Featuring: Stephen Blake | Amelia Barker | Frank Williams | Cullun Culp | Patrick Mureithi

Stephen Blake

Stephen Blake is a 1975 graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Education in Music, with a concentration in Voice. He says that he greatly enjoyed singing in the choir, and calls his 1972 Concert Chorale tour a highlight of his life. “It was a wonderful experience,” he says of the trip in which he traveled across Europe for 6 weeks singing at various locales. “(Going on the tour) convinced me at age 20 that I needed to continuously broaden my horizons by meeting and coming to know people from as many different places and cultures as possible,” Blake says. “It was inspirational.”

Blake says he took inspiration from a variety of faculty members in his music studies, including voice coach Rose Mary Owens and opera coach and visiting lecturer Dawin Emmanual. “I saw each of them regularly, and learned patience, and effort, from them both,” Blake says. Another influence was Elton Burgstahller, Blake’s faculty advisor, who taught Theory, Oboe, and instrument maintenance and repair. “He made me appreciate the woodwinds almost as much as the low brass, which I’d always played,” Blake says.

Blake is retired and lives in Chile, a country he has admired greatly since his first visit. “When I visited Santiago, the first time, I fell in love with Chile,” he explains. “The mix of modern and antique in this country is amazing. Every climate on the planet, except that of rainforest, is present in this country – – from the driest desert in the world to glaciers and fjords in the far south.”

For Blake, the highlight of living abroad is the perspective it offers. “Living in another country gives one an incredible view of the world,” Blake says. “I see news of the world from an entirely different viewpoint. It’s an eternally educational experience.” Blake also enjoyed the process of learning new languages, despite its difficulty. “Every time you learn a new language, you learn a new way of looking at the world. Our thoughts are, in many ways, molded by the words and syntax that we use in daily life,” he says.

Learning new languages has helped establish Blake’s belief that more people should learn to be fluent in other languages. “It would aid them not only in understanding other people, but also in communicating with an international bent,” he says. “The world is growing smaller and smaller, and knowing how to function internationally is becoming more and more important.”

Amelia (Ellison) Barker

Amelia (Ellison) Barker is a 1998 cum laude graduate with departmental honors in Communications. She earned a comprehensive Bachelor of Science degree in Communication with specialization in Public Relations. Barker says that this degree has been helpful to her in working internationally. “With a degree in communications, I’ve been exposed to many different types and styles of communication, and this has allowed me to be more effective when I interact with others,” she says.

Barker came to the University from Halfway, Missouri, and includes the process of getting acclimated to campus life as one of her fondest memories of the University. “(Coming to the University) was a great opportunity to stretch my communication skills and interact with people on a whole new level,” she says. “For the first time, I started to form relationships with people that I hadn’t known since childhood, so that was exciting!” Barker says that Dr. Janice King, Dr. Donal Stanton, and Dr. Joseph Hughes are three faculty members who influenced and inspired her. King was Barker’s official advisor, and Barker says she was helpful in “helping me navigate the waters of indecision.” “She did a great job making sure I got into the classes and programs I needed in order to be successful,” Barker adds. Barker refers to Stanton as an “unofficial mentor,” stating that he “has been a friend and example to me since I was a child.” Hughes taught Barker’s introductory honors course and as a result, she says, “I became hooked on antiquities.” “Not only did he open a whole new world of learning for me, he also became a friend and life-teacher as well,” she says.

Barker has worked at EarthLink’s partner performance department for the past five years, ensuring that customers worldwide can obtain technical assistance with their Internet service. This work has afforded her the opportunity to travel abroad to EarthLink’s many global offices. Her work has taken her to India, the Philippines, and the Dominican Republic, and she has also served clients in Canada, Panama, Africa, and South America.

Barker has also started a volunteer project called “Amelia’s Wings” (www.ameliawings.org), inspired by her use of frequent-flier miles and hotel points to help her aunt receive needed medical care that wasn’t available in Springfield. Since its inception, the organization has helped another Springfield resident travel to receive medical care, and Barker hopes that her organization can grow to help thousands of people. “It will truly be bringing people who need care together with best-in-class specialists who can provide that care, without geographic or financial restrictions,” she says. “I am most motivated by the individual people that I work with,” she said of the forces that drive her work. “I’ve found that it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, how old you are, or what your background is – everyone can make a difference in the lives of someone else.”

Barker says that traveling abroad has helped expand her horizons, despite pitfalls such as health concerns that can arise when work, jet lag, and abnormal schedules leave little time for sleep. “When you travel as extensively as I do (both domestically and internationally) you start to realize that most of the boundaries and limitations we place on ourselves are truly only self-imposed,” she says. “My challenge to anyone who isn’t doing what they dream of is: ‘What’s stopping you?’”

Frank Williams

Frank Williams is a 1972 graduate with BFA degrees in Painting and Sculpture and a minor in Drawing. He moved to Russia in 1992 and works in Moscow, maintaining a global artistic presence. “I still do it because I never stopped doing it!” he says of his artistic output, which includes sculptures, paintings, and digital work both internationally and in the United States. In 1977, his sculpture “Transition” was part of a local group exhibit at the Park Central Art Gallery, and in 1980 he completed “Point 7,” a sculpture garden at Wilson Park in Fayetteville, Arkansas, which includes a play castle for children. Recent projects include a digital collage interpretation of his installation and word sculpture “In Flight”, titled “In Flight, Revisited,” and an installation inspired by the events of the 9/11 terrorist attacks entitled “Fantasy on a Terrorist Act” which was shown earlier this year in a Moscow exhibit titled, “Why? Aggression as Destruction.”

Williams says he drew significant inspiration from two former University faculty members: John Walker and Edgar Albin, both of Art and Design. “John was totally open to experimentation among his students,” he says of Walker. “It was the work that mattered to John and the fact that you did the work with sincerity and conviction.” Williams referred to Edgar Albin, art historian, former Department Head of Art Design and member of Missouri State University’s Wall of Fame, as “the consummate cheerleader and coach rolled up in one,” citing Albin’s ability to keep classes interesting and exciting. “Like many art historians, Ed was not only appreciative of those of us who choose to make art, which gave him something to chronicle, but it also allowed him the opportunity to express his love of art to all who listened,” Williams says. On Albin’s classes, Williams further states “He made Art History fun and stimulating; a class to look forward to. And for those days, they were multimedia extravaganzas in which you would indeed end up learning something besides being entertained.”

Williams cites living and working internationally as becoming part of the inspiration for his work. “Being outside of the familiar allows a new and unique view of things,” he says. “For me personally, I am used to and comfortable with a degree of isolation. In a foreign country, that isolation takes on a different dynamic, and you see many new aspects of yourself and your work.” His first trip out of North America was to Japan, as part of a Sea Explorers cruise when he was 16. That experience opened his eyes to the rest of the world. “My life in Missouri, including my work at the University, insisted I leave the Midwest and do something else, somewhere else,” he says. “I learned that there were other places in the world and I wanted to get to those places and experience life there!”

Frank Williams maintains a web site devoted to his art. You can view it at www.frankwilliams.ru.

Cullun Culp

Cullun Culp graduated in 2002 with a double major in Computer Information Systems and German. He was active in Phi Sigma Pi and the Association of Information Technology Professionals and designed the web site RateYourProfessor.net as a senior project. Culp calls his decision to take the double major one of the best he’s ever made because it allowed him to spend a summer in Germany. “A lot of people miss out on the chance to travel abroad during college and I probably would have as well if I hadn’t started taking German classes,” Culp says. “My summer abroad in Germany really exposed me to how much larger the world is than what I was used to and forced me into uncomfortable situations which many of us take for granted.”

In addition to his double major and senior project, Culp also ran as a candidate for Homecoming King in 2000. Two professors who influenced Culp during his time at Missouri State were Dr. Carol Anne Costabile-Heming, who taught many of his German classes, and Dr. Joseph Hughes, who taught his Honors College course.

Culp works as a Software Architect for Cerner Corporation, a Health Care Information Technology firm based in Kansas City that is a subcontractor for several contracts in the United Kingdom. It was through the corporation’s international connection that Culp was able to relocate to London in 2006, and he joins over 600 associates at Cerner who represent a large cross-section of the world. “England is probably one of the least stretching countries to choose in terms of cultural or language differences,” he states, adding that norms and expectations can still differ. “I can’t imagine ever hearing someone complain in the USA that they only get 25 vacation days a year, but I’ve heard that more than once in England,” he says.

Culp makes the point that working internationally means working with a greater cross-section of the world than one might expect to encounter in the United States. “With regards to being abroad and the exposure it’s provided me, a great example is the fact that at our office in London I’ve worked with people from: England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, America, Australia, Iran, Pakistan, India, Greece, Iraq, Romania, Ireland, Germany, French, South Africa, Spanish, Sweden, Iceland, Canada, Turkey, and I’m sure I’m missing others,” he says to accent the extent to which he has made a global impact.

Culp highly recommends that students take the opportunity to travel or work abroad, stating that “It’s an amazing experience and will provide you with memories and friendships that will last a lifetime.”

Patrick Mureithi

Patrick Mureithi is a 2001 graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Mass Media and is a founding member of The University’s Film Society. He has also worked at KY3 as a photojournalist and is the owner of Josiah Films, a local video production firm. Mureithi says that his education at The University gave him great preparation to work internationally. “I have an appreciation for the diversity at Missouri State that serves as a microcosm for the rest of the world,” he says. “It was in every sense a world-class education.” Mureithi cites two particular faculty influences on his education: Mark Biggs, who taught an intersession on documentaries, and Patricia Elliott, who pushed Mureithi to achieve his best work.

Mureithi filmed, edited, and produced the documentary “Icyizere: Hope,” a documentary about the ongoing reconciliation process between survivors and perpetrators of the 1994 Rwanda genocide, in which one million people died over a span of one hundred days. Generous contributions from local donors gave Mureithi the opportunity to travel to a reconciliation workshop between Hutu and Tutsi tribe members in Gisenyi, Rwanda, and he was deeply moved by what he observed there. “This changed my life, because it made me look at my own grudges, and how holding on to them has kept me from being fully happy, fully human,” he says. “The need to forgive and to be forgiven is a human one, and observing survivors and perpetrators of what has been termed the most brutal and most effective genocide known to man come to an understanding of each other gave me and all at the workshop a sense of hope.”

Mureithi was given permission to film the proceedings and produced the first version of “Icyizere: Hope” from this film. He is still working on the final version, but has been able to present the first version in several venues, including the 2008 Rwanda Film Festival, Gisenyi Central Prison, and three showings on Rwanda TV. Mureithi says of his mission with the film that “In this world of conflict, what we need more is diplomacy, and through this film I am in a small way being a diplomat.”

Patrick Mureithi has recently submitted “Icyizere: Hope” for consideration in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and hopes to show the final version of the film to the Great Lakes Parliamentary Forum on Peace, a special commission consisting of parliament members from the African Great Lakes region, which includes Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda, and the Congo. He is also planning a tour of prisons in and around Rwanda, showing the film to inmates who have experienced ongoing trauma from the events of the Rwanda genocides. Mureithi maintains a blog about his experiences traveling to Rwanda and Kenya to show “Icyizere: Hope” and gathering material for the final version, which he plans to finish by March 2009. His blog is located at patrickmureithi.blogspot.com. The trailer for the documentary can be seen on the Josiah Films website at josiahfilms.com.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAN_-Ylpjuw