,000 career points by his sophomore

year. The starting guard achieved the

milestone during a Big South match

against defending conference champi-

on Coastal Carolina on Jan. 22, where

his 17 points helped the Bulldogs win,

75-65.

The Bulldog basketball star isn’t alone

in the 1,000-point goal. Eight of UNC

Asheville’s 15 NCAA Division I teams

earned a perfect 1,000 points on the

2014 Academic Progress Report (APR),

a team-based metric that accounts for

the eligibility and retention of each

PERFECT SCORES

For the latest news, rosters and schedules for all UNC Asheville Division I teams, visit uncabulldogs.com

ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME

EDDIE BIEDENBACH was the Bulldogs head coach

for 17 seasons from 1996–2013.

He led Asheville to a school-

record 256 wins, five Big South

Conference regular-season titles,

three tournament titles and three

trips to the NCAA Tournament.

ANDRE SMITH was a four-year starter for

Bulldog basketball in the

backcourt and is the school’s

eighth all-time leading scorer with

1,495 points. He was the 2000

Big South Rookie of the Year and

2003 Big South Tournament MVP,

helping to lead Asheville to the

NCAA Tournament.

HIL ARY MCK AY WILLIAMS is UNC Asheville women’s soccer

all-time leader in goals scored

with 53. She set a single-season

record for goals scored in 2003

with 21. The Asheville native was

the 2002 Big South Rookie of

the Year and 2005 Big South

Player of the Year. She also

helped lead the Bulldogs to two

Big South Conference regular-

season championships.

2015 Inductees

UNC ASHEVILLE WOMEN’S SWIMMING

TEAM WRAPPED UP ITS BEST-EVER PERFORMANCE AT

THE COASTAL COLLEGIATE SWIMMING ASSOCIATION

CHAMPIONSHIPS IN FEBRUARY 2015, SETTING 10

TEAM RECORDS AND FIVE FRESHMAN RECORDS.

student-athlete each term. Men’s

basketball, women’s basketball, men’s

and women’s tennis, cross country, and

track and field all scored 1,000 in the

most recent report.

New head men’s soccer coach Mathes

Mennell joins the Bulldogs from Loyola

Marymount University in California,

where he served as an assistant coach

for the past 14 years.

Before LMU, Mennell served as an

assistant at the Air Force Academy

after returning from active duty follow-

ing graduation from the academy.

“We are going to build a program that

will be based on character and devel-

opment of student-athletes. You do that

and you win games,” said Mennell at a

February press conference.

NEW SOCCER COACH STARTS SPRING SCHEDULE

GO, BULLDOGS!

3 2 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E

We love to hear from

alumni—and so do

your classmates!

So be sure to send us

your accomplishments,

career moves, family

news and celebrations.

Either log on to

alumni.unca.edu

or send an e-mail to

alumni@unca.edu

195 4Lewis Israel Jr. is a retired

engineer who lives in Candler. He

has four children, Belinda, David,

Daniel and Dorothy.

1969Linda Nelms retired from UNC

Asheville in June 2014 after 36

years of teaching and working

with students in accounting,

management, humanities and

undergraduate research.

1971Steven Coster retired after

working for the Department of

the Army Civilian for 32 years

and contracting for the office

of the Secretary of the Defense

for seven years. For the past

24 years, Coster worked with

Middle Eastern and Central

Asian countries selling military

equipment and training.

He spends his retirement

volunteering at public gardens

and assisting residents with

garden issues.

notesclassDROP US A LINE!

1972Donald Rice retired. He lives in

Miami, Fla.

1982Dr. Tim Vogler is the

department chairman of foot

and ankle surgery and the

medical director of the limb

preservation program at Novant

Health Forsyth Medical Center in

Winston-Salem.

1984Tom Steele co-founded Pittman

& Steele PLLC.

1990Greg Burnette was named

“Outstanding Volunteer

Fundraiser” by the Association

of Fundraising Professionals

Western North Carolina Chapter.

1991Tony Rollman married Gayle

Valeros on May 10, 2014.

John Howard Smith (MLA ’96) is an associate professor of

history at Texas A&M University—

Commerce. He recently published

his second book, The First Great Awakening: Redefining Religion in British America, 1725–1775.

Anthony Thomas and

Alexandria “Jennifer” Bracanovich ’89 have

announced their engagement.

Bonnie Upright serves on the

national board of directors for

the Public Relations Society of

America. She is also included

in the recently published book

Local Legends of Jacksonville.

1992Kevan Frazier is the executive

director of the Western Carolina

University Programs at Biltmore

Park.

1993Steve Dunnington celebrated

his 20th year at local musical

instrument manufacturer Moog

Music. He has worked in sales

and marketing, as well as for the

Moog Engineering Department.

S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 3 3

CLASS NOTES

Marchant Harman is the

contractor of the N.C. License

Plate Agency in South Asheville.

1995Tim Hardin is the director of

pricing & planning at Scripps

Networks Interactive in New York

City.

1997Dr. Pamela Gutbier Allen was

named one of the 2014 Asheville

40 Under 40 by The Biltmore Beacon.

Brian Bero founded

Modestspark Software in

Redmond, Wash., which focuses

on building products for

registered investment advisers.

Allison Jordan was named one

of the 2014 Asheville 40 Under

40 by The Biltmore Beacon.

Mark Robinson was named the

chief executive officer of Capital

Regional Medical Center, starting

in January 2015.

1998Bray Creech works as a

financial advisor at Joel Adams,

Registered Investment Advisor

Representative of Raymond

James Financial Services Inc., in

Asheville.

Michael Jones and Cheryl Fox Jones had a baby girl

named Merritt Ansley Jones on

Jan. 20, 2015.

1999Tiffany Drummond Armstrong is vice president

of the Pediatric Brain Tumor

Foundation, the world’s largest

non-governmental funder of

pediatric brain tumor research.

Travis Bryenton married Ellen

Pearson on Oct. 18, 2014.

Sok Heang Cheng was named

one of the 2014 Asheville 40

Under 40 by The Biltmore Beacon.

2000Laura Thuotte Bibb and her

husband, Benjamin Bibb, had a

daughter named Gaillen Faith

Bibb on Oct. 24, 2014.

Wiley Cash and his wife,

Mallory Cash, gave birth to a

baby girl named Early Elizabeth

Cash on Sept. 29, 2014.

Leigh Ann Henion is the

author of Phenomenal: A Hesitant Adventurer’s Search for Wonder in the Natural World,

released by Penguin Books in

March 2015.

Carrie MacKichan Simmons

and her husband, Lane Simmons,

had a baby boy named Blake

Andrew Simmons on Dec. 31,

2014.

2001Jason Boyles and Kristy

Fairhurst Boyles had a baby boy,

Liam Thomas Boyles, on Jan. 9,

2015.

Each stride you took at UNC Asheville put you one step closer to your goals.

Now help pave the way to excellence for future students with a personalized paver. Your unique message, carved in stone, will become a permanent part of UNC Asheville’s campus.

Pavers will be located outside of the Wilma M. Sherrill Center and along Alumni Walk near the Justice Center. Each 12ˇ̌ by 12ˇ̌ square costs $230, with net proceeds used to fund scholarships at UNC Asheville.

To order, contact giving@unca.edu or visit giving.unca.edu/paver

to excellence

3 4 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E

“I spent many, many hours in the studio

on campus, and there was nowhere else

I wanted to be.” — Kyle Carpenter ’00

CLASS NOTES

A THRIVING COMMUNITY OF

UNC ASHEVILLE ART GRADUATES is producing exceptional work in the River Arts District (RAD) in Asheville. And although these four artists didn’t all graduate at the same time, they share a bond created through the edu-cation received and time spent in the studio on campus.

“UNC Asheville taught me about a work ethic, and Megan [Wolfe, professor of art] showed me I had to take it seri-ously,” said KYLE CARPENTER , a 2000 graduate. “I spent many, many hours in the studio on campus, and there was nowhere else I wanted to be.”

Carpenter stepped into a job at Highwater Clays right out of under-graduate school. It was there he learned the business side of ceramics,

working in the warehouse, in retail, and networking with an incredible number of potters and sculptors. He took many classes at Highwater; one of them was an 18-week salt-glaze firing course with Linda McFarling. She proved to be a mentor, inspiring him to create the salt-glazed work he does today.

After a brief stint as a teacher, Carpenter decided he wanted the lifestyle of a studio potter, so he built a kiln in his backyard and began making pots, attending craft shows to sell his work. He ran across a new gallery in Atlanta called Mudfire and submitted photos. The gallery accepted his work and he exhibited off and on there for almost a decade.

“Mudfire Gallery marketed me, and I was a best-selling potter for them,”

he said. “I was fea-tured in Clay Times because of my asso-ciation with Mudfire, and that helped me get into more and

more galleries.”

Today his studio and gallery (Curve Studio) is in Asheville’s River Arts District. He is a juried member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, and his works are in many collections, includ-ing Charlotte’s Mint Museum.

MARIA ANDRADE TROYA , a 2001 graduate, shares studio and gallery space at Curve Studio. From a long line of bakers, Troya works with water and clay instead of flour to create func-tional pottery that mostly focuses on kitchen items.

A printmaking major, she began working with clay in earnest when she rented a studio in the River Arts District with a friend who had a pottery wheel. An internship at Odyssey Clay (now Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts) allowed her to take many classes and workshops.

“After my experience at Odyssey, I began to focus; I like pattern and consistency, and later I started draw-ing on pottery using a slip-trailer. I use printmaking tools now, so I’ve come full circle in the last decade,” she explained.

Written by Melissa Stanz • Photos by JameyKay Huffman

RAD WORKIn the Studio with Four Asheville Artists

S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 3 5

“The most important thing is to

spend time on your art; you must

practice to get better.” — Heather Knight ’06

L–R: KYLE CARPENTER, MARIA ANDRADE TROYA, JOSH COPUS, HEATHER KNIGHT

CLASS NOTES

Her time at UNC Asheville helped her build lasting relationships, and she notes that her experience with Wolfe was a turning point for her career.

“There are a ton of UNC Asheville grad-uates that are still doing their art. I run into a lot of people at craft shows. Although many people don’t do it full-time, they continue to create amazing work,” she said.

Nontraditional student HEATHER

KNIGHT, a 2006 graduate, came to UNC Asheville after going to another school, and she was determined to be successful and make her living doing art. The moment she set foot in the ceramics studio on campus she knew what she wanted to do.

“I probably spent more time in the studio than anyone, and after count-less hours of practice, I graduated and completed a residency at Odyssey and taught in Greenville at the museum,” she said. “I also set up a shop on Etsy.”

Creating an Etsy store was a very good idea; Interior Design Magazine found her online and dedicated a full page to her work. She also founded Element, a group studio in downtown Asheville.

Knight works exclusively in porcelain using a white color palette, creat-ing tiles, bowls, and curios that are inspired by the natural world. Her art has been exhibited nationwide and in France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Dubai.

She knows what it takes to be success-ful in a highly competitive business.

“You have to be focused and spend your time wisely. The most important thing is to spend time on your art; you must practice to get better,” she said, “I work long hours and am very determined, and I’m con-stantly looking for outlets to learn more.”

JOSH COPUS, a 2006 gradu-ate, creates his pottery using clay from Madison County; but the roots of his art date to undergraduate research in the art department.

“I participated in an undergrad research scholarship program. It was an amaz-ing experience,” he said. “My project was about ceramic materials and local clays, and I was digging clay out of the ground.

That project defined my body of work and the methodologies I use today.”

Copus has two studio collectives in RAD, Clayspace and Foundation Clay. He has another studio in Marshall that includes his kiln and most of his oper-ations. Using funds provided by the Windgate Fellowship he received while at UNC Asheville, he built a 27-foot-long woodfired climbing chamber kiln in Marshall. Those funds also allowed him to start Clayspace and propelled

him from being a student to becoming a professional. Today he works with galleries across the country and sells his work all over the world.

“I came to UNC Asheville to work in dif-ferent mediums and get a well-rounded art education,” he said. “I am grateful that we were encouraged to be self- directed and create our own work.”

3 6 U N C A S H E V I L L E M A G A Z I N E

Did we miss your class note? Check online and send your update to alumni.unca.edu/class-notes.

CLASS NOTES

Cathy McFalls and Rickie McFalls II ’02 had a baby girl

named Addison Grace McFalls on

Sept. 22, 2014.

2002Rachel Cook married Matt

McMillan on Sept. 20, 2014.

Ashley Brooks Simon and

her husband, Jesse Simon,

gave birth to a baby boy named

Emmett Oliver Simon. He joins

big sister Leila Harper Simon.

2003Courtney Elise Crawford

married Mario Maturell ’14 on

Dec. 21, 2014.

Jody Howard and his wife,

Anna Howard, welcomed their

second child, August Burton

Howard, on Sept. 20, 2014.

Matthew Raker was named one

of the 2014 Asheville 40 Under

40 by The Biltmore Beacon.

Jeremy Shrader was promoted

to director of Carruthers & Roth

P.A.

Bryan White composes and

plays electric and upright

bass live and in the studio for

various Asheville artists. He

leads Up Jumped Three, a jazz

trio, and released a solo CD in

October 2014. He also competes

regionally in distance running

events and had several overall

and age-group wins in 2013 and

2014.

2004Clinton Barden and Victoria Barden ’08 had a baby boy

named Samuel Thomas Barden

on Dec. 28, 2014.

Jetta Baynard and her

husband, John Baynard, had a

baby girl named Gracie.

Matthew Mastin and his wife,

Lauren Mastin, welcomed a baby

boy named Alex Edward Mastin

on Sept. 8, 2014.

Tara Sanders and her husband,

Michael Sanders, had a baby

girl named Olivia “Olive” Claire

Sanders on Feb. 10, 2015.

2005Sarah V. Goodman is the

chaplain of spiritual care at the

Children’s Medical Center of

Dallas.

Diana Manee was named one

of the 2014 Asheville 40 Under

40 by The Biltmore Beacon.

2006Kristina Jonas received a

B.S. in nursing in 2010. She has

been married to Alex Jonas for

four years, and they have a son

named Evan. She is starting a

legal nurse consultancy business.

Shannon Watkins is a broker

associate at Beverly-Hanks and

Associates Realtors in Asheville.

2007 Stephen Burnich and

Amanda Burnich ’06 had a

baby girl named Greta Cecile

Burnich on Jan. 30, 2015.

2008Stephanie Casey Fuhs and

Matthew Fuhs ’07 had their

first child, Thomas Maxwell, on

July 18, 2014.

Tasha Lewis had twin boys

named Oliver and Maxwell on

Sept. 16, 2014.

Silvia Meyer had a baby boy

named Noah Adam Meyer on

Aug. 6, 2014.

2009Erin Coleman and her husband,

Brett Coleman, are expecting

their first child in April 2015.

Julie Luong works as a middle

school social studies and special

education teacher in Orange

County, Calif.

Stephani Pelchat Vick

married Brian Vick on Aug. 31,

2014. They live in Fort Collins,

Colo.

Shanna Peele and her

husband, Blake Peele, gave birth

to a son named Oliver Buerleigh

Peele on Feb. 4, 2015.

Mary Catherine Grant is

currently completing her sixth

year of teaching at David Cox

Road Elementary in Charlotte. In

July, she will enter the mission

field for 11 months with The

World Race, where she’ll serve

people in 11 countries. Her work

abroad will be documented

at www.marycatherinegrant.

theworldrace.org.

2010Jessika Carney and Brandon Bond ’12 were married on Sept.

6, 2014.

Greg Hicks is the executive

assistant and special projects

coordinator at the Mecklenburg

County Bar.

Samantha Little and Zachary Winecoff became engaged on

Dec. 6, 2014.

Christine Quinley and Gabe

Quinley were married on Oct. 4,

2014.

2011Lydia Cauley completed

volunteer work for Americorps

and works at a full time job in

Swansboro. She also attends

graduate school at Duke Divinity

School.

Andrew Waight began law

school at the West Virginia

University College of Law in

August 2014.

Jonathan Williams and his

wife, Whitney Williams, had a

baby girl named Selah Wren

Williams on Dec. 6, 2014.

2013Amanda Glenn-Bradley

received a master’s degree in

library and information studies

from UNC Greensboro. She works

as a user engagement librarian

at UNC Asheville.

Carrie Roth teaches high

school English in Union County

Public Schools.

Amber White is a technical

multimedia communications

director at Advanced Simulation

Technology Inc. in Herndon, Va.

2015Jack Derbyshire is a software

engineer at IBM in the Research

Triangle Park.

IN MEMORIAMPatrick Tebo ’73,

October 2014

Celeste Dulin ’82,

October 2014

Patricia Queen ’48,

November 2014

Jeanne Griffin Gochenour ’81,

January 2015

Harriet Storms Manley ’94,

February 2015

Where art meets

science

Hands-on learning and critical thinking provide a powerful focus for

new media majors, and students work side-by-side with faculty to

create careers in fields such as animation and video production.

Visit us at www.unca.edu

SERIOUSLY CREATIVE

UNC Asheville practically invented undergraduate research, founding one of the top conferences in the nation—the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) in 1987 and hosting the first two conferences. NCUR returns home in spring 2016. (Photo by David Allen ’13)

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Homegrown Research

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