Take Two: Twin sisters agree on all things Clemson

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Mindy and Megan EarnestMindy and Megan Earnest are fraternal twins who could easily pass for identical. Both are engineering majors in the Calhoun Honors College and active in Tiger Band. It’s easy to see how people get them confused — just ask some of the people who have mistakenly had a conversation with one sister expecting her to be the other.
Hailing from Knoxville, Tennessee, Mindy and Megan both chose Clemson for similar reasons but avoided talking about it before making the big decision. “We announced our final choice at the same time so we didn’t influence each other, but we were also looking for the same things in a school, like a good college town and a nice campus feel. Clemson fit both of those,” said Megan.
Still, the twins went different ways when it came to declaring their major concentrations after freshman year. Mindy, more math minded, settled on electrical engineering, while Megan chose industrial engineering, which offers a more business-focused approach. After completing co-ops at different engineering companies, both sisters say they plan to pursue careers that center on research. And if possible, they’d like to wind up living close to each other. But like many soon-to-be college graduates, they both feel confident in going wherever a job may take them.

Mindy Earnest, Photo courtesy of Christopher Sloan, Imagine! Studios


In music, as in academics, the things the Earnest sisters share are also the things that distinguish them: Mindy plays the trumpet and Megan the piccolo. And while many people with siblings may find it hard to envision spending so much time with a sister or brother, the Earnests see their shared time as a helpful advantage. “There’s always someone to keep you accountable. Back when we were in the same engineering classes we always had someone there to do homework with and ask questions,” said Megan.

Megan Earnest, Photo courtesy of Christopher Sloan, Imagine! Studios


Mindy quickly echoed the sentiment. “There’s always someone there who thinks more like you. It makes it easier to explain concepts to each other,” she said, even when they’re working in different subjects.
Shared memories
Freshman year was a hallmark one for Mindy and Megan, and not just because it was the last time they took a class together. It was also the first time they took the field with Tiger Band.
In 2013, the Tigers opened their football season against Georgia, playing at home. ESPN’s “College GameDay” held its broadcast from Bowman Field early that morning, and by 8 p.m., the sun was setting in Death Valley. Hordes of Clemson fans packed into the stadium, and at the center of the field amid a sea of orange were Mindy and Megan, clad in their uniforms and ready to play “Tiger Rag.”
“It was so loud. You’re used to practicing at band camp when it’s quiet and just us, and then we got to the pregame, and I couldn’t hear anything but the crowd screaming,” said Mindy. “It was surreal. I remember thinking, ‘This is not high school band. This is going to be a fun four years.’”
That game set the tone for the rest of their playing careers. “It’s a really cool feeling,” said Megan. “Every pregame is fun. That one just doesn’t get old.”
Music has always played a large role in the Earnests’ lives. But both sisters agree the best part about Tiger Band isn’t musical, but rather social. “There are so many people in band that I don’t even see Mindy during practice,” said Megan. “It actually works out well because you get to expand your friend groups. She found hers, I found mine, and then we combined them,” Mindy said.
Lean on me
From the big decisions to the smaller ones, the sisters (who are also roomates) seem to be constantly in sync, even unintentionally choosing the same outfit from time to time. According to Mindy, “Whoever comes out first gets dibs.” Agreeing on everything from their favorite spot on campus (the amphitheater) to their favorite Clemson restaurant (Yolk Asian Kitchen), Mindy and Megan are proof that being able to manage heavy engineering course loads, maintain high GPAs in the Honors College and participate in a demanding extracurricular activity is more possible with a good support system in place.
Just be careful — if you run into one sister and mistake her for the other, she probably won’t correct you. “I’ll be walking on campus and hear Megan’s name and think to myself, ‘I should probably just answer,’” says Mindy.
Megan agrees. “Sometimes one of Mindy’s professors will think I’m her, and I’ll just listen. Then when I get home I’m like, ‘Hey Mindy, here’s what they said. You might want to talk to them.’” Now that’s love.
— Courtney Meola ’17

Travelers Spring 2017

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Cole Swartwood ‘16 and Sammie Flynn ‘17: After traveling to see Clemson shut out Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Eve we decided to travel north to Page, Arizona. Page is home to one of the most popular sites to see nature has to offer, the Horseshoe Bend. We took our Tiger Rag within a few feet of the edge to get this awesome picture.



Hawaii *Bob ’78 and *Lee Anne Sattazahn celebrated Clemson’s championship victory at the top of Mt. Haleakala in Maui on Jan. 10.

Whether you were in Tampa or elsewhere, we heard you celebrating the Clemson championship for weeks! Below are fan photos submitted to us.
Have your own photo you want to share? Email jdselle@clemson.edu and we’ll add it to the gallery.
 

Clemson architecture team develops a new way to build

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A team of Clemson architecture students assemble Indigo Pine East, the first structure built using the sim[PLY] construction method. Off-the-shelf plywood is cut by CNC routers into interlocking tab-and-slot pieces that fit together to form a solid, tight frame. With the sim[PLY] method, digital cut files can be emailed to a CNC fabricator, then shipped flat-packed to the construction site, ready to be assembled by hand by unskilled laborers.

Clemson University’s School of Architecture is developing an innovative new construction method that is gaining worldwide attention for its potential market impact in rapid, low-tech sustainable housing.
Using the sim[PLY] Framing System, “With a click of the button, someone could order a custom-cut, flat-packed home online and construct it by hand with the help of their friends and neighbors in a matter of days,” said Kate Schwennsen, professor and director of the School of Architecture.
One of the sim[PLY] Framing System’s innovative advantages is its revolutionary interlocking tab-and-slot connection system (patent pending). Assembly is intuitive and easy; so buildings come together much like a 3D puzzle, using no nails, just steel zip ties and some screws. This means buildings can be disassembled just as easily, without causing structural damage.
“sim[PLY] is faster, safer, easier and more energy-efficient than traditional construction with power tools,” Schwennsen said.
sim[PLY] offers a rapid, low-tech construction solution with a profound reduction in a building’s total carbon footprint. Here’s how:

  • sim[PLY] uses locally sourced plywood and computer numeric control (CNC) fabrication.
  • Construction plans are digital and can be emailed anywhere there is a CNC controller.
  • Components can be pre-cut using off-the-shelf materials, pre-measured and flat-packed, requiring less transport space and smaller vehicles versus other forms of prefabricated structures.
  • Cut pieces lock into place on site with no power-operated tools or heavy equipment required.

sim[PLY]’s evolving impact:

  • A national Department of Defense (DOD) building contractor has looked at sim[PLY] for Rapidly Deployable Housing applications, such as for use in temporary military housing. sim[PLY] is being considered as a potentially cost-saving opportunity to build better structures faster, safer and using less energy on the jobsite.
  • sim[PLY]­ ’s built-in ease of construction makes it an ideal framing model for various types of do-it-yourself housing. Think: tiny homes. To explore this popular housing trend, Clemson’s architectural students have designed an energy efficient sim[PLY] tiny home prototype that could be structurally framed in just one day’s time.
  • Timber is one of South Carolina’s most important cash crops, with an economic impact of $20 billion, according to the Forestry Association of South Carolina. sim[PLY]’s use of plywood would create both a positive economic and environmental impact here at home. Beyond causing a greater demand for timber, wide acceptance of the sim[PLY] process would mean a more diverse and robust use of forest resources; plywood manufacturing, unlike that of lumber, makes use of older, more mature trees.

  • Architectural communities in Italy, Austria and Germany – countries considered to be worldwide leaders in wood construction and sustainable building – have expressed interest in sim[PLY]. Overseas and in the U.S., sim[PLY]’s sustainable performance benefits are compelling.

The sim[PLY] rafter assembly for a CropStop community kitchen.
Image Credit: Clemson University School of Architecture

An example of a sim[PLY] structure in use is the CropStop community kitchen on Lois Avenue in Greenville. The building makes it possible for crop owners to better process their harvests to meet local demand for fresh farm-to-table foods. A new universal CropStop prototype was designed in the fall and could impact global agrarian economies where there is interest in this concept for sustaining local growers and evolving farm communities.
sim[PLY] was first developed by Clemson architectural faculty and students as part of their entry in the 2015 Department of Energy Solar Decathlon competition. While their end result was a solar-powered, energy-efficient home, it was just the beginning for the innovative framing system that is proving it has a marketable life of its own.

Architecture student Paul Mosher examines sim[PLY] pieces cut by a Computer Numeric Control device. Sim[PLY]’s interlocking connection technology is patent-pending.

“sim[PLY] is an ongoing, evolving project,” Schwennsen said. “New teams of students are being challenged to optimize the design and create newer, smarter versions to meet the needs of a variety of commercial, government and end-user market applications.”
The School of Architecture and its faculty continue to be leaders in integrating critical and creative research into its nationally ranked accredited graduate program.
The sim[PLY] team includes faculty inventors Dan Harding, Dustin Albright, Dave Pastre, Ulrike Heine, Vincent Blouin and Ufuk Ursoy; and contributing student inventors Anthony Wohlers, Michael Stoner, Eric Balogh, Tyler Silvers, Clair Dias, Alison Martin, Jon Pennington, Jeff Hammer, Will Hinkley, Justin Hamrick, Alexandra Latham, Neely Leslie, Daniel Taylor, David Herrero, Rebecca Mercer, Russell Buchanan, Amelia Brackmann, Paul Mosher, Allyson Beck and Alex Libengood.

Stories of Life in the President's Home

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For the 14 years he served as Clemson University’s president, James F. Barker ended most of his speeches with stories of life in the president’s home – usually involving spontaneous, sometimes poignant and sometimes hilarious, encounters with students who showed up on his doorstep. And for 14 years, his audiences have told him he should write a book.
That book, Can the President Come Out and Play? Stories of Life in the President’s Home, by Jim and Marcia Barker, is now available.
Barker, who retired as president in 2013 and returned to the faculty in Clemson’s School of Architecture, said the collection of stories is intended to capture the unique sense of family that defines Clemson University.
“In sharing these memories, Marcia and I also just wanted to say thank you to all the members of the Clemson family who made our 14 years in the President’s Home a wonderful, memorable time,” Barker said.
The book, which includes a foreword by Barker’s successor, President James P. Clements, is also intended to help raise money for a good cause. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Barker Scholars Endowment, which provides need-based grants for undergraduate students.
The book sells for $40.74 and is available through the Blurb online bookstore at http://www.blurb.com/b/7503344-can-the-president-come-out-and-play.

Championship Legacy: Sons Make Winning a Family Affair

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Perry Tuttle isn’t the only 1981 champion lucky enough to have his son follow in his footsteps. There are four other players on the current roster with ties to the 1981 team: twin sophomore linebackers J.D. and Judah Davis, sons of 1981 team captain Jeff Davis; Jarvis Magwood, a redshirt sophomore linebacker and son of wide receiver Frank Magwood; and Cannon Smith, a redshirt sophomore tight end and son
of defensive end Bill Smith.

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Singapore: Jarrett Lucero ’13

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After graduating from Clemson in 2013, I took an engineer position at a medical device company in Pendleton, SC. After one year, I entered the PhD program at Clemson for Materials Science and Engineering. I was working full time, doing research, and taking classes for almost two years.
In 2016 I felt a different calling in life. I could no longer ignore the voice in my head telling me that I wasn’t where I needed to be. So, to the confusion of my parents, I left my company in October of 2016 and began remotely consulting for online businesses.
You could call it a pivot.
Since I could work anywhere there was WiFi, I went all in and bought a two-month ticket to Vietnam. I had no friends that lived there and no one to travel with. I didn’t even make travel plans until I got to Asia, I just loaded my stuff into a backpack and climbed on a plane.
Some highlights:
Hiroshima, Japan was absolutely moving. You see buildings that survived the atomic blast in 1945. When you stand next to them, inside the rebuilt city, it is a very powerful experience.
Singapore was great, too. I say it is perfect for those who don’t want to get culture shocked too hard. It is very high tech, modern, clean, safe, with excellent transportation, and enough Indian and Asian culture to satisfy the junior traveler.
Chiang Mai, Thailand is the Asian hub for people working remotely (called Digital Nomads) and it’s clear why. It’s a really fun, smaller city at the foot of the mountains. I miss the night time food markets and weaving a moped through aggressive traffic.
In Hanoi, I found a bar with an open mic night and got to play a short concert.
In Thailand, I signed up for a 2-day retreat through a monk university. We spent 2 days in near-total silence learning about Buddhism, the life of a monk, and spent hours each day meditating using the methods they taught to us.
My advice to future travelers would be:
Pack and repack your bag several times so you know where to trim down your belongings. I had to ship half my stuff home midway through the trip. Although it was expensive, having a lighter backpack made a huge difference.
Don’t be intimidated by the local language or culture. Almost anywhere you go in the world, you will find friendly people willing to help you. If you learn about 5 basic phrases in each language you can survive a few weeks. Be polite, respectful, and get comfortable communicating with your hands.
Finally, don’t overthink it. The world is basically one big back yard with really good food everywhere. Do some basic research on where you’re going and just… go!

In the picture above, I’m on top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore. More photographs at www.instagram.com/jarrettlucero