By Seth Stephens

If you’re Texas bred and Texas fed, it’s not hard to imagine stepping out of your car and being hit by the un-mistakable aroma of barbe-cue. By the time you’re open-ing the old screen door, you’re less than five yards from the pits and your mouth is water-ing. Finally, you step inside and make your way to the counter where, if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to place an order without saliva dripping down your chin.

Welcome to Miller’s Smokehouse.

It isn’t the oldest barbecue joint in town. It only started in 2008. But that didn’t keep it from earning statewide fame when it was named to Texas Monthly’s “Top 50 Best BBQ Joints.”

Dusty Miller was in his second semester at UMHB studying accounting, when he decided it’d be a good idea to start his own business. He de-cided on barbecue and hasn’t looked back since.

“When we first started, it was very, very small. We were just doing a couple menu items,” Dusty said. “We had no real restaurant experience.”

Starting with almost noth-ing at all, Miller’s Smoke-house was put together piece by piece. Picking up one bar-becue pit here, another there and even going to Craigslist

to buy the yellow tables that still sit in the front room of the restaurant.

It’s been a favorite food source for many Crusaders since 2008, and a lot of them have been able to see the busi-ness’s growth. Junior exercise sport science major Daniel Villarreal is one of the smoke-house’s fans.

“Miller’s is hard to beat for quality…. It’s a good place to eat some barbecue be-cause the quality is great,” Villarreal said.

Eventually peo-ple outside of Belton started to recognize what was cooking on N. Penelope Street.

Dusty said, “Once it start-

ed morphing into a real bar-becue restaurant and

started getting better, we started getting the

barbecue posse out of Dallas. And different people started coming in and taking

pictures and noticing us and we started saying, ‘man

we can maybe make this Tex-as Monthly top 50.’ So we got very serious about it.”

That’s exactly what hap-pened. And now Miller’s Smokehouse has gone to a whole new level. Making the list got the place a lot of expo-sure really fast and thankfully they had just expanded.

Although Dusty couldn’t

be happier with how well the business venture he started in college has turned out, it also has a very sentimental value.

“I’ve always been kind of a dreamer,” he said. “I always hoped it’d be big but I don’t think that I ever imagined that it would be this special.… It’s become the essential part of our family.... I spend more time with my family than we ever thought we would be-cause we’re all pulled to this place.”

Everyone in Dusty’s im-mediate family is involved. And that translates to how they treat their customers.

“To me it’s always impor-tant that no matter who walks in at what time of the day … that everybody that walks in feels noticed,” Dusty said. “And that also even if they didn’t meet us, that they know that we spent a lot of time and effort on the food.”

Despite the restaurant’s ex-pansion and outstanding suc-cess, keeping things simple and maintaining a high qual-ity is the main goal.

Dusty’s father, Dirk, takes a lot of pride in the cooking. After all, that’s what matters the most in the barbecue busi-ness.

Dirk said, “If you go to a competition and you do your very, very best to win first prize … that’s how I cook ev-ery day, I put my whole heart into it every day.”

History in the Quad asks education to step outside

By Jordan Yarbrough

Student Foundation is known for putting on educa-tional events in the quad every year for students, staff and faculty to enjoy.

Last year, the organiza-tion did Thanksgiving in the Quad, and students were able to appreciate a little feast and learn about the different scholarships and donations given to the university by vari-ous people.

This year, History in the Quad was on the menu. Old music played over speakers, and people could read the different facts that were dis-played which looked similar to a museum. There was even a quiz online that students could take, and if they got a perfect score, they were put into a drawing to win a T-shirt.

Members of Student Foun-dation also dressed up as a few important people in UMHB’s history and gave facts about their characters.

Sophomore communica-tion major Jayten Ames has been a part of the organization since his second semester. He dressed up for History in the Quad and introduced himself as Jonathan Luther.

“I talked about his life, when he became president.… He was actually the president that moved us here to Belton,” Ames said. “Independence just didn’t have a lot of the stuff they needed.”

The members had to know facts about the character they

were portraying to inform or answer the questions of peo-ple who are attended. The stu-dents who weren’t dressed up were answering questions or prompting people to take the online quiz.

Junior church music major Chris Stroup is the first year representative for Student Foundation. His job was to co-ordinate the 2014 educational event, and that is how History in the Quad came to be.

“This year we decided to do an outdoor museum of UMHB’s history … kind of advertising the alumni house,” Stroup said. “We just wanted to inform students of really cool facts and let them know… the rich history that UMHB has with Texas.”

Student Foundation often works with alumni of the uni-versity, and members received many of their facts for History in the Quad from the alumni center. The second floor is a museum full of university lore and it’s open to the campus and the public.

Senior nursing major Amy Kester has been heavily in-volved in Student Foundation since her freshman year and now she is president of the student organization.

Kester said, “I just think it’s really important to have a ser-vant heart… (and) look for op-portunities to be able to serve. Especially (for) the university because they do so much for us, and to be able to give back … educating the student body … it’s a thank you to them.”

6 Tuesday, April 8, 2014 The Bells

LifestyLes

Sophomore Ali Pittman and junior Kyle Morgan explain the History in the Quad event to students.

Katelyn Holm/ The Bells

Belton BBQ: It’s Miller’s time

Dylon Miller talks to customers at Miller’s Smokehouse. The barbecue restaurant first opened in 2008 and gained statewide fame by being listed on Texas Monthly’s most recent issue of Top 50 BBQ Joints.

Photo: Elizabeth Varville, Graphic: Diana Fadal/ The Bells

Ciao! Salve!: Italian classes availableBy Ashleigh Bugg

Break out the chicken par-mesan, brush up on your clas-sical history and say “ciao, bella” because the university will soon offer Italian courses.

The program, taught by Dr. Karla Gonzalez, will begin in fall 2014. Dr. Jamie Mattison, chair of the Department of Modern Foreign Languages, wanted to hire a professor who could speak Spanish and another language.

After several years of plan-ning, the department decided Italian was the best option. Italian is a great addition for music majors who sing arias and operas in the language. It also complements study abroad programs to Italy through the English and art departments.

“These courses could be a support to students to have a richer study abroad experi-

ence,” Mattison said. “Plus, Italian is just a fun language. It’s a great culture and travel destination. We thought it would be a popular op-tion.”

Students who have stud-ied in Italy with the university in the past en-couraged other classmates to consider the program.

“I liked that their culture is all about hos-pitality and closeness. I would definite-ly recommend others go,” se-nior English major Rachael Almeida said.

Students can take Italian courses as an elective or to fulfill their requirement of 14

credit hours of a foreign lan-guage. Since the program is still in its beginning stages, it is not offered as a major or

minor.Many stu-

dents are en-thusiastic about the pro-gram and the opportunities it brings to study abroad and be able to communicate in another lan-guage.

“The main reason for my excitement is learning this language will make me tri-lingual after

knowing Eng-lish and Spanish,” junior edu-cation major Maegan Loya. “And then there’s the possi-bility of going to Italy in May

2015, and that’s just another college experience I’ve always wanted to do. I can’t wait to see how this class plays out.”

While Italian is an option for the foreign language re-quirement, it can also help students in other fields from international business to reli-gious studies.

“It can support you in other academics like music or art or the classics. If you want to go minister in Italy or on a mis-sion trip, it can work. There are thousands of reasons, plus there are the 14 credit hours so that helps,” Mattison said.

Students are encouraged to take Italian not only for the linguistic benefits but to broaden their worldviews and understanding of culture.

“I think learning a foreign language improves your self-confidence,” Mattison said. “It keeps your brain flexible and makes you a more culturally-adept person.”

By Antonio Hebert

Visitors to the 15th annual Health Quest received information on a variety of topics and had health screenings like blood pressure, glucose tests and body composition tests in addition to others. Door prizes donated by Montgomery Chi-ropractic included a Dragon Touch seven-inch Google Android 4.1 Tablet PC.

The university hosted the event in the Mayborn Campus Center Friday, March 21.

It was open for both the campus and the public to attend. The event boasted more than 50 exhibitors representing many health and wellness businesses, including Belton Eye Care, Cox/Bond Dental Group, Dermatology Associates of Central Texas and many more.

Dr. Stephen Crawford, a professor of percussion in UMHB’s music depart-ment, attended Health Quest and enjoyed the resources he and other visitors had ac-cess to.

“I found it very informative. There seemed to be something for everyone and areas of health that I never considered. I was very interested in sports-related health areas and chiropractic care for back and neck issues,” he said.

He does have one suggestion for next year.

Crawford said, “I would have liked to have seen more dental booths.”

Deborah Rosenberger, the university’s campus nurse, was instrumental in the or-ganization of the event. She was pleased with the high attendance.

“This was our largest turnout ever––over 900 folks,” she said.

Planning Health Quest is a massive undertaking, and Rosenberger has put the event together for many years.

She said, “The initial groundwork was set the first year, and each year I tweak it as needed. I started with zero information and built from there. Inviting vendors to participate, set up, getting the word out. This is a huge endeavor.”

She attempts to keep the fresh and in-teresting by catering to the interests of the people and at no cost to them.

“I try to get a variety of screenings for free and a well-rounded group of vendors. None of the vendors are paid to come by UMHB; they are all volunteer or paid by

their employer to come,” she said.Next year’s event is slated to be held in

the new Bawcom Student Union Banquet Hall. Rosenberger is always looking to make every Health Quest better than the previous.

She said, “My goal is to improve the event each year.”

Sophomore psychology major Ariana Navarro worked at the fair as a greeter. She’s hopeful for the future of the tradi-tion.

Navarro said, “It was a very fun and lively. It didn’t seem like people were be-ing forced to be there. Next year, hope-fully even more people come.”

Rosenberger goes on Health Quest

“ ...Italian is just a fun language. It’s a great cul-ture and travel destination. We thought it would be a popular op-tion.”

Dr. Jamie MattisonForeign

Languages Department

Chairwoman

Courtesy photo

Alison Bullock, Eliza Faillace, Taylor Bullock from left to right, work a table in Mayborn Campus Center during the 15th annual Health Quest.

I designed this page lay-out. I think it is one of my better designs because of how the photos are bal-anced on the page.

I also wrote the top sto-ry which is one of the best features I have written.