The Best Medicine
Each summer, Clemson students trade in their summer jobs and internships to spend two weeks on the hillsides of Costa Rica and Panama, conducting house visits and creating pop-up clinics in the most impoverished areas.
Archive for year: 2018
Partnership Provides Services for Seniors with Dementia
At the Golden Corner Respite Care program in Seneca, Clemson doctoral student Caitlin Torrence sat next to a woman with Alzheimer’s who rarely spoke. Torrence began humming Christmas music, and for the first time, she heard the woman’s voice as she sang the words to the song.
Torrence and Clemson’s Institute for Engaged Aging director Cheryl Dye are hoping for this same kind of success in a new dementia care program they started in September in Central.
Dye co-authored a $48,500 grant proposal with Pickens County Meals on Wheels that was funded by the S.C. Lieutenant Governor’s Office on Aging Improvement Grant to reopen the Central Community Center, where services had not been offered since 2014. Thanks to a $20,000 Alzheimer’s Resource Coordination Center grant, the program known as the Brain Health Club has the necessary start-up funding.
“Through this partnership with Pickens County Meals on Wheels, IEA and the Town of Central, there will now be a place where seniors in the area can go for meals, exercise classes and dementia care,” Dye said.
The new program in Central will address the needs of local residents living with dementia or Alzheimer’s. In Pickens County, there are approximately two thousand people living with Alzheimer’s or dementia, according to the South Carolina Alzheimer’s Disease Registry. Dye said there is a need for more senior care as the aging population grows due to the aging baby boomer generation and the expected rise of dementia and Alzheimer’s diagnoses.
Tom Cloer, Central’s assistant town manager and long-time advocate for senior services, said he’s excited to see people using the building, which has been renovated with a new HVAC system and roof, as well as additional upgrades.
“We’re glad we’re able to be a part of this partnership and fill this gap in services,” Cloer said. “This is something the Town of Central couldn’t do on its own. This partnership is able to fill the need for senior services.”
This program consists of research-based activities to promote brain health and combat the symptoms of dementia, which can make seniors feel isolated, Torrence said. These activities include music therapy, arts and crafts, best-practice therapeutic cognitive exercises from the Alzheimer’s Association along with language recall and exercise.
“We want to give them a space where they can feel safe and still experience life and joy and do things that are meaningful, and cognitively stimulating,” Torrence said. “Just because you have a disease, doesn’t mean your life is over.”
The program also serves as a Creative Inquiry class for Clemson students. Since fall 2014, students have worked with IEA faculty and doctoral students to deliver dementia care program at the Greenville Health System Center for Success in Aging, two churches in Seneca and a local retirement community. Now the dementia program has a permanent home at the Central Community Center.
“This is one way IEA is addressing older adult needs while also advancing faculty and doctoral student research as well as the undergraduate educational experience,” Dye said.
Students lead residents in a rendition of “You Are My Sunshine.”"You Are My Sunshine"
The students research various ways to provide compassionate care and develop the activities for the program. At the center in Central, Torrence is training and supervising the students during the program two afternoons a week.
Dye knows this training to work with dementia and Alzheimer’s patients is important for students who wish to be health care professionals as the aging population grows and health care systems need dementia-capable health care providers.
This training is something that senior health sciences major Hailey Malphrus values in the class, and is something she did not expect to love.
“Getting to know the participants and help them was rewarding and honoring,” Malphrus said. “I love the prevention and intervention phases of medicine. It’s been my favorite thing I’ve done at Clemson. The research skills I’ve gained are giving me the chance to benefit someone now, not only after I graduate.”
Working at Golden Corner Respite Care, a program also started by Dye’s class, was Malphrus’ first experience applying what she learned in the classroom. One of her favorite parts of the class last year was playing the songs on the piano and hearing the participants sing along. This semester, Malphrus is looking forward to working with the participants in the new program and watching their progress.
“It’s easy to focus on what dementia and Alzheimer’s patients have lost, not what they still have,” Malphrus said. “This program is empowering for them.”
However, the Central program won’t benefit only those with dementia, but also the caregivers who get a break from their demanding role and are able to participate in caregiving education classes.
Pickens County Meals on Wheels director Meta Bowers said it’s important for caregivers to take a break because “the toll that it takes to care for someone is often the price of their health, and caring for someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia is a full-time job.”
In addition to the IEA Brain Health Club, the building will also house after school programs for the Town of Central and serve as a satellite campus to the Meals on Wheels McKissick Senior Wellness Center located in Liberty. Bowers said this is a state-wide model for senior resources.
“On a global sense with the Institute for Engaged Aging, I think the partnership with Pickens County Meals on Wheels is a wonderful fit,” Bowers said. “It harnesses the resources of two institutions. Cheryl’s use of the students and their knowledge makes the program a living lab giving people a real-world experience and providing quality care.”
For more information about the Brain Health Club program, contact Caitlin Torrence at ctorren@clemson.edu or 864-387-9187.
Students receive prestigious Fulbright and Boren awards
Justin Giles
An economics major, Giles was selected for the Boren Scholarship, created by the National Security Education Program for students who want to work in the national security arena. Giles is the second Clemson student to receive this scholarship. He will spend a full academic year in Tanzania, where he will stay with a Tanzanian family, learn Swahili and intern with a local company.
Irene Cheng
Cheng, who graduated with a dual degree in bioengineering and modern languages with a focus in Mandarin Chinese, is the first Clemson student chosen for the Boren Fellowship, which was created by the National Security Education Program. It provides funding for select graduate students to study less-common languages in foreign regions that are critical to U.S. interests. Cheng will live in Chengdu, China, for 10 months to study Mandarin and participate in a medical internship.
Sloan Nietert
A mathematical sciences and computer science double major, Nietert was selected for a Fulbright Award. The Fulbright program aims to increase understanding between citizens of the United States and of other countries. Nietert will spend nine months in Hungary, learning Hungarian and researching high-dimensional geometric structures at the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics.
Wood Utilization + Design Institute adds Katerra as founding member
The California-based construction and technology services company Katerra has joined Clemson’s Wood Utilization + Design Institute as a founding member, giving $50,000 toward the institute’s mission of researching, educating and providing resources for industry stakeholders in a variety of disciplines to advance wood-based products.
“Clemson is delighted to have Katerra as one of its founding partners,” said Pat Layton, institute director. “The innovation they are bringing to the construction industry to set forward a path to increase efficiencies within building construction systems may provide a transformational change in how we build homes and communicate in the future.”
Hans-Erik Blomgren, Katerra’s director of testing and characterization, praised the institute for “bringing together diverse stakeholders to advance the wood products industry in South Carolina and throughout the Southeast,” and described his company’s collaboration with the institute as a way to “drive positive economic and environmental outcomes for end consumers, companies and students alike.”
The forest industry has a
$21 billion impact on the South Carolina economy. More than two thirds of land in the state —
12.9 million acres — is forested. Clemson’s Wood Utilization + Design Institute is strategically positioned to drive the development, demand and use of wood products and to address the industry’s needs for the next generation of talent. Researchers with the institute currently are testing cross-laminated timber to determine burn rates, wind resistance and structural load.
Sonoco Institute Announces New Partnership with Digimarc
The Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics welcomed worldwide content identification company Digimarc Corp. as a new corporate member. Digimarc supports research and development activities, stimulates educational opportunities and ensures cutting-edge laboratory infrastructure at the Sonoco Institute.
“Digimarc is proud to be a member of the Sonoco Institute,” said Scott Wilcox, vice president of client services at Digimarc. “We believe Digimarc Barcode will soon become an integral part of how consumer product packaging is conceived and designed, and we’re excited to be involved with a university where packaging innovation is the core focus.”
The membership program is a three-year commitment that includes benefits such as discounts on industry-aligned seminars and workshops, print testing and evaluation services, and an invitation to an annual members-only symposium. Member support allows the institute to provide professionally staffed and equipped research, development and demonstration facilities at Clemson; ensure top-quality seminars and workshops; host interdisciplinary networking and business development events; stimulate cutting-edge graduate student talent; and continually enhance student experiences.
“Digimarc Barcode is a transformational technology in retail and the consumer-packaged goods industry, and we’re excited to have Digimarc join us as a new member,” said Bobby Congdon, assistant director of the Sonoco Institute. “We know this partnership will bring unique value to our area of printing and packaging research and education as Digimarc continues to enhance methods for secure and efficient packaging.”
'They gave me back my hope'
Chastyn Webster graduated from Clemson in May with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Along the way, she volunteered with Alternative Spring Break, was a research team member with Aspire to Be Well and Tigers Together to Stop Suicide, and a member of Sigma Kappa. She plans to pursue a master’s degree in social work.
Long before her arrival as a freshman, Webster had experienced a different side of Clemson — one that has served more than 5,000 marginalized youth ranging from students with autism to teenage mothers in foster care to low-level juvenile offenders. She had been part of a program at Clemson’s Youth Learning Institute. YLI creates and delivers programs for youth and families throughout the state.
“Every kid is at risk, including mine, and every kid deserves a chance,” said Cody Greene, director of at-risk programs at YLI. Greene has spent the past 18 years at YLI, 14 of them as director of the Youth Development Center at Camp Long in Aiken, where Webster was placed by court order at the age of 15. Through team building, experiential learning, life and leadership skills development, and a heavy dose of fun, students are able to envision and achieve different paths for their lives.
“The kids who come through our programs are rich, poor, black, white, Hispanic, Asian — you name it,” Greene said. “They need positive role models and a safe, nurturing environment, the same as all of us.”
Carlos Gore is the current director at the YDC, where he’s worked for almost 11 years. “Our students are no different than you and I,” he said. “They made poor choices due to circumstances that we take for granted.”
Gore remembers Webster’s early days at Camp Long: “She felt like everyone was against her. It took her awhile to know the things we were saying would help her.”
Webster was at Camp Long for the whole summer, returning home a week before school started. “Being there was good for me,” she said, “because I was separated long enough from the people I claimed were my friends.”
She struggled for the next year, she said. “It took awhile not to want to return to all those friends I had before, but I decided I wanted more for myself.” Because of her experience at YDC, she set her sights on attending Clemson and studying psychology, with the encouragement of her father.
Webster has now returned to Camp Long, this time on staff as a behavior modification specialist for the YDC, working with teenage girls. “I can’t relate to everything because I’ve had privileges that some of them will never have,” Webster said, “but I know what it’s like to feel hopeless. When I was their age, I thought everyone in the world was against me.”
Hope, she said, is the key. “It could have been a terrible time in my life, but it wasn’t. It was tough some days for sure, but we had lots of fun times. They allowed me to feel like a kid again — which I was — instead of a misfit of society. They gave me back my hope.”
Learn more about the Youth Learning Institute.
Ford to sponsor Deep Orange prototype design
Ford Motor Co. is sponsoring the 10th-generation Deep Orange vehicle prototype, which will be conceived and designed by automotive engineering master’s students at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research.
The Deep Orange project at CU-ICAR provides students an opportunity to work directly with automotive industry partners to create a prototype vehicle in two years. For this iteration of Deep Orange, students will develop an electric autonomous mobility concept vehicle for 2030 smart city life.
History in Plain Sight
Students and faculty were busy over the summer, unearthing remnants to help tell the stories of the men, women and children who lived and worked as slaves during the antebellum era on the Fort Hill property, today a part of Clemson’s campus.
The historic Fort Hill property was home to South Carolina statesman John C. Calhoun and later the University’s namesake, Thomas Green Clemson, and his wife, Anna Calhoun Clemson. While their time on the property is well-recorded, the lives of enslaved African-Americans are largely undocumented.
David Markus, an archaeologist and visiting lecturer, provided training in archaeological excavation and analysis methods to a dozen students enrolled in his six-week summer course in anthropology. They have carefully moved dirt in areas between Fort Hill and nearby residence halls where a kitchen once stood in the house. Historians believe domestic slave quarters and other outbuildings existed in the space.
“We hope to understand more about the daily lives of people who were enslaved at Fort Hill — how they lived and worked — and interpret their stories in a respectful way,” Markus said. “The University has made a commitment to tell its history more completely, and we hope our work will help support that effort.”
Will Hiott is the director of historic properties at Clemson. He said historical archaeology can be a new conduit to the important task of reinterpreting Fort Hill by relocating long-lost plantation buildings where African-Americans once toiled.
“The long-range plans would be to bring that hidden history back to plain sight as the foundations of the kitchen yard, spin house/weave room, laundry — along with the smokehouse and cook’s residence — are excavated,” Hiott said. “Unfortunately, not everything can be unearthed in one summer session, but we see this as a first step in seeking foundations, artifacts and material culture.”
Entrepreneur’s vision rewarded by MBA EnterPrize competition
Virgil Platt’s vision for a startup may have caught the eyes of judges in the sixth annual Clemson MBAe EnterPrize competition, but the real winners of the entrepreneur’s business idea may be military personnel.
As the winner of the graduate school’s competition, modeled after the TV show Shark Tank, Platt won $15,000. He’ll use the prize money to purchase inventory for his business, Armed Eyewear, which will provide fashionable, military-approved glasses to service members.
Platt, of Fayetteville, N.C., was one of 26 Clemson MBA candidates who competed for $26,000 in prize money at EnterPrize events held in Columbia and Charleston and at the finale in Greenville.
As an area manager for retail vision centers in the heart of military country, Platt identified an unmet need for military personnel. With Fayetteville being home to the U.S. Army’s Fort Bragg, the world’s largest military installation, Platt regularly heard of dissatisfaction over the limited eyewear choices available to service members because of the military’s restrictions on frame and lens aesthetics. In addition, glasses cannot have emblems or brand logos on the outside.
Realizing that more than 2 million U.S. military personnel were subject to these restrictions, he set out to find a solution. Platt discovered many alternative eyewear designs that his acquaintances in military human resources divisions said met standards. He was even able to work with frame manufacturers who would serve the military marketplace.
Armed Eyewear’s website is in development; Platt expects its soft launch by the end of the year with online sales. He would eventually like to sell through military channels as well.
Platt said Clemson’s part-time MBAe program was a good fit for him in several ways. “Having a network of cohorts in this with you really helped. You have 15 to 20 people all trying to open their own businesses, and they come with a wide variety of backgrounds, be it marketing, finance, sales or accounting,” he said. “When you add in the professors who have their own specialties, there’s so much expertise to tap into.”
Other winners in the competition included Jimmy Palmer, a full-time MBAe student who placed second and won $3,000. His startup, Comma Furniture, specializing in furniture that assembles and disassembles easily, is targeted to students and those early in their careers who are moving frequently.
Third place and a prize of $2,000 went to Michael Siegel, also a full-time MBAe student. His startup, Groundshare, allows landowners to rent land to hunters similarly to how Airbnb works.
EnterPrize judges included James Bennett, owner of Upstate Home Care Solutions; Joe Gibson, founder of Helping Businesses Grow Profitably; Beth Veach, career and business coach at Entrepreneur Acumen; Cory Bridges MBAe ’17, co-founder and chief operating officer for RingoFire Digital; and Sadie Perry MBAe ’17, an Eggs Up Grill franchisee.