Features

Where student artists take the stage: Inside Trevecca’s student club AMPED

19Apr

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Campus News, Features

Where student artists take the stage: Inside Trevecca’s student club AMPED

By Jasmin Enriquez Martinez Features Editor On the rooftop of the University Commons building, students gather, moving to the rhythm as live music fills the space. AMPED, an official student club, gives student musicians a chance to gain experience and perform on campus. Performances are usually held on Thursdays in the UC basement or on the rooftop and count for recital credit for music majors. “It's just a way for artists to showcase themselves to their peers and get some experience playing,” said Jack Bahorik, a junior music business major and club organizer. Before AMPED, the club operated as Last Thursday but did shows sporadically within the last few years, according to Bahorik. Bahorik started AMPED after seeing how difficult it is for student musicians to find ven...

Teaching beyond the textbook: Craig Bishop receives Teaching Excellence Award

16Apr

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Faculty

Teaching beyond the textbook: Craig Bishop receives Teaching Excellence Award

By Michelle Loria Alvarado, Lydia Chapman Executive Editor, Senior Reporter For Craig Bishop, success in law enforcement is often measured by a target. In firearms training, he tells his students that hitting the mark 70% of the time is the minimum standard for passing. But for Bishop, that is not enough. “That’s three bullets that are not on target. Where did those three bullets go?” he said. “Excellence is hitting the mark 100% of the time and doing it well.” That same pursuit of perfection earned Bishop, professor and director of the criminal justice program, the university’s 2025-26 Teaching Excellence Award. The honor was announced March 5 during chapel. The Conference of Chairpersons, composed of academic deans and department chairs, has presented the award annuall...

A lifetime at Trevecca: Jim Hiatt retires after 43 years

6Apr

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Features

A lifetime at Trevecca: Jim Hiatt retires after 43 years

By Jasmin Enriquez Martinez Features Editor During the summer, a young Jim Hiatt worked as a student building the roof for the university president’s home and digging drainage for Trevecca’s baseball field. After 43 years at the university, he is retiring from the place he once helped build. “It's almost like abandoning the biggest part of my life,” said Hiatt, associate provost and dean of the Skinner School of Business. Hiatt is set to retire later in June. He began as a Trevecca student in the 1970s earning his bachelors in business administration. He also earned a law degree from University of Tennessee and his masters at Middle Tennessee State University. During his time at Trevecca, Hiatt has helped create multiple programs in his department. Before working a...

Walking Where Paul Walked: Students Bring Scripture to Life in Greece

7Apr

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Features

Walking Where Paul Walked: Students Bring Scripture to Life in Greece

By Lydia Chapman Senior Reporter At 3 a.m. in Athens, a group of students boarded a plane half-awake and half-delirious, unaware their journey home would not be simple. After days of filming at ancient ruins across Greece, their return involved missed connections, blizzard warnings in Chicago, a two-and-a-half-hour wait for luggage and a last-minute charter bus that carried them overnight back to campus. By the time they arrived at 8 a.m. Monday after break, exhaustion threatened to define the experience. Instead, what lingers most is not the blizzard, but Corinth. Over spring break, students from the history, religion and film departments traveled to Greece as part of a faculty-led academic research experience, or FLARE, an interdisciplinary course combining research, theol...

Judy Hiatt retires after 12 years of planning commencement

10Mar

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Faculty

Judy Hiatt retires after 12 years of planning commencement

By Jasmin Enriquez Martinez Features Editor Judy Hiatt graduated from high school and immediately started working as a bank teller for 10 years, never going to college. From left to right Jim Hiatt, Judy Hiatt, and their daughter at her retirement party. / TrevEchoes - Jasmin Enriquez Martinez She never imagined that she would be planning students’ most memorable day-graduation. “Probably the hardest part of my job but the most rewarding part of my job, is planning commencement,” said Hiatt. After 12 years serving as assistant to the provost and academic affairs, Hiatt will retire in March from her position. Melanie Bowles will take her place once she retires. In 1986, Hiatt moved from Florida to work at Trevecca as the resident director for the dorms in...

From dissertation to “I Do”: A sweet season at Trevecca.

19Feb

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Features

From dissertation to “I Do”: A sweet season at Trevecca.

By Alana McLaughlin Senior Reporter Rebecca and Zach Ronan getting engaged in the Mackey building/ Photo provided by Rebecca Ronan As Rebecca Ronan settled into her office in Mackey, she turned around to find her boyfriend on one knee. Now, a flower arrangement sits in the corner of the office. For Rebecca Ronan, associate professor of English, it’s a reminder of her marriage. “This has been the sweetest season, in the sweetest place,” said Ronan. The proposal came at an unexpected time. Ronan had completed a 7-year long Ph.D. program at Middle Tennessee State University, graduating May 2025. She then started her position at Trevecca in August. “It was so meaningful to me because he had been along for the end of me getting my Ph.D. and the dissertation pro...

Coming home: Troy Munn returns to Trevecca to lead advancement

23Jan

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Faculty

Coming home: Troy Munn returns to Trevecca to lead advancement

By Jasmin Enriquez Martinez Features Editor As Troy Munn looks around Trevecca’s campus, seeing familiar faces, he knows he’s right at home. After 25 years away, Munn returns as vice president of institutional advancement, replacing Peggy Cooning, retired vice president of university engagement. Michael Johnson, Trevecca engagement officer, poses with Peg Lepter-Coney and friends during homecoming 2025 in honor of her retirement. / Trevecca Marketing - Hannah Somboon “I really felt like not only was this a wonderful professional opportunity and move for me, I really felt called to come back here and wanted to be a part of things,” said Munn. From 1998 to 2001, Munn worked at Trevecca as a part of the advancement team working on a campaign to build the Waggoner Library. N...

Running on little sleep, students rely on naps to get through the day

12Jan

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Features

Running on little sleep, students rely on naps to get through the day

Lydia Chapman Senior Reporter On a gray Tuesday afternoon, Zackary VandenBosch wakes up in a panic. For a moment, he’s sure he’s slept through class. His heart is pounding, the room looks wrong, and outside his window it’s already pitch black. The clock on his laptop reads 5:30 p.m., but after a post time change nap, it feels like 2 a.m. “I thought I’d slept like six hours,” he says, laughing. “I got on my computer and started trying to do an assignment. Then I looked down and realized it had only been an hour and a half.” For the senior nursing major and RA, naps like these aren’t indulgences, they’re a survival strategy. VandenBosch naps almost every day, usually for an hour or two, squeezed somewhere between early-morning clinicals, late-night RA duties, and the whirl of ...

Between Classes and Competitions, Trevecca Freshman Builds a Life on the Ice

12Jan

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Features

Between Classes and Competitions, Trevecca Freshman Builds a Life on the Ice

Kamrym Sanderfer Staff Writer Elena Mills receiving gold medal in Latin American Championship 2025 / Photo from Elena Mills socials. On Monday morning, exactly one week before final exams took place on Trevecca’s campus, freshman Elena Mills packed her bookbag, ice skates, and a week’s worth of clothes onto an airplane set for São Paulo, Brazil. It is here that she studied in preparation for her final exams on December 9th-11th, while simultaneously representing Brazil as an international figure skater in the Brazilian National Championship that same week. On December 6, 2025, she won first place in the women's junior level of the Brazilian National Championship. Two days later, on Monday, Dec. 8, she flew back to Tennessee, arrived at Trevecca on Tuesday night, Dec. 9th, and t...

Trevecca Students Bring New Joy to Tower Resident Through Weekly Hymns

11Dec

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Features

Trevecca Students Bring New Joy to Tower Resident Through Weekly Hymns

Halie Lictao Staff Writer Every Wednesday, 19-year-old Kendall Brown sings hymns with 74-year-old Jerry Scivally at the Trevecca Towers. “It’s the staple of my week,” said Brown, a Trevecca sophomore religion major. About a month ago, Brown went to a game night at the Towers. But instead of playing games, he, Scivally, and another student started singing together. Now he goes every week. Previously a reserved individual, Brown seized to put himself out there when he approached Scivally that night. The next hours were filled with songs and rich conversation. “He had the hymn book sitting on the table and that’s obviously something he’s very passionate about so he started talking about it, flipping through pages, and telling me a lot of stories that revolv...