liberty champion september 2
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Liberty Champion September 2TRANSCRIPT
Speakers set to take the stage at Liberty as Convocation schedule is released.
News
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People around the nation are beginning to notice Liberty athletics.
Sports
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Student from Nepal earns a scholarship with his photography.
Feature
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INSIDE THE CHAMPIONWEATHER
Tomorrow: Cloudy
SUNNYHIGH: 92 LOW: 70
Volume 32 | Issue 2 Lynchburg, VirginiaTuesday, sepTember 2, 2014
SportsFeature
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NewsOpinion
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Turnovers lead to Flames loss B1Painted pianos line Main Street B7
Skyhawksland at LUSOA receives 10,000th CessnaJosh [email protected]
The Cessna Aircraft Company reached a milestone when it delivered its 10,000th single engine aircraft, a Cessna Skyhawk, to Liberty University Aug. 28.
The aircraft, along with two other Sky-hawks, was delivered from the Textron Avia-tion Independence Facility, which made its first delivery in June 1996. According to the Cessna website, the Skyhawk has the repu-tation of being the safest aircraft available and more Skyhawks have been built than any other aircraft.
“It is our primary training aircraft and the primary training aircraft that Cessna pro-duces,” Dave Young, president of Freedom Aviation and dean for Liberty University’s School of Aeronautics, said. “We’ve had a relationship with Cessna for a long time and we’ve used Cessna products since the begin-ning of our program. Our formal relation-ship began when we purchased Falwell Avia-tion in 2010.”
According to Young, the delivery of the Skyhawks is significant because it shows that Cessna sees a lot of potential in Liberty’s School of Aeronautics and its students.
“The Cessna corporation recognizes Lib-erty University’s School of Aeronautics as one of the premier collegiate flight training programs and they selected us over other universities,” Young said. “They are selling airplanes to universities, Russia, China, to the Civil Air Patrol — you name it. And they selected us to be the ones to receive that 10,000th airplane.”
Since its inception in 2002, the School of Aeronautics has grown from four students to more than 800. According to Liberty’s website, it is now partnering with Cessna to provide online degrees nationwide through qualified Cessna Pilot Centers.
See CESSNA, A6
Courtney russo | Liberty Champion
DELECTABLE — Students enjoyed time to socialize with international population
Cultural festivitiesInternational event encourages student diversity
Museum pays tribute to chaplainsNational Civil War Chaplains Museum opens for first time at new location
Ashley Terrell
Liberty students from all across the world gathered in front of De-Moss Hall Thursday night, Aug. 28, to celebrate cultures from around the world. This Worldwide Wel-come was designed to help new and returning international students connect with others from their native land and from around the globe.
International Student Services plans between 25 and 30 cultural
events during the year. Many of the workers are volunteers, students completing CSER hours and even internationals themselves.
There are just less than 1,000 international students from across the globe who have come to Lib-erty University to pursue their education. Sharon Bloomfield, as-sociate director of admissions, at-tributed the large number to Liber-ty’s recruiting methods and students spreading the word through friends and social media. A Canadian her-self, Bloomfield has worked with
the department for 12 years. “I have such a love for interna-
tional students and helping them,” Bloomfield said.
Albania, Korea, Thailand and many more countries were repre-sented at the event. Guests were treated to food, games, music and other activities. Various tables were set up offering information about the different organizations that they represented. Ntibonera Foundation
See WELCOME, A2
David Van [email protected]
Liberty University houses the only mu-seum in the United States honoring the chaplains of the Civil War, giving visitors
another view into the War of Secession. This library of artifacts and relics recently received a new location, though still within the campus of Liberty University.
The Civil War Chaplains Museum relo-cated from its original home next to Doc’s
Diner to the stand-alone building next to the Hancock Welcome Center Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014.
The very first location of the museum was a room in DeMoss Hall. The muse-um was able to expand its resources once it moved alongside Doc’s Diner, providing a deeper look into this unexplored side of the war. However, the location did not pro-vide the business that the developing mu-seum had hoped it would.
“While we had a fantastic facility over next to Doc’s Diner, we did not have the foot traffic that we had hoped for,” Kenny Rowlette, Director of the National Civil War Chaplains Museum, said. “Part of this is that Doc’s Diner turned more into a stu-dent hangout than a community restaurant. Hence, most of those who came over there were students, not members of the com-munity or visitors from out of town.”
According to a News and Advance ar-ticle, the Civil War Chaplains Museum was founded in 2005 to remember approxi-mately 3,700 chaplains on both sides of the
war. Many of these chaplains then served in hospital or post-war situations.
“The role of Civil War chaplains has been so grossly underestimated, if not ig-nored, as to be one of the great sadnesses of Civil War history,” James Robertson, distinguished professor of history at Vir-ginia Tech, said in a Liberty news article.
The Civil War Chaplains Museum in-tends to memorialize the ministers of the Civil War and bring their stories to light, allowing visitors to look into the lives of these selfless servants.
Collecting artifacts from the Civil War is no easy task, and Rowlette attributed much of it to the National Civil War Chaplains Museum Board of Trustees.
“We have three members of our Board of Trustees — Chaplain Alan Farley, Rusty Hicks and Charles Hollingsworth — who are experts on Civil War memorabilia and keep their eyes out for items that would be good for our museum,” Rowlette said.
See MUSEUM, A3
o v e r l i n e g o e s h e r e
Leah seavers | Liberty Champion
HISTORY — Museum honoring chaplains of the Civil War is open to the public
w o r l d w i d e w e l c o m e
WELCOME continued from A1
was accepting donations toward their mission trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in June 2015. Family Life Church and Pentacost Students and As-sociates (PENSA) Ministry, both of which have many international students in attendance, were also hand-ing out information.
Liberty University orga-nizations also had tables, including the Chinese Student Christian Asso-ciation, the Association of Students of African Decent and the Spanish Club. Alvaro Jaramillo, the vice president of the Spanish Club and a junior majoring in industrial engi-neering, is originally from Columbia. Jaramillo came to Liberty because of the Christian college at-mosphere and the univer-sity being located close to his family.
“I really liked CFAW,” Jaramillo said. “And it is a really good environment for studying. The sports are great too.”
Those in attendance were serenaded by The Latino Group from the School of Music. The chil-dren in attendance gathered around the games set up for them while others had their name written in Korean. Henna paintings, portraits and face painting were all popular activities. The mas-ter of ceremonies, named TK, kept the party going with crowd games, such as saying “Hello” in as many languages as they could.
Another junior who joined the festivities, Es-
ther Hewitt, comes from Northern Ireland. Hewitt’s brother attended Liberty University, and she came to visit during College for a Weekend and wanted to come as well. She is major-ing in nursing.
“Liberty has such a unique, Christian atmo-sphere,” Hewitt said. “There’s a unique style of teaching and the teachers are personal. You can’t get that anywhere else.”
TERRELL is a news reporter.
From Pakistan to Paraguay and Brazil to Bermuda, students across the globe are hearing about Liberty University, and they are making the journey to Lynchburg, Vir-ginia, just to attend.
In Liberty’s 43-year history, students in the international program have repre-sented 126 different countries. The pro-gram has steadily exploded and flourished, expanding year by year with no signs of slowing down.
Kristina Bautista, operations assis-tant and health insurance representative in International Student Services, cred-its the Christian environment for play-ing a significant part in the university’s thriving program.
Anelbi Franco Mateo, who studies pre-med and is from the Dominican Republic,
agreed that the environment was a definite factor in her decision to attend.
“Liberty seemed like a good opportunity to grow and to learn,” Mateo said. “In pre-med, it’s important to have a Christian en-vironment because it starts all the way back from creation.”
Mateo believes a biblical basis for educa-tion is crucial for a complete understanding of her science courses.
“Where would you even go from there without it?” Mateo said.
Such a large influx of international stu-dents for such a relatively young school suggests that Liberty’s international pro-gram goes above and beyond to attract for-eign prospects.
Although Liberty has a quickly growing multicultural population, much can be said for the programs that help international students succeed here at Liberty, from un-dergraduate to doctoral.
Bautista said that part of what sets Lib-erty’s international student program apart is the English Language Institute.
“Not a lot of schools have an Interna-tional Student Center or an international program such as ours,” Bautista said. “The English Language Institute helps students learn English before they go into their graduate, undergraduate or doctoral pro-grams. Also, the variety of different pro-grams we have, like the aviation program, draws a lot of international students.”
Bautista said the international program is crucial to “opening up your worldview and opening up your mind to other people’s points of view.”
In just seven years, the number of visi-tors to the International Student Center has more than doubled from 27,222 in the 2007-2008 school year to 66,415 in the 2013-2014 term. Several factors contribut-ed to such rapid growth. The center cites its
new location on the second floor of DeM-oss Hall, as well as the 12 open houses held just last year, as two of the main reasons for the increased foot traffic and international visitors on campus. Domestic visiting has shot up as well.
This year alone, Liberty’s student body represents 86 different countries, which make up 46 percent of the world’s coun-tries. Six countries never represented be-fore — Norway, Kazakhstan, Malawi, Mad-agascar, Austria and Slovakia — are among those 86.
GOODWIN is a news reporter.
newsA2 | September 2, 2014 | Liberty Champion
WOMEN’S SOCCER LOSES TO APPALA-CHIAN STATE IN LAST MINUTES.
CENTER FOR GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT BEGINS THE YEAR WITH GLOBAL EXPO.
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Cultural melting potStudents from around the world come to Liberty’s campus to learn and grow
Breann Black | liBerty champion
MULTICULTURAL — Liberty’s campus population represents nearly 50 percent of the world’s countries.
courtney russo| liBerty champion
TREATS — Students sample food from different cultures.
courtney russo| liBerty champion
PRIDE — Students from around the world celebrate their international heritage.
Each year, Convocation hosts more than 80 speakers from every facet of society, helping not only to form students’ spiritual beliefs, but also their cultural outlook. After nearly a month of waiting, Liberty University freshmen will finally experience Convocation for the first time Sept. 8.
This yer’s list of speakers fea-tures several pastors, musicians and Christian leaders, both nation-ally and internationally known.
The clearest shift in the fall agenda is seen in the large amount of ministry leaders scheduled to speak. In years past, Convocation has highlighted the surrounding culture by welcoming numerous popular personalities, including Donald Trump, Justin Bieber’s mom, Pattie Mallette, and “Duck Dynasty” star Willie Robertson.
Highlights for this year’s Con-vocation include best-selling au-thor and humanitarian Shelene Bryan, Fox News Radio host Todd Starnes, Christian worship leader Chris Tomlin, Liberty alumni and twin entrepreneurs David and Ja-son Benham, Washington, D.C., pastor Mark Batterson and Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly.
“What an honor to host such amazing leaders for Liberty
University Convocation this se-mester,” Senior Vice President for Spiritual Development Da-vid Nasser tweeted when the schedule was announced Friday, Aug. 29.
Nasser, who speaks to more than 500,000 people each year at numerous events across the na-tion, is focused on spiritual devel-
opment, and Convocation will be one of the several tools he uses.
“My role is really going to be about helping the spiritual forma-tion of our students,” Nasser told Liberty when he was first hired in early August.
Liberty’s Convocation gives students the opportunity to be challenged in their faith, reshape
their opinions and expand the scope of their worldview.
“Convocation is a great thing for the campus,” Liberty junior Travis Meritt said. “It’s a time when we come together as a university with professors, stu-dents, faculty and visitors for corporate worship.”
After attending Convocation
during a College for a Weekend visit, Liberty freshman Loghan Goins-Phillips said she is excited to experience Convocation as a student for the first time.
“Convocation, for me, is a way to refocus my week back on (Je-sus), who has given me the privi-lege to serve and glorify him at Liberty University,” Goins-Phil-lips said. “I am looking forward to what this year has to bring.”
What Liberty offers in its tri-weekly Convocation is something unique that truly sets it apart from other Christian campuses around the nation.
“Convocation serves as an out-let for students to listen, learn and engage with some of the most in-fluential people of our time,” Lib-erty senior Jaron Davis said.
Seven-time Grammy Award winning Christian artist Kirk Franklin is scheduled to speak at the first Convocation of the se-mester, to be held in the newly remodeled Vines Center Sept. 8 at 10 a.m. This will mark Frank-lin’s first time speaking at the university.
For more information on Con-vocation and to see the complete schedule, visit liberty.edu/faith-service.
GOINS-PHILLIPS is the opinion editor.
Liberty Champion | September 2, 2014 | A3news
Visit our homepage frequently for weekly menus, calendar of events and news you can use.
Reber-Thomas Dining Hall • 1971 University Blvd. • (434) 582-2262 • www.LibertyDining.com
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Students: 5:30 p.m.Faculty & Staff: 12:00 p.m.Terrace Conference Room in the Jerry Falwell Library
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Email [email protected] to sign up.Book by Rick Warren: $5
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SPIRIT — Students gather in the Vines Center to receive a message from the Convocation speaker
Convocation announcedStudents will hear speakers from across the nation during special gatherings
MUSEUM continued from A1
“Also, sometimes people come to us with items they want to sell or give to us.”
Some artifacts that have been collected by the museum include Bibles from that era, as well as photos taken of chaplains minis-tering to the battle-weary soldiers fighting for their own convictions
in-between clashes fought on hills and plains throughout this region.
In 2012, the Civil War Chap-lains Museum acquired a rare journal written by a delegate in the U.S. Christian Commission. His writings have provided insight into how several events within the last month of the Civil War unfolded.
While there are a handful of Civil War museums found throughout the nation, not many
take great pains in documenting the stories of chaplains. Rowlette explained that there are no other museums like this one tasked with documenting the adventures of chaplains from all faiths.
With the new location of the museum in the middle of campus, students will be able to expand their understanding of both the Civil War and the chaplains who provided spiritual and physical support to the soldiers fighting on
both sides of the war.“(S)ince the Civil War is clear-
ly the most important event in American history other than the founding of the country, (the museum) also helps our students and the public understand the complex causes of the war, how the war affected both soldiers and civilians,” Rowlette said. “Given Liberty’s founder, who was a his-tory buff, and the religious focus of the school, having the museum
here is simply a natural fit.”The National Civil War Chap-
lains Museum can be visited dur-ing the hours of 10 a.m. -4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday. Saturday hours are from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
VAN DYK is the news editor.
OPINIONA4 September 2, 2014
Perhaps you heard about President Barack Obama’s White House re-marks this past Thursday. Or maybe you just heard about his tan suit.
Either way, Obama definitely made an impres-sion on Americans through his address, although not many were left impressed.
During his speech, Obama spoke about the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and his plan for U.S. involve-ment in the crisis. Instead of offering a finite and promising plan of action, however, Obama admitted that “We don’t have a strategy yet.”
No strategy for dealing with the fore-most terror organization in the world. No strategy for dealing with the terror-ists who are killing people daily, includ-ing an American journalist.
Obviously, I do not have all the an-swers or the perfect plan for stopping the members of this horrible group. But, even if the Obama administra-tion has yet to work out the details, no president should so quickly admit he does not have a plan. The phrase may not cause immediate problems, but at the very least, it does make the U.S. look unprepared.
Now compare Obama’s highlight of the week to British Prime Minister Da-vid Cameron’s Friday press conference on the issue.
In Cameron’s response to the in-ternational terror, he was straightfor-ward and decisive, saying the group is a “greater threat to our security than we have seen before.” He added that “the root cause of this threat to our security is clear: it is a poisonous
ideology of Islamic extremism that is condemned by all states.”
In addition to realistically assess-ing the situation, Cameron also had a plan. He outlined a strategy and enact-ed new measures to stop British-born jihadists, according to Fox News.
Quite the contrast to Obama’s re-marks, and Obama did not stop his downward skid there.
When given the chance to rectify his gaffe the following night at a fun-draiser, Obama again failed to realisti-cally address the issue. During his short speech, Obama attributed much of America’s worry to social media.
“The world has always been messy,” Obama said. “In part, we’re just noticing now because of social media and our capacity to see in inti-mate detail the hardships that people are going through.”
It is true that social media has in-creased the amount of news Americans have been able to consume and that the sites have allowed us a closer look
at the problems that go on around the world. However, whether Americans gain knowledge of the dire situations in the Middle East and other places through social media or through tradi-tional news outlets is hardly the point. Obama, and all Americans, need to be realistic about what is going on around us and have a serious plan of action.
Moderator of Fox News’ “The Five” Greg Gutfeld simply summed up Obama’s major mistake during a seg-ment of the show.
“This indecision makes Hamlet look resolute,” Gutfeld said.
I do not know about you, but I do not want to have my president com-pared to an unstable and unsure liter-ary character.
Mr. President, be honest about what is happening around the world and do not hide behind social media. Make a plan quickly, and in the future, if you do not have one, please do not an-nounce that to our enemies. And go ahead and ditch the tan suit too.
by Emily Brown
James Foley leaves legacyU.S. journalist’s dedication to free the religiously persecuted must continue
GooGle ImaGes
FEARLESS — American journalist James Foley, driven by his faith, worked relentlessly to bring freedom to persecuted religious minorities in the Middle East and around the world.
“Martyr,” many Catholics have called him. A man driven by a faith that never dimmed but only
grew seemingly brighter, James Foley was an American photojournalist whose work breached the cultural chasm that divides the West from the war-torn mountains of the Middle East. An exemplary chronicler, Foley was known for his investigative strength.
It was late Tuesday night, Aug. 19, when a video surfaced of James Foley’s beheading by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The media erupted with a whirlwind of speculation about his execution.
ISIS first captured Foley in November 2012, and he was last seen covering the Syrian civil war, according to Daily Mail.
Dedicated to bringing freedom to persecuted minorities all around the world, Foley was no stranger to controversy and conflict.
In the days, weeks and months leading up to his death, Foley was beaten as well as subjected to psychological tor-ture with mock executions, according to the New York Daily News.
The situation finally came to a head when the U.S. decid-ed to begin airstrikes in early August as an effort to diffuse the radicals’ seizure of several towns and infrastructure through Iraq and Syria. ISIS, infuriated by the decision, be-came determined to punish America.
“You and your citizens will pay,” ISIS said in the video of Foley’s execution. “The first of which being the blood of American citizen, James Foley.”
“This group, which has a taste for the macabre, made him stand against a wall in a pose as if he had been cruci-fied,” Didier Francois, a French journalist who had also been held by ISIS, told radio station Europe1.
As terror continues to escalate in the Middle East, be-tween Israel and Palestine as well as in Iraq and Syria, the
ongoing tension seems to be more heavily centered on religion every day.
Dragging his feet on matters of religious liberty, it took President Obama a staggering nine months to nominate an ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, a position vacated in October 2013 by his previous nomi-nee Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook, according to Fox News. All the while, tensions were rising in the peace-defunct Middle East, with Foley caught right in the middle.
“The continual delay of a nomination communicates an indifference to the cause of religious freedom around the world on the part of the United States,” Dr. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and former Liberty Convocation speaker, wrote in a letter to the president over the summer.
Finally, at the end of July, Obama nominated Rabbi Da-vid Saperstein for the ambassadorship. However, the Sen-ate has yet to confirm Saperstein, who, if chosen, will be the first non-Christian to hold the post, according to the Religion News Network.
Had there been a swift nomination and confirmation for ambassador for religious freedom, a more pinpointed fo-cus may have been placed on Foley’s rescue. However, even amid uncertainty of his return to the U.S., he remained fer-vently committed to exposing the evils of persecution.
“(James) reminds us of Jesus,” Diane, Foley’s mother, said in an emotional press conference. “Jesus was good-ness, love — and Jim was becoming more and more that.”
Foley was very open about his faith. In 2011, he recount-ed in Marquette University’s alumni magazine his and his colleague’s first imprisonment in a Tripolitan military de-tention center where they were detained after being caught while on assignment in Libya.
“Clare (one of Foley’s fellow colleagues) and I prayed together out loud,” Foley wrote. “It felt energizing to speak our weaknesses and hopes together, as if in a conversation with God, rather than silently and alone.”
It is clear that Foley was dedicated to bringing freedom to the persecuted. He did not allow fear to keep him pris-oner. He was driven by something deeper than a hope of being rescued. At his very core, Foley was driven by his faith and the “certain inalienable rights” that are central to our humanity — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
It was July 4 when the U.S. first attempted to rescue Fol-ey. The operation was, in “hesitation,” allegedly delayed by Obama, according to reports from Toby Harnden of the British Sunday Times, and ultimately failed.
Foley’s arrest, torture and eventual murder is far too ro-bust of an issue for the totality of the blame to rest on the shoulders of the president. Regardless, I cannot help but imagine that our efforts would have had greater impact had we moved urgently to establish a strong and unmistakable commitment to the bruised, battered and beaten religious minorities around the world.
It was Foley’s faith that gave him the fortitude to step into the deepest, darkest corners of the earth to shed light on the oft forgotten.
“Often we’re asked, ‘How is it possible in human his-tory such atrocities occur?’” Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, D.C., said, speaking at the Catholic Univer-sity of America on the horrors plaguing the Middle East. “They occur for two reasons: there are those prepared to commit them and there are those who remain silent.”
No matter what the faith, genocide in the name of reli-gion is unjustifiable.
Foley was not one to remain silent. And now, he has passed the baton to the next generation of truth seekers.
For today, all of our leaders in Washington must move with tenacity and firmness, with a zero-tolerance resolution to defend those without a voice. This nation must act with the same audacious spirit that took Foley to distant and perilous lands.
From one journalist to another, thank you, James Foley.
GOINS-PHILLIPS is the opinion editor.
Elijah [email protected]
Conflict in the Middle East is nothing new. In fact, turmoil seems indigenous to the entire region. While turmoil is no stranger to the Middle East, this latest outbreak of fighting has escalated to recognition on an international scale.
When the news of an Israeli offensive against Hamas, the militant Islamic fundamentalist group that governs the Gaza Strip, first surfaced, many of those who received the news had similar thoughts on their minds.
Israel and Palestine are always fighting, right? In which direction does the moral balance tip? Does the United States have a role to play in the matter?
First and foremost, I think it is important to decipher what has actually been happening. The outbreaks of vio-lence seem to occur and reoccur in a vicious cycle. The cycle goes something like this: In efforts to push Israel back and gain land, Gaza and its Islamic militant leaders continue their war on the Israeli state, firing missiles across the border into farmland along the edge of the Gaza Strip. In self-defense, Israel retaliates.
Due to the fact that Israel’s defense and weaponry is much stronger than Gaza’s, its attacks inflict more signifi-cant damage. The rest of the world takes note of the dam-age that has occurred and begins to sympathize with Gaza and its Hamas leadership, ignorantly asking what Hamas could have done to deserve such a violent response.
As a result of the large number of casualties, Hamas sees fit to commence another offensive against its Israeli neighbors, and the cycle continues. A firsthand witness best described the current environment in the area.
“In recent years, we’ve been having these kinds of at-tacks on average every two years,” Maya Nayeh, an Israeli living in a city bordering Gaza, told a USA Today corre-spondent. “The area is dry like thistles — you just need to throw a match and everything is ablaze.”
After long, and often seemingly pointless, wars across the globe, and especially in the Middle East, the last thing the American people are eagerly waiting to take part in is another war. In fact, I am sure the vast majority of the American people would rather avoid war at all costs.
I do believe that it is important that we, as a nation, do our best in our words and actions to convey the truth of what is really happening. I think that in the most basic re-
sponse to the problem, we need to stand by Israel and its right to defend itself. It is ridiculous for nations around the world to demand that Israel stand idly by as the anti-Semitic Hamas government attacks them.
While the governments of both nations are caught in the vicious cycle of war and turmoil with no one coming out a clear winner of the conflict, there is a significant group that can be identified as the loser.
“The leaders on both sides will probably each declare victory, while the people on each side do not feel like they are victors at all,” former Israeli Army Colonel Miri Eisin told a Washington Post correspondent.
Unfortunately, in a time of great tension in the Middle East, these comments are all too true. The citizens of both regions are paying the price for the turmoil between the two governments, and paying it with their lives. While an unsteady ceasefire has been established, it does not come without a price. Due to the initial hate-fueled attacks of Hamas and the justifiable response by the Israeli govern-
ment, in the last two months, well over 2,000 people have lost their lives.
I think it is important that the government and people of the United States work in this time of momentary calm to not only ensure that this number of causalities rises no higher, but also to pledge our full support to a region that has known nothing but turmoil for a long time.
According to Business Insider, the U.S. will be giving Israel $3.15 billion in aid from 2013 to 2018. While our financial support is of great value, the U.S. government should be an outward and adamant supporter of the Jew-ish state. A time and chance has come for us to be known not as a nation of war, but as one of love, peace and re-building. Now, more than ever, we must remain unwaver-ing in our commitment to Israel.
SMITH is an opinion writer.
opinion Liberty Champion | September 2, 2014 | A5
LETTERS TO THE EDITORPOLICIES & INFO
Emily Browneditor-in-chief
Gabriella Fullergraduate assistant Tom Footegraduate assistant
CONTENT
Dave Van Dyknews editor
Josh Janneyasst. news editor
Tré Goins-Phillipsopinion editor
Alex Tichenorsports editor
Nate Haywoodasst. sports editor
Sam Campbellfeature editor
Olivia Browncopy editor
Ash Browndcopy editor
PHOTOGRAPHY
Courtney Russophotography editor
Leah Seaversasst. photography editor
DESIGN
Breann Blackgraphic designer
Meighan Thompsongraphic designer
Josh Gordonsocial media manager
Jomer Bunqueweb manager
ADMINISTRATION
Deborah Hufffaculty advisor
Omar Adams advertising director
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Conflict escalates in IsraelHamas and Islamic radicals terrorize the Jewish state in the name of religion
GooGle ImaGes
HORROR — Israel launched a military operation in early July in an effort to end rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
Once orphans, still homelessCongolese government denies exit visas for orphans adopted by Americans
Kimberly [email protected]
Hundreds of orphans in the Demo-cratic Republic of the Congo have devot-ed parents and caring homes in the U.S. awaiting them, yet they are still bound to their home country and remain in orphan-ages due to the African nation’s decision to halt adoptions.
According to Fox News, the Congolese Immigration and Emigration Office cites human trafficking as the reason for the decision to deny exit visas to adopted or-phans. While the adoption halt may be in efforts to slow the burgeoning sex trade in the region, many of these adoptions have already been legally paid for and approved.
Instead of being held in this awful holding pattern, these children should be able to come to the U.S. and live with their legal families.
Fox News reported that with numbers growing, upwards of 350 of the under-privileged country’s orphans have parents in the U.S. who have been given legal cus-tody — approved by both the U.S. gov-ernment and courts in the African nation — but have been forced to live in foster care or stay in orphanages because the na-tion stopped issuing exit visas for children almost a year ago.
Many American parents have been thrown into this painful game of limbo, waiting and wondering if they will ever see their children. This is the case of Sheri Smetana, an adoptive mother of a
16-month-old Congolese boy, Henry.“He’s been legally part of the family
since January,” Smetana said in an article on foxnews.com. “All we need is an exit visa.”
The U.S. Senate has called on the Con-golese government to release the Ameri-can children, according to a source at The Boston Globe. The Congo, among other nations, has been slowing the pace of in-ternational adoptions recently, according to Reuters.
I understand the want and need of these nations to find safe and loving home for these children, but the parents who have legally adopted their children should be
able to bring them home. Human traf-ficking is a serious issue that plagues so-cieties around the world, and strict back-ground checks should be done by both countries for potential adoptive parents.
These children are no longer citizens of the Congo and should be given the right to leave. More attention by both the people and governments needs to be given to the issue in order to bring an end to this halt.
In what some might call an unlikely turn of events, Congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle have been moved to action by these parents’ heart-wrenching stories and have begun work-
ing together to bring these children to their American homes.
New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, the House chair of the Subcommittee on Af-rica, Global Human Rights and Interna-tional Organizations, has brought aware-ness to the growing issue in Congress. He stated at a recent hearing that the issue of African orphans is one imbued with “strategic implications.”
“We have all heard of the scourge of child soldiers, how orphaned children are recruited and brutalized, themselves turn-ing into remorseless killers,” Smith said.
It is increasingly dangerous for these children to remain in the war-torn Congo. With conflict surrounding them and dis-ease infecting them, the clock is ticking for these children to come to the U.S. The biological parents of these children have been victims of a civil war, natural disaster, poverty and HIV/AIDS, which has been infecting the area for years. These orphans typically have not known easy lives, as an estimated 56 million children have lost at least one parent in Africa, according to The Boston Globe.
We need to make a better future for these children who have no one else to turn to. In the darkest areas of the world there is al-ways hope. These Congolese children have been teased with this hope with promises of a better home in America. Congress must continue to fight for these families to bring an end to this orphan crisis.
STEFANICK is an opinion writer.
GooGle ImaGes
DESPAIR — Many adopted orphans have remained separated from their new parents.
Josh [email protected]
In an attempt to enable business growth, Freedom Aviation, a fixed-based op-erator (FBO) and a subsid-iary of Liberty University, is seeking to secure long-term rights in a lease at the Lynchburg Regional Air-port, a move that has cre-ated some controversy.
Freedom Aviation pro-vides fuel, flight instruc-tion, hangar space, main-tenance, charter and other services to general aviation users at the Lynchburg Airport. Since the end of June when Freedom Avia-tion purchased Virginia Aviation, the other FBO on the airfield, Freedom has been trying to secure Virginia Aviation’s existing lease with the city. FBOs are unique in that the ma-jority of their value lies in the leased facilities they control.
In 2013, the City of Lynchburg imposed a stipulation that if Virginia Aviation were ever sold, its lease with the city would terminate rather than trans-fer to the buyer. Freedom Aviation made an appeal to the stipulation to which the city agreed to continue the lease on a month-by-month basis until a decision can be made.
According to Mark Courtney, manager of the Lynchburg Regional Air-port, the merger of the two FBOs has created some controversy within the gen-eral aviation community and city leaders. Concerns exist over Liberty’s School of Aeronautics receiv-ing potentially preferen-tial treatment over other customers, the forcing of general aviation off the Airport and Freedom Avia-tion becoming a monopoly since there would be no other operators to provide competition.
“The (Lynchburg Air-port) commission is trying to move towards reconcil-ing all of that,” Courtney said. “There seems to be
some consensus building that the School of Aero-nautics needs to be treated separately as an entity on this airport from Freedom Aviation as an FBO, mak-ing the distinction that both at the same time are owned by Liberty University.”
Freedom Aviation Presi-dent Dave Young says that Freedom has the best in-terests of the general avia-tion community as its goal. While Young clarifies that Freedom does want to serve the School of Aero-nautics, its business model is to support anyone and everyone who is involved in aviation enterprises.
“I personally disagree with the concern about a monopoly,” Young said. “For one, in our busi-ness model we are going to be governed by several forces that won’t allow us to be a monopoly. We are governed by the price of fuel generally within a certain mile radius. An-
other reason we would not raise fuel or hangar rental prices is because we don’t want to lose any of our current customers.”
Courtney said the FBOs being separate provided local competition.
“From the Airport’s perspective, these two FBOs were providing a healthy competitive en-vironment, which is fine if there is enough busi-ness to support it,” Young said. “It became apparent to the owner of Virginia Aviation that this kind of competitive environ-
ment was, to some ex-tent, presenting a challenge for him in having a profitable business.”
“We reached a point where the owner of Vir-ginia Aviation, from our perspective, found it in his
best interest to sell his com-pany,” Young said. “When we purchased Virginia Avia-tion, we had full knowledge that we really purchased the assets of the company, with full expectation that we work with the city over the various aspects of the lease which include facilities, fuel management and manage-
ment of what we call the general aviation terminal.”
Young believes that the merged FBO operations provide a catalyst for in-creasing customers, eco-nomic development and bringing in new business.
He also believes that the merger will enhance region-al competition. According to Young, Freedom Avia-tion has offered to partner with the city to develop a Maintenance Repair and Overhaul facility plan. This was the number one recom-mendation in the 2013 Job Development study com-missioned by the Lynch-burg Office of Economic Development.
“I think the synergy that has been created by the merger of these two compa-nies strengthens the overall position not only of Free-dom but of the airport and the future of the airport,” Young said. “Each com-pany had its own strengths. There were specific func-tions that Virginia Aviation could perform and there were specific functions that Freedom Aviation could perform, but neither of us could perform all of them. Now that both are under one umbrella, we can satisfy a wider array of customers as well as the existing cus-tomers more effectively. It provides a basis for growth that didn’t exist previously.”
According to Lynch-burg City Manager Kim-ball Payne, if the lease was transferred to Freedom Aviation, then it would be the first time that all of the facilities for general avia-tion would be controlled by one private business.
However, Young said that the majority of air-ports in the U.S. are served by a single FBO and that a single FBO model can work at Lynchburg as it did for years.
Payne said that all op-tions are being considered to ensure that the city lead-ers decide what works best for the most people.
“There are concerns about what (the merger) would do to the revenue streams that would come to the city,” Payne said. “On the other hand, Freedom Aviation folks have argued that being a bigger organi-zation, they could raise the level of professionalism, raise the level of quality and they could make the Airport more competitive on a regional level. And clearly I think Freedom has the financial capability to build new facilities on the Airport, which could mean more hangar space (and) more service for the general aviation community.”
Courtney pointed out that while the airport com-mission’s advice is heav-ily considered, the final decision on how the lease is resolved rests with city council.
“With the general avia-tion concerns and input and a nine-member commis-sion, it’s really quite a lot to work through all of this, es-pecially when we explore all of the alternatives,” Court-ney said. “There are issues in what’s in the best interest of Freedom Aviation and also issues of what’s in the public interest. I think we are making progress, but it’s slow progress.”
Young agreed that con-cerns of the general avia-tion public must be consid-ered. However, he is also concerned about the future of the airport.
“With the continued re-duction of regional airline service, I believe that the commission should be con-sidering the devastating im-pact to the airport should Lynchburg lose commercial air service,” Young said.
Young continues to em-phasize to the airport com-mission and city council the importance of partnering in strategic planning for the future of the airport, as well as taking advantage of the resources Freedom Aviation can offer, to sup-port capital investment for improving existing infra-structure and constructing new facilities for the benefit of general aviation, and in-creased revenue to the city.
JANNEY is the asst. news editor.
CESSNA continued from A1
“We’re just going to continue to grow,” James Ballou, a junior avia-tion student, said. “We’ve gone from having a couple of planes to having a pretty large fleet. I think it’s just pretty cool how much God has been bless-ing the aviation program.”
Ballou believes that Liberty’s rela-tionship with Textron Aviation will only grow stronger due to the increase in Liberty aviation students.
“There is a demand for certain skill sets, pilots, mechanics and other avia-tion-related skills,” Young said. “And so, from a business perspective, this is a grand opportunity for a city like Lynchburg to really capitalize on that market by partnering with LU. The
growth potential is incredible lead-ing to economic development and job creation. When there is a part-nership between the collaborative parties, tremendous things can be accomplished.”
JANNEY is the asst. news editor.
newsA6 | September 2, 2014 | Liberty Champion
Leah SeaverS | Liberty Champion
AVIATION — Freedom Aviation makes use of the newly acquired assets from Virginia Aviation.
FBO appeals to city councilFreedom Aviation raises concern as it seeks former competitor’s lease
Leah SeaverS | Liberty Champion
SKYHAWK — The 10,000th Cessna aircraft was given a new home at Freedom Aviation.
“I think the synergy that has been created by the merger of these two companies
strengthens the overall position not only of Freedom but of the airport and the
future of the airport. — DAVE YOUNG
Liberty Champion | September 2, 2014 | A7news
AlAnnA Mitchell| liberty chAMpion
ACTION — The Zaki Gordon Cinematic Arts Center’s premiere gave students the opportunity to watch three unseen movies.
Premieres draw crowdCinematic Arts unveils three never-before-seen films
Mu Kappa throws partyNew club hosts its first event for third-culture studentsAsh [email protected]
The new club, Mu Kappa, kicked off the school year with its first event Aug. 29. A nation-ally recognized fraternity, Mu Kappa targets a very specific demographic — third culture kids (TCKs).
A TCK is defined as someone who “spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside their parents’ culture,” according to tckworld.com. This includes missionary kids, mili-tary kids, international students and anyone else who spent sig-nificant time outside of their na-tive country.
“The main goal of the Lib-erty chapter (of Mu Kappa) is to build community with (mis-sionary kids), TCKs and other globally minded people,” Shai-na Wareing, the club’s event coordinator, said.
Wareing’s parents did not be-come missionaries until she was in college, meaning she never lived outside of the United States. But that has not prevent-ed her from taking an active role within the club.
Mu Kappa opened the semes-ter with a two-hour game night on the fourth floor of DeMoss Hall. More than 50 students par-ticipated in the event.
“We had no idea so many people would show up,” Alyssa Brown, the club’s public rela-tions manager, said. “We had students from all around the world, from Haiti to Poland to Roanoke, Virginia.”
For the first part of the eve-ning, students were free to play
any of the games set up on the tables, ranging from the card game spoons to a pirate-themed version of Life. There was also a snack table with chips, salsa and drinks.
The room was filled with laughter and conversation as stu-dents caught up with old friends and introduced themselves to new ones. Bethany Thomas, a student who had lived in Po-land, was excited to discover that there was another TCK in the room who had lived in the same country. She and her new friend even exchanged a few words in Polish.
Fellow TCK Shannon Rut-ledge said that one of the best parts of the event was being able to meet other TCKs and students interested in global missions.
“I think having a group of people that understand you at a fundamental level is cru-cial, especially for college stu-dents transitioning to school and American life,” Brown said. “From personal experi-ence, coming to college is hard enough, but the added stress of parents being continents away and feeling stranded can be too much to take alone.”
According to Wareing, it can be a hard transition for TCKs when they first come to the United States.
“(TCKs) are a mixture of several cultures, and it’s hard to come into a society that expects them to act American when they can’t,” Wareing said. “(Mu Kappa) gives them a chance to be with people who understand what they are going through, and they can grow together.”
Toward the middle of the event, a large group of students started a game of Never Have I Ever. The wide variety of back-grounds led to some interesting and occasionally entertaining revelations as students admit-ted to everything from eating strange foods to surviving hem-orrhagic fever or never having driven a car. Any time it was dis-covered that only one player had completed a particular feat, the rest of the group clapped to ac-knowledge the accomplishment.
The number of players con-tinued to grow until almost the entire group was playing while the rest watched in amuse-ment. Rutledge said playing the game was easily her favor-ite part of the night. The game carried on for more than an hour before club co-president Jessika Sams finally broke it up, announcing that the game
night had come to an end. “I think (the event) was an
overall success, and I cannot wait for more events over the course of the semester,” Wareing said.
Sams was also thrilled with the turnout the event received and said she was grateful to God for preparing the way for the club. With regards to future events, she said to keep an eye out for an event in November.
“We’re planning a specific cul-tural festival that will not only be fun to take part in, but also give us a chance to intercede in prayer on behalf of a nation and a people,” Sams said.
For more information on the Liberty chapter of Mu Kappa, go to facebook.com/mukappa- libertychapter.
BROWND is a copy editor.
Kiara [email protected]
Liberty University is launching a Live Healthy Initiative to incorporate healthy changes in both the fitness and dining aspects of the campus.
According to the Live Healthy Lib-erty website, the mission of this project is “to create and sustain a healthy cam-pus culture that educates, motivates and empowers Liberty students, faculty and staff to adopt and maintain healthy life-style behaviors.”
Jaime Swyers, the LaHaye Student Union’s associate director of fitness, said fitness is one main facet being pro-moted in the health initiative. As part of this project, Liberty has expanded and renovated the fitness center and added wellness series speaker events, new group exercise classes, faculty and staff group exercise classes, specialty group exercise workshops, fitness competi-tions and personal training sessions.
In addition, the LaHaye Student Union hosted a health fair Wednes-day, Aug. 20 to provide students with a vast amount of resource to practice a healthy lifestyle.
Liberty’s effort to create a healthier campus was modeled in part after Live Healthy Lynchburg, a program created to challenge the residents of Lynchburg to choose healthier lifestyles.
Students have the opportunity to sign up with personal trainers to further ex-cel in their fitness goals. According to Swyers, working with a personal trainer can help keep the students motivated and prevent injuries while working with unfamiliar equipment. Personal train-ing programs are offered for anywhere from three to 10 weeks in length and start at $120.
According to the LaHaye Student Union website, Liberty is also initiat-ing a new Push Pull competition in re-sponse to the positive feedback from the spring Bench Press Competition. The competition will take place Nov. 15 at 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on the basketball courts in LaHaye. The top four male and top three female competitors will win a prize. Applications are available at the front desk of the LaHaye Student Union.
Swyers expressed her excitement about the changes being made this fall. She said the new health initiative has been her passion for the past year, and she is pleased to finally launch the project.
According to Swyers, to ensure all the new programs and offerings are meet-ing the needs of the students, faculty and staff, a wellness coalition of rep-resentatives from various departments at Liberty will meet on a monthly basis. The coalition will act as a steering com-mittee for campus recreation to help Live Healthy Liberty effectively reach the entire campus.
“I am so happy and excited that all these changes around campus have been made,” Rachel Leers, a Liberty student, said. “I have always done my best to take care of my health, and I am so excited to utilize all the opportuni-ties that are now available thanks to this new health initiative.”
For more information on events and opportunities to get involved, visit the LaHaye Student Union website at lib-erty.edu/campusrec/studentunion.
LEERS is a news reporter.
Diets beginLiberty launches health initiative
FYI
Liberty University’s Master of Public Health
is sponsoring the Ultimate Fat Loss Challenge.
The Challenge begins Sept. 2
and will continue until Nov. 11.
For more information, call 434-582-2342.
Ash brownd | liberty chAMpion
GAME — Students enjoy fellowship and food at Mu Kappa event.
Benjamin [email protected]
A long line snaked through the lobby of Cinemark Movies 10 Friday, Aug. 29 as an excited audience of Liberty students and Lynchburg locals queued up, ready to screen a pair of un-released films.
The event was hosted by the Zaki Gordon Center’s Cinemat-ic Arts Premiere Event, which debuted a trio of yet-to-be-released films Aug. 28-29. The movies, all professionally pro-duced, were each shown free of charge and were followed by question-and-answer segments with members of production.
“Beyond the Mask” pre-miered Thursday night, and the film highlighted a fictional-his-tory adventure set in the 1700s.
Friday night began with “Brother’s Keeper,” a story of two twins in the 1950s strug-gling with the dilemma of choosing revenge or forgive-
ness. The film was followed by “The Remaining,” a movie produced by Affirm Films, the same studio behind works like “Soul Surfer” and “Cou-rageous.” “The Remaining,” however, might be more akin to the standard Friday night fair than its predecessors. A thrill-ing horror film based around the biblical rapture, the movie integrated found footage-style cinematography and more than its share of jump-scares to cre-ate a tense environment.
Executive Vice President of Affirm Films Rich Peluso ad-dressed the shift in direction from more family friendly films in his question-and-answer after the film.
“That’s part of the danger of having a brand,” Peluso said. “But no one says, ‘I’m going to go and check out the new War-ner Brothers movie, the new Sony movie.’ They’re attracted to a story. They’re attracted to a film.”
Both films Friday night seemed to receive positive reac-tions from the audience. One moviegoer said his favorite part of “Brother’s Keeper” was “the whole thing.”
Wes Bundy, a senior at Liber-ty majoring in youth ministries, was enthusiastic after seeing “The Remaining.”
“I would love to play this in my youth group to discuss scripture and talk about Revela-tion,” Bundy said.
“I would definitely go see it again,” Jonathan Hidalgo, a Cinematic Arts major, said.
The movie executives be-hind the screened films came together with other guests Sat-urday morning for an extended panel discussion and further question-and-answer sessions.
Paul Lauer, the founder and CEO of Motive Entertainment, which has marketed such films as “The Passion of the Christ” and “Son of God,” spoke ex-citedly about the Liberty Cin-
ematic Arts Program, calling it part of “ground zero” for an explosion in the Christian film-making industry.
The discussion covered top-ics ranging from production of faith-based films to marketing them to a mass audience. Panel-ists also gave conjecture on the future of film as a medium.
“These panelists have given our students the chance to en-gage and learn from their years of experience,” Event Director Scotty Curlee said.
He encouraged anyone who missed this year’s event to look forward to next year’s fourth annual Zaki Gordon Cinematic Arts Center’s Premiere Event, which will be announced in the near future.
LIN is a news reporter.
Jake Holland’s bearded face is one almost every residential student at Liberty knows. From Coffeehouse host to national recruit-er, Holland has played a highly active role in the university over the last four years. That legacy will continue this year, as Holland moves into the position of creative arts as-sociate director.
Holland said President Jerry Falwell called him during the summer and asked him to pray about being a part of the tran-sition after Johnnie Moore, former senior vice president for communications, left.
“I was able to meet with the executive leadership and David Nasser to see if I’d be a good fit for this new era,” Holland said. “I’m guessing everything clicked, because now I have a new job.”
Holland’s new position involves assist-ing with the creative and social media as-pects of both Convocation and Campus Church. As he headed into the third week of his new job, Holland said he is loving it and that all of his colleagues have been extremely welcoming.
“I love this school, as well as being chal-lenged creatively,” Holland said. “It’s also an understatement that I love social media, so any opportunities that arise in that realm are definitely welcomed.”
The new position also involves less travel than being a national recruiter. As much as Holland enjoyed the opportunities to travel to new places and meet new people, he said he also missed being in Lynchburg.
“Traveling that much is fun, and I en-joyed it for a season,” Holland said. “But, it was time to transition out of that.”
The biggest lesson Holland took away from his time as a national recruiter was to always seize the moment.
“Don’t waste any chances to explore wherever you’re sent,” Holland said. “If that means going to bed earlier than usual the night before, do it.”
He said his new job reminds him a good deal of his experience with Student Ac-tivities (SA) , both because of the creative aspect and the chance to interact with stu-dents on a weekly basis. Working with SA also helped Holland become comfortable
with being a recognizable face on campus. “I’ve grown to accept my extroverted
side and balance my introverted tenden-cies,” Holland said. “I’m more prone to
thinking outside the box now with the op-portunities and challenges ahead in my new department.”
He said working for Liberty is a very unique experience. The amazing job op-portunities, continually growing campus and interactions with people he otherwise would not have met, make working for his
alma mater extremely rewarding. All perks aside, he said the work environment at Lib-erty is also very different from that of a secular workplace.
“There’s a much more unified sense of community and purpose in all of the de-partments I’ve worked in,” Holland said. “People have been far more open and in-tentional about finding common ground and seeking ways to bond and collaborate.”
While Holland does not miss attending classes or writing papers, he said his new
job allows him to still experience the best things about being a student at Liberty.
“It’s like I get to enjoy everything else mi-nus the education side of things,” Holland said. “Friends are still here in abundance, concerts aren’t limited to students, and I still have plenty of time to enjoy the greater Lynchburg area and beyond.”
Holland encouraged students to be ac-tive while on campus and to take full ad-vantage of the opportunities around them.
“Step outside of your comfort zone,” Holland said. “Meet people completely different from yourself and invest time in them. Go to meetings and events you’d normally be too scared to go, explore be-yond the boundaries of campus, and buy a ridiculous pair of footie pajamas.”
BROWND is a copy editor.
newsA8 | September 2, 2014 | Liberty Champion
Holland accepts new position Former recruiter returns home to expand creative arts and social media
Ruth BiBBy | LiBeRty Champion
HOLIDAY CHEER — Jake Holland embraced the spotlight as he joined with students celebrating Christmas
“Meet people completely different from yourself and invest time
in them.— JAKE HOLLAND
W. Soccer Field Hockey Field Hockey Volleyball Volleyball
Field Hockey vs. VCUSept. 5 @ 4 p.m.
Volleyballvs. UNCGSept. 6 @7 p.m.
WE’LL SEEYOU ATTHEGAME
Liberty Pacific
2 1UMD Liberty
3 2App. St. Liberty
4 3
Football @ Norfolk St. Sept. 6 @ 4 p.m.
M. Soccer @ VMI Sept. 2 @4 p.m.
Liberty Elon
3 0Stanford Liberty
4 1
W. Soccervs. Charlotte Sept. 4 @ 4 p.m.
SPORTSB1 September 2, 2014
Dead giveawayTurnovers spoil Flames upset bid against UNC
b r i g h t l i g h t sKick start
The recent growth and success of athletics warrants big time media attention
Courtney russo | Liberty Champion
NEAR MISS — Wideout Darrin Peterson (13) almost comes down with a big catch, but cannot quite hang on.
Alex [email protected]
Jacob Hagen had just taken the breath out of Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, returning a fumble 27 yards to give Liberty a 22-21 lead over Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) foe North Carolina (UNC).
And then it all fell apart. Four minutes and 28 points later,
the Flames found themselves down 49-22 after a series of turnovers and defensive lapses, effectively ending an upset bid of the No. 23 Tar Heels. When the clock ran out, the Heels walked away with a 56-29 victory.
During the UNC scoring deluge — stretching from 5:55 to 2:06 in the third quarter — the Flames turned the ball over three times and allowed the Tar Heels to score a touchdown off of each giveaway. It took only 13 seconds of game time
for Liberty’s 22-21 lead to evapo-rate into a 35-22 UNC advantage. Those three turnovers were part of six total on the evening for the Flames.
“I’ve never been in a game where we’ve had six turnovers,” Flames quarterback Josh Woodrum said. “Last season, we were the No. 1 team in the nation in turnover mar-gin (editor’s note: the Flames were actually third) and that was not our team tonight.”
Woodrum — making his 22nd consecutive start — was uneven on the day, completing 16 of his 33 attempts for 189 yards. He passed for only 37 yards in the second half, while throwing a pair of interceptions. Wide receiver Darrin Peterson and running back Todd Macon were responsible for all four of the Flames’ fumbles. Peterson, who left the game with a shoulder injury after his second fumble, coughed the ball up after a
39-yard gain in the first quarter, as well as putting one on the ground during UNC’s 28-0 run. Both of Macon’s fumbles came during the second half while fighting for extra yardage.
Despite their turnover issues, Pe-terson and Macon were two of the game’s most dynamic players, with Peterson reeling in four catches for 96 yards and Macon scampering for 67 yards on 13 carries while scor-ing twice in his first college game. Peterson routinely beat UNC cov-erage, particularly on deep routes, and Liberty’s unproven running back duo of Macon and D.J. Abnar ran for a total of 132 yards, balanc-ing the Flames offensive attack.
The Flames defense kept them in the game in the first half, but ran out of gas in the second, when the Tar Heels outgained the Flames 229-106 and piled on 35 points.
See GIVEAWAY, B2
Dalton [email protected]
Liberty’s men’s soccer team (1-0) de-feated Bluefield College (0-1) 2-1 in its season-opener Friday night in front of a home crowd of over 400 fans.
Khalil Karl, a transfer from St. Louis, was playing in his first game as a Flame. In the 47th minute, Bluefield’s Nick Rivadeneira was ejected from the game after receiving a red card, leading to a Karl goal on the ensuing direct free kick.
“I’ve been practicing that all week, and I saw it as sort of a practice shot,” Karl said.
Karl bent the ball into the upper-right corner of the net from just outside the 18-yard box, giving him his first goal of his Liberty career.
“It’s really a blessing for me and glory to God first of all,” Karl said. “It’s been a great experience coming here, and I hope I can continue to do really well for this team.”
Chavez tacked on what ended up be-ing the winning goal off a play from Alan Arellano and Bay Kurtz.
“I was hungry for the ball coming off an injury, being that this is my first game actually getting some minutes,” Chavez said.
With Liberty (1-0, 0-0 Big South) leading 2-0 and playing a man up, Bluefield’s (0-1) Benny Slator scored on a through ball to the left side of the goal.
Liberty had chances early but could not put one in the back of the net in the first half. The Flames outshot the Rams 28-6 for the game.
“Even with the number of shots we generated, their keeper made two or three good saves, but we have to finish those chances,” Head Coach Jeff Alder said. “We have to be hungrier.”
Bluefield keeper Jefferson Watson had eight saves for the Rams while Flames keeper Scott Sutarik tallied three saves.
Alder said his team’s tough preseason schedule helped lead to their success Fri-day night.
“We had a good preseason,” Alder said. “We played (UNC) Greensboro and Virginia Tech and it helped the speed of play.”
The Flames will travel to Lexington Sept. 2, where they will visit their former conference opponent Virginia Military Institute (VMI).
BRITT is a sports reporter.
Nate [email protected]
USA Today reporter Dan Wolken wrote an article Aug. 19 headlined “At Lib-erty, FBS dreams and a high-resource reality.” Within the article, Wolken explained the overall state of Liberty athletics. He wrote about Liberty’s financial pre-paredness, state-of-the-art facilities and ultimate sup-
port from the president. He also wrote about Liberty’s desire and struggle to make a jump to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
Major news outlets, prior to this article, have cov-ered Liberty’s athletic de-partment. But it has been quite some time since such a prominent news produc-tion covered the Flames. According to usatoday.com, the website has had roughly 23 million readers since
2011. Chances are, not all 23 million read Wolken’s article. However, one could argue that there was a time when such a major news publication would not have written an article about Liberty athletics, let alone about its progression.
“I thought (the article) was very fair and very accu-rate,” Athletic Director Jeff Barber said. “… It was an accurate portrayal of what we are trying to do.”
Barber also stated that out of those 23 million potential readers, some of them were athletic direc-tors from other schools who also gave praise for the article.
This is not the only time the Flames have been in the national sports spotlight re-cently. The baseball team is coming off a season where
See GROWTH, B3Courtney russo | Liberty Champion
RISING — Flames fans have had plenty to cheer about.
National attention hits Flames
sports B2 | September 2, 2014 | Liberty Champion
Sarah [email protected]
For years it has been the goal of the men’s and women’s cross country teams to qualify for Nationals, and 2014 is no exception.
Past teams have come close to reaching this goal, but none have been successful thus far.
“I think we were all in agreement coming out of track season,” junior Jeremie Bour-get said. “We want to make nationals. It has always been a team goal. Since my fresh-man year, we’ve had that as a team goal — to make it as the first team. And we’ve come close numerous times.”
Senior runner Jacy Christiansen, who was named to her second straight All-Big South team in 2013, echoed Bourget with the same lofty goal for the women’s team.
“My miracle goal for the girls team would be to go to nationals,” Christiansen said. “It may seem unrealistic to some people, but we have an awesome God, and we can do anything with him. … We are putting our-selves out there and the rest is up to God.”
In order for the Flames and Lady Flames to qualify for the national meet, they will need to finish first or second at the re-gional meet or be selected to fill one of 13 at-large spots.
Aside from working toward qualifying for the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, both teams are pursuing another Big South Conference title.
The women’s team finished second last year behind perennial rival Costal Caro-lina. The Lady Flames took home the title in 2012.
By placing five runners in the top 13 of the 2013 Big South Conference Champi-onship, the men’s team was able to bring home yet another conference title — its ninth in a row.
“There’s definitely a lot of pressure (go-ing for a 10th straight conference title),” Bourget said. “You don’t want to be the team that doesn’t continue that streak, es-pecially coming from a team that has a lot of expectations coming into the year.”
According to the 2014 Big South Con-ference Preseason Men’s Cross Coun-try Poll, the men’s team was selected yet again to finish first in the conference
ahead of High Point. However, in the lat-est U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division I South-east Region men’s cross country rank-ings, Liberty was ranked 10th behind the ninth-seeded Panthers.
In addition to returning Bourget, who placed third at the 2013 Big South Cham-pionship, Liberty will bring back redshirt senior Josh MacDonald and junior Sam Hibbs. MacDonald finished fourth at the Big South Championship, while Hibbs finished ninth.
Head Coach Brant Tolsma, the longest tenured and most highly decorated head coach in the history of Liberty Athletics, acknowledged the ever-growing target on his team’s back.
“The target on our back keeps grow-ing with every victory, so people are more and more motivated to beat us,” Tolsma
said. “We certainly don’t want to see that happen.”
According to the 2014 Big South Con-ference Preseason Women’s Cross Country Poll, the Lady Flames were selected to fin-ish second behind defending conference champions Coastal Carolina.
Christiansen, as well as sophomore Jessie Proehl and redshirt junior Mer-edith Mistretta, will lead the Lady Flames this year. Tolsma acknowledged how much the team will depend on Christian-sen’s leadership on a team filled with 13 underclassmen runners.
“She is the one that has the most high-level experience,” Tolsma said. “She has it figured out at this point. She is definitely very committed. She is kind of the example to the other people. If we didn’t have her, we’d be in trouble.”
Proehl, who finished ninth at the 2013
Big South Championship, has seen the ef-fort her team has exerted in hopes of re-turning to the top of the Big South.
“Our team is looking really, really strong this year,” Proehl said. “Everyone is work-ing hard, so I’m hoping we can work to-gether as a team to (win the Big South).”
In order for the men’s and women’s teams to make their individual runs at the Big South Championship and then qualify for nationals, both teams will be using the 12 weeks of practice and meets they have left before the Big South Championship to heal, train and improve.
Both teams began their regular season Aug. 29 at the University of Virginia Du-als. Their next meet will be Sept. 13 at the Gardner-Webb XC Invitational.
Running down another titleMen’s and women’s cross country look to continue Big South dominance
Courtney russo| Liberty Champion
CHAMPIONS — Redshirt sophomore captain Will Templeton leads the pack as the Flames race to their ninth straight championship.
GIVEAWAY continued from B1
“For the most part, de-fensively, we were very tough,” Flames Head Coach Turner Gill said. “They had so many snaps in the third quarter, it was just unbelievable. Physical-ly, you’re just not going to be able to hold up.”
Even though he made some big plays, Flames de-fensive captain Hagan was visibly emotional after the loss. When some of Lib-erty’s body language went south late in the game, he was still as active as he was during the first quarter. Ha-gen said he did not buy into the excuse of fatigue as a valid reason for giving up so many points during the third quarter.
“We gotta control what we can control,” Hagan said. “None of us (defen-sive players) play offense.
If they’re in that red zone, we gotta keep them to field goals. That’s our job.”
With their first game ever played against a ranked FBS opponent behind them, the Flames can now look forward to the rest of their schedule and know they will probably not face another team of UNC’s caliber. A trip to Norfolk State Sept. 6 looms and will be key toward bucking a re-cent trend of early-season stumbles.
The last time the Flames faced the Spartans, they lost 31-24 en route to beginning Gill’s inaugural season 0-4. It will be the first time since 2003 that Liberty has begun the season with consecutive road games.
TICHENOR is the sports editor.
Courtney russo| Liberty Champion
WATCH OUT — UNC cornerback Tim Scott reaches up to strip Liberty’s Darrin Peterson in the first quarter.
RODRIGUEZ is a sports reporter.
Liberty Champion | September 2, 2014 | B3sports
TICHENOR
Alex [email protected]
Tich’s Take Emily Brown
While most students look forward to summer for a break, the Liberty Flames baseball players all went into the three-month hiatus from school knowing it would be anything but a break.
As the players dispersed to collegiate summer leagues across the country, in-cluding the Cape Cod Baseball League, Valley Baseball League and Coastal Plain League, baseball — and the traveling it brought along with it — became all they knew during the summer.
“Summer ball is a different feel,” Lib-erty senior first baseman Alex Close said. “... It’s bus trips. It’s sleeping until noon because you didn’t get back until 4 (a.m.) and waking up and going to get a quick workout and going to the field. It’s your job.”
In addition to adjusting to the nonstop schedule, players also had to modify their game, as they played with wood rather than metal bats.
“With wood, you have to have a more pure swing and you have to make better contact to hit the ball,” Close said. “… You find out real quick when you go from metal to wood if your swing’s ex-actly where you want it to be.”
Close and his Liberty teammate Shawn Clowers, a senior left-handed pitcher, embraced the equipment transition dur-ing their time with the Peninsula Pilots of the Coastal Plain League.
In his second year with the Pilots, who are based out of Hampton, Virginia, Close was selected to the all-star team and won the home run derby. After the first round, Close had a huge advantage over his opponents, and he eventually won the derby in the final round without recording a single out.
“That was one of the highlights of the summer for sure,” Close said. “It would’ve been fun if I didn’t win it. But luckily, the guy that threw (batting prac-tice) to me was incredible. He just put it in the same spot. He did the hard part. All I had to do was keep the same swing. It wasn’t a big field and the wind was blowing, so all I had to do was hit fly balls, and they were going.”
Close ended the 56-game season with a .299 batting average, 44 hits, 32 RBIs, 28 runs, seven doubles and six home runs. Only five players in the league totaled more home runs.
As a pitcher, Clowers said he enjoyed pitching to wooden bats and was also able to find success during the summer.
“You can control the inside part of the plate,” Clowers said. “If they don’t square up, it’s not gonna go anywhere. It’s a lot less cheap hits. ... Pitching to wood bats is a lot more fun.”
During his best performance, Clow-ers was throwing a no-hitter through six
innings when the announcer at an away game began to ask no-hitter trivia during the warm-up period before the seventh.
“I kind of laughed at it at first, because I was kind of surprised that a team would kind of stoop to that level — it’s kind of a respect for the game issue in my eyes and my teammates’ eyes,” Clowers said. “So I was kind of a little upset about it, … and then, lo and behold, first hitter of the inning gets a base hit. I was upset, but I really think my teammates were (too). It wasn’t that big of a deal, just kind of a heat of the moment thing. It was just odd that he just jinxed it like that.”
Close also said he was frustrated by the announcer’s antics.
“He had great stuff all night,” Close said. “They didn’t even come close to touching him, and then that (announcer) said that. I kind of thought in the back of my mind, ‘That’s not gonna bother him. He’s pitching too well.’ Sure enough, he gave up the hit, and my first reaction was, I was obviously very, very, very upset. ... I was probably the second-most frustrated after him, because you just can’t do that.”
Sophomore outfielder Will Shepherd also played with his Liberty teammates
at Peninsula. He recorded a .282 batting average, 33 hits, 22 runs and five doubles.
The trio helped the Pilots to a league-leading record of 41-15.
“It (was) fun coming to the ballpark every day and expecting to win,” Close said. “… Baseball’s a fun game, but it’s a lot more fun when you’re winning.”
The Flames teammates also contrib-uted to a Peninsula Pilots Coastal Plain League Championship.
“It was just a surreal feeling as ev-eryone ran out there and dog piled and hugged and got the trophy and every-thing,” Clowers said.
But now that summer break is over, the Flames baseball team is focused on one thing.
“I know that this team is focused on winning a championship, winning con-ference, making a regional, winning the regional, going to a super regional, win-ning two games there, going to Omaha,” Clowers said. “That’s the ultimate goal — to go to Omaha.”
BROWN is the editor-in-chief.
Swinging in summer Baseball team thrives in summer leagues around U.S.
GROWTH continued from B1
they played in the NCAA Baseball Tournament. The softball team is months away from opening what the USA National Softball team de-scribed as “the best softball stadium in the nation.” The football team began the sea-son against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the No. 23 team in the nation, which was also the first nationally ranked FBS opponent for the Flames.
Also adding to their na-tional attention, Barber and President Jerry Falwell made their pitch to multiple schools throughout the summer, in-tending to show that Liberty has the talent and resources to join and thrive in an FBS conference. Despite the pitch,
the Sun Belt, Liberty’s desired conference, ultimately chose not to add any teams until at least next season.
In Wolken’s article, an anonymous source, which Wolken claims has direct knowledge of the Sun Belt’s expansion plans, said Liberty would not add anything to the conference’s profile.
“I don’t think that’s accu-rate,” Barber said. “I think we do bring a lot. … It’s not true that we don’t bring something to the table. We bring a very competitive athletics program.”
Barber also referenced the Sagarin rankings, USA To-day’s advanced rankings sys-tem of athletic teams and how they fair among other teams. According to Barber, they in-dicated that if Liberty played in the Sun Belt last season,
football, women’s basketball and baseball would have been the fifth, first and second best teams respectively.
Despite not making the jump this season, Barber and Liberty Athletics plan on con-tinuing to improve the pro-gram until they reach their goal of joining FBS.
“I think the only thing we can do is keep doing what we’re doing … trying to get better everyday,” Barber said.
Making a jump to FBS would mean more revenue, more scholarships and more national exposure. It would also put Liberty athletics in an even better position to pro-mote Liberty University and its mission as an institution.
“We want athletics to be successful and to bring honor to God,” Barber said. “But at the same time, we want to help promote this university. Moving to FBS would put us on a much bigger platform. A lot more people will know about Liberty and follow it.”
Leaving the Football Championship Subdivision conference would also mean potential expansion at Wil-liams Stadium. Wolken re-ported that Liberty is ready to add 6,000 seats to the already 19,200-seated stadium and with time, ultimately double the amount of seats.
According to Barber, as an FCS school, Liberty cannot
host an FBS team. However, if Liberty was promoted to the FBS, it could and likely would host larger FBS foot-ball programs.
“We’ve had some people do some drawings for us that would expand the stadium,” Barber said. “When we go FBS, Virginia Tech can come here and play. Virginia can come here and play. Old Do-minion, Maryland can come here and play. There are a lot of big programs, and if Vir-ginia Tech came to play, we would need a lot more than 19,200 seats.”
With a possible football stadium expansion and a new multi-million-dollar softball stadium nearly complete, Barber still has plans for ad-ditions to the athletic depart-ment’s facilities, all of which are being done within a pro-gram that has not even existed for 50 years.
The progression of this de-partment, including moments such as the baseball team be-ing shown on ESPN, celebrat-ing after being selected to play in the national tournament, do wonders for the program and have brought Liberty athletics much publicity. And many, including Wolken, are definitely starting to notice.
HAYWOOD is the asst. sports editor.
Everybody daydreams. It takes us away from our normal lives into a pseudo-re-ality where we make up the rules. This comes from the human condition of lov-ing to have power, even if it is inside our own heads.
So, it is only nat-ural that fantasy football has taken over America.
As much as sports fans may want to, we cannot take over our real favorite teams. We will never be own-ers, general managers or coaches barring oil
being miraculously discovered beneath our feet. Sad, but true.
But luckily we can pretend to own, manage and coach our own teams, hence the term “fantasy” football. In 2012, approximately 33.5 million Americans played the game, according to the Fanta-sy Sports Trade Association. That is a lot of Americans — more than 10 percent of the country’s population, in fact.
And those Americans take their re-sponsibilities very seriously. Gone are the days when a football fan flicks on the TV and watches whatever game is on — after all, there are teams to be owned/managed/coached. Any fantasy owner worth his salt, pepper or paprika has a multi-screen set up with even the most desolate of games playing if points could be scored. The NFL has even made a “RedZone” channel, which shows every touchdown and red zone possession at a given time. Talk about a godsend.
Remember when fans rooted for spe-cific teams? There is no need when we possess our own. At least Clevelanders do not have to root for the Browns any-more (sorry, Cleveland). Jamaal Charles helped me win two fantasy leagues last year while my home-state Carolina Pan-thers have never won a Super Bowl. Tell me whom I should hold in higher regard.
The league itself aggressively pushes fantasy football, as well. Commercials promoting it litter TV broadcasts and new rules protecting quarterbacks and re-ceivers from injury have inflated passing statistics. Commissioner Roger Goodell needs to make sure his top fantasy star stays upright for the whole year.
Ah, injuries — every fantasy owner cringes at the thought. In 2008, star quarterback Tom Brady was coming off perhaps the greatest passing season of all-time, setting the NFL record for touchdown passes in a season. Many fantasy owners used a first round pick on Brady, banking on a similar follow-up performance.
Less than a half into the first game of the season, Kansas City Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard hit Brady around the knee area, tearing his anterior cruciate lig-ament. Just like that, Brady was done for the year and millions of fantasy owners sat on their couches in shock or in tears.
Injuries are part of sports though, and a good fantasy owner can recover from even the most key player going down. There are always two or three guys who go from completely off the radar to fan-tasy superstardom throughout the season and a veteran scouting eye to snatch up one of those guys can be the difference between a good fantasy season and a championship season.
For anyone who picked up Josh Gor-don late in their draft last year, they know that successfully picking one of those out-of-nowhere stars is truly one of the best feelings ever. Seriously, after Gordon’s back-to-back 200-yard games last year, I may have shed a tear or two (or three).
From September to January, the guys on our fantasy teams are our family. Some fantasy owners probably actually spend more time tinkering with line-ups that at the dinner table with their actual families.
Sure, it is called “fantasy” football, but to those who play, it is as real as it gets.
TICHENOR is the sports editor.
Courtney russo | Liberty Champion
SWING— Senior first baseman Alex Close up to bat against High Point University.
Courtney russo| Liberty Champion
CELEBRATE — Lady Flames soccer celebrate their victory.
sportsB4 | September 2, 2014 | Liberty Champion
For more local information visit your closestArmy Recruiting Center or you can log on togoarmy.com/z019
Ryley [email protected]
Approximately 100 hockey players laced up their skates at the Lahaye Ice Center this fall in hopes of making one of the three Liberty University men’s club hockey teams.
Two weeks of skates, scrim-mages, coach evaluations and nightly cuts later, three quarters of the competitors are assigned to team rosters, the smallest of which is the 24-spot Division I (DI) squad roster.
While the DI team, like NCAA programs, recruits and makes commitments to players long be-fore tryouts and returning players are, with rare exception, all but guaranteed spots, they are not ex-cused from tryout participation — or excluded from the pressures that come with it.
“It’s super intense,” freshman forward Ben Hughes said. “The tempo was really fast, especially for me, kind of getting adjusted to it. So it was really intense but really fun.”
Hughes and his fellow D1 teammates’ participation is not merely for propriety’s sake. With a depth chart to settle and lines to be set, the tryout is plenty com-petitive, even for veterans. Above all, it offers the kind of high-speed training ground necessary to prepare for the season.
“The season’s right around the corner and you have to start get-ting back into those good habits, and that starts in tryouts,” senior forward and alternate captain Lindsay Leblanc said. “You’ve gotta practice how you play, so we have to be detailed and it starts from day one.”
Leblanc’s statement rings truer than ever before as the Flames
D1 squad includes nine new play-ers — more than one third of the entire roster. They utilized every scrimmage period, stickhandling exercise and skating drill of the tryouts to hone team chemistry and work toward filling holes and strengthening the weaknesses of their club.
“We’re looking to fill a couple of goal-scorers up front, two de-fensemen on the back end and to have another goalie in the mix with Blair (Bennett) graduating,” Head Coach Kirk Handy said. “Then we were looking to add to the overall skill level of our team, and the fourth thing we wanted to add was some size.”
Handy, his coaching staff and players were confident by the end
of tryouts that the team had more than addressed each issue.
“This year we have size in the front and on the back end … and speed, which is a rare com-bination,” senior defenseman and team captain Matt Sherry said.
Both Hughes and Leblanc agreed, listing the size and speed combination as two of the top three strengths of their team. Maturity would be the third and final element of this compelling trifecta.
“It’s funny, because our fresh-men are all older — probably older than most of our juniors, actually — so there’s a lot of ma-turity,” Sherry said.
Raw physical ability will help the Flames for sure, but paired
with the savvy to know the best way to put those abilities to use and the hockey IQ to learn a new system quickly, they make the team downright formidable.
“We’ve got a lot of older guys that are coming in,” Han-non said. “So, they’re no strang-ers to this type of environment. They’re doing a great job of in-tegrating themselves, and we be-lieve our team’s coming together really nicely.”
With the 2014 tryout period and subsequent training week — a series of grueling 6 a.m. condi-tioning sessions — in the books, the Flames have mere days until their season opener versus the Po-tomac Patriots Jr. A team.
Ask any of them what their
expectations are for the game and they will talk about a game-by-game mindset, consistency, execution and their personal ex-citement. Ask any of them what their expectations are for the season and they will unwaver-ingly say the same thing. Leblanc, Hughes and Sherry all agreed that the expectation is to win a national championship.
With the DI team now nar-rowed to the final 24-man ros-ter, the Flames are eager to take their weeks of training to the ice and pursue their own high expectations.
RUSH is a sports reporter.
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Puck-drop preparation24 players make the final cut for the men’s Division 1 Flames hockey team
Courtney russo | Liberty Champion
BREAKAWAY — Flames forwards Lindsay LeBlanc and Ryley Egan race down the ice last season against the West Virginia Mountaineers.
Liberty Champion | September 2, 2014 | B5feature
YEAR continued from B8
or job opportunities. Many of the tables also
featured campus clubs, in-cluding the Association of Marketing Professionals, the International Business Association, the Financial Management Association and Enactus.
“(The bash) is about the clubs that the School of Business has,” stu-dent Chloe Ray Hill said. “They host tables and give information about what the clubs do and how to get involved and how they impact the community and the university.”
Several of the tables gave away free candy or pens to interested students. The Accounting Society also gave away T-shirts.
“Each booth has its own marketing strategy,” Bunque said. “Obviously it’s marketing, so they’re pretty good at that.”
Door prizes provided another incentive for stu-dents to visit the various booths. In order to be eligi-ble for the prizes, students had to take a ticket to four different booths and have
it marked before placing it in a basket for the drawing.
The School of Busi-ness also sold raffle tickets at the bash. According to Professor Anita Satterlee, the money raised by the raffle tickets was being do-nated to the ALS founda-tion. She said the business honor society, Sigma Delta Beta, had also agreed to make a matched donation of whatever money was raised. In exchange for the money raised by the raffle, Dean Scott Hicks agreed to dump a bucket of ice water on his head at the end of the event.
However, the bash was not just about clubs and raffles. Bunque said it also offered a good opportu-nity for business students to mingle with their professors and reconnect with one an-other after the summer.
“It’s a great chance to hang out with friends,” Bunque said.
For more information on the School of Business, visit the webpage at liberty.edu or facebook.com/lib-ertyuniversitybusiness.
BROWND is a copy editor.
Lauren adriance | Liberty champion
Shooting a scenePhotographer from Nepal nabs a scholarship with his pictures
Dare to dance
It was 15 years ago that the civ-il war broke out in Nepal. It was 15 years ago that the armies were torturing Christians and burning Bibles. It was 15 years ago that Noah Lhomi, his siblings and many other young people fled their small village and escaped to the capital city of Kathmandu, leaving their parents behind.
But it was only one year ago that a Liberty University student mission team traveled to this small Asian country of Nepal. It was there that they met Noah Lhomi, a young college student majoring in science.
But science was not Lhomi’s passion. He loved to draw. He loved photography. Art was his passion.
“I was a science student, but I
was doing all of this photograph-ing,” Lhomi said. “I was studying science for my career, but I was more interested in the arts.”
After continually praying for a camera, Lhomi said he received one as a gift from his dad about three years ago. He has been snapping pictures ever since.
The mission team told Lhomi about Liberty’s cinematic arts program and suggested he think about applying.
It was not long before Lhomi emailed some of the photo-graphs he had taken to Reuben John, one of the Liberty students who had traveled to Nepal. John then forwarded those photo-graphs to William Wegert, the dean of international students.
“Noah’s images were strik-ing in many ways,” Wegert said. “His photographs drew me into the subject and reflected a matu-
rity of expression that was very impressive. I wanted to see if we could get this young man here on our campus to grow in the Lord, further develop (his) skills, share his amazing story with the cam-pus community and also capture a big vision for how he can serve God after graduation.”
Lhomi received an email one night from halfway across the world. It was from Liberty. Lho-mi said he opened the email and was shocked to find an offer for the International Work Supple-ment Scholarship that would al-low him to attend.
“I was led here by faith,” Lho-mi said. “I didn’t have the mon-ey. I didn’t have anything.”
Lhomi walked through the doors of Liberty as a student for the first time this fall. He vis-ited the Zaki Gordon Cinematic Arts Center and said he was
impressed by all of the school’s film equipment.
“I wanted to study cinematic arts because I love video,” Lho-mi said. “I want to make mov-ies based on real life stories that lead to God.”
Lhomi hopes those who are seeking God or need God will find him after watching his films.
Lhomi said he is grateful to have the opportunity to study at Liberty and be surrounded by such a godly environment. He knows God brought him here for a reason.
“I ended up here because God wanted me here,” Lhomi said. “He wanted me (here) for a purpose.”
CAMPBELL is the feature editor.
Erika [email protected]
Dance is a form of art. It is a form of expression. And dance has been a way to evan-gelize for Laura Dunn.
Dunn, a Liberty Univer-sity alumna, recently opened her own dance studio lo-cated on Timberlake road in Lynchburg, Virginia. After completing her bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies in 2011, she pursued dance as her ultimate way of evan-gelizing and reaching out to the community.
Ballet Aresko is a place for students who plan to pursue a career in dance and for those who enjoy dancing as a hobby.
“Dance is a beautiful form of art and both types of stu-dents can come together and receive excellent training,” Dunn said.
Her motivation for opening Ballet Aresko was driven by her passion to give back to the community.
“There was a need for a safe, wholesome and welcom-ing environment for dancers to come and receive very af-fordable training at any level they choose,” Dunn said. “It is important as a teacher to understand that not everyone who wants to dance desires to pursue a professional career.”
Ballet Aresko opens for reg-istration today, Sept. 2. Stu-dents of all ages may sign up for classes. Jazz, ballet and lyri-cal dance are all taught at Bal-let Aresko.
“The word ‘aresko’ is a Greek word that means please or to please,” Dunn said. “It is used about 17 times in the New Testament. The name is a play on words like saying, ‘ballet please’. Its meaning is also personal to me, because when I dance or teach, it is always my desire to please the Lord.”
Dunn said that as her busi-ness grows throughout the community, she always strives to glorify God.
Dunn has experienced a va-riety of setbacks, but her big-gest obstacle of all, she said, was herself.
“I knew God created me to dance and teach, but I suppose I was waiting for a burning bush sort of mo-ment,” Dunn said. “God had equipped me with everything I needed to start this dance school, but I allowed fear to keep me from moving for-ward. I should have started Ballet Aresko years ago, but God’s timing is perfect.”
Dunn also said she sympa-thizes with those who were unable to pursue their danc-ing dreams, which serves as a motivation for her new studio.
“There are too many girls who never had the opportuni-ty to take a dance class simply because of the cost,” Dunn said. “It breaks my heart to think of the little 6-year-old girl who dreams of taking a ballet class but never will, or the 20-year-old college stu-dent who had to give up on dance because they couldn’t afford it.”
Dunn is not only the di-rector of this facility, but she teaches the majority of the classes as well, encouraging each student to not give up.
For more information, visit facebook.com/balletares-ko or email balletaresko@ gmail.com.
MCLEOD is a feature reporter.
Leah SeaverS | Liberty champion
KICKOFF — School of Business offered a fun event to start the semester.
FLASH — Noah Lhomi received a university scholarship for capturing images of the world around him.
noah Lhomi
featureB6 | September 2, 2014 | Liberty Champion
Emma Jane [email protected]
It may sound cliché, but it is true – your life can change in the blink of an eye.
Such is true for Jamey Parks. At just 21 years old, Parks, a Califor-nia native, was hit by a car while walking along a freeway in Santa Barbara Feb. 28, 1999.
Like any other normal young adult, Parks had dreams of play-ing college football and continu-ing to surf in California. Instead, he faced a multitude of medical challenges, including being in a coma for five-and-a-half weeks, numerous surgeries, lengthy hos-pital stays and all the recovery that comes from such an accident. He also underwent cardiac arrest and kidney dialysis while in the hospi-tal and suffered from gangrene.
Because of all the damage done to his left leg after the accident, Parks had no choice but to have it amputated in order to survive. Doctors told his parents he would not be able to walk again, and at worst, he could die.
“I’m not proud of that,” Parks said. “I wish I hadn’t done that to my parents. The worst thing that could happen was getting a phone call from the police at 4 a.m. say-ing that their son was in an acci-dent and was being rushed to the hospital. Overall though, God’s been good to me.”
Parks said his recovery was a lengthy process.
“I had physical therapy at first (in California) to get myself mov-ing, but nothing with the pros-thetic,” Parks said. “I didn’t learn to walk until I came to Virginia.”
According to Parks, he ended up in Lynchburg because of a re-quest from his brother.
“When my brother was sta-tioned at Camp Lejune in North Carolina, he met a Liberty girl and decided to come up and visit her,” Parks said. “He ended up marry-ing her and moving to Lynchburg. In November 2000, he called me and asked me about moving up here.”
The decision to move to Lynchburg was not an easy one for Parks.
“At first, I was like, ‘What the heck am I doing?’” Parks said. “Leaving mom and dad and my oldest brother and little sister to go with my middle brother. I tried to do something to better myself, because I saw that if I stayed in
the situation I was in on the cen-tral coast of California, I wouldn’t be in a healthy environment. I wanted to make healthy decisions for myself. I was an adult.”
Upon moving to Virginia, Parks went to American National University — National Business College at the time — received a computer degree and then trans-ferred to Liberty where he earned his bachelor’s in 2004 and his master’s in 2009.
What Parks did not know when he decided to transfer to Liberty was that the decision would have an eternal impact. Within just the first three weeks of his trans-fer, Parks attended a Bible study
and accepted Christ.“I grew up in a Catholic home
and attended Bible studies and things and believed there was one God, one higher power, but I was wrestling with it for a while,” Parks said. “I didn’t want to ac-cept God and just live that life. My mentor, Mike Kelly, kept asking me to accept Christ. When he was out of town, another friend, Steve Powell, held the study and asked me if I wanted to accept Christ and I was like, ‘Yeah, I do.’ It was like he was the right person in the right place at the right time. I ac-cepted Christ on Sept. 12, 2002.”
It was during his time study-ing at Liberty that Parks was first
introduced to competitive para-lympic sports. Garretson Gellert, an assistant professor in the Doc-tor of Physical Therapy program at Lynchburg College, recruited Parks for paracanoeing in 2005.
“I worked at the Jamerson YMCA and Dr. Gellert came in to sign up for a family mem-bership,” Parks said. “We had a conversation about rehab after the accident. Gellert wanted me to try paddling as well as getting adaptive paddling and paracanoe into the Paralympics. He said my physical qualities were perfect for paracanoeing. I have long arms and good height.”
In 2006 and 2008, Parks com-peted in the World Champion-ships on an outrigger canoe six-person team. His team won gold in 2006 and two silvers in 2008. He took a break from the sport in 2008, but a phone call from Gel-lert in March changed that.
“He knew competing in the Paralympics was on my bucket list, so I said, ‘Tell me what to do and I’m in,’” Parks said.
To train for the event, Parks lifts weights three to five days a week, swims one day and paddles five. He is determined to make it to the Paralympics.
“I’m in it to win it,” Parks said. “I’m gonna do it through 2016. If it works out, great. If it doesn’t, it was a heck of a ride. I came, I saw, I did the best I could.”
To learn more about Parks’ story, visit his website at you-caring.com/other/sprinting-towards-a-dream or check out his Facebook page, Paracanoe Paddler-Jamey Parks.
MAURER is a feature reporter.
Pushing past injuriesAmputee overcomes obstacles and is determined to reach his goals
RJ Goodwin | LibeRty Champion
PADDLE — Liberty alumnus Jamey Parks trains for the 2016 Paralympics.
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Every morning at 3 a.m., Barry and Cheryl Kane get up and begin baking the doughnuts for the day.
Blue Ridge Bagels and More is hard to miss on Leesville Road. At first glance, the store seems out of place on the lot it shares with a little tanning salon, but the inside décor is reminiscent of an authen-tic New York style bagel joint deep in one of New York City’s many burrows. Stools line the red and white deli counter.
Yet, this is not a place one usually associates with Lynchburg, Virginia.
“We have a lot of … transplants that live here,” Barry Kane said. “Lots of people from New York and New Jersey move down here after retirement. We just had one guy here earlier who was from New Jersey.”
Customers can buy ba-gels ranging from plain to French toast and poppy seed. Though the dough-nuts are made in shops locally, the bagels come straight from the Bronx.
“We are constantly selling out of our Asiago bagel,” Cheryl Kane said. “People
come in (and) eat it with cream cheese, or make a ba-con sandwich out of it.”
Even if the Asiago bagel is sold out, the shop still has a wide selection of sand-wiches. One sandwich is a classic Reuben, made with
corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese topped with Thousand Island dressing.
The bagel shop is not the first business the couple has owned. Barry Kane was a former school teacher and accountant and has also run
a day care in the past. When Barry Kane retired from teaching, Cheryl Kane was ready to try something new. But how the Kanes came to own the business was very unusual.
“The original owner of
Blue Ridge Bagels held an essay contest to win the business,” Barry Kane said. “The title of the contest was literally called, ‘Win Blue Ridge Bagels.’”
The Kanes entered the contest, but there were not
enough entries for an effec-tive contest. In the end, the Kanes bought the Bedford-based business in 2012.
The couple never had plans to leave Bedford. However, when God began opening doors in Lynch-burg, both Barry and Cher-yl Kane thought it was time to listen.
“It was hard to leave Bed-ford,” Cheryl Kane said. “We had built relationships with the people there, but some of our friends from Bedford come and visit us.”
However, the couple was already familiar with Lynchburg before they made the move.
“We love Liberty,” Cheryl Kane said. “We both have degrees from there and both our daughters work there. We’ve had Liberty students come in, so we have a lot of connections to the school.”
Blue Ridge Bagels and More is located on 19327 Leesville Road. For more information, visit their Facebook page, Blue Ridge Bagels Restaurant.
WALSH is a feature reporter.
Striking a chordLocal art students breathe new life into old instruments
Leah SeaverS | Liberty Champion
MUSIC — The colorful and vibrant pianos on Main Street brought fresh energy to downtown Lynchburg.
Amber [email protected]
Transforming from bland to grand, five old pianos endured a makeover from local high school advanced art students through the “Keys to the Hill City” project. From basements to sidewalk pave-ment, the pianos were transported to Main Street in Lynchburg for public enjoyment.
A fundraiser for the local arts programs in Lancaster, Pennsylva-nia, inspired “Keys to the Hill City.” The Lancaster art project involved professional artists decorating pia-nos and placing them around the city of Lancaster to raise funds for their local arts programs.
Libby Fitzgerald, the local proj-ect founder, worked with sev-eral high schools, including E.C. Glass, Brookville, Heritage, Vir-ginia Episcopal and Jefferson For-
est. Fitzgerald gave advanced art students the chance to show their skills through the help of many different sponsors, including the James River Council for the Arts and Humanities. The council as-sisted Fitzgerald in locating funds and shelter for the pianos during their residence on Main Street as art students painted away, anx-iously awaiting premiere day.
The high school students re-ceived the pianos in February and were given until May to finish painting and designing the exterior of the piano. Students were chal-lenged to be expressive and cre-ative, to take the project personally and portray their personalities in the final result.
“They were ecstatic, because the art teachers are always look-ing for something cool and dif-ferent for their students to do,” Fitzgerald said.
Art teachers and the surround-ing communities embraced the idea. Piano students from each of the high schools gathered at the premiere celebration on Main Street back in May and played on their school’s piano.
“My office is right up here, right above the alcove, and it has no windows,” Mark Schewel, owner of the Schewels near one piano’s location on Main Street, said. “It’s like a cave up there, so sometimes when I come in on a weekend or I’m working here by myself, I hear the piano playing under me. It’s so wonderful. It’s so different. It’s just so uplifting.”
The pianos are all diversely decorated, ranging from an assort-ment of spray-painted metals to a Beatles theme. The pianos may be very different, but all are significant to the community. The community has been able to bond over an ap-
preciation for local art through a creative, musical approach.
“The power of music (is) to change people’s lives and to bring great joy to people,” Fitzgerald said. “I’ve always been a music lover, but I don’t think you realize how broad that love is and some-times is not expressed.”
According to Fitzgerald, the pianos will be taken down in Octo-ber due to the effects the weather could have on them. The commu-nity has not seen the last of the “Keys to the Hill City” project, though. Fitzgerald plans to bring back the project next February and have more schools participate to bring art, culture and music back onto Main Street and the Art Cul-ture District of Lynchburg.
TILLER is a feature reporter.
TUNES continued from B8
questions from heart-broken and angry bloggers online.
“The same question they always ask when things like this happen is, ‘Where was God?’ It’s a real struggle, and you can’t help but kind of ask yourself that ques-tion,” Worrell said.
As he grappled with the question, Worrell picked up his guitar and wrote “El Shaddai” — which means “Lord Almighty” in He-brew — the same day.
Inspired by discourses in the book of Job, the song’s anguished singer cries, “When the gunman in the town put twenty babies in the ground, were you listen-ing? Did you hear the same sounds? Were you around?”
In the last verse of the song, God responds, “Where were you, little child, when the world was made? Who made you, rec-onciled, when the blood was paid?”
Reflecting on his years spent at Liberty, Worrell, a recent graduate, gave some advice for current students.
“Don’t waste your time,” Worrell said. “… Take col-lege seriously, but still enjoy yourself while you’re here and invest in the people around you.”
Worrell also wants to re-mind fans that God is the only one in whom they should invest their time and their talents.
In celebration of the re-lease of their new album, Dogwood & Holly pre-formed an album release concert Saturday, Aug. 30, at Monument Terrace in Downtown Lynchburg as a means of saying “thank you” to fans and sup-porters with no charge for admission.
“We’re trying to continue to make good music and just have fun, which is why we do it in the first place,” Worrell said.
GRAF is a feature reporter.
eLLie FraSer | Liberty Champion
FRESH — A new bagel shop opened in Lynchburg, offering a variety of doughnuts, bagels and sandwiches.
A taste of New York Blue Ridge Bagels and More opens on Leesville Road, bringing deli-style food to Lynchburg
FEATUREB8 September 2, 2014
The School of Business kicked off the new school year with a Back 2 School Bash Aug. 27 on the terrace level of the Hancock Wel-come Center.
According to the School of Business Facebook page, the event was an opportu-nity for students to meet peers in their major, enjoy free snow cones and pop-corn and get information about the student clubs.
The page also encour-aged students to RSVP in order to receive a free T-shirt at the event. Over
400 students preregistered through Facebook.
“It’s a great place to come and network,” Jomer Bunque, a business ma-jor, said. “A lot of juniors and seniors are here to find internships.”
The various members of the School of Business mingled together as a near-by speaker played the latest hits from Christian bands such as Skillet and Life-house. A popcorn machine gave attendees a salty snack to munch on, and a game of cornhole was set up for additional entertainment.
With the summer sun beating down, the tent with
snow cones was a popular attraction. Those manning the tent decided to have a bit of fun with their cus-tomers. One girl was asked to sing a song before being given her snow cone, and the young man behind her was asked to name the song in order to receive his.
Students also sought re-lief from the heat under the large umbrellas shading the tables set up on the terrace. Each table represented a different business club or organization, some of which offered internships
See YEAR, B5
Treasured tunesLocal band Dogwood & Holly releases its second album
Leah SeaverS | Liberty Champion
HARMONIZE — Dogwood & Holly performed for Lynchburg locals and kept the focus on eternity.
Rachael [email protected]
During his time on earth, Jesus encouraged those around him to focus on eternal things and forsake the material goods of this world.
In Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus says to his followers, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
For the members of the band Dogwood & Holly, this is what the Christian life is all about.
The progressive folk/bluegrass band’s latest album, “Moth and
Rust” ponders this theme of “trea-sure” — where people invest their time and their talents.
“The central theme is that all things pass away and ties the chal-lenges to where we put our trea-sure,” Richie Worrell, guitarist and vocalist for Dogwood & Holly, said.
Worrell came to Liberty Univer-sity in 2010 to study psychology, not knowing that he would soon be forming a band with Luke Sawyer, Audrey Moore and Owen Daven-port.
Worrell and Sawyer grew up together in Galax, Virginia, play-ing music from a young age. After becoming students at Liberty, they befriended Moore and Davenport and formed the band they dubbed “Dogwood & Holly,” a nod to their roots. Worrell, Sawyer and Daven-port are from Virginia and Moore
is from Delaware — the state trees of Virginia and Delaware are the dogwood and the holly, respec-tively.
Dogwood & Holly’s first album, “Bonaparte,” which was indepen-dently recorded in only four days, was released Sept. 1, 2012.
Having become somewhat of a household name among Lib-erty students and Lynchburg resi-dents, the band stays primarily in the Lynchburg area, playing at local venues.
“A big part of our fan base is just right here in town, so we kinda try to just cater to that,” Worrell said.
The band spent 10 months writ-ing and producing its second al-bum, “Moth and Rust,” which was released July 1, 2014.
“This album has been a lot of fun to work on,” Worrell said. “It’s quite a bit different than our first album.
… We took it in a kinda different musical direction. It’s still pretty similar to our first one, but the songs are a lot more complicated, musically. They’re more difficult to play. I think the songwriting is better on this album, lyrically.”
“El Shaddai,” the most popular track on the new album, according to iTunes, was written by Worrell in the wake of the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that took place in Newtown, Connecti-cut, Dec. 14, 2012.
Home for Christmas break, Worrell turned on the televi-sion and saw the news about the shooting, listening as commen-tators discussed the tragedy. He later read comments and
See TUNES, B7
Students celebrate new yearBusiness majors enjoy food and games during a fall semester kickoff event
Leah SeaverS | Liberty Champion
BASH — Students fellowshipped and won prizes at the Back 2 School Bash.
Shae [email protected]
For the second year in a row, Liberty University’s Student Activities (SA) team has put together an Adventure Challenge. All students are welcome to participate Saturday, Sept. 6.
According to Associ-ate Director of SA Joshua Yeoman, the challenge con-sists of four different activ-ities —kayaking, running, a team log carry and an ob-stacle course. Yeoman said these events will take place at Camp Hydaway begin-ning at 9 a.m.
“A lot of Liberty students are in good physical shape and want to push their bod-ies, especially in a fun event like the Adventure Chal-lenge,” SA staff member Jacen Hamilton said. “The event will also get students out of bed on a Saturday morning — a rare occur-rence — and give them a fun goal to achieve at Camp Hydaway.”
In order to participate, students must first join a team of six consisting of three men and three wom-en, according to the SA website.
“Each team member must register under the team name,” the SA web-page states. “You may not register for and sign up un-der a random team name.”
Prizes will be awarded to first, second and third-place teams. According to Hamil-ton, these prizes will be gift cards to places the majority of Liberty students typi-cally enjoy visiting, such as Target, Regal and Chipotle.
“The main point of this race is to give students a fun but challenging event that they will hopefully remember for years to come,” Hamilton said. “It’s going to be really cool to see how teams glorify the Lord throughout the chal-lenge by working together and giving their all.”
Registration for this event is currently open and is accessible through the SA website at liberty.edu/sa.
WEYANT is a feature reporter.
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