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Clemson Club News

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On March 14, the Atlanta Clemson Club volunteered with the Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research and their meal adoption program. Club members served lunch at Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital to kids who are courageously fighting cancer as well as their families. The BBQ lunch was donated by alumni Tyler and Juliana Lindley, owners of Freckled & Blue Kitchen in Marietta, and the kids loved visiting with alumnus and Atlanta Falcons star Vic Beasley Jr. The club also welcomed Davis Babb, CEO of IPTAY, to their Speaker Series in March to share about IPTAY’s role in supporting athletics and the University.

 

Members of the San Diego Clemson Club along with alumni from the Los Angeles area came out to support the men’s basketball team in their amazing run in the NCAA tournament. This group is pictured at the game against New Mexico State, which Clemson won 79-68 to move to the second round.

 

The Charlotte and York County Clemson clubs helped to make a dream come true for Rock Hill High School student Brandon Dorman, who is living with stage 4 kidney disease. Each club donated $500 to fund his trip to Clemson. Dream On 3, an organization that makes dreams come true for children with chronic illnesses, developmental disabilities, or life-altering conditions, and representatives of the two clubs surprised Dorman at his school with a bus trip for him and his family to Howard’s Rock and a tour of the football facility as well as a chance to meet the coaching staff and players and attend spring practice. Kudos to Richard Doane with the Charlotte Club for getting the initiative started and to Jodie Smith from the York County Club for finalizing the efforts.

 

The Colleton County Clemson Club recently hosted a Wine and Design event featuring the talents and instruction of local Clemson art student Holly Rizer. Proceeds benefited the club’s scholarship fund for local students.

 

The South Florida Clemson Club had a nice turnout of 25 for Clemson Day at the Florida Panthers hockey game. Contact Jeff Goodman at jsgclemson@aol.com for more information about South Florida events.

 
 

While the Japan Alumni group is not yet an official Clemson Club, some of the more than 50 Clemson alumni and friends in Japan have been getting together for events a few times a year. They are exploring ways to support the University including providing support and guidance to students studying abroad in Japan or alumni moving to Japan for work, as well as finding internship opportunities for students. They are hoping to be the first international chartered alumni club. They gathered in November when Yuki Kihara Horose, study-abroad coordinator for Clemson Abroad, and Carolyn Crist, a student adviser with the College of Architecture, Art and Humanities Global Engagement, were visiting partner institutions in Japan. The group joined emeritus professors Yuji Kishimoto and Toshiko Kishimoto in Tokyo, their hometown, where they received the Japanese national medal of distinction in 2017.

Carving Creation

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From a log cabin outside of Sumter, Grainger McKoy has become one of the South’s most prominent sculptors and artists. His dramatic and detailed bird sculptures have been exhibited across the country. But for McKoy, every sculpture has a backstory. And so does he.

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Architecture Students’ Design for Ghanaian School Comes to Fruition

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They say it takes a village ­— and for one town in Ghana that couldn’t be truer. Over the past decade, the people of Okurase have been working together to transform their community for a more prosperous future by constructing the Nkabom Centre, the area’s first-ever educational facility.

The 18,000-square-foot structure has electricity and running water and is the first of a 17-building complex completely designed by Clemson architecture students studying at the Clemson Design Center in Charleston (CDC.C). 

Cynthia Swenson, a professor with the Medical University of South Carolina, approached the CDCC for help in 2008. As the co-founder of Project Okurase, a nonprofit that develops sustainable, replicable solutions for disadvantaged villages, Swenson had been working in the Okurase community for several years and following the vision of the community, wanted to help construct a complex that would house educational and medical facilities with water and energy. But money was limited.

“Someone suggested Clemson because the students do hands-on service projects as part of their work,” Swenson said. “I knew after speaking with Ray Huff and Rob Miller that I’d found true partners in the CDC.C for this effort.”

“Everything we designed was built around local craftsmanship and skills we saw on our trip to Ghana.”

It was paramount that the buildings convey the local culture, so before undergraduate and graduate students began to tackle designs, students Kyle Keaffaber and Lindsey Willke traveled to the region to research. “They saw firsthand how the land, water and sun played into the structure’s dynamics. It was fascinating,” Swenson said. “We originally envisioned the medical center at the front of the complex with a school behind it, but our research indicated that would be a huge mistake because air flow would carry communicable diseases through the medical complex and toward the school.”

The trip provided another valuable lesson: The buildings needed to be constructed with compressed earth bricks. “To allow the community to play an active role and become invested in building their own community, everything we designed was built around local craftsmanship and skills we saw on our trip to Ghana,” Keaffaber said. However, the on-loan brick-making machine had to be returned before work was completed. Clemson faculty and staff stepped in and built four manual brick-making machines.

Today, the first structure in the complex stands tall, awaiting students of all ages to take their seats in the coming weeks, and now the community eagerly anticipates construction of the next building.   

“I’ve seen an absolute change. People who grew up in that village are coming back, and things are picking up economically,” Swenson said. “And the people have a level of pride in this building ­— they built it themselves — and they want to leave a legacy for their children.”

A Walk Down the Red Carpet in Cannes

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Madison Williams, a graphic communications major, poses for a photo with her camera.

When Madison Williams graduated in May with a graphic communications degree, she walked the red carpet while her classmates crossed the stage at Littlejohn Coliseum.

The Newbury, Massachusetts, native represented Clemson at the Cannes Film Festival in France, where her 5-minute documentary on a passionate Tiger football fan was screened alongside the work of the world’s most renowned filmmakers.

“It’s a dream come true, and I have the opportunities presented to me at Clemson and many of the talented people here to thank for it,” the College of Business graduate said.

Williams’ documentary, “136,” is a story about Bryson Carter of Anderson, who lost his sight as a student here but whose love for Clemson football has led him to attend 136 consecutive (now 150) games. She originally produced the documentary to compete in Campus Movie Fest at Clemson last February. Her work advanced to a national competition and eventually was selected to be screened as part of Cannes’ Short Film Corner.

“I have been blessed to have so many people who nurtured me on my journey to becoming a professional videographer,” Williams said. “There are too many to mention, but some of the most influential were people like Nik Conklin, Jeff Kallin and Jonathan Gantt in the athletic department; Craig Mahaffey and Jesse Godfrey in University Relations and Erica Walker, one of my graphic communications instructors.”

Inspiration for the documentary on Carter came from their chance meeting at the 2016 Fiesta Bowl. “Bryson and I shared a ride to the train station in Arizona, and he started talking about his passion for football,” Williams said. “He visualizes the game through the announcers’ commentary and the energy the fans paint in his mind. His story nearly brought me to tears.”

Telling stories comes naturally to Williams, but she had to work to develop her visual communication skills. “At a very early age, I wanted to be behind the lens,” she said. “I made music videos and filmed plays with my very patient sister. Then, in high school, I filmed the football team’s highlight reels and knew this was something I wanted as a lifelong pursuit.”

A year later, she was at Clemson studying graphic communications. Internships at Clemson and in Massachusetts primed her for a role on the Clemson Athletics social media team, where she cut her teeth as a visual communicator for the volleyball team. With the French Riviera experience a memory, Williams is looking forward.

“Right now, I’m looking for visual storytelling roles similar to what I do at Clemson,” she said. “Wherever I land, I know my education here, inside and outside the classroom, has put me in a great position to succeed. I’m very excited to see where my Clemson experience will take me next.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elP4Fy5J6hs