My first semester

/ in / 0 Comments / by:

My first semester as Clemson’s new president was busy, challenging and so much fun! Like all freshmen, I met thousands of new people and quickly learned my way around campus. My family and I even lived in the Clemson House for the semester. We enjoyed several snow days this winter and loved playing basketball outside on sunny days with our student neighbors.


James P. Clements

James P. Clements

Clemson deserves its reputation as a top-21 national public university. We have phenomenal students, teachers and researchers, and alumni who understand and support our goals.
 


From the Orange Bowl and a student-led campus tour in January, to Founders Week and Ring Week in April, to my investiture at commencent in May, it has been a whirlwind of activity.
On my campus “listening tour,” I met separately with students, faculty, staff and administrators. I’ve met twice with the Board of Trustees and with key volunteer groups like the Alumni Council, Board of Visitors, Will to Lead campaign executive committee and CU Foundation Board.
My introduction to South Carolina took me to Spartanburg, Columbia, Greenwood, Greenville, Charleston, Lake City and Florence. It’s a beautiful state filled with great people.
I’ve spoken with and to industry leaders in textiles and agri-business, including the Chambers of Commerce in Greenville, Clemson and Gaffney; testified at budget hearings in Columbia; announced a $5.6 million gift from Self Regional Healthcare in Greenwood; and met alumni at the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., Clemson Club.
I am also reaching out to students and alumni in some new ways. If you tweet, I hope you will follow me on Twitter @ClemsonPrez.
What did I learn in my first semester at Clemson?
First, Clemson deserves its reputation as a top-21 national public university. We have phenomenal students, teachers and researchers, and alumni who understand and support our goals.
Second, people in this state are proud of Clemson. They want to send their children here; they want to partner with us; they want to advocate for us.
They know that Clemson is the total package — number one in the state for academic quality, value, return on investment and a great student experience. We’ve made substantial progress in undergraduate education, and that will continue.
Finally, Clemson is poised for even greater things as a national leader in graduate education, research and innovation. Here are just three indicators:

  • A team of Clemson students from architecture and engineering was chosen to compete in the national Solar Decathlon 2015.
  • We hosted the first-ever international conference on “Local DC Electricity: Transforming the 21st Century Energy Economy” this spring in Charleston.
  • We are the lead institution — in a consortium that includes Wisconsin and Harvard — in a new $5.3 million National Science Foundation effort to broaden the impact of advanced computing resources to campuses across the country.

We are building on our national academic reputation as an institution that educates and innovates to solve problems and drives economic growth.
Everywhere I go, I find people ready and willing to help Clemson reach its full potential. They know that higher education is the key to a better future. Our University’s success will mean greater success for individuals and for society.
Thank you for my warm welcome into the Clemson Family!
Jim Clements


 
 

The Family Man: An interview with Clemson's 15th president

/ in / 0 Comments / by:

Jim Clements began his tenure as Clemson president at the Orange Bowl in Miami. It was clear then, as he shook hands, liberally gave out hugs and chatted with alumni, students and fans, what his personal style would be — casual, friendly and people-centered. He might be wearing a tie, but you’ll rarely see him with his suit coat. He may be running a few minutes late, but that’s usually because he’s trying to respond to one more question or comment, or hear a concern. He looks people in the eye, he asks their names. He listens. And he quotes his mother. You have to trust a man who quotes his mother.
Not to say that he isn’t intense or focused. But he’s listening as he begins his time here. Ten p.m. to midnight, you’ll usually find him on his computer, trying to keep up with the hundreds of emails that occupy the box of president@clemson.edu. “I’m running a few hundred behind right now, but I will get to them all,” he says.
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with President Clements and ask a few questions.


Coming home to Clemson

What you need to know first about Beth Clements

Read more


[/av_one_full]

CW: SO NOW THAT YOU’VE BEEN HERE A FEW MONTHS, WHAT ARE YOUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF CLEMSON? WERE THERE ANY SURPRISES?
JC: It’s a great place made up of incredible people and a beautiful campus, with a top-notch, high-quality education. Those weren’t surprises; that’s what we expected. That’s the reputation Clemson has.
And the family piece is special. For me, family is everything. We fit the Clemson Family, and we’re thrilled about the environment that is very family-oriented. We’re getting settled in, and we are thrilled to be here.
CW: YOU HAVE A BACKGROUND IN COMPUTER SCIENCE AND OPERATIONS ANALYSIS. HOW HAS THAT PREPARED YOU FOR BEING A COLLEGE PRESIDENT?
JC: Computer science classes, operations analysis classes and engineering classes teach you how to think. And in this role you have to spend a lot of time analyzing situations, thinking about how you’re going to proceed, making decisions. It’s helped me. This is a technology-driven world, so for me to be on Twitter and to have students following me, all that stuff helps.
CW: ARE THERE ADVANTAGES OR DISADVANTAGES OF COMING FROM A HIGH-TECH BACKGROUND?
JC: I think there are wonderful leaders with all types of different backgrounds. When I was a kid, I could play football all day and be as happy as can be. Or I could sit around and do math problems all day and be equally happy. The technology has helped me in my role, and the project management has helped me to get projects done on time and on budget and to think about things strategically.
CW: WHAT’S YOUR PHILOSOPHY OF LEADERSHIP?
JC: As a leader I try to surround myself with the best people I can — people who I can look into their eyes, know that they are good people, know that they can collaborate, know that they’re here to make a difference. It’s not about us, it’s about what we can do for others, so I try to surround myself with great people and get them to think big. In life we have a chance to make a difference. I want people who want to make a difference. One of the things that good leaders do is to surround themselves with people who are better, faster, smarter, stronger. You want to build an all-star team. We have the opportunity here to hire a couple of new people, and we will try to get the best people we can. We already have great people here, but any opportunity when we hire, we will hire great people.
CW: HOW DO YOU BALANCE THE DEMANDS ON YOU AS PRESIDENT, PROFESSOR, FATHER, HUSBAND, COMMUNITY MEMBER?
JC: Honestly, it’s not easy. In these kinds of roles, if you’re really in it to make a difference, and you really give it your all, you give a lot of yourself. I really don’t get a chance to go to the movies, and I don’t have time to watch TV. It’s always the University and family. That’s how I try to do it. I’m blessed to have a great wife, and I have great kids. They understand my role. I’ve been in these kinds of roles for a long time, and they understand the time that it takes. I try to balance the best I can, but honestly, it’s not easy because there are a lot of evening and weekend events. I try to get to all of the kids’ things when I can, and they’re great kids, and it’s all worked out. Beth plays a critical role in that, and she deserves a lot of credit.
CW: AND ONE OF YOUR DAUGHTERS IS NOW A CLEMSON TIGER, CORRECT?
JC: Yes. We have four kids. Tyler is 21, and he’s at West Virginia. We have identical twin girls, Hannah and Maggie. Hannah and Maggie were in the honors program at WVU; Hannah transferred here and is studying special education. Maggie stayed back in West Virginia because she has a horse, a dog and a boyfriend, and really likes it there. She is studying elementary education. Then our youngest daughter, Grace, is here. Grace is 13 and has special needs. She, we hope one day, will be in the ClemsonLIFE program. Grace is a very social person and loves to play sports, especially basketball.
CW: WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE CLEMSON IN FIVE YEARS? IN 10 YEARS?
JC: One of the things my mother taught me when I was a kid that I really appreciate — and she taught me a lot of important things — was to be a good listener. She said, “God gave you two ears and one mouth, so listen.” So I’m really trying to listen to what others think. I don’t have all the answers yet, but I’m spending time listening to faculty, staff and students, people on the campus and in the community. So it’s more what we view Clemson as being in five to 10 years than it is what I view Clemson as being in five to 10 years. I will say this: We’re on a great path. It’s a great University with a great national reputation, high-quality academics, low student-faculty ratios, and those are things we need to continue to push. We need to enhance our research profile. We need to hire some more good people and keep things moving, but I hope to learn a lot over the next days and weeks about where we go together. We have a great 2020 strategic plan, but it’s probably time to revisit that and make sure it still lines up with where we want to go. But again, it won’t be Jim’s strategic plan; it will be our strategic plan.
CW: THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT THE GROWTH IN ONLINE EDUCATION MEANS THAT IT WILL REPLACE PLACE-BASED EDUCATION IN THE FUTURE. WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE FUTURE OF THE CAMPUS?
JC: It’s a great question, and nationally it’s a question that we’re all discussing in higher education.The ability for technology to enhance the educational process is clearly there; the technology is now probably where it needs to be. It’s being integrated into a lot of the curriculum, and it will be interesting to see where it goes. What we have to do is be a part of the discussion and not sit on the sidelines. We’re doing some really good things related to online education. But I don’t think the place-based educational format is going to go away. It’s just how you infuse technology and supplement what we’re already doing. So it’s not really an either/or: We’ll have place-based education, we’ll have technology-based education, and we’ll have integration of the two. And that’s what’s going to be exciting. The ability to reach more people with technology is important. So for access, affordability and outreach, technology becomes an important tool. Higher education has changed for decades and decades, and this is just the current stage that we’re in. But it will transform education in some ways.
CW: WHAT WOULD YOU IDENTIFY AS CLEMSON’S BIGGEST STRENGTH AS WELL AS OUR BIGGEST WEAKNESS AT THIS POINT?
JC: Great organizations are built on great people. This is a great University because we have great people; that’s the bottom line. Our greatest strength is based on the human capital that we have here. And what I have seen in my three months, we have really good people. They care, they want to make a difference, they are doing their best. They are overworked based on our level of resources, but they are making a difference.
What are our weaknesses? The one thing that jumps out at me is our facilities. We’ve got to improve our facilities. [pullquote align=’left’ font=’oswald’ color=’#3A4958′]A third of our student housing is 25 years old, 25 percent of our student housing is 50 years old. We need some new facilities.[/pullquote] We need new academic facilities. We need some new research facilities. We need some new athletic facilities. So there’s where we have an opportunity to improve.
CW: DO YOU SEE THE TOP-20 AS A CONTINUING GOAL FOR US? AND WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO TO ACHIEVE THAT?
JC: The top 20 is still a goal. It’s been a great goal. And I’ve tracked Clemson’s progress over a decade and a half over other institutions. We’ve made incredible steps forward to the top 20. We are currently sitting at number 21, tied with some great institutions. The top 20 are great universities. So yes, we are going to keep pushing, but that doesn’t mean at the expense of other things. We still need to push research. We still need to push facilities. We still need to do other things, but that will still be a goal. Getting there is not going to be easy, right? Moving from 38 where we were before, to 21 — not easy. It’s trying to figure the steps to move forward. And again, that’s a collaborative discussion that will be taking place on the campus.
CW: WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE CLEMSON ALUMNI TO KNOW ABOUT YOU?
JC: I always want people to know me first as a person. So I always talk about my family. I always talk about my background. I always like to mention that I was a first-generation college student. I think it is important for people to know that my grandparents had a fourth-grade, a sixth-grade, an eighth-grade, and we think one had a twelfth-grade education, but we don’t have any real proof of that. One of my grandfathers was a coal miner and the other one was a firefighter.
What they tried to instill in me was hard work. Follow through on your word, be ethical, give it your all. But they also tried to instill in me, my two older sisters and older brother that education is the key. If you want a better life, here is your path. My parents didn’t go to college. They didn’t have that opportunity. My grandparents didn’t have that opportunity. So for me, I got in the business of higher ed to make a difference, ultimately, as a professor. When I was in second grade, my teacher used to call me “professor,” and, by the way, I always say that’s the best job in the world. It’s better than being a university president. [pullquote align=’right’ font=’oswald’ color=’#3A4958′]Being a professor is what I love. I love to teach. I love to do research. I love to work with students. But, I just wanted to make a difference.[/pullquote] Somehow I got into a leadership role. But one day I’ll go back to the classroom and teach and do research.
Between my two older sisters, older brother and me, we have 11 college degrees: four undergraduate degrees, five master’s, two Ph.Ds. My brother and I finished our Ph.Ds side by side on stage, which was one of the happiest days of my parents’ lives.
This has given me the opportunity for a better life. Let me help others have that same opportunity. Education is good for the individual but also for society. We want an educated society. That’s why I got into higher ed — I just wanted to make a difference.
I want people to know me as me, and then I want them to know about my family, my wife, who will be a great asset to the University and the community, and our four great kids. Those are things, I think from the personal side, that are important for people to know.

President Clement’s First 100 Days



Donnie A. Dinch ’08

/ in / 0 Comments / by:

Passion for music inspires technology

donnie-dinchDonnie Dinch is forecast to take the billion-dollar music industry mobile. He’s listed in Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” and as one of the magazine’s “Hottest Startups of 2013.” And who’s to argue with Forbes?
Dinch is the packaging science-graduate-package designer-turned-CEO of WillCall. After graduating in 2008 with a degree in packaging science, Dinch moved to Seattle where it wasn’t long before he and two friends picked up on discussions around plans for developing an app during a startup weekend.
Dinch saw that streaming services were — and still are — altering the face of consumerism in the music business. A larger number of artists are being brought to people’s attention, but they’re playing toward smaller venues at the club level. The mobile app facilitates an environment where people can find out about live performances and can go see more of the music they love, but that they just might not have the right information to find. WillCall’s features include curated events, a “Tip” button that sends tips directly to the artist, in-app merchandise, friend activity feed and custom packages, and Bartab, a means to charge drinks to their WillCall account. With more than $2.1 million in seed funding from billionaire Sean Parker, music mogul Coran Capshaw and Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia, Dinch’s app is currently curating shows in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The goal is to facilitate people seeing a show as often and as easily as going to a coffee shop. Dinch’s passion for music led him to create the business. A resident of San Francisco, he works with the city on a panel series called Nightlife & New Tech. Their mission is to harness the brainpower of those in the city’s tech and music industries to improve the future of nightlife in San Francisco. He also works with a nonprofit dedicated to using the power of technology for civic action.

Lifelong Tigers

/ in , / 0 Comments / by:
  • President Clements gathered with alumni and fans at the One Clemson tailgate prior to the game.
  • Rion Holcombe (center), who recently was accepted into the ClemsonLIFE programs, and his family with President Clements and Coach Swinney.
  • Coach Swinney, Sammy Watkins and Taj Boyd on the podium after the Orange Bowl win.
  • Student bloggers De Anne Anthony and Savannah Mozingo with President Clements.
1234

Tigers turn South Florida Clemson Orange

Tigers from all over the country converged on South Florida for the Orange Bowl. And the South Florida Clemson Club was in the midst of all the activity — organizing, helping, hosting and welcoming alumni and friends.
Showing that it’s possible to work together in the midst of a heated competition, Clemson and Ohio State alums teamed up to fight hunger, packing boxes of food for “Feeding South Florida.”
More than 100 alumni and friends were in South Beach Thursday night at the Clevelander, where the landscape was purple and orange, and a Tiger Paw was projected on the side of the building and in the hotel’s swimming pool. At Bokamper’s in Fort Lauderdale, more than 75 joined up to celebrate the Tigers and meet up with old and new friends.
The morning of the Orange Bowl began with an alumni brunch at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach with more than 300 in attendance. James Clements addressed the Clemson Family for the first time as University president. He thanked the Barkers for their many contributions to Clemson and shared the significance behind Clemson’s rise in the national rankings.
More than 2,000 Clemson Family members gathered at the One Clemson tailgate inside the Sun Life Stadium prior to the game. The Clemson band, cheerleaders and the Tiger made appearances, and President Clements welcomed guests as they prepared to cheer the Tigers on to a 40-35 victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Two student bloggers, Savannah Mozingo and De Anne Anthony, traveled to South Florida to capture and share the excitement of Orange Bowl week on their blog, TigressTales. Access their blog and hear President Clements’ remarks at clemson.edu/clemsonworld/orangebowl.


Clemson in the Lowcountry at the University's Wind Turbine Drivetrain Testing Facility in North Charleston.

Clemson in the Lowcountry at the University’s Wind Turbine Drivetrain Testing Facility in North Charleston.

Clemson in the Lowcountry

More than 300 people gathered for dinner and a meeting where Nick Rigas, director of the SCE&G Energy Innovation Center and executive director of the Clemson Restoration Institute, spoke at the University’s Wind Turbine Drivetrain Testing Facility in North Charleston. The meeting attendance on Jan. 23 doubled the Clemson in the Lowcountry Club’s normal attendance rate. Eddie Gordon is president of the club.

Greenville Club presents Blue Chips and Bluegrass

More than 350 turned out for the Greenville Club’s Blue Chips and Bluegrass event, a recruiting recap and oyster roast held Feb. 7 at the Crescent in downtown Greenville. Club president Rick Ammons and club member and event organizer Chris McCameron presented IPTAY with a $2,500 check for the Glenn Brackin Memorial Scholarship. The event featured Mickey Plyler from 104.9 Talk Sports, who spoke about recruiting, and The Drovers Old Time Medicine Show entertained the crowd with bluegrass music.

Aiken County Club wraps it up

The Aiken County Club held their Recruiting Wrap-Up event Feb. 6 at the Aiken Municipal Building, where more than 50 people heard Larry Williams from Tigerillustrated.com speak about recruiting. Tripp Bryan serves as Aiken County club president, and Bryan Young is vice president.

Become a Clemson Volunteer!

Alumni Vol Book cover Want to get more involved at Clemson? Looking for a place to share your experience and love for Clemson? Go to clemson.edu/alumni and click on “Volunteer Opportunity Guide” to learn how you can get involved

Seketa named honorary alumnus

John Seketa named honorary alumnus

John Seketa named honorary alumnus


The Alumni Association has named retired assistant athletic director John Seketa as an honorary alumnus in recognition of his hard work and devotion to Clemson and the Alumni Association. Over the past 28 years, Seketa served as game manager during home football games, coordinating all game-day activities for Clemson athletics, Tiger Band, the University administration and several student groups.
He also was executive director of the Tiger Letterwinners Association, where he expanded football reunion activities and Athletic Hall of Fame ceremonies, significantly increasing attendance. In 2004, Seketa received the ACC Basketball Officials Association Fred Bakarat Award for outstanding service and dedication to the ACC and its basketball officials.
“John has played a significant role in enhancing all our Olympic sports by generating marketing plans and concepts that promote opportunities for our fans,” said Bill D’Andrea, executive senior associate director for IPTAY external affairs. “His contributions in this area have made a profound impact on our coaches’ ability to recruit.”
Seketa also played a crucial role in making Military Appreciation Day a celebrated campus tradition. Two years ago, ACC administrators invited Seketa to share his expertise in Clemson’s military recognition, resulting in similar observances of Military Appreciation Day at every ACC institution.
“There is no question that John Seketa’s leadership has established Clemson as the best in the nation with regard to our Military Appreciation Day,” said D’Andrea.
Seketa continues to serve the University as a member of Tiger Brotherhood and the Clemson Corps Scroll of Honor Committee.

#TigerRollCall

The Alumni Association wants to ensure we have accurate contact information for all alumni so that we can keep everyone informed about all things Clemson, all the time. And to do that, we need your help.
Simply go to clemson.edu/alumni and click the “Update Your Information” button. Then post on your social media outlets that you updated your contact information with Clemson, and use the hashtag #TigerRollCall in your post.
A monthly drawing will take place during May, June and July for everyone who submits an update. Additionally, each person who shares on social media using the hashtag #TigerRollCall will receive an additional entry (maximum two entries per person). At the end of the campaign, a final drawing will take place with a grand prize of two Alumni box seats to the Clemson vs. North Carolina football game on Sept. 27.

Pam Buffington Redmon ’85

/ in / 0 Comments / by:

“It’s Personal”

pam-buffington-redmonWhen it comes to Pam Buffington Redmon’s passion to control tobacco, it’s personal.
Two weeks before her 1985 graduation from Clemson’s School of Nursing, Redmon received a call that no daughter wants to receive. Her father, a longtime smoker, was being rushed to the hospital and would need open heart surgery. He survived, but struggled with heart issues throughout his life.
After graduating from Clemson, Redmon began work as a critical and coronary care nurse in Greenwood then continued her career as a cardiac rehab specialist and clinical research nurse in Ohio. In many of her cases, she saw her father’s health story — smoking that led to health struggles — replicated in the lives of her patients.
So when she decided to enter the next phase of her career, she earned a master’s degree in public health from Emory University and embarked on a mission to impact health by working to control the use of tobacco.
Redmon first served as a staff member, then later executive director,
of Emory’s Tobacco Technical Assistance Consortium, which provided tobacco-control training and technical support to national, state and local organizations and foundations.
She then became executive director of the Global Health Institute– China Tobacco Control Program, a Gates Foundation initiative at Emory that is developing tobacco control and prevention initiatives, including smoke-free policies and mobile health interventions, in 17 Chinese cities with populations equivalent to U.S. states.
She also serves as administrative director for the Tobacco Centers for Regulatory Science at the Georgia State University School of Public Health. The center focuses on understanding the human and economic factors that contribute to decision-making regarding the use of tobacco products.
“Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death in the U.S. and around the world, and decreasing tobacco use reduces the health, social, environmental and economic burdens it creates for individuals and communities,” she said.
Redmon and her husband, Kevin, a 1985 Clemson computer engineering graduate, are also playing an important role in the life of their alma mater by joining together to fund the Kevin and Pam Redmon Class of 1985 Annual Scholarships. Both first-generation college students themselves, the scholarship will be given to first-generation students in the School of Nursing or College of Engineering and Science.

Hope grows here

/ in / 0 Comments / by:

You might not ever know it was there if you weren’t looking for it. A garden of five laser-straight rows nestled behind the pool at Clemson University’s Outdoor Lab, home to camps Hope and Sertoma.
The garden is called “Hope Grown,” and it’s the brainchild of Joseph Williams, a soils and sustainable crop systems major.
It’s an expression of Williams’ belief in the transformative nature of working with soil, a laboratory for the sustainable crop production techniques that he believes can change the world and the lives of the campers who visit each summer

A year-round effort

Camp Sertoma serves children ages 7-13 who are underprivileged or have speech or hearing impairments, while Camp Hope is for children and adults ages 7 and up with developmental disabilities.
“The garden is less about me having an impact and more about giving the campers a place where they can have an impact,” Williams said.
Williams began as a counselor at Camp Hope in 2005 while attending high school in Asheville. He’s worked at the camp every summer since, except for 2009 when he studied abroad in Costa Rica. When he became a Clemson student in 2010, he approached Outdoor Lab directors Norman McGee and Leslie Conrad about creating the garden.
“We are always looking for creative activities that our campers can enjoy and learn from,” Conrad said. “We want them to experience a caring adult who is all about them at that moment. We also want them to feel the pride of doing things for themselves. We had talked about starting a garden, but we didn’t have anyone with the skill or passion to take it on until Joe approached us.”
The Outdoor Lab gave Williams a $200 budget, and he turned to environmental horticulture professor David Bradshaw, now emeritus, for guidance.
“Dr. Bradshaw helped me conceptualize the garden. Talking with him sparked my imagination and set me on my way. He also provided heirloom seed, some of which is 10 generations old,” Williams said.
Although Hope and Sertoma campers are at the Outdoor Lab only in the summer, the garden is a year-round effort for Williams. He relies on help from the Clemson Agronomy Club, and he credits Pi Kappa Phi’s PUSH America national philanthropy outreach for providing much of the backbreaking labor involved with terracing the garden and building its structures.
“I want to have everything well established and growing by opening day so the campers aren’t disappointed when they arrive in summer. I apply techniques and ideas that I learn in my major to managing the garden,” Williams said.
One such technique is a soil preparation system called “double digging,” in which the top layer of soil is dug off with a spade, forming a shallow trench, and then the under-layer is dug with a fork. When breaking up the lower layer, organic matter such as compost is usually added to the soil. A second trench is then started, backfilling the first trench. This process is repeated until the whole bed has been treated.
“It’s a lot of work, but it strengthens the plant roots and allows for more densely planted rows,” Williams said.
in many ways, joe is the embodiment of clemson's land-grant heritage. he is taking what he learns at clemson and using it to better the lives of others.

123456789

Growing vegetables and confidence

“Many of our agronomy students are passionate about sharing their love of soil and plants,” said Paula Agudelo, associate professor of plant nematology in Clemson’s School of Agricultural, Forest and Environmental Sciences (SAFES). “They learn to treat the soil as a living system and a life-giving substrate. But Joe has gone even further. He uses the soil-plant interaction as a therapeutic tool and a vehicle for experiential learning. He has mastered the art of helping people enjoy the beauty of growing plants.”
Once the campers arrive, Williams engages them in a variety of ways depending on their individual skills and abilities. He teaches some groups about the system of the garden. He forms weeding or harvesting teams. Some campers carry the harvest to the nearby kitchen where it is used to augment the daily meals. There is a viewing area with a bench and handrails where older campers can watch gardening activities and feel a part of things. He has had them make pickles and turn bottles into planters. Some of the activities are ancillary to gardening, such as decorating the nearby benches.
“In many ways, Joe is the embodiment of Clemson’s land-grant heritage. He is taking what he learns at Clemson and using it to better the lives of others.”
“Sometimes we’ll just stand quietly,” Williams said. “We’ll just experience how the garden co-exists with the environment. And I’ll ask them, ‘What do you see? What do you hear?’ With some of the older boys, I hope that working in the garden teaches them to be strong men of trust, respect and integrity.”
“One of the great things about the garden is that it doesn’t require a special skill set to participate,” Conrad said. “It’s completely unintimidating. Campers can make it whatever it is for them.”
The garden is also a teaching tool for people who sometimes do not share the same experiences as the rest of the world. The garden helps them conceptualize how food is created. Campers with sensory challenges can learn from touching the plants and tasting the produce.
Williams believes deeply in gardening’s transformative powers. He has witnessed camper confidence grow along with the corn, squash, snow peas, watermelons and variety of other fruits and vegetables. Some campers have started gardens of their own.
“Children are analogous to clay. Clay is something that the conventional farmer might think has little value because it’s hard to work with. But clay is waiting to have good things added to it. The campers here are like that clay. They have so much potential,” Williams said.
[pullquote align=’right’]It’s an expression of Williams’  belief in the transformative nature  of working with soil, a laboratory for  the sustainable crop production  techniques that he believes can change the world and the lives of the campers who visit each summer.[/pullquote]

Keeping hope growing

Williams will be graduating this year. It will be time for him to put into action the sustainable farming practices he has learned in his major. He will go out into the world and do his level best to help farmers farm better and more efficiently.
“In many ways, Joe is the embodiment of Clemson’s land-grant heritage. He is taking what he learns at Clemson and using it to better the lives of others,” Agudelo said.
For now he remains “Farmer Joe.” He takes the agronomy club to the garden where they practice all that they learn about agricultural biotechnology, soil and water science and sustainable crop systems. But he has a hidden agenda. He wants to keep Hope Grown going.
“I’ve been coming here for a long time. Many of these people are my friends. When they leave the garden, I hope that a flame has been lit in them.”
Conrad is committed to keeping the garden vibrant even after Williams leaves to begin a career in agronomy.
“Joe could have built this garden anywhere,” she said. “He could have built it in his backyard or at Calhoun Fields. But he built it here because he loves this place and these people. There will never be another Joe. But maybe I can find somebody to care about the garden the way he has.”
For more information about Camps Hope and Sertoma, go to http://www.clemson.edu/centers-institutes/outdoor-lab/camps/index.html.

Helen Legare Floyd ’81

/ in / 0 Comments / by:

Keeping the family farm

helen-legare-floydHelen Legare-Floyd has a farm. Not just any farm, but a 288-year-old family farm on John’s Island. She, along with her brother and sister, are ninth-generation descendants of 18th-century planter Solomon Legare, and together they work to make it profitable.
To be able to hold on to a family farm in modern times is a challenge, but the Legares have been able to use creativity and practicality to keep their legacy in place. They have combined agriculture with agritourism. Raising livestock and growing produce are still a large part of their work, but by using the 300-acre tract and its resources for events from gourmet harvest dinners to summer day camps for grade school children to Civil War reenactments to Easter chick rentals, they are involving the community and making a living.
Legare-Floyd has found ways to make their farming business expand into all parts of the Charleston area. She organized a Community Supported Agriculture program where families pay a fee for a weekly box of produce. This business has grown to 140 deliveries. The farm also runs a butcher’s club. She drives her pick-up to deliver to a food co-op on Sullivan’s Island and to a gourmet sandwich shop in Charleston. Using leftover grain from five local breweries to feed livestock and old milk from a dairy plant to feed pigs, Legare-Floyd has demonstrated resourcefulness.
Legare-Floyd says that graduating from Clemson is one of the biggest accomplishments of her life. She wanted to say she graduated from Clemson, so she left the farm to study agronomy and horticulture.
“I get to do something I enjoy, something I love, every day,” she says. Solomon Legare would be proud.

My Clemson: Diana Ivankovic

/ in / 1 Comment / by:

Diana Ivankovic PhD ’95


DIANA-IVANKOVIC


My husband and I were high school sweethearts when we came to the U.S. from Croatia in 1986 to pursue college degrees. In 1989, with a B.S. in biology and postgraduate training at Greenwood Genetic Center, I joined Miren at Clemson to pursue a graduate degree in microbiology. With a 3-year-old (Sven) and another on the way (Andre), we both walked across the stage of Littlejohn in 1995 to receive our Ph.Ds.
Since then, I have worked as a laboratory coordinator and visiting lecturer at Clemson, become a full professor at Anderson University, had two more children, established the Center for Cancer Research and survived breast cancer. I still teach in Clemson’s summer science program and collaborate with Clemson researchers.
Because of my experience with breast cancer, as well as my mother’s, I have a passion for finding a cure. That’s why I counsel newly diagnosed patients. It’s why I served for many years on the board of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. It’s why I travel abroad with students, even working with shamans in the Peruvian Amazon, searching for new anti-carcinogenic plant extracts. It’s why I work with students at the Center for Cancer Research, trying to inspire my students and fellow researchers to collaborate, share, work together and aim for the stars.
Ivankovic is a professor of biology and the James Henderson director of the Center for Cancer Research at Anderson University, which recently was the recipient of a grant from Coach Dabo Swinney’s All In Team Foundation in support of its breast cancer research.

Don't Judge a Facebook by its Cover

/ in / 0 Comments / by:

judge-facebook

Using Facebook has been viewed as an easy way to screen applicants, but does it really have any value? Worse yet, does it adversely impact minority applicants?
A few years ago, after an interview with a potential employer, a student approached us with this question: “I walked into my interview at XYZ corporation, and my Facebook page was up on a big-screen TV. What’s up with that?”

We suspected many companies were beginning to use that approach to screen applicants, but the question spurred us to take a serious look at the role of using Facebook (and other social media) in the hiring process. Can surveying someone’s online persona and leisure-time activities really predict what kind of employee that person might be?
The results of our research were troubling. Not only did we find no correlation between predictions by recruiters using social media and actual job performance, but we also found the practice could result in hiring fewer minority applicants.

A misplaced faith in technology

We began our research by combing all the popular and scientific literature on this topic. We found articles in the popular media advising people to check social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter for reasons such as, “Nothing says more about who we are than our Facebook pages,” “Social media website screening tells you about an applicant’s judgment,” and “Checking social media sites is free and easy to do.” The conventional wisdom appears to be that organizations should check social media sites as a way of evaluating applicants.
Many organizations appear to be heeding the popular advice. Depending upon the survey, somewhere between 30 percent and 70 percent of organizations and recruiters report using social media to screen job applicants, and many report not hiring applicants as a result. It appears to be an easy way to determine an applicant’s “character,” and the amount of available information is just too alluring. Part of that allure may be a misplaced faith in the power of technology to provide better insights than previous less technical methods.
An examination of the literature in employee staffing and related fields turned up more questions than answers and raised concerns of adverse impact against minorities (even if unintentional). Our review of the literature left us wondering: How can an organization compare candidates when the available information is not parallel? Perhaps one applicant’s social media sites have information that allows an organization only to assess dependability, while another applicant’s information would allow the organization to assess social skills. Likewise, what if some applicants maintain social media websites and others do not?
How can this situation be handled in a way that is fair to both candidates, especially when some groups of applicants (e.g., older individuals) are less likely to maintain social media websites? Finally, how might organizations use (or try to ignore) job-irrelevant information available on websites such as one’s religion, political affiliation, gender or sexual orientation?

Testing the approach

These types of questions motivated us to conduct one of the first systematic empirical studies on the role of social media in hiring. We asked more than 400 graduating, job-seeking students to allow us to use screenshots of their Facebook Walls, info pages, photos and interests in the study.
We then asked recruiters who attended a career fair to rate the quality (e.g., knowledge, skills and abilities) of these students, using the Facebook information. A year later, we followed up with the employers to determine how the graduates were performing in their jobs.

The troubling results

[pullquote align=’right’ font=’oswald’]The results may surprise you: Facebook ratings were not good predictors of job performance. We couldn’t find any link between current job performance and the predictions of recruiters based on Facebook pages. That is, Facebook ratings were correlated essentially zero with job performance.[/pullquote]
Results also suggested that African-American and Hispanic applicants tended to be scored lower than white applicants, and males were scored lower than females. So, not only does it appear that Facebook assessments do not predict job performance, they might also negatively affect the diversity of individuals hired by organizations. In some cases, recruiters gave low ratings to applicants with odd profile pictures, sexual references, religious quotes and “non-white” names.

The takeaway

What can organizations learn from this study? One thing is clear: Organizations should be very cautious about using information drawn from social media as part of the hiring process. At best, it is unlikely to identify the best performers; at worst, it can result in adversely affecting ethnic minorities in hiring practices.
Until we know how to conduct more effective social media checks, organizations might rely on more traditional “tests” to hire individuals. For example, organizations might use interviews that focus on the behavior of job applicants in work settings or tests of important job skills (e.g., customer service skills, writing skills). If organizations want to use social media information, they should first determine whether recruiter or manager assessments of such information are related to valued outcomes such as job performance. For example, it might be possible to test out social media checks with current employees to see if their online information is related to their job performance.
Of course, more questions remain to be answered in the area of social media. How do applicants react to these checks, especially if they have to “friend” someone in the company to which they are applying? How does demographic information that was previously difficult to obtain (e.g., religion, political affiliation) affect hiring decisions? We are planning several future studies to explore those questions.
The results of our research are published in the Journal of Management.
Phil Roth is a professor in the Department of Management and has been studying employee selection for more than 20 years. Jason Thatcher is director of the Social Analytics Institute and professor of management information systems. Chad Van Iddekinge is an associate professor of management at Florida State University. He completed his Ph.D. at Clemson in industrial and organizational psychology and continues to work with Clemson faculty.
To access articles about this research in Forbes and TIME:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/01/03/facebook-isnt-a-good-way-to-judge-potential-employees-say-researchers/
http://business.time.com/2013/11/14/will-your-facebook-profile-sabotage-your-job-search/

An agricultural revolutionary

/ in / 0 Comments / by:

Interred in a shady plot along the periphery of Woodland Cemetery — a short punt from Death Valley and a pebble’s throw from Clemson family names like Sikes, Poole and R.C. Edwards — lie the earthly remains of one of the most influential Americans whose name you may have never heard.

frank lever


Frank Lever


Asbury Francis Lever — Frank to family, friends and constituents alike — was born on a family farm near Spring Hill in Lexington County on a winter day in 1875. Within 40 years the South Carolina farm boy would transform agriculture in the United States. All it took was a stroke of a pen and a vision for the future.
As a South Carolina congressman, Frank Lever — a Clemson life trustee — would team with Sen. Hoke Smith of Georgia to author a bill that would carry both their names. The Smith-Lever Act, which became law May 8, 1914, authorized the Cooperative Extension Service, in which federal, state and county governments cooperate to extend research-based science from land-grant universities like Clemson to working people who could apply it.
The concept wasn’t new to Lever. He had seen it at work before in his native state in the tomato demonstration clubs of the Lowcountry and in the trains that took Clemson professors across the state to teach farmers and their families the best practices for growing crops, preserving food and safeguarding the land.
“As early as 1905, Clemson was publishing a weekly fertilizer bulletin and mailing it to 12,000 farmers and agricultural businesses,” Clemson President Jim Clements reminded county agents and Extension specialists at their annual meeting in December. “Special Extension trains took faculty members throughout the state.
“What happened a hundred years ago was transformational for the country,” he said. “The Clemson model became the national model.”
“The county agent is to assume leadership in every movement, whatever it may be, the aim of which is better farming, more education, better living, more happiness and greater citizenship,” he said in floor debate on the bill. “You cannot make the farmer change the methods which have been sufficient to earn a livelihood for himself and his family for many years unless you show him, under his own vine and fig tree as it were, that you have a system better than the system which he himself has been following.”
Extension was established the same year World War I broke out in Europe. It immediately went to work to help farmers increase the production of crops essential to the war effort. In the century since, the revolutionary concept of extending university-based knowledge to working people resulted in Lever’s “revolution” in crop yields. An acre that grew 24 bushels of corn in 1911 will harvest, on average, six times as much today. Extension continues to deliver research-based education in agriculture, natural resources, food safety and nutrition, economic and community development, and 4-H youth development.
Today, as in Frank Lever’s day, agriculture is the state’s largest industry. And thanks to Lever’s legacy, the next century looks just as bright.
Frank Lever photo: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Harris & Ewing, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USZ62-123456]