Bryan College Triangle

By Meredith Kreigh
Triangle Writer

After college, Audrey Nelson will try to continue her golf career / Photo courtesy Audrey Nelson

In the last few months, Audrey Nelson, senior, broke through challenges in her golf game and enjoyed success. But she’s aiming higher.

“Anything can happen,” she said.“It’s all words like ‘luck’ because that’s what golf is. It’s luck. Tomorrow, anything could happen—I could throw my back out.”

The Bryan golfer, 22, began the sport when her father started teaching her at age 5. Now, her aspirations—aspirations that may be within her reach—reach far beyond any school.

While her stats have been unimpressive on the collegiate level, Nelson proved herself over the summer, making a 74, her personal best, in Cleveland, Ohio. She competed alone, without the Bryan Golf Team, in the Public Links qualifier last year. The score brought her handicap down to a 3.0, which allows her to compete in the U.S. Open qualifier, for which a handicap of 4.4 or below is required.

Nelson travelled to West Orange, N.J., to compete in the Amateur Public Links tournament last August. While there, she was able to see the Golf Hall of Fame in the United States Golf Association Museum.

“I got to walk through the hall of fame in Jersey. I got to see the trophy with the names of all of these amazing golfers. I got to picture what it might be like for me one day,” Nelson said.

Nelson struggled through several health issues with her lower back, shoulder and arthritis in her hands. There have also been personal problems, as Nelson said she has had to deal with the pain of loss.

Bryan competed in the NAIA National Qualifier (Greenville, Tenn.) last Saturday, April 20. Nelson said it was difficult, in some aspects, to play when the rest of the team was so focused on this last tournament of this year’s collegiate golf season. The Bryan season is winding down while she is focusing on her summer full of golf and what her future in golf could look like.

Three days after school lets out, Nelson will drive to Atlanta to play 36 holes in a single day at the qualifier for the U.S. Open, with one tee time in the morning and another in the afternoon. If she places there, she will have the opportunity to compete for the first time in the U.S. Open, held in the second week of June.

Recently, her father has been switching out her clubs, teaching her to be adaptable. She uses new clubs practically every month.

New clubs. New tournaments. New rank? The possibilities are taking form for Nelson.

By Daniel Jackson
News Editor

Students gather around Joni Eareckson Tada, an advocate for people with disability, after chapel / Photo by Amy Bailey

Over the past several years, a relationship between Joni and Friends, a Christian ministry devoted to helping people with disabilities, and Bryan College has been developing.

Bryan’s alumni have gone to work in the offices of the organization, the college recently began offering a course designed by Joni and Friends, and Joni and Friends use Fort Bluff Camp on Dayton Mountain to host their camp for families with children of disabilities. On April 22, Joni Eareckson Tada herself visited Bryan campus for the first time.

A diving accident when she was 17 left Joni paralyzed from the shoulders down. Now 63, she advocates for people with disability. Author of over 48 books, she talks about suffering, disability and Christianity.

Rudd Auditorium was packed for the chapel hour on April 22. Visitors, both young and old, filled the seats and others stood in the back.

She spoke about how people with disabilities bless the church. She said many people who live with day-to-day suffering have to rely more on God. Through living faith, they show faith in God.

“We’re God’s best visual aids. We’re God’s best flannelgraphs,” she said.

At one point in her presentation, she stopped.

“Ken, can you help me a second?” Joni said to her husband.

Ken Tada hopped onstage to help Joni reposition herself.

“Not only can I not breathe,” she said, “I don’t have any balance.”

Earlier in the visit, Ken had to go onstage to help his wife clear her throat. Joni told the audience to pray for her while Ken helped her.

He helped her move forward while she explained that God’s power is made perfect in weakness. She loves depending on her husband because it teaches her to depend more on God, she said.

Bryan Alumna Laura Payne, who works with Joni and Friends as the South East Director, said Joni and Friends created a curriculum called, “Beyond Suffering,” which is the most comprehensive curriculum Joni and Friends have complied.

Last September, the organization also released the curriculum in Braille and Spanish. Bryan offered the course, taught by certified instructors, both last fall and this spring.

Like Bryan, the curriculum emphasizes worldview, thus, there is something of a philosophical connection, Payne said.

“Bryan’s been doing that for over 30 years,” she said.

Payne graduated from Bryan in 1982. While she was here, she worked on the Bryan Triangle.

Many courses on worldview do not address disability, but “Beyond Suffering” fills a need, said Payne, because there are many people who deal with disability, such as U.S. veterans who became disabled through serving in the military.

Payne said Tada came to campus through the connections made through Summit Ministries and John Stonestreet, and through Bryan’s use of the “Beyond Suffering” curriculum.

Joni and Friends also uses Fort Bluff Camp to host its East Tennessee Joni and Friends Family retreats.

The family retreats are week-long retreats for families of a child with a disability.

Dayton’s Lucia Fary, grandmother of sophomore Jay Carpenter, volunteered at the camp for the first time last year. She was assigned to a child.

“You just interact with them and help them have a great time,” she said.

The moms that attend the retreat get pedicures and craft necklaces and get support from the other mothers.

On the first day, the volunteers, about 80 in all, gathered to welcome each family that entered the camp. They gathered with balloons, firecrackers and when a family drove up, they shouted for every child that arrived.

She remembered thinking, “Who cheers the handicapped? No one, not really.”

Darlene LaPlue, a Bryan alum and longtime volunteer with Joni and Friends, said she never realize the need was so great. Now in her 11th year volunteering with the organization, she said people don’t realize the problem because these families are hidden away.

In the retreat that will be held this July at Fort Bluff, the camp will be filled with families, but Joni and Friends still needs volunteers, said LaPlue.

While the future of the connection between Joni and Friends and Bryan will depend on the national organization, Payne said she hopes their relationship will continue to grow.

By Daniel Jackson
News Editor

A behind-the-scenes look at the filming of “Jesus Fish.”

“Jesus Fish” is swimming home.

Spawned from the mind of Bryce McGuire through a writing assignment in an advanced screenwriting class at Bryan College, the 22-minute short film is entering the waters of the film festival circuit. But not before it stops at the place where it was made: Dayton, Tenn.

Two alumni of the film department, Bryce McGuire and Colton Davie, are returning to the hill to show their short film, “Jesus Fish”, Monday April 22 at 8:30 p.m. in Rudd Auditorium.

McGuire said he got the idea for “Jesus Fish” from growing up in a small town and hearing the stories lore, legends and haunting in his small town.

“I remember growing up that my brother had seen this lake monster and no one believed him—of course,” he said.

When Assistant Professor in Communication Studies Chris Clark asked the students in his screenwriting class to create a story, McGuire crafted a story that explored spiritual faith through the account of a lake monster.

McGuire said Clark did not like the story at first. McGuire remembers getting a low grade on the project. But he then revised it over the course of a year and a half, about 37 times, he recalls.

At first, McGuire and Davie wanted to film the story for Spiritual Life Formation to be shown in chapel and then as an omnibus project, but they realized the film was too ambitious.

The two finally got around to filming the story in August 2011, just before they both married and before McGuire left for the American Film Institute (AFI).

McGuire wrote and directed “Jesus Fish,” while Davie worked as the producer and cinematographer for the film.

They finished filming in seven days, and then McGuire hopped into a car packed to the bursting, drove to California in three days and started classes at AFI the next day.

“It was probably very unwise but we had to do it,” he said.

McGuire will graduate with a MFA in screenwriting in June from AFI, one of the top film schools in the country.

He feels that the film program at Bryan prepared him to work with the people who will be making the biggest movies in the next few years.

The stress Bryan placed on worldview helped McGuire navigate the culture-producing Mecca of Hollywood. His Bryan education helped him understand other people’s worldviews, think critically and own his worldview, speaking confidently about what he believed.

McGuire said people in Hollywood respect you if you have a broad view of culture, understanding its many angles. Even the creator of raunchy R-rated comedies care about what’s going on in culture, he said, and they use their art to talk about message and subtext.

Bryan’s film school also taught McGuire skills he needed to succeed in screenwriting.

“Chris Clark is always taking in terms of story,” McGuire said.

People can easily learn the mechanics and style of writing a screenplay, McGuire said. Storytelling is often overlooked.

Clark said he’s seen several scripts for “Jesus Fish,” but he has yet to see the film.

In his Advanced Narrative Writing for Film class, Clark said he asks questions about the script. Who are the main characters? Is there conflict? Is there dramatic need?

“It’s the questions Aristotle was asking 3,000 years ago,” he said.

Davie and McGuire will show the film at the Indie Grits Festival in Columbia, S.C., and Boston’s independent film festival. They are waiting to hear back from other festivals from around the country.

McGuire said if the film does well in one place, word will get around and they will have an easier time getting into other festivals.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of film festivals in the country, said Clark. The trick is getting the film into the distinguished festivals, SXSW, Sundance, Toronto, etc. Other film festivals, such as Nashville’s and Atlanta’s film festivals, are feeders into the Oscar Awards.

McGuire said he wanted to thank the other Bryan students who helped in the production of “Jesus Fish,” such as Bryan Boling and Cameron Lane.

“They played really big roles on that set,” he said.

Recently, McGuire rewatched “Jesus Fish,” after five months of not touching the project. While two years at AFI gave him a new perspective on the film, he is still excited to show it at Bryan.

“This movie isn’t perfect, but it is a wild ruckus ride, and I hope people will enjoy going on the ride with us,” he said.

Click here to see a trailer for “Jesus Fish”

By Daniel Jackson
News Editor

Justin Galemore hands Ryan Wolf a certificate and a pin after inducting him into the Sigma Tau Delta chapter on campus. Sigma Tau Delta is the international English honors society. / Photo by Daniel Jackson

Sigma Tau Delta, the international honor society for English students, is a gathering place logophiles, bibliophiles or those who love the prose of JRR Tolkien or the poetry of Edmund Spenser.

On April 11, the Sigma Tau Delta society on the Bryan hill gathered in the yellow light of the Rhea County room as a heavy rain fell on the roof and sky turned blue-black. Some of the 16 students dressed for the occasion, donning cocktail dresses and ties.

This meeting was the changing of the guard: In this meeting, the society at Bryan elected its officers for the upcoming year and accepted five new members into the society. They also listened to guest speaker Professor of English at Taccoa Falls College, Ga., Donald Williams, who writes poetry and has authored eight books.

Krista Elsten, junior, was one of the new students who were inducted into the society that night. As an English major, she heard about the society often from her professors and fellow students.

She describes the society as a place for “lit nerds.”

Professor of English at Bryan Whit Jones said the society will listen to three to four speakers a year, take trips to the New American Shakespeare Tavern in Atlanta, and around Christmastime, read Christmas classics in the library over cookies and hot chocolate.

Some of these events are open just for the club; others are open to the whole campus.

On April 25, the society will host a poetry slam in Brock Hall.

A poetry slam, Jones said, is “a little like a rapping competition.”

Participants will read their poems and the audience will pick a winner. Jones said a poetry slam is “in your face,” and poets will get immediate judgment on their work by an audience.

Every new member of the society received a certificate and a pin. When students graduate, they can add a chord to their graduation robes to mark their participation in the society. / Photo by Daniel Jackson

Sigma Tau Delta started their meeting by inducting the five new members.

After taking an oath, the new members listened to the history of the society. The society began one year before the Scopes Monkey Trial was held. Sigma Tau Delta was started in 1924 in order to “confer distinction for high achievement in English language, literature, and writing,” reads the society’s website.

The chapter at Bryan was started eight years ago. Jones, who told this part of the history of the society here on the hill, said the society has had its up and down years, but recently he’s seen the society gain more members on Bryan’s campus.

After Justin Galemore, senior, managed the elections of the officers for next year, he said, “That concludes some logistical stuff, so we can now have some fun.”

Professor Donald Williams of Taccoa Falls College, Ga., spoke to the society, reciting his poetry, talking in several languages and speaking about consuming media while remaining pure. / Photo by Daniel Jackson

Williams read some of his poetry and then discussed how Christians should consume media. He said separating from the bad culture is not an option—Christians will still be exposed to it. He said Christians need to focus on good literature and the Bible so that the bad does not affect their minds.

“You keep that stuff washed out by keeping the good stuff flowing through,” he said.

Afterwards, a student asked Williams to speak in Elvish because when Jones introduced him, he said Williams spoke the language fluently.

“My students are always asking me to speak Klingon,” he said launching into the fictional language spoken by the Klingon warrior race of Star Trek. He accented the harsh language with fisted salutes

Then he spoke Elvish, the language JRR Tolkien developed for his trilogy, “The Lord of the Rings.”

Students listened with half smiles as he spoke the language that sounds like a stream flowing over rocks.

“We have to do Old English,” Williams said next.

Old English, the predecessor of modern English, is similar enough to modern English that a careful listener could understand the language.

He launched into the language, a language that sounded like a blend of German, Swedish and French.

One student figured out what he was speaking: The Lord’s Prayer. Williams went line by line, explaining the vocabulary, explaining that Old English pronounces things differently and that once a listener understands the rhythm and stresses of Old English, they can understand it much easier.

By 9 p.m., they were done. The rain outside had lessened. The new members were inducted. And Elsten liked her first meeting.

“It was good. It was fun,” she said.

By Amy Bailey
Triangle Writer

(Video produced by The Kellys’ Productions)

Bryan College seniors Justin and Hannah Kelly, are living proof that business and marriage can go hand in hand.

In January of 2012, the couple founded their joint enterprise, “The Kellys’ Productions.” Since then their company has blossomed. They started out pursuing their individual interests in photography and film.

Sitting in Common Grounds during this interview, Justin recalled the story of Hannah’s receiving a camera in high school. She leads the photography side of the business, while Justin handles the film and video work. However, they were both quick to comment that they equally assist one another in the field and always accompany the other on individual assignments, such as when Hannah is booked for a photo shoot.

“Justin comes along and helps me by holding the boom stand or something similar,” she says.

The Kellys agreed that being able to work and spend time together is a real benefit, particularly in comparison to working nine-to-five office jobs apart. Their unique relationship as husband and wife also adds an interesting dynamic to their business—aside from not having to worry about having vexatious coworkers (most of the time), it gives them an endearing appeal with their clients.

The Kellys’ faith in God influences every aspect of their business. As Hannah puts it, since they are made in God’s image, she and Justin strive to do their best in their work as a reflection of that. Their efforts have paid off—The Kellys’ Productions already has several jobs lined up for the coming year.

One of their more important jobs is with the White County Chamber of Commerce. The Kellys have been asked to make 30 to 40, 30-second videos showcasing the county.

“This is a big job and will give us the opportunity to branch out to other chambers of commerce in other counties. It is also opening many new doors with many new people.”

Additionally, Justin was hired by Suburban Manufacturing in Dayton to make product information and employee training videos. Justin will also be doing some work with a recording studio in Nashville that he interned with during high school.

After graduation, the couple hopes to relocate to the Nashville area. Justin is a music administration major, with a minor in film. And Hannah is a business administration major, specializing in finance and economics. Her business education has already proved to be a worthwhile investment in organizing their company and keeping the books, according to Hannah. She has also been able to use what she has learned about marketing and advertising to better promote the company.

Currently, she is looking for a job in finance. Justin plans on pursuing videography full time. Ideally, the Kellys hope to be able to devote their energies full-time to their company. The Kellys’ Productions has a website, thekellysproductions.com, and can also be found on Facebook and YouTube.