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The Stories and Faces of CCFA's Robinson Scholars and Fellows
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| Christopher "Robin" Nichols with his daughter Willow |
Joshua Teal |
Katarzyna "Kasia" Zycinska |
Christopher "Robin" Nichols
Undergraduate student in painting, Department of Art
Robin Nichols grew up near Nashville, Tennessee, in what he calls "a pretty dysfunctional family." He dropped out of high school when he has 16 years old, starting to work full-time in the construction business. "My dad has a drinking problem and at the time I had to drive him to work so he could get his drivers license back," Robin says. "I realized quickly that I could either go back to school or make $7 an hour working as a construction painter." However, money wasn't the only thing that kept Robin from finishing high school. Growing up as Jehovah's Witness, a religious belief that discourages higher education in the form of a university or college degree, he felt that finishing school was a waste of time if, in the end, he couldn't go college.
After 18 years in commercial construction, and starting a family with two children, Robin's wife encouraged him to take the high school equivalency test. He received his GED in 2004, a few weeks before he applied to the University of Memphis as an art major. He has made the Dean's list every semester since, and won the 2008 undergraduate student award in the 26th Annual Juried Student Exhibition at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis for his painting Buggers Brawl. After finishing with his undergraduate studies, Robin wants to pursue a graduate degree and teach painting at the university level. |
Joshua Teal
Undergraduate student in theatre performance, Department of Theatre & Dance
Growing up in a military family, first in Germany and Austria, than in South Carolina and Kentucky, Joshua Teal has only lived in the Memphis area for the past six years. "We moved to Brighton [Tennessee] because of my grandmother, and for the longest time the only thing I knew in Memphis was the Petco pet store. We have a lot of animals," Joshua explains. Coming to theatre and dance by cutting short his pursuit of dentistry—a field his parents suggested—Joshua feels at home in the department and alive, now that he finally has the opportunity to follow his dream. "I've always felt this draw toward theatre and dance," Joshua says. "As a child I used to run around in our living room, talking to myself, dancing, moving," he remembers. "However, I was never really exposed to the arts when growing up because that was just not a part of our life."
Until he became a major in the Department of Theatre & Dance, Joshua had never had any formal and technical training in dance, which now is one of his great passions. When Joshua started college, he felt that this was his one chance to "investigate" the arts. "I think about dentistry occasionally and I'm going to complete my prerequisites for dental school before I graduate, but had I not taken up acting and dance now, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life. I am definitely going to perform after I graduate."
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Katarzyna “Kasia” Życińska
First year graduate student, Department of Architecture
Kasia Życińska, originally from Katowice, Poland, first came to the United States in 2003 as a high school exchange student at Valley View High School in Jonesboro, Arkansas. “I love to travel and in my junior year in high school I really had the urge to go abroad,” Kasia remembers. After returning home and a brief stint at the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, Kasia decided to move back to the U.S. in 2005 and begin her studies in architecture at the University of Memphis.
“I always knew that I wanted to be an architect and have never considered any other field,” she says. “My ultimate goal is to become a licensed architect and open my own firm.” Kasia graduated this past May, summa cum laude with University honors and thesis and honors in architecture, receiving the highest GPA honors award from the department. Although she could have easily chosen an Ivy League school for her graduate studies, Kasia will enter the professional Master of Architecture degree program at the University of Memphis this fall. “I really like the program at the U of M, the faculty’s design mindset and strategy and the curriculum. This is a very intimate program where students get a lot of feedback, which is important to me.”
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| Kimberly Johnson |
Mikah Meyer |
Clarissa Dunbar |
Kimberly Johnson
Doctoral student, Department of Communication
Kimberly Johnson came to Memphis in 2005 to visit her childhood pastor and mentor, Frank Anthony Thomas, pastor of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church. "I needed some time to think when I came to visit Memphis," recalls Kimberly, who had then just left a job as associate pastor in the Boston area. "I knew I always wanted to get my Ph.D., I just didn't know in which discipline." Pastor Thomas, a Ph.D. graduate of the Department of Communication, urged her to visit the program at the U of M and meet some of the professors. Kimberly discovered that Michael Leff, chair of the department, was one of her professors at Northwestern University, where she received a Bachelor of Science in Speech before pursuing her Master of Divinity degree from McCormick Theological Seminar.
"What I love about the program at the U of M is that it connects students to other disciplines," Kimberly notes. "The department's connection and work with the Memphis Theological Seminar is very important for me personally." Drawing from her own difficult experience as a female minister, Kimberly's dissertation focuses on The Rhetorical Characteristics of Womenist Preaching, evaluating sermons by Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, Claudette Copeland, Elaine Flake, and Melva Sampson, some of which have never been published. "I didn't learn about Womenist preaching until I started my studies in Memphis," Kimberly says. "Learning about this movement, making it my dissertation topic and taking it out into the world is very exciting." |
Mikah Meyer
BM '09 in voice performance, Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music
When Mikah Meyer had to decide where he wanted to attend college, he was looking for an affordable school that would get him out of his native Lincoln, Nebraska. Initially interested in music industry, he soon realized that finding a job in that business was probably just as difficult as finding a job as a singer. "Singing is what I really wanted to do and after looking into both options, I decided to pursue a degree in voice performance," he remembers.
Just recently graduated, Mikah is already a star in his own right. As a countertenor, he has the voice and skill to sing higher than a tenor, in a range that is more often associated with a woman's voice. His ability to sing in that unusual range as well as his talent put him on par with the top young countertenors in the world. He recently was accepted into London's Royal Academy of Music, which selects only the world's most promising voice students. "Last year they didn't accept any countertenors, and this year they accepted six. I was the only non-UK student that was accepted," Mikah says.
As an international student at the Academy, he is required to have full funding secured for his program before he can enroll. Although he received a $24,000 Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship, it isn't enough to pay for his studies at the Academy. "Studying at the Royal Academy would be a dream-come true," Mikah says. "But ultimately, I will be able to learn a lot if I have a chance to study under a countertenor during graduate school." As such, his backup plan is to study in Canada under Daniel Taylor, one of the most sought-after countertenors in the world, and follow his dream to one day sing in the award-winning a cappella ensemble Chanticleer. |
Clarissa Dunbar
Freshman, Department of Journalism
That Clarissa Dunbar will be a freshman student in the Department of Journalism this fall is partly the work of her best friend Shauwna Lewis. "Since I was in eighth grade I knew that I wanted to go to Union University in Jackson [Tennessee]," Clarissa says. "The University of Memphis was my back-up school, not my first choice." That changed when Shauwna convinced her friend to come along to the U of M's Campus Day last year. "I wasn't even signed up, but Shauwna insisted that I go, and that experience changed my mind about the University." Thinking that she would pursue a journalism degree that would eventually land her a job at a magazine, Clarissa has since then zeroed in on the department's public relations concentration. "I organized a toy drive for St. Jude this past winter and helped with my friend's Make-A-Wish cruise," she says. "I realized then that my skills are in public relations, fundraising, and event planning."
Pursuing one of her other interests, Clarissa currently works on getting her portrait photography business, Picturesque Memphis, off the ground. Clarissa's first choice after graduation is a job at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, right here in Memphis. |
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