The Pellissippi Press
The student voice of Pellissippi State Technical Community College

by Leah Hall

Eight members of the Drama Club of the Blount County campus are going to New York.

They raised $4,000 to pay for tickets to the Broadway show “Wicked,” hotel rooms for four nights, bus fare and other touring expenses.

In New York, members will see a Broadway play as well as visit the Museum of Modern Art, The Statue of Liberty and Yankee Stadium.

Dorothy Donaldson, a Drama Club advisor and mentor, said students worked together to achieve their goal. “I was impressed by everyone’s maturity and people skills,” she said. “People not able to go on the trip were also willing to work and help others. We had fun.”

Members sold coffee and donuts, pizza, Valentine’s Day chocolates, and hot dogs. They also had a bake sale, a yard sale and a car wash.

Club president Sabrina Runyon said, “Our members have worked extremely hard…they have faced many ups and downs, but have overcome to reach our main goal, and never lost focus.”

Members said they received lots of help and support from members of the Blount County campus, especially Rhonda Mattingly, Alberta Boring, and Dewey Davis.

Vice president Gary Grimmett and secretary Kathy Watson said that they are also grateful to Betsy Boyd, who will be going on the trip with them, and Prof. Donaldson who they describe as energetic and inspiring. Runyon added, “We will never forget her for making a stand and pulling for us.”

Donaldson said the club often meets to do theater exercises and games and have dinner together. Last semester club members joined to go to four different theatrical productions in the area.

by Danny Butler

“The turn out has been great!” said Lee Baker, commenting on the community, faculty , and student support for the Festival of Cultures on April 18.

The night had performances by Hindustani classical musicians Indrajit Banerjee and Gourisankar Karmakar, and the East Tennessee Chinese School Dancers performed as well. The event also featured booths focused on African, Asian, European, and South American cultures.

“The community response to this event has been great,” said Baker. “The students were excited when they heard learned about tonight’s program.”

Gayle Wood of the Access and Diversity department said “People are milling around and are getting a taste of everything that is around here, and I think that is wonderful.”

Although there is no word on this becoming an annual event, Wood said that many people have asked her if that could be possible.

The Festival of Cultures was sponsored by the Multi-Cultural Awareness Club and Access and Diversity Office.

by Leah Hall

The Magnolia Drama club is alive and well and working on Shakespeare.

This semester, the group performed “Cowboys Don’t Look Down” by John Briggs with a cast of four.

With a larger cast they will be performing “Shakespeare Night” on April 24 and 25 in the campus courtyard at 7pm. The show features pieces from plays like Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and The Merchants of Venice.

“It’s a really good experience. You get to meet a lot of people you wouldn’t normally meet,” said Katie Cole, president of the club.

Ben Ward, who played Mark in “Cowboys Don’t Look Down” said after the first performance, “It’s great to see that there are students on the campus that would put this kind of time and commitment into a production.”

Roger Alleyne, the club treasurer, says the club is planning to put together some performances for the community in the fall semester.

By Landon Doane

The Pellissippi Variations Choir will be performing at the annual Rossini Festival on April 19.

The Rossini Festival is a street fair patterned after the Rossini festival in Italy and is sponsored by the Knoxville Opera Company each spring. Associate Professor of Music Bill Brewer will direct the 36 member choir.

The Variations choir has performed at the Rossini Festival before. “This will be our fourth year to sing for the festival,” said Brewer. Despite this being nothing new for Variations, Brewer is excited nonetheless.

“This festival is a premier event in Knoxville every spring. There is thousands of people downtown for this event. It is a wonderful opportunity to get exposure for the school. Besides that it is just a really festive and fun venue for singing,” stated Brewer.

The Variations choir will be joined by the Knoxville Choral Society’s Chamber Chorale, also directed by Brewer. Variations’ set will start at 4:00 p.m. on the main stage at the corner of Gay Street and Union Street.

By Jill Underwood

For over 10 years now, Pellissippi State has opened its doors every Sunday to a school that strives to preserve Chinese culture for the next generation.

The Chinese school, known as the Cultural School of Knoxville, meets in designated buildings and classrooms on the Hardin Valley campus.

Most of the students are children between the ages of 6 and 12.

The classes, which include dance, language, food preparation and cultural history, are taught by members of the Chinese community.

“They’re trying to maintain the elements of their heritage,” said Allen Edwards. Edwards also said that he believes these classes have a positive effect on the City of Knoxville and that Pellissippi will continue to host them. “Our job is to serve the community,” he said.

By Jessica Barbour

Is it another war between the states?

April 11 and 12 reenactment soldiers from the 63^rd Tennessee Volunteer Infantry and the 8^th Tennessee U.S. are putting on a living history demonstration.

This is one of many events tied to Sharpshooter by David Madden, which is the Common Book for Pellissippi this year.

These groups will behave like they were living in 1863. All clothing, weapons and food have to be exactly what a solider would have during the war between the states. “If the soldiers wanted coffee they would have to grind up beans with the end of their riffles,” said Pellissippi State’s Charles Walker.

Women involved are also to act their part. Before 4 p.m. women must not to show their necks or ankles but after 4 p.m. women may wear clothing that accents their features.

During the weekend the groups will demonstrate the life of a soldier in that time by putting on drills (marching presentations) and firing demos. This will show the students an aspect of what life was like during the 1860’s.

The reenactment groups will receive a honorarium for the time they are at the college reenacting.

Guest are encouraged to come and talk to the “soldiers,” but the soldiers are not to know anything that happened after April 1863.

By Leah Hall

Pellissippi students from all over the world share a bit of their lives in the 2008 International Students Art Exhibit at the Division Street campus.

The participating students are in their first year of English classes with Prof. Mary Nietling.

Much of the work is reflective of the students’ cultural backgrounds and homelands. Some pieces reflect something more internal or personal.

“The inspiration for the show came from the students,“ said Nietling. “Their composition textbooks have areas to draw pictures that show the relationships of sentence structure. When I went around the classroom to check their workbooks, I noticed many very nice drawings, and thought to myself, ‘These students are talented!’”

Habeeb Al Salem, from Saudi Arabia, was instrumental in putting the show together. He studies computer graphics, and used his skills to organize the show. He has been interested in art since he was very young.

Some of his work for the show was computer generated. One piece is a mermaid, which he said reflects the kind of art he would like to create professionally. He is also showing some pencil drawings, including one of Arabic calligraphy.

Shirley Martinez, from Columbia, wants to study psychology. Her work depicts a sunflower with long hair, which she said represents a dear friend she had in the sixth grade.

Saori Kuwano, from Japan, created two rainbow-colored origami balls. She explained that they are meant to be a prayer or a wish for good luck, and are often given as gifts to the sick. She was first taught origami at the age of three by her mother and grandmother.

Charu Panthi, from Nepal, has many pieces in the exhibit. Some are paintings of her homeland, some are photographs and some are traditional designs. One piece called “We Interpret Dreams” is a series of faces with hair made of a collage of magazine pictures, which she said were inspired by Nietling. Each has the same haircut and she said that the scenes in their hair represent their ideas.

Li Hong Ma, from China, has shared some traditional Chinese illustrations. She is also showing a piece called “Life Tree” which she says represents her transformation in finding god. She describes this transformation as “coming to have a face.”

Students were encouraged by the responses they received for their artwork. “I never expected anything, but when people commented that they liked it, I felt really happy,” said Charu Panthi.

Shirley Martinez said she noticed a student walk past her art piece in the hall, turn and walk back to look again, and smile approvingly. She was glad to see her art have such an affect on someone.

Habeeb Al Salem said that this experience helped him to focus on his artwork; knowing that someone would be seeing it encouraged him in his creative process.

Saori Kuwano has enjoyed being in Nietling’s class, meeting other students from around the globe and participating in the art show. She said, “It is nice to share something new.” She said that sharing and learning new things will help her to “grow up to be a big heart.”

Other students with work in the show are Aziz Wahada, from Tunisia; Hala Burbar, from Palestine; Handan Paca, from Turkey; and Andy Aryanto, from Indonesia.

By Leah Hall

Jerry Bryan, vice president of Information Services at Pellissippi State, shared his Civil War family history as part of the Sharpshooter common book experience on March 11, at the Magnolia campus.

“I really wanted listeners to come away with a sense of what life was like in East Tennessee during and after the Civil War,” said Bryan. “So I wanted to talk about orphans, widows, disease, poverty, midnight riders, terrorism, babies, neighbor women, midwives, and pensions, as much as soldiering.” Bryan explained how this area was a very difficult place to live during the Civil War, as residents were a mix of Union and Confederate sympathizers. Very often neighbors were for opposing sides.

“There was sabotage and mayhem; there were night riders and lynchings. It was a very dangerous place to be at that time,“ said Bryan.

Bryan gave a brief description of the time, and explained how the unusual topography of East Tennessee was important to the way events played out.

He explained that at one point, joining the Union army was treason. Recruits had to travel up to Cumberland Gap to reach Kentucky to enlist, as they could not travel over the Cumberland Mountains or the range to the south.

One family tale was that of John England. He was too old to join the army, and so served as a Union recruiter. He served as a guide to recruits north through the Cumberland Gap.

England was captured by Confederate soldiers at his own home, taken to Anderson County jail, and condemned to death. He escaped by jumping out of a second story window, crawling to the Clinch River with damaged feet, and floating on a plank for miles to the Scarbrough Community, near his home.

After resting in the woods for ten days and being fed by neighbors, England fled the area wearing women’s clothing, and rejoined his unit in Nashville.

Bryan was able to share some of the unusual language and spelling used at that time, found in actual affidavits from his ancestors.

Most of these were from the National Archives in Washington D.C., where pension records of Union soldiers are held. Confederate pension records are held in the various states.

“What’s important is the ‘pension application records’, because it’s the pension applications that include all the affidavits that tell us about the lives of the people,” said Bryan.

Bryan says he has been doing genealogy research about his family since 1998.

In addition to the National Archives, his sources were interviews with living elders of his family, state and county libraries, courthouses, county archives, cemeteries, online databases and the McClung Collection of Knox County Public Library.

by Danny Butler

The KD Lawson Photography Studio in the Bagwell Center for Media and Art at the Hardin Valley Campus was opened and dedicated Wednesday.

Pulitzer-prize winning National Geographic photographer Jay Dickman and Photoshop expert Jay Kinghorn were in attendance for the ceremony to honor Lawson and his contribution to Pellissippi State’s photography department.

Lawson died last November from complications of a heart attack. “He was an amazing individual,” said Dickman. “He was one of those rare individuals that creates an interface for these . . . young photographers learning how to make a living in the real world.”

During the dedication, Dickman announced that Olympus, a camera company, was donating $24,000 to the recently formed KD Lawson scholarship fund.

Later that night, Dickman and Kinghorn presented a “Meet the Pros” seminar in the Performing Arts Center, sponsored by Olympus.

By Evan Hudson

A new grant for students majoring in education who are willing to teach in low-income schools can offer up to $4,000 a year.

According to Wendy Floyd of the Financial Aid Office, the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) grant is designed to help pay up to $16,000 for undergraduate and $8,000 for graduate school.

In return for this grant students must work four academic years in a high-need and low-income school within eight years of graduation.

Also, students are required to teach in high need fields such as special education.  This grant is designed to target the shortage of teachers in such fields.

“If someone fails to complete the four years of teaching within the eight year time period the grant money is treated as an unsubsidized loan,” said Floyd.

For more information on the TEACH Grant contact Wendy Floyd in the FInacncial Aid office at wmfloyd@pstcc.edu.