What’s to Come for Media Writers?

How to know the future in our fields? We can’t, but we can guess with a lot of insight. One way to scan the horizon is to read the better blogs. Here are some nice links to follow as you consider the direction of the mass media in the years to come. While you’re at it, bloggers, think about whether you ought to maintain a blog as deep as some of these you’ll be reading.

The blog ADWEEK30 offers a link to a report from Forrester Research, a media-research company, suggesting that TV networks will shift their content to on-demand formats over the next decade. This will allow users (or audience members) to serve their own needs advertisers to better target their audiences. The report calls this Personal TV, a parallel to a personal computer or personal phone?

This switch implies huge consequences. Can you name some?

This clever blog, PR-Squared, from the owner of Shift Communications, offers some thoughts about how public relations people need to embrace social media forms. Including blogs. Just how true does owner Todd Defren suppose this to be? Well, here’s a quick burst of this thinking: This future is coming and will crush PR agencies unprepared to meet the advancing wave of change.

Don’t mean to scare you, but look what the largest newspaper chain did today? Read it here in Gannett Journal, an independent blog, that offers news about layoffs at Gannett newspapers across the country. This is just more evidence that traditional media are forced to change as digital forms undermine the old way of making profits. Newspapers can’t sell enough ads anymore because of competition from online forms such as Craigslist.com. Do you know it?

The former Washington, D.C., bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers wonders if the longtime bosses of newsrooms are the right people today to lead in the needed transformations. David Westphal, writing for the Knight Digital Media Center, offers this thought:

. . . the pace of digital change likely will accelerate, with editors under pressure to completely reimagine how people receive (and contribute to) news and information. Having managed their newsrooms through repeated rounds of downsizing, will veteran editors be the best people to lead their newsrooms to the Promised Land? Or will young journalists with no investment in the past (for good and ill) be better choices? There isn’t a right and wrong answer. But these are questions we’re going to hear about more and more.

Realize what he’s saying here? The suggestion is that a new generation of digitally savvy young people may be the ones to lead the charge. Would that be, um, you?

You can read Westphal’s entire piece here on OJR, which stands for the Online Journalism Review.

A panel session at Harvard Business School provided some grist for understanding what comes next. One panelist suggested that the real commodity that we all need most is information. Another said the long-term answer is simplicity in use of technology. Hmmm. Gotta like that.

Yahoo’s Sue Decker offered this:

Increasingly, companies will find ways to leverage whatever social networks you’re in, find ways to service those in ways easy for you to access, and try to go for more simplicity. Simplicity is the single thing people really want. It’s going to get faster in terms of technology. There’s going to be more opportunities and interconnections.

How does local-link journalism fit into the future? Here is an argument in the publish2 blog that says news organizations should maximize their reporting by rounding up the comments from various bloggers. Even offers an example.

OK, that’s enough for now. Keep thinking now. If these notes offer any advice, it’s that the cleverest and most fluid thinkers will win. Your thoughts? Punch the comments button and add them here.

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Past experiences helps transfer student Adjust

College is often portrayed on a large campus with crazy football games, loud parties and long nights in the library. There are large elm trees, students doing homework on blankets, packed dining halls and of course, members of the opposite sex. While many students can identify with at least one of these stereotypical characteristics, Kelsey Lapenas cannot say the same for her freshman year of college.
Lapenas, a sophomore transfer student from Western Massachusetts, describes a more unique experience of her first and only year at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts.

Lapenas on the field hockey field at Simmons.

Not only does this institution have a small population of 2,000 undergraduates enrolled, but also all of these students are females. Lapenas thought the lack of males and small atmosphere would be compensated with the lure of a major city. She quickly found that this was not the case.
“I didn’t think that all girls would matter because there is a lot to do,” described Lapenas of her experiences. “But it was weird not having guys in any classes. Something was missing.” This biology major was not the only person with these feelings towards the school. Many of Lapenas’s friends shared the same emotions about their situation.
Lapenas’s primary motivation for attending this small college was not for its excellent academics or social scene, but for the field hockey team. Her love for the sport in high school carried her to the varsity team at Simmons. This division 3 athletic program gave Lapenas the title of a college athlete, along with lifetime friends that she still keeps in contact with. While many of her friends have transferred and moved onto different universities, the contact between these friends has not suffered.
In addition to this woman-dominated population, Simmons is set in the heart of Boston, only a few short blocks away from the legendary home of the Boston Red Sox: Fenway Park. In fact, Lapenas was there when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2007 and joined in on the celebration that took place in the streets.
“It got bad later that night. People were jumping on top of cars that were parked on the street,” said Lapenas of that night. “The team wasn’t even there so I can’t imagine what it would have been like if it was a home game!”
While Lapenas had many positive experiences at Simmons, transferring was the right thing to do, and Elon University was her next destination. The university has proved to be her home away from home.
Lapenas described her transition as painless. Orientation provided a comfortable atmosphere and helped to develop friendships.
“Transfers really stick together,” she said. “Most of my friends are transfers because we can relate to each other.”
Even though her closest friends have transferred from other colleges across the country, Lapenas’s suitemates have also become close with her over the past few months.
“As a sophomore, I was nervous to be put into another blind roommate situation,” said Sarah Churchill, a sophomore student who attended Elon last year, and is also Lapenas’s roommate. “But, she has taught me to appreciate what I have at Elon.”
Casey Hekker, a sophomore student who also lives with Kelsey, had a similar admiration for Lapenas’s transition process.
“I don’t think I would have been able to handle another big change the way Kelsey did,” said Hekker. “She never acted intimidated or inferior to the fact that everyone she lives with has been here for longer than she has.”
The most difficult change that Lapenas’s had to deal with upon her arrival was also as untypical as her experiences. It did not have to do with the food, or the workload, or finding friends, but the fashion choices of students on campus. Sweatpants and t-shirts are not the same as dresses and sweaters.
“I’m just not used to getting dressed up for my 8 a.m. class. I don’t think I ever will.

“I am a Ranger!”

Hockey Fan at the Acorn

 

                    Elon University students usually manage to make it out to at least one sports event and cheer for their “Phoenix.” However, the students don’t manage to make it out that often to cheer for their club roller hockey team. No, the source of hockey enthusiasm doesn’t come from the students. For that, one needs to go to the Acorn Coffee Shop. Amongst the employees there is James Tykwinski, a die-hard and passionate fan of the New York Rangers hockey club.

            Tykwinski, 39, is a full-time employee at the “Acorn.” He works 40 hours per week and his only real break comes on the weekends. What keeps him going? Hockey. Moreover, watching the New York Rangers play is one of his favorite things to do. Anything somebody needs to know about the New York Rangers, should go to see Mr. Tykwinski.

            Mr. Tykwinski has been a fan of the New York Rangers since he was 10 years old, which was in 1979, the year the New York Rangers went to the Stanley Cup Finals after beating their cross-town rivals, the New York Islanders. Mr. Tykwinski, or “Jimmy” as his friends call him, knows that off the top of his head. The Rangers are that important to him. He is one of their biggest fans.

            After enjoying hockey on the weekends, Jimmy’s work week begins Monday morning at 7 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are when the Acorn gets its food delivered from its vendors, Sysco and Fresh Point. He spends the day checking in and stocking the food in the coffee shop until his shift ends at 3 p.m. Delivery days can be unpleasant for him. “I dislike cold or rainy days. Because of the lack of space, most of our 100 piece order is outside,” said Jimmy.

             Despite this he still finds ways to make his days more enjoyable. “I like working with my fellow Acorn workers. We have a good time kidding around.”

James “Jimmy” Tykwinski. Before having his photo taken, Jimmy said, “I’m a star.”

 

 

            A supervisor at the Acorn on the weekend, calls Jimmy “a very reliable, outspoken person.” The supervisor, a resident of Burlington, continued, “He always asks how you’re doing. He makes you smile every time you speak to him.”

            Tuesdays and Thursdays are a little more hectic for Jimmy. He works from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. However, he enjoys starting these days a couple of hours later. On these days he checks the inventory of the coffee shop, takes a count of the amount of food orders needed for delivery and enters it online, and then spends the rest of the day helping to serve lunch to customers.

            After work, he heads home to watch the Rangers game. If the Rangers aren’t playing, he’ll usually watch another hockey game. He doesn’t watch the games on TV though. Tykwinski used to watch games on NHL Center Ice, but prefers to go online now where he can watch games on websites, such as www.justin.tv and www.myp2p.eu, in nearly as good quality for free.

            Why is Jimmy such a big fan of the Rangers? The answer seems to be closely tied to his long history with the team. Most importantly, the New York Rangers were the first professional sports team Jimmy saw play live. He is also a fan of the Rangers for many other reasons including that they play at Madison Square Garden, wear classic and traditional uniforms and are one of the “Original Six” hockey clubs, who were the only six teams (Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Rangers) to play in the National Hockey League from 1942-1967.

              Jimmy’s favorite moment in New York Rangers history was when the team won the 1994 Stanley Cup and beat out the Vancouver Canucks for the championship. Prior to that date, the last time the Rangers won a Stanley Cup was in 1940.

             “The 1994 Stanley Cup is [my] number one [moment]. [The] first one in [fifty-four] years. No more Islanders chants of fifty years,” commented Tykwinski gleefully. Fans from rival hockey clubs, such as the New York Islanders, would often taunt Rangers players and fans about their Stanley Cup drought until they won in 1994.

                Brian Leetch, who was named the most valuable player of the 1994 playoffs when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup, is Jimmy’s all-time favorite New York Ranger. Tykwinski notes that Leetch was extremely talented in registering points as a defenseman, notching 981 points in just 1,129 games as a Ranger.

               Jimmy once met Leetch and two other Ranger greats, Adam Graves and Mark Messier. He recounted the story:

              “I was in New York by [Madison Square] Garden picking up a watch that I had bought. I came out walking towards the Garden [headed toward his train stop home]. Coming out of a coffee shop were these three New York Rangers. I was [wondering] should I bother them, or should I play it cool? I decided on the former. I waited until we had to stop for the streetlight to change and said, ‘Hey New York Rangers.’ Messier put his finger to his lip and said, ‘Schuse.’ Graves said, ‘Just kidding.’ They said they liked walking around New York without people knowing them. I did not ask for an autograph. [As] I said I was trying to be cool.”

                Jimmy also likes to talk about other sports. This approach helps him get along well with his co-workers. A co-worker atthe Acorn, complimented him, “He’s a funny guy who’s easy to get along with. He creates a more laid back atmosphere, at least for guys.” The co-worker, who did not wish to release his name, also is originally from the New York area. The two of them are able to easily talk about football or hockey.

              On July 10, 1969, Jimmy was born in Jersey City, N.J. He remembers his birth year because that was the year that both the New York Mets and New York Jets won championships. He came to Elon upon a recommendation from his sister, who married someone in the nearby community. He visited and was soon convinced that the atmosphere would suit him better than the “hustle and bustle” of New York City and New Jersey. Since then, he has been working at the Acorn.

           Jimmy goes through a tough, daily grind of work at the Acorn, but has a big heart to keep him going. He has many good qualities and attributes. He’s an easygoing guy to talk and converse with, whether that involves talking about the weather or joking about how a co-worker is secretly part of the witness protection program. The one specific thing that stands out about Jimmy, though, is his passion for the Rangers. Of all Rangers fans, Jimmy truly defines the fan expression, “I am a Ranger!”   

Three Decade Teacher Reflects

          Judy Henriks moves her hand in a joyful manner and eagerly leans into the table, looking at a thick book full of inspiring artwork, smiling while giving her thoughts on a student’s final project. A quick story about her son’s third grade science project about ferns that wouldn’t die even when she deprived them of water and sunlight, quickly relates to the students project idea on flowers.

            Henriks is Elon University’s one constant in the art department. Henriks has been an art teacher at Elon University for about 30 years, “I’ve never taught anywhere else” Henriks claims in a happy, confident voice.

            One of her students Jen Hempel enjoys Henriks teaching style because of the “relaxed atmosphere and the creative projects.”

Not realizing she wanted to become an art teacher until grad school, Henriks has been thinking recently about her inspiration in the past eight to ten years.  A respectful smile appears on her face when she mentions her grandmothers.

‘‘They both had relatively difficult lives and yet they were very interested in my ability to draw as a little girl and very supportive” explains Henriks.

 

Prometheus by Judy Henriks

One of her grandmothers “thought I would be a hairdresser cause I was so good in anything kind of visual” laughs Henriks.

 

On her office wall there is a baby crocheted in what looks like a web. This talent is credited to her other grandmother who bought her a sewing machine and taught her how to crochet at a young age. Her parents and law even bought Henriks a table loom after college,

“And I started weaving, and in grad school I even thought I was going to go into Fibers.”

Going to a small liberal arts college, North Central College and University of Illinois-Chicago, Henriks majored in American and English Literature. The two drastic changes from small rural town to a big urban city is a pattern that Henriks has seen before, and it even carries into her artwork.

Growing up in western Pennsylvania and having the privilege to live in the middle of the Alleghany National Forest, Henriks remembers her childhood days roaming in the woods with out supervision.

“There’s just this part of me that loves that past, that kind of freedom that I had as a kid to roam.”

As a young adult Henriks worked as a case worker in Chicago where there where,

 “Very bad neighborhoods. The contrast from the very pastoral young life and then seeing that other side was a interesting conflict to resolve.”

When looking at Henriks’s artwork you see the two sides of her youth come out. There is the innocence of a baby doll that occurs in many of her drawings,

“But it’s usually physiologically darker though. ‘Cause Even though childhood has certain kinds pleasures and freedoms I think People often don’t realize or don’t want to look at the kinds of pressures and tensions and difficulties of children.”

Judy Henriks talks to a student about final projct

 

 

Brooke Shore, another one of Henriks students notices the two differences in her artwork as well.

“One day in class we were drawing a self portrait with paint and she showed us the one she did from the day before and it was very dark and the one that she was in the process of drawing was light and pretty.”

Despite her somewhat dark or physiologically darker subjects Henriks admits that she,

“Was just thinking the other day how boring my life is,” Henriks comments with out any prompt.

She credits her most interesting event in her life to the birth of her children and loves to continue her passion for literature when not creating art.

Many of Henriks’s paintings and drawings have been in shows over the years, but currently her art is in the Andrew Martins and the Greensboro School of Painting at High Point University. Henriks does not seek exhibition shows but if something interests her or she is asked she will graciously display her work.

Henriks has had lots of experience with being an artists as well as a teacher. She gives some good advice:

 “Art making too is not restful. When students get frustrated, to me, I’m like why are you surprised. They assume that it’s recreational or restful. But its very difficult work, your always putting your gut on the line.”

Henriks puts her gut on the line for her art as well as helping her students improve in anyway possible. 

Talented Guitarist Gaining Recognition in Apartment Complex

Walking by the quiet confines of the Danieley Center apartments, Elon students often find themselves caught up in the thundering, electric sound waves pouring out of one of the rooms in apartment B. They are not alarmed though. The noise is familiar.  These recognized melodies sound much like those from the likes of Springsteen, Simon and Skynyrd, but they’ve never heard the song before. 

The man who classifies his music as “Guitar-Driven Indie Southern Rock,” sophomore economics major Raleigh Richards, is just about as normal of a student as there is on campus.  Anyone with an ear for music though would think they are hearing the notes of a true rocker.  

Richards, 19, is a self-taught guitarist capable of melting faces much like the ways Hendrix and Clapton did.  He writes his own music. He sings his own songs. But he’s not in a band, and he’s never played in front of a crowd. 

With over 15 of his personal songs already put together, Richards has enough music to put out a record, but his future plans don’t necessarily include a Grammy award.  

“I’m here to get a degree,” says Richards.  

He strums a chord on his cherry red Fender Telecaster, and shakes out the last drops of a Poland Spring into his mouth.

  

In fact, it is his hopes of one day getting a good job and making money that keep him from rising to stardom.

“Hopefully I can be in a good place to get a job out of school.” 

The plainly dressed rocker plays the opening chords to the Rolling Stones’ hit “Start Me Up,” and goes into a series of other classics.

Richards credits his influences to artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Radiohead, and Kings of Leon, and it shows in his music.  His playing reflects a modern sound that has very obvious classic rock influence.

One of his musical gems includes a pulsating, mystical intro that sounds like a track from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but smoothly lashes into a guitar solo that would easily fit into any song by Led Zeppelin.  His ability to showcase different generations in his music is something he credits to his peers. 

“Now that I hang out with people who have different tastes in music, I’ve started to mix up the old with the new,” says Richards.  “I listen to a lot of different stuff now.”

Two guys scream in from next door to put in a request for the next riff.

“Rals let’s hear some Ozzy,” his neighbors badger. 

Richards just laughs, sliding his hands up the instrument’s neck to tune up for the request.

The studious rocker doesn’t just limit his songs to work on the guitar.  He uses Garageband, a recording and mixing program, to mix different guitar sounds, and even create drumbeats and bass lines.  It is this that gives him the ability to write whole songs, but it is the lyrics that are currently off limits to other ears. 

“I’ve never sung any of my songs to anyone,” says Richards.

But that’s just the way he likes it. 

In fact, if it wasn’t for his booming guitar playing and admiring neighbors, Richards’ skills would be virtually unknown to anyone. 

Vincent Ayube, Richards’ neighbor, is also one of his biggest fans. 

“I lived with Raleigh last year in a dorm and I didn’t even know he played,” says Ayube. I come here the first weekend this year, and I’m like ‘What? You don’t play an instrument’.” 

Simply playing the guitar though isn’t what has his few listeners talking to other students about who they feel is “a really talented guy,” as Ayube jokes with Richards about his lack of exposure. 

“Raleigh is gonna be a huge rock star,” kids Ayube as he mimics Richards’ guitar playing . “You need to quit that business stuff Rals and make a band.” 

Richards is unassuming and humble about his ability, as he takes it as something he simply enjoys doing for himself. 

“I love playing the guitar,” says Richards. “It’s fun. I love it, and I love making music, but that’s all it is.” 

He sheds himself of the guitar and looks at his laptop screen and laughs.

“Why be in a band when I can make power points?”

 

Life Through the Lens

           AJ Harris experiences life as if it were a movie. As he goes about his daily routine, he notices the conditions that make for a perfect scene. He imagines the students headed to class, some tired from late night and some dressed for a class presentation, reviewing note cards as they walk in hopes of a decent grade as a simple song plays in the background that conveys the monotony of daily life.  Life unfolds as if it were film for him, one scene at a time, one song at a time.

          The soundtrack to his life’s movie? With a sly smile he said, “Now that’s a whole ‘nother story.”

         It isn’t music itself that stimulates Harris; it is what the music represents. It is a beautiful collection of independent, unrelated instruments. He doesn’t have a favorite band or artist but claims that John Anthony Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the “funky rhythm” of Stevie Wonder would be on his life’s playlist.

         Harris walks to the beat of his own drummer and is passionate about only two things in life: the guitar and film. When asked what three things he couldn’t live without, after serious contemplation, he responded: the guitar, a video camera, and a surfboard. 

        ”When I play the guitar, I get lost in the music. It makes me relax, and puts me at ease,” Harris said. 

          Harris’s humble approach to life often leaves him out of the spotlight. But when he walks into a room, it is difficult not to notice him. Perhaps it’s his six foot stature or his 215 lb. frame. Or maybe it is the way he carries himself: a subtle confidence that demands attention that he so often shies away from. His appearances clearly indicate he was genetically bred to be a sports star, but after talking to him it is obvious he has yet to lose his childhood innocence.

           In fact, on Christmas day he still does the same thing he did when he was five years old. AJ and his brother Chris wait eagerly on the top of the stairs while his parents turn on the tree lights, rearrange presents and prepare the video camera. When everything is ready they scurry down the stairs to a room full of presents. With AJ being 20-years-old and his brother 19-years-old, the sound they make when they run down the stairs to greet their Christmas surprise is, as AJ so humorously puts it, “comparable to that of a landslide.”

           Though Harris has a gentile nature and an easygoing approach, he does enjoy a challenge. He pushes himself as a running back on Elon’s varsity football team and as a student hoping to one day become a movie director. He makes what many consider to be hard work, enticing and exciting.  Everything to him seems to be a learning experience. In addition to his Zen-like approach to life, he has the attitude that nothing in life comes free and is a firm believer in hard work.

            Like his dad always told him, “Practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.”  While striving for perfection, he understands that life doesn’t always turn out the way you want.

            His grandfather, the late Al Angelo, died in April from pancreatic cancer. Harris said he would like to be remembered, “Just like my grandfather is remembered: Someone who is willing to put others before himself, who is selfless beyond belief, and who was easily the best person I’ve ever known.”

          Harris claims the key ingredient to life is “understanding yourself, because once you understand yourself, you can better understand everyone else.” He is deeply sensitive to the needs of others and selfless beyond belief. After interviewing several of Harris’s friends individually, they unanimously decided Harris was the go-to guy. He is the one to turn to if you were in trouble, need to talk, needed a ride, or simply needed anything at all.  Taylor Harlan described Harris as, “non-judgmental. He makes you feel comfortable and at ease.”

         Harris never gets too high, but never gets too low either. He likes to keep a level head while never taking life to seriously.

         Harris has mastered the beginning of his life as a movie and continues to walk through life without a script in hopes of finding the perfect and ending. 

A hero of the people

 

“Hey Antoine, can you help me over here real quick.” A young woman, with a piercing above her lip that she has removed specifically for her job, peers from behind the cashier stand and yells toward the kitchen. 

 

Ever so smoothly, a young African-American man appears at her side and helps her modify the customer’s order on the computer.

“So no onions, no broccoli, and brown rice? Got it.” With a few gentle touches on the computer screen, the customer’s order has been entered.

Wright at the cashier stand

 

“Is this all that you’re gonna be getting tonight Sharon?” The young man initiates a 10 minute conversation with the middle-aged customer who just ordered something from the Stir Fry Bar. 

At 34 years old, Manager of Red Bowl Asian Bistro Antoine Wright has a lot going for him. So far, his life has taken him through a variety of jobs-from working for the Department of Defense to owning a comedy club, Joe Franklin, in Massachusetts. Now he finds himself manager of an up-and-coming Asian restaurant in Burlington, NC. 

All the jobs Wright has had over the past decade and half have one thing in common: people. He knows people, a skill few can say they posses. He doesn’t know people on a contact or need-to-know basis, but he truly understand people. He knows how to interact with them. Wright can have a genuine conversation with any one he meets, and more than half the time he will remember names. 

Since the restaurant’s grand opening in August, Wright has had a grand total of six days off. Red Bowl is his life. On his day off it seemed that he was still working. He worked on the restaurant’s web site, which he and a friend created. He worked on plans for his own restaurant he plans to open in a few years. It will be a fusion restaurant, with food from different cuisines.

Red Bowl Asian Bistro

 

The only thing outside of work he did that day was to go shopping with his mom. They went to Toys-R-Us for a nephew’s birthday present. 

If he’s not in the kitchen helping servers get their food out, or helping at the hostess stand, Wright works in the dining room. All day and night he circles the room like a hawk, look to see if he can help make a customer satisfied. Most times, he plops himself down at a table and and introduces himself. 

“Hey guys, I’m Antoine. How’s everything going for you tonight?”

A slender, middle-aged man with glasses responds: “Very nice to meet you Antoine. Everything is going fine, the food is delicious.” 

“Well I’m glad to hear it, is this your first time here? What did you all order?” 

“No in fact this is our third time here, I had the Sesame Chicken and my wife here had the Chicken Lo Mein.” 

Wright replies, “sounds like you guys made some good choices, is there anything I can get you right now?” 

The man asks for some more water. Instead of asking the section’s waitress to get it, Wright sees that she is busy and gets it himself. He returns to the smiling man after helping the hostess with another order. 

This has almost become a routine for Wright: he introduces himself, gets to know the customers, makes them laugh, and then moves on to the next table. It’s just how he works. If a staff member does interrupt him, he will help from where he’s standing, or sitting, then get back to his conversation. 

After talking to Wright for about 10 to 15 minutes, customers feel they know the manager on a personal level. Around 5:30 on a Wednesday evening, a male college student sporting an Elon hoodie and an Elon hat comes in looking for Wright. 

“Hey is Antione here?” 

Hostess Missy Boybastun, 17, responds “Yeah, I’ll go get him. He’ll be with you in just a minute.” 

Boybastun thinks Wright is comfortable conversing with any and everyone. “I like how he talks to everyone like he knows them,” said Boybastun. 

It seems both his staff and his customers like the fact that he is easy to talk to. That is why customers come in and refer to him by his first name, and why staff members such as Chelsea Kirby, 16 find ease in talking to him. “He’s easy to talk to. He’s not just a business guy,” commented Kirby. 

It seems that, for the most part, his staff enjoys having Wright as their manager. His skill for dealing with people is extremely noticeable.

Left to right: Kirby, Boybatsun, and Wright

 

 

“He’s very much a people person” said Kirby describing Wright. “I think he could get along with anyone. You could put him in front of the meanest person every, and he will make them sweet. He’s just so nice, I think he’s secretly a superhero.”

A Professor’s Unusual Talent

A Profile on Professor Brian Nienhaus

 

Professor Nienhaus

With a coffee in hand and converse sneakers on his feet, an Elon University professor walks into his classroom after returning from a conference in Lake Tahoe. A student asks him if he won any money in the casinos there. He didn’t: he actually lost $17. The student is shocked, “How did you lose money if you know how to count cards?”

 

 

Kaelin Lutz, another student in the class, didn’t know about her professor’s card counting talent, and was surprised to learn about his secret skill.

“It was something I just didn’t expect from him,” she said. “I never thought to look beyond his classroom persona to what his real life might be like.”

Daniel Watts, another sophomore, said it’s interesting to learn about teachers’ lives outside the classroom because, “I forget that they do anything other than their job. It was really cool to hear about how Professor Nienhaus counts cards.”

Brian Nienhaus has an unusual skill that not only surprises his students, but that he adapts for his classroom lessons.

Nienhaus is an associate professor who teaches business communications at Elon. Originally from Alaska, Nienhaus grew up in Michigan where he received his undergraduate degree from Eastern Michigan University and his doctorate in mass communications from the University of Michigan. His brother taught him how to count cards in the early 1980’s when he was in need of cash.

Card counting is a system of tracking how many high and low cards are left in a deck, then using the information to vary bets to your advantage in the game of blackjack. It is legal, but unpopular in the gaming business because a good card counter can turn a slim house edge into a plump player advantage.

Today, Nienhaus says he uses the same card counting technique taught to him by his brother more than 20 years ago, with a few moderations as casinos have become more adept at catching counters over the years.

“The key to not getting caught is to make polite conversation with the people around you,” he said. “I talk about anything but gambling.”

“It’s true that you can make money,” he added, “but you can also get in a lot of trouble. I’ve been banned from three casinos and I just don’t like it.”

Since his card counting days are becoming fewer, Nienhaus turned to his penchant for gambling to explain some of the principles of business communications to his students. In a paper written this summer titled, “The Perils of Nonverbal Communication: Lessons from Professional Poker Players,” Nienhaus discussed how poker players and business professionals alike must make judgments about the future actions of others based on incomplete information.

Traditional business communications texts teach the use of nonverbal communication as a way to make these judgments, but Nienhaus suggests there are more promising strategies. He wanted to find a context to explain this to his students.

“Nonverbal communication in itself isn’t important.” said Nienhaus. “It’s the clues that people reveal about themselves individually that matter; and that’s what poker teaches us about communication.”

 “As a professor I always try to make my lessons practical,” he added.  “And the poker example relates back to one of my most basic lessons: make good judgments.”

Nienhaus’ students are grateful for his practical approach. Lutz said the best advice she’s received from him is to always be honest and not fake in the business world because people will see right through it.

“He taught us things we need to know, like how to write an effective resume,” said Lutz. “He’s a tough grader, but he’s always available for his students and willing to explain anything I need help with.”

Lutz and Watts both agree that it was fun to learn about their professor’s hidden card counting talent.

“It makes him a real person rather than a talking head spitting information at me,” said Watts. “I can relate to him in a way that I couldn’t thinking of him just as a teacher. Everyone has this image of card counters from movies like 21, and it’s cool to be able to say that I have a professor that can do that.”

Extreme Eating and Exercise

Kev McGuire paces in the corner of the gym, sucking air into his mouth. He loads 255 pounds onto the bench press bar and slides his 5-foot-4-inch frame underneath. McGuire squints to focus, reaches up and drums his fingers against the bar.

“Alright, man,” he says. “I think I can get out like 10.”

Another boy stands over the bench and guides the bar as McGuire heaves it up again and again. The last few are strained.

“Come on, dude,” his spotter says. “You got this. Keep going.”

Sweat beads on McGuire’s brow. He arches his back to push the bar up for the tenth time. The spotter helps him rerack with a familiar clank, and he jumps up.

 McGuire is the talk of the weight room because he eats over 5,000 calories per day, bench presses 255 pounds, squats 315 pounds and dead lifts 365 pounds, but he only weighs 135 pounds.

While McGuire’s extreme eating and exercise habits impress people, he remains humble, almost shy, about his accomplishments.

McGuire, 20, of Burke, Va., is a junior business major at Elon University. Soon after he was born in South Korea, he and his twin brother, Pete, were adopted and moved to America. The boys’ real names are Kev and Pete, not Kevin and Peter.

“Our mom thought naming us nicknames would be funny,” said McGuire, “She wanted people to call us Kev and Pete anyway.”

McGuire is 10 minutes younger than Pete, who attends a university in Florida. He says that Pete shares his exercise habits but does not eat as much as he does.

About six days a week, McGuire spends an hour and a half in the gym lifting weights. He also runs on the treadmill with an extra t-shirt covering the programming screen, so he can focus on running instead of how much time he has left.

“I used to run twice a day, every day,” said McGuire, “but I’ve gotten lazy. I run for 10 minutes at a time now. I’m trying to get more cardio back into my workouts.”

McGuire focuses mostly on lifting weights. Often, he performs exercises with more than twice his body weight. While he claims not to wear anything special for workouts, he is usually seen wearing black Nike socks that come midway up his tanned calves. He also chooses not to listen to music while exercising, partly because he broke his iPod, but more so because he concentrates better in silence.

All of McGuire’s friends admire how much weight he can lift.

“Kev is an animal,” said his friend Kevin Rate. “He is so jacked. I’ve never seen anyone his size lift as much as he does. He lifts more than guys that are bigger than he is.”

But lifting heavy weights is not the only impressive thing McGuire can do. He eats about twice as many calories as he should in one day because he is always hungry.

For breakfast, McGuire goes to the buffet at Elon’s Colonnades dining hall and has four cups of grits, nine pancakes, 15 scrambled eggs, eight mini cartons of milk and some sausage and bacon. A few hours later, he eats two chicken breasts, two cups of Kraft Easy Mac and five scoops of peanut butter for lunch. Then, for a typical dinner, he wolfs down nine slices of pizza, four pieces of toast and chicken Parmesan.

During the day, McGuire carries around a jar of peanut butter with a plastic spoon or a family-sized bag of Craisins for snacks.

“I love all-you-can-eat buffets,” he said. “My friends and I like to go to CiCi’s Pizza, Mongolian Grill and Old Country Buffet to set personal eating records.”

McGuire holds unofficial records at CiCi’s Pizza (24 slices) and Mongolian Grill (six plates). His friends constantly encourage him to set new records.

“I have no idea where he puts all the food he eats,” said McGuire’s workout partner James Burns. “He must have a really fast metabolism.”

McGuire says most people call his eating habits amazing, but some find it disgusting. He does not care. He has been eating more than anyone he knows since he started college.

Eat, exercise, eat more, study and sleep.

This schedule would be too much for most people to handle, but McGuire follows it almost every day. He does not worry that his calorie-consuming and iron-pumping ways will catch up to his waistline. In fact, he has trouble keeping weight on in the first place.

 

McGuire bench presses in the Elon University weight room.

 

The Need to Serve, Never Drives Away