Shopper Blog: Just in time, corporate recruiter finds her niche – and success
POWELL
Just in time, corporate recruiter finds her niche – and success
Al Lesar, Shopper News
One day before Plan B was forced to kick in, Plan A came through.
And it’s been going gangbusters ever since.
In 2010, Alicia Turner found a place in the corporate world as a recruiter. The 1999 Central High School graduate, who now lives in Powell, found her personality was a fit for the job.
“I loved building relationships with candidates,” said Turner. “I love being able to help people.”
Turner learned her job well enough that she decided to go out on her own and start a business – after intense research on both ends – linking companies with candidates. Turner Recruiting & Consulting was born in March 2022.
“I figured if the fear (about starting a business) was stronger than the motivation, it was not the right time to do this,” Turner said. “The motivation was stronger than the fear. ‘Let’s do this.’”
Turner gave herself a month to get going before giving in to take a part-time job to help her husband, Josh, with the bills.
In the third week with no nibbles, Turner applied and got a job as a server at Texas Roadhouse in Powell on a Tuesday. Her first shift was set for Friday.
“On Thursday, I got three clients,” Turner said. “I called up and said I couldn’t make it Friday.”
Filling a need
In the first 10 months of her business, Turner has matched 115 candidates with jobs. She emphasized that it’s not a temp agency, but a direct placement company.
“I don’t like the word headhunter,” Turner said. “I’ve been called a matchmaker or the ‘boutique style of recruiting.’ Those are terms that fit me better.”
Turner said her company fills a significant need in the corporate world. Company leaders often don’t have the time to do the sort of research she does to fill a position.
“By the time people come to me they’re already frustrated with the process,” said Turner. “I’m usually the last resort.
“My job is to take (hiring) off their plate and give them their time back.”
Turner normally starts her search with a thorough examination of the company and the position that’s to be filled. From there, she’ll study possible candidates, put out feelers and post the job on different websites.
She said she may have 20 candidates who, through extensive interviewing, may be pared down to a couple referred to the company. Besides the recommendations, she follows through with background checks, drug screens and motor vehicle reports.
Unexpected growth
Turner felt her time in the recruiting business allowed her to have all the bases covered.
But there’s one thing she didn’t take into consideration: Growth.
“Not planning on growth was my mistake,” Turner said. “I was drowning. I was working seven days a week and not getting everything done.”
That’s when she added a friend, Justiz Mahan from Kentucky, in July and Brittney Martin from Powell in September. There are plans to add another associate soon.
Besides helping clients and candidates find the good fits, Turner also offers ongoing human resources support. A couple of clients are signed on for that service.
Turner said most recruiting agencies will charge the client between 15% and 30% of the candidate’s first-year salary as their fee.
“Those rates disqualify the small-business owner from using them,” Turner said. “I charge just a fraction of that.”She didn’t say what the fraction is.
She said her company has given back to the community by doing a toy drive for Toys for Tots; it gave $200 Kroger gift cards to six families (several of which were in Powell), and rehabbed an old children’s playhouse that was entered in the Oak Ridge Christmas Parade and was sold to benefit St. Jude Hospital.
For more information, contact Turner at 865-640-4280, www.turnerrecruits.com or Facebook.
BEARDEN
UT snags 'Most Creative' award for voter registration
John Shearer, Shopper News
Political candidates in recent years often say they try or need to reach the younger voter.
Well, University of Tennessee students and departments came up with ways to do just that.
Through efforts such as a voter registration tailgate before the Florida football game, UT won a statewide college competition for the Most Creative Voter Registration Campaign. The award was recently announced by Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett and presented at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy during an event attended by UT Chancellor Dr. Donde Plowman.
“We’ve actually caught up with the national average with our peer institutions for the first time,” said Dr. Katie Cahill, an adjunct political science professor at UT.
“We’re trying to create a culture of civic engagement on this campus.”
The school signed up nearly 3,000 voters in competition against the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida. Also taking place were a Back to the Ballot Box Celebration.
Cahill, the interim chief operating officer for the Baker Center, said several other initiatives were made by the center and with the help of other university groups and the local election office.
One included a panel of Knoxville City Council representatives, who talked about their own stories of voting and being involved in civic affairs, an event that Cahill called powerful. Another was when Jeffrey Rosen of the National Constitution Center talked to students for Constitution Day.
Those – and even a food truck – helped the UT student body continue its high level of voter turnout that improved 21 percent from 2016 to 2020.
Cahill pointed out that getting college students to vote comes with additional challenges. Many students live elsewhere and must prepare to vote back at their home community where they might be registered, she said, or they must send in an absentee ballot.
Or many are at an age where they are preparing for the future and enjoying a social life and just don’t consider how political decisions by leaders can still greatly impact them or their age group. Or they don’t feel affected by the local politics in a place that is not their home community.
Student Zoe Ward, a member of the Baker Ambassadors, said her group learned that business and engineering students tend to have lower voter turnout, so they focused their efforts on that and other strategies.
“Some of my main efforts for the 2022 election cycle also included collaborating with UT housing to register students in residence halls and provide resident assistants information to help answer questions about voter registration and education,” she said. “And I ran voter registration tabling in the Student Union during September and October before Tennessee's deadline for new voter registration.”
They also encouraged students to sign up for text reminders about voting through turbovote.org.
“I got to meet a lot of students who I had not met before,” said Ward of the overall efforts.
As a result of the work and later recognition by Hargett, the students who participated almost felt like a victorious group of political supporters, even though the winner in this case was simply the voting process.
“I was incredibly honored to see how our state acknowledged our efforts,” said Ward, who grew up in Pigeon Forge and is studying public health. “It is a large motivation to work even harder in the future.”
WORDS OF FAITH
Wag more, bark less. This is God's way, as the psalmist shows us
John Tirro, Shopper News
Imagine Israel gathered at the Temple, ready to come in. The priest steps out, says, “Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle? Who may abide upon your holy hill?” The people respond, speaking for God, “Those who lead a blameless life and do what is right, who speak the truth from their heart.”
These words, from Psalm 15, are known among scholars as an Entrance Liturgy, that creates as we read it an entry moment, in our imaginations, to the presence of God. It’s a defining moment, a setting of intention, of what we’re here for.
Quincy Jones, a brilliant musician who started as a big band leader in the '50s, then a record producer, notably of Michael Jackson (Off the Wall, Thriller), was asked to produce “We Are the World,” a single to raise funds for famine relief in Africa. It was a huge gathering of talent − and all the personalities that come with − Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Patti LaBelle, and Billy Joel, to name a few. Quincy Jones had a sign placed prominently at the entrance, “Check your egos at the door.” He may have been cribbing a note from Psalm 15. Let’s major in the majors. We’re here to make music and see if we can help somebody.
Nancy deClaissé-Walford, of the McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta, says the first verb of Psalm 15, translated “dwell,” comes from a Hebrew word meaning, “stay as a… foreigner.” The second is from a word meaning “settle down, be at home.”
So, “who, unsettled from wherever, may find home here?” The answer is the one who checks their ego at the door, and the psalm breaks it into three parts.
The first is how you generally go about life, “the one who walks blamelessly,” who checks blame at the door. The second is what we do, “no harm to our friends.” The third is what we say, “truth from the heart.” There’s a setting aside of past and present evil (blame and harm), and an entry into present good (truth from the heart). (See workingpreacher.org, Sept. 29, 2023, “Psalm,” for more.)
Elizabeth Strand, in her Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course at UT’s College of Veterinary Medicine, speaks of the brain flipping its lid when triggered and uses a fist with a thumb inside to illustrate. The thumb is the lizard brain amygdala, that’s all about self-preservation. The fingers are the prefrontal cortex, with all the higher functions. When fight or flight kicks in, the brain heats up, the higher functions go offline, and lizard brain takes over.
Psalm 15 opens a door to cool brain, a way to wag more, bark less − purr more, hiss less. In a world full of hot brains, it can be hard to say what you need without barking, hard to hear without hissing, hard to make music for all the egos in the room. But it’s needed. It’s also the entrance to the presence of God.
John Tirro is pastor of worship at St. John’s Lutheran Church. Info: sjlcknox.org.
NORTH KNOXVILLE
North Knoxville's newest independent bookstore has collectibles, too
Carol Z. Shane, Shopper News
Northeast Knoxville is home to some of the most creative, independent thinkers in town. It’s odd that it hasn’t been much of a “bookstore” part of the city until lately. But with lowercase books in Parkridge, Addison Books and Union Avenue books downtown, The Bottom on Magnolia Avenue and others, that’s rapidly changing.
Recently, an old friend showed up on North Broadway. Born in a tiny storefront on Gay Street and previously located on Chapman Highway and Central Avenue, with a current presence at South Knoxville Bargain Hunters, The Book Eddy has been a beloved destination for East Tennessee book lovers since 1991. For the past five years, owner/founder John Coleman has been using the building that formerly housed the Mutt Hutt as his base for online sales.
Last December, he decided to clean it up a bit, do some organizing and open it to the public.
“Sometimes we get people at the door wanting to know if we can wash their dog,” he says. “There’s one wall in the back that has three sinks.” But since he’s put out a sign, his foot traffic is mostly fellow bibliophiles.
It’s the perfect space for Coleman’s wares – a virtual rabbit warren of desirable, rare and just plain interesting books and loads of ephemera, irresistible to anyone who likes to dig in and explore. As a bonus, the entrance of the store is mostly given over to Off Balance Books, under separate ownership, which specializes in graphic novels, comics, punk and underground literature and ephemera.
When Coleman and his team started online sales in the early ’90s, “we quickly realized we couldn’t have stuff online and also on the shelf in the store.” Since then, in addition to retail spaces, he’s kept warehouses for the online business. When his previous storage building on Jennings Avenue was demolished for new construction, Coleman moved to his present location.
Why has he decided to open it to the public? “Business is changing, getting even more ‘grippy’ or whatever you want to call it. I wanted to sell more books without putting them online. And Bargain Hunters is doing better. I felt like I was getting a little cut off from the buying – I was a little worried about that.” When Off Balance Books, which started as a popup, needed a home, Coleman thought it might be a good idea to team up.
He’s still organizing the space. “Hey – you’ve gotten a lot done since I was here last,” says longtime customer and friend Tracy Weeks. Coleman acknowledges that he’s made much progress, but “I can’t even get into the room where I used to take pictures anymore; it’s filled up all the way to the door.”
His focus, which speaks to the name of the business, remains the same after all these years. “We try to deal in books that kind of get washed out of the mainstream. They need a home.”
The Book Eddy, including Off Balance Books, is open 11:30-5:30 every Saturday, and 1:30-5:30 some Wednesdays and Thursdays. Visit them at 3804 North Broadway, and follow them at facebook.com/bookeddy.
SOUTH KNOXVILLE
Reading Champions program brings football heroes into the classroom
Ali James, Shopper News
Pond Gap Elementary’s fourth graders were on the playground when three University of Tennessee football players walked onto the basketball court to shoot some hoops and toss a football around.
Tight end Jacob Warren and offensive linemen Parker Ball and Ollie Lane then joined the excited students in their classrooms for their next lessons.
It was the first day of the Legends of Tennessee’s new Reading Champions program. The weekly 90-minute program kicked off on Feb. 1 at Pond Gap as a pilot, with discussions underway to expand to other schools in the future.Chris Treece, a UT football player 1986-1989 and current Webb defensive back football coach, co-founded the nonprofit Legends of Tennessee in 2018 with fellow former Vol Jabari Davis.
“We have been doing football camps with several organizations since 2010 and traveled the state offering camps in smaller areas where there were not a lot of options,” said Treece. “We could see a need for an emphasis on youth development; sometimes the former athletes only showed up and signed autographs.
“When the big guys walked out the door, all of a sudden it was silent,” said Treece of the Pond Gap Elementary students’ first reaction. “It’s their heroes for most of them. They are excited to see the players they see on Saturdays in their school. Our hope is that they are truly inspired and look up to their heroes. We talk about how athletes who do well in football also do well in the classroom. The classroom always comes first.”
Treece said that some weeks the athletes may come in the morning and enjoy lunch with the students.
In addition to encouraging literacy, Treece said their program addresses life skills and “The Huddle” for mental health.
“When I was in school, I remember being involved in reading programs,” he said. “These guys remember the athletes that came to their schools and loved it, so they didn’t hesitate to participate.”
Students took turns reading one-on-one with tight end Warren. “We worked on their essays and ‘proofread’ them,” Warren said. “They all seemed excited; a few of them took a while to open up.”
Awed by his 6’6” height, many of the students guessed he was 5’10”. Warren has earned an undergraduate degree in kinesiology and has his master’s in leadership and communications, with one last season of eligibility left.
Ball worked on fractions during fourth grade math class. “It was interesting how they gauged the content,” said Ball. “Everyone wanted to play the (math) game that I took turns playing with them. I hope I was an encouragement.”
Ball is a recent graduate with a degree in recreational therapy and has work experience helping children with disabilities enhance their skills.
Lane was proud to show off his “best helper” award on a Post-It note, after assisting during fourth grade social studies.
“I have fun hanging out with kids, seeing how their minds work. It is also interesting to see how they react and engage using the technology in their classroom,” said Lane, a Gibbs High graduate with an undergraduate degree in kinesiology and a master of science degree with a focus in management and human resources. He is currently working toward a master’s degree in agricultural leadership.
“This wouldn’t be possible without South College; they fund the Reading Champions program,” said Treece. He added that thanks to NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) in colleges, they are now able to include current players, so the students get to see their idols and the parents get to see theirs.
“South College is committed to supporting our community and helping to create lifelong learners – and that starts with encouraging young students to embrace reading,” said Stephen A. South, South College chancellor, via media release as he could not be at the inaugural session at Pond Gap.
“We are proud to partner with Legends of Tennessee to bring the Reading Champions program to Knox County elementary schools as we work together to spark an early zest for learning.”
POWELL
After tragic loss, racing community draws close to help Powell family
Al Lesar, Shopper News
Halfway down the quarter-mile drag strip, Cody Philips’ car didn’t have “it” and he was ready to pack it in.Until he heard “Little” Tony Phillips (no relation) on the radio.
“Boy, you better get it,” was the message from “Little” Tony.
“I figured, ‘Well, I better finish this,’” said Cody. “I started pushing it and the guy next to me started having car trouble. I passed him doing 175 miles an hour and won by a nose.”
That story tells a lot about the two racing brothers from another mother.
“That’s who ‘Little’ Tony was,” said Cody. “He never quit and he never let the people around him quit. He taught me some lessons.”
“Little” Tony, who was a big part of his father’s (“Big” Tony) drag racing success, was killed in a one-car crash on New Year’s Day. Besides racing, “Little” Tony, 34, was uber-involved in Powell youth sports – especially football and baseball – and his children, Brayden and Mila.
“His family was the most important part of him,” said Cody. “His wife (Savannah) and kids would go everywhere with him.”
Solid relationship
Cody Phillips operates Cody Phillips Racing in Utah. He said he got to know “Big” Tony and “Little” Tony in 2017 when they reached out to him for the wiring and electronics he sold for their Toyota dragster.
“’Big’ Tony hemmed and hawed about what they wanted and how much they wanted to pay,” Cody said. “I thought they were a bunch of jokesters. I thought (‘Big’ Tony) was just a redneck guy from Tennessee.”
“Big” Tony made the purchase. It started a relationship that endures today, weathering triumph and now tragedy.
Both Phillips teams raced imports in the drag racing vernacular, compared to domestics. They regularly would attend the same races, mostly in Texas and Maryland. They got to the point where they would locate their pits next to each other and share information.
“We became a powerhouse team,” Cody said.
Tight racing community
The relationship hit a crescendo in November when, in the World Cup – Imports vs. Domestics – “Big” Tony placed first and Cody was third to seal the Imports’ victory.
“Everybody thinks we’re family,” said Cody. “It’s really quite comical. I guess it’s a bit of destiny or fate. We’re together all the time.”
Cody was so close with “Big” and “Little” Tony that, immediately after hearing the sad news, he started a GoFundMe campaign to help the family with expenses.
“The entire racing community is so close,” Cody said. “In the first 24 hours (of the campaign), we raised $25,000. That’s how it works. We compete against each other, but when someone is in need, we don’t hesitate to step up.“We all put our lives into the sport. If someone’s car breaks, we all step up trying to help.”
But now, racing won’t be the same for Cody, 43, without the guy he considered his little brother.
“’Little’ Tony had a huge heart,” Cody said. “I’ve come to Knoxville several times and was able to see what he meant to the community. I can’t imagine how much he’ll be missed.”
BEARDEN
Students' environmental vision brings top prize at Future City competition
John Shearer, Shopper News
Through their successful work figuring out how to improve one city in the distant future, some students at Annoor Academy will get to enjoy another faraway city in the near future.
On Jan. 21, seventh graders Muhedin Hashani, Imran Fahmi, Adam Mourad, Yasmeen Aqqad, and Lubna Doleh won the regional competition in Knoxville in the Future City Competition, presented by Discover.
For their design and plan for the Nigerian city of Lagos more than 100 years from now, they qualified to travel to Washington, D.C., Feb. 18-21 to present this same city and concept in the national competition.
“We are all excited. We all feel confident,” said Mourad, sounding like a seasoned scientist after the competition at the University of Tennessee’s Zeanah Engineering Complex.
As part of the project designed for STEM programs in middle schools, the students at the private Islamic school near Foxvue Road and Pellissippi Parkway had to imagine, research, design and build a futuristic city. They also had to showcase a sustainability issue, and the students chose to focus on coastal Lagos’ possible future issue of combating flooding and being partially submerged due to climate change and rising sea levels.
According to Arifa Shumi, an art teacher at the school who was also serving as the educator for the project, they solved the latter in part by proposing planting mangrove forests around the city to reduce carbon emission and help prevent erosion. While that was the mitigation part of the project requirement, for the adaptive part, they developed some floating buildings.
She said the competition in total included coming up with a project plan, writing a 1,500-word essay, doing a presentation and skit, answering questions for the judges, and building and showing a 3-D model. “It was a lot of work,” she said, adding that they spent several hours a week after school and on the weekends leading up to the competition.
While the project dealt with the future, the students went about developing it the old-fashioned way, using some recyclable materials as part of the 3-D model constructed by hand. “The funnest part of the project was building the model,” said Doleh, adding that they got to learn how to use all the moving parts.
They also sought out educational advice from such people as Dr. Khalid Alshibli at the UT Department of Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering, and Dr. Haochen Li gave them a tour of the UT water infrastructure lab.
Ferris Jordan also allowed them to use his workshop to build the model, she said, and they had other advisers like environmental scientist Dalia Rakha.
And Mackenzie Martin and her colleagues at LDA Engineering, which has sponsored the regional competition since its inception, are helping them prepare for the D.C. trip.
LDA Engineering CEO Jason Brooks considers it rewarding and important to be involved in helping young students become interested in STEM learning.
“It is always fun and so inspiring to work with the kids in the Future City Competition to see what ideas they have to make our communities better by dreaming of big ways to engineer cities of the future by using STEM principles,” he said, adding that his firm also donated more than $600,000 to STEM education programs and scholarships as part of their recent 40th anniversary.
Student Aqqad said a fun part was learning more about the city, and Shumi said they tried to research it as well and even tracked down someone from Nigeria to meet. That had come about from a World Cup soccer match the school watched as a group, and an acquaintance of the person was there.
The students say they are excited about the trip and are certainly taking some time to celebrate the accomplishment against a number of other schools in the region that also presented worthwhile projects.
“It felt really good to win,” said Hashani. “It felt like all the hard work paid off.”
“I was proud of our whole team,” added Fahmi.
HALLS
Brickey-McCloud turns gym into roller rink
Ali James, Shopper News
Teaching second graders to roller skate may seem like a chaotic task, but a month into their fun gym class, Brickey Bears seem to have gotten the hang of it. Brickey Elementary School physical education teachers Brooke Raiden and Larry Israel decided to introduce roller skating as a PE activity last year.
Students switched out of their regular shoes and strapped on Velcro or tied their roller skates and awaited instructions at the beginning of class.
“We like to start out gym class with cooperating activities and teamwork,” said Raiden, who has been a teacher at the school for 10 years. “We play basketball, volleyball, and incorporate all the sports. This is our second year doing skating.”
When Raiden and Israel decided to introduce roller skating last winter, they found a company out of Nashville that provides skates, helmets and wrist guards. “We heard several schools have done the skating unit and looked into what it takes and costs,” said Raiden. “They basically hand us the skates and tell us to teach it. It doesn’t cost a lot for our kids to do it, but of course, they need permission.”
Together the two teachers came up with several centers to teach different levels. “A lot of the kids shuffle their feet so we have marked arrows to remind them to keep their toes out,” she said. “We have tables set up so they can skate through and hold on, and the carpet was donated to us and is a really good way to keep the wheels rolling slower.”
Raiden and Israel also pulled out the huge mats to set up another corridor to skate through. “Once they get comfortable and do the right techniques – toes in a V or a T,” said Raiden, “they have to practice falling forward onto one knee and getting back up and then gradually get more floor space and can free skate within the speed limit.”
Next year they hope to incorporate the hokey pokey and limbo.
“The kids enjoy it,” said Raiden. “You get the kids that have never touched skates and they get to come in and experience that for about a month.”
Approximately 80% of the students turn in permission forms to skate, while the other students who do not wish to participate get to do a separate gym class activity.
“To be honest, the younger kids really impress me,” Raiden said. "They focus on their feet and how to fall. You wouldn’t believe how many don’t use the carpet. I was at Skatetown and saw so many Brickey kids there, and they show me their knee spots and take what they learn here. Several students have gone home and asked for skates. They do a fabulous job and get better every year.”
From year to year, Raiden has seen a noticeable improvement in their skating. “It’s just really fun; this is one of our main activities we do each year,” she said. “Our main focus with anything we do is to get them active and stay active. It is an activity that they can take throughout their life."
Raiden and Israel are strict when it comes to how students must fall forward, and students must demonstrate their progress through the basics in order to free skate.
“They enjoy putting skates on and showing us what they have learned. That to me is the highlight,” said Raiden, whose three children also attend the school.
Superheroes bring kindness power to Hardin Valley Elementary
Nancy Anderson, Shopper News
Hardin Valley Elementary School finished a week of excitement with Kindness Week. Kids earned points for performing acts of kindness.
Julie Allen’s third grade glass won the championship. School wide points equaled 14,650.
“That’s amazing!” said school counselor Casey Anderson. “The kids were very excited with all the activities throughout the week.”
One of the most popular items was a set of wings as a photo backdrop. It was a treat for the kids to take a photo with the wings. They all said “Kindness Gives You Wings” as a group motto. It was hard to tell who enjoyed the wings more, the teachers and staff dressed in superhero costumes or the kids.
Principal Lynn Jacomen dressed as Wonder Woman to the delight of the children.
Anderson said the kids performed a number of activities, including coloring pages meant to uplift other students. The goal is to teach them kindness at a young age to lessen bullying in middle and high school.
Many parents have complained about bullying in the higher grades. “The answer is to teach them things like empathy and appreciation at a young age,” said Anderson.
According to StopBullying.Gov, bullying is so prevalent in middle school because the kids are coming of age. Students are trying to figure out who they are and how they fit in … and they want power. Bullying can include teasing, name calling, threatening to hurt someone, or purposefully ostracizing a child.
Perhaps it was a stroke of brilliance to dress as superheroes and have the kids wear masks like Batman and Robin. They learned that kindness is power and what that looks like.
During the week, the kids at Hardin Valley learned phrases such as “I’m grateful for you,” and “Treat people with kindness.” They learned to say hello, be brave and engage someone who is being left out and to tell a teacher or trusted adult.
“If we can teach kids what kindness looks like at an early age, what the tools are, we may be able to lessen the incidents of bullying in the upper grades. They need to feel like they have the power to make a positive difference, and we’ve given them those tools and will continue to reinforce them in a positive way,” said Anderson.
Both Jacomen and Anderson said they heard positive feedback from parents and students alike. The kids especially enjoyed seeing their teachers dress up and dressing up themselves.
But it doesn’t end with superheroes powering up kindness. “It’s an ongoing theme to be practiced constantly,” said Jacomen. “This makes for good citizens and kind people.”
University of Tennessee vice chancellor leaving agriculture job after just 8 months | Victor Ashe
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