Happy Fall,
Avenging
Angels
THE MEREDITH
HERALD
iQ @meredithherald
@meredith_herald
#harktheherald
October 10, 2018
IN THIS ISSUE
NEWS
Hurricane Florence Recovery
Women's Undergraduate
Research Conference
Taste of Research -
A&E
Alamo Movie Theatre
SPARKcon
BugFest
State Fair
OPINIONS
Is Sierra Burgess a Loser?
Progress Is Slow, Vote Anway
Silent Sam, Vocal Students
By Huma Hashmi, Staff Writer and Sarah Kiser, Editor-in-Chief
The controversy over Silent
Women Warriors:
Ilia Jones
By Rachel Crawford,
Staff Writer
The Common Experience
theme this year is “Women War
riors,” an exploration of strong
women who fight to pursue their
goals. In conjunctio, The Herald’s
“Women Warriors” series high
lights the extraordinary women in
the Meredith College community
who are changing the world.
Alumna Ilia Jones graduat
ed from Meredith with her B.S. in
Nutrition in 2016, and she stayed
at Meredith to pursue her Master s,
which she received this year. Now,
she is beginning a dietetic intern
ship through Sodexo, which she
will continue until May 2019. After
completing this internship, she
plans to become a registered dieti
tian and start to build her career in
corporate wellness—she envisions
herself working as a dietitian for
employees of a large company.
“iVe always loved nutri
tion,” said Jones in an interview.
When asked what nutrition means
to her, she said, “1 just love how
it can encompass every aspect
of my life. Food is art, celebra
tion, science, vital for living and
healing, history. I feel like there’s
always more to learn and I love it.”
When asked what motivates her,
Jones responded, “Health!” Health
means more than just diet to Jones:
“1 strive to work on my mental,
physical and emotional health.”
Emotional health for Jones
involves maintaining a balance be
tween work life and the aspects of
personal life that bring her joy, like
her hobbies and her relationships
with her boyfriend and friends.
Speaking to the importance of
Sam, a Confederate statue that is
located on the UNC-Chapel Hill
University campus continues even
after the statue was taken down by
anti-racist protestors on Aug. 20.
It is still considered by
some to be a symbol of division and
hate. However, to others, protesting
against it is disrespectful the legacy
of the UNC students who fought for
the Confederacy in the Civil War.
On Sept. 8, about too anti
racist protesters gathered to have a
canned food drive and “Nazis Suck
Potluck,” to celebrate the ousting of
the statue while neo-confederates
honored the base where Silent Sam
used to be. Events quickly escalated
after police confiscated the canned
food and tackled, pushed, and
choked counter-protesters. They also
threw a smoke bomb at students and
ultimately brutally arrested eight
demonstrators.
One woman who was
arrested, a University of North
Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel
Hill) undergraduate student, spoke
with The Herald’s Micah Clark, but
wished to talk about her experiences
anonymously. She stated that the
event was a relaxed occasion despite
the presence of neo-confederate,
anti-racist protesters, and police
in the .same vicinity. Ten minutes
into the event, the neo-confederate
were given a police escort. Tensions
were dying down until a police
grabbed a student who was leaving,
unprovoked, starting chaos. Other
students told the officer to let him
go and started following the officer.
The first grabbed student was taken
to Graham Memorial building on
campus.
Following that, she stated
the police charged at the crowd,
and chaos ensued. She, herself
was grabbed in a chokehold,
thrown to the ground multiple
times, restrained, held down, and
handcuffed. She was then carried to
Graham Memorial as well. Counter
protesters were being thrown to
the ground by police, isolated
and addressed several times in a
derogatory manner with several
expletives. The anonymous woman
was held down and told: “Get on the
ground, don’t fucking move.” A cop
grabbed the back of her neck when
she asked why someone was crying
and isolated each of the arrestees,
and said, “Shut the fuck up.” She also
stated that there were “higher up
officials” at the hall trying to organize
charges before the arrested were
taken away in a van to jail.
She heard a police officer
ask another officer “What should we
charge her with?”
Campus officials present said
“Hold on a minute. We need to figure
out what’s going on, who arrested
who, and who’s being charged with
what.”
Police were brought in
from across the state to guard
McCorkle Place. According to the
Durham Herald Sun, police officers
from Durham, Chapel Hill, and
Greensboro came.
The woman expressed
that “over-policing is just another
symptom of institutional racism
at the school.” As a student and
anti-racist protester, she stated that
students “categorically do not want
the statue [Silent Sam] on campus.”
On Sep.ii, at monthly
Community Policing Advisory
Committee, over 75 participants
took part to give a voice to their
complaints. One such participant,
UNC graduate student Samee
Siddiqui said it seemed like the
police waited until they escorted
the neo-confederate supporters out
of the area before any arrests were
made. “The first arrests weren’t made
until they left,” Siddiqui said. “It’s like
[the police] wanted to give payback
to the kids who were not respecting
them.”
being “well-rounded,” Jones said,
“It’s important to have a hobby or
creative outlet. For me that’s fash
ion, videography and photography.”
She also recently traveled to Mex
ico City and highly recommends
readers to visit there: “Highlights
would be the Folklorico (a show of
Mexican history through dance)
and eating at Pujol (a restaurant
highlighted in an episode of Chef’s
Table).” She recommends for travel
ers to learn some Spanish before
visiting, keep to safe areas of the
city and “be wary of street food.”
Activities like travel and
photography have special meaning
for Jones. “I love that [travel] gives
me perspective on my life. It makes
me less stressed knowing that other
people live a different way than me
and that they’re happy,” Jones said.
“I can get very wrapped up in my
own life and forget that there is a
whole world out there with differ
ent values. When I travel I adopt
some of those values.” Jones’ aware
ness of the world around her is
sharpened through travel, and she
makes sure to maintain that aware
ness by capturing moments in her
life through photography: “It’s so
easy to go through life without re
cording it and then [have] nothing
to look back to. Photography can
help with that.”
During her time as an
undergrad, Jones found inspiration
from mentors inside and outside
the gates of the college. “Dr. Mc-
Millen was- definitely very support
ive in my life while at Meredith and
encouraged every career change I
made. She always tried her best to
connect me with other people who
I could help or give me concrete
advice to get to where I want to
be.” In general, the community at
Meredith is what she valued most
from her time here, and she still
maintains relationships with her
close-knit group of friends from
Meredith. She also valued her time
in an off-campus job at PF Chang’s
because she had the opportunity to
work alongside people with dif
ferent perspectives from outside
the college world. “I really encour
age having a job outside of school
because it gives great perspective
that there’s life after college,” Jones
stated.
For any student interested
in pursuing an internship, Jones
urges, “Don’t think that you can’t!
And do everything you can do get
in! They told me 500 people ap
ply for 24 spots and I immediately
thought I wouldn’t make it. Which
I’m sure a lot of students feel like
when they hear about jobs that
they want or other internships that
are very competitive.” To get her
internship at Sodexo, Jones says
she did everything she could—“I
drove to their open house in DC to
meet the directors, I emailed the 3
different directors every week for 6
months so they would remember
me, I found other Sodexo dietitians
to write me letters of recommen
dations. Anything to network and
make sure they knew who I was
when they saw my application.”
Jones added, “I also made sure that
my vision matched theirs, I think
this is important for other people
to know when they are trying to
go to grad school or even for jobs.”
Jones encouraged students to focus
on their skills and work experience
instead of obsessing over grades,
which may ultimately be of much
less importance than real-world
experience.
Now, Jones is looking for
ward to “finally working”—though
she feels burned out from a long
academic career, she is excited to
begin work in her field. Her Mer
edith community is proud to see
her continue her hard work in the
field of nutrition and excited to see
where her efforts take her.