5questions

Kenneth Ledford is passionate about modern German history, and his dedication has helped him become a renowned expert in the field. But for Ledford, co-director of the Max Kade Center for German Studies, his interest came somewhat by chance. Ledford studied Latin in high school, but decided as an…

Junior music and biomedical engineering major Anton Spencer is known around campus as a proven leader. He is president of the Music Undergraduate Student Involvement Committee, principal flute for the Case Western/University Circle Symphonic Orchestra, a new student orientation leader, an Eagle…

Barb Juknialis may be new to her position as chair of the Staff Advisory Council (SAC), but she certainly is not unfamiliar with the university. In fact, for nearly 50 years, Case Western Reserve has been part of Juknialis’ day-to-day life. She started at Flora Stone Mather College in 1964 and…

Outside linebacker Scott Campbell’s job on the football field—among other things—is to put a licking on the opposing team’s offensive players. It’s an aspect of football the biology and psychology major doesn’t take lightly, as he fully understands the risk for concussions in the hard-hitting,…

Autumn Beechler has never lived in one spot for more than four years. As a child, her family frequently moved—mostly around the state of Michigan and later to Ohio—for her father’s job. After settling in Ohio, Beechler attended Medina High School and enrolled at Bowling Green State University to…

Roderick Ingram is no stranger to hard work and perseverance. A native Clevelander, Ingram grew up on the western edge of the Hough neighborhood, in a public housing complex at the corner of East 55th Street and Hough Avenue. He attended the now-closed East High School, where he accelerated…

Rising senior Michael Scarpaci spent his first semester abroad as an infant. He celebrated his first birthday in the middle of the Indian Ocean, as he traveled by ship from India to Kenya on the Semester at Sea program. His father, then a faculty member at Virginia Tech, taught business courses to…

A far cry from the big city lifestyle of his hometown of Long Island, N.Y., Louis Stark attended college at Davis & Elkins College—a small-liberal arts school with an enrollment of less than 800 students in the mountains of Elkins, W.Va. It was there that Stark became involved in student…

Rising senior Karen Kruzer is trying something different this summer: staying in Cleveland. The pre-med, medical anthropology major is interning at MetroHealth Medical Center on a research study related to kidney failure in premature babies. Staying in the city might not seem abnormal for most.…

Cleveland native Mark Avsec’s big break in the music industry came in 1975, when he was asked to play keyboard on a new song by the Steubenville band Wild Cherry. That famous song, “Play That Funky Music (White Boy)” served as the jumping off point for Avsec’s long, successful career in the arena…