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JBA Looks to Establish Alumni Network

At the onset of the pandemic, most of Truman’s summer programming for pre-college students was suspended. Joseph Baldwin Academy was the lone exception, as sessions were swiftly converted to online offerings.

“The virtual JBA program got very positive feedback from those who participated, but students and their families were disappointed it was not in person,” said Jeanne Harding, director of the Institute for Academic Outreach.

For summer 2021, JBA returned to in-person programming, and the academy saw participation levels on par with pre-pandemic numbers. More than 360 students came to Kirksville to take part in one of the two available summer sessions.

“It was refreshing to have students back on campus,” Harding said. “JBA is best experienced in person, and there was an excitement and energy created by having our scholars in classrooms and residence halls.”

Other summer offerings also returned to in-person formats, including the ATSU-Truman Healthcare Academy, designed for students in grades 9-11 interested in health-related professions, and JBA Jr., for students in grades 4-6. All three programs saw participation levels at or exceeding pre-pandemic numbers.

Although summer academies returned, they were not entirely “back to normal.” All University protocols were still in place, including social distance guidelines, facial coverings and additional meal options, such as eating outside or in the student’s residence hall room. For JBA, the closing reception and scheduled family visit day were also suspended to reduce travel to campus. Despite those challenges, participants and their families were glad to be back.

If JBA were a high school, it would be Truman’s largest feeder school. An estimated 10,000 JBA alumni have attended the University since the program began in 1985.

The Institute for Academic Outreach is in the early stages of developing a JBA alumni network. Students who attended the program are encouraged to provide their contact information online at jba.truman.edu/alumni-form.

“JBA played a prominent role in the educational experience of many of our alumni,” Harding said. “We have a significant number of program alumni, and as we approach its 40th anniversary we would like to reinvigorate our ties with them. JBA is a unique program, and everyone who participated in it shares a special bond.”

The Joseph Baldwin Academy offers highly talented students a head start on their future university careers by allowing them to live like college freshmen for three weeks. Students move in to a residence hall, interact with fellow classmates and participate in discipline-specific courses. The primary goal is to increase their appreciation for education, intellectual engagement and the college experience. Students enrolled in grades 7-9 may be nominated by their school counselor or principal to participate in JBA. For more information, visit jba.truman.edu or email jba@truman.edu.

Starting Strong

Truman’s new First-Year Experience establishes the framework for a lifetime of success.

Truman is a school that prides itself on being distinct, and nowhere is that more apparent than its new First-Year Experience for incoming students. Every college has some form of orientation or new-student programming, but Truman’s is designed with a number of lofty goals in mind. Not only does it help new students adjust to college, it establishes a foundation to help them succeed academically, socially and professionally for the rest of their lives.

To achieve such ambitious goals, Truman’s First-Year Experience was implemented in fall 2020. In addition to the existing Truman Week component, the University added a self and society seminar class and a symposium series. Each element of the First-Year Experience has a specific goal, and in conjunction with one another, the infrastructure they create puts students on a path to reach their full potential.

The self and society seminar courses are a selection of unique classes meant to inspire and engage new students with the big questions, cultivate their intellectual and practical values and foster their character as they become grounded in methods of critical, multidisciplinary and intercultural thinking.

“Truman students like to engage in ideas. I would say that’s something I’ve encountered with all the students that I teach at Truman,” said Jocelyn Prendergast, associate professor of music. “They’re excited about their content area or their major for sure, but they’re also really interested in wrestling with the big ideas, like ‘how am I going to be in the world’ and ‘what does it mean to be a good citizen of this country’ or ‘what does it mean to be a good friend,’ for example. Those are the kind of big questions we engage in these seminar classes.”

For the self and society seminars, students can choose from a variety of subjects. Past seminars have addressed topics such as sustainability, fake news and the psychological effects of music, to name just a few.

The self and society seminars are three-credit courses that run the entirety of the semester. They are taken in conjunction with the one-credit Truman Symposium, the final component of the First-Year Experience. While the seminars focus on thought, the symposium is about action, and it provides a shared experience for all new students.

“The idea of our symposium is to introduce students to Truman, to Kirksville, and hopefully for the students to form a community where the students can interact with each other and support each other,” said Vayujeet Gokhale, associate professor of physics.

The symposium consists of three distinct parts: a discovery component, where students learn about themselves and their new environment; an action project, which enables them to make a positive impact in the community; and a shared experience to help them come together as classmates.

“Developing a sense of community is a goal of pretty much everything we do at Truman,” Prendergast said. “Community is a pretty critical part of living a well-lived life. It’s important for us to consciously develop community so that we can make sure that everyone is involved, all voices are heard, and that everyone feels like they have a place, because we want everyone to have a place.”

For the discovery portion of the symposium, students are asked to choose one experience from each category of social, cultural, natural and self. The goal is to help students realize what it means to be a responsible member of the Truman community.

In the action part of the symposium, students choose from a list of projects to consider how and where they want to get involved, and they work with a small team of fellow students to achieve a common goal. Action projects have included a literacy outreach program for children in the community, combating light pollution and contributing to an accessible trail connecting Kirksville to Thousand Hills State Park. They are all noble endeavors that make an impact in town and on campus, but the value to students goes beyond the immediate returns of their projects.

“The first thing I would like the students to appreciate is that this is your chance to make new friends. This is the first time you will be taking a class where a significant number of students will be with you working towards the same or very similar goals,” Gokhale said. “So, it’s a chance to learn from them, to share your experiences with them and form friendships and bonds that can last a lifetime.”

The shared experience component of the First-Year Experience involves all new students coming together for a series of events, approximately one per month. It reinforces many of the ideas students encounter during their self and society seminars and their action projects. It also provides an opportunity to hear from alumni and leaders in the community.

By the time students have completed their first semester, they should feel like a part of the community, have a fundamental understanding of how to learn and work with others, and realize how their actions contribute to things beyond themselves. That combination sets them up for success the rest of their academic careers and beyond.


Truman Symposium Action Projects

The action projects of the Truman Symposium promote engagement, community and collaboration. For fall 2020 and 2021, student team members worked on projects designed to make a positive impact in the community and beyond.

CREATE: Making Your Mark
This class explored how art can celebrate and strengthen a community. Students got firsthand experience using art as a tool to educate and connect with those around them through the use of cyanotype, an alternative photo process, to create collaborative artworks.

DESIGN: Sustainability Through Puppets
Using materials that otherwise would end up in landfills, students collaborated to create found object puppets. They used puppet theatre to raise community awareness about sustainability, waste and recycling, creating engaging characters and stories that advocate for social change.

ENABLE: FLATS Accessibility Project
Students assisted the Forest Lake Area Trail System nonprofit organization to establish an inclusive, accessible trail head inside the city limits. Action projects included fundraising, a community educational presentation, marketing and publicity, generating funding proposals and researching accessible recreation.

ENGAGE: Connecting the Community
Students learned communication planning and strategies for community engagement. They applied these skills to create awareness of campus projects and activities, as well as building a sense of community for all of the symposium projects and affiliated partners.

EXPLORE: Welcome to Fabulous Kirksville
Based upon interests, students developed a project with a team of peers that connected Truman and the community in order to cultivate an appreciation for the richness of life in Kirksville. Students were able to participate in civic engagement, have fun and learn about their new home.

FEED: Hunger in Adair County
To help alleviate the problem of food insecurity, students dedicated time to researching, volunteering, collecting and growing food for people in need. By participating in the course, students learn to lead, serve, organize, research and take satisfaction in giving to the community in a meaningful way.

FOCUS: Mindfulness in Student Life
Being mindful means understanding how stress, anxiety and even one’s own thoughts can influence their actions, impacting their lives and the lives of others. Action projects explored how mindfulness can deepen an understanding of the world.

ILLUMINATE: Combating Light Pollution
Students learned about the harmful effects of light pollution and ways to mitigate it. They participated in civic engagement and activism by working with law enforcement, parks and city administrators to install night-sky-friendly outdoor lighting with the aim of establishing a ‘dark sky community’ in Kirksville.

READ: Literacy Outreach Project
Students passionate about reading and working with kids participated in outreach projects to support literacy and a love of reading in Kirksville children, pre-K to 5th grade.

REDUCE: Finding a Sustainable Life
This course examined how people structure their lives and how they consume in an effort to take charge of Earth’s limited resources and establish a sustainable future.

WALK: Move-In Community
Students in this class explored the literal and metaphorical values of walking while they reflected on their place in the landscape. They also used walking to get to know the Kirksville community.

More information about Truman Symposium action projects can be found at symposium.truman.edu.

Accounting for Others

Kaycee Little plans to use her accounting skills to stop fraud and empower students following in her footsteps.

The euphoria of a snow day is something that never really goes away. Everyone loves a day off sometimes, but there can also be too much of a good thing. That’s what senior Kaycee Little realized at the start of the pandemic. An extra week of spring break sounded great in 2020. Missing half of the semester? Not so much.

“Being back home was fun for a while, then I just really missed the ‘college life,’ and my independence,” Little said. “I realized how serious this was becoming, and it made me take every day and use it.”

By the time Little graduates in May, a majority of her college experience will have occurred during the pandemic. Upon returning to campus for the fall 2020 semester, she became all too familiar with hybrid classes, Zoom meetings and the host of other protocols put in place to mitigate the spread of the virus.

“It felt really strange at first to wear a mask and have two empty desks next to you in class,” she said. “Even just a typical weekend was not the same. It became normal to get COVID tested almost once a month, once you found out someone next to you just tested positive.”

As an overly involved, outgoing student, the adjustment was difficult at times. Things as simple as going out to eat, bowling with friends or attending a football game were gone for a while. Even as more aspects of college life started to return, it wasn’t quite the same. The events she helped organize as a member of the Student Activities Board required additional planning to comply with new guidelines, and things like Homecoming and graduation were occasionally hard to celebrate.

“It was definitely a struggle at first, especially balancing other organizations and social life, but being reminded of my goals and my family helped me remain grounded,” Little said. “It taught me a lot about myself and made me a more disciplined student.”

Whether it has been motivation from the pandemic or just her natural talents shining through, Little has certainly made the most of her time on campus. An accounting major from St. Louis, she serves as the secretary of the National Association of Black Accountants. Along with her experience in SAB, Little is a peer mentor coordinator for the Center for Diversity and Inclusion and occupies a leadership role in TruSisters, a newly established organization that fosters a community for women of minority backgrounds. Outside of the classroom, she interned with an accounting firm in St. Louis where she was able to take the skills she learned in her courses and apply them in real-world situations.

After graduation, Little plans to either pursue a master’s degree in accounting, or possibly enter the workforce. Ideally, she would enjoy working in the audit department of an accounting firm. As someone who has loved math since middle school, she enjoys following the numbers and making sure everything is on the up-and-up.

“I’m interested in the fraud department and the process of understanding where the money goes and all the documentation behind it to prevent fraud,” she said.

In addition to catching criminals, Little hopes to pass on her knowledge to up-and-coming accounting students. She would like to work for a local university in whatever community she eventually calls home. 

“I’m very appreciative of every opportunity that I have had while attending Truman,” she said. “So many of the faculty have blessed me with positive impacts in the classroom, and I would like to continue that by working with students.”

Little’s work with the next generation of students has already started. In the fall, she participated in the TruSelf program, which pairs incoming students from underrepresented backgrounds with mentors to help ease their transition to college.

“I have grown so many ways here at Truman, and it’s sad to know that I will be graduating soon,” she said. “As an upperclassman, my advice to new and incoming students is don’t wait to get involved. Every voice matters, and there is a community that will value your voice. It’s up to you to find that community.”

Homecoming Returns with Old and New Traditions

After taking a year off from in-person Homecoming, Truman’s 2021 Homecoming blended traditional events for both students and visitors to campus with new ways of approaching old classics. The alumni events kicked off with the Truman Experience, which replaced the Bulldog Forever Banquet. As a part of the Truman Experience, seven notable alumni received Dogs of Distinction Awards:

Alumnus of the Year Bill “Woody” Woodall (’79)

Young Alumna of the Year
Hope (Slaby) Harms (’07)

Distinguished Service Donna (Tague) Bailey (’76, ’84)

Distinguished Service Dennis Hohn (’67, ’73)

Distinguished Service Dr. Fontaine Piper (’70, ’78)

Parade Grand Marshal John Garlock (’90)

Denise L. Smith Volunteer of the Year JoEllen (Flanagan) Engelbart (’11) posthumously

 

Additionally, the St. Louis Alumni Chapter was awarded the Bulldog Forever Initiative of the Year for their event “Home for the Holidays Virtual Mixology Class.”

The Truman Experience also brought back one of Truman’s richest Homecoming traditions – the Golden Alumni Diploma Ceremony. The tradition of honoring 50th year graduates began in 1996. The University paused that tradition in 2020. As a part of Truman’s Homecoming 2021, 34 alumni from the classes of 1970 and 1971 received commemorative golden diplomas from University President Sue Thomas.

The Bulldog Forever tailgate invited alumni, friends and community members to celebrate with students, faculty and staff.

At the football game, students crowned Homecoming royalty and celebrated the culmination of a new Truman Homecoming tradition by announcing the amount of money raised during the week for charity. The recipient of this year’s philanthropy efforts is FLATS (Forest Lake Area Trail System). More than $15,000 was raised for FLATS as a part of Homecoming competitions.

Relive Homecoming 2021’s highlights here.

 

Spectators (above) and the Statesmen Marching Band (below) at the Homecoming Parade

At the Bulldog Forever, Tailgate Team Davis St. (made up of Delta Zeta and Alpha Phi Omega) won the Homecoming Cup.

The Student Homecoming Committee presents FLATS with a check for $15,707.43 raised during Homecoming Week.

Recognition Programs Showcase Exceptional Alumni

Alumni Fellows

Beginning in 2022, a group of alumni will be selected each fall as Alumni Fellows. Sponsored by the Office of Advancement and the University’s five academic schools, the Alumni Fellows program recognizes alumni who have distinguished themselves in their respective careers. The Alumni Fellows program is designed to enrich the Truman experience by exposing students to outstanding alumni who share extensive knowledge and real-world experience from their respective fields. Nominees must have distinguished themselves in their chosen profession, have made significant contributions to their community and demonstrated integrity in their personal lives.

To nominate an outstanding alumnus/alumnae, go online to truman.edu/alumni-donors/alumni-fellows.

The Echo 25

Truman, in an effort to create new and meaningful ways to engage with a diverse and ever-growing Bulldog family, has established a new young alumni recognition program – The Echo 25.

The familiar name of the signature program originated with Truman’s former yearbook, “The Echo.” The 1960 edition of the University’s yearbook details the symbolism of echoes in the Truman Tradition: “Echoes repeat the notes of a student’s life. They resound the new progress, the new ideal, and the new decade of the Teachers College.” Similarly, the success of Truman’s young alumni echo a tradition of excellence across the University’s long history.

The Echo 25’s inaugural class will feature 25 exceptional alumni under the age of 40 who will be recognized at a ceremony in fall 2022. Candidates for the award must have earned an undergraduate or graduate degree from the University and be under the age of 40 by the announcement of winners in September 2022.

Recipients of The Echo 25 will be selected based on the ways they live out Truman’s characteristics of graduates. Truman graduates are creative, socially responsible leaders and engaged world citizens. They are responsible, informed and compassionate. They have the characteristics that enable them to be active, successful participants in their worlds.

Nominations for The Echo 25, can be made at truman.edu/alumni-donors/echo-25.


Nominations for the Alumni Fellows and The Echo 25 will open April 15 and are due by May 15.

The inaugural class of Truman Alumni Fellows and The Echo 25 will be welcomed back to campus Sept. 22-24. Both groups will be honored in conjunction with the Truman vs. Tiffin University football game.

Order a Free Alumni Car Decal

The Truman Alumni Association offers free automobile decals for alumni to help promote the Bulldog spirit around the nation. To order your free decal, update or verify your information at update.truman.edu. The decal will be mailed to the address you provide. Show your Bulldog spirit, and order your free decal today!

Reunion Services

The Truman Alumni Office is here to help you plan your next on-campus reunion! A new program offered by the Office of Advancement will provide planning resources for groups wanting to host reunions on campus. There is no better way to connect to the University and to your affinity groups than to host an on-campus reunion. The Alumni Office is committed to helping you rekindle warm memories, reunite with familiar faces and reconnect classmates, faculty, staff and new friends. The Reunion Services program assists with planning on-campus events by helping secure locations, working with on-campus catering and promoting the event through mass email and website. The Alumni Office is also happy to provide Truman swag for attendees. Interested in planning an on-campus reunion? Learn more about Truman Reunion Services at truman.edu/alumni-donors/reunion-services.

The Arts

As Notre-Dame burned in April, the world watched. Network television interrupted regularly scheduled programming in favor of continuous coverage. A structure in existence for more than 800 years being decimated on live television is the kind of out-of-the-ordinary event that makes people stop and pay attention. By most reasonable standards, the cathedral was already considered old when America was discovered. It was the site of Napoleon’s coronation. It survived the French Revolution and two world wars. Its apparent demise was rightfully a where-were-you-when moment, but something made it larger than just a dark day for the country of France or the Catholic Church. Nearly every journalist covering the event made mention of the art and artifacts housed inside, and many more noted that the structure itself is a masterpiece. People from all walks of life, no matter their nationality or religious affiliation, could relate to that aspect of the story. There is a reason Notre-Dame attracts some 14 million visitors a year. Even the most secular individuals can look at its stained-glass windows and see beauty, or respect the craftsmanship in its sculptural decorations. Musicians appreciate its massive pipe organ, and those without even a bit of architectural knowledge are awed by its ribbed vaults and flying buttresses.

One of the beautiful things about art is there are no boundaries. Medium, subject matter, message and intent are all limited only by the whims of the creator …

Few things have had a larger influence on the world than the arts. Art is ubiquitous, so much so that it is hard to encapsulate what is even meant by “the arts.” To some, it is the classical branches of painting, sculpture and architecture. Hardly anyone would argue a broader definition of art to include music, theatre, film, dance and literature. One of the beautiful things about art is there are no boundaries. Medium, subject matter, message and intent are all limited only by the whims of the creator, and the end result, whatever it may be, stands on its own. Good, bad, fantastic, awful – it is all relative to the individual. There is no right or wrong answer. A single painting has the ability to move some people to tears, while others might feel their dog could complete a better composition.

The relationship with the arts begins at an early age. Lullabies sooth babies to sleep. By the time those same children are toddlers they pictorialize the world they know and utilize the family refrigerator as their gallery. Tiny dancers bring works of art to life during recitals while proud parents film their routines to share through yet another medium with captive audiences at family reunions. After the kids have traded in the dance shoes, they spend their time enthralled with video games, putting in hour after hour on an elaborate distraction built by a team of graphic designers and computer scientists who devoted years of their lives to the project. By college, some of the more successful members of garage bands have moved on to actual paying gigs, and others finally work up the courage to try out their stand-up routine at the local open mic. Many people make the arts a lifelong pursuit, even if it is just a hobby – sometimes as consumers, other times as creators. They play an instrument, visit art galleries, spend hours binge watching a television series, participate in community theatre or sing in the church choir for no other reason than love for their chosen outlet.

Civilizations are often defined by their art. Mention of Egypt immediately brings to mind images of hieroglyphics featuring gods and pharaohs. Elaborate ink paintings, calligraphy on silk or paper, and woodblock prints are all associated with Japan. Even novices think of Italy when shown the works of Michelangelo or Da Vinci. This concept also applies to humanity writ large. When the Voyager spacecrafts launched in 1977 they included phonograph records featuring sounds and images indicative of life on Earth. Among the musical selections were works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Stravinsky, along with more contemporary songs by Blind Willie Johnson and Chuck Berry. Art is so important to humanity some felt it needed to be one of the first things extraterrestrials should know about Earth. It is possible an alien creature will one day form its first opinion about the planet based on “Johnny B. Goode.”

“Human beings have always been creating art in some form or fashion. I feel it is an innate part of who we are as a species,” said Akela Cooper (’03).

One of the countless University alumni who have gone on to a career in an artistic field, Cooper is a television and film writer and executive producer. Her credits include “Luke Cage,” “American Horror Story,” “Grimm” and “The 100.”

“The ability to entertain people, to emotionally affect them, is a great responsibility because art and entertainment have the potential to influence culture and even change minds. Hopefully for the better,” Cooper said.

Almost everyone has something that resonates with them …

Art means different things to different people, but the influence it has can certainly be profound. Almost everyone has something that resonates with them, whether it is the book they read over and over, the movie that inspired a career change or the song they share with their significant other.

Some previous methods of thinking may have viewed the arts as solely a pleasurable pursuit, lacking in the ability to make substantive contributions to the world. Starting sometime in the 1990s, many in education circles rallied behind the idea of STEM, which stands for science, technology, engineering and math. The belief was schools should encourage those aspects of education to make graduates more valuable in the workplace. Statistically speaking, there is no denying that logic. There are only so many spots in the London Philharmonic or the New York City Ballet, and a student is far more likely to be needed in a field where a solid grasp of science, technology, engineering or math would be useful.

However, while the STEM disciplines are certainly valuable, the philosophy behind that take on education has been revisited in recent years. Advances occur so rapidly now that technical knowledge alone can quickly become obsolete. Creative skills contribute to problem solving, or the seamless integration of concepts for practical use. Art and design can go hand in hand with technology (Apple, anyone?) and therefore many in the education industry have added an A into those critical fields of study, turning STEM to STEAM.

“There is a lot of value to STEAM education,” said Sarah Berke, assistant professor of biology. “While the arts represent many things, I like to sum it up as creativity and innovation. Those are central to STEM, and without them we are not successful.”

Berke is a leader in the Kirksville STEAM Alliance, a collaborative network of educators, business affiliates and organizations that inspires interest and facilitates activity in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics careers to generate and retain a robust workforce in the region. She sees how the relationship between STEM and the arts goes both ways. Not only does infusing creativity help make the original disciplines better, it also opens them up to more people.

“The inclusion of the arts allows us to reach more students, those that are perhaps scared of STEM, and show them how to appreciate or see the importance of STEM through art,” Berke said.

It is human nature to create and consume art.

As valuable and necessary as traditional career paths can be, they are not always the answer. Laura McHugh (’96) earned a degree in creative writing, but wanted the security of a stable job and income. She added a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in tech-related fields, however, the stability she sought was not there in the long run.

“The arts seemed too risky as a career path, so I spent 10 years working in tech,” she said. “When I lost my job in the recession, I decided to pursue the one thing I was most passionate about: writing. I knew I’d regret it if I never tried.”

Doing what she loved paid off for McHugh, literally. Today, she is an award-winning, international bestselling author with three novels to her credit.

“Our world is so much richer thanks to the creative contributions of artists,” she said. “Try to imagine life without music, stories and visual arts to inspire us, entertain us, comfort us, expose us to different perspectives.”

Putting aside the philosophical debate of whether life imitates art or art imitates life, there is no denying art is intrinsically valuable. Art for the sake of art serves a purpose. It is human nature to create and consume art. Not only does it entertain and help to pass the time, it affects each person in their own way. That alone makes it worthwhile.

“Studying any art form in school or in life is important because it gives you a greater understanding of humanity and our place in the world,” said opera singer and University alumnus Dominic Armstrong (’02).

Since his graduation from Truman, Armstrong has established himself internationally as an artist of superb and distinguished musicality and characterization. He has taken the stage at Carnegie Hall in New York City and many other theatres the world over, but he knows full well the struggles of a career in the arts. Rejection, along with inconsistency in income and routine, are just a few of the things that can cause aspiring artists to question their choices.

“The world we live in seems to get more and more commercial with every passing year. If you can’t find a way to make your passion into a ‘marketable skill’ it feels as though the modus operandi is to say ‘well, if you aren’t making money at it, it must not be valuable,’” Armstrong said. “I reject this view. My hope is that our society can return to a position of learning for learning’s sake. Learning a new skill, practicing a new passion, reading a play, listening to an opera or a symphony – just learning – is a benefit to you and therefore the world around you. When you sing a song, the text becomes more meaningful. When you speak text from a play, you empathize with a character, which helps you reexamine predetermined beliefs. Art gives you a better understanding of life, and society is better for it.”

Anyone who puts their passion into a project, or who takes an idea in their head and makes it a reality in the world is, in a sense, an artist. As society progresses and there are more means to create, there will also be an expanding definition as to what constitutes art. Arguably, the main function of art is for it to be experienced, to evoke an emotion or elicit a reaction. Rather than try to categorize it, to try and figure out what is good art or what practical purpose it may serve, the wiser choice might be to just take a moment to enjoy it.

 

The Past Meets the Future

Lori Nix uses some older approaches in her art to create thought-provoking, contemporary pieces.

Lori Nix working in her studioLori Nix (’93) isn’t the first artist to work in her preferred mediums, but she has spent her adult life carving out a unique genre that has earned her a successful career and multiple accolades.

Nix is a photographer who also builds dioramas for video, film advertising and print media. She and her partner, Kathleen Gerber, create complex miniature landscapes and interiors ranging in size from as small as a shoebox to as large as a coffee table. Months of construction precede weeks of photography. Some of the projects are commissioned for clients all across the U.S. and abroad, but Nix and Gerber also create their own fine art for display.

In a time when so much art, particularly photo-based projects, is done digitally, or with elaborate use of Photoshop, Nix has a very tactile approach to her profession. Even the photography component of her work has varied from the industry standard. She was still using film until about four years ago before making the switch to a digital camera.

“I have been slow to embrace technology,” she said. “I still build everything by hand rather than create my images digitally. Honestly, I’m still very old school in this way.”

In 2014, Nix received a Guggenheim Fellowship, awarded to those individuals who, according to the foundation’s website, “have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.” Her work has graced the cover of Time magazine and can be found at galleries around the world, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Before moving to her current home in Cincinnati, Ohio, Nix was a longtime resident of Brooklyn, N.Y., where she was a two-time recipient of an individual artist grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts.

“I cannot imagine my life without art,” Nix said. “I think about new projects hourly, daily. I even roll over in the middle of the night thinking about art.”

Her passion is apparent in the three degrees Nix earned from Truman: Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in photography and ceramics, along with a Bachelor of Arts in art history. She also added a Master of Fine Arts degree from Ohio University.

As a child, Nix was always playing with crayons, pens and coloring books, and she signed up for every art class she could in high school. Coming to Truman from St. Joseph, Mo., her practical side initially won out when it was time to pick a major. She originally planned to study accounting before making the switch to ceramics.

“I understand lines, color and texture more than numbers,” she said.

Still, Nix sees a substantive value in the arts, both in its ability to provide perspective and help write the first drafts of history.

“For me, the arts are like the ultimate soothsayer, able to reflect upon our times before we recognize what’s happening. The arts have a way of imparting complex ideas and feelings across space, time and language,” Nix said. “It teaches you to think critically and explore ideas, sometimes abstract, sometimes concrete, and find your own voice within them.”