By Tanner Castora

Kimberly Picone was a high school senior in Virginia looking for a change. The life she was living was fine, but something was missing.

“I found myself doing the same things over and over again,” Picone said. “I really felt there was so much more to life; so much more to see, so much more to discover, so I decided to take a trip.”

After graduating from high school, Picone took a journey half-way across the world to Taiwan. She would stay there for 3 weeks spending time in local villages seeing a different way of life. A year later, after finishing up her freshman year at Kent State University, she would head out to Yellowstone National Park for a month of exploring the natural treasures it had to offer, as well as picking up new skills such as canoeing and rock climbing.

Through these experiences, Picone had been awakened to a new world within her own self.

“You have to lose yourself to find yourself,” Picone exclaimed. “I always tell people to go get lost. That’s when your life will start to change for the better.”

Two years later ,it was time for a new adventure. A cross country drive out west to Yosemite National Park was the new destination but this time it wasn’t a few weeks vacation; Picone would be living in the park for the entire 2019 summer.

Picone worked as a maid for the company Aramark picking up trash around the park or cleaning the cabins that were used as places of stay for visitors. After work or on the weekends, the park became her playground. Of all the activities she would participate in such as Acro-yoga, mile long hikes, canoeing and tubing, Picone says her favorite was the challenge rock climbing presented.

“There’s something about being thousands of feet in the air with nothing beneath you”, Picone said. “I’m a good climber but I think a lot of people would be. At a certain point it isn’t so much about your skill, it’s about facing and then conquering your fear. It gets scary the higher and higher you get. You have to learn to trust yourself and tell yourself that it’s going to be okay. You just have to keep going.”

Picone enjoyed herself so much in Yosemite that she’s decided to move back this coming summer after graduation. She’ll be working for Aramark once more hoping to possibly become a full-time employee.

By Jacob Shondel

Ring! Ring! Barbershop! Caleb says into the phone. With haircut going on in the background and them talking about coming to the Barbershop to get a haircut Caleb talks to a future customer.

Though becoming a barber wasn’t always the plan but that all changed when Caleb took a seat at his Uncle’s Barbershop.

“I got into being a barber because I stopped going to Akron U, I was in nursing school and we had a house that caused me to fall behind. I started slacking in school and retake some classes. This was when I kinda figured out college wasn’t for me. So, I went to my uncle he owns a barbershop. Was there getting my haircut stressing out because I know I wasn’t going back to school. I had no idea what to do.” said Caleb. This is when his uncle told him that he would fit in the barbershop world. Because Caleb can talk to anyone and loves to talk about sports.

After thinking about going to Barber school and his current situation with college Caleb thought this was going to be worth the risk taking.

“It’s not that big of a risk. I might end up loving it.” said Caleb.

To get your Barber license in Ohio you must complete 1800 hours of Barber school which takes about 10 and a half months.

“The hardest part of Barber school for myself I would say is self-discipline.” says Caleb. Since while you’re at the school you have to wait for people to come in and have it be your turn in line to perform the cut. So, paying attention to your classmates and watching YouTube videos during your down time is a must for any student.

“My head was there, but my heart was not.” said Caleb. Because during this downtime he spent most of us time just waiting and play on his phone. Then when it clicked that this was something he could be doing for the rest of life. Caleb’s whole mentality changed and he would be grabbing every possibly cut that would walk through the doors.

Throughout Barber school the plan was for Caleb to take over his Uncle’s shop once he graduated. But all of this changed one month away from graduation. With something coming up causing his Uncle to have to continue working, but with some help from his friends at the Barber school he was able to find an opening at Giovanni’s Barbershop in Cuyahoga Falls. Which is where you can find Caleb working Tuesday through Saturday.

With the clippers in full force and conversation to get to know a potential new client Caleb is making the customer as comfortable as he can. They talk about school, major and general information that Caleb will then use to expand the conversation if there is a common interest somewhere. And in the Barbershop any conversation is an open conversation as everyone is quick to jump in on the debate of who is better? Michael Jordan or LeBron James?

“When I walked out of the Barber School, I felt that I was booked up at the Barber school and I was getting the most cuts. I felt like I was the best barber. Then when I got to the to the Barbershop and got my first client I started shaking and was lost on what I was supposed to do.” says Caleb.

Even though it was a simple hair cut and one that he did many times during his schooling. The fear was there because this time the cut was for real.

“The biggest thing that was the difference between the Barbershop and the Barber School was that at the shop they’re coming for me at the school they’re coming for a cheap haircut by whoever.” says Caleb.

This journey feels like it’s been a lifetime, but it’s been just over a year old. Caleb looks forward to all the new people he will meet in his journey to becoming one of the better Barbers in the Akron area.

By Mitch Meyers

Student Media at Kent State gives anyone an opportunity to share their voice and opinion in any outlet they deem necessary. Black Squirrel Radio is one of those outlets, a 10 a.m. to 2 a.m., seven days a week, online radio station where students can have a two-hour radio show about anything.

Brandon Lewis, a huge sports fan, has a radio show every Wednesday at noon all about sports called Brandon’s World. The passion he has comes out in his voice and the thing about radio is that you never get to see who is speaking. It’s when you see Brandon and you’ll be surprised.

Brandon was born months premature and was only a pound. He was in therapy for 15 years and has been in a wheelchair for about five years now. He says his mobility issues doesn’t define him though.

“The chair, it gives me more mobility, but at the end of the day, I just kind of look at it as a way of transportation,” Lewis says.

His second year of college was the hardest year of his life. There were problems in his social life and school, so when it turned to his junior year, he knew he needed to start fresh.

“I was motivated and I kind of found my niche,” Lewis said about his third year of college.

Brandon recently became the Web Director at Black Squirrel Radio and he has stepped into many leadership roles to find his voice. He knows where he fits and will take any role necessary.

Lewis said, “If my role is to be a leader and to speak. I will do that. If my role is to lead by example, I will do that. If my role is to kind of step back a little bit. I will do that.”

The field of journalism is competitive, especially if you want to go into radio.

Over the next ten years, there is projected to be a 10 percent decline in radio and announcer jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“My goal again is to host my own sports show right out of college. So, you know, I’m just hoping I get a job offer,” Lewis said.

He has one more year of college left after this semester, and he says the best advice he can give is to get involved.

“You will make so many friendships and you will find your niche, whatever it is when it comes to reporting or TV or radio just find that niche and be yourself… don’t worry about what other people say about you. This field is filled of criticism, but if you have self-confidence, don’t worry about what people say about you on social media. It’s about what you believe in.”

By Keegan Ossler

If there’s one thing automotive enthusiasts love more than their car, it’s a good road to drive it on. Roads with twists, turns, hills, and dips offer a driving experience that lets an owner put their machine to the test. And the road that led Lee Esposito to finding his dream car had a few twists and turns as well.

“I’ve always had a passion for Oldsmobiles. The first car I remember was my father’s ‘55 Oldsmobile. It was a two-tone green, 4 door hardtop, a Super 88. It was very cool. At the same time, my grandparents had a 1956 Oldsmobile 98 totally optioned-out with power windows, power seats, a power antenna and the signal seeking radio and two-tone blue. So [those were the] cars that I really remember as a young child: Oldsmobiles. And when my father sold the ‘55 Oldsmobile, he bought a ‘59 Oldsmobile flat top, so I always had a passion for Oldsmobiles and always respected how Oldsmobile was in the forefront of engineering with the automatic transmission, power steering, and power brakes. 

So I always thought I would own a vintage Oldsmobile, but to paraphrase John Lennon, “life happens when you’re busy making other plans”. So the opportunity didn’t really didn’t present itself until, well, 2006. My business really took off and I finally had some free time. And my father passed, and I had an inheritance… and at that point, I was loaded for bear.

I had the time and I had the money. And for a car guy, that’s a very dangerous combination. So, at that point, it was “what did I want to buy?” and I thought “well, of course, an Oldsmobile!”. So with my father’s inheritance money and a passion for Oldsmobiles, in ‘06 I drove to Lansing Michigan to the Oldsmobile Homecoming: a huge national car show for Oldsmobiles. They build Oldsmobiles in Lansing. I was working with a woman at the time and I told her I was going to the Oldsmobile Homecoming and she began to laugh and said “and is there a Chevy prom?”.

So a buddy went with me to ride shotgun, we drove up to Lansing the night before. And that morning – Saturday morning – we’re getting ready to check out of the hotel and I turn to my buddy and I said, “I’m going to buy a car today!”. And the moment we got to the show we went to the information booth and I asked, ‘Where’s the car corral?’ And I went marching in there.

The first car I looked at was a ‘55 Oldsmobile convertible. It was priced okay but the owner didn’t really know anything about it. Not only that, but it didn’t have power brakes. And the way I looked at it was “what good is an Oldsmobile without power brakes and power steering?”. So we were walking away from that car and my buddy said “I guess that car didn’t really talk to you”.I said “No, that car didn’t talk to me. But THAT car does!” And I was looking at my ‘54 Oldsmobile. Two-tone white and red with spinner hubcaps and white wall tires… a continental kit… there was a crowd of people looking at the car. It was impressive. I walked up to the owner and I said “I think I’m interested in buying your car”, and the crowd dissipated, and it was just me and the owner. Actually, it was the owner’s son. They were selling it for him because he was housebound at that point and couldn’t drive any longer. They told me the price and they said it was firm, so I said okay. Because I felt that they needed the money because of medical bills, I agreed to pay the full price (and, well, I had my father’s inheritance). So I gave them a $500 deposit to come back the following Saturday and hired a roll-back. 

Together, I drove my SUV and the truck followed me and we drove up there to pick up the Olds. I get the car home in Columbus, and I lived in an area that was very urban and it was also very congested… to the point where I could only drive the car on Sunday mornings. I had a goal of putting a thousand miles on the car every year — at least a thousand miles. No year did I even come close to that. One year, I think 2013 or 2012, I put 300 miles on it. The traffic in Columbus became so heavy and so congested, often impatient drivers would cut me off. 

Lee finally has his dream car. But the point of buying it was to enjoy it, not let it sit in his garage. An opportunity comes his way in the summer of 2019: a way out of Columbus. 

So last summer I had the opportunity to sell my house very quickly. I moved to Mount Gilead Ohio, a town of 3700 people with lots of state highways and lots of open roads to drive my Olds. And now I’m looking for this year, 2020, to put at least a thousand miles on it, if not more. I’m not sure if I have any trips planned out in particular, other than just driving it a lot to shows and cruise-ins in the area. 

By Sarah Scheiman

The Cleveland Metroparks zoo has over 600 species of animals. Tiffany Mayo is one of the lucky people who gets to care for them. Follow Sarah Scheiman as she ventures through the zoo with Tiffany and gets an exclusive tour of the animal hospital.  

If you’re like me then you are interested in how the animals are treated at zoos. You wanna know why they’re there and who are the lucky people that get to take care of such cool animals. 

Tiffany Mayo is a zookeeper at Cleveland Metroparks zoo. I was lucky enough to get  a personalized tour and hear about how she got to where she is today. 

As I approached the entrance of the zoo I did not expect to come out with a whole new perspective. As I walked up the entrance walkway I heard birds chirping in every direction. The place was nearly empty with the occasional guest. I finally get there and wait by the entrance for Tiffany. After a few minutes someone approaches me wearing a blue crew neck with the zoo’s logo. Tiffany is beautiful with blue eyes and dark hair. She greets me with a smile and proceeds to give me a free ticket for the zoo. As we walk past the entrance we pass the elephants and go up toward the ice cream parlor. She gave me a quick overview of Trumpeter swans, one of the animas that she works so hard to protect. Or we got to the medical center

“Back in the 90s there were no trumpeter swans in Ohio.  But they are native here. They were all over hunted and by the early 1900’s there’s only about sixty nine trumpeter swans left in the lower 48 states. And then people were like, oh my God we need to protect these birds”

Tiffany then explained to me how she got her foot in the door at the zoo. She actually worked at the zoo in college selling tickets and fish for the sea lions to eat. After that she completed conservation work which also helped push her way into her career she loves today. But being a zookeeper isn’t always what Tiffany wanted to do. 

“I always wanted to be a vet when I was little and then realized you have to go to eight years of school and I was like Oh jeez!”

Once she decided her major she was all in. She knew this was the perfect job for her. She was able to complete some conservation  work in Minnesota helping track white tailed deer and see how corn was affecting their diet. 

“So the deer had collars on and we had to track them everyday as well, I’m on this, it’s actually a reserve army base in Minnesota and I’m trying to track these deer and figure out where they are and take all this data. It was cool we actually got to do some black bear stuff and grey wolf”

She went on to explain some of her responsibilities now. 

So I am the lead hospital and commissary keeper. So  my responsibilities are taking care of all the animals down in the hospital and so the feeding the cleaning the enrichment the training I’m helping the vet staff administering medication helping them with surgeries or animal treatments” 

“So my job now is to just keep their stories alive”

Once we got to the medical center Tiffany showed me around the front before we went and toured the back. 

“This is our animal hospital. People can interact with a lot more stuff in here and they can actually watch surgeries which is cool.  We thought that was really important for people to be able to see what was going on” 

Once we finished the tour in the front she took me to the back. She opened a gate with her key and we walked into an area with some offices. We greeted a few people at their desks and then went through another door. Through this door was a long hallway with about 7 doors between us and the furthest one. The sound was loud and busy. 

These are our crazy Sub Zero freezers where we keep all the blood samples and tissues and things like that. We do a ton of research to help not only animals in the wild but o help animals in the zoo and learn more about them”

As we went through a few doors we saw tortoises, a cheetah, an otter and lastly a few types of turtles. It was cool to hear the backstory of some of the animals. Tiffany explained that illegal selling of animals is a really real problem around here. She stated that they got the turtles from a man who was trying to sell them. He had 150 turtles to sell but the zoo luckily got a hold of it. Different zoos around the area all took some to help them live  a happy life. 

If you took me on a tour in the back with the animals that were being treated at the hospital she went on to explain that these turtles that they found were actually some of the legal trade dealer and she went on to explain how they will be released and how many they have wildlife

“We took 25 of them. We have 10 males and 15 females and we are going to hold them for a couple years were actually going to genetically test them to see if they’re similar to Ohio’s Turtles and if they are they actually in Ohio“

And one of my favorite animals she took me to next were two kangaroos. There were two of them about 3 feet tall. They had the mother with her baby in there. They do this to keep them emotionally healthy. Kangaroos like to have company. 

“These are our gray kangaroos. That little one actually had a dental problemI’m in so that little one actually had a dental problem”

She went on to say that once his dental problem is healed, his mother and him will be released back into their enclosure. 

Tiffany had some of the best energy and passion for her job that it was infectious. I found myself wanting to switch majors after I left. Tiffany is an amazing person who has done great things for animals. I can’t wait to see what she does next. 

“I just hope that people remember the passion that I had for the work that I did and to help out the environment and to teach people and I hope that that motivates them. It really is more of an art than it is opposed to a science.”

By Joan Steidl

Travel along I-90, about an hour east of Cleveland, and you’ll see the large brown tourist road at the Geneva, Ohio exit pointing you to the Spire Institute: an official United States Olympic and Paralympic training center. Today its parking lot is filled with hundreds of cars and minivans with plates from Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. Inside the Fields and Courts Building players scramble across the full international soccer field while their soccer moms and dads cheer them on.

One soccer dad exclaims, “I love Spire. I think for years I would describe it as Cleveland’s best kept secret. When you walk into this place for the first time, people are just you know in awe. they are just floored by how big it is, how clean it is, the facilities are top notch I love it.”

The Spire Institute is a one-of-a-kind regional, national, and international sport magnet. It’s huge. How big? It could easily house four of Goodyear’s Blimps. It has three separate, industrial-sized sports buildings – which total 750,000 square feet, plus a separate outdoor stadium – which can seat 10,000 cheering fans… But it has to be big – big enough to hold the big dreams and hopes of every athlete who enters its doors.

There’s one man behind the scenes – Chief Operating Officer Jeff Orloff – – who makes it all happen…it’s a big job and no detail is too small. While there, a young soccer play approaches her dad and asks, if he has the Spire wi-fi pass. Her dad encourages her to talk to Jeff, who walks her through the process and encourages her to come back if it doesn’t work. While walking between Spires three building I asked Jeff how many steps a day he takes, does he keep track of his steps. He simply states, “no, I don’t. It would be many between all three buildings. But that’s all right, it’s a good thing.”

As we walk, the smell of chlorine lets us know we’re in the Aquatics Building. Soon its 10-lane, 50 meter Olympic pool, will host the Atlantic 10 Swimming and Diving Championship. Jeff works closely with Aquatic Facility Director Josh Ptak, to make certain everything flows smoothly.

When asked how it is to work with Jeff, he tells me that, “he’s very understanding of what everyone does. He knows that everyone has a lot of responsibility as well as a lot of knowledge that they can bring to the table and he takes that into consideration when he’s working with the different groups the different activities. He’s very supportive and helpful and letting the people who have the experience or
the knowledge do it and letting everyone know that he’s behind us all the way.”

Jeff and Josh get into discussion about details of the express lanes markers for the upcoming swimming competition. “So these are our express lanes for nationals,” Josh explains to Jeff. Jeff replies “great.”

Josh further explains that they have an opportunity to purchase the express lane markers if they want to.” Jeff asks if they’ll take them back and after Josh assures him that they will Jeff claps his hands and says, “Banners and awards…all right then, thanks, Josh.”

Jeff tells me that “ I’m the guy that kicks everybody back into play…being the chief operating officer my job is to make sure everyone’s got what they need if there’s a problem, I’m helping to solve it it’s an exciting time here, we’re doing a lot of that a lot of growth and we’ll continue to do it and a lot of really cool things happening at this point.”

As we continue walking we run into members of the crew working on the Aquatic Building’s Heating and Ventilation for this weekend’s swimming and diving contest.
Joking with them he tells them, “it’s only the biggest swimming event of the year….but don’t feel any pressure” and reminds them that “the national media will be here” and that “trust me I will absolutely put you guys front and center” for a job well done. Then he tells them, “Ill leave you guys to do your stuff. I appreciate it.”

Spire has a nationally ranked basketball team. Its members are current and post-high school students from around the country and around the world. They come here to live, to train, and to get their grades up all with the hope of getting recruited by a NCAA school. Jeff seems to know all the players.

Jeff greets one of the players and then shares that, “John is from Africa and has been here in our program for three years as a scholarship student. He came with his brother and his brother is now playing in Division II in Wyoming. John will play and get a scholarship at the end of this year and be able to go to college neither one of them will go to the NBA probably but they will both get an education out
of this. So again, it’s a way we kind of make a difference.”

For Jeff his work is about much more than the sports. He tells me that “I grew up very blessed I didn’t have to worry where food was coming from or if I had a roof over my head, if I was going to school, whatever, certainly had problems like everybody else. But there’s a lot of people who don’t have that opportunity and didn’t grow up that way and now as an adult and seeing and being a part of it. You just realize that that’s the importance of what you are doing. You make money, that’s all great and that’s important you’ve got to live and eat and everything else but at the end of the day what will your legacy be?”

Jeff Orloff. He’s the man who works behind the scenes so others can strive for big goals, become champions, and reach for the gold. And yes, that’s quite a legacy.

By Madisyn Woodring

Cheerleaders covered in rhinestones and big hair filled the Columbus Convention Center for the Midwest National Championship. These young athletes are attempting to win not only this competition but a bid to the Summit: the nationals for cheerleading.

Jeff Hollo is a cheerleading coach with a focus on stunting and tumbling at Midwest Cheer Elite Cleveland. They are one of the groups attempting to win their Summit bid this weekend.

“It’s one of the premier end of season competitions,” Hollo said. “So, if you’re able to get a bid which is essentially an invitation to the nationals, it’s essentially saying you kind of met the pinnacle.”

Hollo is a larger man with short black hair and a kind smile. He’s been involved in cheerleading since he was in college at Baldwin Wallace in the ‘90s.

“I was in a psychology class and one of the girls asked me if I wanted to try out and I thought, why not, and I gave it a shot,” Hollo said. “The rest is kind of history. That was back in ‘94.”

Ever since then Hollo has been coaching for several different organizations. He started off coaching at Cleveland State before moving to All-Star cheer. But, he also has a day job as a government and economics teacher at the Medina County Career Center.

“Some kids catch it, some kids don’t but inevitably as the season goes on they’ll ask me to do cartwheels and flips in the classroom and I’m like, nope that’s not going to happen,” Hollo said.

Cheerleading is one of the hardest sports he’s ever been involved in despite being a former wrestler and football player, he said.

“This is a sport where if you get injured, well suck it up for another minute or minute and a half or thirty seconds or whatever’s left,” Hollo said. “Then afterward, we can come help you and fix it up. You got to commit to two minutes and thirty seconds and not stop until it’s done”

He can be seen after teams compete wrapping ankles in bandages or taking a quick nap in a chair while kids surround him. But, he always tries to be there for them.

Madison Kusper, nicknamed Sunny, can vouch for that.

“I would describe Jeff as a loving person and he’s really helpful with my tumbling skills and everything,” Kusper said.

Eddie Sallow is another cheerleader at Midwest Cheer Elite that knows Jeff well.

“Jeff is a constant laugh. Jeff constantly has something new to laugh about, that’s for sure,” Sallow said. “Back when I was here before, we had this guys class and he smacked me and multiple other guys with mats and we literally smacked each other for like half an hour. It’s lots of fun.”

Hollo constantly has moments where he is goofing off with the kids. One year, he bet a team that if they won a competition they could dress him up as a woman for the next one.

“And wouldn’t you know it, they won the local competition and they dressed me up like a woman at the next competition,” Hollo said. “No, I was most definitely not a pretty woman.”

It is important for the athletes to remember that winning isn’t everything, he said.

“It’s fun to win the competitions, that’s always great but in the end, and I’ve noticed this and told this to the athletes many, many times, even if we don’t win, a year or two later if we’re talking about stuff, we don’t talk about the competitions,” Hollo said. “We talk about that time we had this fun moment when we all jumped in the pool together or that time where we all threw a party and surprised somebody. So, it’s the interactions with the kids is the fun part.”

The most rewarding part of his job is the little moments with the athletes, he said.

“The reward may be a first-place trophy and that’s kind of like the bonus, Hollo said. “But the fun part is just being with the athletes and hanging out and playing and trying stuff and watching them get better too.”

One team from Midwest Cheer Elite did end up winning their Summit bid that weekend. They get to compete in Disneyworld against the best teams in the nation and needless to say, Jeff Hollo will be with them every step of the way.

By David Burgett

At 60 years old it seems like she has done it all. Sophia Cheng has traveled around the world, attended college at Yale, started her own business, raised three kids and has even walked across Spain. What she considers as fate is her love for AcroYoga; however, this type of yoga can be a little unusual at first glance. David Burgett takes you into the art of AcroYoga.

Walking into Shaker Rocks in Shaker Heights, Ohio I am greeted by a towering 40 foot rock wall with 52 different courses. Pink, green, yellow and orange rocks of all different shapes and sizes catch my eye on the humongous gray, yellow and white wall. But directly across from here on the second floor is an escape from this loud and adventurous atmosphere.

“You know for me it was a great combination of yoga, ballet, gymnastics and as a kid I always watched ice skating pairs. I watched ballet pa de tour where the guy would lift the girl up in these beautiful poses and I have always wanted to do that. So this was a kind of way to tie all those things I wanted to do together,” Cheng said.

What Sophia Cheng is describing is where her love for AcroYoga stems from. She originally got into yoga ten years ago and now teaches both yoga and AcroYoga at Shaker Rocks. 

Cheng stands tall at five foot two and is lean from head to toe. If you happened to see her doing AcroYoga at Sokol Greater Cleveland on Sundays or at Shaker Rocks you will find a woman of Chinese heritage with gray hair either helping out newbies, hanging upside down in a routine or even standing on top of someone’s shoulders.

“How would you describe this to someone?”

“The easiest way to describe it is the game parents play with their kids: Airplane. The parent or larger person is lying on their back, their legs are up in the air and there is a small child, a human being, with their hips right on feet of the person lying on the ground flying like an airplane. So that is the most beginner level pose called front plank,” Cheng said.

The person on the ground is the base, while the person on top is the flyer. For Cheng flying comes naturally after years of experience and building trust with her bases, but when others are getting into for the first time it can be intimidating.

“And when I see that it’s pretty easy for me to walk up to someone and say ‘hey you want to base me?’ and they are like ‘Okay’. But to see them do it they get the biggest grin and the biggest face filled with joy and to me that’s like service. That’s my gift, to be able to give that to someone, but at the same time I see that happen, that I had a role in doing that, I get really happy too,” Cheng said.
 
Cheng’s passion began for AcroYoga when she took a leap of faith in 2018. She visited the city of Porto, Portugal and saw three pairs of people doing AcroYoga by a river.

“I don’t know why I picked the guy I picked. But of the three people I don’t know, I just felt some connection with him. And I showed him a little snip it of a video I got from my class with Tom and Liz. He looked at the video for a second, maybe five seconds, and he said ‘Is that you?’ And I said ‘mhmm, yup!’ He said ‘Come over here.’ And he put me through a whole series of moves for about 11 or 12 minutes. And I came off that eleven minute experience completely hooked on acro.

Liz and Tom DeWitte were Sophia’s first teachers. After working with her for years they both agree that Cheng has helped grow the acro-community into what it is today.

“To see how it’s grown in the past few years it has literally tripled in size. When we have people like Sophia in the community that help it grow, I mean, that’s how we get we are at today,” Liz DeWitte said

“Yeah it’s definitely a weird hobby and its fun and its really welcoming, and you know, we just glad to see it grow. And you know having people like Sophia, bringing people in and keeping them inspired,” Tom DeWitte said.

Her friends and primary bases Justin Harney and Kenneth James can also attest to Cheng’s positive attitude and work ethic.

“Her kindness is what made me come back to explore AcroYoga, having someone who isn’t smiling of the rip like she is. When you first see her she is always smiling and ready to give you a hug. You may not want to come back and do that. And because she was kind, I did,” Harney said.

“Sophia and I are in the same age group and we recognize that people look at us and say, ‘You have grey hair what are you doing out here?’ But to see her in her practice engaging in some pretty sophisticated skill levels you realize she is fearless,” James said.
“What do you say to people when they find out you are sixty years old and doing this?” “You know I just say that I am happy that I can do it. I am the luckiest person in the world,” Cheng said.

By Alexander Johnson

Tim Hinkle has worked as part-time Emergency Medical Technician in for twenty-five years, and full-time in the city of Kent for the last seven. “To me, it is the greatest job in the world,” Tim said. “I don’t come to work. I just come to my other life every third day. I come out, I hang out with great guys. I’ve heard it equated as like this – basically, going to a slumber party every third day.”

He is 47 years old, and that number doesn’t make any sense when you look at him. He seems both young and young at heart, and he radiates a kind of warmth and positivity that can be rare for people of any age. You can immediately tell that he’s a family man, someone committed to improving the lives of those around him. 

Kent Fire has two stations, one in the eastern part of the city, and one in the west. The west station, No. 2, is smaller. At first glance you could mistake the brick building for one of the many homes or small businesses around Kent, but this inconspicuous looking garage houses the people and tools ready at a moment’s notice to save as many lives as possible.

In the small kitchen in the back of the building, Tim and two other members of the medical unit, Steve and Ben, break in their shift each day with coffee. They clean up from the last shift, prepare the vehicles, and get ready to perform one of the most important tasks imaginable: saving lives.

“Almost universally in the fire service, 85 to 90 percent of our job is EMS Service. Last year we ran 4,600 calls, and probaby 85 percent of those were EMS calls,” Hinkle said.

As Hinkle explains this, Steve, another member of the unit, interrupts the interview with the kind of playful banter Hinkle later explained is an essential part of surviving as a firefighter: “Did you tell him you don’t even work here yet?”

“There’s a lot of ball-busting here at the station,” Tim later explained. “You’ve got to have thick skin.”

That thick skin naturally comes with a job that can be difficult, stressful and life-threatening at times. “For me it is the sensory details that come when you’re on a call that get me the most,” Tim said. Maybe it’s a motor vehicle accident and the radio is still playing. Maybe you’re trying to rescue somebody or mitigate the situation and you’re hearing the last song they ever heard, or being in someone’s house and you’ve got the glow of their Christmas lights or Christmas tree.”

“Not to sound harsh, but seeing a body on a floor doesn’t bother me,” he explained. “It’s seeing the things and hearing the things around them that plugs you into that person.”

Because of this, it becomes clear that connecting with people on a human level is essential. “A lot of our job is just reassuring people that everything is going to be alright,” Tim said.

Moreover, despite the more difficult moments of the job, Tim explained that the joy he gets from helping people with others in his unit far outweigh the stressors. “We get to help a ton of people,” he said. “For every gruesome thing or every tragic thing we see, I’ll go on five more calls that day where I help somebody — and that help might just be a ride to the hospital, or holding a mother’s hand and telling her everything’s going to be alright.”

By Hannah Stickel

AJ Leu is the director for diversity at the College of Communication. One of only two full time positions at the entire university. Through their day-to-day Leu helps underrepresented students find support, a mission that has been a lifetime journey for them.

The Library is hectic in the middle of the day. The ding of the elevator is especially loud, until the doors open to the third floor. Home of CCI Office of Diversity. The noise is gone instantly, replaced by a steady quiet.  AJ Leu, trailblazer, advocate, director of diversity meets me in the lobby. Leu wears a patterned button down and has closely cut bleached white hair.

“AJ is very dynamic, has done a lot of stuff, is very involved in the campus community,” says Erica Peltz.

Leu leads me into a small, windowless room with a bright tie-dye tapestry hanging on the wall. Leu says it is their version of a window. The walls are covered with LGBTQ and social justice prints and posters, meticulously hung in perfect one inch increments.

“I came out for the first time when I was 17, I was a senior in high school. There were a lot of very backwards thinking things in my high school. To go to any school dance you had to buy a couple ticket and the couple had to be boy-girl and you had to register together in a book to say ‘I am the boy, I am the girl, here is our ticket and we are going to the dance together,’” Leu says. “We started a gay-straight alliance my senior year. I’m a mover and a shaker, I caused all  kinds of trouble and they hated me…so just a lot of backlash from administration, a lot of backlash from teachers: ‘you’re supposed to be a role model and you’re setting such a bad example for everybody’, I’m literally just dating someone”.

The scrutiny was so judgmental that Leu initially went back into the closet when they started college, something that barely lasted three weeks. Coming out this time, however, generated much more positive results.

“Much better experience when I came out here at Kent. From that point forward, it was just kind of like, ‘this is what you get, so take it or leave it,’ if you don’t like it, then cool, I don’t like you either, go away,” Leu says.

While Leu’s journey as a trailblazer started young, they initially had no intention of making a career out of their so-called rebellious nature. 

“I wanted to be an architect. I grew up my whole life wanting to be an architect. I found this little thing I made in the second grade, and it was like ‘I want to be an architect when I grow up’… a-r-q-u-i-t-e-x or something, not even close, but you could tell I meant to say architect”

What started as a childhood dream did not survive past junior year. While Leu completed an architecture degree, they went on to earn a masters in higher education, landing a job at Kent State, where they began to explore diversity as a career option.

“Diversity work had always just sort of been something I naturally gravitated to and then as I started to get more and more experience in all these university committees and all these planning groups, I realized that the diversity and inclusion space was really what I wanted to do,” Leu says. “I want to be that connection, that mentor, that role model, whatever I can be for other people who feel the way I felt when I was growing up.”

A promise Leu has kept while here at Kent State.

“I am the president of Spectrum, which is our LGBTQ Faculty and staff orginization on campus. Through Spectrum, we have had to make a lot of changes at the university. In 2018, we fought for trans-inclusive healthcare coverage and won.”

The issue was originally brought to the attention of Spectrum by Erica Peltz

“Kent State previously had a specific exception in the language of the contracts that prevented the insurance from covering any healthcare related to transitioning. So I posed the question to some of our HR benefits people and didn’t really like the answers I was getting,” Peltz says.

While Kents HR department was found to be unhelpful, Spectrum, and Leu specifically, were more than ready to take on the issue.

“AJ was very much wanting to get behind this, and as it ended up AJ and I both became kind of the face of that particular push,” Peltz says.

The full fight for healthcare took about a year, in accordance with the contract renewal for the insurance. When asked about strategy, both Leu and Peltz state it was a mixture of proving the low cost as well as the personal, individual need for the coverage.

“We had to make the conscious choice to out ourselves,” said Peltz.

“It is deemed medically necessary for trans people, if they desire to, to go through these procedures in order to complete their transitions or to be part of their transition. Regardless of cost, this is something we should be doing for our people,” Leu says.

While gaining health care coverage for individuals transitioning is Leu’s most notorious achievement, they reflect positively on all the small ways Kent has changed since they were a student.

“There wasn’t a diversity division when I started, there wasn’t an LGBTQ Center when I started. There weren’t a lot of these groups and a lot of these different things when I first started here. To kind of be here for the past twelve years and watch everything kind of build from the ground up and watch it grow and watch our dedication and our focus in diversity and inclusion really advance itself, has been really awesome.”

By Gretchen Lasso

A Kent native has made it her life mission to give back to the community. She uses her time and resources to make life better for those in Kent. Mary Ann Kasper started the Socially Responsible Sweatshop to give back.

I approached the front door of a house in a nice Kent neighborhood. In order to get to the porch, I had to weave between cars that were flowing out of the driveway and into the road. At the steps there was a sign that said Socially Responsible Sweatshop with the green and pink logo.

Mary Ann is in her seventies, but you couldn’t tell from looking at her, or even talking to her. She exudes energy even though she faces health issues. She does not let anything affect the work she does in the community.

In order to fully get to know Mary Ann, you need to know her values and understand what she thinks is important.

“It’s very important to help others who don’t have enough food, who don’t have enough support so that they can feed their families and eat healthy and have what they need in order to be functioning properly and happy and healthy,” said Mary Ann.

Mary Ann started the Socially Responsible Sweatshop (SRS) in 2013 when a volunteer group she was working with disbanded. Mary Ann had heard that yoga studios were going to be coming into the Kent are and she decided that she was going to make and sell yoga mat bags.

“I bought a small sewing machine at a thrift shop and I started making yoga mat bags since that was to be expected in the town. They sold right away! I just mentioned to people what I was doing and many of my friends and acquaintances joined me and we started to make not only yoga mat bags, but other things out of landfill destined textiles. So, the Socially Responsible Sweatshop began,” Mary Ann said.

The Socially Responsible Sweatshop’s goal is to help the community, all while being zero waste. All of the materials the SRS uses is donated. Fabric comes from Kent State’s Fashion School, furniture stores, local businesses and just normal people in the community. Nothing gets wasted, even fabric scraps get used for stuffing.

“We save bits for stuffing, no pins, paper or trash,” said Carolyn Schlemmer, a member of the Socially Responsible Sweatshop.

Mary Ann recognizes that she, and other members of the SRS, are privileged in many ways. She also knows that many people in the community are not as privileged. She believes her mission is to help in any way that she can.

“That’s why we give our time through the Socially Responsible Sweatshop. That’s why we’re at the market every Saturday and that’s why we just gave $10,000 to Kent Social Services when their freezer broke so we could help out, so they could get a new freezer. It’s important because we could be the ones in that situation and we’re blessed, and we obviously have enough, but not everyone does,” said Mary Ann.

Carolyn Schlemmer volunteers with the SRS because the goals of the organization align with her values.

“We really take care of each other and enjoy being with each other and have a good time,” said Schlemmer.

Schlemmer also recognizes that this group would not have been possible without Mary Ann.

“She’s the one that knows what happens. She’s gotten much better as we’ve gotten bigger she’s necessarily gotten better at delegating things. She’s incredibly busy, and active and caring and always energetic despite having some physical limitations,” said Schlemmer.

Mary Ann has short, silver hair and thick, dark glasses. She is taller than average. She used to be a special-education teacher in Kent and saw the trials and tribulations that students and their families went through on a daily basis.

“Not all but many of the students I encountered came from families that struggled. The kids would get free or reduced lunch and many of the kids were on some type of food assistance at the time because their families may have worked but they didn’t make enough to make ends meet or cover costs that the families encountered. Ya know, 30 years of seeing this and learning about the barriers people in poverty face, I just felt like my work wasn’t done even though I was retired,” said Mary Ann.

Without Mary Ann, the Socially Responsible Sweatshop would not exist, and the volunteers would not have the support system that they have. Carol Gould, an SRS member, had a health scare a few weeks ago and credits the SRS volunteers for helping her and supporting her.

“This is a wonderful group of friends. You can’t find friends like this anywhere. When you, I’m 78, when you get older maybe your family lives in another town and you don’t have family around you need friends like this to stay yourself,” Gould said.

Carol laughs and describes Mary Ann in an interesting way.

“She’s just full of energy and is wonderful combination full of straight-forward thinking and lots of compassion for others. You don’t meet those things in the same person very often. She is a kind tyrant,” said Carol. 

Emphasis on the kind part of the kind tyrant…by kind tyrant Carol means that Mary Ann is a strict leader but that she does it with kindness. She leads with grace and compassion.

It is hard to get Mary Ann to talk about herself. When I asked her about herself, she directed it back right to the Socially Responsible Sweatshop. Knowing about the sweatshop means that you know Mary Ann.