Boutique Schools

At any given time — except summer — more than 50,000 college students roam the streets and bars of the Triad, a sizable demographic that affects our culture and economy.

Everybody knows who the big players are: UNCG is synonymous with its city, as is Wake ForestUniversity; NC A&T University’s history is entwined with that of Greensboro, and High Point University’s Nido Qubein has become a celebrity in his own right.

But among the high profiles are a handful of smaller schools that have no less an effect on our regional character. They have cozy classrooms and intimate cafeterias, along with enviable student-to-teacher ratios and, often, unique cultural perspective or niche programs of study that set them apart from the big guys. The Piedmont Triad’s boutique schools don’t win a lot of athletic titles and don’t grab a ton of press, but each one has a rich history and something special to offer — not only to its students, but to the entire community.

Notable alumni

Greensboro College: Actress Eileen Fulton, Class of ’55; US Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Class of ’68; pro soccer player Ryan Nesling, Class of ’99
UNC School of Arts: Actors Judge Reinhold, Mary-Louise Parker, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Chris Parnell; filmmakers David Jordan Green, Aaron Katz, David LaChappelle. Also Randy Jones, the original cowboy from the Village People
John Wesley: Bennett College: Greensboro Mayor Yvonne Johnson, among dozens of leaders in politics, business, education and the arts

UNC School of the Arts

(story and photo by Jesse Kiser)

Either way, after Wake Forest joined in, the NCSA, as it was then known, be gan asking for team name suggestions and came up with the Fighting Pickles.

The other story however said that NCSA was to be sponsored by a local pickle company and they chose the mascot to show their gratitude, but the sponsor

ship was pulled after the men in charge of the pickle company chose to vote for a senator who stood against the funding of institutions such as NCSA. Whatever the story might be, the Fight ing Pickles name still carries on. “So are we the dill pickles or what? What type of pickles are we exactly?” asks Melissa Horsman, whose husband, John Horsman, was a grad student at NCSA in the ’70s. The school itself was established in 1963 and the first classes took place in 1965. In ’ 65 there were not too many schools of the arts around the United States, but today there are more than 500. This one is still unique in that it is one of few schools that offer more than a high school diploma, offering bachelor’s degrees and masters in their five-art school: dance, music, film making, drama and design, and produc tion. But just because you attend one school does not mean you miss out on everything else. Chancellor John Mauceri, now in his third year at NCSA, wants multi dimensional students.

“His vision is to complete a whole art ist,” says Marla Carpenter, in the Office of Public Relations. “Because there is such a change in the arts there are not too many jobs anymore; so he wants to create artists who are multi-disciplinary. He encourages the schools to collaborate. Students need to be a triple threat.” Take for example David McBride who studied filmmaking but is having a successful acting career.

McBride plays the pot supplier in Pineapple Express and the pyrotechincal expert with thunderbolts shaved into his head in Tropic Thunder. And of course this is tre mendous exposure for the school. “We are better known outside of North Carolina than in our own back yard,” Carpenter says. And they’re still playing the name game. Last month, Gov. Mike Easley conferred on the school the title of UNC, though it has been part of ther UNC system since 1972. “It really helps define who we are bet ter,” says Carpenter. “Most people don’t understand we are a university, but we have been a university for over thirty years now.”

To comment on this story, e-mail Jesse Kiser at jesse@yesweekly.com.

Bennett College

(By Amy Kingsley. Photo by Jesse Kiser)

Info: Bennett College, Greensboro
Established: 1873
Mascot: Belles
Undergraduate enrollment: 678 women (655 full-time)

The Belles of Bennett College march into the dining hall on heels and in flip-flops, take their places at long tables and fill the floor with white.

They’re here at 8:30 a.m. for Bennett’s Casual White Breakfast, an annual tradition welcoming students and faculty back to school. It’s Student Body President Mesha White’s fourth casual white, and she’s dressed for the occasion in a white blazer, skirt and matching heels.

“It’s an opportunity for us to celebrate each other,” she says. “It’s about being amongst each other and welcoming the freshwomen.”

It’s more than that, too. The Casual White Breakfast has its origins in Bennett’s com munity service tradition, when students stayed on campus for Thanksgiving and made a day of giving back to the commu nity. President David Jones rewarded the students with an elaborate breakfast — the first White Breakfast.

The tradition vanished in the 1960s when Bennett’s Belles began leaving over Thanksgiving, but returned a decade later at the behest of alumnae. Now the college celebrates a Casual White Breakfast at the beginning of the school year and a Formal White Breakfast at the end. The two white breakfasts bookend a series of institutional traditions that include but are not limited to Founders Day, Hon ors Convocation and Charter Day. Provost Marilyn Mobley came to Bennett College last year from George Mason University, a state school with more than 30,000 students.

“I came from a big state university where there were hardly any ceremonial moments except commencement,” Mobley says. “I

like the way these traditions create com munity. Past presidents were very interested into structural ways of building that commu nity into the college experience.”

NC Rep. Alma Adams (D-Guilford) has taught at Bennett for 39 years, making her the most tenured faculty member at the school.

“You’ll see how excited they are,” she says. “The new and returning students will hear what the expectations will be, what their responsibility as sisters is. We stress sister hood here; we pair the incoming students as little sisters with big sisters.”

The Belles load their plates with breakfast and return to their seats. Meanwhile, Eric Cole conducts Bennett trivia. “How many acres are there on the main Bennett campus?” he asks. “Fifty-five!” “How many buildings on campus have the name Pfeiffer?” “Two?” “Three?” “Five?”

“Four.” “It’s four,” Cole says. Bennett College President Julianne Malveaux experienced her first White Break fast last year. “It’s an overwhelming tradition,” she says. “A powerful tradition. And it’s a tradition I didn’t know about a year ago. Since then I’ve been to about twelve of these all over the country. I’m excited to bring back a remind er of this school’s tradition of public service.”

Bennett is a small college, with about 700 students. Between 230 and 250 new sisters enter the fold this year, and this breakfast will be the first of the traditions that await them. At the same time, the school will be growing and changing under Malveaux’s leadership.

But everyone knows you can’t achieve much in the way of change and growth on an empty stomach. At Bennett College, breakfast is the most important meal of the year.

To comment on this story, e-mail Amy Kingsley at amy@yesweekly.com.

John Wesley

(Story and photo by Jordan Green)

John Wesley College, High Point
Website: www.johnwesley.edu
Established: 1903 
Mascot: The eagle
Enrollment: About 100

The parking lot is sparsely filled on the second day of fall classes at John Wesley College, now located on a wooded cam pus near the crook of Centennial Street and Eastchester Drive in High Point. The college was founded more than a century ago as the Greensboro Bible and Liter ary School in a fervent period following a revival led by the Revs. Seth Rees and Charley Weigle in the spring of ’03. It won’t be hard to find the youth min istry class, Associate Dean John Lindsay explains. All the classrooms are on the first floor of the campus’ single brick building while administrative office space takes up the second story. Intimacy is the Bible college’s hallmark: Seven students comprise a standard class size, while 15 pushes the max. Two students sit expectantly on either side of the class room. Lindsay, an amiable man wearing a Mickey Mouse tie with golf themes, pops in and reports that enrollment is holding steady this year, with about 80 day students, and enough night students to bump the total up to about a hundred.

John Wesley College is an institution of higher (in this case, meaning both undergraduate and Biblical) learning for believers in a hurry, many of whom are already in the pipeline to youth-ministry jobs. A link on the college website to its online program reads, “Feeling a little short on time? Earn your degree online.”

As a religious institution, John Wesley is exempt from state licensure require ments but holds accreditation with the Association for Biblical Higher Educa tion in Florida.

“I’m mainly here to get out of college and get married, to be perfectly honest,” says 22-year-old Ben Cranford, a Trinity resident with tousled blond hair who wears faded jeans and flip-flops. Cran ford and instructor Jeff Webster were previously acquainted, and the student credits his instructor with helping him

land his first youth ministry job. If all goes according to plan, he’ll graduate next spring. Regardless, he intends to tie the knot in June. Webster received his bachelor’s degree from John Wesley College in 1995, and then enrolled in Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest.
With family and work commitments bearing down on him, he transferred to Liberty University in Virginia to get his master’s through its online program. He now heads the youth ministry program at Pleasant Garden Baptist Church.

“I’ve worked in student ministry for fifteen years,” Webster says. “I know what you’re thinking is: That dude doesn’t look that old. And I appreciate that.” The other student, 27-year-old Jamie Niven, relocated from Pennsylvania to attend John Wesley College. Now in her third year, she handles marketing for Chick-fil-A’s two High Point restau rants, and aspires to go to work at the Christian-oriented corporation’s Atlanta headquarters.

“Somebody in my church submitted my name, and [the college] sent me a packet,” says Niven, who speaks with an earnestness that contrasts Cranford’s laconic manner. “I literally sold all my belongings, packed up and moved down here. I knew God wanted me here with out a doubt.”

She tells Webster that she grew up in a housing projects behind her home church in Williamsport, Pa., and inspired area children to attend services with her. “I really don’t know where God wants me,” Niven confesses. “I’m taking a lot of classes to try to find out. God definitely took me out of Pennsylvania for a reason.

I don’t have a support system there. My family’s not really Christian, except maybe an uncle.” “We’ll pray on that,” Webster replies, adding that his parents were also un churched at the time he committed to his faith.

Niven has said that a lot of classes at John Wesley College are like Bible study, and indeed Webster leads the two students in prayer before handing out copies of the syllabus. He announces that the students will take turns opening each class “with just a word. Hey, we’re not looking for you to preach a sermon, just a little bit about how God has been present in your life.” The course focuses on “ministry to teenagers within the local church set ting,” including budgeting, adolescent development and an exploration of “defining this generation of teenagers” The students will read from three texts, two of which they must purchase.

A third, ***Re-Think***, by Webster’s friend Steve Wright, is handed out by the instructor as a gift to the students.

Twenty percent of course credit will come from class participation, weekly reading reflections and personal wit nessing.

Regarding class participation, Webster says, “Basically, you just need to be here.” The personal witnessing part entails five evangelistic encounters documented with written briefs. “It may be some day you’re sitting in the drive thru at McDonalds,” he says, “and you strike up a conversation.”

Another 20 percent of credit comes from attending a Saturday-morning seminar entitled “Understanding Your Teen” at Webster’s church, and submit ting a two-page personal reflection pa per. Webster prefers personal, reflective writing to a mere rehashing of informa tion from texts.

The remaining 60 percent comes from the students’ presentation of a 20-min ute mock teaching lesson, a 10-minute presentation on eight different websites relevant to youth ministry, and an 8-10 page youth ministry philosophy paper that includes some “theological and scriptural foundation.”

“The two greatest questions you need to wrestle with: Number one is, ‘Why?’” Webster tells Cranford and Niven. “Why are you here, and why are you doing what you’re doing? The answer to that question will determine if it’s a passion of your heart. The second question is, ‘Who?’ Who am I ministering to? You could answer the question broadly, by saying ‘teenagers.’ The bigger question is, who is this generation? This is a call and a passion of God.” He pops in a DVD produced by an Alabama outfit called Student Life. It’s shot in black and white, and features a pastiche of multiracial teenagers. Float ing labels read: “a generation unclear… comfortable with contradiction… a gen eration void of the Bible.” Various talking heads make pronouncements such as “We almost marketed youth ministry; we almost marketed Christ…. We’ve raised up a generation of kids who you might say are functional deists…. With ninety six percent who are not being reached by a Biblically-based Christianity, then we are losing a generation.”

After the lights come back on, Webster makes his pitch. “Why we do it is because if we don’t there will be a generation lost,” he says. “Think about the impact of that. The boomers would confess that forty to fifty percent are Christian. And look at the mess we’ve got now.”

To comment on this story, e-mail Jor dan Green at jordan@yesweekly.com.

Greensboro College

(Story and photo by Brian Clarey)

Greensboro College, Greensboro
Website: www.gborocollege.edu; www.museum.gborocollege.edu
Established: 1838
Mascot: Lions (team name: the Pride)
Undergraduate enrollment: 1,106

Since 1845 Greensboro College’s Main Building has sternly faced the long grassy promenade to Market Street, seven years after the charter was granted by the state legislature and just three years after the cornerstone was laid. It cost $25,000 to build.

It’s caught fire three times since then. An August 1863 blaze took it down to the ground, and rebuilding materi als were confiscated by the federal government. By 1872 the building was up again, with an antebellum faade.

The front hall caught fire in 1904 and the entrance was rebuilt as a rotunda, which caught a lightning strike in 1941. The Roman columns you see there now were a part of that rebuilding.

“It has had a combustible past,” says Lindsay Lambert, director of the college’s Brock Historical Museum. The Main Building has housed both classrooms and dorms over the years and now contains some administrative offices, a performance space, a row of tranquil parlors and the museum, which occupies the bulk of the third floor and was conceived by Mary Brock, one of three sisters who attended the college.

Upon graduation in 1924, Mary, the youngest and most dynamic of

the three, stayed at the university as secretary to the president. It was she who established many of the school’s modern traditions and practices.

“She really became an institution within an institution,” Lambert says. “There weren’t too many people on campus who would say no to her for anything.”

The museum contains artifacts and chronicling the school’s 170-year-old history — a mock-up of a dorm room from the 1950s; a tribute to the African- American experience at the school; graduation dresses from 1909 and 1969 draped on mannequins — the one from the ’60s is sexier.

And in a back room, in display cases and shelves, the fruit of another Greens boro College institution: its collection of class dolls.

It began in 1938, Lambert says. “For our centennial celebration, the alumni wanted to do something special. From then on, each class made a doll. [They make] from one to three [dolls]. Some years they go with a thematic approach; sometimes they go more traditional.”

The first class doll was presented in 1939, a bob-haired kewpie with a crocheted green dress. 1944’s doll wears bobby socks and saddle shoes. 1961’s wears pink Chanel like Jacqueline Ken nedy. Though men were first admitted to the school in 1963, the first make doll makes his appearance in 1967, in a skinny tie and three-button suit with a woman who looks like Mary Tyler Moore from “The Dick van Dyke Show.” “”Probably it took a few years before the men were interested and before the women were willing to share this tradition.”

Alumni have filled in the back years with dolls of their own creation; the earliest dates to 1861, a baby-faced porcelain doll with hoop skirt and straw hat. The Jazz Age is represented by a flapper in beads and a flowered dress.

Things go loopy in the ’70s — 1070 sees Barbie and Ken in Technicolor attire. In 1973, students submitted Rag gedy Ann and Andy without alteration.

The 1976 man wears a denim suit and a bug bushy mustache, and the couple of 1977 is represented by action figures of Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers — the Six-Million-Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, respectively. The first African- American dolls make their appearance in 1980. In 1982, students presented Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. The 1986 entry is a Cabbage Patch Doll. Planning for the 2001 dolls started on 9-11, so the figures wear EMT and Red Cross uniforms.

“I always tell the students, ‘This is your tradition — you can do what you want with it,’” Lambert says.