Mental Health | 5
Taking time for self-care duing Stress Out Week
February 22, 2023 Collegedale, Tennessee
Opinion | 6
Religion | 6
Lifestyle | 7
Here's why self-love can't be the final destination
Faculty and staff tell about God's mercy in their lives
How to deal with stress caused by thoughts of life after college
Southern Accent
Vol. 78 Issue 17
The student voice since 1926
Southern to host Adventist entrepreneurial Candidates conference meant to inspire student businesses present speeches for Student Association elections Alexis Dewey Staff Writer
second place winner $2,500 and the third place winner $1,000. On Friday, March 4, the conference will also host a competition for 10 early-stage business startups. The first place winner will receive $3,000, the second place winner $1,000 and the third place winner $750. “Last year, they offered loans [during BringIt’s pitch competition],” Alonso said. “This year, we’re doing prize money. This won’t be a loan.” Daniels said each winner will have the opportunity to accept a loan, but they will still receive the prize money whether or not they take one. As of Wednesday, Feb. 15, the pitch competitions had over 50 submissions sent in by students
On Thursday, Feb. 17, five candidates running for Student Association (SA) president, vice president and social vice president gave speeches during convocation. In the coming week, students will have a chance to vote some of those individuals into office for the next academic year. On Tuesday, Feb. 21, there was a press conference held in the Thatcher chapel where students asked the candidates questions. General electionvoting begins on Feb. 23. Kari Shultz, director of Student Life and Activities, said Student Development will know the winners shortly after 11 p.m. According to Shultz, the university will send out a survey to the student body to vote for the candidates after convocation on Feb. 23. During his speech on Thursday, Jared Chandler, senior finance major and one of the candidates running for president, said he wants to help students feel safe on campus by adding lights along the promenade, and he wants to help Thatcher Hall’s gym get new equipment. Chandler’s main goals are to
See HYVE 2023 on page 2
See SA ELECTIONS on page 3
Members of the BringIt project from 2022 (Photo courtesy of: Roman Johnson)
Amanda Blake Managing Editor Hyve Creators 2023, an entrepreneurial conference featuring successful investors and business innovators in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, will take place on Southern Adventist University’s campus from March 2-5. According to Southern’s website, the event will provide attendees with “many networking opportunities, workshops, keynotes, testimonies, pitches, and booths — all focused on combining mission, innovation, and entrepreneurship.” The conference will take place in the Collegedale Church of Seventh-day Adventists and Iles Gym. Multiple individuals, including David Asscherick, co-director of Light Bearers, will speak. Individu-
als can register and view the list of speakers and schedule at hyveinternational.org. Businesses can also register for booths to sell products and advertise. However, as of Sunday, Feb. 19, only five spots were left. Registering for a booth costs $399 for standard businesses and $99 for student businesses. As of Wednesday, Feb. 15, over 350 individuals were registered to attend, and 139 businesses were registered to have booths, according to Lauryn Daniels, senior public relations major. Daniels is co-project manager of BringIt alongside Kelsie Alonso, sophomore entrepreneurship major. The event is the product of a partnership between Southern’s School of Business, Enactus South-
ern's BringIt team and Hyve International, described by Daniels as a worldwide community of missional Seventh-day Adventist entrepreneurs. Daniels said the BringIt project aims to connect student entrepreneurs with mentors to help grow their businesses. The project is known for hosting an annual pitch competition, and it will host the competition this year during Hyve Creators 2023, she added. The competition, titled “The Lion’s Den,” will involve 10 startup businesses presenting to a panel of investors and members of Hyve International in what Southern’s website described as “an Adventist version of Shark Tank.” According to Daniels, the first place winner will receive $5,000, the
A conversation with the handler of ‘Dog Days’ therapy canine Atreyu Emily Morgan Staff Writer Babytalk isn’t usually what a person expects when they go to McKee Library. Yet, when a student sees the tiny Lowchen dog, Atreyu, in a baby stroller, the response is almost automatic. Atreyu is a therapy dog employed by the Alliance of Therapy Dogs. According to the Mckee Library website, the library partners with the business and another one called Therapy Dogs International to provide students with therapy dog visits throughout the academic year. According to Sharen Fisher, Atreyu’s human partner, during the 2020 school year, therapy dog visits halted.
“When COVID came, my other dog who’d been coming here since May [2015] was beside him[self],” Fisher said. “He chased me around the house when it was time to get ready to go. He knew his schedule, and he knew when he was coming here.” Excluding 2020, Fisher and her canine partners have been regularly coming to McKee Library since May 2015. She said Atreyu is very social and has no preference for what kind of people he likes. “I think [Atreyu] likes everybody,” Fisher said. Therapy dogs are born, not made, she added.
“I have had [dog handlers] tell me, they went into [therapy situations in nursing homes] and their dog just curled up in a ball and shook,” Fisher said.
Atreyu spreading joy to others in McKee Library. (Photo courtesy of source)
Fisher told of an experience with a student on Southern's campus which stuck with her. “I had one young man from California. My other dog was a Wheaten Terrier, and [the young man] had two Wheaten Terriers at home. And he says, ‘Oh, I so miss my dogs!’” Fisher said. “The excitement from the students; you can just see them go ‘exhale.’” Fisher said she loves coming to Southern because the students are so genuine. “I was getting ready to leave, and I was at my car and [a student] goes, ‘Wait, wait!’ She comes running out; she hands me a card. She wrote me a card
to thank me for bringing the therapy dog in,” Fisher said. “ … So, yes, it's just fun to see the students interact and get relaxed and turn around and go back to their work. And it's like they have new color in their face, [and] they just look better.” The next three therapy dog visits are scheduled for Feb. 23 at 11:30 a.m., March 7 at 1 p.m and March 21 at 1 p.m. More information on the therapy dog visits and scheduled dates are available on the McKee Library website. To contact and learn more about Atreyu, visit his Instagram account at atreyu_lowchen.
Administration reactivates official graduation policy, adds summer graduation Alana Crosby Editor-in-Chief
According to an email sent by Karon Powell, director of Records and Advisement, starting this year, there will be three graduation ceremonies. The graduation dates and times for 2023 are as follows: May 7 at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.; Aug. 17 at 7 p.m. and Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. For the May graduation, a third program would open at 4 p.m., only if needed. In the past, the university had a working policy that allowed students to march in the May commencement ceremony if they were within six credit hours of completing a degree and registered for those credits in the following summer semester, according to Powell. However, she explained, students tend not to complete their degree after marching.
“Unfortunately, our experience is that far too many students who participated in the May commencement ceremony before completing all degree requirements failed to complete degree requirements and therefore did not complete a degree at Southern,” Powell wrote. “Many students appear to conflate participation in commencement exercises with degree completion.” As a result, the commencement marching policy no longer allows students to march if they have not fulfilled all of their degree requirements. The only exceptions to this rule would be students dealing with extenuating circumstances (e.g., when a student has to return home to a different country and would be unable to return for the summer graduation ceremony). In addition, students in such situations can
have only three outstanding credits and have plans to complete them over the summer for this to be feasible. “Because there will now be an August commencement ceremony, the university will begin carefully following its current graduation participation policy found in the Graduation Requirements section of the academic catalog, which states, ‘Students are allowed to participate in commencement exercises only if they have completed all the courses required for graduation,’” Powell wrote in an email to faculty. “ … To be eligible to participate in a commencement ceremony (march) students need to have completed all hours or be registered for their final requirements within the semester in which they intend to march.” Powell presented, as an exam-
ple, a student with three credit hours outstanding by the May 2023 commencement ceremony. That student would be asked to march in the August ceremony because he or she would be enrolled for the final hours during the summer term. In an email to the Accent, Vice President of Academic Administration Bob Young wrote that the summer date was implemented to benefit students who complete their degrees in the summer and do not wish to march in the December graduation ceremony. “There are a number of seniors who finish their programs in the summer, many of whom choose not to march at the December commencement service,” Young wrote. “Having a summer program will serve this population. There is also
data that shows that of students who march before completion, a high percentage never finish their degrees. Having the summer program would help those students complete and still be able to participate in a commencement service.” In addition, having a graduation ceremony for every term lowers the number of graduating seniors for each commencement and allows students to invite more people. According to Young, all three graduations will be held in the Iles P.E. Center. 2023 Graduation Dates May 7, 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. (a third program would open at 4 p.m., only if needed) Aug. 17, 7 p.m. Dec. 14, 7 p.m.