BLUE IS MAKING HISTORY

Alumni fuel 100th running of the Indianapolis 500

THE MAGAZINE OF INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY 4SPRING 2016

SPRING 2016

Features

26CONSTRUCTION

It’s the look of progress at State — as fencing for one project comes down,

another project gets underway.

42AN EDUCATION UNDER WATER

Alumna and professor emerita Mardell Miller credits lots of training to making

her spectacular dive trips safe. BY BETSY SIMON

20A PLACE TO CALL HOMEThe oldest building on campus, Condit House

welcomes thousands of visitors each year and has been home to several university presidents.

BY NANCY PIETERS MAYFIELD, ’88

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BEHIND THE COVER

departments

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EDITOR’S NOTE Historic institutions the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Indiana State have much in common — namely, preparing for the future.

ALUMNI NEWSFind out what dates you need to plan ahead for and learn how to get your own personalized license plate.

CLASS NOTESCatch up with microbrewer Jim Elliott, ’81, who has turned his hobby into an award-winning business.

THEN & NOWSalvaging and later restoring the Normal Hall dome was a massive undertaking. 48

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THE BIG IDEAMeet three alumni who perform key roles in making the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 a success.

THE NEW NORMALIndiana State’s motor sports program has shifted into high gear.

THE BIG QUESTIONHow has INDYCAR improved safety — for both racecar drivers and everyday motorists?

This photo illustration by Tony Campbell and Stephen Turgi combines a portrait of Indiana State alumni Dan Skiver, GR ’02, Joshua Thoele, ’07, and Jason Orton, ’03, with a 1929 Bugatti 35-B race car in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum. These types of 35 all looked alike but had a few differences. They had a good Grand Prix record, with good finishes at Monaco and Belgian in the ’20s and ’30s.

BLUE IS MAKING HISTORY

Alumni fuel 100th running of the Indianapolis 500

THE MAGAZINE OF INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY 4SPRING 2016

FALL 2014

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Inspire student success inside the classroom and beyond.

Impact innovation, collaboration and development resources.

Support an educator as a teacher, mentor and scholar.

VICE PRESIDENT FOR ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND COMMUNICATIONS John E. Beacon, GR ’74

ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETINGSanthana Naidu, ’01

EXECUTIVE EDITORLisa Moore

EDITORLibby Roerig

DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE SERVICESTed Wilson

ART DIRECTORStephen Turgi

CONTRIBUTORSAmy Bouman, Web ServicesTony Campbell, PhotographerHilary Duncan, Alumni Association, ‘10Teresa Exline, Chief of StaffTracy Ford, Videographer, ‘88, GR ‘05Jason Hiddle, Web ServicesAce Hunt, AthleticsRex Kendall, Alumni Association, ’88, GR ‘91Rachel Keyes, Photographer, ‘12Kim Kunz, ISU Foundation, GR ‘10John Sherman, Athletics, ‘88Betsy Simon, Media RelationsDave Taylor, Media Relations

STATE is published in print biannually in the spring and fall by the Indiana State University Office of Communications and Marketing. Digital editions are published on the off-months during the rest of the year at statemagazine.com. Opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by Indiana State University, the publishers, or the editors. © 2016.

MAGAZINE CORRESPONDENCE:STATE Magazine Indiana State UniversityOffice of Communications and Marketing 102 Gillum Hall, Terre Haute, IN 47809isu-magazine@mail.indstate.edu812-237-3773

TO JOIN THE INDIANA STATE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION:30 N. Fifth St., Terre Haute, IN 47809alumni@indstatefoundation.org812-514-8400

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Partner in the growth of campus and state-of-the-art facilities.

IMAGINEthe opportunities you could create

if you could fund Indiana State’s future. Begin your legacy by including Indiana State in your will today.

Your planned gift is not only an investment in the university, but it also

prepares the next generation of leaders for Indiana and the world.

Become a lifetime member of The 1865 Society by including Indiana State

in your estate plan. To learn more, go to indstatefoundation.org or contact the ISU Foundation at 812-514-8400

or 800-242-1409.

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The first turn at the start of the Indianapolis 500 in 1911. This year marks the 100th running of the race.

WE’RE FOR FRIENDS.

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:: EDITOR’S NOTE ::

GETTING older — it happens to all of us, to our favorite places, to this magazine. Hopefully, as we’re busy maturing, we’re learning a few things along the way.

I have had more fun putting together this edition of STATE Magazine than any other so far. After four print editions — and 20 digital editions — we’re starting to hit our stride, and this publication has become a wonderful connector of alumni,

faculty and students.In researching this edition’s cover story on the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, we met

lots of interesting State graduates — all of whom were equal parts excited to be Sycamores and to be associated with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway or its parent Hulman & Company.

Coincidentally, the Indy 500’s milestone coincides with the celebration of the university’s 150th birthday. And the parallels don’t stop there: Both institutions have a proud history of making a difference in Indiana (and far beyond), yet neither is resting on its laurels.

For instance, in this edition, you’ll read about how the Indianapolis 500 is a known innovator in the field of racing — so much so its technology has trickled down to our everyday automobiles. For racecar drivers who are skilled enough and fortunate enough to sail under the checkered flags at Indianapolis, it’s a win on the biggest oval stage. The Speedway is also working hard to create the next generation of racing fans by using its venue in new ways — such as hosting the Rolling Stones last summer.

To the west in Terre Haute, Indiana State has changed the lives of countless individuals, and last fall marked the largest student body ever. Originally chartered as a venerable teacher’s college, State has expanded its curriculum through the years and includes 100-plus programs of study such as the cutting-edge unmanned systems — one of the first in the nation.

The physical changes on campus are a tangible representation of progress at State. Last fall saw the unveiling of a $16-million artful restoration of the noble Normal Hall. In addition to an aggressive renovation schedule for student housing, a new Reeve Hall opened in 2014, and the 500 Wabash Ave., a public-private partnership, was ready for students to move into in 2015. And the renovation and expansion of the Health and Human Services Building, formerly known as the Arena Building, is slated to start this summer.

Those measures of progress are just to name a few. Respecting tradition while building an even brighter future — that’s what it means to celebrate Indiana State’s sesquicentennial era and the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500.

Libby Roerig, Editor

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LONG before the jets fly over, “Back Home in Indiana” is sung and the green flag drops, Indiana State Univer-sity alumni have been hard at

work at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “For me, it’s a 4 a.m. arrival,” said

Jason Orton, ’03. “… And it’s not that you necessarily need

to be here by then, but it is if you want to beat the traffic,” joked Joshua Thoele, ’07.

And Dan Skiver, GR ’02, lives at the Speedway — literally.

“Race day, if you include the 24-hour period that starts at midnight the night before, I am usually still in the office making sure I have everything ready to go the next day,” he said. “During the month of May, I probably go home only two or three nights for the month. (On race day), I’ll probably get back to the campground anywhere from 1 o’clock to 2 o’clock in the

morning. Then we’re up about 5 o’clock, and I’m trackside by about 6 a.m.”

Not that they’re complaining — getting there early does have its perks. “I love to walk down the front stretch before anyone else gets here, when the only things lit up are the Pagoda and the Pylon. To watch this place fill up in a matter of hours is a surreal experience,” Thoele said.

Most of us recognize the names of State alumni Tony George, ’85, and Jeff Belskus, ’81, who formerly led the Speedway, and Fred Nation, ’68, former vice president of public relations.

But these lesser-known names belong to Sycamores who serve in critical behind-the-scenes capacities: Dan Skiver, senior manager of event operations; Jason Orton, director of merchandising; Joshua Thoele, manager of timing and scoring.

And this year is different from any other year. It’s the 100th running of the

4BY LIBBY ROERIG

WITNESSING HISTORYGenerations of Sycamores have had key roles in making the Indianapolis 500 a success, and this trio is helping fuel the 100th running of the race.

Dan Skiver, GR ‘02Joshua Thoele, ‘07Jason Orton, ‘03

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Greatest Spectacle in Racing — against the backdrop of a newly renovated Speedway.

“I look forward to the Indy 500 every year, but to be part of the 100th is very exciting. It’s such a historic event. It’s the type of thing you tell your grandkids about,” said Thoele, who started working at the Speedway as an intern while attending Indiana State.

For Orton, his job entails sending pieces of that history home with fans in the form of T-shirts, model racecars, cups and magnets.

“We give the opportunity for the fans to be able to take something home with them, a memory of the Speedway or something they keep for a lifetime,” Orton said. “That’s what makes it special for us and that’s why we have the opportunity to have jobs is because people are so pas-sionate about this place. They have such an emotional connection.”

And Skiver is engaged in a delicate dance to ensure the fans’ experience — at home and at the track — is just as good as the drivers’ and sponsors’. Take the winner’s circle, for instance. Skiver isn’t the guy who hands the bottle of milk to the victor; he’s the guy who says how and — more impor-tantly — when it should be handed.

“It’s that balance between TV obligations and radio obligations and sponsor obliga-tions, but you don’t want that to overshad-ow what just happened. That’s the driver and you want them to enjoy that moment,” he said. “We try to create an environment where they can enjoy themselves but we can still get done what we need to get done. When it looks natural and fun — that’s when everyone wins.”

In racing, timing is everything. But for Skiver, it’s not keeping track of who wins, it’s making sure all the programming lines up with the TV and radio broadcasts, their numerous breakaways to independent pro-gramming and that the jets cross the yard of bricks when the last note of the national anthem is being sung.

“If my blood pressure were taken on race morning from about 9 a.m. till that green flag drops, they’d probably admit me to a hospital, to be honest. It’s complete chaos, it’s great,” Skiver said. “Ironically, it sounds

Known as the most exciting moment in sports, the start of the Indianapolis 500 is seen in 1997.

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like something that would be a disaster and something you’d never want to do — till you do it. That challenge of being right and making it successful, it’s addictive.”

He’s so concerned with time that when asked about the biggest celebrity he’s met, Skiver can’t really say. Sure, there’s Chuck Yaeger, Apolo Anton Ohno and some local professional athletes. But the time he escorted the Kardashians around, he can’t tell you to this day which family members they were.

“When you look at the anthem singers I work with — Jordan Sparks last year, LeAnn Rimes or someone who is even more local, Sandy Patty — to be honest, to me, it’s op-erational. It’s: Are they on time? They told me their anthem was going to be a minute, 18 seconds, they came in at a minute-16 and I have a lot of adjustments to make,” Skiver said. “Every once in a while I get to think, ‘Wow, that’s who that person was.’ I’ve met a lot of different celebrities here, but it’s the fans and those kinds of things that are actually more exciting to me.”

And the drivers. All three agree meeting

the drivers — especially the veterans — is an honor.

For Thoele’s job, it may be surprising to learn that timekeeping is only part of what Timing & Scoring does. Distributing that data — now, that’s some heavy lifting.

“Timing is only a piece of what we do. As our needs and technology have expanded, we have developed systems to distribute a wide array of data. Whether it is the ticker on the TV feed or the car telemetry on the Verizon INDYCAR app, we are a big part of providing the data necessary to drive these systems. We are also responsible for the technology used in Race Control and have recently deployed an HD replay system that is capable of recording 48 channels of HD video simultaneously. At any point in time, we can pick any channel and instantly roll back to what we need to see.”

And this data is available for the hard-core fan, who downloads and analyzes the reports, all the way to the revelers in the infield who may (or may not) care about who’s in first place.

Inset: the Hulmans in 1963; above: 1947 pagoda; top right: 1922 pace lap; middle right: 1952 race crowd; bottom right: 2000 crowd

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The Indianapolis 500 is one big Memory Lane for Gary Morris.

“WHERE I GREW UP, THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 was part of your culture, part of your life,” said the 1975 graduate.

Growing up in Monrovia, Ind., he recalls spending Memorial Day weekends at his grand-mother’s house, where they’d have a big picnic and listen to the 500.

He attended his first race in 1969 when he was 16. And while at Indiana State, he and his Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity brothers started an annual tradition that continues to this day, including sitting in the same seats as they did in the ’70s.

So the 100th running has both personal and professional meaning for Morris, who is president and chief operating officer of Clabber Girl, the brand that helped usher in the modern era of racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “Personally, it’s pretty cool. I never thought the

first time I went into that race that many years later I would be working for the family that owns the track or this business,” Morris said.

“So, it’s like a kid in a candy shop. You have to pinch yourself sometimes.”

Hulman & Company was founded in Terre Haute in 1850 and started a wholesale grocery business eight years later. They began manufacturing baking powder in 1899, introducing the Clabber Girl brand — named after bakers who used clabbered milk as a quick leavener — in 1923.

Tony Hulman Jr. acquired the Speedway in 1945 as a venue to further promote the Clabber Girl brand, which was being nationally distrib-uted by that time.

“The respect for history and culture and how this company started here in Terre Haute by the Hulman family has remained the same,” Morris said. “The Clabber Girl label is still the label that you saw back in the ’20s.”

As modern conveniences and dining options have increased, however, the number of people who cook from scratch everyday has sharply decreased. Clabber Girl has responded by diversifying and innovating. A large part of their business is still manufacturing leavening — although now for large-scale food companies — and they sell high-quality food service products to restaurants, hospitals and schools. Clabber Girl has also developed microencapsulation capabilities that protect food particles from premature chemical reactions. “All businesses, whether it’s the Indianapolis

500 or Clabber Girl, have to remain relevant to the customer, because customer bases change. Who is that customer, what do they need and what are they going to be looking for you to provide in the next generation? We want to make sure this business is a relevant business going forward for the next 100 years,” Morris said.

Partnerships with its neighbor Indiana State are also a mainstay. The Scott College of Business enjoys regular collaborations — or

“Clabberations” — for logistics, accounting and other class projects.

Numerous Sycamore internships have trans-lated into permanent positions, and all but one of their current bake shop employees are State students. The one holdout is a high school student, so there’s still a chance. — Libby Roerig

Gary Morris, ‘75

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SUMAR RACING: TERRE HAUTE’S

TEAM

IF YOU LIVED IN THE GREATER Terre Haute area in the 1950s, chances are you were a fan of the Sumar Racing Team.

Bitten by the racing bug, friends Chapman S. Root and Donald E. Smith bought in 1952 the Bardahl #18, a 3000 Series Kurtis Kraft, which had been driven by Sam Hanks to a third place finish in the Indy 500 earlier that year. With the $6,000 purchase, the team — named for their wives Susan Root and Mary Frances Smith — was formed.

The following year, the rookie team with a rookie chief mechanic and rookie driver Jimmy Daywalt qualified in 21st place, finished the race in the sixth spot and earned Daywalt Rookie-of-the-Year honors.

Through 1960, the blue-and-white machines often paced the pack. The team ran in sanctioned events at Milwaukee, Langhorne, Phoenix, DuQuoin, Las Vegas, Sacramento and Monza, Italy.

Other drivers for Team Sumar included Pat O’Connor (killed in the first lap of the Indy 500 in 1958), Marshall Teague (killed at Daytona in 1959), Johnnie Parsons, Dick Rathman, Johnny Boyd, Bobby Grim and Gene Hartley.

Smith served on the Indy Racing League board of director’s and was CEO of First Financial Corp. A noted philanthropist, the late Root was president of Associated Coca-Cola and grandson of C.J. Root who developed and manufactured the original Coca-Cola bottle. — Vigo County Historical Society archives

Jimmy Daywalt and crew, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 1955

RACE DAY RECIPESIN HONOR OF THE FOOD AND FESTIVITIES SURROUNDING ITS sister company’s centennial running of the Indianapolis 500, Clabber Girl is publishing a new cookbook, “Brickyard to Backyard: Remembering Recipes from Race Days Past.”

The launch party is set for April 14 at Clabber Girl Bake Shop in Terre Haute.

“It’s a really great mix of people, race memories and recipes. It’s not just desserts or baking. It’s things that you would have at a backyard BBQ party or at your tailgate,” said Megan Pence, executive director of marketing and public relations. It’s also filled with pictures and memories from employees, race fans, drivers and owners of the Indy 500, she said.

For more information, call 812-232-9446.

ALUMNI GATHERING SATURDAY, MAY 21 Enjoy a day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the

ISU Alumni Association. Call 800-258-6478 for details.

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Given the new data-distribution aspect, don’t think Thoele and his colleagues don’t take their first order of business seriously.

“One of our closest finishes was in Chicagoland in ’07. First and second were only separated by .0005 of a second — about half an inch on the track,” Thoele said. “So, it is very stressful, especially on ovals, because we have very close finishes. You’re always hoping all the work and preparation you put in is going to pay off. So there’s definitely a lot of stress, especially here, because it’s a much bigger stage and especially with it being the 100th running.”

With such sophisticated technology filling his office each day, Thoele is often his friends’ and family’s go-to for tech support.

“I was home for Thanksgiving, and before I left, my mom asked, ‘Is there anything that

you changed that I can’t fix myself?’ I also get a lot of, ‘Hey, can you help me with my wireless?’ or ‘Which phone should I buy?’” Thoele said.

Orton has his own balancing act with more than 500 seasonal employees — many of them volunteers — operating the more than 80 gift shops around the venue. And this year, they’ve added to the gift shop inventory some higher-end collectibles to commemorate the 100th running.

“The majority of our stores are run by nonprofit groups that get a commission of the sales, but most of them have been here for 10, 15, 20 years,” said Orton, a sports management major.

The trio works tirelessly throughout the year to continue getting it right.

“Our facility doesn’t go to sleep after

May. We get a couple of days where we let the 500 settle, but then we’re going right into what we’re doing in June and what we’re doing in July and getting ready for the Brickyard,” Skiver said. “You can’t rest on what you just did, and you can’t let what you just did get you down too much. You have to get back on the horse pretty quick.”

Because when you’re behind-the-scenes, no one talks about you until you make a mistake.

“I use the mantra of the offensive lineman — if somebody knows my name, it’s probably for the wrong reason,” said Skiver with a laugh. “I love being behind the scenes and knowing that people are depending on me.”

Left: Tony Hulman Jr. and Ray Harroun place the commemorative brick for the 50th running in 1961. Right: 2015 race; below left: Tony Hulman Jr. and A.J. Foyt enjoy the victory lap 1977; below right: start of the 1977 race.

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HOW HAS INDYCAR IMPROVED RACING — FOR BOTH RACECAR AND EVERYDAY DRIVERS?

4BY TONY MARKOVICH

IN 1958, participants of the Indianapolis 500 hadn’t yet discovered fear. With zero room to spare for hesitation in their one-seater bullet cars, drivers entered

one of the most dangerous competitions in the world wearing nothing but a polo shirt, a pair of slacks, an open-faced helmet and a cool pair of Snoopy goggles.

Helmets weren’t required for the first 24 years of the event, and it wasn’t until 1959 that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway required drivers to wear fire-retardant suits. Injury and death were inherently accepted dangers of the high-speed culture.

“I’m not going to say racing is safe,” said Charlie Kimball, Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing driver. “Any time you’re going that fast, there are risks involved.”

His version of fast might as well be Mil-lennium Falcon light-speed to daily drivers. In the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911, the average speed was about 75 mph, but today it’s around 160 mph with top lap speeds circling 230.

On the eve of the 100th running, the nature of the event remains unaltered and continues to power what is one of the most famous races in the world.

“I think that’s one of the greatest things about INDYCAR,” said Kimball, one of two drivers on the INDYCAR Safety

Committee. “They continue to look how to make the cars, the racing, the racetracks safer, and it’s always going to be a process. We’re always going to find new areas as materials evolve as the understanding of the science evolves and as the racing of the cars evolve.”

Studying new safety techniques and features on a track first makes their imple-mentation into passenger cars that much more precise.

“There are so many things that have been perfected in racing,” said Donald Davidson, Indianapolis Motor Speedway track historian.

One of the oldest and most basic safety features in today’s automobiles has become

synonymous with the Indianapolis 500. Ray Harroun’s Marmon “Wasp” is credited as the first automobile to use a mounted rear-view mirror.

In the inaugural contest, Harroun tested the mirror as a replacement for the then-standard passenger mechanic. He did this as a way to circumvent the rules regarding the mechanic’s secondary job as lookout and the reduced weight and streamlined shape helped him to victory.

In a vehicle, it was originally thought a more rigid exterior and frame would act as armor, but this hypothesis was dispelled.

In order to keep the frail humans inside these cages intact and protected from outside forces, certain parts of cars are now designed to succumb to pressure more easily. By learning where to place the purposely-deforming spots, known as crumple zones, one of the most important safety innovations has made it into every modern automobile.

“It comes down to the crash structure,” Kimball said. “On the nose of an Indy car, when you hit the wall, it’s designed to crush and absorb energy so that it isn’t transferred to the cockpit of the car. And in a road car, they have those deformation zones all over the car, so that in a crash, the people within the cabin of the car don’t absorb that energy. Those crumple zones are the

1911 1935 1959 1965Rearview mirror is introduced. Helmets are required. Today,

they are made of carbon fiber, Kevlar or fiberglass with energy-absorbing foam.

Fuel-retardant suits are required.

Fuel cells are required. Essentially, the foam that prevents combustion in empty portion of fuel tank.

Louis Meyer wears the required helmet and goggles in 1935.

INDYCAR AND IMS BY THE NUMBERS

1909Indianapolis Motor Speedway was built

257,325 IMS capacity

253 ACRES Size of IMS’ infield

33Cars in starting field

$50-230Ticket price range for

grandstand access in 2016

2.5 MILESOval track’s length

0:00:37.895Lap record

237.498 MPHTop lap speed

9.2 DEGREESBanking slope

550-700Horsepower from

turbocharged V6 engines

>4+Up to more than 4:

Lateral G-forces

207.151Fastest average race speed in

INDYCAR history(California Speedway 2003)

— Tony Markovich

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technologies in their racing programs,” said Jeff Belskus, ’81, former president and CEO of the Speedway. “They continually apply that to the passenger car tires they produce.”

In addition to structuring cars to dissipate impact energy away from the driver, the walls surrounding the track are constantly evolving to do the same. After the Polyeth-ylene Energy Dissipating System (PEDS) was found to create too much debris and torsional redirection in 1998, a new program was initiated.

IMS paired up with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and funded a project to create one of the biggest safety achieve-ments in racing history, the Steel and Foam Energy Reduction barrier. The “soft walls” are a combination of welded rectangular steel tubes, stacked 2-inch closed-cell poly-styrene and a concrete wall.

“When you build safer racetracks, that definitely trickles down into safer roads and transportation corridors,” Kimball said.

same concept and derived from the energy-absorbing crash boxes on racecars.”

Combined with high-density foam, carbon fiber tubs, the Head And Neck Safety (HANS) device and molded seats, this technology has greatly reduced any driver movement during a crash and thus reduced his or her risk. So much so that NASA uses INDYCAR crash data when designing its spacecrafts.

“An INDYCAR seat helped drive some of the space program design for seating and G-loading,” Kimball said. “All came from the fact that INDYCAR drivers were crashing and surviving without injury during these high-G impacts. So NASA came and said, ‘How do they do that?’”

Even more importantly, some car seat manufacturers like Dorel also use that data when designing the foam and padding used in child restraint systems.

Not all safety innovations are directly related to crashing, though.

“The tire companies learn a lot from tire

2002 2004Steel And Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barrier — a soft-wall design intended to absorb kinetic energy during impact — is introduced.

Head and Neck Support (HANS) device, a head surround and attachment that prevents forward and backward movement, is introduced.

INDYCAR has shared its crash data with NASA, which used the information to aid seat design.

Brandy Protz, ’17, competes at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Brownsburg, Ind.

The New Normal

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REVVING UPTeam Sycamore Racing preps for ninth season

4BY DAVE TAYLOR

A NEW faculty advisor, a new driver and the prospect of an all-female team promise excitement for Team Sycamore Racing’s ninth season of competition.

The student team has competed in the National Hot Rod Association’s North Central Division since 2008 and has operated two dragsters since 2010.

Joining the team for 2016 is third generation driver Brandy Protz of Vandalia, Ill., the first President’s Scholar to take the wheel of a Sycamore race car. Protz started racing at age 9 and set her sights on Indiana State in 2009 when she saw the team’s original 1991 Spitzer dragster, which sports a 427 cubic-inch fuel-injected engine, compete at O’Reilly Raceway Park.

“I looked at my dad and said, ‘I’m going to race that car someday,’” Protz recalled.

“My grandpa got my family into racing,” she said. “He used to sneak out and race at a local track, but he and my dad started a racing team when my dad was 16. The car I race now, a 1964 Chevelle wagon, was my dad’s first race car. Now they have me and my sister, Jenna, who is 10.”

By the time college rolled around, Protz had decided to major in athletic training and discovered Indiana State’s premier program in that field. The offer of a President’s Scholarship was icing on the cake.

“It just worked out,” she said with a smile.

Protz is pursuing a minor in motor-sports studies that has been in place since 2006 as a partnership between the colleges of business, technology and health and human services. While not required for racing team members, most are enrolled in the minor and come from throughout the university.

Protz is expected to head an all-female team that

will include freshmen crew members Emily and Sarah Lykins, twin sisters from Connersville who are majoring in automotive technology management.

The NHRA has had a long history of female drivers. Shirley “Cha Cha” Muldowney got her start in 1953, more than two decades before Janet Guthrie became the first woman to race in the Indianapolis 500. Protz’s grandmother also raced. There are now more high-pro-file women racing throughout motorsports, including INDYCAR and NASCAR driver Danica Patrick and sisters Ashley and Courtney Force in NHRA.

“It helps that there are professional female drivers to look up to,” she said, recalling that she researched a high school class presentation about Muldowney.

Sam Steinberg, a senior mechanical engineering technology major from Indianapolis, will drive Indiana State’s newer car, a 2002 Undercover dragster with a 488 cubic-inch General Motors big block engine

Brandy Protz of Vandalia, Ill., is a third-generation race car driver.

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equipped with a conventional carburetor. He has experience racing his own car, a 2004 Pontiac GTO, at Lucas Oil Stadium.

“It’s like getting shot out of a cannon,” he says of the experience in describing his love for racing.

Steinberg came to Indiana State planning to major in computer engineering technol-ogy, but the professor he met with had keys to the automotive lab, “and when I saw the dragster I knew I had to be a part of it,” he said.

Steinberg said Team Sycamore Racing is a great complement to his classroom experience.

“We learn how to do all kinds of things inside the engine and then we can apply that to a high-performance engine. It ties in with the chassis class as well and really with everything that’s going on here,” he said.

Mike Davis, who joined Indiana State as automotive engineering technology in-structor this year after 12 years at Ivy Tech Community College-Wabash Valley, didn’t have to think long about accepting the job.

“What’s not to like?” he said. “I was moving from the community college to a university and with the responsibility of running a racing team. It’s a dream job and there is great support from the depart-ment and the college and the students are just excellent. Every day I’m enthused and energized by coming into the classroom and seeing their reactions to new material. It makes it fun.”

The team races mostly on the eighth-mile course at Crossroads Dragway in Terre Haute, which Davis calls “a wonderful and competitive training ground,” but he’d like to see the students compete at quarter-mile

venues in the region. Davis is excited about “seeing the team

develop and have a marketable presence in the industry so that Indiana State is recog-nized and that Team Sycamore is recog-nized as a competitive team,” he said. “We have been in the past and we have all the tools to do it. We need to start marketing for funding for partnerships. We have excellent students. It’s looking up. I think we’re going to move forward nicely.”

Since its launch in 2006, the motor-sports minor has seen enrollment of 25 to 50 students at a time, but the program has a broader influence. A survey of

“It’s like getting shot out of a cannon.”

Clockwise from top left: Brandy Protz, ’17, is expected to lead an all-female Sycamore Racing Team. Protz is a recipient of the prestigious President’s Scholarship. John Rosselli, ’10, changes a tire on the No. 46 Chevrolet SS of Michael Annett.

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Indy 500 attracts international MBA students to StateINDIANA STATE’S PROXIMITY TO THE Indianapolis Motor Speedway helps attract students from one of Brazil’s leading MBA programs to the Scott College of Business for an annual seminar on finance.

Now in its third year, the week-long program for students at Fundação Getulio Vargas, a university and think tank, is timed to include the Indianapolis 500. It also features three days of classes and visits to the Federal Reserve Bank and Money Museum in Chicago.

Aruna Chandrasekaran, professor of management in the Scott College who coordinates the seminar, calls Fundação Getulio Vargas “the Harvard of Brazil” and notes that Indiana State is one of only three American universities with which it partners on such programs.

“I truly believe that we wouldn’t have received the honor of getting

this program but for the Indy 500,” Chandrasekaran said. “It’s a fun event, and it’s going to be even more fun this year because it’s the 100th running.”

The visitors do more than take in the race while in Indianapolis. Speakers are brought in to discuss the business and marketing aspects of the event.

“They get a very rounded perspec-tive,” Chandrasekaran said.

This year’s speakers will include Willy Herrmann, who leads Formula Indy efforts in Brazil, and Carlo Gancia, who helped such Brazilians as Emerson Fittipaldi obtain sponsorships and is president of Image Sports Marketing, a U.S.-based company with subsidiaries in São Paulo which represents, promotes, markets and televises American open-wheel racing in Brazil.

Joyce Young, professor of marketing in the Scott College, teaches motorsports marketing and engages in industry-relat-ed research, and will provide an overview of the racing industry in the U.S.

About 15 students attended last year’s seminar, but Chandrasekaran expects that number to increase this year, thanks to the addition of the Chicago trip, which she added after taking over the program from the late Eurico Ferreira, a professor of finance who started the program in 2014.

“It’s amazing that we got the opportunity to have these students come over,” said Chandrasekaran, who has conducted research in Brazil as a Fulbright Scholar. “It gives a lot of publicity to ISU. Many of the participants are working people and they want to know how to send their kids here. They get a pass to the Student Recreation Center and leave with a very positive impression of ISU and turn into our ambassadors.” — Dave Taylor

Scott College of Business instructor Kim LaGrange talks to a class of MBA students from Brazil.

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motorsports course created for the minor is now embedded in the university’s foun-dational studies course as an upper-division elective. As part of their studies, students visit a dragstrip and write a paper about their experience.

“So while we may have only a few dozen students in the minor, we have hundreds of students taking this course every semester,” said Randy Peters, chair of the department of applied engineering and technology management.

Graduates of the motorsports program work for some high profile teams. Several have positions with Don Schumacher Racing in NHRA while others, including John Rosselli, ’10, work in NASCAR.

Rosselli worked for INDYCAR following graduation, then spent two years at the Auto Research Center in Indianapolis, working on aerodynamic wind testing, before landing a position with Richard Childress Racing. He does composite bodywork during the week and is a tire changer on weekends.

“They knew I played baseball (in high school and at Vincennes University); they knew I was an athlete and I was still in pretty good shape, so I tried out for the pit crew team,” he said.

Rosselli and other crewmembers work out during the week with weight training and other activities and conduct drills in order to make pit stops even faster.

“It’s become a science now,” he said. “Time in the pit is time on the track. It all comes down to whatever time you can scrub is good time.”

A 12-second tire change was considered good last year, but Childress and other teams have gone from five lug nuts to four, shaving a full second off that time, Rosselli noted.

Learning automotive dynamics, chassis systems and management at Indiana State helped prepare Rosselli for his career.

“Just being on time, being orderly and organized. One of the biggest things at our race shop is just having all your ducks in a PH

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CARS and racing came naturally to Chad Johnston, ’03, already a veteran crew chief who has

worked for three teams in the No. 2 spectator sport in America, NASCAR.

“My dad was a mechanic and body man, and we grew up going to the races,” he said.

When the time came to select a college, Johnston chose Indiana State because of its proximity to his hometown of Cayuga and because he could major in mechanical engineering technology.

As a senior, he gained valuable experience at the Automotive Research Center’s wind tunnel in Indianapolis.

While his first job following graduation was at Smith Aerospace in Terre Haute, Johnston set his sights on a career in racing and caught his first break when he signed on as an engineer with Morgan-Dollar Motorsports in the NASCAR truck series in 2004.

He went on to work with Evernham Motorsports and JTG Daugherty Racing before joining Michael Waltrip Racing and Martin Truex in 2009. The next year, at age 30, he became the team’s crew chief, NASCAR’s youngest at the time. He was crew chief for Stewart-Haas Racing and Tony Stewart in 2014-15, and in November he signed on as crew chief for Kyle Larson and the No. 42 Target team of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.

Johnston said his education at State prepared him well for his career.

“I moved down there as an engineer, so the things that I learned there through the school of technol-ogy definitely transferred here and allowed me to get engineering positions,” he said, noting that his goal from the moment he landed in Statesville, N.C., was to become a crew chief.

Indiana State’s motorsports management minor came along several years after Johnston’s graduation. He sees it as a valuable addition to Indiana State’s curriculum and a benefit to the racing industry.

“I definitely would have taken an interest in it,” he said. “I know a lot of kids would have chosen it because it would potentially be a good career choice. With as much drag racing in Brownsburg and other areas, it would be a good fit.” — Dave Taylor

STATE GRAD HAS SERVED THREE NASCAR TEAMS AS CREW CHIEF

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line and making sure everything is perfect,” he said. “That’s what I always liked about the program. It was organized.”

Megan Jackson, ’12, of West Terre Haute, combined the motorsports minor and Team Sycamore experience with a bachelor’s degree in technology engineer-ing education. A West Vigo High School

teacher and Indiana director for SAE In-ternational’s Supermileage Challenge, in which high school students build and race high mileage cars, Jackson also races her own rear-engine dragster and said her ex-periences at State prepared her well for all of her current ventures.

“It gave me more leadership experience

than I could ever have imagined,” she said. “I was team manager my last two years at ISU. Getting people together for meetings really helped me in the teaching field because I’m in charge of different organiza-tions and different clubs at school. We did a lot of school visits with Team Sycamore Racing when I was at ISU. That experience has been extremely helpful.”

While she raced dirt bikes in high school, Jackson said her family went from “not knowing anything about racing to running our own show. I’m a hands-on learner and being able to learn about the automotive industry and marketing while doing it at the same time helped me. I can go and recruit sponsors for my car and I would never have known where to begin if it had not been for this program.”

“Time in the pit is time on the track. It all comes down to whatever time

you can scrub is good time.”

Clockwise from top left: Team Sycamore Racing competes at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Brownsburg, Ind., in 2008. Brandy Protz, ’17, competes in one of her family’s vehicles at O’Reilly. Spectators inspect a State car. A student works in the campus shop.

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INDIANA STATE PARTNERSHIP TO FURTHER BOOST UNMANNED SYSTEMS PROGRAM

EMBRACING the philosophy of two heads are better than one, Indiana State has strategically aligned itself with another leading provider of

aviation and unmanned systems education. Indiana State officials traveled to Sinclair Community

College in Dayton, Ohio, on Dec. 4 to sign a memo-randum of understanding uniting a broad and flexible portfolio of aircrew training, aviation safety, system opera-tions, data collection and analytics.

The partnership is expected to yield research and products to help organizations of all industry types use this emerging technology to solve business and technical problems.

“We have anticipated this day for some time as a great step forward for both Indiana and Ohio,” said Richard Baker, chair of Indiana State’s department of aviation technology. “There are times when two heads are better than one. In this case, ISU and Sinclair are partnering in a

strategic alliance to address the needs of industry and the workforce.”

In June, the Indiana Commission for Higher Education approved a four-year unmanned systems program — the first of its kind in the state and with the support of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security and the Indiana Office of Defense Development. The agreement will be yet another boon for Sycamores.

“The MOU is a major accomplishment that will provide great advantages to the students of the College of Technol-ogy,” said Bob English, dean of the College of Technology. “The programs at Sinclair Community College and ISU both focus on first-responders, precision agriculture and geo-spatial information. By partnering with Sinclair, our students have access to projects, equipment and companies that they would not otherwise have access to.”

— Libby Roerig

Good, Better, BEST: Indiana State invests in teacher leadersZACKARY TAYLOR WAS “THAT KID” IN HIS HIGH SCHOOL math class — the one who caught on to concepts with ease and everyone else looked to for help.

“I learned so much from my calculus teacher senior year and watching how she cared for her students helped me realize that I want to teach,” said Taylor, an Indiana State freshman math education major from Bedford and a Boener Scholar in the new Bayh College of Education Scholars to Teacher (BEST) program. “My classmates would come to me for help, which made me think about different ways to explain things to others. It was rewarding to help students and see them begin to understand.”

The Bayh College of Education Scholars to Teachers program aims to prepare teacher leaders, like Taylor, to transform lives and communities and demonstrate a com-mitment to inclusive excellence through leadership, professional

development, community engagement and experiential learning opportunities.

Taylor is among 21 scholars in the program’s inaugural cohort, which includes four President’s Scholars, seven Boener Scholars and 10 recipients of the new Sycamore Teacher Leader scholarship for high-achieving students majoring in elementary and/or special education who have an interest in becoming teacher leaders.

“(BEST) is a unique experience, and it has been very uplifting and encouraging,” Taylor said. “I’m excited for the great leadership opportunities the program will provide and to be an ambassador for the Bayh College of Education.”

Funded by the Unbounded Possibilities initiative, BEST scholars will participate in a book study, facul-ty-peer mentoring, local and extended leadership shadowing, research, community engagement and re-cruitment activities. — Betsy Simon

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Professor awarded second federal humanities fellowshipFOR THE SECOND TIME IN 11 YEARS, AN INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY HISTORY professor has received a prestigious fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities to continue her research and writing about Russia.

Barbara Skinner, associate professor of history, will use the $50,000 grant for a yearlong leave starting this fall to write about the impact of the religious conversion of Greek Catholics in Belarus and Ukraine to Russian Orthodoxy in 1839, an event that sparked lasting resentments in the region. Her first NEH grant was in 2005 and allowed her time to work on her first book, which is a prequel to this effort.

NEH grants are highly competitive, as about 80 awards are given each year from approximately 1,250 applications. “I’m lucky to have a project that’s relevant today, even though I’m working on the early 19th century,” she said. “It’s critical (research), because we see Vladimir Putin trying to take over eastern Ukraine and saying (that region has) always been Russian.”

Because of their location between Poland and Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have long received exposure from both cultures — and integrated them into a pluralis-tic identity. For instance, Greek Catholicism combines Roman Catholic doctrine with Orthodox ritual.

In 1839, however, 1.5 million people were forced to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy, which became the largest mass conversion in the history of the Russian Empire, en-compassing 2,500 parishes, 99 monasteries and dozens of schools.

“The architects of this policy sought to undo over 200 years of history and to eradicate Polish/Catholic influence in the eight provinces annexed by Russian during the partitions of Poland,” Skinner said. “(This research) offers a valuable contribution to European religious history and a deeper understanding of the cultural divisions that continue to shape contemporary events in the region, such as the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.” — Libby Roerig

STATE NAMED 21ST CENTURY SCHOLARS ‘CHAMPION PARTNER’

AS part of the 25th anniversary of Indiana’s 21st Century Scholars program, the Indiana Commis-

sion for Higher Education has recognized Indiana State University for its support of the initiative that helps low-income students complete a college degree.

Indiana State is among 10 organiza-tions to receive the Champion Partners Award in recognition of their impact on the program.

Indiana State serves the largest number and the highest percentage of 21st Century Scholars on a singular campus, which provides full tuition scholarships for students who sign a pledge in grade 7 or 8 to avoid drugs, alcohol and criminal activity and to maintain a 2.5 grade point average or higher on a 4.0 scale.

“We are very humbled to be recognized with the 21st Century Scholars Champion Award,” said Josh Powers, associate vice president for student success at Indiana State. “So many at ISU have a deep commitment to our 21st Scholars and recognize the importance of stewardship given how many such students we serve. It is a privilege to work with these students and help them to succeed. We constantly look for ways to improve what we do in support of their success.”

Indiana State launched ScholarCorps in 2012 to build pride and aspirations to achieve among 21st Century Scholars. Today, it is among the university’s most vibrant student organizations, with students highly engaged in leadership positions throughout campus and in the community, Powers said. — Dave Taylor

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Above: The front sitting room of Condit House is known as the music room because of the grand piano and music-related artwork there. Inset: The grand entrance of Condit House is seen.

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EACH fall on the first day of classes, Indiana State students are treated to lemonade and cookies by a friendly lady who sets up a stand on her

neighborhood lawn.Laden with backpacks, some walking and

some on bikes, students stop by her house throughout the day for a cold drink, some treats and pleasant conversation.

The lady is Cheri Bradley, the wife of university President Dan Bradley. And their home — known as Condit House —

happens to be smack dab in the heart of campus.

“As far as I am concerned, we live in the best neigh-borhood in Terre Haute. Every day we walk in a city park. We are available to attend anything on campus with 10-minutes’ notice,” Cheri Bradley said. “Living here affords us so many opportunities to be with students and to be around what we love, which is campus life.”

Built in 1860 by Jabez Hedden for Lucien

Houriet, a local jeweler and watchmaker, it was sold to the Rev. Blackford Condit in 1863. The house was five years old when the Indiana State Normal School was chartered by the Indiana General Assembly in 1865. Campus literally sprouted up around the two-story, red-brick, Italianate-style home. Condit’s youngest daughter Helen be-queathed the house to the university when

she died in 1962.It was used by the Office of Alumni

Affairs and the ISU Foundation from 1963 to 1966. When Alan Rankin, the seventh president of ISU, was hired in the spring of 1965, the fate of the house changed, said John Newton, vice president emeritus for alumni and constituent relations for the ISU Foundation.

“The Rankins thought it was such a grand home,” he said. After an expansion and some remodeling, they moved in and stayed until 1975.

“The Rankins made it a kind of center-piece for the community,” Newton said. They held many social activities there for the campus and community.

The next residents — State’s eighth President Richard Landini and his family — expanded on the tradition, opening the home regularly to both the Terre Haute and campus communities. Landini and his wife, Phyllis, hosted dinners and receptions for distinguished alumni, trustees, faculty, staff, students and other constituents.

For the youngest of their five children, Vincent Landini, living in the historic landmark never struck him as unusual.

“It was my normal, what I was used to,” said Landini, who was 12 when the family moved to Terre Haute. He said he has great memories of growing up in the house, which had plenty of comfortable living space in addition to a few formal rooms. He enjoyed attending the Indiana State Lab School, just a short walk from his house.

He recalled that a picture posted online of Condit House spurred a debate among

A PLACE TO CALL HOMECondit House, the oldest building on campus, welcomes thousands of visitors each year and has been home to several university presidents and their families.

4BY NANCY PIETERS MAYFIELD, ’88

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his siblings about which room had belonged to whom.

“It was a good life, and it was inter-esting. There were a lot of people who visited because of my dad’s position with the university,” he said. “You’d see Burgess Meredith or Tommy John walk through.”

He recalled discussions his parents had prior to moving to Condit House, weighing the options of whether to live on or off campus. They decided they wanted to continue the tradition that the Rankins had started.

Vincent Landini went on to attend State, majoring in criminology. Except for a semester at Rhoads Hall, he lived at Condit House while a student.

John Moore, the ninth president of Indiana State, lived briefly in the home before it became the Office of the President in 1993 until 2008, through the tenure of Lloyd Benjamin, the university’s 10th president.

The Bradleys were smitten with Condit

House when they visited campus during the interview process. Learning that it was the president’s office, Cheri Bradley said she told her husband, “Oh, if we get this job, I would love to live there!”

The Board of Trustees was thrilled with the prospect. After a few updates, Condit House was ready for its new tenants.

During the first two years the Bradleys lived there, more than 4,000 people visited. While Cheri Bradley no longer tracks the numbers, they most certainly have continued climbing by the thousands.

On the day she was interviewed for this story, Bradley was cheerfully preparing to host an evening dinner for 80, trying to figure out the seating arrangement. That occasion was in addition to three other campus/community receptions the same week.

“What we’ve done is we’ve opened the house up to the city and to the people in the community, but more importantly, it’s a place where students come. We host a lot

of student events,” she said. And while it is a public space, it is also

a comfortable home. Bradley said she loves looking out the windows to see the changing leaves or the falling snow and people traveling across campus. Last Christmas, the Bradleys’ three sons and their families, as well as Cheri’s 92-year-old father celebrated at Condit House.

“We live in the whole house,” she said. “What I think is quite remarkable about the university and Condit House is the fa-cilities plant has taken remarkable care of this place. It stands so stately. It’s remark-able that it was built in 1860.”

The oldest structure on campus, Condit House is listed as a Historical American Building with the Library of Congress and The Smithsonian Institute. Bradley said she and her husband feel very honored to live there and are passionate about about sharing it.

“I’ll tell you what, I am very blessed. It’s a wonderful place,” she said.

Left: First Lady Cheri Bradley entertains thousands of guests each year at the president’s residence. Top center: Condit House’s kitchen is a favorite gathering spot. Center left: A cozy reading space at the top of the stairs is seen. Center right: The first-floor library/den is seen. Right: The library/den features built-in bookcases.

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Other than an addition built in the 1960s, Condit House looks remarkably like it did in the 1860s.

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Bayh College of Education kicks off celebrations

4BY BETSY SIMON

MILESTONE birthdays deserve a party. And that’s just what the Bayh College of Education provided the faculty, staff, alumni and supporters who turned out for its celebration of

the university’s founding as a normal school during the “Legacy in Education: State Celebrates 150 Years” event on Nov. 6.

“Today, (the Bayh College) continues to have a well-respected reputation for preparing teachers and principals and has expanded to the preparation of professionals in student affairs, higher education, counseling, speech language pathology and other human service professions,” said Indiana State President Dan Bradley.

Indiana General Assembly’s passage of House Bill 119 on Dec. 20, 1865, professionalized the role of teaching in Indiana by creating an institution for the “preparation of teachers for teaching in the common schools of Indiana.”

Since Indiana State opened its doors in January 1870, the university used education to transform lives, including those of the Bayh College’s current 1,300-plus students.

“The Bayh College of Education is … a place that serves as a catalyst for innovation, creativity and growth,” said Kandi Hill-Clarke, dean of the college. “We have stayed true to who we are, while embracing positive change and growth.”

The Bayh College continues to respond to the needs of the Terre Haute community, which remains steadfast in support of the college and its initiatives, such as the Bayh College of Education Scholars to Teachers program, the Woodrow Wilson Fellows program, a nationally accred-ited early childhood center, the state-of-the-art Norma and William Grosjean Clinic and the Indiana Principal Leadership Institute, she said.

“Today, in this former school building, you see the legacy of the normal school all around us,” Hill-Clarke said. “The fact that this building was once a school bursting at the seams with young creative minds and energy is an

appropriate reminder to us all that what we do here is as important, or maybe even more important, than our mission 150 years ago.”

Bayh College faculty and staff were joined at the celebration by Christopher Bayh, who represented the Bayh family — the namesake of the College of Education; Glenda Ritz, Indiana’s current state superintendent of public instruction; and state Rep. Clyde Kersey, D-Terre Haute.

Made possible with support from the university’s sesqui-centennial committee, the 150th celebration also honored Indiana’s first female and longest-serving Superintendent of Public Instruction Suellen Reed with the first Leaders and Legends in Education Award, recognizing an individ-ual who has made a major impact on education in Indiana.

“For Suellen, it was never about politics. It was always about our children,” said Danny Tanoos, ’79, GR ’83, GR ’97, Ph.D. ’15, superintendent of the Vigo County School Corp. and who served on the state board of education during Reed’s tenure. “During my time on the state Board of Education, I watched Suellen fight for the rights of students and teachers, no matter the cause or who was attacking her.”

Reed was selected for the award by the Bayh College’s 13-member planning committee, which included sesqui-centennial committee chair Brad Balch, Ph.D. ’98, dean emeritus and professor of educational leadership in the Bayh College, as well as emeriti, external stakeholders, students, graduates, faculty and staff.

Reed served as state superintendent of public instruc-tion 1993-2009 and played a fundamental role in major Indiana educational reform initiatives, including academic standards outlining clear and rigorous expectations for K-12 schools and the state accountability system to ensure continued improvement of Hoosier students and schools.

Reed said it was only possible to accomplish her work because everyone involved “knew there was no greater work than to have the very best system of education we could possibly offer to all of our students.”

“We need to make education something that people

Top: Attendees mingle at the Bayh College of Education’s “A Legacy in Education: State Celebrates 150 Years” event on Nov. 6. Bottom: Christopher Bayh, left, is seen with university President Dan Bradley.

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aspire to and that they understand how critically important the work we do is,” she said. “Let’s make sure we remember how very important all that we do in our profession will be, not only to the future of our communities, but the state and also the future of our country. There is so much more work that needs to be done and when we all work together, and we don’t care who gets the credit, we can do fantastic.”

From its inception, the Bayh College has been about more than simply teaching to the books. Its emphasis on educating the whole person was highlighted by the event’s keynote speaker Stacey Bess.

A recipient of the National Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service, Bess is an advocate for the educational rights of impoverished children, especial-ly after her first teaching experience in a small shed behind a Salt Lake City homeless shelter.

As a teacher at the School with No Name, Bess intertwined core subjects with lessons on self-worth for the homeless and transient students she taught in grades K-12. The 11-year experience was the genesis for her memoir, “Nobody Don’t Love Nobody,” as well as the inspiration behind the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, “Beyond the Blackboard.”

For every lesson Bess taught her students, she said she learned even greater life lessons from the children.

“The foundation of teaching is to care deeply about the children you serve,” Bess said. “You are in the best business in the whole world. You change the lives of children, which in turn lifts up their families and makes your communities much better places to be. For that, I commend you.”

INDIANA STATE’S FOUNDER’S DAY celebrations will continue through 2020, with each of the other four academic colleges marking the occasion in the order it was formed on campus:

— College of Arts & Sciences — Scott College of Business— College of Technology— College of Health and Human Services

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Blue is bolder with show-stopping renovations of Normal Hall, Mills Hall and Dede Plaza.

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Indiana State kicked off its sesquicentennial era in October with the unveiling of the restored stained-glass dome in Normal Hall.

Opposite page, clockwise from upper left: A sparkling Mills Hall opened to students last fall and features multipurpose spaces and light-filled lounge spaces on the upper living floors. Another interior of Mills is seen. The exterior of Normal Hall is seen. Construction on a new-and-improved Dede Plaza and its fountain wrapped up this winter. The center of the Normal Hall dome features a fresco painting of Raphael’s portrait “Philosophy.” An artist’s rendering of the $64 million in renovations and expansion of the Health and Human Services Building, the former Arena Building, is seen.

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NO glass ceilings exist for Mariah Wright — especially since she’s the one helping construct the buildings. Literally.

Wright, a senior from Clinton, Ind., is a construction management major at

Indiana State with an already impressive resume. She landed an internship with Thompson Thrift her freshman year and helped plan, hire contractors and oversee the construction

of the $22.7 million student housing project at 500 Wabash Ave. Fittingly, she now calls that address home.

“Every time I’m walking somebody up to my apartment, I’m like, ‘Oh, I built this,’” Wright said with a laugh. “It’s an experience that not many people get. It’s pretty amazing. It’s always something I bring up in job interviews. Everyone’s like, ‘Really?’ I got really lucky. Things just lined up.”

With the Wabash Avenue project complete, Wright

THE WRIGHT STUFFConstruction management major Mariah Wright, ’16, has more experience in the field than most graduates.

4BY LIBBY ROERIG

spent her next to last semester at State balancing an eye-popping 24 credit hours and commuting to Indianapolis for a full-time internship with Pepper Construction. She helped the company with their biggest project at the time at Community East Hospital.

“It’s insane,” she admitted, “all in between trying to fit in job interviews and stuff like that.”

Another quality that makes Wright stand out is her Spanish language fluency — a skill she further perfected during a study abroad experience at Veritas University in Costa Rica. About half of the workers at the Thompson Thrift job site did not speak English, she said. Further south, that ratio can be 80 percent or more.

“The language barriers on con-struction sites can cause problems down the line, so it’s an amazing skill to have. When you have someone there who can help out, it definitely changes things,” she said.

Despite Wright’s focus and skill set, it can be difficult to get her peers to treat her like an equal — and not like their daughter.

“Sometimes it is challenging, because they don’t really take you seriously a lot of times,” Wright

said. “When I’m in the office, I’ll show up wearing high heels and a dress, but then on the job site, I show up wearing jeans and boots. It’s different for them. You have to kind of prove you can do what it takes.”

She recalled an instance on the job site when some broken windows needed to be carried the dumpster.

“So the guys gave me a window without any glass — it was just a frame. It was really light,” she said. “And here

Wright poses for a portrait inside her room at 500 Wabash Ave.

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they are taking like four windows. When they are walking away, I grab four more windows. They are like, ‘What are you doing?’ And I was like, ‘I can handle this. I can do what you guys are doing. I may be a girl, but you don’t have to treat me like one.’”

Wright sees a need for more women in construction, es-pecially since research she read suggests the field will need 70,000 workers by 2020.

“Men and women really do see things differently, and that’s great because in construction, you have to look at it in all different angles, not just straight on,” she said. “So, I think that having a female on your projects is very beneficial in that way.”

Wright said she definitely looks up to the few female role models she finds, including a senior project manager she worked with at Pepper this fall.

“She is a hard worker, and she does not let any of the guys mess around with her,” Wright said. “I feel like she’s a lot like me in a way. We’ll have a meeting or something and after the meeting, everybody’s sitting around and eating their donuts and drinking coffee and she gets up and walks away. Everybody’s like, ‘What are you doing?’ and she’s like ‘I’ve got actual work to do.’ They take her really seriously. She gets what she wants and she does a really great job.”

With no family connection to construction, Wright’s interests actually stemmed from an early fascination with architecture. “As a child, I was always building forts and stuff like that,” she said.

But an experience in high school helped shape her goals into a better fit.

“I went (to a summer college course) and I started drawing,” she said. “I always joke my houses were the squares with triangles on top, and I’d have a little dog with stick figures in the front. Not exactly like that, but they were pretty bad compared to everybody else. (The other students) had these beautiful, aesthetically attractive drawings, and it’s like, ‘Wow, did you take classes before this?’ It was mind-blowing to see these other drawings compared to mine. So I decided that I probably wouldn’t be a very good architect.”

One of her mentors at the course was a construction management major — and Indiana State graduate — and suggested Wright consider adjusting her sights to her current field. An offer of university’s prestigious W. Max Stark Endowed Presidential Scholarship sealed the deal — and was the start of numerous other opportunities.

“A lot of it is thanks to my professors for just being willing to go out of their way, like helping students, even after hours — just putting your name out there to all these different companies,” she said. “Indiana State has such a great program that companies want to come out and they want to receive the resumes of the students. Opportunities come because of that.”

ON THE WEB: Watch a video of Mariah Wright at statemagazine.com/the-wright-stuff

Clockwise from top right: The completed 500 Wabash Ave. project; the student housing project nearly completed; the early stages.

Mariah Wright takes in the sights in Costa Rica. Wright is seen on President’s Scholars trip to Yellowstone National Park in 2015.

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STUDENT NAACP CHAPTER WINS NATIONAL AWARD

THE NAACP college chapter at Indiana State was honored with the Game Changer Achievement Award for Juvenile Justice at the organization’s 2015 national convention in

Philadelphia this summer.Indiana State’s NAACP is a civil rights advocacy organization

that prides itself with being a resource for students who have been discriminated against on campus and educates them about issues that not only concern juvenile justice but also education, health, economic justice and civic engagement.

The Game Changer Award is issued to an NAACP youth and college division that has advocated on issues concerning juvenile justice and educates the community on juvenile-justice-related subjects.

“Young people need to understand that their actions can decide their futures,” said Anthonisha Haggard, past president of the campus NAACP chapter. “If they do not know the law or their constitutional rights, our criminal justice system may fail them.”

Juvenile justice has become a hot-button topic in the recent years because of an increase in police brutality reports.

“In some cities, there are very high police-to-population ratios,” Haggard said. “How can you trust the dozens of officers policing your neighborhood? Young people’s lack of education about their rights as citizens can put them in a dangerous situation.” — Jamina Tribbett, ’17

Indiana State researcher helps solve 30-million-year mysteryIF YOU’VE EVER WONDERED WHY the Antarctic is cold, scientists say you can thank the powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

The ACC, as it’s known, is a unique surface-to-bottom current that flows eastwardly around Antarctica and keeps it cold and dry. How it came to be, however, has stumped paleocean-ographers for decades.

“To establish ACC, you have to completely change continen-tal geography — you have to open the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica, have to open the Tasmanian Gateway between Australia and Antarctica,” said Jennifer Latimer, associate professor of geology at Indiana State. “Then, it’s even more complicated, because it has to be deep and you have to have the right kind of winds to start the

current. So, the timing of all of this has been really difficult to nail down.”

Latimer is part of a team of re-searchers who say they’ve unlocked this secret of the current’s origin by studying markers in sediment cores from the ocean floor and collaborat-ing with tectonic plate researchers from the University of Tasmania and University of Sydney. Their findings were published in the July edition of the scientific journal “Nature.”

Scientists have determined the Drake Passage opened anywhere 45 to 20 million years ago and the Tasmanian Gateway, which connects the Indian and Pacific oceans, opened 35 million years ago.

Those conclusions were clues, but “just opening the gateway isn’t enough to start the ACC,” she said. “This (research) helped to show the gateway was initially open and water

flowed from the west, and then it later, after this whole-scale reorganization, started to flow towards the east, which we said was the initiation of the ACC 30 million years ago.”

Latimer was a graduate student under the tutelage of famed pale-oceanographer James Kennett as a shipboard scientist on Ocean Drilling Program Leg 189 expedition in 2000. Latimer later brought with her to Indiana State samples from sediment core extracted during Leg 189, and while at the International Conference of Paleoceanography in 2010, she talked to University of South Carolina colleague Howie Scher about the data from these cores. Their collaboration revealed ratio shifts in the neodymium isotopes — so-called chemical finger-prints — of the fossils in these sediment samples and indicating the formation of the current. — Libby Roerig

ISU

Life cycleBreeding season is in the late autumn-early winter, with one to three young born after 6 1/2-month gestation. Fawns usually stay with the mother for about a year. When bucks reach sexual maturity, they begin the rutting season and spar for dominance over the does.

Habitat and dietWhite-tailed deer travel along feeding trails to graze on greens and forage for acorns, nuts and corn; they will also eat conifer twigs and buds in the winter.

SignsRipped vegetation reveal grazing and a shallow, oval body-sized depression in leaves or snow show where one has bedded down. Bucks rub their antlers against trees low to the ground; look for patches of scarred or removed bark.

Indiana State biology Professor Rusty Gonser and his students have been conducting research since 1998 into the white-tailed deer’s genetic variations and bottlenecks from hunting controls. Gonser’s primary interest is conservation of the species due to habitat loss or fragmentation — a problem that affects the area’s deer and once led to their scarcity in Indiana long ago.

The Plight and Resurgence of the White-Tailed Deer

GENETIC FLOW

AT A GLANCE

The flow of genes from one deer population to another requires movement combined with generations of breeding. In this example, you can see how the genes of one deer (represented by different colors) can be found in different populations.

Hunting and protectionThe species was once hunted near-extinction but is now the most plentiful game animal in the eastern U.S. Populations are controlled via hunting permits.

White-tailed deerOdocoileus virginianus

RANGEU.S. range circa early 20th century

2"-3"

dewclaw marks

500,000 deer

Current estimated population

Historic population1900 population

POPULATIONS

Deer movement

This particular genetic line didn’t contribute to the

gene pool

In this example, no black deer

have moved into the general population

Current range

SOURCES: Audubon; biology Professor Rusty Gonser, Indiana State University; Journal of Wildlife Management, 1947. Reporting by Kristen Kilker, ‘17

General population

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GEORGE Washington Carver, Benjamin Banneker, Mae Jemison and Patricia Bath are a few of the nation’s most famous black scientists. Yet, it is no secret that African-Americans are sorely underrepresented in

science and engineering. Indiana State is helping to reverse those trends, starting with summer research programs.

ISUcceed is a mentoring program that focuses on minority student retention. The program calls the Charles E. Brown African American Cultural Center home but collab-orates with faculty in the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience to encourage and support more minority students in the sciences.

“Students have an op-portunity to connect what they learn in the classroom and apply it to real world research experience that is con-tributing to a bigger body of knowledge,” said Stephanie Jefferson, director of the cultural center.

ISUcceed sponsors students who are involved in the program to conduct research and provides on-campus living.

“The program does not only focus on research but also helps prepare students for graduate school,” said Jefferson. “We have weekly meetings, GRE prep, we teach them how to write personal statements and we have gone on field trips and toured labs.”

This past summer, ISUcceed took its students to the Uni-versity of Illinois to present their research at the Summer Research Symposium.

“This program allows minority students to have a cohort of support within a larger program,” Jefferson said. “It is important for them to work together, because their experiences are similar. No one gets through under-graduate and graduate school alone. If these students are giving and receiving support from one another, then they are also able to learn from one another and even commiserate together.”

Olayinka Olowoyeye’s journey to earn her bachelor’s in biology was not an easy one. A native of Nigeria, she changed her major three times during her college career.

“My advisors would tell me that they have been around a long time and have only witnessed a few international students make it to medical school,” Olowoyeye said. “I learned to surround myself only with people who are supportive of me. I do not need anyone

telling me what I can and cannot do.”Olowoyeye participated in SURE in 2014 and met

three African-American students who were a part of the ISUcceed program. The next summer she applied for ISUcceed and was able to continue working on the same research that she had been the previous summer but with double the support.

“It is so nice to see students who look like me,” Olowoyeye said. “I began to build relationships with people who have been in my department for all of these years, but I never had an opportunity to get to know any of them before our time in the lab together.”

4BY JAMINA TRIBBETT, ’17

CREATING A COMMUNITY OF MINORITY SCIENTISTSState’s ISUcceed and SURE programs provide support and opportunities for the next generation of researchers.

Stephanie Jefferson

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Now a senior, Olowoyeye has gained invaluable ex-perience in the lab participating in ongoing research on genetic variations in white-tailed deer.

“I want to go to medical school, so people ask me why I am working with deer. If you learn how to use these different processes, machines and if you can sequence the genome of a deer, then you can do that for a human,” Olowoyeye said. “If you gain the knowledge and experi-ence, then you can apply it to other things.”

Nykara Brown, a senior biology major from Fairfield, Ohio, has participated in research for the past two summers. She worked in the Center for Genomic Advocacy with breast cancer cells treated with different drugs in an attempt to find an alternative to chemotherapy.

“My mother and my grandmother were both diagnosed with breast cancer following my research,” Brown said. “It really put the research I was doing into perspective, as it is now affecting people who are close to me. It really showed me the importance of the research I was doing.”

Brown now works at the cultural center as an ISUcceed undergraduate mentor to first-year minority students who are interested in the sciences.

“I formed relationships with the different professors from the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience program,” Brown said. “One of them now teaches a few of my mentees. I have also used some of them as refer-ences. Because I was a part of the ISUcceed program, I will definitely be encouraging my students to apply for the research experience as soon as the application opens in the spring.”

ISUcceed participants Travis Norman, a senior chemistry major, and Jaleesa Holmes, a senior biology major, are from Merrillville, and say they feel an obligation to return to their community in order to better it.

“I live in an area where the population is dominated mostly by African-Americans, yet we are sorely underrep-resented in our local hospitals,” Norman said.

Holmes added, “Professors tend to be very harsh in the sciences in order to ‘weed out’ those who are not serious about the field. However, they neglect to lift up students who are trying to succeed. When you do not see many minority students in these fields, it gets discouraging, but the ISUcceed program offered support, guidance and helped me gain confidence.”

Below: Nykara Brown; top right: Olayinka Olowoyeye; bottom right: West Vigo High School teacher Cherish Easton, Jaleesa Holmes and Travis Norman

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Researchers burrow deep to protect endangered frog

TO PROTECT THE LOCALLY EN-dangered crawfish frog, research-ers at Indiana State first had to get to know the reclusive amphibian.

Named because it lives in abandoned crayfish burrows, the

frog is a secretive species that spends most of its time underground.

“You could live in an area where they occur and you wouldn’t have a clue. You wouldn’t stumble upon them — they’re essentially in burrows 11 months of the year,” said Jonathan Swan, a graduate student in biology.

The Wisconsin native was drawn to study the frogs because of their unique-ness, which also poses a problem to protecting them. He and other research-ers, including Rochelle Stiles, a doctoral student in biology, have been working to establish the natural history of these frogs as a first step to saving the 1,000 or so adults left in the state.

Crawfish frogs were listed as endan-gered in Indiana in 1988, but short of a few small studies by naturalists dating back to the 1800s, little is known about the creature, which is comparable in size to a small bullfrog.

“It’s ironic we’re doing this type of research in this decade,” Stiles said. But “in Indiana, we know more than other states about what’s going on.”

That knowledge is thanks to federally allocated state funding awarded since 2009 to Mike Lannoo, professor of anatomy and cell biology at the Indiana University School of Medicine at Indiana State, and partnerships with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and Detroit Zoological Society. Stiles and Swan work with Lannoo in his lab on campus. — Libby Roerig

Indiana State online programs recognized for affordabilitySEVEN INDIANA STATE PROGRAMS OFFERED ENTIRELY OR partly online are receiving national recognition for affordability and value.

The website Non Profit Colleges Online includes the programs among recipients of its 2015-16 “Putting Students before Profits Awards.”

Bachelor’s degree programs in electronic engineering tech-nology and mechanical engineering technology rank No. 1 in the overall engineering category while the Doctor of Nursing Practice program, which was launched just five years ago, is ranked No. 2 among all doctoral nursing programs.

The site recognizes 50 programs nationwide in each category. Other Indiana State programs ranked are the Bachelor of Science in accounting at No. 16, Ph.D. in educational adminis-tration at No. 17 and the master’s degree program in criminol-ogy and criminal justice at No. 17. The Bachelor of Science in criminology and criminal justice is also a Top 50 program.

“The mission of Indiana State Online is to extend our high quality educational opportunities to students beyond Terre Haute, Indiana,” said Ken Brauchle, dean of extended learning. “We know affordability is an important component of educational access. We are delighted that our efforts to deliver our programs as cost-effectively as possible have been recognized.”

All of the Indiana State programs recognized are exclusively online except the engineering technology and Ph.D. in edu-cational administration programs. The technology programs are mostly online with some courses requiring study at the Indiana State campus or equivalent courses at another college or university. The educational administration program uses a combination of interactive online sessions augmented by four required face-to-face sessions in the ISU regional area.

Non Profit Colleges Online says its goal is to shine a spotlight on nonprofit online schools and help prospective students, the media, and the general public realize that “there really are nonprofit online universities out there putting students before profits and education before the bottom line.” — Dave Taylor

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READ ‘STATE’ ALL YEARYou don’t have to wait until this fall to keep up to date with Indiana State. STATE Magazine publishes each month at statemagazine.com.

PUNK ROCK PROVOSTIndiana State’s new Provost Mike Licari likes punk rock and launching rockets, but he’s also dedicated to service and helping students.statemagazine.com/punk-rock-provost

UNSTOPPABLEScholar-athlete Alethia Marrero succeeds at State — both academically and on the track — including a shot at the 2016 Olympics.statemagazine.com/unstoppable

FROM MENTEE TO MENTORAs a member of the ’85 championship Bears team, Brian Cabral has played for and worked with some of football’s giants. Now, he’s a giant influence on the Sycamores’ defense.statemagazine.com/from-mentee-to-mentor

HOW IS A FASHION LINE BORN? The process of designing clothes is an intricate one that involves technique, material, art and inspiration. Anyone can create a clothing line, but not everyone can put in the work that goes into constructing one’s own garments. statemagazine.com/how-is-a-fashion-line-born

IS ASTROTURF MAKING ATHLETES SICK? Jim Speer’s Introduction to Environmental Science class participated a national discussion about the possible links between crumb tire in artificial turf and high cancer rates in soccer goalies.statemagazine.com/is-astroturf-making-athletes-sick

WHAT ROLE DO COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS PLAY IN COLLEGE LIFE?Lots, say experts. Sports boost pride, provide experiential learning and may help increase enrollment.statemagazine.com/what-role-does-collegiate-athletics-play-in-campus-life

RAZING STATESMAN TOWERSRecognized for their superior design when they were built in the late 1960s, Statesman Towers — the tallest buildings on campus — were undone because of their massive size. statemagazine.com/razing-of-statesman-towers

LOVE, DIVERSITY, PAINPresident’s scholar Bryant Clayton is on his way to changing the world after studying abroad for a semester in South Africa.statemagazine.com/love-diversity-pain

STEM TOGETHERWomen make up almost half of the U.S. workforce and have been the bulk of bachelor’s degree recipients since 1988. Still, women account for only about one-fourth of workers in science, technology, engineering and math careers.statemagazine.com/stem-together

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Cooper-Bolinskey, assistant professor of social work and chair of the department. “Healthy foods are often expensive. Fresh vegetables cost more money, and fast food and pizza are less expensive.”

In addition to diet, access to care, ability to sleep, a healthy environment and stress are major determinants of health, Cooper-Bolinskey said.

Also, “someone who lives in poverty often cannot develop a perspective of saving money when they’re not sure how they’re going to feed their children or pay the electric bill,” said Cooper-Bolinskey. “I would venture to say that poverty has on impact on how far someone is even willing to look into the future. If what you see in the next six months or the next two months or the next two weeks is not enough money to take care of life’s business how realistic is it to think of a plan six years from now?”

Social work seniors Kayla Carroll of Mooresville, Rhonda Lockhart and Parish Jones of Indianapolis were a few of the students who helped to plan, organize and conduct the simulation with Impink.

“It was a relief to see our hard work pay off and we were grateful for the opportunity to educate people about the hardships related to poverty,” Carroll said.

Lockhart said the planning process was “very busy and detailed.” The organizers spent a lot of time gathering information from agencies within the community. There was also the task of bringing new aspects into this year’s poverty simulation.

“Conducting the poverty simulation was a learning experience for me, as well as the participants. It was a great feeling to be able

EVERY November, social work Professor Rhonda Impink and her students transform the fourth floor of the Hulman Memorial Student Union into

the city of Terre Haute. When students step out of the elevator,

they are transplanted into situations millions of Americans face every day: young mothers and disabled individuals with no social security cards or cars who are forced to navigate a series of service agencies with poor communication and inconvenient hours, all to receive the resources they need to survive.

“In the poverty simulation, they’re going from one table to another,” Impink said. “In reality, they’re going all over town. And if they have small children, if they don’t have a car, if they have to rely on others for trans-portation, it just becomes extremely chal-lenging. They may lose their job trying to get all of these appointments met and still may not get the assistance they need.”

More than 200 students from various academic programs attended the most recent event — the largest attendance since the simulation began.

“We try to focus on social justice issues and economic justice issues in our program — understanding the one-on-one macro situations while understanding situations in our community,” she said.

While Sycamores learn case-management skills to help alleviate the material conse-quences of poverty, the nation is engaged in a larger conversation about the impact that poverty has on health.

“There are a lot of people living in poverty who are overweight,” said Dianna

4BY KRISTEN KILKER, ’17

STATE STUDENTS LEARN THE PRICE OF GOING WITHOUT

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to be a part of it while learning to host an event aimed at influencing social change,” Lockhart said.

Jones said conducting the simulation was a great experience. “Planning the simulation was frustrating at times, because we weren’t sure exactly how everything would work out,” said Jones. “We came together as a team and worked hard on the project so that it would turn out great.”

The simulation has encouraged the upper-classmen to pay closer attention to politics and to teach others what they have learned about poverty.

“It’s important to keep current with the upcoming elections and the next presi-dent’s views on legislation and poverty,” said Carroll. Lockhart agreed, adding, it’s important to “stay up to date on policies that affect those in poverty, directly or in-directly, and to support policies that help oppressed groups.”

Impink says one limitation of the simula-tion is the logistics involved with conduct-ing it. In order for the small glimpse into poverty to be closer to life, Impink said, the simulation needs to involve racial identifi-ers, which have been intentionally left out because of “the limited time that we to teach through the simulation — but we use it in classroom situations,” said Impink.

This year, the project ended with a de-briefing session. “It’s easy to use the word poverty,” said Cooper-Bolinskey. “It’s a nice, neat package we use to discuss people. But the meaning of it, the depth of it, the com-plexity of it, is pretty overwhelming.”

A group of social work students did a project on homelessness for a macro social work class and admitted they did not under-stand homelessness until they met face-to-face with the subjects of their project.

Cooper-Bolinskey said, “It’s not as if someone says, ‘Hey, I volunteer to be homeless’ or ‘I volunteer to go live in poverty.’ It’s systemic, and it’s lifelong for many folks. It is not just that someone goes to work and one day, loses their job and they are homeless. It’s a cyclical sort of process. I cannot make poverty something simple to understand or provide a simple definition, because it isn’t.”

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4BY DAN WACKER

In the showSycamores are well represented in Major League Baseball lineups

LAST SUMMER, THERE WAS ONE PROGRAM IN THE Missouri Valley Conference that saw multiple former athletes receive the most important call of their baseball careers — a call asking these players to join their organiza-tion at the major league level.

Indiana State had three players called up to the majors toward end of last season, joining three Sycamores who have made careers in the MLB. Nevin Ashley, Colin Rea and Ryan Strausborger met up with Clint Barmes, Jake Petricka and Joe Thatcher.

Indiana State currently has the most alumni playing in the MLB of the seven teams from the Missouri Valley. Missouri State is next with five, Wichita State has three, Illinois State

and Dallas Baptist each has two major leaguers, while Bradley and Southern Illinois have one active player.

Some of the most notable alumni from the Missouri Valley include Ben Zobrist (Dallas Baptist), formerly of the World Series Champion Kansas City Royals and now signed with the Chicago Cubs. Three-time all-star Ryan Howard (Missouri State) has been a staple in the Philadelphia Phillies lineup for some 12 seasons, and the most tenured of these athletes is former Sycamore Clint Barmes.

Barmes (2000), under legendary head coach Bob Warn, led the team in batting average (.375), runs (63), hits (93), triples (7) and home runs (10) during the 2000 season in Terre Haute. As a big leaguer, Barmes has hit for a .245

average with 415 RBI, 89 home runs and has scored 434 runs in his 13-year career.

Thatcher (2004) continues his career in the majors, having played in his ninth season in 2015. He spent six seasons in San Diego before being traded to the Diamondbacks in 2013. Recently, Thatcher has played for the Angels and spent the 2015 season with the Houston Astros. In Houston, he appeared in 43 games, all out of the Astro bullpen.

Petricka (2010) is tied for eighth all-time at ISU after striking out 113 batters in the 2010 season. He also earned seven wins and was named to the first-team All-MVC Selection. The second-round selection continues to work late in games for the Chicago White Sox. He recorded a career-best 12 holds in 2015. The year before Petricka split time as the setup man and the closer, recording 14 saves and earning 10 holds in his 67 outings. He also logged a career-high 73.0 innings during the 2014 season.

Jake Petricka

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Manaea was a first round draft pick of the 2013 June Amateur Draft.

While rubber in Terre Haute, Manaea posted a 3.13 career ERA and has the third-most career strikeouts (290). In the minors, Manaea has earned a 14-9 record, while striking out 236 hitters in 196.0 innings.

Indiana State alumni are looking to continue the trend in 2016, as there are five former Sycamores playing in the minor leagues including Manaea. Brady Shoemaker (2009), is currently with the Miami Marlins organization, playing at the Triple-A level with the New Orleans Zephyrs. Dakota Bacus (2012) and Jeremy Lucas (2012) are at the Double-A level, playing for the Harrisburg Senators (Washington Nationals) and the Akron RubberDucks (Cleveland Indians), respectively.

Last season, Jeff Degano (2015) was taken in the second round of the MLB First Year Player draft by the New York Yankees and earned a promotion to the Class A Short season Staten Island Yankees before the end of the season.

The three Sycamores called up to the big leagues this year are hoping to have as steady a career as Barmes and Thatcher and the emerging Petricka.

Strausborger (2010) was called up to the Texas Rangers and made his debut on Aug. 5. Strausborger hit his first career home run in his seventh start off of Drew Smyly of the Tampa Bay Rays on Aug. 16. As a Sycamore, Strausborger is second all-time after swiping 41 bases his senior season.

Rea started for the San Diego Padres as they took on the Cincinnati Reds in San Diego on Aug. 11. Rea threw in 5.0 innings in his first start, earning a 1-0 victory in his first outing. He went 2-2 in his rookie season in six starts. Rea played the 2011 season as a Sycamore, leading the team with eight wins, while holding opponents to a .204 average.

Ashley made his debut on Sept. 9 in Miami. He made noise in his first at-bat, belting an RBI double in the second inning. As a Sycamore from 2004-2006, Ashley belted 12 home runs in his three seasons in Terre Haute, including leading the team with 10 in 2006.

The MLB trade deadline led to some excitement for Valley baseball fans. On July 28, two former players from the Valley exchanged organizations. Ben Zobrist (DBU) was traded to Kansas City for former Sycamore Sean Manaea.

Above: Joe Thatcher; inset: Clint Barmes

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THE Missouri Valley Conference has selected Indiana State to host both the 2016 MVC Outdoor Track and Field Championships (May 13-15) and the 2016 MVC Baseball Championship (May 25-28).

“We are honored to be selected as the host for the Missouri Valley Conference Baseball and Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Indiana State in 2016,” said Ron Prettyman, former Indiana State director of athletics. “It is truly a testament to the hard work of our Sycamore athletics staff and coaches. It is also a strong response to the commitment that our university has shown to achieve excellence in all areas of campus life.”

Indiana State will host the baseball championships for the second time in three years, while the outdoor track and field championships come to Terre Haute for the first

4BY TYLER WOOTEN

STATE TO HOST 2016 MVC BASEBALL AND TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Invitational and continues April 23 with the Pacesetter Invitational. The Sycamores will host the MVC Outdoor Track and Field Championship May 13-15.

It will be just the second year of competition on the Gibson Track & Field Complex near the Wabash River, but it is shaping up to a busy one. The action begins April 9 with the Gibson

Conference slate. For the second time in three years, Bob Warn Field at Sycamore Stadium is the host of the MVC Championship, which will be May 25-28 in Terre Haute.

Indiana State baseball is underway, and the home season includes games against Nebraska, Indiana, Illinois, Butler and Purdue as well as the rest of the Missouri Valley

time since 2008-09. This will also be the first year Indiana State has hosted two championships since 2011-12, when it hosted both cross-country and women’s golf.

“Gibson Track and Field and Bob Warn Field at Sycamore Stadium are among the finest in the Missouri Valley Conference,” Prettyman said. “Our venues provide a place where student athletes from our league will come to have a terrific athletic experience. We are excited to host these quality events, and we encourage people to join us in Terre Haute for these championships.”

Bob Warn Field at Sycamore Stadium has undergone a number of changes over the past several years. The installa-tion of a FieldTurf infield, a new locker room and coaches’ offices, the construction of a new seating area with both chair-back and bleacher seats and a larger press box and parking lot highlight the renovation of the entire facility.

“We are excited to host the Valley baseball tournament for the second time in three years,” said Mitch Hannahs, Indiana State head baseball coach. “It will showcase the im-provements that have been made to Bob Warn Field over the last few years. Our staff and administration does a really nice job of putting on a premier event for baseball fans.”

Indiana State also recently debuted its state-of-the-art Gibson Track and Field Complex in April 2015 and was host to three meets in its first year. The $4.3-million track and field facility is located on the banks of the Wabash River on First and Chestnut streets.

“The last time we hosted on Marks Field we had patched it up and put it together the best that we could, but we had just worn it out,” said John McNichols, Indiana State men’s head track coach. “At that point is when we started planning for Gibson Track and Field, so this has been in the works for a long time and it’s great to finally see it all put together.”

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Lansing joins his father as Iowa Hall of Famer

For these sports and more, keep an eye on GoSycamores.com for more announcements and event details.

The Indiana State Women’s Swimming & Diving Team begins competition next year and has signed nine student-athletes under the direction of head coach Matt Leach.

finale. Indiana State will look to defend its MVC Championship May 12-14 in Carbondale, Ill.

The Vigo County Aquatics Center has been completed and is open for business.

The Indiana State softball team, which made the program’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament last year, hosts Wichita State April 30-May 1 in the home series

INDIANA STATE HEAD COACH Greg Lansing received the Iowa High School Athletic Association’s highest honor when he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame during halftime of the Iowa Class 4A State Championship Game March 12 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

“To get a call that I had been selected to the Iowa High School Basketball Hall of Fame means a lot to me,” Lansing said. “One of the reasons that this means is a lot is because of how important it is to my mom and dad. I can’t think of a better honor. I’m proud to be from Iowa. I’m proud to have played at Harlan for my dad. This moment is shared with a lot of great and coaches and teammates. Being selected to the hall of fame is a special award.”

Lansing graduated in 1986 from Harlan High School, where he was coached by his father, Dave, who was inducted into the IHSAA Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999 as a coach. The Lansing father-son duo is the 10th pair to be inducted into the hall of fame since 1969. Greg Lansing is the second player inductee from Harlan after Scott Wilke, who graduated in 1984.

Lansing was a two-time All-Hawkeye Eight Conference honoree and was a two-time selection as his high school’s Most Valuable Player. Harlan was 53-10 over Lansing’s high school career from 1983-86, including a 19-3 mark during his sophomore season when the Cyclones reached the semifinal round of the 1984 Iowa Class 3A Tournament.

In addition to his exploits on the basketball court in high school, Lansing was also an all-state selection in both football as a quarter-back and in baseball as a pitcher.

Following his days at Harlan, Lansing played for the University of South Dakota, where he was a member of a Coyote basketball team, which reached the NCAA Division II Tournament during his junior and senior seasons. That marked the first postseason invita-tions for the USD program since 1954.

Lansing went on to serve two seasons as a graduate assistant at South Dakota before beginning his full time coaching career there in 1992. Lansing graduated from USD in 1990 and earned his master’s degree in 1992.

After his time at South Dakota, Lansing returned to Iowa, where he served as head coach at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines. Lansing ended a 12-year drought at Roosevelt by posting consecu-tive winning seasons in 1993-94 and 1994-95.

Lansing first arrived at Indiana State as an assistant coach, helping the Sycamores post back-to-back winning seasons in 1997-98 and 1998-99.

Lansing returned to his home state, where he was an assistant coach for Steve Alford at the University of Iowa. In seven seasons, the Hawkeyes went 135-92, received three NCAA Tournament in-vitations, made three NIT appearances and won a pair of Big Ten Tournament titles.

From 2006-2010, Lansing worked as Indiana State’s associate head coach. The Sycamores began a run of five consecutive post-season appearances in 2010.

He was named the Sycamores’ head coach in 2010 and has led the program to 94 wins, including 52 in Missouri Valley Conference play. Lansing’s 94 wins entering the 2015-16 campaign ranks sixth on Indiana State’s all-time coaching wins list. After Bill Hodges, Lansing is just the second head coach to lead the Sycamores to the NCAA Tournament in his first season.

Lansing became the first head coach to lead the Sycamores to five consecutive winning seasons in more than 40 years. Additionally, over the past five years, the Sycamores’ 52 league victories are third best among the current membership. He has led the team to four victories over nationally ranked teams, which is tied with Hodges and Royce Waltman for the school record.

Greg Lansing

The New Normal

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AN EDUCATION UNDER WATERAlumna and retired faculty member Mardel Miller, ’66, MA ’69, explores an alternate environment on scuba dives

4BY BETSY SIMON

THERE is little under the water that Mardel Miller has not experienced.

It was 16 years ago at age 55 when Miller, associate director

of education services and assistant professor emerita in the Bayh College of Education, was introduced to scuba diving by Michele Boyer, Indiana State professor of counseling psychol-ogy emerita.

“After hearing about scuba diving from Michele’s sister who has been diving for years, Michele and I decided to take a resort course,” said Miller, a former Indiana State swimmer. “I couldn’t get below 15 feet, though, because my ears wouldn’t clear. I aborted but Michele came back loving it. The next year we went on vacation and I had a horrendous cold and knew I couldn’t do it again, but when Michele completed the dive she was hooked.”

In 1998, Miller, ’66, MA ’69, a 30-year university employee, enrolled in Indiana State’s non-credit scuba diving course with Boyer. They practiced open water dives in Indiana and Illinois strip pits and enrolled in a second course before their first “blue water” dive in 1999.

“All training agencies stress the importance of diving with a buddy at all times for safety reasons, and since Mardel and I enjoy traveling together, I thought scuba diving would offer a different way for us to see more of the world,” said Boyer, who’s been on more than 560 dives.

Miller’s experiences have snowballed into more than 525 dives, including dives in the Bahamas, Grand Turk, Cozumel, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Bonaire, Belize, Honduras, Hawaii, Great Barrier Reef, Papua New Guinea,

Indonesia, Maldives, Chuuk Lagoon, Marshall Islands, St. Kitts, Saba and St. Lucia.

“It gives you a sense that this world was not created by accident,” said Miller, who captures each experience with her underwater camera. “It’s all so gorgeous that I get lost in it.”

The pictures help highlight lessons on conser-vation and ecology, which Miller infuses into public presentations about her trips.

“I’ve seen such beauty and a lot that’s very dev-astating,” she said. “We must have healthy oceans to have a healthy world.”

After graduating from Indiana State with a bachelor’s degree in health, physical education and recreation, Miller traveled for a year for her national sorority before returning to Indiana State, where she earned her master’s degree in college student personnel in 1969.

Miller worked in the dean of students office at the University of Iowa from 1969 to 1973. She enrolled in Florida State University and completed her Ph.D. in higher education admin-istration before returning to Indiana in 1975, where she worked the Bayh College until her re-tirement in 2004.

Even in retirement, Miller stays connected to her alma mater and former employer by taking African drumming through the Community School of the Arts, being an active member of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and contribut-ing to the ISU Foundation. She also volunteers with the Maple Center’s LEAF program, which focuses on living a healthy lifestyle and taps into her undergraduate studies.

“Everything is beginning to come back to that original interest in physical education, which would make my father happy,” Miller joked.

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“When I didn’t end up teaching physical education, health and recreation like I’d planned, my father would ask what I went to school for. He never understood that I didn’t lose interest, but other doors opened. I think he’d be happy that I made my way back to my first passion.”

In August, at the age of 71, Miller and six friends traveled to the Turks and Caicos for a weeklong, annual diving trip.

Miller categorizes her comfort into two levels — I’m not afraid of anything that might happen because of this versus I have mastered the skills in a way that makes me a better diver.

“I’ve always been comfortable in water, but in terms of saying, ‘I can do this the way I should,’ it was in Chuuk Lagoon during my 200th dive in 2005 when I realized I really can do this,” she said.

“We were at 59 feet and I looked to find I had the air supply I should have had when I was doing the 15 foot safety stop,” she said. “In that moment, it was like someone was playing back a tape of every single class I had taken, which was eight at the time. I started doing everything I was taught,

almost without it being conscious thought. I felt like I automatically knew how to safely get to the surface.”

When Miller surfaced with air to spare, it hit her: She has this dive thing down.

“That experience is why I’m a big proponent of education for people who want to scuba dive,” Miller said. “Don’t stop at one or two classes. More education may just save your life.”

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AlumniNews Event Calendar MAY Friday, May 6

Ladies Tee at the Country Club of Terre Haute

Saturday, May 7 Indiana State University’s

Spring Commencement Ceremony

Monday, May 9 President’s Scholar Golf Outing

at The Brickyard Crossing in Indianapolis

Friday, May 13 – Sunday, May 15 Missouri Valley Conference Track and Field

Outdoor Championships in Terre Haute

Saturday, May 21 Indianapolis 500 Event

at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis

Wednesday, May 25 – Saturday, May 28 Missouri Valley Conference Baseball

Tournament in Terre Haute

JUN Saturday, June 4

A Day at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

Wednesday, June 8 Dubois County Alumni Golf Outing

at Buffalo Trace Golf Course in Jasper, Ind.

Thursday, June 16 Fort Wayne TinCaps Baseball Game in Fort Wayne

Saturday, June 18 Downs After Dark at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

Friday, June 24 Northwest Indiana Alumni Golf Outing

at Lake of the Four Seasons in Crown Point, Ind.

Monday, June 27 Indianapolis Indians Baseball Game at

Victory Field in Indianapolis

Thursday, June 30 Jim Hartman Golf Outing Classic

at Sullivan Elks Club in Sullivan, Ind.

JUL Monday, July 11

Indianapolis Alumni Golf Outing at Maple Creek Golf Course in Indianapolis

Saturday, July 30 Alumni Reunion Day on Indiana State

University’s campus in Terre Haute

AUG Friday, Aug. 5

Terre Haute Alumni Golf Outing at Idle Creek Golf Course in Terre Haute

Be social all year!

Indiana State University Alumni Association

@indstatealumni

indstatealumni

Indiana State University Alumni Association

SAVE THE DATE!CHECK YOUR INBOX FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE following family friendly events:

Saturday, Sept. 24 Family Day

Saturday, Oct. 1

Indiana State University’s Homecoming Celebration

UPCOMING EVENTS

Terre Haute REX Baseball Game

Symphony on the Prairie in Indianapolis

Plan Ahead THE INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY ALUMNI Association is busy preparing for another enjoyable summer with alumni and friends near and far. In addition to the annual golf outings, the Alumni Association will host events to engage Sycamores of all ages and interests, including special reunions associated with Indiana State’s Sesquicentennial Era. Mark your calendars for the following events.

As always, it’s important to keep your contact information current so the Alumni Association is able to send you event invitations. Go to indstate.edu/alumni to update your contact information.

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For more information about the Indiana State University license plate program, go to indstate.edu/alumni.

Get a free gift from the ISU Alumni Association when you buy or renew your plate by marking on the form for the university to receive your information!

RIDE WITH STATE PRIDE

SPRING 2016

46

1970-2013

Submit your class notes or read more at statemagazine.com.

RON CULP, ’70, received the Public Relations Society of America’s Gold Anvil Award, the Society’s highest individual award. LU and LANEY, GR ’74, MEIS received Hospice of the Wabash Valley’s Chapman S. Root Award. JANET BOYLE, ’75, GR ’78, PH.D. ’81, was named executive director of the Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning at the University of Indianapolis. BRAD MILEY, ’82, and CHARLES “BUTCH” WADE, ’72, were inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. CHARLES “CHUCK” JOHNSON, ’84, was named the 22nd president of Vincennes University in Vincennes, Ind. ALAN CLAYTON, ’86, was named director of first-party operations for Frost-Arnett Company in Nashville. STACEY RAMSEY, ’88, was named advertising director for Paxton Media Group in La Porte County, Ind., and Southwest Michigan.DOUGLAS FIORE, PH.D. ’99, was appointed as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Park University in Parkville, Mo.CHAD JOHNSTON, ’03, was named crew chief for NASCAR driver, Kyle Larson, of Chip Ganassi Racing. ABIGAIL WERLING, ’03, was named vice president for development and alumni relations at University of Evansville. DANIEL CRAMER, PH.D. ’07, was named director of the North Dakota Department of Human Services South Central Service Center.TAMARA WATTS, ’08, was promoted to lieutenant with the Indiana State University Police Department in Terre Haute. JUSTIN GORNY, ’13, was sworn in as a police officer in South Bend.

Left: Jim Elliott

JIM ELLIOTT, ’81 4BY DONOVAN WHEELER, ’91, GR ’08

JIM Elliott would likely agree that we are all pawns of the market. We go where the jobs are, and we sell what people want to buy. Were it not for both of these conditions, Elliott — a Lowell, Ind., native who graduated from Indiana State in the winter of 1981 — would have ended up starting his career with a marketing firm in Chicago or

perhaps Indianapolis. Instead, his destiny lay in Texas, where he would log time not only in marketing,

but also retail management and high school teaching. All of that, however, was arguably a prologue for Elliott’s signature professional contribution as the entrepre-neurial owner and operator of Cedar Creek Brewery nestled in the small town of Seven Points.

An easygoing, humble man who passed on larger schools, the young high school graduate instead turned his attention to Terre Haute.

“Indiana State was the right size for me,” Elliott said. “Many of my friends went to IU or Purdue, and I was one of the few out of my hometown who went to ISU. The other schools were nice, but they were just big … very big. I was looking for something a little different, and I felt like I fit in better at ISU. I also wanted a business and marketing degree, and State had a good program. So it was a great fit.”

Fondly recalling his days at Indiana State under the tutelage of professors he described as “very good,” and adding that “the skills and basics I learned there have helped me succeed as I’ve moved down my own road,” Elliott was nonetheless pushed toward an early graduation, thanks in large part to those aforementioned market forces, which often steer our path.

First, the steel mill where Elliott worked each summer stopped hiring college students. Opting to take summer classes and graduate early, he hoped the early exit from Indiana State would improve his job chances. But after nearly three months of job hunting, he turned to fraternity brothers who encouraged him to travel to Texas, where he landed three offers by the end of his first week there.

For almost two decades, Elliott worked in the business world, but he “took a huge pay cut” and turned to teaching in order to spend more time with his family. Fourteen years after that, when the political winds in the classroom shifted, Elliott once again sensed that another intersection lay ahead in his path.

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Following the advice of his friends, who were so impressed with the fruits of his home brewing efforts that they suggested he should sell it, Elliott sought out a location to “settle down” and launched Cedar Creek in 2012.

“When I opened this brewery in July of 2012, we were the 32nd brewery in Texas,” Elliott said, “and now there are 142. So, we’re looking at 400 percent growth in three years, and I don’t see that stopping or slowing down.”

Running his own operation hasn’t come without its share of challenges, chief among them being the brewery’s packaging issues.

“There are very few can suppliers to begin with,” he said. “When we first started canning, our minimum order from Crown was eight pallets of empty cans per SKU. Then, about a year ago, Crown raised that minimum to 12. And now, we’ve just gotten notice that they’re raising it again … this time to 25, which is a full truckload.”

A second challenge — location — is more a matter of philosophy than circumstance.“We’re 50 miles southeast of Dallas, located in a population area of about 6,000

people, and that does hurt our growth, as far as marketing efforts,” he said. “Here, you have to spend more money on social media and things like that. If we would take this brewery — everything we have right here — and put it in Dallas, we would see tremendous growth. But that’s not who we are.”

“Everyone has to find their niche,” Elliott added. “Not everyone is going to be a big production brewery putting out beers in every store on every corner. There’s limited shelf space and a lot of beers, so you have to find what works for you.”

Despite his modest claims, the truth is that Elliott’s brewery has demonstrated incredible growth, selling beers not only throughout Texas but also to points en-circling the state from Albuquerque to Tulsa to Atlanta.

And in the short span of three years, Cedar Creek has already moved from its original site to a new location, where Elliott has added a restaurant and plans to both add a biergarten and expand his production.

And today, what first began as a high school marketing teacher’s hobby has expanded into the successful business venture that every emerging brewer dreams of when he tosses a scoop of hops into a mash tun.

ELLIOTT’S PHONED HOME PALE ALE

With a “moderate level of hop bitterness that carries over to a soft hop aroma,” the American

hops used in this beer give it a distinct, citrus taste both up front and on the finish.

THE LAWN RANGER CREAM ALEA nice transition beer for people phasing into

the craft culture. With a low alcohol volume and sweeter taste, this smooth beer is perfect for those

hot summer days.

DANKOSAURUS IPAModeled after the West Coast IPA style, this

hoppy brew mixes a “bold pine, citrus, peach and tangerine hop flavors, along with a clean

bitterness … balanced by a velvety malt backbone.”

GONE-A-RYE DOUBLE IPAA hoppier beer with “hints of peach, pear, citrus and pine. We dry hopped this bad boy with 20

pounds of hops, yet the hop bitterness is tempered by the sweetness of malt and spiciness of the rye.”

SPINNING MULE ROBUST PORTERA great late-season beer, this porter boasts of

“rich coffee notes from locally roasted beans meld with hints of chocolate from the malt.”

PATIO POUNDER LAGERThis “crisp pale lager with a balanced flavor

profile from German pilsner malt and Hallertauer hops” is “refreshing and easy to drink with

a dry finish.”

Source: Cedar Creek Brewery website

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Dome panel, 1970sProfessors Herb Rissler and Larry Beymer recover one of the panels from the attic area of Normal Hall. The pair convinced then-President Richard G. Landini of the need to preserve six panels, which are still on display at Cunningham Memorial Library.

4THEN

&THEN NOW

Normal Hall dome, 2015Construction workers install the painstakingly researched and restored stained-glass panels of the Normal Hall dome.

(Indiana State University Photography Services)

4NOW

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