If you’re one of those people who watches ESPN “College GameDay” each Saturday during football season, you’re sure to have seen a Clemson flag pop up behind the announcers. Pictured are Brian ’03 M ’04 and Nicole ’03 Crounse and their children at the University of Wisconsin’s GameDay. If you’re planning on being at a game that’s been designated as ESPN “College GameDay,” and you want to help #FlyTheFlag, email Bubba Britton at bubba@clemson.edu.
While looking for internships at Clemson, Seldric Blocker was plucked for a program with First Union. But not for banking or financial needs; it was human resources. Now he’s the director of campus recruiting, shaping paths for future generations of network newsies and entertainment execs as the director of NBCUniversal’s talent acquisition campus programs, Campus2Career.
Each year he fields more than 42,000 applications for about 2,000 spring, summer and fall internships. In the last three years he’s managed more than 5,500 interns, including 300 added to cover the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Brazil.
Part of Blocker’s job has entailed streamlining the Campus2Career program so there is a standard NBCUniversal experience at each campus they visit, and across all internships and all markets, including their London and Singapore programs. “Flawless execution” is how Blocker defines it. “We want them to have a great experience, even if they decide this isn’t what they want to do long term,” he said. “We want them to leave more curious than when they came in. We want them to have fun.”
Lessons he learned from his own academic and career experience very much inform how he mentors others. He encourages those that come through his office to take advantage of study abroad, be more ambitious and take more risks. One of the ways Blocker and his team allow interns to have fun and take ownership of their internship is through NBCUniversal storytelling. “The students are digital natives, and we encourage them to craft and tell the NBCUniversal story through a multifaceted approach, whether that’s Snapchat or some other social platform. They have their fingers on the pulse of what’s happening next and are brand ambassadors for future generations of interns.”
Blocker is also focused on building diversity across NBCUniversal’s platforms. “We are looking for people who have demonstrated their leadership on campus. We employ a wide variety of majors and backgrounds. [pullquote]They don’t just have to have a passion for media and the entertainment industry. We want to know what you can take from your background and bring to the table to help us tell a more well-rounded story[/pullquote],” said Blocker.
Even after hanging strong in the financial sector through the economic downturn of 2008, Blocker said navigating the media industry at first was a new, interesting beast. “It was tough at first. In the media you have a lot of creative people who have a competitive edge, and you’re managing a first-impression for a major media brand,” said Blocker. Blocker said the experience at NBCUniversal has taught him to meet people where they are, and that being relatable is a skillset that transcends any workplace environment. “[Clemson’s] academic environment did a good job of fostering a sense of responsibility and ownership and made me feel like I belong,” he said. “I want to give others that sense of feeling like they belong, too.”
Melvin K. and Dollie Younts, donors to the sixth Cornerstone Gift to athletics.
Front, l-r: Halphen, Leader, Lusk, Frazier, Newton. Rear: Adams, Crapps, Faerber, Park.
Not pictured: Eyraud Photo Credit: JacobDeanPhotography.com
Student safety first. It’s a call answered by Clemson Fire and EMS every day, but it was a group of students who first wanted safety ensured.
In the late 1970s Johannes Huber was part of the core group that formed an EMS club on campus. Through training from the Pickens County EMS, Huber and his friends aided students with everything from helping when a Homecoming float turned over and injured a dozen people to providing aid to heart attack victims. “We were really taken in by the student body,” said Huber.
Within a year, they were already seeking funds for an ambulance to have proper transportation for runs. Within Huber’s three years at Clemson, his team was completing up to 150 runs a year, with the backup of Clemson’s fire department.
Huber’s interest in medicine and helping people goes back to his childhood in Germany, when he would bandage local bikers. “Medicine was always my gift,” he said. Grades though, not so much.
A letter from a pen pal from Pennsylvania mentioned Clemson University. Knowing he needed to improve his grades to get into medical school, Huber thought studying abroad would be good for him. So to the hills of South Carolina he went. “It’s just this beautiful town in the countryside with rolling hills and open to an orange and white heaven,” he said with a laugh.
Twice a week he wrote home. Once a month he’d call so his family could hear his voice at $10 a minute. But as an older biochemistry student at age 21, he was looking for more than football games and fraternities to fill his time. “Implementing something new gives you so much energy,” said Huber.“I couldn’t go home on weekends, so I stayed and learned [medicine] through experience.” Huber finally did get into medical school in Germany and returned home for training in general, plastic and microscopy surgery. Now he oversees a staff of about 25 nurses and clocks more than 70 hours a week.
“I’ve been back [to Clemson] several times. … It’s always a homecoming for me,” he said. “I’m just amazed at all the construction, and that spirit is still ever present.” On every return trip he drops by the Clemson Fire and EMS. “College life offers you an opportunity for friendship, and I was very fortunate to be in a position to do that.”
Dabo and Kathleen Swinney pledged $1 million to IPTAY last fall in support of Clemson football to provide future funding for programmatic and building initiatives that will continue to propel the program forward.
“Kathleen and I are blessed,” said Swinney. “And we have always known we need to use those blessings to do good for others. It’s so important to us that we give back to this program that has been so good to us.”
While Kathleen and Dabo Swinney have a long history of generosity, they would never call their missions accomplished. Dabo sounds like the passionate coach he is when he talks about getting behind these Clemson programs: “You know, Clemson is a great school. But we can’t rest on that. We’ve got so much more to do. We have to always strive to get better, and that’s why we’ve got a new strategic plan at the University called ClemsonForward. That says it all. Just like playing offense in football: It’s all about the forward progress. No progress. No win. We can’t stop now.”
Wil Brasington presents the Volunteer of the Year award
to Lily Eyraud as Sandy Edge looks on.
Taylor Stathes needs her patient, 7-year-old Cadence Corbett, to be a captive audience in the hospital MRI waiting room. Tablet in hand, Stathes previews Cadence’s journey to a machine that can be intimidating even to adults. Cadence looks hopeful when Stathes tells her about the movie goggles she can wear during the three-hour scan, and her anxiety is replaced with joy when Stathes puts the goggles on Vivi, Stathes’ coworker and one of Greenville Health System’s therapy dogs.
From the moment Cadence arrives in the waiting room, Vivi is by her side. While learning about the MRI, Cadence’s hands never leave Vivi’s head or belly. Vivi is Stathes’ not-so-secret weapon, an atomic calm bomb. “I’ve taken a back seat to this girl,” Stathes said. “She lights up every room we walk into, she keeps kids calm, and even the toughest doctors and nurses in the building melt in her presence.”
Stathes is modest; she’d rather give Vivi credit than speak of the education and experience that got her where she is today. Clemson was her only destination from as far back as she can remember. She fell in love with the campus and the people, but she didn’t know what major would work for her. She just knew she wanted to work with kids, so she grabbed a course catalog and searched for what would apply.
Stathes had never heard of recreational therapy, but it fit the bill. What she found were supportive faculty members, an innovative approach to education and a program that combined everything she was passionate about. She said the department was especially flexible with her high-pressure schedule as a Clemson cheerleader for multiple sports. Stathes was a collegiate athlete, but she never took her eye off what she would be equipped to do after graduation.
[pullquote]“Recreational therapy taught me to look at the whole picture of a patient, to be able to consider their physical and emotional health,” Stathes said. “The program turned me on to child life and defined my career.”[/pullquote]
Stathes went on to earn a master’s degree in child life from the University of La Verne in California. She said she was lucky to find work at GHS and even luckier to discover pet therapy programs and their potential benefits.
Stathes, along with other child life employees, quickly secured approvals and donations to get a more intensive, animal assisted therapy program off the ground to complement GHS’ existing pet therapy programs. She contacted Canine Assistants, the non-profit organization that trained and provided two therapy dogs to GHS and paired Vivitar — Vivi for short — with Stathes. Canine Assistants makes the pairing based on the personality of dog and potential handler, but it didn’t take long for Stathes to realize why Vivi was the dog for her. “She’s never met a stranger, she’s always smiling, she wears Clemson orange on Fridays and she’s always accessorizing,” Stathes said, laughing. “At least I hope that’s why they paired us up.” At first, Stathes was skeptical of the bond-based training that Canine Assistants employs. Rather than structure training around commands or obedience, the organization pairs the right dog with the right person and creates a bond so that the dog is willing to do things without the need for a command. Vivi can assist doctors in distracting and holding down patients who require a needle poke.
As in the case with Cadence, she can be there to calm while Stathes delivers information. Luckily, there are no tears during Cadence’s visit, but she’s no fan of MRIs. When Cadence’s mother, Reanna Corbett, asks about the length of the MRI, Cadence freezes for a moment. However, the look of concern disappears from Cadence’s face almost as quickly as it arrives because Vivi is goading her for more attention. Later, Corbett happily reports that the planned sedation for Cadence wasn’t even required despite three spinal scans and a brain scan. “Taylor made my daughter feel like a star, and she somehow explained everything while making it fun,” Corbett said. “The only things she would talk about the rest of the day were Taylor and Vivi.”
Each fall, the alumni association considers bestowing the title of honorary alumnus on individuals who have been nominated because of their service, loyalty and devotion to Clemson and/or the Alumni Association. This year, the Alumni Association honored JoVanna King and Frank Inabnit III. While neither has crossed the stage to receive a Clemson diploma, their lives and actions demonstrate that their blood runs orange.
King is senior director of estate planning and principal gifts at Clemson. For more than 25 years she has raised money to support the University. She has worked on all three of Clemson’s capital campaigns including the recently completed Will to Lead campaign, which raised more than $1 billion. According to Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Brian O’Rourke, King has been involved in raising more philanthropic dollars than any other employee of the University. According to President Emeritus Jim Barker, the dollars don’t tell the whole story. “The dollars are impressive,” he wrote in his nomination letter, “but it is the lives of Clemson students and faculty that motivate her.”
Inabnit, a resident of Jacksonville, Florida, is retired after a career in electrical drafting and programming. The son of a 1941 alumnus, he was born deaf andwas unable to attend Clemson. “He has spent his entire life in a silent world,” wrote his sister, Catherine Inabnit, in her nomination. “He has never heard the word ‘Clemson.’ He’s never heard the ‘Tiger Rag’ or the Clemson Alma Mater, but Clemson has been a very important part of his life and occupies a large and special place in his heart.”
A loyal IPTAY member for 45 years, Inabnit has served as an IPTAY representative and has contributed to the Alumni Association for more than 25 years.
Nominations for honorary alumnus will open in the fall; for more information, go to clemson.edu/alumni and click on “Awards and Honors.”
Printing press giant, Nilpeter has completely outfitted a FB-3 13-inch fully automated servo press at Clemson University Graphics Communication Center in Godfrey Hall. Professor Kern Cox and students observed its operation.