September 18, 2019 | The Clarion
Campus News
Page 3
Senior Profile
Alexis Henley: the next chapter begins
By Zach Dickerson
Campus News Editor
After facing the struggles of four long but
fun years, Alexis Henley will be graduating
from Brevard College in May with a Bachelor’s
degree in English with a Creative Writing
Emphasis and a minor in Psychology.
“I always knew I wanted to study English,”
Henley said, “because it was my favorite
subject all throughout high school. Even though
I’m the weirdest English major because I don’t
like Shakespeare and I’m not a huge fan of
looking for symbolism in stories either.”
“My part of English is the creative part, and
I’ve always liked to write,” Henley said. “I
used to write really bad short stories when I
was very small, and 1 always knew I wanted
to be a writer.”
Henley found out about Brevard College
from a friend. “He said that it was like ‘artsy’,”
Henley said. “So I was like okay; I’ll check
it out.”
“Then I went online and saw small class sizes
and mountains,” Henley said. “Even though I
prefer the beach and I saw they had English
and creative writing and I was like ‘perfect’.”
Henley also participates in extracurricular
activities on campus as well. She is a part
of the Brevard College Diversity Pride Club
(BCDPC) in which she was the treasurer and
is now the secretary for the club.
Henley is also a part of the Chiaroscuro,
Brevard College’s literary magazine. She was
a staff member for the past two years and now
she is the head editor.
Henley works in the Experiential Learning
Commons (EEC) where she works as a
tutor in the subjects of English, Writing,
Communications and Psychology.
Two professors have had a major impact on
Henley’s time here at BC: Ralph Hamlett and
Ken Chamlee.
“Hamlett gave me my first and only TA
position,” Henley said. “He gave it to me my
Freshman year when I wasn’t very confident
and I was very shy. He saw that I did good work
and he made me feel very nice when he told
me that he didn’t offer this to Freshman, but I
showed him my work ethic.”
“1 had Chamlee for Creative Writing, and he
was the one who actually made me like poetry.
He ignited the flame of my love for poetry,”
Henley said.
“He helped me to really realize that I love to
write and that I needed to use a lot of specific
concrete details,” Henley said. “He drilled
that into our heads and that is something that
will probably help more for years and years
to come.”
“Other than faculty,” Henley said, “I would
have to say Daniel Etheridge helped me a lot
and now he’s gone this year. He kept me sane
for these past three years.”
Henley’s senior project is going to be a
fantasy young adult novel.
“Over the summer I was going to write some
of my senior project,” Henley said. “But I
ended up going through at least five ideas and
then I finally settled on this current idea and I
seems like it is the chosen one.”
“The novel I am working on is intended to be
a trilogy,” Henley said, “but I’m only going to
write the first book for the project. So not all
of the characters or plot will be introduced.”
It takes place in a currently unnamed fantasy
world that has three different species in it and
it will have magic in it. The novel will center
around three storylines that seem like they
are not connected, but will end up connecting
toward the end of the novel.
“I’m excited but also terrified to be working
on my senior project,” Henley said.
When asked about plans after graduation,
Henley responded with, “Ah, the dreaded
question.”
“So, I don’t have a job or anything lined up
for after,” Henley said, “but the tentative plan
is to move back home where I have a close
relationship with my mother, who has already
made it clear that I am welcome to live at home
for as long as 1 need to.”
“I don’t really want to work in Charlotte
because it is a madhouse, but I will if I have
to,” Henley said. “I’m going to try and look
into various clerical jobs, or at least one that
I can go to and once I get off I can go home
and write, because the long term goal is to be
a published author.”
Another goal of Henley’s for after graduation
is to get a dog, specifically a corgi.
“I don’t plan to teach because that takes
a special type of person,” Henley said, “If I
were to teach, I would want to do a Creative
Writing class at a high school. I would want to
help people realize that they can take whatever
they have in their head, put it on paper and
share it with others and maybe make the world
a little better.”
“I’m going to miss the tight knit community,”
Henley said. “A lot of my friend group has
already graduated and gone and their are still
some underclassmen who will still be here and
I’m just going to miss being able to hangout
with them no matter what it is.”
“My overall experience at Brevard was a very
lonely and scary start, but the second half of
Freshman year and onwards just kept getting
better and better,” Henley said. I wouldn’t have
gotten this wonderful experience if I hadn’t
gone to such a small school. The experiences
are almost once in a lifetime.”
BC students receive named scholarships
Whos donating to fund your education?
By Jeff Joyce
Director of Philanthropic Development
So you found out that you are receiving a
named scholarship from Brevard College. While
your immediate response might be, “Thank
goodness I can finally eat something other
than ramen tonight,” the Alumni Affairs and
Development Office wants you to know that
each scholarship fund at BC has a story.
There are over 170 named scholarships at the
college. The Alumni Affairs and Development
Office will be telling the story of donors and their
funds in weekly installments over the course of
the semester.
Brevard College has a long history of providing
financial assistance to deserving students.
Scholarships are often a product of alumni
memorializing fellow classmates, classmates
honoring faculty, parents celebrating the life and
work of a student, civic organizations working
to support local students, etc. Regardless of the
reason, these scholarships remind us all that the
Brevard College family is invested in the success
of the future generation of Tornado alumni.