Kudos
Making History
Students working in the Athenaeum Press won two awards for their exhibition Rough Seas & Legacies: Stories of South Carolina Piracy, while students from the Department of History and the Department of Anthropology and Geography took home an award for their project Printing the Past: SC in 3D. Both teams produced work demonstrating the diverse histories of the Carolinas to receive their recognition at the Southeastern Museums Conference’s SWIM (Students Work in Museums) program.
NEW HORIZONS
Michelle Russo (’08), communication major, returned to CCU in December 2019 to speak with students about her career and offer professional insights. Russo was recently promoted to director of production at Nickelodeon and left the company’s New York office to establish a presence for her office in Los Angeles. Russo credits CCU courses and faculty, including former professor Lee Bollinger of the Department of Communication, with offering her direction and perspective on the industry.
PRIZED PERCUSSIONISTS
Music majors Will Eschenfelder and Ian Mahaffey of the Department of Music competed in the 2019 Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC), one of the largest drum and percussion events in the world. Mahaffey placed 13th and Eschenfelder 10th out of a field of 25 participants from various universities and collegiate programs across the nation.
STACKED AWARDS
Carolyn Dillian, professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology and Geography, and Katie Stringer Clary, assistant professor in the Department of History, won the Publication of the Year Award from the Archaeological Society of South Carolina for their paper “Artifacts and Accessibility: 3-D Technologies for Museum Exhibits.” The paper is based on their experiences with the student-created museum exhibit Printing the Past: S.C. in 3D. Completed in April 2019 and still on display at the Horry County Museum, the award-winning exhibit (see “Making History” above) was created through collaborative experiential learning courses in history and anthropology.
HEALTHY COMMUNICATION
Crissy Selby, associate professor; Andrea Bergstrom, assistant professor; and Corinne Dalelio, assistant professor, all of the Department of Communication, Media, and Culture, were featured at the 105th National Communication Association’s annual conference in November 2019 in Baltimore. The collaborative paper, titled ‘‘Balancing Act: A Social Cognitive Framework for Understanding Parenting Styles and Children’s Nutrition,’’ reached the top paper panel and earned a congratulatory plaque.
TECHNOLOGICAL TENSIONS
Eric Winter, senior intelligence and national security studies/information systems major, was one of five undergraduate students invited to the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) Deterrence Symposium in La Vista, Neb. His panel presentation focused on Chinese advancements in artificial intelligence and quantum computing, including the effects such discoveries have on global perceptions of the U.S. as a technological powerhouse.
FOLLOWING HIS DREAMS
Musical theatre major Terrell Jones (’18) joined the international touring cast of Dreamgirls in Winter 2019–20. Terrell and the Dreamgirls headed to Shanghai, China, and Tokyo, Japan, for performances in January and February 2020 – and Terrell even caught up with Steve Earnest during the professor’s Fulbright experience in China.
POLITICAL PROGRESS
Katilyn Sidorsky, CCU assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, presented a lecture on her book, All Roads Lead to Power: The Appointed and Elected Paths to Public Office for U.S. Women (University Press of Kansas, May 2019), in June 2019 as part of the Rightfully Hers exhibit at the U.S. National Archives in Washington, D.C. Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote celebrates the decades of diverse suffrage activists who struggled and fought to dramatically expand American democracy beyond the basis of sex.
PRIME TIME
Performing arts major Michael Kelly (’92), well-known for his Emmy-nominated role as Doug Stamper in House of Cards, starred in season 2 of Amazon Prime’s series Jack Ryan as new character Mike November. The Nov. 1 release featured Kelly’s character as the CIA’s station chief in Venezuela alongside co-star John Krasinski.
WINE AND DESIGN
CCU alumni and husband-wife duo Bailey Turner (’15) and Chris Wilkinson (’13) returned to Chanticleer country to open painting franchise Wine and Design. Turner, a graphic design major with a minor in studio art, and Wilkinson, business and finance major, had moved to Chicago while working within a similar business and saw the potential for success in Myrtle Beach. We’re happy to have them back on the Grand Strand.
FIRST PLACE FOR FIRST-GEN
Faculty and staff within the Edwards College raised nearly $8,500 on Giving Teal Tuesday, the annual campus day for philanthropy, of which $4,500 will be dedicated to first-generation students entering CCU in humanities and fine arts disciplines in Fall 2020. With proceeds from 68 individual donors, four new scholarships will be introduced for 2020-21 academic year, and the official trophy for Giving Teal Tuesday made its way from the Wall College to the Edwards College for the first time.
