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The Carthage College spirit team reveals Ember, the new Firebirds mascot, during Homecoming Weeke...

WE ARE FIREBIRDS

When Carthage set out to choose a new team name, we wanted a name that fit the College’s spirit, history, and mission. With guidance from Jeffrey Brooks, a history professor at Johns Hopkins University and author of “The Firebird and the Fox,” we identified some key themes inspired by the mythical firebird and its relatives. Those same themes show up consistently in our community. So, while the team name is brand new, Carthaginians have been Firebirds all along.

A SOURCE OF LIGHT AND INSPIRATION

  • On Carthage’s annual Giving Day, held every spring, parents Shana and Bill Otto tripled gifts supporting mental health services for Carthage students.
  • Already bringing up to 385 jobs to the Kenosha area, gummy bear inventor HARIBO of America established a scholarship fund at Carthage with a $250,000 gift.

ART AND CREATIVITY

  • Music professor Wael Farouk completed three Rachmaninoff piano concertos in one day, a feat symbolizing the struggle against three forms of injustice: discrimination, oppression, and persecution.
  • At 92, avid juggler Don Rapp ’50 still keeps the balls in the air. Besides practicing daily, he passes on the hobby each summer in youth classes.

INTERVENTION FOR GOODNESS

  • With PPE sold out or overpriced and the local supermarket closed, the Rev. Louis Tillman IV ’13 drove to eight other states to buy supplies for the neighborhood around his Baltimore congregation — the oldest African American Lutheran church.
  • Recognized as a model user of the Student Outreach System, Marla Polley (adjunct faculty) connects students with academic, social, or financial challenges to the help they need.

AN EMPOWERING QUEST

  • Jaisyn Daher ’24 became an Eagle Scout, part of the first class of women to attain the rank through Scouts BSA (formerly Boy Scouts of America).
  • Four years after a program for incoming first-generation students launched, the first class graduated – including Alanna Sullivan ’21, who chronicled her ups and downs in a journal her grandma gave her as a going-to-college present.

APPRECIATION / PRESERVATION OF BEAUTY

  • Embracing her autism, studio art alumna Elle Maru ’20 wrote and illustrated “Comfy,” a children’s book that encourages others to do the same.
  • Pi Theta sorority won the monthlong Carthage EcoChallenge. In all, students from 20 campus groups conserved 7,407 gallons of water and prevented 7,737 pounds of CO2 emissions.

THE POWER OF MAGIC

  • For the American Psychological Association’s 2020 virtual conference, professor and magician Tony Barnhart demonstrated new insights from the science of magic.

THE SPIRIT OF AN UNDERDOG

  • In its first year of competition, the Carthage women’s bowling team finished second in the conference championship.

REBIRTH

  • From rising sommelier to law student, Emma Terrell ’17 pivoted gracefully when COVID-19 dampened the restaurant industry’s outlook.

FLIGHT

  • The Carthage Microgravity Team conducted its latest zero-g experiments in May, marking 10 years of NASA-supported research into fuel gauging technology. One night, the group fittingly ate at a place called Firebirds.

Carthage's Microgravity Team testing their research on a zero-gravity flight.