Hello Blue Devils fans!  I wanted to highlight one of the most successful and popular community service programs in our athletic department — Read with the Blue Devils.  The program, which was created eighteen years ago, strives to promote the importance of reading to elementary school students in Durham.  Our student-athletes spend time sharing personal stories and answering questions before reading a book (as selected by the kids) to an entire class.  There are currently 15 schools participating in the program and the list continues to grow.

Leslie Barnes, Director of Student-Athlete Development, oversees the program while former field hockey standout and Student Athlete Development and Championships Assistant, Shayna McGeehan, masterfully coordinates the schedule across all 26 sports.  I’ve included a quote from Shayna that speaks to the impact of the program on our student-athletes as well as some recent pictures from our current players….

“Coordinating the Read with the Blue Devils program has been a great pleasure for me. As a former Duke Student-Athlete who has participated in the program, I understand the importance of the program to both the Duke Student-Athletes and local Durham children. This program provides Duke Student-Athletes with the opportunity to be more visible role-models with our community’s youth and to share the importance of literacy and working hard to achieve goals. Duke Student-Athletes are always inquiring me about the date of the next Read with the Blue Devil visit to a local Durham Elementary School. One of my favorite experiences from the program is to watch the children’s faces light up into a huge smile every time the Duke Student-Athletes walk into their classroom. The Read with the Blue Devil program is loved by both the Durham youth and the Duke Student Athletes, and is a great way for the two to learn and grow together.”  vShayna McGeehan, Student Athlete Development and Championships Assistant

PHOTOS: Read with the Blue Devils 2009

You’ve spent time this summer and this semester creating flyers for Duke Athletics.  What does that entail?
Basically, I get a chance to use Photoshop, a program that I actually find very interesting.  I’m designing ads for the various teams at the University and I’m getting better with the program.

What has been your favorite piece that you have done?
It’s really fun making the ads especially for teams with players that I know well and am friends with.  It goes back to freshman year when the basketball guys — G, Jon, Zoubs, and me — we all lived with a lot of the football players, some of the girls from the women’s team.  That was our starting round to friendships and it was really fun making ads for the football team.  Or with field hockey, I’m good friends with Sarah Schoffstall, who’s captain of the team, so it’s fun to help them out with the ads and just have fun with it.

How long does it take to do one of these?
It doesn’t really take me that long to make them.  I’ll make one, and then I’ll look at it. Then, I’ll make changes for it.  But, it doesn’t take me more than 20 minutes to make one.  After I look at it and make my changes, it’s probably close to an hour.

Did you develop your Photoshop skills in other art classes or is it something you picked up on your own?
I learned a lot of Photoshop during my freshman year, I had a couple of classes.  From there, I liked the program so I just did trial and error. You know, try things, seeing what works, seeing what didn’t work, basically teaching myself all the different tools it had to offer.  Doing tutorials online helped a lot.

I know you like all kinds of art from Photoshop/graphic design to architecture to drawing.  What’s your favorite?
I like trying different things with Photoshop.  I like trying really tough tutorials that are tedious that take hours to do, and learning through those tutorials.

How much art do you do on the side just for your own enjoyment outside of class?
I’ve tried a lot of crazy things.  I like to try to do above and beyond things that are really tough.  I spend at least two hours a day just messing around with Photoshop because it is so complex.  If someone says they’ve mastered the program, I find that very hard to believe.

Do you ever bring your passion for basketball to your artwork or do you like keeping them separate?
I would like to bring them together and I’m probably going to do that.  I’ve been doing every other sport except ours, so I’m trying to save the best for last.

Kyle is a talented artist too and is really passionate about it.  Do you guys ever talk art?
Yeah, sometimes when Kyle brings his laptop to meals or something like that, we’ll be messing around on our laptops, he’ll see me doing something.  He’ll ask me what I’m doing and I’ll explain to him how I do certain things.  Kyle is really good with Photoshop, so he’ll bounce ideas off of me and tell me certain things that I didn’t know.  There is more than one way to do one thing in that program, so if you’re doing a certain way, then someone might do two other ways that are simpler or more efficient.  We bounce ideas off each other and help each other out.

Do you see yourself having a career in art when you decide to stop playing hoop?  Or is this more of a hobby long term?
Right now, it is more of a hobby, but I can see myself doing something with it because I actually have a passion for it.  It is very fun to me, and doesn’t seem like a job.  It allows me to be creative.  There are no limits to the Photoshop program. Just that idea makes me want to keep learning the program.  Like I said, I doubt anyone knows the program up and down, not even the creators probably.  It’s so complex, that I want to get to know as much of it as possible because Photoshop is basically a part of every ad you see in some shape or form.  I’ll use that or I’ll use Illustrator.  I’m actually very good with Illustrator as well.  I use both programs sometimes to make one finished product.

You made a model of Cameron last year for class.  Tell us how that turned out.
It was great.  I used this program called Maya with Professor Raquel Salvatella.  She was amazing with it, especially the way she taught it.  It was very easy to follow and the program is based off of shapes.  You have full range of motion where you could see it form any perspective you want.  You could see under it, inside of it, top, left, right, so it allows you to emulate the shapes and you can manipulate it any way you want.  If you have a really creative eye, you can make anything you want, I mean anything.  I basically did the whole gym and it came out very well.  I was very happy with the finished product and I definitely recommend the program for anyone who is interested in art.  Like I said, art eliminates boundaries on your ideas.  I love to express freely what I think.  It’s not like someone says, “do this and do it this exact way.”  You have free range of thought and it’s amazing.

A sample of the flyers Lance produced using Photoshop:

The ACC announced the annual conference Honor Roll selections for 2008-09 this week and half our squad from a year ago made the list.  Olek Czyz, Jordan Davidson, Steve Johnson, Greg Paulus, Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler and Brian Zoubek joined 411 fellow Duke athletes on the Honor Roll as Duke Athletics led all ACC schools for the 21st time in 22 years in total selections.

A varsity student-athlete must earn a GPA of 3.0 or better for the full year to make the Honor Roll.  Congrats to all 418 Blue Devils on the list and a special shout-out to OC, Jordan, Steve, GP, Jon, Kyle, Zoubs and our Student Life/Campus Relations Coordinator, Kenny King.

ACC Academic Honor Roll Selections – Men’s Basketball… Duke: 7, Miami: 5, GA Tech: 4, UNC: 4, Clemson: 3, UVA: 3, Wake Forest: 3, VA Tech: 2, FSU: 1, Maryland: 1, NC State: 1, Boston College: 0

ACC Academic Honor Roll Selections – All Sports…  Duke: 418, Boston College: 392, UNC: 276, Maryland: 271, UVA: 224, Clemson: 209, VA Tech: 190, NC State: 178, GA Tech: 175, FSU: 165, Wake Forest: 146, Miami: 128

ACC Tourney MVP Jon Scheyer earned a spot on the ACC Honor Roll.