Producer/Host: Gina Logue
Guests: Ginger Corley Freeman and Stephan Foust
Synopsis: The director of alumni relations and the director of the Center for Innovation in Media talk about various aspects of MTSU’s first-ever Alumni Spring Weekend.
Alumni Spring Weekend
April 10, 2012 By
Grammy wins, nominations ‘show depth, breadth’ of MTSU expertise
February 12, 2012 By
Lady Antebellum’s second Best Country Album Grammy in as many years means more accolades for MTSU after the 54th Grammy Awards ceremony Feb. 12.
Clarke Schleicher
“Own the Night,” the trio’s third album, garnered the win for Hillary Scott, a 2004-06 MTSU recording-industry major and member of the group, as well as for engineer Clarke Schleicher (B.S. ’80). Both were Grammy winners in 2011 for “Need You Now.”
Scott and Schleicher were two of nine MTSU alumni and/or former students nominated for their work on musical releases ranging from country to contemporary Christian to bluegrass.
Music by 14 current and former MTSU School of Music professors was included in the catalog that earned a classical Producer of the Year nomination for Blanton Alspaugh. Three-time winner Judith Sherman took home that category’s Grammy.
“What makes this most satisfying is that we’re showing a level of consistency and expanding in these categories,” said Dr. Loren Mulraine, chair of MTSU’s Department of Recording Industry. “When you start expanding into other areas of the industry, it shows a depth and breadth in your program, and that’s most exciting for us.
Former MTSU student HIllary Scott, center, joins Lady Antebellum bandmates Dave Heywood, left, and Charles Kelley in this publicity photo. (photo courtesy Miranda Penn Turin)
“Success breeds success, and we expect to see success on an ongoing basis.”
The Lady Antebellum album win bumped several MTSU nominees who had been recognized for their work on three of the other competing albums.
Those MTSU-trained nominees for their work in the Best Country Album category included:
- Brandon Epps (recording-industry major, 1996-2001), engineer for “My Kinda Party” by Jason Aldean;
- Jason Hall (B.S. ‘00), engineer for “Chief” by Eric Church;
- Michael Knox (B.S. ’91), producer for Aldean’s “My Kinda Party”; and
- Brandon Schexnayder (B.S. ’05), engineer for “Here for a Good Time” by George Strait.
Knox, a College of Mass Communication alumnus, had three other Grammy-nominated projects:
- Best Country Duo/Group Performance: Aldean with Kelly Clarkson, “Don’t You Wanna Stay” (won by The Civil Wars for “Barton Hollow);
- Best Country Solo Performance: Aldean’s “Dirt Road Anthem” (won by Taylor Swift’s “Mean”); and
- Best Country Song: “Just Fishin’” by Trace Adkins (also won by Swift’s “Mean”).
Recording-industry alumnus Dave Barnes (B.S. ’00), writer of “God Gave Me You,” performed by Blake Shelton, also was nominated in the Best Country Song category.
Fellow alumnus Brandon Heath (B.U.S. ’03) earned three nominations for his contemporary Christian project “Leaving Eden,” including:
- Best Contemporary Christian Music Album;
- Best Contemporary Christian Music Song as co-writer for “Your Love,” the album’s second cut; and
- Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance for “Your Love.”
Brandon Bell (B.S. ’04) was nominated in the Best Engineered Non-Classical Album category as co-engineer on “Follow Me Down” by Sarah Jarosz. Alison Krauss and Union Station’s “Paper Airplane” producer, Mike Shipley, won that Grammy.
Among his other credentials, classical nominee Alspaugh produced “Osterfield: Rocky Streams” by MTSU School of Music faculty members Paul Osterfield and Todd Waldecker.
The CD also features performances by current music professors Don Aliquo, Michael Arndt, Sandra Arndt, Deanna R. Little, David Loucky, Tim Pearson, Dewayne Pigg, Stephen Smith and William Yelverton and former School of Music faculty members James Douglass, Caleb Harris and Maya Stone.
“We’re very pleased to see that a recording by School of Music professor Paul Osterfield was included in producer Blanton Alspaugh’s Grammy nomination and that another 12 of our music faculty members helped the music come to life as performers,” said Dr. George Riordan, director of MTSU’s School of Music.
“This international recognition of the artistry of our MTSU professors as composer and performers is another milestone in the development of the School of Music as a national player, and we congratulate all of those involved, our faculty members and producer Alspaugh.”
The Grammy Awards ceremony was broadcast live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on CBS. Except for Best Country Album, the categories affecting MTSU nominees were announced in the pretelecast award ceremony.
– Gina E. Fann (Gina.Fann@mtsu.edu)
MTSU alumna Gray’s documentary focuses on rare birth defect
February 2, 2012 By
Jasmine “Jaz” Gray is shown with children’s pajamas collected through her Jaz’s Jammies project. (photo submitted)
Alumna Jasmine “Jaz” Gray, whose distinguished career as an MTSU undergrad also was marked by her wildly successful charitable project, “Jaz’s Jammies,” has become a filmmaker since graduating with honors from the College of Mass Communication in 2010.
One of Gray’s first ventures is a film titled “More Than Skin Deep,” a documentary about herself and others who survive a rare birth defect called arteriovenous malformations.
Her cinematic journey will bring her face-to-face with other survivors like her, including patients who have lost eyes and other body parts and families who have lost loved ones.
Gray, 23, who now lives in Memphis after earning her master’s degree from Syracuse University, has initiated a 46-day drive to raise funds for the film. To watch a clip of the documentary and to donate, visit www.indiegogo.com/More-Than-Skin-Deep and click on the green “CONTRIBUTE NOW” button through March 17.
In a news release, Gray said her film “will also highlight internationally renowned surgeon Dr. James Suen … in his urgent fight to find a cure for the destructive tangles of arteries and veins before he retires.”
Gray, who has had 32 surgeries for AVM, said she will use funds gathered during the 46-day effort to pay for production costs, including cinematography, transportation, lodging and various editing needs.
While at MTSU, Gray served two semesters as editor of the University Honors College publication Collage: A Journal of Creative Expression and was both a McNair Scholars Program and Honors College graduate. She received the MTSU President’s Award and made the USA Today All-USA College Team.
She also was honored with the Harold Love Community Involvement Award for “Jaz’s Jammies,” a drive she led to help collect pajamas for hospitalized children—a project she said originated with her own frustration with uncomfortable, boring gowns during her multiple childhood hospital stays.
Gray, a Memphis native, received a Turner Fellowship to attend Syracuse. She graduated summa cum laude with her master’s in 2011.
Alumnus Darrell Freeman talks MTSU and Zycron Inc.
February 1, 2012 By
In MTSU’s latest “Alumni Spotlight,” Darrell Freeman, the 46-year-old owner and CEO of Zycron, a high-tech company headquartered in Nashville, talks about how he got his start at MTSU and about his company, which helps hospitals manage information technology.
Freeman got his first taste of MTSU in the spring of 1983 when he helped a friend pack up at the end of the semester. Now he owns and manages a multi-million dollar company that does business internationally.
MTSU notes passing of alumna/longtime educator Kennedy
January 27, 2012 By
MTSU alumna Dr. Linda Kennedy, one of the first five African-American students to attend the University in the 1960s, is being remembered as a lifelong K-12 educator and administrator who touched the lives of young people, colleagues and the community.
Kennedy (’92, ’94), who earned master’s and education specialist’s degrees from MTSU, died Jan. 26 after a second bout with cancer. The Smyrna Middle School principal and former La Vergne High School principal was 65.
“Linda Kennedy was a trailblazer at MTSU and an inspiration to those who followed in her footsteps at our University,” said President Sidney A. McPhee.
“Her legacy at our University, as well as her distinguished service to the state of Tennessee and Rutherford County as a teacher and principal, will not be forgotten. We recognize and honor her achievements and mourn her passing.”
In 1963, Kennedy and four other students were the first African-Americans to attend MTSU, then called Middle Tennessee State College, leading to the University’s desegregation. MTSU’s Black Alumni Society commemorated the effort in 1992.
Kennedy left MTSU and later earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Central Arkansas. She subsequently returned to MTSU to earn her advanced degrees.
The Murfreesboro resident was married to Alex Kennedy. One of their four daughters, Toni Kennedy-Forbes (’92), also is an MTSU alumna. Their other daughters include Tammy Kennedy Miller, Tonnya Kennedy Kohn and Taylor Kennedy. Survivors include five grandchildren.
Funeral services were conducted Jan. 29.
New funds fuel Ricketts’ next coast-to-coast adventures
January 24, 2012 By
Dr. Cliff Ricketts of MTSU plans two coast-to-coast expeditions in the next two years using different alternative-fuel sources in two different vehicles.
Funding for the trips grew with the announcement of a $15,000 grant from Farm Credit Services of Mid-America and additional financial support from the MTSU provost and the University’s Office of Research.
MTSU alumnus Jack Swanson, left, assistant vice president for Farm Credit Services of Mid-America, presents Dr. Cliff Ricketts with a $15,000 check to help the MTSU agriscience professor continue his alternative-fuel research. (photo submitted)
“I appreciate Farm Credit Services’ confidence in one of their own. We (the Ricketts family) have borrowed from them for 50 years,” the professor said of the grant.
“I’m appreciative of the ag industry supporting a professor doing a very creative thing that emphasizes the importance of agriscience.”
Ricketts, joined by a team of eight to 10 students traveling in a van, plans to drive a 1998 Toyota Prius converted hybrid from Savannah, Ga., to Long Beach, Calif., during spring break. The car will be powered by hydrogen, solar energy, ethanol and less than 10 gallons of gasoline, Ricketts said.
Ricketts said his 2013 plans include a cross-country trip using sunlight and water-derived hydrogen.
MTSU alumnus Jack Swanson (’96), one of Ricketts’ former students and a Farm Credit assistant vice president, presented the FCS check. Swanson has served as the lending officer for Ricketts, whose family has received a Heritage Farm Award as 50-year, third-generation Farm Credit customers.
In addition to his alternative-fuel work, Ricketts raises beef cattle.
“I couldn’t think of anything that would be a better use of our stewardship funds,” Swanson said in a Farm Credit Services news release. “The crux of Dr. Ricketts’ program is to help make the U.S. energy independent. It’s part of our mission to give back some of our earnings to those programs that fuel the future of agriculture.”
The School of Agribusiness and Agriscience professor has always been in the forefront of alternative fuels exploration. In November 2010, he drove a 1994 Toyota Tercel from Bristol to West Memphis, Ark., using sunlight and hydrogen from water.
— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)
Alumnus Williams wins coveted journalism award
December 21, 2011 By
Phil Williams, an honors mass-communication graduate of MTSU, leads the investigative news team at Nashville’s WTVF-NewsChannel5 that has received a 2012 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award for excellence in local reporting.
The local CBS affiliate was one of 14 duPont winners nationwide announced Dec. 21.
The award was for the team’s investigation of drug interdiction units operating along Tennessee’s interstates. The story exposed police agencies using questionable tactics to confiscate money along the interstate from out-of-state drivers suspected of drug involvement.
Phil Williams
This marks Williams’s and the station’s third duPont Award in nine years.
“It hit me that very few people can say that they are three-time duPont winners,” noted Williams, who graduated from MTSU in 1985 and joined WTVF in 1998, “so I’ve got a real sense that this is special, and I don’t want to take it for granted.”
MTSU’s Department of Mass Communication, founded in 1971, became a School of Mass Communication in 1988 and was elevated to full college status in 1989.
“The College of Mass Communication at MTSU is very proud of our alumnus Phil Williams and NewsChannel 5 in winning this highly prestigious national award,” said Dr. Roy Moore, dean of the college.
“Phil illustrates the high quality of our electronic media communication program and its graduates, and this award is the latest in the many accolades our alumni and faculty have received over the years. The duPont prize is, without doubt, one of the top awards in broadcast journalism.”
In addition to the duPont Awards, Williams has earned two George Foster Peabody Awards, the George Polk Award for TV Reporting, a National Headliner Award and three IRE Awards (including the IRE Medal) from the Investigative Reporters and Editors organization.
He is in his fourth year serving on the IRE board. In his days as a print reporter, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Williams’s alma mater has taken note of his successful career. In 2003, he was inducted into the MTSU College of Mass Communication’s Wall of Fame. The Columbia, Tenn., native returns to MTSU on occasion to speak to students and conduct master classes.
Nashville’s “NewsChannel5 Investigates” team includes Williams; Bryan Staples and Iain Montgomery, photojournalists; Kevin Wisniewski, producer; and Sandy Boonstra, news director.
Other stations receiving duPont Awards for reporting were Detroit Public TV, WFAA-TV in Dallas and WSB-TV in Atlanta. Several awards for international reporting went to Al Jazeera English, CBS News and NBC News. HBO received two awards, and The New York Times and MediaStorm received awards for digital reporting.
The DuPont Awards ceremony will be held Thursday, Jan. 19, at Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library. Scott Pelley, CBS News anchor and managing editor, and Michelle Norris from National Public Radio will serve as hosts.
“For me, the secret has been dedication, dedication, dedication.” Williams said when asked what he would say to aspiring journalists. “It can’t be just a job. It’s got to be your passion, something you live after your shift is over.”
— Tom Tozer (Thomas.Tozer@mtsu.edu)
Alumnus lands drummer role for ‘Queen Extravaganza’ tour
December 16, 2011 By
Tyler Warren, an alumnus of the MTSU School of Music and College of Liberal Arts, has quite a gig for the next year or so.
Tyler Warren
Warren, who earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 2008 with an emphasis in music industry, will be the drummer for “The Queen Extravaganza Tour” across North America in 2012.
The tour, which celebrates the music of the classic arena-rock band that still thrills generations of fans, was announced Dec. 8 in Los Angeles.
Queen, a British rock band that formed in 1971 in London, has sold more than 300 million albums, recorded 18 No. 1 singles and played more than 700 live concerts worldwide.
“I grew up listening to Queen, memorizing songs, studying (drummer) Roger Taylor’s technique and just fully engulfing myself in all the aspects of their music,” said Warren, a native of Camden, Tenn. “Not many people get an opportunity to meet one of their childhood heroes and promptly get judged by them.”
Warren said he has a 15-month contract to play in The Queen Extravaganza.
MTSU alumnus Tyler Warren keeps the beat during a recent performance. (photo submitted)
Warren was selected as Queen Extravaganza drummer after an 11-week challenge in which judges reviewed online auditions, weighed votes from Queen fans worldwide and supervised a final in-studio audition in Los Angeles. Five others were selected for vocal, guitar and bass roles with the band.
“As the audition videos began posting, we could see right away that the caliber of talent was very high,” Taylor said in making the lineup announcement. “But when I got into the studio with the final 25 musicians, I realized that these guys are seriously good players. They went way beyond my expectations.
“It was an incredibly difficult decision to choose the final line-up. I wish I could’ve kept them all, but in the end, I’m very happy with this group of exceptional musicians.”
Taylor will be producer and musical director of the road show. His Queen bandmate Brian May will be involved later in production.
Warren credits his MTSU professor Lalo Davila, a veteran School of Music faculty member, and former faculty member Tommy Giampietro for helping him achieve success. Warren plays several instruments and says his “drumming technique is a little different from most drummers these days, especially those my age.”
For more information, visit www.queenextravaganza.com.
— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)
Mass-comm alumna interviews Jimmy Carter
December 16, 2011 By
MTSU mass-communication alumna Ling Su interviewed former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during his recent return to China to celebrate the 40th anniversary of normalizing relations between the nations.
MTSU alumna Su Ling, left, interviews former U.S. President Jimmy Carter for China National Radio in Beijing Dec. 14. (photo courtesy of China National Radio)
Su, a journalist for China National Radio, earned her master’s degree from MTSU in 2009. She interviewed the former president in Beijing Dec. 14, as he visited her home country.
Carter noted that the relationship between the People’s Republic of China and the United States warmed under former President Richard Nixon in 1971 via so-called “ping-pong diplomacy.”
A friendly Chinese invitation to the U.S. Table Tennis Team to visit and play a few matches led to Nixon’s groundbreaking visit in 1972, and Carter expanded relations with China during his term in office.
Su’s interview with Carter was edited into two versions and broadcast throughout China.
During his visit, the former president also endorsed the “100,000 Strong” campaign touted by President Barack Obama, according to a report from UPI. The campaign aims to increase the number of U.S. scholars studying in China to 100,000 in the next four years.
– Gina E. Fann (Gina.Fann@mtsu.edu)
Study-abroad alumna honored by Georgia governor
December 15, 2011 By
Amanda M. Roshan-Rawaan, a 2006 summa cum laude graduate of MTSU, recently accepted a 2011 International Education Week proclamation from Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal for her work encouraging study-abroad efforts.
MTSU alumna Amanda Roshan-Rawaan, second from right, accepts a proclamation for her work with international education from Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, second from left. Joining the two for the presentation are Brett Reichert, left, of Clayton State University and Rebecca Bacon of Georgia Tech. Roshan-Rawaan, Reichert and Bacon comprise the Georgia Association of International Educators Advocacy Sub-Committee. (photo submitted)
Roshan-Rawaan, who majored in history and minored in German and global studies, studied abroad twice during her undergraduate years at MTSU. She participated in a summer 2004 program to Germany and a summer 2006 program to China, both through the Kentucky Institute for International Studies, a consortium of which MTSU’s student-exchange program, MT Abroad, is a member.
After two study-abroad programs and internships in MT Abroad and the International Programs and Services Office, along with receiving the 2005-06 Study Abroad Student of the Year Award, Amanda resolved to work in international education.
She currently works as a study-abroad adviser for Georgia State University, and in 2011, she became the chair of the Georgia Association of International Educators Advocacy Sub-Committee, a role that takes her to Washington, D.C. to meet with state legislators to advocate for key issues, including increased funding for study-abroad programs.
“Being involved in the advocacy process has been exciting, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see the fruits of our labor,” Roshan-Rawaan explained.
“I absolutely credit my passion for the field of international education to my time at MTSU. If I hadn’t studied abroad after my freshman year, I probably never would have found my dream job.”
International Education Week is held every November, and colleges and universities across the country host cultural programs and events to promote the merits of cross-cultural exchange. In 2010, 31 governors issued proclamations urging their constituents to honor and support International Education Week.
For more information on International Education Week, visit www.nafsa.org/iew. For details on MTSU’s study-abroad programs, visit www.mtsu.edu/~mtabroad.
