Mindy Gledhill Singin' in the Beeve

When I heard a few months ago that Mindy Gledhill, one of my favorite indie artists, was coming to campus, I was—well, to say that I was surprised would be an understatement. I didn’t believe it until I saw it in writing. Upon further discovery, as is true with many of the cool things that happen on campus, Garret Bernal, the student executive council vice president of operations, had a hand in it. Make that two hands. I interviewed Garret today about his experience coordinating with Mindy and her team that led to her visit last weekend—where she spoke at a devotional (demonstrating a record-setting assimilation of the colloquialism of "the Beeve") and, along with Spencer Harrison, performed a wonderful concert.

Q: How did the idea first originate?

Garret: One day Thomas Petrungaro and I emailed Mindy Gledhill’s manager and told her that we were students at Southern Virginia University and that Mindy had a huge following here and a lot of students would love to have her come perform.

After that, I exchanged emails with her manager for a little while, until he said that Mindy liked the idea, and she wanted me to call her on her cell phone. In August, I gave Mindy a phone call and said, “Hi, my name is Garret Bernal, I’m the student executive council vice president of operations at Southern Virginia University and we’d love to have you come perform here.”

Q: How long have you been a fan of Mindy Gledhill?

Garret: Since before my mission; about five years.

Q: What were some of the logistics that you managed?

Garret: I helped to arrange a contract, I reserved the Knight Guest House for her to stay in, made travel arrangements, reserved Chandler Hall for her concert, coordinated with the administration of the school for her devotional, arranged, to sell her merchandise in the bookstore, found babysitters for her son, Griffin, and equipment for her and helped set up for her concert. Lots of little things came up at the last minute.

Q: Who arranged the design for her stage?

Garret: Once we got Mindy settled in the Knight Guest House on Thursday night, she wanted to see the campus. She was fascinated by how vintage and classical it looked. And some of the pieces of campus inspired her set design. What had started out as a tour became a search for creative inspiration as we walked around campus looking at the cool artifacts. We borrowed academic pieces form all over campus: a model of a heart from the biology lab, an very old chalkboard from the library archives, old dilapidated maps from the second floor of Durham, that antique globe from the Main Hall lobby. It was really cool cause Mindy would just walk around and say, “Oh how cool! Can we have that?”

After we found what we wanted to use for the design, I had so much help decorating her set. The only reason it was possible was because so many people were eager and willing to help me.

Q: How was your experience helping with this event?

Garret: It’s the most exciting thing that I’ve personally been involved in. I absolutely consider Mindy Gledhill a celebrity, so to coordinate with her so personally was very fun and really really cool.
 

Q: What were the highlights of your experience?

Garret: One of the highlights for me was talking to Mindy in the van on the way to and from the airport. Also, meeting and helping to recruit her guitarist, Spencer Harrison, who said, “Tell me about Southern Virginia, I’m thinking about finishing my undergrad there.” When Spencer was on campus he spoke to the admissions office, and during his concert, he said that he’s thinking about coming here in the fall. That’s really exciting.

(Post by Hannah Benson Rodriguez ‘13. Photos by Lindsey Morgan ‘14.)

 

Luncheon at Tiffany's

Not many students realize there’s this dandy little opportunity we have to dine with the Friday forum speakers right after they speak at forum. I know, it blew my mind too. I had the chance to participate in one of these luncheons this semester on Friday, Jan. 13, with Jason F. Wright, author of multiple New York Times best-selling books including “Christmas Jars.” According to Jason, it was almost the guy who shines the produce at Wal-Mart, but he couldn’t make it (he was too busy shining the fruit, according to Jason). Jason Wright made a much better speaker.

First off, Jason is an extremely pleasant, hilarious and insightful man. During his forum address he focused heavily on who was in our personal audience, even bringing people up to the stand to ask them. During the luncheon, as everyone there introduced themselves, he asked each of us the same exact thing. Who exactly was in our audience, and did they know that we believed in Christ? Could they see that we lived the gospel? It was great food for thought.

While we ate, Jason answered the questions we had as aspiring young writers, the best of which was probably Caitlin Robison’s question: How exactly does someone get published? It’s something all of us had thought about. Really, people talk all the time about doing it but the actual process is kind of fuzzy. It’s like when someone is giving you directions right as a train goes by and you only hear the beginning and end, leaving you to fill in the middle yourself.

Jason told us some real knee-slapping stories and made the best comments, which all led back to the big question of who was in our audience. Every speaker who comes to the school is just as intriguing, especially to those students who are going into areas the speakers specialize in. It’s an opportunity people should be grasping at instead of the proverbial straws of life. What better way to get the information you need for your chosen career path than to talk to someone who’s already in?

Speaking of which, the photos are of students with last week’s speaker Mindy Gledhill. Many of the students there were interested in becoming recording artists, making Mindy an excellent person for them to meet.

If you would like to participate in one of these lunches, please contact Celia Benson in advance to see if there is still room.

(Post by Mika McIntosh '13. Photos by Lindsey Morgan '14.)

The Barn: Home Court Advantage

At Southern Virginia University, we embrace The Genius of Small because sometimes smaller is better.

Take our gymnasium, the Knight Sports Arena, for example, which many on campus tenderly refer to as “The Barn.”
 
Why do they call it The Barn, you might wonder?
 
From 1966 to 1992 the Knight Sports Arena was called the Stanford Mish Indoor Riding Arena and served as a housing and riding area for the highly successful equestrian program of Southern Seminary’s nationally recognized intercollegiate riding program, which captured 13 regional and seven national championships.
 
Take one glance inside and you’ll know this is true.
 
While walking around The Barn and observing its brown walls, low ceiling, and general claustrophobic vibe—the Knight Sports Arena has a seating capacity of only 525, which is smaller than most high school gymnasiums—you might say to yourself, “The Knights are at a serious disadvantage playing here.”
 
But the truth is quite opposite—the Knights couldn’t be more at home in The Barn.
 
Since its conversion and dedication on Sept. 24, 2002, The Barn has become one of toughest places to play in college basketball.
 
The Southern Virginia men’s basketball team is currently riding a school-record 16-game home winning streak that began two seasons ago on Feb. 20, 2008, with a 74-63 home victory over Bluefield College.
 
During the past three seasons, the Knights are an impressive 22-1 (.957) in The Barn and over the past four seasons since current Head Coach Brian Pendleton was hired, men’s basketball is an unprecedented 30-3 at home, with two of those three losses coming during Pendleton’s first season rebuilding the program.
 
That is a .909 home-winning percentage over the past four seasons, which is a better home winning percentage than Syracuse University (62-8; .886) over that same span—the Orange (20-1) have spent most of the current season as the No. 1 ranked team in NCAA Division I basketball.
 
For regional comparisons, Southern Virginia men’s basketball has had a better home court advantage since the 2008-09 season than both Virginia Tech (47-15; .758) and University of Virginia (40-21; .656).
 
It’s clear that the Knights have extremely talented scholar-athletes, as well as quality coaching, both of which allowed men’s basketball to capture its first USCAA national championship a season ago.
 
However, the peculiarity of The Barn certainly plays a large part in Southern Virginia’s success at home—there’s no denying that the arena’s small size and unique structure make the opposing teams feel like the fans are right on top of them.
 
Spirited cheerleaders, an energetic pep band, outstanding announcing from Art Furler and support from hundreds of Southern Virginia Superfans who turn out in droves on game nights all add to the mystique of The Barn.
 
Southern Virginia Athletics would like to thank all its supporters who make The Barn such a special place to play. Embrace The Genius of Small and come cheer for both the men’s and women’s basketball teams this Saturday—help keep the streak alive!

(Post by Chris Pendleton '08. Photos by Neely Pendleton '11.)

Q&A: First Freedom Center Gala

A few members of the Southern Virginia University faculty, staff and student body had the opportunity to attend the First Freedom Center 2012 Awards Gala last week. At the gala, four awardees were named: Canon Andrew White, Marc D. Stern, Robert M. O'Neill and Bishop Peter James Lee. I sat down with Garret Bernal, a business major from Seattle, Wash., and one of the attendees, to gather more information on the event. 

Q: First off, what was this event that you attended?

Garret: It was the First Freedom Center gala. First Freedom Center is an international organization that awards VIPs around the world for significant contributions for promoting religious freedom. And so Thursday night [Jan. 12] we went to the gala, or the ceremony that  happened in 2012, and four people were given awards.

Q: Why did you go?

Garret: Glade Knight, who is the chairman of Southern Virginia University’s board of trustees is also one of the chairs of First Freedom Center, and so because he also happens to be a major donor to First Freedom Center, he invited 20 people to the gala. He donated money to the First Freedom Center under the name of the school and invited representatives of Southern Virginia and put all of us at a table and had a big Southern Virginia sign and Southern Virginia stuff everywhere, so he was really promoting the school.

Q: You must have felt pretty excited being one of the people invited to go.

Garret: Yes, it was quite a privilege to be invited to go to such a special event. It’s not often you get exposure to so many incredible people.

Q: Do you feel you were received well?

Garret: Absolutely. It was great. Like I said we got recognized as students. It was great because we got to meet some of the people that were being awarded, one of which was the recipient of the international award. His name was Canon Andrew White. He is the vicar of St. George’s Anglican Church in Baghdad. He’s done a lot in the Middle East to promote religious freedom. You could just feel his presence when you talked to him, it was cool.

(Post by Mika McIntosh '13. Photo by Taylor Dabney, Courtesy of the First Freedom Center, Copyright 2012.)

The Mormon Moment

I’m sure 89 percent of you know what I mean when I say that we’re living in the “Mormon Moment.” But for the 11 percent that don’t know what I mean, let me explain: The “Mormon Moment” refers to society’s piqued interest in Mormonism. Things like California’s controversial Proposition 8, Mitt Romney’s campaign for presidency, Glenn Beck, “The Book of Mormon Musical” currently running on Broadway and missionaries knocking on people’s doors have managed, easily might I add, to catch the public eye. Then there’s The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ I’m A Mormon ad campaign highlighting the ‘everyday’ member of the Church. Professor Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” finally being made into a movie will probably drudge up more questions about the faith of the Church’s members as well. The list could go on, both for positive and negative mentions (there is no such thing as bad publicity, right?). But the point I’d like to bring up is this: is the “Mormon Moment” a bad thing?

In a study conducted by The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 63 percent of members of the LDS faith think acceptance of Latter-day Saints is on the rise, despite 62 percent of members also thinking that most Americans  are also uninformed about the LDS religion. Basically, there are a whole lot of statistics based on a survey of more than 1,000 members of the Church on not only these questions, but about views members have on issues like religious beliefs and economics.

This study is pretty big news; it has been featured by many prominent news corporations across the country including the New York Times, National Public Radio, CNN, Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News and Associated Press.

How do you feel about living in these times? Do you think the “Mormon Moment” is a good thing? As you browse through the survey, think about your own answers to the questions asked.

(Post by Mika McIntosh '13.)