(bright music) (bold music) - Eye on Education, I'm Fred Martino.

Coming up, an opportunity for students looking for an experience in agriculture.

We'll learn more about the wine industry in Illinois, but first, many university newspapers have gone completely online, but not the Daily Egyptian at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Its print edition is distributed in southern Illinois, on and off campus every week.

And while it's evolved, another longtime tradition continues at the publication.

Here's Anna Twomey of the SIU Alumni Association.

- [Anna] He's SIU's oldest undergraduate, a cartoon who has somehow managed to pay tuition for 67 years.

Gus Bode was here, is here, and has plans to always be here.

- I think Gus is just this witty, sarcastic character that kind of embodies the emotions that we want to go through whenever something's serious, it's a way to kind of calm down a little bit about it.

- He evolves with the generations, but the voice remains pithy and snarky.

- [Anna] Gus is the pride and joy of Daily Egyptian reporters, editors and designers, appearing in almost every edition of the paper for the last six decades.

- It's been a constant source of laughs but also dramatic episodes over the years.

It's kept everybody on their toes.

- [Anna] Gus's cartoon in the newspaper is always next to a comment on the oddities, comedies, and politics relevant to the current decade.

Sophie Whitten is the current editor-in-chief of the Daily Egyptian and heavily involved in brainstorming Gus comments.

- At the end of the week, whenever we're doing print, that's where Gus can come in.

Gus is often based on what is getting a lot of attention and sometimes it's something very small.

I remember over Halloween, there was someone who dressed up as an Amtrak train for Halloween, so we dress Gus up as an Amtrak train.

- Sometimes the drawing comes first and then the caption, and sometimes the caption comes first, and then the drawing.

- [Anna] Annie Hammock is the managing editor of the Daily Egyptian.

She's worked in local and national newsrooms all over the country.

- And I've been at many schools with newspapers and they've had editorial cartoons, but not like a character that really speaks for the student body the way Gus Bode does.

- [Anna] Gus is anyone and everyone.

The design is simple but nuanced.

Daily Egyptian design chief, Peyton Cook, shows us how modern Gus comes to life.

- Then, I usually start with his face shape so I can get a nice, something like that.

I can smooth it out more like that.

The hardest part is definitely the ear so going in for that ear, a nice round, kind of like that.

Then you go for the hair, and you wanna fill that in and then you get to the fun part, which is that swoosh.

Just like that.

- [Anna] Gus has gone through decades of design change, influenced by the tastes and aesthetics of changing times.

Gus was first referenced in the Egyptian in April of 1956.

At that time, he was only a voice with no image.

Gus wouldn't be officially illustrated until 1962 by the late Dee Alexander.

- He's been drawn by many people.

He's been written by many people.

He's a product of decades of SIU students.

- [Anna] Jeff Ritter is a former Daily Egyptian reporter who graduated in 2004.

- I find it interesting that Gus has always been portrayed largely faceless and I think that really does go back to the every student perspective on him again.

I mean, everybody can see a little bit of themselves I think, in some of the smartiness that Gus offers.

- [Anna] Here's a look at Gus through the decades.

The 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and today.

- It's the paper's voice and it's also, in a way the design team's voice as well because we're usually doing more of the visual work and that doesn't always translate into the news stories as much.

So, this is just another outlet for us to share our side of the newsroom.

- We just recently changed his design to be more inclusive, so that he doesn't only fit like a male character.

We want him to resemble someone that anyone can relate to.

- Poofed up the hair, softened the jawline, just enough to sort of suggest, maybe, a little bit more androgyny with Gus.

- [Anna] There's been one question students and staff not involved with the Daily Egyptian have asked for decades.

Is Gus Bode a real person?

- Well, he's a person to those of us who help create him.

- I think, you know, his essence is real.

He was a real, based off of a real person.

- [Anna] In fact, the idea for Gus Bode came from several former 50s era students.

One of them, Jim Stump, named Gus after a friend from his hometown of Val Meyer.

The friend friend was a church janitor named Philip August, or Gus, Bode.

Jim Stump and his group helped gain some traction for Gus by writing, "Gus Bode was here" on mirrors and walls all over campus.

The faculty advisor to the Daily Egyptian at the time, Charles Clayton, said that the Gus Bode was here statements were inspired by the World War II era line, "Kilroy was here," that servicemen would scratch on walls.

- He is a voice for every generation he represents, and that voice stays the same even though the generation may change.

What he's commenting on now he may not have commented on back in the 50s, but for sure in the 70s, right?

- Gus isn't shy about what he wants to say.

According to a former managing editor, in the early 1970s, a group of female students stormed the Daily Egyptian newsroom, outraged over a comment from Gus that was a bit misogynistic.

An apology from Gus appeared in the paper a few days later.

- From what I understand, and I wasn't here at the time, but from what I understand, he referred to women as chicks and so some of them were ardent feminists on campus said, "Well, that's not gonna stand," and they came into the newsroom and threw raw chicken around the newsroom, creating quite a stinky, smelly mess.

That's the, that's the story I've heard.

- I think people that are interested in him give it the value, I feel.

The people that are having to draw it now give it the value.

- Alex Ayala was a former designer for the Daily Egyptian, who drew Gus back in the early 2000s.

He's the creator of Gloria Bode, the short-lived cartoon cousin of Gus who appeared when the newspaper was just starting to publish online.

- Gus Bode was the undergrad, you know, and male, you know, gender specific.

So Gloria Bode was just the female, you know, the cousin.

And we determined that she was gonna be like tech savvy, still following that that same design language of not having a nose, you know, the glasses, do I make 'em pointy?

- [Anna] In Alex's time, he was drawing Gus with graphite on paper.

Now, students use iPads.

Back in the early 2000s, the Daily Egyptian was still printing their paper in-house.

- It was an amazing process just to see everything meet our deadline, take it to print.

The printers coming to us like, "No, you guys need to tweak this."

And, and all in-house, you know?

The students that would come in, you know, to to pass it through the conveyors, get it out, distribute it, those things.

You don't see those things.

I will say, you don't see 'em anymore.

- Gus would come up at the end of every page one meeting, and that would be the most intense discussion no matter what.

- [Anna] Jeff Ritter says, there was a moderation with Gus's snarky comments, when aspects of the news that day called for it.

- There has always been, I think, a sense of good judgment.

There have been certain events that have happened where the editors knew that this is not an appropriate time for Gus to make an appearance.

You know, after September 11th, after you know, major political events, turmoil.

- [Anna] As the Daily Egyptian continues its mission to report campus news through the voice of students, Gus remains an important part of that.

- Not that many college newspapers are still printing print editions.

They're going online only, and we are still printing at least once a week.

We're doing regular editions, really nice special editions like Black History Month, sexual health awareness, mental health edition, and these are coming out in print and we're distributing to 7,500 people around the community.

And, that is important.

- [Anna] When times are tough or you might be feeling down, Gus's humor is only a newspaper away.

- For me, at least, Gus is, you know, just another student.

You know, he's trying to make his way as a student and get through college life, which can be very difficult for a lot of people, and he just kind of embodies what a student is like at SIU.

- Thanks to Anna Twomey of the SIU Alumni Association for that report.

On a recent program, we profiled Illinois agriculture in the classroom.

Beyond K-12 schools, there is a rich history of agriculture programs in higher education, including the graduate and undergraduate programs at SIU Carbondale, and a growing part of agriculture in southern Illinois involves grapes and our wine industry.

To learn more, I am very pleased to welcome Brandy Nance.

She is the executive director of the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail.

Brandy, thank you so much for being with us today.

- Thank you for having me.

- It is good to have you here.

Give me a sense of how wines contribute to the economy in the region.

Grape and wine production jobs and exports.

There's just a lot of opportunity here.

- Really, there are so many opportunities.

I think grapes and wine have had a tremendous impact on the southern Illinois economy.

What started in 1995 with three wineries has now grown to 11 different wineries on the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail with over 170 different wines at any given point in time.

So we really have a lot to produce and a lot to promote.

Our wineries really employ over 60 full-time people at any given time and we offer so many different part-time employment opportunities throughout the year from vineyard crews, to winemaker helpers, to our wine serving team.

So, there really are a lot of opportunities.

I think that the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail's been really instrumental in creating new market opportunities for a really rural area, here and you know, we've just done a a whole lot.

- Yeah, and folks don't realize just how important this is.

I know that growing tourism is part of this and that is one of the best ways to encourage economic development 'cause you're bringing money in from outside.

- Really.

I mean the Shawnee Hills, I think, is the core of a network of businesses including lodging, boutique shops, and restaurants.

We've seen, as the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail has continued to grow over the years, the local communities around us have started to grow as well.

I mean, there's been a phenomenal increase in lodging opportunities surrounding the trail, and what I really find interesting is the mom and pop, the boutique shops, the local artisan shops, the the unique restaurants that are solely here, in southern Illinois.

I think the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail is really the core of that growth.

- I was really excited to hear about this when I learned that you'd be able to come to join us today.

That really took me back many, many years ago because in the 1980s, gosh, I'm getting old.

I went to college in central New York in the Finger Lakes region, and they really had an incredible industry there that continues to this day, and the wine trail there was part of that, all the wineries in central New York.

And I knew that this was a big agricultural area when I moved here.

I have lived in the Midwest before, but I had no idea that it was a big area for wine.

- Yes, absolutely.

The region that we have here, the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail is the first in the state of Illinois and we're located fully within the Shawnee Hills American Viticultural area, which is also another first for the state of Illinois.

So, we really are a region that's just ripe with potential, for lack of a better word.

- People watching this may be familiar that Illinois has a major tourism campaign going on the middle of everything.

Some folks may have seen television ads, for instance, with the actress Jane Lynch promoting the state.

How has Illinois been helpful in bringing people to southern Illinois?

- They've been really, really helpful.

I've had the opportunity to work with our local tourism bureaus in concert with Illinois tourism to develop digital ads that have been shown across the United States, as well as internationally.

I've also seen many of their television ads which feature not only the vineyards and wineries of the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail, but also a lot of the gems of our area, Giant City State Park or Garden of the Gods.

So, they're really doing a great job and working with other organizations like us and the Shawnee, or the southernmost Illinois tourism bureaus to, I think, make southern Illinois a really competitive tourism destination.

- That is great to hear and certainly, again, important for our economy.

Another important part of this, we have many high schools with FFA programs, the organization formerly known as Future Farmers of America.

We also have university agriculture programs.

Give me a sense of the career opportunities for young people who are interested in working at an orchard or being a winemaker.

- So, really I think the opportunities are endless as we are a growing industry.

We have hired vineyard crew people directly out of high school to get some on the job training.

So, while the agricultural programs are really great and they give you the fundamentals of what you need to know, when you take that on site, grape growing here in southern Illinois is different than that of California or Texas.

So while you have the fundamentals, you really need that on the job training.

And we offer that at so many of our vineyards here, and that leads into winemaker positions because if you understand the grapes that we grow here, and you understand how the climate affects the grapes, and what that's going to to end up like in the resulting wine, you can really make better decisions in both the the vineyard and the winery.

So, we have so many opportunities - And, I would guess that the learning experiences could be with a job or an internship, or sometimes maybe an internship is also a job.

- Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

We have different internships.

There used to be a program called Vesta, which would take people interested in the Viticultural program and place them in certain vineyard positions.

But, one of the things that we are always looking for is vineyard help.

Because what people don't realize is that vineyard work really is almost a year long job.

We start in mid-February, pruning and and preparing the dormant vines, and then we canopy manage in the summer, and then we get to harvest in the fall.

So really, from mid to late February to mid to late November there is a vineyard job to be had.

- Oh, boy.

And then, lots of jobs making the wine.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

There are so many opportunities with a winery because our wineries have, you know, of course the tasting room bars, we offer music on the weekends, so there's potential for local musicians there.

We have event coordinator positions available.

We have murder mysteries or weddings.

So there are really a variety of opportunities available on the wine trail - That's really interesting.

So you are executive director of the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail.

Tell me more about that nonprofit organization and what you do.

- Yeah, so the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail as I mentioned earlier, was formed in 1995.

It is the first wine trail in the state of Illinois.

And what really started with three wineries that recognized the untapped tourism potential here for the region, as well as the region's capability for producing some really great grapes and turning them into really great wines, has grown into 11 different individually owned and operated wineries and we work together.

A lot of times we get asked, you know, "What's it feel like to compete with your neighbor winery?"

But, we don't do that.

We really find that working together to better our vineyard and our seller practices and promote our wines and our product is a great way to do business.

I mean, the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail's really an effort of it's just developed from comradery and collaboration.

- So, doing this interview is one way, of course, to educate people about the industry and what folks can take advantage of whether it be through a job or an internship or going a as part of tourism, going and enjoying it.

What other ways do you accomplish that, the education mission?

- Yeah, so we really, we like to do interviews like this.

They're wonderful opportunities for us.

We attend a number of travel and tourism shows throughout the year and different conferences where we're able to showcase our products in our area, really.

We, on a local level, we have winemaker dinners.

We off also offer vineyard and cellar tours to give people a behind the scenes look at what happens in our wineries.

And we have a wine trail map and guide that we develop every year that we really, we send out through tourism bureaus, we place them at our tourist information centers, and send them out at different festivals.

So, we do a number of things to really try to educate people on what we have here.

- Okay, you also run Blue Sky Vineyards.

Tell me about that.

- I would say I'm an integral member of the team of Blue Sky Vineyards.

There are so many of us that really work to make Blue Sky Vineyard what it is.

It's fun, you know, while the Wine Trail gives me a platform to help people plan their visit here and really spread the word about our local community events, Blue Sky gives me that opportunity to work with them more in a real time effort.

And, I am a staunch supporter of all things local and really love to have a job where I can feel like from grape to glass, I've had just really, you know, a big part of, of making that product and sending that product out to people from all over the world.

- Where does your passion come from for this field?

Working in this field?

- You know, really, I traveled from a seasonal job and I thought, I'm an apple knocker at heart.

I'm born and raised here.

I left and I came back for what I thought was a little, little stint at a winery, and the continued growth in the industry, the constant changing of just the different people that you get to meet and see throughout the year, and new changes in grape and vineyard management.

It's really an exciting job and I just love being here and being able to support the local communities.

- It sounds like, while it's exciting and it's certainly something that's growing that it also, I would imagine, has a lot of challenges because you're dealing with weather, you're dealing with the economy, and because of obviously when the economy is good, you know, you get probably get more visitors, people are buying more product.

What is that like?

I mean, the unpredictability of it and keeping up with how things change, I'm guessing, all the time.

- Yeah, I think that's part of the fun, though.

I mean, I don't think that any of us got into this job thinking that it would be easy.

(Brandy laughs) You know, weather really is, mother nature is unpredictable, especially here, in southern Illinois.

So that is probably the largest hurdle that we have to jump.

You know, in 2022, we had a really dry year which some might think that that was bad.

And while it was bad for other crops, it was really wonderful for grape vines.

So, keep an eye for those 2022 vintages on the bottle.

I think those are some of the best that you'll see here in a number of years, but in wet seasons, that can affect when and how we harvest.

So really, just kind of keeping up with the weather.

That's the biggest hurdle that I think that we have to overcome.

- In addition to weather, are there any other big issues that all winemakers are really dealing with right now?

- I think that's probably the biggest challenge because a fine wine starts in the vineyard.

And so, really knowing, you know, are we going to have as big of a crop as we have, you know, we have to plan on how much wine that we make based on what we sell, but if we have a late freeze that could affect our primary buds, we might not have as much wine to sell.

So, I mean, there's really a great number of things before the grapes even get to the cellar to become wine that we have to take into account.

Wine making is a unique job where there's not really a recipe to make wines.

So, the product, the same wine is not going to be the same year after year.

So, really I think that's the biggest hurdle is just what what they're getting out of the vineyard.

- I've lived in a number of places where folks have grown grapes that were designed for wine and I mentioned the Finger Lakes, going to college and I remember white wine was quite common in the Finger Lakes region.

There, I, my last job was in New Mexico of all places, the desert, who would think that they would grow grapes there and have wine there, but they did.

Lot of thanks to irrigation, of course and there were some really good red wines.

How about here, what is it that folks are growing here, and what's the best wine to grow here?

Or what's the best grape to grow here for a wine?

(Fred laughs) - No, that's all right.

A fine wine has grown, really.

So Chambourcin is a very, a very popular wine here.

We make from dry reds, to semi dries, down to sweet wines and port wines with Chambourcin.

So, you'll find that at nearly every winery on the trail.

Traminette is also another big variety that we grow.

Vignoles is very fruit forward and very popular.

So, there, we have about seven common varieties that you'll see most often on the wine trail.

And then we do have one winery that makes all of their wines from fruit other than grapes.

So you won't find a single grape wine in their tasting room.

- What other kind of fruits?

- Yeah, so we make wine with apples, or peaches, currents, blueberries, strawberries, a number of things.

- Very interesting, very interesting.

Now, do you have a favorite, or is it too hard to pick one?

- You know, my favorite changes from time to time.

I do really love Chambourcin because I find that the roses that we're making here from the Chambourcin grape are really, really phenomenal.

And, then Vignoles, another one of my favorites as well.

It's just, it's very tropical, so it's perfect for summer and just a really nice summer day.

- I guess it's exciting for you to see new folks come in, whether or not they're in an agriculture program to work at a vineyard, because you could probably relate to that when you came.

You weren't sure that you were going to stay and make a career in this.

- Yeah, no, I mean, I love seeing people come in and try new things and really fall in love with it.

I really think, you know, like you said, I worked at Blue Sky Vineyard, so it's one of the things that we like to do at our wineries is to bring our team members in and have them learn all aspects of the job, help the vineyard, help in the cellar, because then when you're invested in what you're selling and you're invested in the region, you're gonna have a better overall experience for your guests.

- Something I will never forget from a later visit to the Finger Lakes was that I had a particular wine that I really enjoyed and then I purchased it, took it home, and it was completely different because it was another year.

And you mentioned this, you know, you were saying look for 2022 because it was a really good year.

Explain to folks why that would be, why would the particular year matter so much?

- So 2022 in particular, as I mentioned here, in southern Illinois for the Shawnee Hills was a very dry year.

And for grape vines, they don't like their feet wet.

They like to be challenged.

And when they're challenged, it really produces a better, sweeter fruit.

So, we have a number of reasons that the Shawnee Hills region, here is great for growing grapes and the climate is one of them, and the longer growing season that we have to really allow those grapes to grow and develop those flavors.

It is one of the reasons that we're so unique.

And really, the Chambourcin from 2022 and the Vignoles from 2022, the climate was perfect.

You're gonna find some really, really fruit forward flavors.

- So look, when you're drinking the, the lesson is when you're look, when you're drinking it if you like it, look at the year on the bottle.

(man laughs) - Absolutely, absolutely.

- Brandy, thank you so much for being with us.

- Thank you.

- My guest was Brandy Nance, the executive director of the the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail.

That is Eye on Education for all of us.

At WSIU, I'm Fred Martino.

(upbeat music) Thanks for being here and have a great week.