College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Category
05.04.2013
The Alumni Association is honoring 21 NC State professors with the 2013 Faculty Awards for their outstanding work in the classroom, in the laboratory and in the field. We talked (via email) with some of the recipients about their work and the keys to being a successful professor.
Today we’re visiting with Shannon Pratt-Phillips, an associate professor in the Department of Animal Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Pratt-Phillips is one of seven professors being recognized as Alumni Association Outstanding Teachers.
What prompted you to become a professor? I became a professor because I loved my own university experience, and I wanted to give other students the same opportunities to learn to love education, and to learn how to reach their goals. I also wanted to have an impact on horse health in terms of nutrition, both directly (through conducting research in this area), and indirectly (through my students - future veterinarians, equine facility operators, current or future horse owners).
What are the keys to being a successful teacher/professor? I think students get excited about a topic - and therefore learn it better - if you (as the instructor) are excited and passionate about it. I try to have a balance between my own life (and horse ownership) experiences and practical, factual information. I try to show lots of videos, keep students updated with current events in the industry, and show how the information we discuss is relevant and useful for them (even if they’ll never own or touch a horse!)
What gives you the greatest satisfaction as a professor? I think knowing students are actually excited to come to my class is a nice feeling. Of course, seeing the students graduate, go on to graduate or veterinary school, or have careers in the industry is always very rewarding. I love hearing from students long after the course is over!
05.02.2013
The Alumni Association is honoring 21 NC State professors with the 2013 Faculty Awards for their outstanding work in the classroom, in the laboratory and in the field. We talked (via email) with some of the recipients about their work and the keys to being a successful professor.
Today we’re visiting with Miriam Ferzli, a teaching assistant professor of biology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Ferzli, who earned her masters degree and doctorate at NC State, is one of six professors being recognized as Alumni Association Distinguished Undergraduate Professors.
What prompted you to become a professor? During my graduate career, I was “forced” to be a teaching assistant, and it was during this time that I fell in love with teaching. Prior to that, I just wanted to be a scientist, and teaching was not on my radar. I was actually terrified at the prospect of teaching, but felt right at home from the very first day. Since then, I have made teaching and the scholarship of teaching and learning my central focus.
What are the keys to being a successful teacher/professor? I believe that the most important thing to achieve is a strong rapport with your students, one that is built on mutual respect and a love of learning. This will serve as the foundation to fostering a learning community in which students are willing to participate. I always aim to establish this type of learning environment. I lead by example and in the process try to instill a joy in learning the subject material by making it meaningful to their lives. I try to teach them ways of thinking that they can apply everywhere and I make my objectives very clear.
What gives you the greatest satisfaction as a professor? My greatest satisfaction comes when a student has gone beyond doing course work for the sake of a grade and shows investment in learning. An example would be a student who tells me that she found the exam or course very challenging; but that she really liked it, because it made her think and learn. When I see the evidence of learning, I feel rewarded. I also feel rewarded when the students stay in touch with me throughout their undergraduate years and tell me how much my class helped them in later courses. In general, there is a great satisfaction in seeing my students grow and develop academically and professionally — that is my greatest reward!
04.25.2013
The Alumni Association is honoring 21 NC State professors with the 2013 Faculty Awards for their outstanding work in the classroom, in the laboratory and in the field. We talked (via email) with some of the recipients about their work and the keys to being a successful professor.
Today we’re visiting with Miles Engell, a teaching assistant professor of biology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Engell, who earned a PhD in zoology at NC State in 2003, is one of seven professors being recognized as Alumni Association Outstanding Teachers.
What prompted you to become a professor? I started out teaching high school biology only when my former high school principal begged me to come teach for a couple of years. Much to my surprise, I really enjoyed it, and found my favorite class to be the AP class. Meanwhile, though I loved teaching, I also knew I wanted to return to school for a graduate degree in animal behavior… so, it naturally followed that I’d move up to teaching college afterwards. I haven’t regretted it!
What are the keys to being a successful teacher/professor? Enthusiasm for your subject, concern for your students both as learners and as individuals, and willingness to devote time and energy to keeping your teaching “fresh,” relevant and interesting! Organization and a sense of humor help, too.
What gives you the greatest satisfaction as a professor? Knowing I’ve impacted students’ lives in a positive way by encouraging them to think, question and challenge themselves. It’s incredibly rewarding to hear that I’ve opened a mind to a new idea or perspective, since that, of course, is learning — and something we should all do, all of our lives.
04.24.2013
Jarrett Joyce never thought he would be on television. “I’m the guy that ran from the home movie camera,” he said. “Not in a million years did I think I would be on TV. I always knew I would be an entrepreneur and I knew I wanted to work for myself.”
Joyce, a 2000 graduate of NC State, is working for himself. But his work is being televised — Joyce is one of the shippers on A&E’s “Shipping Wars,” a reality television show that follows shippers like Joyce as they carry unusual freight around the country. The shows air on Sundays.
“Being on the show for me was really scary to begin with because everything is filmed, all of your worst moments are being put on TV,” Joyce says. “But, you kind of realize that your worst moments make good TV.”
Joyce, who majored in agricultural business at NC State, sold concrete and asphalt until he lost his job in December 2010. In February 2011, he decided to try the shipping business.
His journey with “Shipping Wars” began with a visit to a website, www.uship.com, to bid on potential shipping jobs. The show looks through shipper profiles on the site to pick out potential personalities for upcoming seasons. That’s how they found Joyce.
“I actually thought it was a joke,” he says. “I figured it was one of my friends, so I gave the guy a hard time and he said, ‘No, I am for real.’ It was really unbelievable.”
Two years later, Joyce is still considered the new guy of the show and spends weeks on the road for filming and shipping. “Last year, the whole filming season was March to October,” he says. “They try to plan it two weeks on the road and a couple of days home.”
But the shipping business is year-round and the cargo comes first to Joyce. The time spent out on the road when “Shipping Wars” isn’t filming can add up – and Joyce has had some long runs. “I was on the road for 40 straight days once,” he says. “When I took time off in January for myself, I shipped a printing press from San Diego to Connecticut.”
Joyce doesn’t often get to interact with the other shippers on the show except for when they get together in Texas to film interview segments. “Every character is exactly like they are on the show,” he says. “We all get along, but it’s a professional relationship.”
As with any show, viewers have opinions about the shippers. And their opinions are not always positive. “I don’t really pay attention to the negativity,” Joyce says. “There’s always going to be people who disagree or put something down. I just see it as a light-hearted, fun reality show, no need to worry.”
Joyce’s last two seasons have included a few wild rides. “The very first thing I ever shipped for the show was the entire set of the play of Little Shop of Horrors,” he says. “The biggest piece was the giant plant Audrey II, and it barely fit in the trailer. I took it from New Jersey to San Diego.”
The next season’s shipments got even crazier. “I did a giant lumberjack statue,” he says. “It wouldn’t fit in my trailer, it was supposed to. The show makes it look like I measured wrong. I had to put it on a flatbed trailer.”
This created more problems, however. “I didn’t even consider that the base was like a giant parachute or sail. It caught the wind and the wind resistance would not let my van go very fast at all,” he says. “It was basically like a parachute behind my van.”
In the summer of 2012, Joyce shipped a custom casket, designed to look like a car. “This guy had just ordered a custom casket from a place in Kansas,” he says. The place “had anything you could possibly imagine. He bought the casket and wasn’t completely satisfied with it. He sent it back to the manufacturer. He wanted to change the interior, the pillow lining.”
Joyce has other forms of income besides the shipping business. “I still live in Winston-Salem,” he says. “I’ve got a courier business in Greensboro that I run every single day. I’ve got guys to work for me while I’m gone.”
Joyce also helps his family sell Christmas trees in the winter. Joyce says he has always been interested in a little bit of everything. Because of that, he is open to different possibilities once his run on the show is over.
“The show is kind of at a point where we’ve got plenty of viewers,” he says. “I would really love to stay with this either on camera or behind the camera … I’m just sort of blowing in the wind right now seeing where this is all going to take me.”
— Molly Green
04.22.2013
The Alumni Association is honoring 21 NC State professors with the 2013 Faculty Awards for their outstanding work in the classroom, in the laboratory and in the field. We talked (via email) with some of the recipients about their work and the keys to being a successful professor.
Today we’re visiting with Suzie Goodell, an assistant professor of nutrition in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Goodell is one of seven professors being recognized as Alumni Association Outstanding Teachers.
What prompted you to become a professor? As a Masters student at Texas Tech University, I took a teaching assistant position to help pay the bills. For this job, I taught several lab sections of the Intro to Human Nutrition course. After my first semester of teaching, I was hooked. I loved teaching students about nutrition and how it applies to every day life. I loved interacting with people from all different walks of life. I loved knowing that what I did really mattered. I could see I was making a difference, helping students learn and succeed. After 2 1/2 more years of serving as the lab coordinator for the course, teaching my fellow TAs how to teach, I knew I had found my calling. I needed to teach.
What are the keys to being a successful teacher/professor? There are many things that a teacher needs to do to be successful. One of the most important things for me is to be relatable and make the material I’m teaching relatable to the students. I let students know that I’m not perfect; I make mistakes; and it is OK to question authority. By doing this, students recognize that I am human and they can approach me with their questions, concerns and struggles. Teaching only begins in the classroom. My goal is to convince students that coming to office hours, meeting over coffee, or sending me e-mails will help them learn more and eventually make them more successful in their future jobs.
What gives you the greatest satisfaction as a professor? I get the most satisfaction when a former student comes back to me and says, “You know, your class was really hard. At the time, I didn’t understand why you made us do all the stuff you did. Now, I see, you really cared about us. You prepared us to be successful outside of your classroom. Thank you for pushing me.”
01.25.2013
NC State University, the Wolfpack Club and the Alumni Association will recognize some of NC State’s greatest stars tonight at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary, N.C., honoring 18 alumni and friends of the university for their professional and personal accomplishments and their continuing support of NC State, the Wolfpack Club and the Alumni Association.
The honorees at the 9th Annual NC State Evening of Stars are:
COLLEGE DISTINGUISHED AWARD RECIPIENTS
Tommy Bunn ‘66, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences: Bunn, president of the U.S. Tobacco Cooperative, has spent more than 45 years in the tobacco industry. He got his start growing tobacco on his family farm, then went on to work for 21 years as executive vice president of the Leaf Tobacco Exporters Association and the Tobacco Association of the United States. He also worked in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the N.C. Department of Agriculture, and was a charter member and chairman of the Golden Leaf Foundation Board of Directors.
Charlie Stuber ‘65 PhD, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences: For more than 35 years, Stuber held a joint appointment as a genetics professor at NC State and a research geneticist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. Stuber then came out of retirement to return to NC State in 2006 to develop and direct the Center for Plant Breeding and Applied Plant Genomics. The USDA Agricultural Research Service named him the Outstanding Scientist of the Year in 1989 and inducted Stuber into their Science Hall of Fame in 1989.
Steven Schuster ‘73, College of Design: Schuster is the founding principal of Clearscapes, a full-service architectural design firm in Raleigh. Under Schuster’s leadership, Clearscapes has been recognized with more than 75 design awards and worked on such notable projects as the Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh, the Haw River Ball Room, the Raleigh Convention Center and the Contemporary Art Museum. Schuster is also a national leader in the historic preservation community. He serves on the Board of Visitors at NC State.
Robert Bridges ‘70 MED, College of Education: Bridges taught sixth grade and then high school in Wake County before becoming principal at Crosby-Garfield Elementary School. He then went on to work in Wake County’s central office as a director, assistant superintendent and deputy superintendent before becoming the superintendent in 1984. After five years leading the state’s second largest public school system, Bridges went on to become provost at St. Augustine College in Raleigh, and then worked as an education and management consultant and chaired the N.C. Advisory Commission on Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps.
Stephen Angel, ‘77, College of Engineering: Angel is chair, president and CEO of Praxair, Inc., a Fortune 300 company that ranks as the largest industrial gases producer and distributor in North and South America, with sales of $11 billion in 2011. Before joining Praxair, Angel spent more than two decades at GE, most recently as general manager of the company’s $2 billion power equipment business. He serves on the board of directors of the U.S.-China Business Council and PPG Industries, and is a member of the Business Roundtable, the Business Council and the U.S.-Brazil Forum.
Jimmy Clark ‘74, College of Engineering: Clark is the owner and president of Guy M. Turner, Inc., a diversified company that is a leader in the handling and moving of the heaviest equipment in the fields of rigging, machine tool installation, crane services and specialized transportation. The company has 12 offices in the United States and Canada. Clark serves on the NC State Board of Trustees, as well as on the board of directors for the NC State Alumni Association and the Engineering Foundation. He previously chaired the NC State Board of Visitors.
John Edmond ‘87, College of Engineering: While earning his PhD in material sciences and engineering, Edmond teamed with other graduate students and young faculty on some promising silicon carbide research. Upon graduation, the group co-founded what became CREE Inc., one of the world’s top LED manufacturers. Today, Edmond is director of advanced optoelectronics for the Durham-based company, which makes energy-efficient LED lights, lighting components and semiconductor products.
Susan Warren Rabon ‘82, College of Humanities and Social Sciences: Rabon is a member of the N.C. Utilities Commission, which regulates the rates and services of all of the state’s public utilities. Rabon, who received her law degree from the University of Virginia, has also worked as a clerk in the N.C. Court of Appeals, as special counsel and then chief of staff for the N.C. Department of Justice, and senior assistant for administration in the office of the governor. She has previously served on the NC State Board of Visitors.
Kevin Beasley ‘79, Poole College of Management: Beasley, a CPA, is a partner-in-charge of tax practice at the Raleigh office of Grant Thornton, one of the Big Six international accounting firms. He previously worked at Arthur Anderson, where he rose to the position of partner and earned a spot in the inaugural class of the NC State Accounting Hall of Fame.
Ray Tanner ‘80, College of Natural Resources: Tanner, a former All-ACC baseball player at NC State, was named athletics director for the University of South Carolina last year after spending 25 years as a collegiate head baseball coach, including nine years as the head coach at NC State. Under Tanner’s direction, the baseball team at South Carolina won two NCAA Division I Baseball Championships and made six appearances in the College World Series. Tanner has been named National Coach of the Year three times.
Sung Won Lee, ‘60 MS, ‘67 PhD, College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences: After earning his graduate degrees at NC State, Lee returned to his native South Korea to lead the S-Oil Corporation to success as the third largest oil refinery in Korea. He also served as chairman of two South Korean chemical companies. But his passion is downhill skiing, and his family built Korea’s oldest and largest ski and snowboard resort, which will host alpine skiing events for the 2018 Winter Olympics and 2018 Winter Paralympics. Lee is founder and president of the Asian Ski Federation, former vice president of the Olympic Council of Asia and honorary president of the Korean Ski Association.
Michael Fralix ‘00 PhD, College of Textiles: Fralix is the president and CEO of [TC]2, a company that develops next generation supply chain technologies such as 3-D body scanners used in product development for apparel and equipment, made-to-measure clothing, clothing size and style recommendations and body shape analysis.
Dr. Laura Rush ‘97 DVM, College of Veterinary Medicine: Rush began her career as a registered nurse, specializing in the care of cancer patients, before going to vet school. Following graduation, she joined the faculty at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine and headed a laboratory funded by the National Institute of Health that focused on cancer research in dogs and humans. Rush now works as vice president and associate medical director for GSW Worldwide, a healthcare marketing firm where she helps develop marketing strategies for healthcare companies.
WOLFPACK CLUB AWARD
Nora Lynn Finch, Ronnie Shavlik Award: Finch was a pioneer for collegiate women’s athletics, serving as the ACC’s first female assistant athletics director and negotiated the first women’s basketball tournament television contract with CBS. At NC State, Finch served as head volleyball and softball coach, associate head coach for women’s basketball, and assistant, associate and senior associate athletics director. She is currently the ACC’s associate commissioner for women’s basketball operations and senior women’s administrator. She has been inducted into the National Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.
ALUMNI ASSOCIATION AWARDS
Ryan DeJong ‘05, Outstanding Young Alumnus: DeJong, chief operating officer of FIRM Consulting Group, has led the Tampa NC State Alumni Network since 2007. As network leader, DeJong has aggressively promoted his alma mater and the Alumni Association. He recruits and manages volunteers to staff local college fairs and plans many types of group activities for his fellow Tampa Wolfpackers.
Sherice Nivens ‘98, Outstanding Young Alumnus: Nivens, cardiac sales manager for Intuitive Surgical, is a member of the PAMS Alumni and Friends Advisory Board and a founding member of the Dean’s Circle. She served as the keynote speaker for the 2009 Department of Chemistry graduation ceremony and the 2010 Society of African American Physical and Mathematical Scientists annual banquet.
Bill Collins ‘54, ‘61 MS, Meritorious Service Award: Collins, a world renowned expert in tobacco field production, was a Philip Morris Professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences for 28 years. Since retiring in 2005, Collins joined the CALS Office of College Advancement as senior director of development. He is a former member of the board of directors of the Alumni Association.
Judi Grainger ‘72 MS, Meritorious Service Award: Grainger served as president of the Alumni Association board of directors in 2011 and served for a total of 14 years on the board. She also serves on the NC State Board of Visitors, the College of Education Advisory Board and the board of directors of The State Club.
12.18.2012
Benjamin Wesley Kilgore was sort of an agricultural everyman during NC State’s early years. Kilgore was educated as a chemist, but he served in a variety of roles in and out of the School of Agriculture, pursuing research and education while advocating for farms and farm workers.
Kilgore worked in research, serving as director of the Agricultural Experiment Station from 1901-07. He worked in extension, serving as the first head of the Agriculture Extension Service, from 1914-25. And he worked in administration, serving as dean of the School of Agriculture from 1923-25.
He even established the Pine State Creamery in Raleigh in 1919, when troops stationed at nearby Camp Polk during World War I needed pasteurized milk.
So it was fitting that on this day in 1953, the newest building on campus was dedicated in Kilgore’s honor. Kilgore Hall housed the School of Forestry and the Department of Horticulture.
Kilgore, the man, was also active outside of campus. He was president of both the National Association of Agricultural College Chemists and the Cotton Growers Cooperative Association. He was editor of The Progressive Farmer from 1923-33, and was active in founding the Southern Agricultural Workers Association. He was the first legislative representative of the N.C. State Grange. He was even persuaded, when he was past the age of 70, to serve as the State Chemist.
Kilgore was described, in his 1967 induction into the N.C. Agricultural Hall of Fame, as “quiet, modest, competent — a man of vision with the consistent ability to achieve worthwhile goals.”
“Never a man of great physical stamina,” read his induction, “nonetheless Dr. Kilgore used skill and brain power to spark significant rural progress.”
10.24.2012
Gene and Debbie Stikeleather.
Ask Gene Stikeleather what he does for a living and he’ll give you a simple answer. “I’ll do anything I can do for a dollar,” he says, laughing.
Stikeleather, a 1965 CALS graduate, started building fences in the 1970s after a stint working in corporate America. One client needed a fence to go around a barn. That led to a successful fencing business, Iron Gate Custom Services, and the rest was history.
“And I haven’t had a day off since 1977,” Stikeleather says.
But that history took a different course in the early 2000s. Stikeleather’s wife, Debbie, was interested in studying viticulture, the science of grape cultivation used in producing wine. At the time, Surry Community College was beginning such a program, and she graduated in 2003. The couple visited other wineries and helped some friends with their harvest.
Then they started planting grapes on the farm they lived on in Mebane, N.C., and opened it as a winery in 2004. And nine years later, the Winery at Iron Gate Farm is a thriving Piedmont winery.
“We didn’t plan to have a winery,” Stikeleather says. “We first planned to just plant grapes on the farm. It didn’t take us long to figure out it was a lot more work.”
The winery felt some growing pains, with the start-up costs equaling $15,000 to plant just one acre of grapes. Add to that the toll that nature can take on the vineyard with frost, droughts and birds swooping down from overhead to eat grapes, and it’s taken a great deal of work for Iron Gate to thrive.
Stikeleather credits NC State for some of that work. Researchers from the university came to help them study the impact insects could have on the vineyard and what sort of crops the soils there were conducive to growing.
The process forced Stikeleather, who studied agricultural engineering at NC State, to catch up with his wife’s training. “All of mine was osmosis,” he says. “But I grew up on a farm [in Stony Point, N.C.]. So planting was nothing new to me. I was told you put something in the ground and it would grow.”
Today, the Winery at Iron Gate offers wine tastings, movie nights and music events. They harvest eight acres and offer 10 different wines. And it stands as one more task that Stikeleather can do, despite never having an interest in wine before Iron Gate came along.
“I didn’t even know how to pronounce ‘merlot,’” he says. “I might have had a glass of wine, but if I did I don’t remember when. It’s not like I didn’t like it. I just never had enough sense to order it off the menu.”
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The Winery at Iron Gate Farm is one of dozens of vendors - including restaurants, farms, breweries, wineries and bakeries - participating in the Red & White Food and Beverage Festival during the week of homecoming. All of the vendors have NC State connections, with alumni as owners or managers. The festival is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 1, at The State Club in the Park Alumni Center. Visit the festival website to register and see a full list of vendors participating.
10.08.2012
Photo by Becky Kirkland.
Mike Mullen ‘87 PhD started in August as the inaugural vice chancellor and dean of NC State’s new Division of Academic and Student Affairs (DASA). The division started in July after a merger of the Division of Student Affairs and the Division of Undergraduate Academic Programs.
Mullen is a soil scientist who had spent the last three years as associate provost for the Division of Undergraduate Education and dean of undergraduate studies at the University of Kentucky. He also was an associate dean there and was an assistant and associate professor at the University of Tennessee. He and his wife, Deborah, have two sons, Casey and Corey.
We sat down with Mullen to get his thoughts on coming back to NC State and his thoughts about the new division.
When you were here, did you ever think you’d come back? Not in an administrative capacity. I never ruled out the faculty opportunities. Clearly at the end of my doctoral work in 1987, I was interested in faculty positions. Sure, if something would have popped open, I would have been interested. But no, I can’t say that I thought in reality that I’d end up, particularly after I had gone through an entire career largely at two universities. This is a pleasant surprise.
Is it a comfortable move from SEC football country to the land of ACC basketball? I’m actually getting an upgrade on football coming to NC State. I got to experience a national championship at Kentucky before I was gone. But I’m looking forward to that experience, going to football and basketball games and becoming part of that tradition again.
Is there any particular memory that sticks out from your time here? I still have very fond memories of the faculty in the Department of Soil Sciences who were supportive of all the students. I always felt like there was a wonderful faculty network of support, people who were there to help you achieve your goals on the research side of things. I still have fond memories of walking through the Free Expression Tunnel. I never put anything on it. Just reading it was interesting.
What’s your vision for the Division of Academic and Student Affairs? It’s an opportunity to take all of us together in one unit and say we are here to support the success of you as a student in your entirety. I think it’s an interesting model to say that those activities are so intertwined. Why shouldn’t we be looking at it in a holistic manner? My goal is that we would continue to find ways to work across boundaries both internally and externally, to provide opportunities for students to be successful.
What do you want students to know about you as they get to meet and experience you for the first time? I’d certainly like for them to think that if they had a need to talk with me, I’m available. …I think that I’d like people to at least believe that I’m someone who cares about student success, that I want all students, regardless of what organizations they’re in, whether they’re in student government or Greek life, that across the board, we care about their success. I’d certainly like to see students maximize their opportunities at a great university like NC State.
08.28.2012
When you ask Grayson Currin ‘05 about his transition from being a CALS major at NC State to a music journalist, he laughs at not having thought about biology since he graduated.
“I don’t think about agriculture and life sciences enough to catch that you said ‘CALS,’” he says. “I thought you said ‘cows.’”
For Currin, who is also the co-director of the Hopscotch music festival held annually in Raleigh, biology bought him time at NC State. He came to the university with a passion for science, something he liked because his mother was a biology teacher at the high school he attended in Fuquay-Varina, N.C.
Currin wanted to be a doctor, but he quickly found he wanted to write more. So he used science, something he says he could do rather easily, to give him the freedom and time to explore his passion for words. He soon began to marry that passion with something he’d long loved — music.
While he was in college, Currin admits, he was a fan of the Dave Matthews Band. And it so happened that Matthews’ lead guitarist, Tim Reynolds, was doing a solo show at the Lincoln Theatre. “I just wanted to hang out with the guy,” Currin says. “So I got in my mind that I should interview him, and I set it up with his people.”
The problem was that Currin wasn’t writing for any publication. So he went to Technician, got an application and received the benefit of an expedited selection process when he told an editor he already had secured an interview with Reynolds.
That gig led to a career. “I really just wrote ,” Currin says. “I would just write as much as I could.”
When he was a sophomore, the Independent Weekly contacted Currin about covering Raleigh’s music scene. He started writing a column for that publication and has been there since 2003, now serving as its music editor. He’s also a contributing editor for Pitchfork, a national music publication.
Currin says the best part of the job, while at the same time being one of the most deflating, is always discovering just how much music is out there, just how much he’ll never be able to hear. “I’m always learning that there’s something I didn’t know,” he says. “It’s constantly unraveling. It’s a picture that’s larger than you ever thought it would be. That’s one of the joys of the job.”
Those writing duties led directly to Hopscotch, which will be in its third year when it takes place September 6-8 in venues across Raleigh. He says he and his partner went through some growing pains at the festival’s outset, losing $80,000 the first year. But the pair soon found that success was in spending more money and aiming higher with every subsequent festival. Last year, they turned their first profit. And now the festival helps him satiate his appetite for all music all the time.
Currin tells the story of the first time music really meant something to him. He was on a bus with 30 other kids heading cross country on a summer trip his parents had signed him up for. He pulled out a Case Logic binder that held 256 CDs. He only had 30 or so in there, but he remembers a kid pointing to it and saying, “Look at how many CDs that guy has.”
“I was like, ‘Yeah,’” Currin says of the self-satisfaction he felt. “That to me is still a genuine feeling. I still want all the CDs. I want all the music.”
Currin will speak tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. about his education and Hopscotch in D.H. Hill Library as part of the Amazing Alumni series. The program is free, open to the public and presented in collaboration with 88.1 WKNC.
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