By Kirby Cheers

It takes a village to raise a child and it take hot wings to raise a college student.  

At least that's what one will find when they visit Ching's Hot Wings located at 1264 Getwell Road, one block away from South Campus on the corner of Park.  

On any given weekday, the hot wing restaurant is filled to capacity with standing room only. Placing an order for carry-out over the phone leaves the customer waiting for about 45 minutes on "Scandal Thursdays" and a solid hour for a night of March Madness. Yet, the various, mouth-watering flavors keep Ching's customers coming back and waiting for more each week.  

"It's a good problem to have," Stacey Jackson, one of the co-owners of the popular hot wing restaurant, said. "We talk about the parking. Even with our employees, they will call me and say, 'I'm here, but I can't find a parking space.' It's exciting to see the growth and see where the next level will take us."  

By Kirby Cheers

The next time you are on a campus tour at the University of Memphis, make sure to visit Smith Hall. After the tour guide showcases the exhibition dorm room, ask them to introduce the Assistant Area Coordinator (AAC) there. This may cause an eyebrow to raise, but the guides are more than accommodating. 

On the first floor in a small office hidden around the corner of the dormitory's desk and lounge area, sits Kanesha Johnson, the AAC for Rawls and Smith Halls—adjacent, all-women dormitories in the middle of campus off Patterson Street. Her credentials may not sound extraordinary, and when you meet her, she may not come off as important as one of the four candidates for university president.  

Nevertheless, she is an unsung, success story in Memphis. 

Johnson, 22, graduated from the university in the fall of 2013 with a B.A. in political science. She was the first in her family to graduate from college in addition to being the first in her maternal family to graduate from high school.  

A Raleigh-Egypt High School alumna, Johnson, was raised predominately in North Memphis, surrounded by poverty, drugs and gangs during her upbringing.  

"I grew up in a single parent home with my mom, brother and older brother," Johnson recalls. "The neighborhood was pretty rough. Frequently, there were gun shots and my mom did not allow me to go outside. My brother was also in a gang."  

Living in an unstable home and being engulfed by poverty and violence seemed normal to Johnson. However, what truly impacted her childhood was her mother's schizophrenia, something Johnson never understood, but could recognize the signs and symptoms.  

"I always knew something was wrong," Johnson said. "It wasn’t until I got older and went through counseling on my own that I knew that's what was going on with her. We tried to offer her help, but she would not accept it." 

By Leah Beth Bolton 

Ask any of the students at the University of Memphis who Bruce Harber is and they’re guaranteed to answer, but many have been unable to put a face to the name.

As Director of Police Services and Public Safety at the U of M, Harber is most known for his direct electronic contact with the student body, faculty and staff, whether it be for a safety concern or weather alert.

Harber’s responsibilities vary on campus, but he is widely known for being the “man behind the Tiger Texts,” the U of M’s emergency alert text messaging system, which he helped develop for the school in 2007.

His goal is to eliminate crime on campus and keep students up to date on safety. 

“Here on campus we’re down over 10 percent. Surrounding areas are down 4.8 percent. The entire area is down 13.7 percent as a whole,” Harber said.

He added that new research has shown crime in the school’s parking lots on vehicles has gone down almost 75 percent in his 14 years on campus, which he credits to more of a police presence.

“When you consider that we have 10,000 parking spaces, which turn over a time and a half a day, our officers have done a tremendous job of keeping our students safe,” Harber said.

Harber, who moved to Memphis in the ninth grade, had an interest in public safety early on. He joined the Memphis Police Department’s cadet program right out of high school, which led him to seek a degree in the subject. He continued with the part-time program for two years while seeking his degree at the U of M.

He graduated from college in 1991 with a Bachelor of Professional Studies in police administration.

Harber worked for the Memphis Police Department for 25 years before beginning his work at the University in 2000 as the assistant director of Police Services. In January 2002, he was appointed as the new director of Police Services.

On top of his responsibilities on campus, Harber is studying for his master’s degree, which he hopes to finish by the end of the year.

By Erica Horton

Don’t call her Nancy. 

She may have lost her birth certificate in her home country, but her real name is Scovia Wilson and as of Oct. 17, she is a citizen of the United States of America. 

The 19-year-old, University of Memphis sophomore nursing major, who hails from a war zone in Sudan, said Nancy is a nickname she inherited from a mission’s woman. 

The woman came from an organization called Catholic Charities, which has helped refugees escape war zones, religious and political persecution and resettle in the U.S. for approximately 73 years. 

“The mission lady called me Nancy as a nick name and it kind of got stuck. In the process of coming to America, they accidentally put Nancy instead of Scovia on my paperwork,” she said. “I couldn’t change it back to Scovia until my citizenship, which took eight years. Finally, I have my name back.”

Scovia was named by her grandmother. 

“Scovia means fruits of the spirit and my middle name, Dawa, is Swahili for medicine,” she said.

By Margot Pera           

Calorie conscious students at the University of Memphis may be able to have their cake and eat it too, or at least their popcorn.

Kay and Mike Gellar, “POPrietors” for the franchise Doc Popcorn, are looking to expand their client base, and U of M is one of their target locations.

“If I was a college student, I would love the idea of sitting down and studying while munching on a bag of yummy popcorn,” Kay said.

Doc Popcorn was started by Robert and Renee Israel in 2003 as a healthy snack alternative to the typical calorie-laden popcorn sold at festivals, concerts and other venues. The couple made the popcorn in the kitchen of their New York City apartment, and then moved to the more health conscious climate of Boulder, Colo., where they opened up stands in sports arenas, shopping malls and various Whole Foods Markets throughout the state.

“They both worked for Fortune 500 companies in New York and just got tired of the rat race,” Mike said. “When they moved to Boulder, they spent six years perfecting their flavoring formulas."

By Meagan Nichols

With seven locations and an eighth scheduled to open in Germantown in February, Huey’s restaurants have served the greater Memphis area for over 40 years.

The newest and busiest of the seven-restaurant fleet, located less than three miles from the University of Memphis, is the Huey’s on Poplar Avenue, which will celebrate its 10-year anniversary this December.

Shannon Little, the marketing and events coordinator for Huey’s, said of the 400 employees that comprise the staff she estimated roughly 100 are either current U of M students or Tiger alumni. Little, who has worked at Huey’s for seven and a half years, falls into the latter of the two categories.

Little graduated from the U of M in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in communication with a focus in business management. In 2011, she earned a masters degree from the U of M in communication with a focus in community relations.

“I actually started as a food runner and expo at this location in Poplar in 2006 and then after a year was promoted to server and then two and a half years ago I started going into the office,” Little said. “I was a marketing intern and then I got promoted to assistant, and then last year I quit working tables and became the full on marketing and events coordinator.”

Little said when the company hires people they look for individuals who will stay in Memphis for a long time and said college students generally fit this profile.

“We have a very low turnover here,” she said. “The average years of employment for someone who works at Huey’s is seven years. I started my sophomore year of college and pretty much have worked through ever since.”

By Matthew Schwartz

Ricky Kirby, a junior marketing major from Dyersburg, Tenn., currently serves as the Student Government President on the University of Memphis campus.

Kirby has served as president since mid-April and has taken part in many projects benefiting the university.

The McDonald’s project, Highland strip renovation, and the future of the U of M bookstore are just a few things Kirby has had a hand in.

“The University District is here because of the University,” Kirby said.

Kirby has been involved in many organizations on campus throughout his three-year tenure at the U of M.

By Margot Pera

Halloween weekend will be an extravaganza to remember for Ben Jenkins, a University of Memphis math graduate student and techno DJ.

Jenkins will begin his party binge Thursday, Oct. 31, at Mollie Fontaine Lounge and end at Mollies on Saturday around 3 a.m.

Jenkins began his DJ vocation in 2008 after seeing some electronic music DJs play live at Voodoo Festival in New Orleans.

“I went to Voodoo fest to see Rage Against the Machine, and I saw a couple of DJs there and kind of liked it,” Jenkins said. “My friends and I started researching electronic music and eventually I started discovering a bunch of underground artists I really liked.”

 Jenkins’ favorite type of techno music is house, which he says has a softer melody than other derivatives like dubstep and trance.

“All of the electro genres, dubstep, trance, house, are derived from techno, which originated from disco,” Jenkins said. “Trance has a faster tempo and uplifting chords, and dubstep is basically a meditation on base.”

“The cafeteria was the only place black students could eat,” Wallin said. “None of the local restaurants would let them in the door.”

It had been only three years prior that African-Americans had been admitted to the university. When the institution was founded in 1912 as the West Tennessee State Normal School, only three requirements had to be met for admission: students had to be 16-years-old, an elementary school graduate and white.