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For the past nine years, JMU has hosted an annual Conference on Diversity, highlighting the university's commitment to being an inclusive place for all students and faculty. The College of Integrated Science and Engineering (CISE) shares this ambition, pushing to increase diversity within its departments. CISE was recognized for these efforts at this year's conference, winning a number of awards. Award recipients included Computer Science (CS) professor Dr. Ramon Mata-Toledo, Dean's Office Manager Ms. Lynda Chandler Capaccio, and the CISE Diversity Council.
As Chandler explained, the Conference on Diversity is "designed to foster awareness and appreciation of campus diversity issues through inclusion, shared experience discussions, and interpersonal development." The conference consists of workshops and speakers focused on a variety of challenges faced by students, staff, and faculty within the JMU community. "We're trying to bring new perspectives to help people share best practices and understand what's going on campus," said CISE Dean Dr. Bob Kolvoord. "It's a university wide-event, and part of our campus commitment to being diverse and inclusive."
The first diversity award was given to Mata-Toledo, who has been teaching in the CS program for the past 27 years. Because of his efforts supporting and mentoring students from a variety of backgrounds, Mata-Toledo was recognized as the faculty awardee for the Diversity Enhancement program. Mata-Toledo explained that student mentoring is important to him because of the difference he can make in a student's life. "At the end of the day, I can say I did my best to help somebody," said Mata-Toledo. "It was really nice seeing Mata-Toledo's efforts recognized with an award," added Kolvoord. "It's overdue recognition for really good work that he's done mentoring students."
For her work advocating the Shenandoah Valley Autism Partnership (SVAP) and children with special needs, Chandler was recognized at the conference as the 2015 Woman of Distinction. "It's difficult for me to find the words to describe how absolutely thrilled and honored I am to be the recipient," she exclaimed. Chandler was inspired to join SVAP, a non-profit organization committed to improving the quality of life for individuals impacted by autism spectrum disorder, eight years ago after her son was diagnosed with Regressive Autism Spectrum Disorder. "Parents are often initially paralyzed by this diagnosis, but through the work of the SVAP, volunteers like me are able to help provide the necessary resources to begin piecing their lives back together," explained Chandler.
Chandler is now a Board Member of SVAP, the chair of the organization's Publicity Committee, and helps coordinate their annual 5k fundraiser, which raises over $20,000 each year for scholarships to local families in need. "The SVAP is a successful combination of professionals and families working together, and I'm proud to be a part of this group," she added.
Finally, the CISE Diversity Council was awarded an Innovative Diversity Efforts Award (IDEA) Grant to continue their pilot project encouraging women and minority students to remain in STEM fields. "The challenge of getting women and minorities in STEM fields is a national one," explained Associate Dean of CISE Dr. Jeffrey Tang. "However, we have a lot of faculty interested in addressing those issues, and we do a lot of outreach to K-12 schools." This grant in particular goes towards the creation of academic fairs highlighting different options for all high school students who might be interested in STEM fields. "It's like an academic job fair related to STEM fields, targeted at juniors when they're getting ready to think about colleges," continued Tang. If the pilot program proves to be successful at the local level, the Diversity Council eventually wants to expand to a regional level.
Through its faculty and staff members, and various programs, CISE strives to be a place where anybody can be successful and feel supported. "Our challenge is to think about what we do, make sure we're doing everything we can to support our students, and to draw in students from a diverse array of backgrounds," said Kolvoord. "We've made tremendous strides in the last five years, but JMU needs to look like the communities it serves, and we're challenging ourselves to do better. We're trying to walk the walk and not just talk the talk, and I think these various activities and our faculty members are emblematic of that goal."
UWC Writing Fellows Taylor O'Donnell and Kody Sharp with JMU |
Through student engagement and an active role in the classroom experience, the UWC Writing Fellows are taking an innovative approach to teaching writing in the college classroom.
Unlike a traditional teaching assistant, fellows help lead writing workshops, deliver mini-lessons on writing-related topics, hold student conferences, and collaborate with professors on the assignment design. This gives Writing Fellows a unique position, in a variety of disciplines, as liaisons between the professor and the students.
This semester, there are a total of nine fellows working across campus in a variety of disciplines including ISAT, engineering, biology, nursing, social work, and general education courses.
UWC tutor Dakota Sharp, a senior Communications Sciences and Disorders major, worked as a fellow last semester in the Engineering program, helping students with their senior capstone projects. Sharp says that his favorite part of being a Writing Fellow was "the opportunity to help students over an extended amount of time. Being a resource that students can trust as a peer opens up so many more opportunities to help. It's also fun to develop the curriculum for problems you aren't an expert on—and you get to become an expert in the process!"
Over the course of his fellowship, Sharp discovered an important difference between his role as Writing Fellow and as peer tutor: "At the UWC, we don't have the opportunity to check in on students after their visit to see how their writing has progressed. As a Writing Fellow, you're given the opportunity to observe students longitudinally and help them master many skills instead of the few you can help them with in one 45 minute session."
The increase in direct, specific feedback and peer interaction creates a mutually beneficial learning experience—for the students and tutor—that in turn helps to elevate the quality of instruction taking place in the classroom.
Tutor Caroline Prendergast, a fifth-year WRTC and Psychology double major, is also a former Writing Fellow. For her Honors Thesis Project, Prendergast looked at the impact the Writing Fellows program was having on students from a quantitative perspective. While working as a fellow in a psychology lab course, she gathered data on the students' scores for multiple drafts of their reports while also taking a look at measures of "blocking" (the things that prevent students from being effective, empowered writers), time use, and supplemental instruction use. The results of her study aren't available while she is awaiting IRB approval, but she anticipates that the data collected will help determine the effectiveness of the Writing Fellows program, and perhaps aid in its continued growth.
To learn more about the Writing Fellows Program or to request a Writing Fellow, faculty can contact Writing Fellows Coordinator Laura Schubert at firstname.lastname@example.com.
-Allison Michelli, Peer Tutor
GREENVILLE, N.C. – History was made for the James Madison softball team as junior Jailyn Ford (SRM Major) threw the program's first-ever perfect game while also breaking the career strikeout record to cap off a doubleheader sweep against East Carolina on Wednesday at the ECU Softball Stadium.
The No. 23/24 Dukes stretched their program-record win streak to 25 games after downing the Pirates by 6-1 and 13-0 scores, improving to 34-6 on the season. ECU fell for the fifth and sixth straight games to drop to 11-34 on the year.
Ford went the distance in game two, striking out 13 ECU batters without allowing a single player on base for the first time in the team's 14-year history. It was also the third time ever that JMU held an opponent without a hit.
Needing just 11 strikeouts to make individual history, Ford also surpassed former JMU great Meredith Felts (2006-09) to become the all-time strikeouts leader at JMU, with 584, besting Felts' 581 career K's.
Architectural Design at James Madison University
The Interior Architecture program at James Madison University is very pleased to announce that we have a new name, Architectural Design. This exciting new name aligns with our teaching pedagogy and is the first Architectural Design Program in the history of James Madison University approved though our curriculum review process.
The name Architectural Design reflects the wide range of career options that are available to our students. The Architectural Design program is fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, and prepares students for professional work or graduate study in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Engineering or Interior Architecture. Students enrolled in this program gain the technical, creative, and expressive skills to become highly inventive design thinkers.
The Architectural Design program offers intensive education in the design process. The curriculum instills purpose, craft, technological competence, and versatile thinking. The Architectural Design curriculum is centered on a 6-studio sequence. The teaching of design process and a design ethos is at the heart of the program.
Additional required coursework in architectural history, materials & methods, computer modeling, professional practices, and study abroad supplement the studio sequence and support design projects of increasing sophistication and complexity.
For more information regarding the Architectural Design program at James Madison University, please contact the area coordinator, Evelyn Tickle: firstname.lastname@example.com
Architectural Design at James Madison University
The Interior Architecture program at James Madison University is very pleased to announce that we have a new name, Architectural Design. This exciting new name aligns with our teaching pedagogy and is the first Architectural Design Program in the history of James Madison University approved though our curriculum review process.
The name Architectural Design reflects the wide range of career options that are available to our students. The Architectural Design program is fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, and prepares students for professional work or graduate study in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Engineering or Interior Architecture. Students enrolled in this program gain the technical, creative, and expressive skills to become highly inventive design thinkers.
The Architectural Design program offers intensive education in the design process. The curriculum instills purpose, craft, technological competence, and versatile thinking. The Architectural Design curriculum is centered on a 6-studio sequence. The teaching of design process and a design ethos is at the heart of the program.
Additional required coursework in architectural history, materials & methods, computer modeling, professional practices, and study abroad supplement the studio sequence and support design projects of increasing sophistication and complexity.
For more information regarding the Architectural Design program at James Madison University, please contact the area coordinator, Evelyn Tickle: firstname.lastname@example.com
Kristina Rubio is the Graduate Assistant for MAD4U at JMU. Photo by Michael Watkins for JMU Technology and Design.
By Charity O'Connor
Kristina Rubio is a Cali girl at heart, but has found her home here among the Blue Ridge Mountains at JMU. Having grown up in Diamond Bar, CA, a suburb of Los Angeles, life here in Virginia was a change of pace. Rubio completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville before taking a year off and deciding to further her education at JMU. Rubio is a first year graduate student in the College Student Personnel Administration (CSPA) program and the graduate assistant for MAD4U.
"Student Affairs is the education that happens outside the classroom." Rubio first discovered her passion for Student Affairs after going on an alternative spring break during her undergraduate time. This division of higher education is dedicated to fostering the growth of students, and this critical development is what Rubio finds most rewarding.
Rubio supervises a staff of seven "MAD4U-ers," and together they hold ten events per week. "It's really amazing how much work can be completed with just a set of really awesome, intentional people." Rubio also helps plan MAD4U's special events, one of their largest being their "For Love" benefit gala. Each year this gala benefits a different cause, providing dukes with a fun evening, as well as life changing funds to a charitable organization. Previous galas have included For Love for Haiti and For Love for the Gulf.
"The intentionality is something that stands out for me. We do things for a reason, and we put thought into what we do," Rubio says of MAD4U's events, particularly Teatime. She sees MAD4U and its housing in the Office of Student Activities and Involvement as a sort of home for students. What motivates Rubio most is the students, and the ways that their passionate involvement demands thoughtful programs.
When she's not organizing Open Mic Night or working with the MAD4U-ers, Rubio is likely to be cooking or daydreaming about her next trip. Having travelled to 24 states during her 24 years, she hopes to see more of the world in the future. Or, on a relaxing day, Rubio might be binge watching her favorite show, Gilmore Girls, or training for her goal of running a half marathon.
Rubio sees her journey through graduate school ending in a place where she can pursue a happy marriage between her love of Student Affairs and service learning. Having given a year of service to AmeriCorps, Rubio is passionate about not only helping others, but also facilitating valuable experiences through service. While she hasn't nailed down her plans yet, she is optimistic that another year in school will help her narrow her focus.
As our society continues to become more globalized, decisions impacting sustainability and environmental welfare have grown increasingly critical. It is imperative that these decision-makers possess a strong understanding of what it means to cultivate a globally sustainable way of living, knowing and being.
Dr. Theresa Harris
JMU launched a summit series on March 25th entitled, "Cultivating the Globally Sustainable Self". Faculty from the College of Educationplayed an integral part in the planning, developing and hosting of the summit series. COE Dean Phillip Wishon, Dr. Teresa Harris and Dr. Timothy Thomas all served on the summit's Steering Committee. Their primary responsibilities included collaborating with outside organizational representatives, inviting the summit participants, organizing the speakers, panels, and discussions, compiling associated readings and materials, and working closely with the Project Committee to coordinate processes, outcomes and establish a plan for achieving these goals within the summit's three year plan.
In addition to serving on the Steering Committee, these COE faculty members along with Learning, Technology, Leadership and Education (LTLE) professor Dr. Edward Brantmeier served as Summit Council members. Each of these faculty members were responsible for overseeing and carrying out the summit's goals and outcomes by actively engaging in the event's activities while maintaining collegial relations at a local, national, and international level.
Faculty, students, staff and administrators from various discipline areas within the JMU community, along with representatives from outside organizations were invited to attend the four-day summit. The Friday evening keynote address by Dr. Riane Eisler was also part of President Jonathan Alger's Madison Vision series. Speakers, panel presentations and group discussions allowed for these stakeholders to engage in conversation while sharing ideas on creating a learning environment that encourages sustainable behaviors. These events were intended to assist individuals in understanding why and how transformation of sustainable teaching occurs, for whom, and under what circumstances.
For more information regarding the summit's overview and rationale, goals, itinerary of events and outcomes, please visit http://www.jmu.edu/summitseries/index.shtml
Makenzie Beam is the Graduate Assistant at JMU Fraternity and Sorority Life.
By Charity O'Connor
One would not immediately assume that accounting and Greek leadership are a common pair. But for first year graduate student Makenzie Beam, the two coexist seamlessly to make up her first and only year here at JMU. Beam is about halfway through the completion of her Masters of Accounting program, and is also one of two Graduate Assistants for Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL).
Beam, a May 2014 grad, received her Bachelors in Accounting from Furman University in South Carolina. But coming to JMU was coming home for Beam, a Harrisonburg native, and she has easily found her place amongst the teeming Greek community here.
Having been a member of a sorority during undergrad, the Greek community is not new to Beam, and getting involved at JMU was a given: "I thought since I'm only here for a year, it would be a great way to really get involved in JMU." Beam's favorite aspect of her graduate assistantship is the people. "The majority of my time is spent meeting with people and working with people, which I just think is really fun. There's something new and different everyday." She channels this love of people into her position, and tirelessly works to promote the best interests of the Greek community.
Beam works on several different ongoing project areas throughout the year including, Leadership Institute (LI), Greek Week, advises Junior Panhellenic, co-advises Panhellenic Council, and serves as a general resource for the JMU students and staff of the Greek community. LI is one of the most hands on opportunities for Beam to plan, and the program seeks to cultivate strong leadership skills in new Greek student leaders through a weekend retreat every January.
Beam sees her work as the FSL graduate assistant applicable in many ways, and the skills she learns here will stay with her well into her future career as an accountant. "I think working with people is just always a really good skill to have, and realizing that you can branch out of your area [is important]." Beam's passion for people, and affinity for providing support to Greek organizations will likely lead her to continue to stay involved long after she graduates, as a Greek adviser.
Looking to get involved in the Greek community? Find out more at info.jmu.edu/fsl
Please consider joining a dynamic, innovative team of instructional faculty who are dedicated to enhancing academic culture at JMU.
Applications are now being accepted for a Faculty Associate – Teaching Area position in the Center for Faculty Innovation (CFI). The CFI works to enhance academic culture by encouraging excellence in teaching, scholarship, and career planning for JMU faculty. Faculty Associates are full-time, 10-month JMU instructional faculty who receive a course release during the fall and spring semesters and a stipend during the summer. Joining a diverse and collaborative team for up to three academic years, Faculty Associates contribute substantially to the development, delivery, and evaluation of programs that support the development of JMU faculty. In addition to the specific position detailed below, all applicants must possess an interest in university faculty development, be well organized, and be willing to work collaboratively on team-based initiatives.
Teaching Area Faculty Associate
The CFI provides an array of inclusive, evidence-based workshops, institutes, communities, and consultations designed to encourage, foster, and support excellence in teaching and learning. To that end, we welcome applications from instructional faculty interested in a Faculty Associate position in the Teaching Area. Ideal applicants will possess some or all of the following characteristics: knowledge of evidence-based pedagogies, awareness of trends and innovations in teaching and learning, attention to details, ability to manage multiple tasks, and strong computer skills.
The candidate will be selected in May 2015. The position will begin officially in fall 2015. Faculty Associates receive a course release per semester (negotiated with the academic unit head) or a $3,000 stipend for their work.
Application Materials
"I support ___________________'s application for the position of CFI Faculty Associate. Name: __________ Title: ___________"
Application Process
Submit items 1 and 2 to firstname.lastname@example.com by April 30, 2015 at 5:00 pm. Ensure that items 3 and 4 are also submitted by the deadline. For cases in which the AUH is also the nominator, the AUH should submit each document separately, but may supply both as part of the same email. Questions may be directed to Cara Meixner.
By: Lori News
Posted: April 13, 2015
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to spend the summer working with nationally and internationally known doctors and researchers? Thanks to a stipend from the JMU Huber Endowment this became a reality for Ellie Jordan, a senior Pre-medicine, Economics Major and Biology Minor. Jordan completed a summer internship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) working with Dr. Vance Berger, who is known for his research on biases and threats to the validity of medical studies, and especially clinical trials.
When asked what it was like to work with Dr. Berger, Jordan explained that it was an honor. "I was amazed by his level and depth of knowledge on all fronts, even outside of his specialty of clinical trials. He is one-of-a-kind and it is very humbling to work with him," she said.
Drs. Bill Grant, Rhonda Zingraff, and Sharon Babcock collaborated to identify Jordan for the competitive summer internship. Although the majority of students who successfully land internships with Dr. Berger are graduate students, Babcock, Jordan's pre-med advisor, still saw Jordan as "a student whose talents and interests made her exceptionally suited and competitive for a summer internship."
During the internship, Jordan was responsible for educating herself about clinical trial randomization, which is a method of experimental control used in human clinical trials and other biological experiments to prevent selection bias and insure against accidental bias. After she was familiar with the topic, Jordan was asked to analyze and integrate a large data set from simulated patient allocations into understandable results. She was also responsible for writing two working papers in the area of randomization and bias in clinical trials.
However, Jordan discovered how difficult it was beginning each paper. "I would review literature for hours in hopes of finding some legitimate evidence that would support my thesis. I probably wrote about 10 drafts of each paper, so it was also hard not to get frustrated." Though, she said, once she started writing it became easier. Jordan later presented this information to the Biometry Research Group at the National Cancer Institute.
Jordan explains that the most memorable part of the internship was having the opportunity to work with other interns from around the world. "One was from Brazil and studying pharmacy, and the other was from California and studying statistics. We all became very good friends and learned so much from each other and our respective areas of study," she said.
In addition to learning from her fellow interns, Jordan says she also learned a lot about how to conduct research, allowing her to enhance her professional writing and research skills. Because of her involvement with Dr. Berger's research and her own research development, she hopes to further contribute in changing the way clinical trials are run for the betterment of society.
"I also found it very valuable to be aware of bias in clinical trials not only because of my own health and exposure to medications, but also because of my ambition in entering the medical field," she explains.
Looking toward the future, Jordan has applied to a few medical schools; however, she said she is beginning to rethink her future path to gain more clinical experience. Currently, she is looking into working as a medical scribe or emergency room technician for a few years while taking additional classes. From there, her next step would be to possibly apply to either an accelerated nursing program or a physician assistant school.
Babcock believes Jordan's academic pursuits and decisions have allowed her to excel in the classroom under diverse disciplines. "She is a notable role model and mentor for her fellow Pre-Professional Health students," she said. "I value tremendously the impact of students who follow their academic passions and successfully navigate a college experience that reflects their interests and talents."
Jordan's advice to other students interested in pursing an internship is "to seek out internships that may seem intimidating because they are guaranteed to challenge you and teach you something/many things that will, no doubt, be valuable in your future career."
Dr. Erica Lewis, a professor in the Department of Nursing, has spent much of her professional career studying the nature of ethics and how to best teach it to others. She first developed a strong interest in the field while working to attain her Ph.D. at the University of Virginia.
Since coming to JMU in 2013, she has applied her expertise in this field through her work with the Madison Collaborative, an organization seeking to teach students ethical reasoning. In her role as a Madison Collaborative Associate, she offers workshops and one-on-one consultations with faculty while also promoting the study of ethics via social media.
The Madison Collaborative seeks to provide both students and faculty with the resources to develop ethical reasoning skills. To achieve this goal, it has created Eight Key Questions that will aid people in determining the best course of action when facing an ethical dilemma. The questions span many different facets of the decision-making process, such as: Fairness – How can I act equitably and balance legitimate interests? Outcomes – What achieves the best short- and long-term outcomes for me and all others? Empathy – What would I do if I cared deeply about those involved? To apply these questions, case studies are created as one of the many methods the Madison Collaborative uses to test one's ethical reasoning.
Lewis described her experiences with the organization: "Through my work at the Madison Collaborative, I have seen that ethical reasoning can be learned. I have observed students make great strides in their ability to make ethical decisions and follow through on their decisions."
She has adopted the method of case studies to convey the Madison Collaborative's Eight Key Questions. "Ethics case studies should involve a level of tension between ethical principles. The Eight Key Questions can be used to develop and evaluate this tension," Lewis explained. "This is what creates a rich discussion and learning environment."
One-on-one consultations have allowed the case study method of learning to be disseminated to faculty. "I listen to the faculty discuss their needs and course objectives," she said. "Together we make a plan for them to move forward to meet their course objectives. I work with the faculty giving them the tools to build case studies that map to their own curriculum," she added. Faculty have been receptive to using this learning technique.
Bill Hawk, the chairman of the Madison Collaborative, explained the importance of Lewis' role: "With her experience in both using and designing case studies, she helps to provide valuable guidance to faculty who are interested in more effectively using case studies in their instruction, especially when it comes to developing ethical reasoning skills."
Lewis has redesigned the Nursing Department's curriculum so it better addresses ethics and moral distress.
The fields of nursing and ethics are intertwined, Lewis states. She clarified, "Nurses face many ethical decisions in their practice. They are also particularly well suited to help others understand the empathetic element of ethical reasoning. I relied on the Eight Key Questions to revise the Nursing Department curriculum ethics content so that all nursing students receive systematic, progressed exposure to ethical reasoning."
One case study she has used involves students admitting that they have hit another person's car to begin a discussion about medical error disclosure. Her method of teaching proves that ethical reasoning is related to most fields of study and everyday choices.
Lewis, moreover, has taken this ethical reasoning approach to other facets of her life. She explained that she has utilized the Eight Key Questions of the Madison Collaborative in her role as an ethics committee member at the local hospital.
Lewis clearly embodies the teachings of her field of study, performing ethical reasoning in all venues. The Eight Key Questions make that easier.
"What kind of future will our children inherit?" Dr. Riane Eisler—renowned social and systems scientist, attorney and author—asked a Madison Vision Series audience on March 25.
"We have to show that the struggle for the future isn't between right and left, religion and secularism…it's between this pullback [from] the domination system and the movement toward the partnership way of life," Eisler concluded. "We have an opportunity in our research [and] in our classes to weave this in and to begin to make that new story."
More specifically, she continued, "What kinds of social systems support optimal human development? What kinds of social systems support the expression of our human capacities for consciousness, for caring, for creativity, or, alternately, cruelty and destructiveness?"
Eisler's lecture, "Re-Examining Human Nature and Re-Creating Society: Four Cornerstones for Transformation," synthesized decades of Eisler's cutting-edge research into four main foundations for a new kind of society: childhood relations, gender relations, economics and stories.
What we are continuing to learn from neuroscience is that the human brain is flexible and adaptive—it develops in interaction with its environment. And the most important environment that we are exposed to is culture, a way of life that is reinforced in all of our social institutions. Given the fact that our brains develop most rapidly during the first few years of our lives, our family institutions, then, along with other intimate relationships, are influenced by what kind of society we live in and what kinds of relations that society supports.
Our world has tended to understand social processes through rigid binaries—right versus left, religious versus secular, capitalist versus communist. "I am inviting you to join me today in going outside these old categories and looking at human societies from a perspective that transcends them," Eisler said. "The lens of two underlying social configurations: the domination system and the partnership system."
Eisler asked the audience to think of all the modern progressive movements that have occurred—the abolitionist movement, women's rights and the civil rights movement, for example—and to notice their common thread. Each one has challenged entrenched systems of domination. And this system of domination and authoritarian rule does not just exist in the state, but is also embedded into our personal relationships and families. It relies on the rigid ranking of one half of humanity over the other—men being superior to women—where anything in the realm of masculinity is given higher value than stereotypical female qualities. And it's perpetuated through a system of institutional violence.
"Most of the progressive social movements have focused on dismantling the top of the domination pyramid, but far less attention has been paid to changing the foundations on which that pyramid keeps rebuilding itself," Eisler said. There is irony, however, in the fact that many individuals who consider themselves progressive devalue the rights of women and children as "just" women's issues and "just" children's issues, despite both playing critical roles in the world's overall social structure. "We have to pay much more attention to these primary human relations," she added.
Relating these historical precedents to four cornerstones of recreating society, Eisler called for a shift in thinking on four issues.
First, an attention to childhood relations. Because we know from neuroscience that children gain an almost full base understanding of the world in their childhood years, this window is critical for demonstrating the partnership system over the dominant one.
This comes, secondly, from gender relations. There are currently two fundamental halves of humanity, and children learn to equate differences with either superiority or inferiority. If the men and women in their lives most intimately connected to them—most often, their mothers and fathers—are unequal in terms of power and partnership, children will generalize those differences not only into their own perceptions of sex and gender, but in other racial, religious or sexual orientation differences. "We have to really focus on changing this tradition of devaluing not only the female half of humanity," Eisler said, "but also everything associated with the female half of humanity"—of compassion, of empathy and of sensitivity.
Economics is the third cornerstone, where the devaluation of "the feminine" adversely affects a nation's quality of life. Eisler cited research demonstrating that the status of women can actually be a better predictor of general quality of life than a nation's GDP. "When women are devalued, so are values like caring for people," Eisler emphasized. "We have to change our thinking about what is and what is not valuable."
Finally, stories constitute the fourth cornerstone. Our culture, our gender relations, and domination-partnership continuums are all socially constructed through the narratives we tell and re-tell as truth. "We've already seen how we need a new story," Eisler said. "It's up to you to see that that new story spreads." And because culture is a human creation—devised and reinforced by humans themselves—we also have the capability of igniting transformative change that improves these systems and, through acknowledging Eisler's four cornerstones, draws them toward the system of partnership and a more peaceful, equitable future.
Eisler said she was happy to be on James Madison University's campus, where she noted that the warmness and caring nature of the university was an excellent setting for her presentation. It is through JMU's engagement, she said, that we can play a part in shaping the future she hopes for.
April 8, 2015
By Rosemary Girard ('15)
by Elizabeth Hoover
Published in the summer 2014 Virginia Quarterly Review, Camille Dungy's essay "A Brief History of Near and Actual Losses" narrates her experience visiting Cape Coast Castle in Ghana, where thousands were held before being loaded on ships to make the deadly Middle Passage. When asked what she thought of her visit, she replies, "Honestly, I don't know what to think."
The essay gives no easy answers, pat revelations, or false closure. As in her poetry, the essay creates a space for the reader to explore and question our troubled past and imperiled present. In her review of Dungy's third collection of poetry Smith Blue, Molly Spencer of Flycatcher writes, "It's … a survival guide for those of us who wish to navigate … contradictions deeply and well."
The surety in Dungy's poetry comes not from resolving contradictions but from her ceaseless attention to craft, which sustains readers through the difficult journeys her poems take. Suck on the Marrow travels through 19th-century Virginia and Philadelphia and is told in the voices of fugitive slaves, kidnapped Northern blacks, and free people of color. Remica L. Bingham-Risher writes in Obsidian, "Each piece of Dungy's historical puzzle gives depth and life to those curtained and disappeared by unaware, uninterested, or obstinate gatekeepers."
Dungy also confronts those "unaware, uninterested, or obstinate gatekeepers" as an editor. Her landmark anthology Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry challenged received notions of what constitutes nature poetry and added important voices to the field. She is also the co-editor of From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great.
In an interview with Lunch Ticket, she remarked, "So why not use my poetry to try and make true that this world can be a better place? Why not use my poetry to try and make people uncomfortable with how things are so that they can move towards trying to change things towards something better?"
A professor in the English Department at Colorado State University, Dungy is a two-time recipient of the Northern California Book Award, has twice been nominated for an NAACP Image award, and was a finalist for the Balcones Prize. The Culture Trip recently named her one of the "10 Young American Poets Changing the Face of Poetry."
In this three-part interview conducted by The Fight & the Fiddle editor Elizabeth Hoover, Dungy talks about how her processes as a poet, editor, and essayist are invested in transformation.
What do you love in a poem? | Dungy explains how editing Black Nature articulated her vision of nature poetry, how editing informs her own writing, and what it means to fall in love with a poem.
Transforming Form | Dungy describes how her willingness to push herself with rigorous—but also mundane—formal exercises leads to epiphanies and what poets' "mutations" of received form contribute to the poetic tradition.
The JMU Symphony Honors Concert is right around the corner, and two students in particular are busy preparing. DMA music student, Clement Acevedo, and master's student, Guilherme Andreas, will get their chance to perform with the JMU Symphony Orchestra on Sunday, April 19 @ 2 pm at the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts.
Acevedo, a pianist, and Andreas, a flutist, won the 2015 JMU Concerto/Aria Competition earlier in the semester to earn a coveted spot in the concert. Acevedo will perform Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D major, and is from the studio of Dr. Gabriel Dobner. Andreas will perform Reinecke Flute Concert in D major, Op. 283, and is from the studio of Dr. Beth Chandler. Both students played these pieces in the Concerto/Aria Competition.
While both students had the opportunity to choose their music, Acevedo says, "the music chose me." Acevedo sustained an injury to his right hand last year, so opted for a left hand-only piece. Andreas selected his piece because he believes it "is one of the most beautiful concertos written for flute."
Acevedo and Andreas have been practicing with the Orchestra—Andreas for a month and Acevedo for the past week. "To perform in this concert is a huge opportunity. I feel humbled and grateful," shares Andreas. Acevedo adds, "It is truly an honor." "I only hope that performing my piece will give a glimpse into the collective talent in the JMU School of Music."
Also on the program for the Honors Concert is the JMU Chorale, who will sing Francis Poulenc's Gloria.
By Jen Kulju (M'04)
Since its inception in 1980, more than 130 public schools across the Commonwealth have participated in the James Madison University Student Print Exhibition. The "traveling print show" is the brainchild of printmaking professor, Jack McCaslin, who began the exhibition four years after starting at JMU. "I didn't think it [the show] would go more than a year. Now, here we are 35 years later," jokes McCaslin.
McCaslin created the show with the hope of generating "good publicity for the JMU art programs in a freely available, portable format that could also serve as a unique opportunity for high school students to see, study and hold the art of the college 'big kids' who were just a few years ahead of them."
His students make fine art print editions, multiples of the same image, so McCaslin reserves the right to ask students to retain a copy for the exhibition. Each year, 32 pieces of past and current student work are selected for the show, which include representations of the four printmaking processes: screenprinting, lithography, relief printing (wood block, linocut, etc.) and intaglio (etching and engraving). Depending on demand, McCaslin has put together up to three shows for a given year. Schools across Virginia have the opportunity to sign up during the summer and fall on a first-come, first-served basis for the exhibition that runs from October through May.
This year, Harrisonburg High School celebrated "Youth Art Month" in March with the exhibition. Art teacher, Jauan Brooks, who is a former student of McCaslin's, requested the show. Brooks graduated from JMU with a B.S. in studio art in 1994 and a master's in art education in 2005. She has taught at HHS for 20 years, and says the school has had some connection to the show for at least the last 10 years.
Brooks believes it is valuable for her students "to see what students at the college-level are creating and figure out why they created it." We're always trying to teach students to read and interpret images, to examine what the artist is trying to express in the artwork. Students can relate to students who are not that much older than they are," says Brooks, who used the show to supplement a teaching unit on printmaking (pictured below) and exhibited the pieces in a central area of the high school.
McCaslin says that when he was in high school, he didn't get a chance to see the work of college-level students. High school students are now getting that opportunity thanks to McCaslin—and his idea seems to be making an impact. "I think it's pretty neat that some of my current students have told me that they saw the show in high school."
One of those students is senior printmaking major, Brittany Sink (pictured above), who says she was inspired by "the most beautiful print of an elephant" in high school. Sink is one of five current JMU students with work in the 35th Annual JMU Student Print Exhibition. The others include junior Melissa Huryk (studio art major), senior Mariah Davis (studio art major, art education teaching licensure), senior Stevie Marckel (graphic design and printmaking majors) and Pam Watkins (continuing education student).
According to Watkins, "It is an honor [to have work selected for the show]." "It means 'Jack' likes my work, and he wants other people to see it." Marckel echoed Watkin's response to having work selected. "It's gratifying. It's nice to know that 'Jack' not only likes my work, but feels like they're good examples of different techniques."
McCaslin mentions that he looks for examples that illustrate specific techniques, high aesthetic stands, and subject matter that would be appropriate and of interest to high school students. (The show is typically sent to high schools, but middle and elementary schools have also participated.) Popular themes have been "dogs and roommates" over the years, and students "make prints of all sizes," according to McCaslin. The pieces are either shipped or driven from one location to the next.
Brooks drove this year's traveling print show to Riverheads High School in Augusta County, where it will be on display throughout the month of April. Carleigh Boyd is the art educator at RHS. She graduated from JMU in 2013 with a B.F.A. in graphic design, and is a former student of McCaslin's, and has had art selected for the traveling print show (see above).
Photos by Bob Adamek.
Digital Communication Consulting, a program in the JMU Learning Centers, is now accepting applications from all faculty who are interested in hiring a Media Fellow for 2015-2016 classes.
Apply Now
(Applications due by 5:00pm May 6, 2015)
About the Media Fellows Program:
Media Fellows are extensively trained undergraduate tutors of digital communication. Our Media Fellows can offer a range of services in class, out of class, and online to assist your students in creating more sophisticated, usable, and professional online content:
Benefits for Faculty:
Faculty who incorporate sustained digital assignments in their course could benefit from a partnership with a Media Fellow:
Media Fellows hold no grading responsibilities.
Media Fellows are currently funded through individual departments at $10/hr. The fellowship can range from 40 to 100 hours a semester depending on the size and needs of your class.
For a showcase of the Media Fellows' work, see our Media Fellows page.
Applications for Media Fellows are due by 5:00pm May 6, 2015. Faculty can apply for either the spring or fall semester. Apply Now
I'd like to share with you some of the information that senior leadership presented to the Board of Visitors today as well as news from that meeting. Chief among this news are the achievements of our exceptional faculty, staff, students and donors.
Today the Board of Visitors approved an upgrade of three concentrations into individual majors in the School of Theatre and Dance. Dance, Musical Theatre and Theatre will each become majors with a bachelor of arts degree. The change was prompted by the re-accreditation process with the National Association of Schools of Dance and National Association of Schools of Theatres. The proposed majors involve no additional curricular changes, and no additional resources are required for the upgrade.
We are gaining traction across campus as we near the completion of Year 2 of our Quality Enhancement Plan. The Madison Collaborative: Ethical Reasoning in Action includes a focus on ethics across our academic and student affairs programs.
Every component in the Division of Student Affairs is incorporating the 8 Key Questions into its programming.
In Academic Affairs, more faculty members are using the 8 Key Questions strategy in their instruction -- in courses in general education and in the majors. I look forward to even greater faculty involvement and adoption as we make ethical reasoning a top priority. JMU faculty members have made numerous presentations to national professional groups on this topic.
Under the newly established Madison Collaborative Educators program, students teach students ethical reasoning skills.
Finally, this spring we are piloting The Madison Collaborative Interactive, an online learning activity that builds upon the ideas learned during "It's Complicated" (the Orientation program that introduces all incoming first-year students to the 8 Key Questions).
I am pleased to announce that we have concluded three successful important national searches in Academic Affairs.
Dr. Adam Murray will be joining us as the new dean of Libraries and Educational Technologies. Dr. Murray currently serves as dean of University Libraries at Murray State University.
Dr. Jie Chen will be the Dean of the Graduate School. Dr. Chen is coming to us from the University of Idaho, where he serves as the dean of the College of Graduate Studies.
Dr. Bradley Newcomer will be joining us as the director of the Honors Program as we seek to take the next step to develop a full Honors College within JMU. He is coming to us from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he serves as the Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Honors and Research and Professor and Director of the B.S. in Biomedical Science Program.
Our continuing efforts to provide competitive compensation for our faculty and staff have been successful this year. We are pleased to be able to provide a bonus to all eligible full-time classified, wage, and A&P faculty employees this year. We are working hard to provide competitive salaries and benefits to all employees.
Earlier this academic year, we were able to provide a salary increase for our instructional faculty, and we want to acknowledge and thank the Faculty Senate for their resolution of appreciation for our continuing efforts on this front.
Our people are our most important resource and the key to the quality of the experience we provide, which is why we have made this a priority. The state budget plan for this coming year currently includes salary increases for faculty and staff. I want to thank Vice Presidents King and Benson for their tireless leadership in managing the budget carefully.
During their recent meeting, the Board of Visitors considered tuition and fees for the 2015 - 2016 academic year. As you are probably aware, only 29 percent of JMU's budget comes from general funds provided by the Commonwealth of Virginia. While we are grateful for this state support, that leaves tuition and fees as the primary source of revenue to cover the costs of fulfilling the university's mission.
A number of factors will affect the university's budget next year. The increased costs of medical insurance and retirement benefits, faculty and staff compensation increases approved by the state (for which JMU provides the majority of the funding), costs associated with operating new facilities, new faculty positions needed to maintain our 16:1 student-faculty ratio in light of enrollment growth, and the continuing impact of state budget cuts from this past year all place demands on the university's budget. The university continues to work hard to improve efficiency in all aspects of operations and to focus on key strategic priorities in order to control expenses. Given all of these factors, the Board of Visitors voted to increase undergraduate tuition and fees for the 2015 - 2016 academic year by a modest amount overall so as to maintain our focus on access and affordability. This increase was necessitated by the need to cover mandatory budget reductions, cost of continuance and other mandatory costs required by the Commonwealth. The university's budget for the next academic year will also include increases in financial aid to help families who are working hard to cover these costs. For more detail on 2015 - 2016 tuition and fees, please visit the Board of Visitors' summary of discussions and actions.
JMU continues to be one of the Commonwealth's and the nation's best values in higher education. Of the 15 public, four-year institutions of higher education in Virginia, JMU's total in-state costs rank 11th while our out-of-state costs rank 10th. We strive hard to provide a world-class education at a reasonable price. We understand that families make a lot of sacrifices to support their students in higher education, and we will continue to do everything we can to ensure that students of all backgrounds can afford to attend JMU. I am grateful to the Board of Visitors and all of the faculty, staff and administrators who help make this possible each year.
I am delighted to announce a transformative gift of more than $3 million from California Pizza Kitchen CEO and alumnus G.J. ('84) and Heather Hart to name the School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management in the College of Business. We made the formal announcement earlier this month at the Annual Stewardship Luncheon, where we celebrate our donors and the impact of their giving on JMU. The Harts appeared on video from California, where 10 of our students and school director Michael O'Fallon were participating in CPK's annual operators conference for the seventh year. G.J., a Shenandoah Valley native, and Heather want to continue the tradition of excellence in the College of Business and to ensure its leadership in higher education. Theirs is the first naming gift for a school at JMU and hopefully the first of many to come that will have a profound and unending impact on thousands of JMU students. Please read the story and watch the video to learn more about this exciting gift and their philosophy of giving back.
JMU faculty, students and staff continue to engage in the world around them and to gain national attention for their outstanding work. Listed below are just a few of the recent recognitions earned by members of our community.Please join me in congratulating all of our award recipients for their phenomenal work. I am extremely proud of our JMU community and all of the tremendous effort, intelligence and drive that these awards reflect.
Fulbrights in the Honors Program
History and Spanish major, James Brady ('15), was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship in Mexico. International Affairs major, Adam White ('14) was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship in South Korea. A third Fulbright went to JMU, alum Patrick McCauley ('10), who majored in physics and minored in creative writing, astronomy, and mathematics. He was awarded a research grant in Australia where he will begin a Ph.D. as part of the Space Physics Group at the University of Sydney. His research will focus on solar physics.
Achievements in the sciences
Amanda Crandall ('17) has been accepted into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Ernest F. Hollings scholarship program--a national award that will give her two years of tuition and an internship at NOAA next summer. Physics professor Kevin Giovanetti received the 2015 Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Technology at the 26th International Conference on College Teaching and Learning, recognizing his work on robotics with NOVA Labs in Reston.
The Debate Team continues its streak
The Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) named the JMU Debate team as the top public debate team in the nation for the sixth time in nine years. Lindsey Shook, Assistant Director of Debate, received the Galentine Award for top female debate coach in the nation.
In addition, two debaters, Jacob Bosley and Ellie Miller, were named to the All-American team. Eight were named National Debate Scholars: Jackson Hendrix, Jacob Bosley, Luke Montiero, Rachel Keith, Matt Mueller, Nick Lepp, Ellie Miller and Samantha Perez.
Finally, I was honored and humbled that CEDA selected me as the recipient of the Public Advocate of the Year Award. The award is given to an individual who has made a positive contribution to public discourse on matters of social importance. Past recipients include U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala. From my perspective, the award is truly a reflection of our entire university's commitment to civic engagement and civil discourse.
Nursing program achieves national ranking
For the first time in the program's history, U.S. News and World Report ranked the Graduate Nursing program on the Best Nursing School list for graduate programs. Our program was ranked #122 out of more than 500 U.S. programs on the list. This achievement is especially noteworthy because JMU was ranked against all types of institutions, including research-intensive universities and academic health sciences centers.
Outstanding student learning
The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) presented JMU with the Award for Outstanding Institutional Practice in Student Learning. This award recognizes JMU as a national leader in preparing students and is an undeniable sign that we are working hard to deliver on the points of our strategic plan.
Big Brothers Big Sisters award
And last but not least, Big Brothers Big Sisters of James Madison University was selected to receive the 2015 Governor's Volunteerism and Community Service Award in the Outstanding Educational Institution category. A team from JMU and Big Brothers Big Sisters will receive the award at the Governor's Mansion on April 30.
Women take CAA basketball title
Women's basketball captured the regular-season CAA title and conference tournament for the second consecutive year. This is the sixth consecutive season in which they've won at least 25 games. JMU also took three of the top CAA postseason awards: junior guard Precious Hall ('16) was named Player of the Year; senior center Lauren Okafor ('14), was named Women's Basketball Scholar Athlete of the Year; and Coach Kenny Brooks ('92) was named Coach of the Year.
Men share regular season basketball title
Men's basketball earned a share of the CAA regular-season title. This is the first time since the 1999-2000 season that the Dukes finished the regular season in at least a tie for first place.
Softball and lacrosse ranked in Top 25
The women's softball team was ranked in the Top 25 of both major softball polls for the first time in program history, and the women's lacrosse team is currently ranked #16 in the nation.
More spring sports
Other spring sports are under way including Women's and Men's Golf, Men's and Women's Tennis, Baseball, and Women's Outdoor Track and Field. I encourage you to attend the games and support our Dukes.
I can hardly believe that we are approaching the end of another academic year. JMU alumna Lindsay Czarniak ('00), co-anchor for ESPN SportsCenter at 6 p.m., will be our main graduation speaker. We've modified our schedule of May commencement plans as noted below to allow for expansion of our ceremonies and to ease traffic pressures.
In closing, let me wish good health and success for upcoming finals and good luck on future endeavors to our almost-graduated students!
Jonathan R. Alger
The SRM 436 (Facility & Event Management course) students learned about park and playground design and playground safety as a component of the curriculum. As part of the education, they visited the "Dreams Come True" playground, a unique all abilities and sensory playground in Harrisonburg.
The students learned about the history and design considerations behind the park's development from Harrisonburg Parks Assistant Director, David Wigginton. The students had to utilize the park (actually play on the equipment), while completing a questionnaire to such key questions as:
by Natalie Miller
New meditation room in Madison Union. Photo courtesy of JMU University Unions Technology & Design
While your college years may be fun and exhilarating, they can also be overwhelming and confusing. Choosing majors, studying for tests, paying rent and planning for the adult world can be enough to make a person want to pull out their hair and cry for their mothers.
To combat constant stress and obligations, Mad4U has converted an old conference room on the 4th floor of Warren Hall into a new meditation room. Located right next to the office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, this room is a serene oasis tucked away amongst the hustle and bustle of college life.
Open the inconspicuous door and you are immediately struck with a jaw-dropping view of campus through the room's enormous windows. Step through the entrance onto the lightly colored wooden floors—just be sure to leave your shoes at the door. There are no mindless discussions, cell phone alerts or other distracting noises. A gentle waterfall wall fixture trickles in the background of your perceivable auditory field. Choose one of the many white cushioned meditation benches to spend some time forgetting about your homework and focusing on your breathing.
Students are already heading to this haven for a relaxing break between classes. "The meditation chairs are the best that I've ever used," Junior Nursing major and head of JMU's meditation club, Turning In, Nate Coleman said. Nate used the room for his own meditation practice, and has also shown the facility to fellow meditation followers.
Though students aren't expected to become levitating Zen monks within the room's austere walls, Shari Scofield, coordinator for Mad4U and advisor for Madison Meditates and Turning In, wants students to use the space for "…individual or small group mindfulness practice."
Mindfulness is the practice of focusing on and accepting the moment and everything it entails—thoughts, feelings—without judgment of the moment or yourself, which requires "regular practice" to maintain. Shari hopes to begin teaching mindfulness classes in the meditation room based on the theories and practices of noted mindfulness leaders.
Students and faculty can access the room during any time that Warren is open. The room is first come first serve, so reservations aren't necessary. Come by the new meditation room to escape your stresses and rediscover simplicity!
Carl Mitcham (born 1941) is a philosopher of technology. Mitcham is a Professor of Liberal Arts and International Studies at the Colorado School of Mines and a Professor at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee
What it means to be human is the fundamental question of the humanities. As the modern sciences broke away from the humanities and the humanities themselves splintered — into competitive academic programs in philosophy, history, literature and linguistics, criticism and theory of the arts, religious studies, the qualitative social sciences, and more — concepts of human nature have become increasingly differentiated and problematic. Each discipline tends configure around its own conception of the human. The power and reach of engineering also rests on and advances a distinctive view of the human. In a progressively engineered world — one where everything from the human genome to the urban lifescape and from nanomaterials to the global climate is subject to engineered design — it is ever more important for humanities scholars and engineers to cross disciplinary boundaries and to struggle to think together about being human and the human condition.
On September 17, 2014, at the grand opening of JMU Cohen Center, Dr. Jerome McGann gave his lecture about "Technology, Humanism, History, Method". His wonderful speech was recorded as follows:
I am grateful to James Madison University, to Larry Burton, and especially to Ralph Cohen for inviting me here today. Scholars like myself don't often have the chance to speak on such an auspicious occasion. For the founding of this Center for the Study of Technological Humanism is an important institutional venture. Why do I think that? A few stories will help me explain. I begin with the most recent.
When Megyn Kelley of Fox News interviewed Dick Cheney on June 18 of this year, she began by asking him to respond to the following passage from an article just printed in the Washington Post by Paul Waldman:
"There is not a single person in America who has been more wrong and more shamelessly dishonest on the topic of Iraq than Dick Cheney, and now as the cascade of misery and death and chaos, he did so much to unleash raises anew, Mr. Cheney has the unadulterated gall to come before the country and tell us that it's all someone else's fault." The suggestion is that you caused this mess, Mr. Vice President. What say you?
Mr. Cheney replied: "Well, obviously I disagree." Overriding any distinction between matters of fact and matters of opinion, he then remarked: "I think we went into Iraq for very good reasons." He added that President Obama was responsible for destroying what he called a "very positive" situation that he and his people had created in Iraq.
Kelley then pressed him further:
In your op-ed, you write as follows: "Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many". But time and time again, history has proven that you got it wrong as well in Iraq, sir. You said there were no doubts Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. You said we would be greeted as liberators. You said the Iraq insurgency was in the last throes back in 2005. And you said that after our intervention, extremists would have to, quote, "rethink their strategy of Jihad." Now with almost a trillion dollars spent there, with 4,500 American lives lost there, what do you say to those who say, you were so wrong about so much at the expense of so many?
Mr. Cheney again replied: "I just fundamentally disagree, Megyn. You've got to go back and look at the track record. We inherited a situation where there was no doubt in anybody's mind about the extent of Saddam's involvement in weapons of mass destruction."
"I just fundamentally disagree." The phrase is disturbing because its purpose is to blur the distinction between fact and opinion. In the interview, not all of the relevant facts – not even perhaps the worst – were brought forward by Ms Kelley. Well over 100,000 Iraqi civilians were killed between 2003-2008. And to say that "there was no doubt in anybody's mind about the extent of Saddam's involvement in WMDs" is definitely inaccurate – or to put it more truthfully, definitely not true. Many people at the time expressed their doubts often and publicly, and some – the United Nations, most notably – actually tried to verify what was or wasn't true about the American administration's charges. But the administration did not allow Hans Blix's inspection team to make its report in time to prevent the ensuing disaster.
I bring up this interesting story, this interesting history, to begin my salute to Ralph Cohen and James Madison University for founding this Center. It is an institution that will make events of this kind a focus of its study: that is to say, both the original events that launched a preventable war and the media agents that promoted, resisted, and subsequently reflected upon it. Indeed, the media and its agents are in certain obvious respects the most important since they frame and disseminate the messaging. The Fifth Estate is not now what it was in the 18th century when our republic was founded and when the technologies for information transmittal were primitive compared to today. Global communications now proliferate, for better and for worse, within a radically non-coherent order. Many of these resources – by no means all -- are available to individuals and relatively small agencies whose locations are as scattered and diverse as their agendas. Perhaps even more ominous, all are in the hands of those "thrones, principalities, powers, and dominions" that the New Testament warned us about. Few social networks are more complex or more in need of careful attention than these technological networks. "More in need" because few are more consequential for the daily lives – even the lives and deaths – of so many.
I've been stressing the term "technological" in the phrase "Technological Humanism". And after all, the global power and potential of digital communication have swept all of us off our feet. But that very fact, our being swept away, raises a serious problem that leads me to shift attention to the second term, "Humanism". This older and decidedly old-fashioned term seems to me far the most important in the Center's self-description.
"Of course Professor McGann will say that," you're thinking. "He's a very old-fashioned humanist scholar". As I am. But it was old-fashioned humanist concerns that made C. P. Snow's 1959 reflections on "The Two Cultures" so decisive for my work from the outset. Indeed, it was old-fashioned humanist concerns that took me to Caltech in 1982, where I first learned how to use computational machines. In 1992 the same set of concerns launched my hands-on involvement with digital resources that continues to this day. An involvement not just with computational research tools like The Ivanhoe Game, Juxta, and The Rossetti Archive, but with the institutional mechanisms that are their necessary enabling infrastructure. Institutions like IATH, NINES, the Digital Public Library of America. Institutions like this Center. Institutions committed to interdisciplines.
Such commitments are difficult to foster and even more difficult to maintain. This happens because disciplines on both sides of the two cultures have grown so committed to specialization. I shouldn't say "disciplines", however – that's too bland and general. I should say people, the individuals who live out the disciplines. In this respect it's helpful to recover a sense of history. We associate the hard sciences with specialization, but in their formative years – through the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries – scientists took a decidedly interdisciplinary and capacious view of their work. This happened, of course, because their education was shaped by the humanist tradition.
Fast forward to the 20th century, and in particular the late 20th century. The Two Cultures was a prescient forecast of the now-notorious "Crisis in the Humanities". Briefly, this "crisis" reflects a view, widely held both within and outside the research and educational community, that traditional humane studies have little relevance to the complexities of our contemporary world. The fault in the humanities' stars is judged to be a lack of technical expertise, a kind of squishy generalism. Across the cultural way stands an army of specialized experts in the so-called STEM fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. STEM fields – a most telling word. For that organic metaphor is a squishy gesture concealing an across-the-board crisis in all our disciplines of knowledge. As Snow warned almost 75 years ago. Disciplinary sclerosis is the enemy within disciplinary expertise.
The modern scientific imagination drew its visionary balance from the humanist tradition out of which it grew. At the same time, the humanities learned from the New Science the importance of an empirical orientation and disciplinary rigor. This is the story of the coming of what we call The Enlightenment, so fundamental to the founding ideas of our country. It is a great story that today I must simply leave you to remember. It is important because it is the story that stands behind the second story I do mean to tell – an exemplary tale about a turn toward expertise that humansts began taking in the mid-20th century. Humanities education and scholarship shifted away from their traditional grounding in history and material culture toward literary philosophy and interpretive theory.
For my generation, the name Paul De Man would be totemic for that shift. Listen to what he had to say about literary studies in 1970 as the Theory Movement in humanities was in serious lift-off: "There is no room . . . for notions of accuracy and identity in the shifting world of interpretation." Or as he remarked a few years earlier in an essay on the poetry of John Keats, Keats's poems do not have "positive existence". History was not exactly "bunk" for De Man, as a famous American entrepreneur once said, but factual accuracy was no longer a "notion" that the humanities had room for.
I note in passing – another interesting story -- that in 1969 Ralph Cohen had just made his own, very different move in literary studies. That was the year he founded the journal New Literary History, which quickly established itself as one of the most influential scholarly periodicals in the western world. Cohen established the journal because, as he wrote in his editor's "Note" in the first issue, he was disturbed at "the current rejection of history either as guide to or knowledge of the present". The journal was a decisively advanced organ for exploring literary and cultural theory. At the same time Cohen had not turned his back on "notions of accuracy and identity" in literary studies, nor on the need for an accurate account of their "positive existence" in history. At the dawning moment of the Theory Movement in humanities, Cohen was calling everyone back to a guiding principle of traditional humane studies: that humanities scholarship means keeping faith with the empirical factors that shape the identities of your subjects as they shape-change over time. Meshed as we are in the complex forces of history, thoroughness and accuracy are as imperative for the humanist as they are for the scientist. And as they ought to be for the citizen and the citizen's representative, the politician.
How does humanities research and education work and why is it important? Another story will help me begin my response to that question. This one comes from the New York Times of 24 March 2014, where a Caltech scientist, Sean Carroll, gave a succinct account of how scientific research proceeds:
Nothing makes scientists happier than an experimental result that completely contradicts a widely accepted theory. . . . Science progresses when a good theory is superseded by an even better theory, and the most direct route to building a better theory is to be confronted by data that simply don't fit the old one.
That is an important way of knowledge, as we know. But it is not a description of how the human sciences operate. The giveaway is the keyword, "data". Data about the natural world is not at all like the data we amass about the human world. We study Nature because we are natural creatures, so that understanding Nature seems important for understanding how we might live better human lives. As William Blake once famously observed, "Where Man is not Nature is barren". True as that thought is – that human beings cultivate the natural world -- another famous poet from the same epoch had an equally true, but very different, thought. Byron thought that it was men who laid waste to Great Creating Nature. Looking at the beauty of the Greek landscape he reflected how "Man, enamour'd of distress/ Would mar it into wilderness". We inflict ourselves on the state of Nature and try to shape it to our needs. In those acts we change our relation to Nature. But Nature does not change, it simply mutates, as the humanly devastated State of Nature around Chernobyl reminds us.
The humanities are concerned with human beings and what we've done. We do that by studying the records we make and leave behind. That is why, for the humanist, libraries and museums – call them memory banks – are as fundamental as the laboratory is to the natural scientist. The Book of Nature is difficult and mysterious, and so are the Books of Men, the records we make – so many now digital records -- that are the object of humanist studies. But Nature is mysterious because it is absolute, human records are mysterious because they're not. Fallible human beings – scientists, as we say -- study the Book of Nature and make both wonderful discoveries and terrible mistakes. But the Book of Nature, their subject, is itself perfect.
Human studies are different. In practicing them, fallible human beings study the books and records that were made by other fallible human beings. Data are records and they are as prone to error as any other record. Worse yet, all these imperfect records are always fallibly preserved and imperfectly passed along to other fallible beings. Skeptics might call that a house built on sand. It's actually more like a house resting on the backs of those famous turtle that go, as we say, all the way down. You need a lot of sympathy when you practice the human sciences. It's difficult to be sympathetic to sand, it's a lot easier with turtles. It's even easier with human beings. For the humanist, it's human beings – natural, mortal -- all the way down.
Socrates proposed that knowledge should be understood and pursued as complete self-reflection. That was an impossible proposal, as Socrates knew. He thought he was wise because he knew he knew nothing for certain. We call his knowledge program the Hellenic vision of truth. In the West we know its complement as the (equally impossible) Hebrew or Christian or Islamic vision. These are the visions of the People of the Book, who practice an equally impossible task. The Bible is our normative book for studying human history. Why? Because as a book of truth it is also an imperfect book, full of error and evil: what Poe called "the good and the bad and the worst and the best".
But like the hard sciences, the human sciences have systematic methods, and you can see why. Humanists need as much rigor and system as we can muster because everything we study, including ourselves, is so unreliable. The Book of Nature is rock-solid, the Word of God is turtles all the way down. So are the humanities, which have to be prosecuted as an art: that is, less under the sign of theory or idea, and more under the sign of method or practice. As one of our greatest humanities scholars once observed, humanistic study is like fishing. You only become good at it by patient and repeated experience, and by scrupulous attention to what, where, and why you're doing it. Perhaps that's even what Jesus had in mind when he urged his students, his disciples, to become fishers of men.
Scrupulous attention to the specific and "positive existence" of the human record, past as well as ongoing present. Mark Twain called all that Life on the Mississippi. You have to know the land, the river, the seasonal shifts, the weather conditions, and all their unpredictable history. And you have to know it at first hand, in actual contact with the documentary record. And you have to know it repeatedly. Finally, you also have to know it through the first hand knowledge of others whom you know to have long-standing experiential knowledge. Those are the people you go fishing with. Those are the people whose humanities scholarship makes a difference. In the shifting world of the human sciences, accuracy is imperative, as much as you can manage. We can't make reliable judgments without being confident that we have accurate information – that's to say, reports that mean to be candid, honest, and as thorough as possible. The best we can say of Vice President Cheney is that he was optimistic in his reports. That seems the truth. The additional truth is that he was dishonest – and, alas, still is.
People with a commitment to knowledge and truth – people from every quarter of the social and political landscape -- recognize dishonesty. The recognition is non-partisan and interdisciplinary, a function of a common, if differently shaped, vocation to truth. But to give that vocation social force you need more than the commitment of a committed individual.
I am sure that Paul De Man would have been appalled at the Vice President's cavalier attitude toward accuracy and factual truth. But De Man's skepticism about human knowledge – about the positive, factual record—was, though far from dishonest, seriously misguided. It set an unreliably narrow model for human studies. I know a better model, or at least a story about a better model. It's a story about another scholar – a greater scholar than De Man, in my judgment, though one far less famous (or infamous). He was an Assistant Professor of Greek and Latin at Harvard, his name was Milman Parry, and he died fairly young – at 33. In 1934, the year before he died, he delivered an address to the Board of Overseers of Harvard College. Though it bore an unprepossessing title, "The Historical Method in Literary Criticism", Parry delivered it because he was troubled by a Crisis in Humanities.
Even in 1934 there was a Crisis in the Humanities? Alas, yes. For the fact is that the humanities have been in a regular state of crisis at least since the 18th century. Crisis has become a fate of humane studies, whose Modern vocation is the pursuit of social, historical, and personal truth and the preservation of the record of those pursuits. These are obligations that humanists undertake knowing they are impossible to fulfill. The historical record that comes down to us is a tiny fractional residue of the human past it might reflect, and even that fraction is riven with holes and fragmentary, disfeatured remains. And as for the record that grows under own hands, not least in the data-glut of the present, it has always been impossible to master. Today it has grown to such outrageous dimensions it has to be data-mined. Data-mining, we may want to remember, was what helped Mr. Cheney and his accomplices to their misjudgment about Saddam Hussein and WMDs.
Milman Parry did not know about Big Data but he didn't have to. His little data was trouble enough for someone interested in fishing for the truth. And that is what interested him and what he made the subject of his lecture. The important context of the lecture is signaled by its date, 1934, when "propaganda. . .social changes and confusion" were taking such hold of bewildered people throughout Europe and America. Stalin had assumed control of the Soviets in 1923, Hitler of the Weimar Republic in 1933, and a freewheeling American Capitalism had plunged the United States into a tormented social condition. Parry reflected on that situation:
The chief emotional ideas to which men seem to be turning at present. . .are those of nationality—for which they exploit race—and class. . . . Anyone who has followed the history of the use of propaganda for political purposes, with its extraordinary development of intensity and technique in the past fifty years [recognizes how] those who were directing that propaganda expressed their lack of concern, or even contempt, for what actually was so, or actually had been so.
Parry went on quietly to suggest that "the European humanistic tradition" had something important to contribute to these benighted societies. He was not thinking of what Poe called "the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome". On the contrary, he was thinking about humanist scholars who spend their lives trying to give accurate reports about those worlds, so dead and far gone from the Modern present, as he was reminding the Harvard Overseers. He was also fully aware how insignificant – how pedantic -- such academic pursuits often appear to living people enspelled by propagandistic dreams of national glory and grandeur.
Parry's heroes are not Achilles or Hector, not even Socrates or Plato. They are far more minor and modest. They are people who believe "that there is nothing at the same time finer and more practical than the truth", and who will spend their days acting on that belief. You want to know what such days are like? They are days spent studying a passage in a book few people read or perhaps have even heard of -- perhaps a book in a dead language -- trying to say something accurate and truthful about it. I knew a scholar who set all his other research work aside for months trying to write a footnote that told the truth about a sentence in a letter by the poet Tennyson. Whether the document being searched has ideas with current social relevance is, for this kind of scholar, beside the point. Indeed, apparent irrelevance might be exactly to the point for a people -- that would be for all of us here today -- surrounded by the propaganda and confusion of our fiercely, just-in-time present. As the poet Bobby Burns once wisely wrote, it's important "to see ourselves as others see us". Or to try to.
What then is the point? Simply, "that there is nothing at the same time finer and more practical than the truth". That would be the truth as such. Accuracy and truth are not well characterized as "notions" that we have – De Man's characterization. Better to know them as commitments that we make. The strength of a commitment – and therefore its practicality -- rests in how deep it goes. The turtles of truth go all the way down to where there is, we trust, something we will never have and never know: the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
And yet, that even being so, that impossible truth is one of only two things to which we can honorably pledge our complete allegiance. The other isn't a thing at all. It is an individual person, one or another -- someone, someones -- in particular.
We honor ordinary people who emerge to public awareness when they speak truth to powerful people and the thrones of their power. The glory that can come to such truth-tellers, however brief, is important, even if it comes too late to prevent truthless disaster. But further down and out of sight are the scholars of the truth. Milman Parry was one, and he told a moving tale about such people.
The moral of these stories? It doesn't need words. It surrounds us today in the existence of this Center and in the people who brought it about. Milman Parry was an inspiring humanist truth-teller, but he needed an institution to sustain him. That is why this institution, this Center, is so important. It will bring coordinated humanistic discipline to bear on the technologies that are reshaping our national and global communities. And from those communities will come new stories to be told. Some will be sobering, some inspiring. They will all be instructive.
On behalf of those communities, then, I thank you for this Center. The world will little note, nor long remember, what I say here, but may it never forget what you did here. I dare to invoke those famous words only because I trust that what you have begun will keep, as Gertrude Stein used to say, "beginning again and again".
There are a variety of organizations at JMU that strive to help college students with the struggles they face, but CARE is one of a kind. CARE, which stands for Campus Assault ResponsE, is a 24/7 helpline for people to share their stories on sexual assault or intimate partner violence. Callers can get access to information about reporting, counseling, and legal processes, or simply call in just to have someone who will listen. The helpline is open to all JMU students, whether they are victims or the victims' family and friends. Callers can anonymously share their stories and also have the option of receiving information on the JMU judicial process, the Harrisonburg Police, and Title IX. This organization was even recently featured in the JMU student blog, The Daily Duke as well as in JMU's student-run newspaper, The Breeze.
CARE started in 2000 as the only 24/7 service of its kind in Virginia. The 30 trained students at JMU cover helpline shifts based on volunteers' availability. Helplines such as this one are rare on college campuses because they are hard to staff and have the potential of facing liability issues. However, CARE officers and volunteers feel that raising awareness and providing support for victims of sexual assault is worth their time and effort. In TIME magazine, a survey was conducted by the Senate that found only 41% of all universities have initiated investigations into sexual assault claims, while the majority defaulted to victim blaming (qtd. In Dockterman, 2015). Clearly, handling sexual assault cases is a serious issue on college campuses, especially with the ongoing investigations regarding Title IX violations in higher education. Luckily for JMU, CARE cares too much to let this issue slip under the radar.
In order to raise awareness, CARE hosts speakers, such as survivors or field experts, to talk about sexual assault. It also provides dorm education sessions on sexual assault prevention methods. One of the main educational missions of CARE is to clear up the misconceptions of sexual assault. Charity O'Connor, president of CARE, shared some of the common myths: Victims are usually thought to be straight, white females, but the truth is that victims come from all genders, races, and sexual orientations. On the flip side, perpetrators are usually thought to be men, but in reality, anyone can be a perpetrator. O'Connor hopes that CARE can shed light on this taboo issue and, by debunking the myths, initiate a cultural shift on campus away from victim blaming.
There are other events and groups that are advocating against sexual assault on JMU's campus. In addition to being president of CARE, O'Connor is in charge of the Red Flag Campaign and Take Back the Night, a program sponsored by the JMU Health Center. While the Red Flag Campaign is a group that focuses on dating violence and bystander intervention, Take Back the Night is an annual event dedicated to raising awareness about sexual assault in general. Other campaigns against sexual assault include: It's On Us, a national prevention campaign, and NO MORE, a campaign against domestic violence. The Clothesline Project illustrates how sexual assault has affected the JMU community with anonymous accounts written on t-shirts. There is even a program geared specifically for first-year students called Dukes Step Up! which is designed to train them on being active bystanders at JMU.
Sexual assault support and prevention can be found off-campus in the Harrisonburg community, too. The Collins Center is a community-based center that "promotes the prevention of child sexual abuse, and provides excellence in sexual assault response and treatment in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County" ("Our Mission"). CARE President Charity O'Connor had the opportunity to intern for this center over the summer. Her duties consisted of making training documents, creating orientation guides, and organizing data for programs such as Sexual Assault Crisis Services, Prevention and Education, Mental Health Treatment, and the Child Advocacy Center. Now with her part-time position, she continues assisting with all the programs the center offers, wherever she is needed.
When asked how her experience at The Collins Center differs from her involvement in CARE, O'Connor stated, "The Collins Center serves a larger population as well as a larger range of ages. While CARE is mostly a helpline and sexual assault education program, The Collins Center is more of a treatment and advocacy program."
O'Connor also has a Substance Abuse Prevention minor, which she believes will tie in with her mission against sexual assault: "I've always wanted to work for a non-profit against sexual assault, and I wanted a health-based prevention background. Substances are often involved in sexual assault cases, and having the knowledge of substance abuse prevention will be good for interventions." With alcohol being a factor in 40% of all violent crimes today, substance abuse prevention plays a huge role in combatting sexual assault (National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.).
As members of the JMU community, we all have a responsibility to be educated on the signs and prevention methods of sexual assault. When talking about such a sensitive topic, it is important to keep empathy in mind. Friends, family, and hotline counselors should support a victim by listening without pushing the victim outside their comfort zone. It is important to think about the outcomes the survivors want, and respect the decisions they make. Confidentiality, respect, and accessible resources are all rights that sexual assault victims should have. Their liberty should be another one of their rights, which can be retained by giving victims the option of reporting, rather than forcing them to report or reporting it for them. Empathy, Outcomes, Rights, and Liberty are just some of the 8 Key Questions that are involved in a sexual assault situation. These universal ethical guidelines can help us effectively and compassionately address such a sensitive issue. With enough awareness, we can combat the myths, stop the victim blaming, and perhaps prevent some sexual assault cases from even taking place.
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness about sexual assault and to educate our community about how to prevent it. JMU is hosting several events in recognition of this month including The Clothesline Project and Take Back the Night. The Clothesline Project will take place on Monday, April 6th from 12:00 PM –8:00 PM, Tuesday, April 7th from 10:00 AM—5:30 PM, and Wednesday, April 8th from 9:00 AM–2:00 PM in Madison Union Ballroom in Warren. Take Back the Night will take place on Tuesday, April 7th from 6:00 to 9:00 PM at Grafton-Stovall Theater. Sponsored by the Office of Residence Life and the University Health Center, please join our campus community for these educational and empowering events.
Barbara Couden Hernandez is Director of Physician Vitality and Professor, School of Medicine, at Loma Linda University. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a Doctor of Psychology. Her theoretical orientation is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and her specialty is in attachment disorders. Dr. Hernandez holds degrees in marriage and family therapy, nursing, and family social science and is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She has directed therapy clinics, supervised therapists in training, worked as an ICU nurse for 20 years, maintained a psychotherapy private practice, and taught in counseling, psychology, social work, and marriage and family therapy graduate programs. She holds membership in the Collaborative Family Health Association, National Council on Family Relations, American Balint Society, and is a clinical diplomat of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. Dr. Hernandez received her Ph.D. in family social science from the University of Minnesota in 1993.
The lecture given by Barbara on Oct 19 was named "Anything Can Be: The Power of Storytelling in Abuse and Trauma Recovery". She believes that "Storytelling has been used by the founder of every world religion to create a framework of meaning. Narrative interventions have subsequently been established in medicine, nursing, psychology, and the social sciences as healing interventions. The stories we construct about who we are often predictive of what we do with our lives and how we view the world. Nowhere is this truer than with individuals who are recovering from abuse and violence." Through stories from her experiences in Peru and her clinical practice in the States, Dr. Hernandez will illustrate narrative methods for helping individuals move beyond unfortunate life experiences.
It was an average night in September when Turner Ashby High School Head Football Coach Charles "Charlie" Newman Sr.'s life changed forever. During the first half of the game, Newman Sr. started having chest pains so bad that he thought he was having a heart attack or a stroke. After speaking to the athletic trainer, Newman Sr. made his way to the emergency room. That night Newman Sr. had surgery and the next morning he woke up with a 10-inch scar from the top of his chest to his lower abdomen from an aortic dissection.
"A lot of people know about the heart, heart disease, and heart attacks, but the aorta is your main artery that feeds the heart," said Charles "Charlie" Newman Jr., Newman Sr.'s son and a double duke at JMU.
An aortic dissection is a "serious condition in which there is a tear in the wall of the major artery carrying blood out of the heart. As the tear extends along the wall of the aorta, blood can flow in between the layers of the blood vessel wall. This can lead to aortic rupture or decreased blood flow to organs." According to the Aortic Warriors website, an organization that creates awareness and support for aortic dissection and was founded by survivor Peter Tsai, 100 Americans are affected by aortic dissection per day, 80% of those affected lose their lives, and 20% of those affected pass away before reaching the hospital.
Even though he experienced aortic dissection, Newman Sr. is still coaching football and teaching Physical Education at Turner Ashby High School. But the event inspired Newman Sr. and Newman Jr. to actively spreadawareness about aortic dissection.
"It's life-changing, but he's still going to be able to do a lot of things," said Newman Jr. about his father's recovery.
As an Innovation MBA student, Newman Jr. took the MBA 605: Entrepreneurship and Venture Creation course where he and two other group members, Blake Wenger and Brad Kurtz, got the idea to host a 5K and a concert to benefit the Aortic Warriors called Got Heart N Sole on April 18.
When asked if he was surprised that Newman Jr. and his group were organizing the event, MBA Director Dr. Mike Busing said that was not surprised and that Newman Jr.'s willingness to do the event "explained his nature."
Newman Jr., who was described by Busing to be "a very good genuine person," says that Newman Jr. called on many of his personal resources to help him plan the event, including securing the location for the event at the College Street Pavilion in Dayton. The group of iMBA students recruited food trucks Mama's Caboose and Ed's Park Barbeque and, a family favorite band, Who Shot John for the benefit concert. With all of the assistance from the Dayton and Bridgewater, Va. communities, Newman Jr. reflected on the humbling experience:
"When [the emergency] happened there was such an outpouring of support," said Newman Jr.
The family has even gained the support and friendship of Aortic Warriors founder Tsai who will be coming to the event with his family.
Newman Jr. hopes to make the Got Heart N Sole event an annual event that educates the surrounding areas about aortic dissections.
To register for the 5K and to learn more about the Got Heart N Sole event, please visitthe website. For updates about the event, please follow Got Heart N Sole on Facebook.
Aortic Warriors- http://www.aorticwarriors.com/,
Got Heart N Sole- http://www.gotheartandsole.org/
Facebook Page- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Got-Heart-n-Sole/822342251153499?fref=ts
By: Daniel Vieth
Last year, JMU's Department of Integrated Science and Technology celebrated their 20th anniversary, bringing together students, faculty, and alumni to commemorate two decades of the program. For students, events like the alumni panel became an invaluable opportunity to hear about their predecessors' experiences after graduation. Recognizing the value of this information, three ISAT students attending the panel formed the idea of developing a smartphone app and website that would facilitate communication between students and alumni. With this inspiration, James Fencil ('15), Robert Bolen ('15), and Connor Major ('15), along with the help of their advisor Dr. Samy El-Tawab, began their senior capstone project: Alumni Connect.
Alumni Connect is a soon-to-be-released smartphone app and website that will allow current and former ISAT students to interact right from their phones. "Alumni will make an account, and once registered they will be able to post job opportunities, events, announcements, activities, and visits to campus for students to see," said Fencil, explaining how Alumni Connect will work. "They can even select particular [ISAT] concentrations so their notifications will only be sent to specific students," as well as make other changes to their notification settings. Once students see these notifications they will be able to message the alumni to get more information about their events or opportunities. "This app provides many ways for the alumni to give back to ISAT," added Bolen. "For example, alumni can sponsor capstone projects." The app is set to be released publicly for Apple/iOS products during the group's senior capstone presentation on April 17th.
Despite the wealth of knowledge students can receive from alumni, the current process of reaching former students is not easy. "There's a real need for this kind of app," explained Major. "Currently, almost all communication between students and alumni has to go through professors as a middle man, and we thought that we could bypass that and have more of an alumni-student connection." Recognizing the opportunity to connect directly with alumni through a website and app, the students immediately sought out help from El-Tawab, who teaches and does research with web development, telecommunication, networking, and security. "They immediately came to me with their idea right after the [alumni panel] event," said El-Tawab. "Usually students do not know what they want to do so early, but this group knew exactly what they wanted to develop, and that was great."
While the app won't be officially released until April 17th, the students have already finished their beta version and plan to have Alumni Connect finalized by late March for testing and the validation process. "The app will be available on iOS, so any iPhone 4 or higher will be able to download it and use it," said Fencil. "Putting it on Androids is a goal," added Bolen. "However, the website will be mobile friendly, so even if you don't have an iPhone you can access the same information." The Alumni Connect app was also accepted into the Modeling and Simulation Mobile App Competition at the 2015 Spring SImulation Conference (SpringSim' 2015).
Even though the students will be graduating this year, they're hoping that Alumni Connect will live on. To accomplish this, the group plans to give Alumni Connect to the ISAT Department, who will continue running the app and website if they decide to do so. "Department Head Eric Maslen encouraged us to make a reliable app so they might adopt it and easily maintain it," explained El-Tawab. If the app is successful for ISAT, the team also plans to allow other departments on campus to use it down the road. "Right now it's just an ISAT-based project, but it could easily be extended to any other major, or the entire university," said Major. As the app works through a database of information about alumni, its structure could be used for any department on campus. "We're hoping the app and website are popular, and I think students, alumni, and faculty are going to love it," continued Fencil.
"My dream would be to use this app we've created when we're alumni, like recruiting people for our companies," exclaimed Major. "It would be awesome to come back full circle and use the products we created to post an event for our companies." After graduating, the students all plan to pursue their careers in computer technology, with Fencil planning to continue creating smartphone apps, Bolen entering the network security field, and Major working on backend computer programming. "This group has been outstanding to work with," exclaimed El-Tawab. "They know what they're doing, they like what they're doing, and every week when we meet they're pushing themselves to produce something new."
If you are interested in learning more about the Alumni Connect app and website, be sure to attend the group's senior capstone presentation on April 17th or the group's demonstration at SpringSim' 2015 on April 12th.
Grace Machanic has taught dance to children in her basement studio for 40 years. She can still put her leg up on the bar and do the splits—something she has been doing with the children since she first founded School for Swans in 1975. Since its inception, the school has graduated more than 3,000 swans.
Machanic began taking ballet at age four in Coconut Grove, Florida. When her family moved to Lynchburg, Virginia, she took classical ballet, tap and pointe. She continued ballet at the Washington School of Ballet when she was 15 and her family relocated to D.C.
Two years later, she injured her knee as an apprentice for The Ballet Russe, ending what she had "hoped to be a professional career." At that point, she set her sights on a different future, and enrolled at Madison College, where she obtained a bachelor's degree in education and majored in English.
Machanic's degree earned her a job as an English teacher at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Maryland, where she taught for seven years before marrying her husband, Roger. The couple had two children, Bruce and Laura, who with Roger, named the Theatre Green Room at the Forbes Center in honor of their loving wife and mother.
"The Green Room is not about show. It's where you hang out, where you wait to go onstage and get your notes from the previous performance or for the upcoming one. It's my speed, and it just suits me," says Machanic.
And it appears that a vibrant career in the arts still suits Machanic as well. She teaches 4-15+ year-olds ballet and tap three days a week for three hours per day, plus private lessons. "In the morning, I lament over my wrinkles and wonder what a facelift would look like, but then I look at these perfect little bodies and their perfect skin, and I just see their youth and energy. It's the children that I do this with and for…"
In addition to teaching at her home, Machanic choreographs local productions every six weeks. She is on "cloud nine" after recently winning "Best Choreography" for Spamalot by the Washington Area Theatre Community Honors (WATCH).
Alumnus G.J. ('84) and Heather Hart have announced a gift commitment of more than $3 million to name the Hart School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management at JMU. Their gift represents JMU's first named school.
President Jonathan Alger made JMU's announcement at the Annual Stewardship Luncheon on March 20. The Harts appeared on video at the luncheon. They had announced their gift March 18 at Camp Pendleton as part of the Annual Operators Conference of California Pizza Kitchen, of which G.J. is CEO.
Ten JMU students and School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management Director Michael O'Fallon were part of the CPK conference, one day of which is set aside for service. The JMU contingent and 800 CPK operators worked alongside U.S. Marines to improve facilities for returning veterans at Camp Pendleton. This is the seventh year G.J and Heather have engaged JMU hospitality students to work the California Pizza Kitchen's Annual Operators Conference.
Service, leadership and passion have characterized Hart's rise from poultry processor to executive chairman and chief executive officer of California Pizza Kitchen, an international chain of restaurants with more than 280 locations in the United States and 15 other countries.
As a student at JMU, Hart worked full time at the Shenandoah Valley Poultry Company in Bridgewater, Va., to put himself through college and help pay the bills at home. Hart calls the experience "far from glamorous," but, he said, it was during those years toiling in the poultry plant that he learned many of the leadership lessons he has followed throughout his successful career in the hospitality industry.
"My hope for the School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management is to become a world-class program, a program where we turn out students who are going to do great things in the world and they are going to do it with purpose," says G. J. Hart.
Along with the Harts, 10 JMU students and leaders were involved in this year's CPK Operators Conference in California. Back row: Esther Yoo ('17), Cynthia Cline ('82), Katherine Hoer('14), Alanna Ross ('15), G.J. Hart ('84), Kristen Gratton ('15), Christina Dean ('15), Taylor Walton ('15) and Michael O'Fallon (director of the School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management). Front row: Emily Platt ('17), Erin Breen ('15), Ashley Hart, Heather Hart, Randall Hart, Ally Nurik ('15), Jessica Battaglini ('15), and Lisa O'Fallon.
The Harts expressed their hope that their gift would encourage others to follow suit.
"Our intention is that this gift might have others thinking about how can they give back to the university and make a long lasting imprint. I would encourage everyone to think about it. We need to help our young people be successful. And hopefully everyone will join with us," they said.
"James Madison University is extremely grateful for the Harts' investment in our community," Alger said. "G.J. and Heather's gift exemplifies the service, leadership and passion that they live out each day. Their generosity will touch the lives of many in the Madison family for years to come."
O'Fallon says that the association with the Harts is invaluable to the university.
"G.J. and Heather's investment of time and talent to James Madison over the years has been instrumental to the success of our relatively young program," says O'Fallon. "We are so pleased to partner with the Harts to bring even greater value and prestige to our school."
G.J. serves on the College of Business' Board of Advisors, hosts JMU hospitality students at CPK, and spoke at JMU's fall 2013 Commencement Ceremony. He has been a loyal JMU donor. Heather was a keynote speaker at the Second Annual Women in Leadership Conference at JMU. She spearheaded the establishment of CPK's charitable foundation, Inspired Acts. The Harts have created their own family foundation, Hart of Six. They have four children, Ashley, Hillary, Ashley and Randall.
EUPS students network in Strasbourg
Most of those who have visited JMU's campus are familiar with an informal campus institution: faculty, staff, and students routinely hold doors for others. This small, friendly gesture embodies a much broader aspect of the JMU community that extends past graduation and into a professional field. We have all heard the expression, "It's not what you know, it's who you know," and, graduating from a growing master's program, EUPS alumni are equipped with the know-how and the network to succeed.
Once diplomas have been distributed, a number of university networks are open to JMU alums. The JMU Alumni Association, for example, has chapters in more than twenty cities and connections to almost any career imaginable, and various departments and programs--including the EUPS program--maintain networks to maintain esprit de corps and promote professional networking. EUPS program alumni and friends have worked with the university, for many years, on occasional networking receptions and events, and the program and its alums are working to establish a more structured rhythm of events (see John Scherpereel's Message from the Director in this issue).
"I am excited about all efforts that encourage alumni to stay in touch with one another organically," shared Dan Caprio, a JMU alum and occasional EUPS practitioner in residence, who has recently moved on from his position as Senior Strategic Advisor at McKenna Long & Aldridge in Washington, DC to establish a cybersecurity consultancy called The Providence Group. "People want to be helpful, so it's always important to provide the means to make that possible."
And yes, people really do want to help. EUPS alumna Kelsey Gleason (2012) can attest to the value of networking. "I was at a dinner/aperitivo for Caterina, where I met someone who had graduated from the EUPS program in its first year. She was looking to replace herself at her job in a DC trade association, and we talked for a while about that -- 3 days later, I had a job."
So what can you do as a program alum to get involved? Alumna Elke Milner (2012) reminds us to stay active on Facebook and Linkedin. Visiting with alumni in person can make a big impact as well. When asked about her interactions with older alumni, Elke mentioned meeting with a few while on academic trips through EUPS to Brussels, a favor she recently returned for current EUPS students. Now working for a Brussels lobbying firm (Shecco), Elke opened the doors to her office and shared a bit of her experience with students. "Keep an open mind! Some of your greatest opportunities might come from the most unlikely places!"
And most importantly, always remember to hold the door for others: do not be afraid to reach out and share your own story. "To help fellow alumni, we have to make efforts to go to networking events, share stories and experiences, and keep our eyes out for opportunities." says Gleason, "Helping out alumni makes the EUPS network stronger and more reputable."
To learn more about networking events and groups in your area, check out the JMU Alumni Association website directly here. Contact John Scherpereel or the program's graduate assistants for more information on EUPS events.
Written by Sara Kinas
Dear EUPS Alumni and Friends,
Spring is in the air. In Florence, most locals are gearing up for Easter and Pasquetta (Easter Monday). Easter Week processions are winding their ways through the streets of cities, towns, and villages across the peninsula. Florentines are preparing to watch the Scoppio del Carro (Explosion of the Cart) on Piazza del Duomo and to enjoy the traditional cena of roast lamb and spring peas. On the other side of the Atlantic, Americans of all faiths are taking part in their own seasonal rituals—lamenting their errant NCAA basketball tournament picks, vowing to keep their yards in better shape this year, trying to carve out time to cobble together money so that they can take a summer vacation.
No matter where they are located, no matter what the specific rituals they enact, people that live in springtime climates eventually turn their thoughts to renewal, reinvigoration, and growth. In Europe, the news has recently been dominated by episodes of friction and tragedy—new games of chicken between Berlin and Athens, fresh accusatory volleys between Brussels and Moscow, rumors of lost trust between transatlantic partners, a passenger jet crashing into an Alpine peak. But, as befits the season, there are glimmers of growth and green shoots of hope. The European Central Bank has embraced quantitative easing, generating some optimism among citizens who badly want (better) jobs and (quicker) growth. EU leaders are taking the long-discussed but static "energy union" idea more seriously than ever, spawning hopes about a more sustainable Europe that depends less on Russian gas. The dollar's appreciation vs. the euro is a mixed blessing, to be sure. But it does breed new opportunities for European exporters and American tourists.
EUPS students, emerging from the dark and damp Florentine winter, are also enjoying new opportunities and revelations. For example: I have been participating in the biennial conference of the European Union Studies Association for quite a few years. It was my pleasure this year, to see a robust EUPS presence at the conference. Caterina Paolucci was in town from Florence. So were the program's two current research assistants (Ryan Prusator and Peg Schmelzinger, who contributed to this issue's article about the conference). I had fun preparing and presenting a paper with Lauren Perez (EUPS 2011), who is currently on the homestretch of her Ph.D. studies at the University of Pittsburgh. And it was terrific to meet up with a number of former EUPS faculty members, including Edoardo Bressanelli (who's currently at King's College London) and Helena Farrand-Carrapico (who's at Aston University in Birmingham).
While in Boston, debates about the future of the EU and the transatlantic relationship flourished. Political scientists weren't the only ones in attendance—the former HRVP, Baroness Catherine Ashton, addressed conferees, as did French economist Thomas Piketty, whose Capital in the Twenty-First Century has sparked broad and important policy conversations on both sides of the Atlantic. Caterina and Ryan co-presented a paper on which they'd worked for months. Its subject? The new cohort of Italian MEPs and the extent to which they might shake up the established modus operandi in Brussels/Strasbourg. Peg and I presented a paper on MEPs' Twitter use that we'd researched and written over the past months with Jerry Wohlgemuth (EUPS 2010), and Lauren and I presented a second paper out of a project on personnel turnover in the Council of the EU. It was especially gratifying that many of the ideas that they were presenting had originated in the halls and classrooms of Palazzo Capponi and to speak with colleagues from universities around the world who were increasingly familiar with the program and the good work that our students do.
Indeed, all EUPS students are engaged in this kind of meaningful work—writing papers that push forward our understanding of European, transatlantic, and global dynamics; preparing for the annual Symposium that we hold in concert with the European University Institute's Max Weber Program; working with partners from the University of Florence under the direction of our indefatigable colleagues from Brussels (Alex Stutzmann and Silvio Gonzato); liaising with program friends like Dan Caprio, who recently visited Florence to talk cybersecurity and "Washington bubble" job searching; preparing to "give back" to Florence through participation in JMU's annual "Big Event" on April 11, 2015. In doing so, they are expanding their personal horizons, building up their stocks of marketable skills, becoming comfortable in foreign and multilingual contexts, and more. It is a rich experience.
To this end, I would encourage you, dear alums and friends, to continue supporting the program and the university, to keep mentoring current students and recent alums, and to spread the word about what we do and what makes us special. Here are a few ways that you might consider taking up this charge:
The Big Event: Our current students will be spearheading the Florence iteration. But The Big Event is bigger than Florence. The idea behind the event is to bring together students, faculty, staff, and alum on a single day to carry out community service projects. Visit the JMU Alumni Association's Big Event portal (http://alumni.jmu.edu/s/1591/gid3-Alumni/index.aspx?sid=1591&gid=3&pgid=1635) to find your local Alumni Association chapter and sign up for The Big Event on April 11, 2015.
Make a contribution to the program by clicking on the link in this issue. The more support we have from alumni and friends, the more opportunities we are able to generate for students—opportunities to present research, to bring in movers and shakers, to facilitate professional development. The gift need not be large—even $5 or $10 can help to expand students' opportunities.
Keep the community of program alumni and friends strong. For years, we have had occasional events and happy hours designed to maintain community and build cohesion in a constantly expanding network. I would like to try to establish a more dependable rhythm to such events. Specifically, I'd like to move toward a spot where, each year, we have (a) a number of decentralized "send off" events for incoming EUPS students (e.g., an event hosted by an alum to send off students who will be starting their EUPS odyssey; these would take place over the summer; one might take place in DC in June, another might take place somewhere else July, etc.); (b) a regular "re-immersion" networking event for students who have recently graduated from the program (early fall); and (c) some other "feature" event that would bring program alums and friends together. We need alumni help to bring this vision to fruition! If you're interested in participating and/or helping to plan these kinds of events, let me know.
In the meantime, enjoy this issue of the newsletter! There's some good stuff from Professor Julija Sardelic on the "big picture" of European unity, a look forward to the food and energy-focused EXPO 2015 in Milan, and further reflections from Peg and Ryan on the conference in Boston.
Forza, JMU!
John A. Scherpereel
Program DirectorIn its long history, Europe has witnessed many different shifts in borders, usually accompanied by the re-mapping of political boundaries and revising of ideologies. It is almost unquestionably agreed upon, by historians and social scientists alike, that one of these re-mappings occurred in the late 1980s, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. During the 1990s, especially in the former socialist countries, public discourse centered on European reunification, a process transcending the East/West divide and abolishing outdated borders. The European Union's enlargement from 15 to 28 countries seemed to confirm this reality. After the so-called "Big Bang" enlargement of 2004, eight post-socialist countries became EU members (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia), followed by Romania and Bulgaria in 2007 and Croatia in 2013. Furthermore, most of the post-Yugoslav countries (Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia) are currently undergoing negotiations to join the EU. The twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, last November 9th, calls for a reassessment of the project of a reunited, borderless Europe. Is Europe, or at least the EU, really borderless for all its citizens? And what is the position of those who, for the time being, remain on the EU's outer margins and are striving for the membership in the EU club?
When deliberating on a possible eastward enlargement, during the European Council's 1993 meeting in Copenhagen, the heads of state and government defined the rules that each state wishing to join the EU had to follow. These rules became known as the Copenhagen Criteria[1]. They included economic stability within a free market system, democratic rule of law, respect of human rights and the protection of minorities. Indirectly, these criteria attempted to overcome what was perceived as the east-west divide, thereby shifting the borders in Europe. As pointed out by many political scientists, however, those rules only applied to countries asking to join the EU. The ones who had designed these criteria were not put under scrutiny in the same way. Many civil society actors[2] questioned the respect of minority rights in the old member states, particularly with respect to different Romani minorities, who suffered poor living conditions, and often abject poverty and discrimination.
On the very eve of the 2004 'Big Bang' enlargement, on April 30, 2004, one of the most impactful and decisive directives came into being. This is now widely known as the "Free Movement of Citizens" Directive (2004/38/EC)[3], which gave rights to all citizens of the EU to "move and reside" in another EU state. For many people from the former socialist states (especially ones formerly allied with the USSR), this was a Copernican shift. Previously forced to live in states that had almost hermetically sealed borders, now the promise of free movement brought a new world of possibilities.
Yet, the "Free Movement of Citizens" Directive was implemented very slowly in the new EU members. Furthermore, the rights given to EU citizens were not absolute. Certain rights were limited by particular rules and only applicable if the EU citizen that migrated across the internal EU borders did not present a disproportionate socio-economic burden for the host state. Therefore, many of the old member states were able to temporarily limit access to their labor markets for the citizens of the east. While this limitation was last lifted for Bulgaria and Romania on January 1, 2014, Croatian citizens will still need a work permit in most EU countries until 2020.
In 2013, just before the provisional limitations for access to the labor market were to be lifted for EU citizens with Bulgarian and Romanian passports, the UK Home Office started the 'van campaign'. Throughout the UK, vans with a poster saying: "In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest" appeared. While the vans received major criticism, they were part of a broader euro-skeptic argument, centered on opposition to the intra-EU migration (especially from particular new EU members). Such movement is growing all over the EU. The question of intra-EU migration is also particularly underlined in the current political campaign for the UK general elections scheduled for May 7, 2015.
Source BBC
This debate is constantly gaining new dimensions, since it does not only highlight the migrants from the new EU member states that come to "steal our jobs", but also raises uncertainties about welfare tourism[4] and disturbances of public order. The latter two phenomena are especially applicable to the most unwanted intra-EU migrants, the individuals identified as belonging to Romani minorities. In absolute terms, few Romani individuals have migrated from the east to the west of the EU. Romani migrants are particularly visible, though, and such visibility is often accompanied by discrimination. Yet the old EU member states have not developed efficient tools to deal with this new type of intra-EU movement. When facing migrants carrying EU passports, deportation is not a straightforward or simple measure to use anymore. Thus, many different states have adopted an approach to encourage so called measures of 'voluntary' return.[5] How voluntary such returns can be is certainly questionable.
As hinted above, the reordering of European borders has not stopped with the "Big Bang" enlargement. Many states in the immediate neighborhood are still in the process of joining the EU. The relationship between the EU and these post-Yugoslav states is characterized by many ambiguities that are particularly noticeable when it comes to the issue of borders. Former socialist Yugoslavia was a non-aligned state, and its citizens holding the red Yugoslav passport[6] had many more opportunities to travel both to other socialist countries and to the countries of the former European Economic Area. But after the wars of the 1990s and the subsequent disintegration of what was once a united Yugoslavia, the changed borders and political boundaries had a varied impact on the freedom of movement of former Yugoslav citizens: some are now EU citizens, while others are on its outer margins. Even if the latter group has enjoyed some visa liberalization,[7] and is therefore able to travel more freely in the Schengen Zone, such concessions were also accompanied by readmission agreements, which led to many returns[8] as well as deportations. Moreover, the European Parliament decided that the visa free regime for the post-Yugoslav countries is not absolute, and that visas can be reintroduced in case of a major influx of asylum seekers[9] (mostly belonging to minorities such as the Romani) towards the EU.
After considering all these factors, the question still remains, whether the project of a borderless and united Europe has really been achieved, or can be achieved at all. While the outer borders are shifting, some old internal political boundaries and beliefs, as well as certain latent structural inequalities within the EU, remain intact. These usually come to the fore when the debate turns to the question of migration. Hence, we can conclude that the project of a united, borderless Europe will only be achieved when the European Union will find ways to address and overcome certain power relations between the east and west, and ways to address persistent internal inequalities.
Written by Dr. Julija Sardelic
[1] http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/policy/glossary/terms/accession-criteria_en.htm
[2] http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/myth-spanish-model-roma-inclusion
[3] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2004:158:0077:0123:en:PDF
[4] https://euobserver.com/justice/126466
[5] http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/08/10/france-renewed-crackdown-roma
[6] http://www.citsee.eu/citsee-story/afterlives-yugoslav-red-passport
[7] http://www.citsee.eu/citsee-study/europeanisation-through-mobility-visa-liberalisation-and-citizenship-regimes
[8] http://www.citsee.eu/citsee-study/politics-return-inequality-and-citizenship-post-yugoslav-space
[9] http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20130910IPR19556/html/EP-backs-rules-allowing-suspension-of-visa-free-travel-only-as-a-last-resort
As the Universal Exposition set to take place later this year in Milan prepares to launch, the promise of international cooperation is both encouraging and welcomed. EXPO 2015 is the institutional successor to The World's Fair, the international extravaganza that has historically showcased some of the world's most innovative technology and spectacles—the Eiffel Tower, the Crystal Palace, and more. Over 130 countries will participate in this year's EXPO, and one of the United States' largest industries is excited to take advantage of the opportunity. This year's USA pavilion will be devoted to "American Food 2.0: United to Feed the Planet." The USA Pavillion will, feature the new and many ways that the United States is dedicated to innovation in the food sector.
The overall theme of this year's Expo Is "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life," and the USA Pavilion is being constructed at a pivotal time for US-EU relations. The highly debated Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which strives to create an open market between the two largest global trading powers, is on the minds of many Europeans. Major backlash from TTIP opposition stems from differences in USA and EU regulations, particularly as they relate to food and agriculture. The USA Pavilion will promote collaboration between Europe and the United States, highlighting the advancements and dedication to tackling food-system challenges together. Visitors are welcomed to visit the 35,000 square foot space, displaying these achievements, such as a vertical farm and wood repurposed from the original Coney Island boardwalk. "America's food story is rich and innovative—much more so than most people realize. We want visitors to understand and appreciate how complex and sophisticated our story is," says James Biber, architect of the Pavilion.
Over the course of the six-month EXPO, a series of programs and exhibit will create collaborative solutions to global food problems. What can be done by the international community to feed the expected nine billion people who will inhabit the earth by 2050? How does the diverse American food system—and the systems of the EU as a whole and particular EU member states—contribute to global solutions? These and many more questions will be among the topics discussed over the course of the EXPO.
Among the unique programs to be introduced is "Feeding the Accelerator." Created by Microsoft in collaboration with teams of entrepreneurs, chefs, artists and academics, the accelerator is designed to engage EXPO visitors and participants with a collaborative business model, providing a global platform for local initiatives.
To learn more about how the USA, the EU, and the other 147 countries and international organizations are participating in EXPO 2015, visit www.expo2015.org.
Written by Sara Kinas
For the first time this year, the EUPS program instituted two research assistant positions. The year's two research assistants, Ryan Prusator and Peg Schmelzinger, were selected to work side-by-side with Program Director John Scherpereel and Academic Coordinator Caterina Paolucci on various EU-related research projects. The two research teams (2010 program alum Jerry Wohlgemuth has joined the Scherpereel-Schmelzinger team) submitted papers from the projects to the biennial meeting of the EU Studies Association. Both papers were accepted and subsequently presented at the EUSA conference in Boston in March.
While many conference participants were only a train or car ride away, the two EUPS students joined the hoards of European scholars making the transatlantic trek to Boston. The conference itself was an amalgam of respected scholars—well known to each other and within their field—and doctoral students who were hoping to follow in their footsteps. Some high-profile speakers, including economist Thomas Piketty and former HRVP Baroness Catherine Ashton, joined in on the proceedings.
The conference, which lasted four days, was broken down into thematic sessions. Paolucci and Prusator's work, entitled "A Portrait of the New Italian MEPs: Women, Young and . . . Revolutionary?" was presented during the session "MEPs and Electoral Politics." The Scherpereel-Wohlgemuth-Schmelzinger paper on "Adoption and Use of Twitter as a Representational Tool" was discussed during a session on "Intraparliamentary Dynamics at Multiple Levels."
Presenting and hearing feedback from the academic community, in particular during small group debates, was an excellent exercise for both assistants. Schmelzinger noted, "Our session, in particular, helped us to understand areas where our paper could be improved that we had been unable to see from the inside and provided possible solutions to the problem areas we had already identified." Prusator echoed this notion: "Even though we presented on the first day, there was still very much to do for the rest of the week. Several of the papers presented were very similar to our topic, so we attended those relevant panels to further spark ideas on nuances about our own research."
Overall, the conference helped both students keep current with the academic community on issues related to the European Union and its place in the world. They were inspired by the diverse opinions and obvious passion and commitment to the subject. While it was a humbling experience for the assistants to take part in a conference with so many professors and high-level researchers, they also managed to fit in as peers, rather than simply students of the European Union.
As the academic year winds down, both students hope to put final touches on their research. Their experience thus far has certainly helped to hone their skills as writers and communicators in the professional realm, but the cherry on top would be to see their names published in a journal.
Ryan Prusator and Peg Schmelzinger contributed to this article
Culturally Anchored Eco-Games TM
Exploring Sustainability through Community-Based Games
JMU faculty and students have partnered with Maasai pastoralist communities in southern Kenya to develop the first Culturally Anchored Eco-Game (CAEG), ERAMAT ("mind your cattle" in the Maa language). Pastoralism is a subsistence-oriented lifestyle centered on livestock, and for Maasai, cattle are the most prestigious of the livestock they keep. The game was inspired by the 2009 drought in East Africa, during which many Maasai, including family members of one of the project principals, lost 60 - 100% of their cattle.
ERAMAT provides an engaging learning environment to explore the dynamics contributing to the accelerating cycle of drought and hunger in East Africa, and it encourages deeper understanding for pastoralists and non-pastoralists alike. For pastoralists, this can lead to more mitigation strategies at the individual and community level. ERAMAT also provides a rich environment for U.S. university and high school students to learn about the roles of science, technology, and social context in addressing challenges faced by other cultures. Because of the potential ERAMAT has demonstrated as an educational, data-gathering and analytical tool, the North American Simulation & Gaming Association honored ERAMAT with the "Rising Star" award in October 2014.
More Culturally Anchored Eco-Games are planned to address other issues involving human-environment interactions. To this end, the ERAMAT team is developing partnerships with key researchers from Kenyatta University (Kenya), the University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), The Northern Rangelands Trust (Kenya), and Rutgers University.
Your gift will help reach our goal of $531,844 to support JMU students and faculty in the following activities:
Contact: Mary Lou Bourne
Executive Director, James Madison Innovations email@example.com 540-568-2865
James Madison University's School of Theatre and Dance will host Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater (SPDT) from April 6-11, 2015. To celebrate its 35th anniversary season, SPDT initiated a nationwide application process to award "one incredible community" with a weeklong residency and performance opportunity. JMU's School of Theatre and Dance applied for and was awarded the grant.
The residency includes a performance at the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, April 11 @ 8 pm in the Earlynn J. Miller Dance Theatre. In addition, SPDT will conduct lectures, workshops and classes for students and faculty in JMU's College of Health and Behavioral Studies (CBHS) and College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA). The company will also provide workshops for healthcare professionals and for stroke survivors and their caregivers at Sentara RMH Medical Center. A group of JMU students (both from the CBHS and CVPA) who have an interest in arts and/or healthcare will be on hand for the workshops.
"SPDT has really pioneered the arts in healthcare field," says Kate Trammell, professor of dance at JMU. "It is valuable to give our students exposure to an emerging field that could be a source of meaningful employment, and it places JMU and Sentara RMH on the cutting-edge in terms of artists and healthcare practitioners working together."
According to Sharon Lovell, dean of the CBHS, the SPDT residency places "the wellness of the actual caregivers in the spotlight, and that caregiving role is one that so many graduates of CHBS step into for their professional lives."
SPDT's community inclusive work has been lauded as a "National Model" by the Kennedy Center, and its arts and healthcare work has been recognized for "Best Practices" by the National Endowment for the Arts.
"Known for capturing with humor and compassion the spectacles of everyday life (Columbus Art)," SPDT performs in cities from its hometown of Minneapolis to Mexico City to Dusseldorf, Germany. Founded by Stuart Pimsler in 1978 and now co-directed with Suzanne Costello, SPDT strives to create "theater for the heart and mind" with its work focused on "love, loss, and the need for connection." Come experience "choreography with exquisite abandon" as the company reveals "the urgency of expectation and the vulnerability that comes with a bared soul (Minneapolis Star Tribune)."
Tickets for the performance are $10. Limited seating is available. For tickets, visit www.jmuforbescenter.com or call the Forbes Center Box Office at (540) 568-7000. A full list of residency events is below.
Monday, April 6
10 a.m.-noon - *"Meaning in Movement" free workshop, Sentara RMH Medical Center
1:25-2:55 p.m. - Advanced Modern master class, Forbes Center, JMU – Rm. 1270
Tuesday, April 7
8:30-10:30 a.m. - Dance in Community class (with student/faculty guests from Music and Human Services program), Forbes Center, JMU – Rm. 1298
1-3 p.m. - "Caring for the Caregiver" workshop, Sentara RMH Medical Center
Wednesday, April 8
10 a.m.-noon - *"Meaning in Movement" free workshop, Sentara RMH Medical Center
11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. - "Making Work" workshop for advanced dance composition and playwriting students, Forbes Center, JMU – Rm. 1270
5-5:50 p.m. - *Intro to Arts in Healthcare (one-hour free talk) for students in arts and healthcare majors, Anthony-Seeger Auditorium
Thursday, April 9
1-3 p.m. - "Caring for the Caregiver" workshop, Sentara RMH Medical Center
5:15-6:30 p.m. - "Mapping the Patient: An Overview of Arts and Healthcare" CHBS faculty/graduate student workshop, Festival, JMU – Conf. Rm. 8
5-6:30 p.m. - Dance class with men's golf team, Forbes Center, JMU – Rm. 1299
Friday, April 10
10:10-11:25 a.m. - Friday Free master class, Forbes Center, JMU – Rm. 1270
Saturday, April 11
8 p.m. - *SPDT performance, Forbes Center, JMU – Earlynn J. Miller Dance Theatre
* indicates open to the public. Note: Registration is required for the "Meaning in Movement" workshop. Contact Janet Marshman, Sentara RMH, at firstname.lastname@example.com or (540) 689-1654 to register or for more information.
In collaboration with JMU College of Visual and Performing Arts, JMU College of Health and Behavioral Studies, JMU Institute for Innovation in Health and Human Services, JMU School of Theatre and Dance, Sentara RMH Medical Center, Shenandoah Valley Brain Injury Support Group, Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community, Bridgewater Retirement Center, Sunnyside Retirement Center, Generations Crossing
You've barely even signed your housing contract for your freshman year and you already have to start thinking about your sophomore year?
Crazy, we know, but once you get on campus you will have to start considering your options. Most housing contracts and off campus leases are signed by October so you will want to start weighing the pros and cons of each now. So we've pulled together a little list of some of the perks that come with deciding to live on campus a second year:
Signing a Second Year Housing Contract gives you more time to find a roommate. If you choose to live off campus you have to select your roommates when you sign your apartment contract, no matter how early in the year it is. If you decide to live on campus you have until the spring to choose since Online Room Selection doesn't take place until March. The more time you have to get to know your future roommates the better.
You don't have to worry about setting up and managing utility accounts. If you move off campus someone in your apartment will have to open and manage the utility accounts for the entire apartment. If you live on campus it's all included in your housing fee.
Say you don't end up getting along with your roommate. If you live off campus you can't change your roommate as easily as you can if you live on campus. Our office has a process in place that makes changing rooms much easier.
You can wake up 15 minutes before your class and still make it on time. No off campus housing facility offers a better location than living on campus itself does. I mean, who wants to wake up, get ready, walk to your car, drive to campus, fight to find a parking space and then walk all the way to class (not to mention, how far that will be once you finally find a parking spot).
Housekeepers to keep common areas clean. On campus you also have a wonderful housekeeper to keep the hallways, public bathrooms and common spaces clean. Your new neighbors in an apartment complex may not be as tidy as you'd like them to be.
When you live on campus you don't have to plan meals, grocery shop, cook and then clean up. Having a meal plan covers all of that work. Plus, who can compete with JMU's food variety and our Princeton Review Ranking of 6th out of 376 colleges in the nation?
Signing a Second Year Contract sooner rather than later gives you a better lottery number during Online Room Selection. Online Room Selection is a process in which students select their bedspace for the following year.
You have an RA whose job is to help you. Seriously, your RA looks out for you and helps you with whatever questions/issues you may have. A landlord will not care if you need tips on joining a club or finding a tutor to help with Biology.
The resources provided for free on campus can't be beat by any apartment complex. Living on campus puts you within walking distance of UREC (which will be even better once the expansion is complete), two libraries, The Writing Center, the brand new Student Success Center which includes the University Health Center, Career and Academic Planning, Registrar and Business Office.
Lastly, have you seen the Apartments on Grace Street? Our brand new apartment style building houses 500 students in a combination of 1 and 2 bedroom units with 2 residents per bedroom. Apartments come with a kitchen, fully furnished living room and bedroom(s), and 1 bathroom for every pair of residents. All units are wifi and cable ready, and all utilities are included in your room rent! Learn more about the Apartments on Grace Street here.
After taking all of that into consideration it makes it the decision to move off campus that much tougher, so here's a little information about Second Year Contracts:
The Second Year Contract is offered only to incoming freshmen and is a contract for the sophomore year which guarantees the student a space on campus for their second academic year.
This is an optional contract and should only be signed by students who are 100% sure they want to be in a residence hall during their sophomore year. The contract is binding and you cannot cancel it at a later date. If you sign the second year contract you will have a space on campus next year and will be billed for residential housing and a resident meal plan.
Have any other questions or concerns? Check our Returning Student Housing page on our website or give us a call at (540) 568-4663.
By Megan Bourne ('11)
By: Kiara Mauro ('15), Student Affairs Technical Services
If you're like most people, you are uncertain about your public speaking abilities and are terrified of giving a presentation in front of an audience. According to the Wall Street Journal, the number one fear for the majority of Americans is public speaking. Presenting is an essential part of life, whether it is required for a class assignment or for your future career. What if I told you that there is an easy way to improve your presentation skills? The Communication Center at JMU is a resource for students to help them develop and refine speeches and practice interviewing skills.
By improving your presentation skills, you will also reduce your anxiety about speaking in front of a group. Just ask Haley Winter; she was first introduced to the Communication Center when her professor offered extra credit for practicing her speech at the Communication Center. Haley states, "After the first visit, I realized what a benefit it was and kept coming back on my own. It has given me more confidence with public speaking. The tutors make you feel great about your speech and help you take it to the next level." The Communication Center assists in helping you overcome speech anxiety so that you can feel more confident in front of an audience.
Not only can the Communication Center help you to improve your public speakings skills, but the tutors will help you at any stage of your presentation. Whether you need help brainstorming ideas, developing the speech or practicing the delivery, the Communication Center is happy to help you every step of the way. The staff can also provide students with assistance in visual communication, including consultation on how to develop charts and infographics.
An exciting service that is also offered at the Communication Center is the opportunity to practice and prepare for job interviews. This partnership with Career and Academic Planning (CAP) benefits students because they can sign up for mock interviews and utilize JMU's interview stream. The interview stream is a tool that allows for the user to record themselves answering questions within a virtual interview. CAP only allows students one practice interview a semester, whereas the Communication Center does not have a limit on the practice interviews.
Rachel Matt, who currently serves as a tutor, recognizes the importance of developing communication skills: "No matter what profession you choose, the ability to communicate your ideas effectively is necessary across the board. Students who come to the Comm Center leave with a better understanding of the particular form of communication we were working on, which is a skill that will serve them well down the road." Go into your next presentation or interview feeling confident and prepared. For more information about the Communication Center and how to schedule your next appointment, visit: http://www.jmu.edu/commcenter/
Construction of the university steam line project is set to begin May of 2015. The project consists of installing steam lines to connect the university's main power plant to the north campus power plant. This is necessary to meet new regulations set by DEQ.
The construction will greatly impact traffic patterns throughout campus. Facilities Planning and Construction will be overseeing the project and will be posting current information as to traffic delays and alternative routes for visiting campus.
Thank you in advance for patience as infrastructure upgrades progress.
By Rob Tucker
Visit Madison magazine online to download the Madison app and view this story on your tablet device for an immersive, interactive experience!
You might say it's been a pretty good year for twins Colby and Brian Trow.
The brothers were featured in an award-winning documentary film released late in 2014. They taught classes in fly fishing, guided anglers and fished together at scenic locales ranging from the Bahamas to Bridgewater. Brian was featured on a magazine cover; Colby became a father.
The Trows are rising stars in the world of fly fishing, a billion-dollar industry with about 4 million fly anglers in the U.S. alone. They opened Mossy Creek Fly Fishing in Harrisonburg in 2003, one year after graduating from JMU. They were 23 at the time.
Brian earned a degree in geology, while Colby majored in biology with a pre-med preparation. Brian was planning a career in geology, while Colby was poised to take over his father's dental practice in Richmond, their hometown.
When the opportunity arose to launch a business centered on their shared passion, they took the plunge. Now, little more than a decade later, they manage the largest freshwater guide service and the largest fly fishing school in Virginia in addition to their retail operation.
"Hard work, honesty and common sense helped us grab a foothold in the fly fishing industry," said Colby. "Our JMU education prepared us to take on the challenge of building a small business with confidence."
As their business has grown, their reputation as expert, innovative fly anglers and conservationists has spread far beyond the ridges and valleys of the Commonwealth.
Colby and Brian Trow
They are the subject of the award-winning Blood Knot, which was selected as Best Fly Fishing Film of the Year and Best Freshwater Film of the Year at the 2014 Drake Film Awards in Orlando, Fla. Brian was recently pictured on the cover of industry giant Orvis's catalog, which is circulated worldwide.
Colby serves on the board of the American Fly Fishing Trade Association, while Brian is on the board of Project Healing Waters, an organization dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled veterans through fly fishing.
"We have been working with Project Healing Waters from very close to the beginning of its creation," Brian said. "We have enjoyed working with veterans from all over the country and introducing them to fly fishing." The Trows have helped to host an annual fishing tournament and fundraiser in Bridgewater, Va., since 2007. Their initial goal was to raise $1 million for PHW in ten years, but they exceeded that goal in seven years. The tournament is "the favorite day of the year for our entire staff," Colby said.
Their business is named after the sultry spring creek that enchants anglers from all over the country. Mossy Creek's cold, mineral-rich waters cascade down from the surrounding mountains, sinking underground on the way to the valley floor before bubbling back to the surface via limestone springs. Brian and Colby have hosted numerous anglers there, including Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen, presidential candidate Rick Santorum, country music superstar Luke Bryan and NFL player Reed Doughty.
'Better habitat equals more fish; more fish equals better fishing; better fishing equals positive economic impact for the community.'
The Trows were the catalysts for a 2,000-foot stream restoration and dam removal project on Mossy Creek, just one example of their leadership on conservation efforts throughout the Shenandoah Valley.
"It is our duty to continue to work towards clean water," they say. "Better habitat equals more fish; more fish equals better fishing; better fishing equals positive economic impact for the community. Results aren't always visible overnight, but we all need to contribute to the benefit of future generations." The Trows and their staff are continually building partnerships with landowners, agencies and politicians to protect and enhance local water quality.
They also are heavily invested in education and were instrumental in founding Madison Fly Fishers, JMU's fly fishing club, which involves about 80 students.
"They are very supportive of Madison Fly Fishers," said Tom Benzing, the club's advisor and a professor in Integrated Science and Technology. "They offer store discounts to all members, they donate fly rods to the club and they offer free casting lessons."
The Trows have been avid fly anglers since the age of 8. They started selling artificial flies they created themselves at age 14. In addition to fly fishing for brook trout in the mountain streams, brown trout in the valley spring creeks and smallmouth bass in the Shenandoah River, the Trows have pushed the envelope by pursuing eclectic species of finny critters such as large, predatory muskie and difficult-to-fool white amur, or "pond sharks" as they call them. They are generous in sharing their hard-won fishing knowledge, and their enthusiasm for being on the water and traveling to beautiful destinations is contagious.
They have served as fly fishing instructors and guides during the winter at East End Lodge in the Bahamas, teaching anglers how to fish for the elusive and turbocharged bonefish on saltwater flats.
Their current obsession is saltwater fly fishing off the Virginia coast. It is believed that Brian caught the first blue marlin on a fly in Virginia waters. The creators of Blood Knot, TwoFisted Heart Productions, is currently working on another documentary showcasing the Trows' saltwater fishing adventures. Look for it in late 2015. It's sure to make another big splash.
Brian Cockburn, Director of JMU's Music Library and adjunct instructor in the School of Music, has always had a foot in two worlds. Regardless of where he has been—New York City, Austria, Texas or Virginia—he was always both a librarian and musician. He even financed his Information Science and Musicology degrees by singing and directing with opera companies in the southwest as well as being music director for several churches. "No matter where I have been, I have always combined making and composing music with helping others make and study music. They complement each other nicely."
Cockburn recently found a new way to unite these two worlds—developing and administering a new composers competition at JMU. "The idea sprang from the realization that students in my arranging classes needed some kind of encouragement to elevate their creativity and reach higher than the grade," says Cockburn. The New Music for Young Musicians Composers Competition combines JMU's strong legacy of producing talented and creative music educators with our aspirations to engage and support emerging voices in writing music for young musicians. "Young composers tend to focus on composing great "masterworks" rather than music for younger ensembles—High School and Middle School," Cockburn notes. "However, most successful composers and arrangers eventually find that creating works for younger ensembles is both challenging and very rewarding."
According to Cockburn, work consistent in accessibility for performers and artistically compelling to audiences will be in high demand. Yet, writing for younger ensembles requires a different set of skills than composing for higher level ensembles. "The reason for this competition," Cockburn continues, "is to give my students—and students everywhere—a reason to learn those unique skills."
There are several peripheral benefits to this program. "A common complaint among music educators," School of Music Director, Jeff Bush says, "is a lack of good new contemporary music for their younger ensembles. One of our hoped-for outcomes of this competition is published new music for younger ensembles." Through collaboration with the top names in the field, Cockburn hopes that there will be publication opportunities for winners and semifinalists. "This year we have two remarkable guest adjudicators in Steven Sametz and Brian Balmages," states Cockburn. "Both composers are universally recognized as some of the most successful composers in their particular specialties with large publication footprints and great connections."
This competition also creates an opportunity for winning young composers to collaborate with seasoned music education professionals and their students. "Energetic, appropriate, and quality literature is essential to the growth of our students, teachers, and the ensembles they work in," says J. R. Snow, Harrisonburg City Public Schools Fine Arts Coordinator. "This competition will allow for the next generation of young composers to have an outlet for performance and allow their musical abilities to be showcased in live performance scenarios." This year, the two winning compositions will be premiered by a Harrisonburg High School Chorus, and by the Eastern Mennonite University Preparatory Program's Youth Orchestra. Cockburn, a composer himself, states, "There is nothing quite like having your piece performed by an ensemble of eager young musicians to discover both the challenges and joys that your composition can elicit. It is, indeed, the greatest learning environment a composer can experience." Continuing, "I have been lucky in that many JMU faculty and ensembles have performed my works. Each collaboration yields new insight into how to translate what I hear in my head to a printed score and how that printed score is translated by a performer into sound—the psychology of that process is complex and fascinating. That is what I hope our winners can experience and learn from in this process."
Because there is no other competition quite like it, submissions have come from across the nation and internationally. "I am very happy with the turnout this inaugural year. There are some very fine young composers out there. I am really looking forward to hearing the outcome and a little sad that we can have only one winner in each category," says Cockburn. However, the JMU Music Library will be adding all semifinalists' scores to their Special Collections so that over time a library of good new music by young composers is developed.
The competition is only the most recent area where Cockburn has combined his two sides. "One of the remarkable things about James Madison University in general, and my own organizations of Libraries and Educational Technologies and the School of Music, is the encouragement to work outside your job description," says Cockburn. "In the music library, for example, we are installing a gallery for music-related visual art. We'll be collaborating with community artists and art faculty and students to fill it with a rotation of all kinds of visual arts that might be inspired by music, reflect the organizational structures of music, or some other music/visual arts connection we haven't even thought of."
"The opportunities I have been given to perform, compose, and teach in the School of Music, and the music faculty's and students' support of all that the library does make being a part of JMU a joy," Cockburn says. "Of course, having extraordinary people around you is the only way it is possible—and I have been blessed with those people in the Music Library."
"My wife describes me as the epitome of the Jack-of-all-trades-Master-of-none. Some people like to delve deep into a very narrow area. We need those people. I just don't happen to be one of them. I can't help but seek out connections and projects outside my 'official' world. Strangely enough, at fifty-one I feel like I am just getting started."
Dr. Salome Heyward, a civil rights attorney with over 35 years experience in the field of disability discrimination law and disability management, will be presenting as part of the Center for Faculty Innovation's May Symposium 2015. Dr. Heyward has written numerous books and articles including Higher Education and Disability (LRP Publications, 2004). Dr. Heyward is frequently sought out by media personnel to provide legal background for their productions concerning disability issues, e.g., NBC, CNN, ESPN, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. She is also the president of Salome Heyward & Associates.
Dr. Heyward will start this year's May Symposium Conference Days on May 12th with an opening keynote address entitled, " Disability Issues in Higher Education." She will also facilitate a roundtable entitled, "Teaching and Working with Students with Disabilities" and a workshop entitled, "Upholding Reasonable Standards for Students with Disabilities."
One of the things we in SATS deal with occasionally is helping people put documents such as PDF's, Word docs, schedules and application forms online in downloadable formats. An issue that sometimes comes up is when departments want to create a new/updated version of one of these documents for the new semester or school year. They will typically want to save or store the past versions of these documents for posterity and thus wind up naming the files with date descriptions (e.g. 'Application-form-sp2015' or '2014-event-schedule').
There's not nothing inherently wrong with this, but it can become wasteful, inefficient, and potentially confusing if all of the previous versions are kept on the department's web site. At best, this can eat up storage space on the server, and it usually requires that the links to these resources be updated throughout the site each time a new version is produced. This can be a big deal on larger websites (especially if there any of the links are accidentally skipped over), and can lead to a overly bloated site which would be more difficult to maintain. At worst, it can cause your users confusion if they use search engines to find your resource, as an outdated version may appear in the results if all iterations of the file exist on the server at the same time.
The best solution is to not have multiple versions of a resource live on your web server concurrently unless there is a specific user-centric need to do so. You should only keep the latest version without any type of date description in the file name (e.g. 'application-form-sp2015' would instead simply be 'application-form'). This way, each new version would overwrite the old one on the web site, and you wouldn't need to waste time adjusting any of the links to this new version. If you wanted to maintain copies of the previous versions, a better option would be to do so in some sort of archived storage. You could save the files to your department's common drive folder, or to CDs, DVDs or thumb drives, depending on how often they would need to be accessed, and by whom.
This concept doesn't just apply to downloadable files; it's the same for any type of content that can or does get reused on a regular basis, so long as your users only need to know about only one of them at a time. Whether it's a Qualtrics survey, an event in Cascade, a web page, or something else, you can leave off the date from the filename (or title, or whatever applies to what you're creating). No matter what you're working on, I hope this tip helps you stay organized and saves you time in the future.
A true highlight for Clerk Chaz this week was having the honor of swearing in Louis Nagy as a new substitute Judge of General and Juvenile Relations Court. Louis's character speaks for itself and his experience both as a prosecutor and as a defense attorney will serve the public well. The entire staff gathered as the Clerk gave Judge Nagy the oath. I mention this as it is not our normal practice for an oath, but showed Judge Nagy the appreciation and support he has from all of us in the Circuit Court Clerk's office. Congratulations Louis.
By Emily Tait ('15)
Professor Matt Lee and Ethan Bannar ('15) review research in JMU's Cultural and Racial Studies lab.
As news headlines attest, racial and cultural divides continue to stir controversy, even violence, across the nation.
Building a safe, and constructive, arena to analyze preconceptions about diversity has been a passion of psychology professor Dr. Matt Lee. To that end, Lee instituted the Cultural and Racial Studies, or CARDS lab, which has heightened the caliber of JMU research on the topics.
As part of the psychology department's curriculum, the CARDS lab provides students with fundamental research skills, analysis training and a realistic lab experience. Taking on controversial topics with global ramifications such as affirmative action and transgender identity allows students to gain extensive knowledge and a new perspective on the application of psychology in the world.
'Topics researched in Dr. Lee's [CARDS] lab specifically have opened my eyes to many issues that I never thought were important. I now have a different mindset.'
Currently, Ethan Bannar ('15) is the senior assistant on duty in the CARDS lab and heads up his own research team. He supervises other students, helping them run data collection protocols, and also creates their research schedule and trains the students on the research content. "As a leader in this lab, I see what things are going well or where students need help…so I can ensure the research is running efficiently," he says.
While Bannar sees benefit in this opportunity to build leadership skills, he credits his experience in the CARDS lab with a greater, more profound impact: "I know that my time and work spent in this lab has been a crucial building block to my future studies in research and practice of clinical psychology. Topics researched in Dr. Lee's lab specifically have opened my eyes to many issues that I never thought were important. I now have a different mindset."
With his not-so-distant, post-grad future looming, Bannar expressed an interest in working with veterans who are diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder through the practice of clinical psychology. After conducting a literature review of the leading treatments of PTSD, Bannar developed a desire to collaborate with law enforcement on this issue.
Thanks to the guidance of Lee, Bannar has realized that there is more to the application of psychology than just "helping people." He says, "[My mindset] has grown into a goal to better understand and empathize with a population of people to potentially spread awareness and increase education to others."
Bannar's words echo other students' experiences: JMU's CARDS lab promotes a broadened, more enlightened, worldview.
Long-standing friends and alumnus, G.J. (Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of California Pizza Kitchen) and Heather Hart, have named the School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management at James Madison University. On March 20, 2015, President Alger officially announced the naming and gift of over $3 million. The gift is truly transformative for the School and James Madison University, as it is the first School at James Madison to be named in the University's 100 + years of history.
Over the past eight years, the Hart's have spent many hours on the JMU campus speaking with students and sharing their story. Most recently, G.J. inspired the graduating class of December 2013 by speaking at Commencement and Heather participated and presented at the Women in Leadership conference in January 2015. Their stories touch the lives of many, especially the stories about paying it forward and leading from the heart.
Dr. Michael O'Fallon, Director of the School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management (SHSRM), believes that the Hart's will make a positive impression on all SHSRM students.
"G.J. and Heather are an inspiration to many. In fact, they inspire me to be a better person tomorrow, than I am today. I cannot wait to see how much of an impact the Hart's will have on our students in years to come," says O'Fallon.
The Hart's have already made a significant impact on many students, especially those who had the opportunity to attend the California Pizza Kitchen (and prior to that, the Texas Roadhouse) Annual Operator's Conference. During the week of March 15th, eight hospitality management students worked side-by-side with California Pizza Kitchen and the ONYX Meetings and Events staff in San Diego, California. These eight students were able to see what it was like, first-hand, to plan, coordinate and execute an event for 800 individuals. In addition, the students took part in CPK's "Inspired Acts" day working alongside 200 Marines at Camp Pendleton. It was an experience they will never forget.
"I feel blessed to have been given the opportunity to work the CPK Operator's Conference. Working alongside the CPK team, and the Marines at Camp Pendleton, was one of my favorite memories from our trip. Overall, my experience was one I will never forget," says Christina Dean, a Senior Hospitality Management student.
The faculty and students of The School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management could not be more honored to have the Hart's name the school.
"We, in the School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management, are truly humbled by this gift. G.J. and Heather are two of the most kind, generous, and caring leaders that I know. To have their name on our school is an honor," says O'Fallon.
"The Hart family embodies passion, kindness, and inspiration. G.J. and Heather are fully committed to their company, to each and every employee at California Pizza Kitchen, and to the community that surrounds them," says Taylor Walton, a Senior Hospitality Management student. These are characteristics that will help build the foundation of our school for years to come.
Without question, the Hart's will continue to make an impact on our students, faculty, and local community. Together, we will make the Hart School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management a world-class program.
G.J. Hart is the 2012 recipient of the School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management Hall of Fame and serves on both the Hospitality Management Advisory Council and the College of Business Advisory Board.
By Daniel Vieth
In modern society, people often get so caught up in their own lives that they forget what's happening to others around the world. For example, people take for granted privileges like our access to excellent medical care. For individuals living in developing nations, access to quality care isn't always guaranteed. Looking to help improve the lives of these people, many JMU students have donated their time and energy to helping others around the world. One such example is Kory Schaeffer, who was inspired by his time in Haiti to also help the people of Ghana.
Schaeffer is a senior health sciences major, Africana studies minor, a senior volunteer and Advanced Emergency Medical Technician (AEMT) for the Harrisonburg Rescue Squad and, an Emergency Department (ED) Tech at the Sentara Rockingham Memorial Hospital (SRMH) Emergency Department. While he has always been interested in helping people, Schaeffer's two trips to Haiti through JMU's Alternative Spring Break program motivated him to pursue further mission trips to Africa. "After my trips to Haiti, I decided to research organizations where I could do this work on more of a long term basis," Schaeffer explained. "I came upon an organization called 'A Broader View' that was able to set me up with UNiTED, or Unifying Neighbors Through Education and Development, a non-governmental organization (NGO) located in Kpando, Ghana."
While in Kpando, Schaeffer volunteered at the HardtHaven Children's Home, an orphanage and rehab facility. Additionally, he took emergency medical services (EMS) calls for the Ghanaian National Ambulance Service while also at the St. Patrick Hospital. "It was a great experience to participate in the same jobs that I do here in the states in a developing nation," said Schaeffer. "The hospital I worked in was constantly low on supplies, so I learned how to evaluate and diagnose patients simply off symptomatology and physical assessment alone." Without continuous supplies or technologies like antiseptics, medications, blood tests, radiology, or even gloves, medical experts in Ghana have found other means to help their citizens. "I am so impressed with what those nurses and doctors accomplish with what they have," Schaeffer continued. "The whole experience gave me a deeper sense of the true differences between medicine in America versus medicine in Ghana."
One experience in particular that stood out to Schaeffer was helping a man who had previously been bound to his house for six years due to a large growth on his foot that prevented him from walking. "I remember feeling lost and confused as to how to help this man as a lone American in a rural village with minimal supplies," said Schaeffer. "I could feel the pressure and burden placed on me by this man's faith in my ability to help him." Not knowing what else to do, Schaeffer took a photo of the growth and asked for others' help at St. Patrick's Hospital. Luckily, a nurse that used to work in a dermatology clinic recognized the growth as a Buruli Ulcer; a mycobacterium that is indigenous to a few tropical areas through the world.
After knowing the problem, Schaeffer was able to enroll the man into the national health insurance plan and get help from a group of American dermatologists and plastic surgeons that treat patients in the region. The man received a full evaluation, amputation of the infected limb and rehabilitation after the surgery. "The man now gets around using crutches and works to make an income, which is a huge improvement from his previous state where he didn't leave his house," Schaeffer continued. "This really made me understand that I was able to make a tangible difference in someone's life, and that even though I felt overwhelmed at first, I was able to make a huge impact in the man's quality of life."
Schaeffer has already established plans with UNiTED to return to Ghana after graduation. "I am set to return for a six month project creating a boat ambulance system to fulfill the great need for access to healthcare on the island communities in Kpando and along the Volta River," explained Schaeffer. "I am taking eight Harrisonburg Rescue Squad members with me, each for three week increments, to assist with varying parts of the project design and implementation." Schaeffer will also be taking a greater role in UNiTED, helping to organize the experiences and projects for other incoming volunteers.
After returning from this project, Schaeffer plans to apply to medical school to continue his education. While he is not completely sure what will happen after that, he has not ruled out the possibility of permanently moving to another country to practice medicine. "My experience of working in Ghana helped me gain a better sense of myself and my place in our world, as well as a greater confidence in my ability to be independent outside of my comfort zone," Schaeffer added. "I hope that other JMU students and Americans can become more worldly and aware of our extended family on this planet."
If you would like to learn more about and contribute to Schaeffer's upcoming volunteer trip to Ghana, please visit his fundraising page and donate to the campaign.
Mark Ardrey-Graves began work on his Doctorate of Musical Arts (DMA) in choral conducting in the fall of 2012. He will say goodbye to JMU when he graduates this spring, but had the opportunity bid a farewell of a different kind when he was asked to arrange a song called "Farewell to You" for the Treble Chamber Choir's performance at the Caladh Nua concert held at the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts in March.
Caladh Nua is an acclaimed Irish band, and "Farewell to You" was written by Eric Butler, the brother of Lisa Butler, a member of the group.
According to Ardrey-Graves, "Farewell to You" is a wistful song of parting. "It could be a love song. It could be someone dying. It could be someone going on a journey."
Ardrey-Graves' journey in arranging the song occurred over a short period of time. "Due to the quick turnaround required, I did the whole song in two to three days," says Ardrey-Graves.
In those two to three days, Ardrey-Graves used music notation software to arrange a song that could be sung by the Treble Chamber Choir (TCC) alone or sung by the TCC and played with a band (in this case, Caladh Nua). "I tried to keep it so that if the TCC were to sing it on its own, it wouldn't sound empty. If the group wanted to sing it again later in one of their concerts, they could do that."
Ardrey-Graves says the notation software allowed him to change settings and electronic sounds—and to obtain "instant feedback." "I can play the song back and hear it immediately, and I don't have to be sitting at a keyboard."
Ardrey-Graves does spend a considerable amount of time at a keyboard, however. He is currently the music director and organist for the Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Harrisonburg. Ardrey-Graves initiated a Sunday night, sung service at the church. The half-hour candlelight service consists of a choir made up primarily of students; the choir sings a cappella music and Gregorian chant. Ardrey-Graves likes working with students, who he says "get excited about music and singing in a way that other people do not."
Before beginning his DMA program, Ardrey-Graves spent a year as a non-degree seeking student, where he took courses on campus, sang in the JMU Chorale and Madison Singers, and accompanied the TCC. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in music from the University of Richmond before obtaining two master's degrees from Duke University, one in music, the other in divinity.
Looking back on his time at JMU, Ardrey-Graves says his time "has been very rich." "Compared to two or three years ago, I am a more well-rounded musician and conductor—and I have this program to thank for that."
Dr. Jo-Anne van der Vat Chromy has been Ardrey-Graves' primary mentor and teacher while at JMU. According to van der Vat Chromy, Ardrey-Graves "is a very fine singer and excellent vocal model, and has developed into a very expressive and highly competent choral conductor." "He is a marvelous student, an excellent and thorough researcher, and a very fine writer."
As a person, van der Vat Chromy describes Ardrey-Graves as "passionate, intelligent, generous, wonderful and a true leader." She adds that "his capacity to connect, to have choirs respond to him, to create networks and to bring people together are some of his strongest and most enduring qualities." These qualities, combined with his work at JMU and his many years of church music leadership, have given Ardrey-Graves many options for his next career steps. Ardrey-Graves says he is waiting to "see what that next step is …"
Although originally from Minneapolis, Professor Steve Bolstad moved to northwestern Pennsylvania in the first grade, where he went on to attend a high school that "had a really good band director." "From the time I was a sophomore in high school, I knew I was going into music."
Bolstad's path has led him "in one big loop around the country." He attended undergraduate school at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a B.S. in music education. He then returned to his hometown high school (St. Marys Area High School in Saint Marys, Pennsylavania) to teach music. Three years later, he moved to Ithaca, New York to pursue a M.M. degree from Ithaca College. After graduation, he taught at Livingston University (now University of West Alabama) and University of Montevallo (also in Alabama) before moving to Texas to obtain his doctorate in conducting from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation, he was offered a position as the Director of Bands at the University of Montana, where he stayed for 13 years.
Bolstad started as Director of Bands and Professor of Wind Conducting at JMU in 2007. He reveals he was drawn to the depth of student talent at JMU, the development of the D.M.A. program, and the fact that the Forbes Center "had been committed to and that ground was about to be broken." Bolstad, who conducts the Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band, says he loves the ensembles and the repertoire. "It is possible to play great repertoire because of the talented students at JMU." This year's Wind Symphony has around 50 players, including seven graduate students, which is more than any other year. The Symphonic Band has 55 players.
In 2011, the Wind Symphony was invited to perform at the Virginia Music Educators Association (VMEA) Conference in Norfolk and played an "amazing concert," according to Bolstad. "Playing at conferences allows us to share what we do with a larger and more widespread population."
The Wind Symphony was selected to play its first national-level concert at the 2015 National Conference of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) in Nashville at the end of March. The convention represents the best university wind ensembles from around the country, and "is great exposure for JMU." "It is an honor that we were selected to perform," exclaims Bolstad. The Wind Symphony members will get a chance to practice their program at high schools in Lynchburg, Roanoke and Kingsport, Tennessee, before arriving in Nashville. Bolstad believes tours give students the opportunity to become more comfortable with what they're playing, helps to build camaraderie, and serves as a great recruiting tool.
When Bolstad is not conducting one of the two ensembles or teaching classes, he enjoys guest conducting and adjudicating. He recently conducted the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directions Association (VBODA) District 12 Honor Band in Fairfax; he adjudicated the Florida State Band Contest last fall, and will do it again this year.
Bolstad also enjoys attending concerts and student recitals. "I think it's important to support my colleagues, as well as to support the students," declares Bolstad. To achieve the best out of students, Bolstad says he tries to find ways to "help them become their own best teachers"—a teaching philosophy that encourages problem solving and critical thinking at JMU and beyond.
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By Martha Bell Graham
In the growing world of the Internet, where business startups, aspiring musicians and enthusiastic promoters are multiplying exponentially, the world is an enticing opportunity for young entrepreneurs. Opportunities abound, but so do obstacles. Despite the challenges, young entrepreneurs are making their marks on business, technology and the arts.
Madison magazine took a virtual snapshot of some of the emerging entrepreneurs and found one predominant theme: JMU students and alumni are taking what they are passionate about and making it work, often endeavoring to make social responsibility an integral part of their business plans.
Passion is what drives Stefan Peierls ('13), a marketing graduate who started a nonprofit called Passion Impact to help college students turn their passions into volunteerism. After traveling extensively, including a Semester at Sea with 500 other college students, Peierls saw many needs in the world and realized the potential for joining students' passions with volunteerism. Headquartered outside of Portland, Ore., Passion Impact, now a 501(c)3, is leading college students to volunteer for organizations and causes. He credits JMU professor Carol Hamilton's Venture Creation class for providing his spark of inspiration. "She told us there were four kinds of entrepreneurs … one of those wanted to make the world a better place. I wanted to be one of those," Peierls says. Learn more.
Madelaine German ('08) was also inspired to be an entrepreneur through the Venture Creation class. "The music school at JMU is absolutely incredible … Interestingly enough, one of the JMU experiences that most impacted my music career was 'Venture Creation.' That class was structured so beautifully, it completely changed my perspective. It gave me faith that good ideas can happen if you believe in them and you know how to build them, and I learned a lot about how to manage, pitch and structure a business from that class."
To launch her career as a musician, German used Kickstarter, a crowdfunding site, to successfully raise money to produce a music video for Maddy and the Groove Spots, a jazz and Motown-inspired band, which she headlines. "The music industry may well be one of the most challenging career paths out there. First of all, you have to be EVERYTHING … a creative muse, a musician, songwriter and musical arranger … understand the technology behind that process. You have to be able to handle a band of sometimes frustratingly flaky musicians with care. You really have to know how to talk to people. THEN you've got to get up on stage and be a performer and really rock it so that people will actually come back to your shows. You're doing all this while you're managing your website and social media presence, booking gigs, keeping the books, practicing for however many hours a day, and working a couple other jobs to keep the lights on. It's a grind, at least until you hopefully become successful enough to get some help with some of the administrative stuff." Learn more.
Technology is what inspired Kenan O'Keefe ('12), an engineering graduate with an entrepreneur's bent. After graduating from JMU, he earned a master's degree from Carnegie Mellon University. "I was pleasantly surprised to find that my understanding of core engineering principles was on par with my classmates who came from school like Cal Tech and Purdue," he says.
O'Keefe has a passion for 3-D printing, an emerging technology. "Within the last five years," O'Keefe says, "the acceleration of consumer 3D printing has helped create something called the maker movement … a growing community of people who love to build things, who are curious about how stuff works, and who enjoy expressing their creativity." But O'Keefe recognized one roadblock to this new technology. While 3-D printers are becoming more available, the software needed to run them is complex and expensive. To fill that gap, O'Keefe created Honeycomb, a web-based CAD modeling program for 3-D printers that is easy to use and free on the Internet. Learn more.
Making healthy eating appealing was one motivation behind Small Fry, a community-based cooking and nutrition program started by entrepreneur Alissa McLaughlin ('99). After launching her own events-planning business, Radiant Matter, McLaughlin teamed up with friends and Philadelphia's Marion Anderson Recreation Center to offer Saturday morning healthy eating classes for children in inner city Philadelphia, her hometown. Her classes include fun cooking and delicious healthy foods, meal preparation and coupon clipping, which overlap with life skills like reading and math. "Some kids didn't know what brown rice was [when they first came to Small Fry]. Now they're talking about quinoa," she says. Learn more.
These JMU alumni and many others are changing the world by applying skills as entrepreneurs to solve real world problems, while launching careers that promise success as well as lasting impact. How about you? Madison magazine wants to hear from you. Send your story to firstname.lastname@example.com.
Nancy Nichols, the Journal of Accounting Research Professor and MSA Program Director, was recently elected president of The American Taxation Association (ATA), the tax section of the American Accounting Association. She took the reins of ATA at the annual meeting in August 2014. The ATA is the largest association of tax faculty with approximately 700 members from more than 20 countries; its mission is to foster publication of tax research, promote tax education, and encourage interaction of tax academics, practitioners, and professional organizations.
Nichols has a number of goals to accomplish during her tenure, including hosting the inaugural ATA Teaching & Curriculum Conference. She explains, "The goal of the conference is to bring together tax faculty and practitioners so faculty can gain a better understanding of the current issues faced by the profession and how we can better prepare our students for careers in tax. Registration for the conference has already reached the limit of 80 so we are off to a great start."
Nichols explains that the highlight of the year is always the ATA mid-year meeting. This year's meeting, held in Washington DC, Feb. 27-28, included a tax policy discussion with representatives from both the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Treasury Department. Also presenting this year were representatives from the OECD and the International Monetary Fund to discuss the international tax issues facing global businesses.
She outlines a few additional goals, "We also have a task force this year examining new mechanisms to more broadly disseminate our academic research to enhance its impact on tax policy and practice. And we are starting new initiatives to expand our membership internationally. This year's mid-year meeting included invited scholars from Austria, Belgium and Germany."
Nichols has been involved with ATA for many years. She says, "I became a member of ATA while I was in my PhD program. The ATA has been there all along my professional journey, providing opportunities to meet and work with colleagues, many of whom became co-authors, mentors, and close friends. I have served on an ATA committee every year since graduating from my PhD program in 1997."
She talks about some of the challenges she has faced. "The most difficult job of being president actually is done before the official start date. In the spring, the incoming president requests volunteers for the various committees. The committee chairs and members are assigned over the summer. I assigned over 230 volunteers to 25 different committees. Every single person I asked to chair a committee agreed - the overwhelming member support for this organization never ceases to amaze me."
Nichols was awarded the ATA Outstanding Service Award at the 2014 meeting in Atlanta.
Nichols has been with the College of Business since 1997. She earned her Ph.D. and M.S. from the University of North Texas and her B.A. from the University of South Florida. Before entering academics, she was a tax partner at Deloitte. She has published over 50 articles, and is currently working on the fourth edition of a tax research textbook.
Nichols has been recognized over the years with a number of honors and awards including the JMU College of Business Distinguished Teacher Award (2013-14), the Professional Service Award (2012 and 2005) and the Madison Scholar Award (2005-2006). She served on Beta Alpha Psi's International Board of Directors as President from 2007-2010 and as Director of Chapter Activities from 2003-2006 and received the Beta Alpha Psi President's Award in 2005.
In her spare time, Nichols enjoys travel, cooking, and rock climbing, as well as volunteer work.
Behind redshirt-junior Jazmon Gwathmey's (SRM Major '16) third-career double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds, the top-seeded James Madison women's basketball team clinched its second Colonial Athletic Association Tournament championship in a row with a 62-56 victory over third-seeded Hofstra on Sunday afternoon at The Show Place Arena. The championship marks the eighth CAA title in program history.
After a back-and-forth first half that saw the two teams trade leads throughout the frame, sophomore forward Da'Lishia Griffin sent JMU to the locker room at half with a 24-23 lead after a layup with 26 seconds left.
Out of the break, JMU opened the frame on a 9-3 run that saw Hofstra held off the scoreboard for the first 3:01 of action. Pushing the lead to nine points – the largest advantage of the day for the Dukes – with 14:06 to play, a 6-0 run by the Pride kept Hofstra in the game that cut the advantage to three at 37-34 with 12:18 to play.
Leading 41-40 with 9:48 to play, technical difficulties in the arena caused a 17-minute delay in action. Out of the break, JMU put together a crucial 11-3 run that was keyed by two jumpers apiece from Gwathmey and senior forward Toia Giggetts (HM Major '15) to put JMU up 51-44 with 5:21 to play.
With JMU trying to salt the game away Hofstra chipped away at the lead and ultimately pulled within three points of the Dukes after a layup by Kelly Loftus with 2:44 left to make it 53-50 JMU. Out of a timeout after a missed jumper and an offensive rebound by junior guard Precious Hall, (SRM Major '16) Gwathmey took the air out of Hofstra's run by knocking down a 3-pointer from the left side to make it 56-50 with 2:06 remaining. The shot from range was the only 3-pointer to fall for the Dukes all afternoon, as JMU finished 1-of-9 (11.1 percent) from behind the arc.
Though Loftus knocked down Hofstra's only 3-pointer of the game with 38 seconds left and hit three more free throws after being fouled on a shot from range, six free throws – four of which were hit by Gwathmey – sealed the championship for the Dukes.
Of Gwathmey's 17 points, 13 of them came in the decisive second half. For her efforts throughout the tournament, she was named Most Outstanding Player. In the final CAA game of her career, Giggetts scored 14 points on 7-of-13 shooting while both Hall and junior forward Destiny Jones finished with nine points. Jones tied her career high with eight rebounds in the victory. Both Hall and Gwathmey were named to the CAA All-Tournament Team alongside redshirt-senior center Lauren Okafor. They were joined by Elo Edeferioka and Krystal Luciano from Hofstra and Courtni Green of Delaware.
Loftus led the Pride with 16 points while Edeferioka and Anjie White rounded out Hofstra's double-figure scorers with 11 points each. Like JMU, the Pride also shot 1-of-9 (11.1 percent) from range while going 20-of-58 (34.5 percent) overall from the field.
The difference in the contest was at the free throw line, as JMU went 15-of-17 (88 percent) while Hofstra knocked down 15-of-22 (68 percent) from the charity stripe.
The Dukes will play Ohio State in thier first round on Saturday, March 21st at 1:30pm on ESPN.
Alyssa Herzog Melby is a nationally recognized leader in arts accessibility, education, and
community engagement. As the Director of Education at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre (PBT),
Melby was named 2013's Emerging Leader by the Kennedy Center's Leadership Exchange in
Arts and Disability for spearheading the nation's first autism-friendly performance of The
Nutcracker. While also at PBT, she implemented a series of accessibility initiatives, including
braille and large-print programs and audio descriptions of live performance for patrons with
visual impairments, and dance classes for students with Parkinson's. She is now the Executive
Director of Northfield Arts Guild in Minnesota.
Monday, March 23: 3:00 – 4:00 pm
Student Success Center 1075
Tuesday, March 24: 9:30 – 10:30 am
Forbes Center 1270
By Jen Kulju (M'04)
Mark Ardrey-Graves began work on his Doctorate of Musical Arts (DMA) in choral conducting in the fall of 2012. He will say goodbye to JMU when he graduates this spring, but had the opportunity bid a farewell of a different kind when he was asked to arrange a song called "Farewell to You" for the Treble Chamber Choir's performance at the Caladh Nua concert held at the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts in March.
Caladh Nua is an acclaimed Irish band, and "Farewell to You" was written by Eric Butler, the brother of Lisa Butler, a member of the group.
According to Ardrey-Graves, "Farewell to You" is a wistful song of parting. "It could be a love song. It could be someone dying. It could be someone going on a journey."
Ardrey-Graves' journey in arranging the song occurred over a short period of time. "Due to the quick turnaround required, I did the whole song in two to three days," says Ardrey-Graves.
In those two to three days, Ardrey-Graves used music notation software to arrange a song that could be sung by the Treble Chamber Choir (TCC) alone or sung by the TCC and played with a band (in this case, Caladh Nua). "I tried to keep it so that if the TCC were to sing it on its own, it wouldn't sound empty. If the group wanted to sing it again later in one of their concerts, they could do that."
Ardrey-Graves says the notation software allowed him to change settings and electronic sounds—and to obtain "instant feedback." "I can play the song back and hear it immediately, and I don't have to be sitting at a keyboard."
Ardrey-Graves does spend a considerable amount of time at a keyboard, however. He is currently the music director and organist for the Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Harrisonburg. Ardrey-Graves initiated a Sunday night, sung service at the church. The half-hour candlelight service consists of a choir made up primarily of students; the choir sings a cappella music and Gregorian chant. Ardrey-Graves likes working with students, who he says "get excited about music and singing in a way that other people do not."
Before beginning his DMA program, Ardrey-Graves spent a year as a non-degree seeking student, where he took courses on campus, sang in the JMU Chorale and Madison Singers, and accompanied the TCC. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in music from the University of Richmond before obtaining two master's degrees from Duke University, one in music, the other in divinity.
Looking back on his time at JMU, Ardrey-Graves says his time "has been very rich." "Compared to two or three years ago, I am a more well-rounded musician and conductor—and I have this program to thank for that."
Dr. Jo-Anne van der Vat Chromy has been Ardrey-Graves' primary mentor and teacher while at JMU. According to van der Vat Chromy, Ardrey-Graves "is a very fine singer and excellent vocal model, and has developed into a very expressive and highly competent choral conductor." "He is a marvelous student, an excellent and thorough researcher, and a very fine writer."
As a person, van der Vat Chromy describes Ardrey-Graves as "passionate, intelligent, generous, wonderful and a true leader." She adds that "his capacity to connect, to have choirs respond to him, to create networks and to bring people together are some of his strongest and most enduring qualities." These qualities, combined with his work at JMU and his many years of church music leadership, have given Ardrey-Graves many options for his next career steps. Ardrey-Graves says he is waiting to "see what that next step is …"
By Martha Bell Graham
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Alpha Kiflu
Alpha Kiflu's ('05) office these days is far removed from the plush Wall Street offices of Goldman Sachs. But his new workplace in Addis Ababa is likely more important. Kiflu is playing a significant role in a new venture that began in May 2013 with the potential to help transform a nation.
"It was now time to take a risk."
After spending eight years at Goldman and rising to become a vice president in the Securities division, Kiflu moved his skills, along with a strong entrepreneurial bent, to Ethiopia.
"After spending nearly eight years in finance and in New York, I decided that I had gained a tremendous technical foundation, but it was now time to take a risk and make a move that allowed me to combine my financial and technical training with investment and development experience in Africa," he says.
That opportunity came when Kiflu became the chief financial officer for ALLE, a new consumer-good wholesale business initiated by the Ethiopian government in partnership with AT Kearney, a global management consulting firm.
"I am a first-generation Ethiopian-American," he says. "I had only been to Ethiopia a few times before coming here to work, but always had an interest in coming and living in Ethiopia to explore and participate in its development."
ALLE (http://alle.et) is Ethiopia's first large-scale cash-and-carry wholesaler of foods and consumer goods. One might compare it to Costco in that it delivers FMCG -- fast-moving consumer goods -- affordably and efficiently. Unlike Costco, however, ALLE, a wholesale enterprise, does not sell to the general public, as it utilizes a business-to-business model.
Founded on ethical business practices and a commitment to enhance the communities it serves, ALLE uses a B2B best practices model to provide a pipeline for businesses selling directly to the public, such as restaurants, hotels and retail establishments.
Ethiopia, historically one of Africa's poorest nations, has seen significant economic growth, and Kiflu is optimistic about the part that ALLE can play.
"The growth in Ethiopia over the past 10-15 years has been truly remarkable and is set to make even more transformation in the years ahead. Recently, the government completed its first international sovereign bond issuance, demonstrating positive feedback from international investors."
"Patience is critical in economic development and change."
By introducing modern business practices and a network of available goods, Kiflu hopes ALLE will lift the quality of living for his fellow Ethiopians. But he knows it will take time: "Patience is critical in economic development and change."
Kiflu's hope is two-fold. By increasing the availability of goods and using competitive pricing and technology, ALLE will help lower the cost of living for average Ethiopians. He also hopes that investment in modern distribution will spur more economic development in his country.
"The private sector remains quite young," he says. "But it is growing quickly and Ethiopians have demonstrated tremendous potential in entrepreneurship and various emerging business. Ethiopia's economy is making great strides in catching up to the leading economies in Africa and the emerging markets."
As an undergraduate at JMU, Kiflu, who double majored in finance and economics, was deeply involved in the College of Business and spent most of his time in Showker Hall. He says that the COB curriculum and his experience working with the Madison Investment Fund prepared him well for his career: "I had a wonderful experience at Madison."
These days, Kiflu has little spare time. "Building a startup company here is very time consuming," he says. When he does grab a minute, he's hanging out with friends and family, running, or exploring Ethiopia.
For Kiflu, moving to Africa was more than a career move; it's a move that will bring much needed economic opportunities and new consumer goods to his newest neighbors.
Over the past 40 years, the wine industry in Virginia has rapidly expanded from a small number of family-owned vineyards to more than 230 wineries. Aided by the growing popularity of wine tourism, Virginia is now 5th in the nation for vineyard acreage and grape product. What experts are now finding, however, is that this is not the first time wine has been a staple for Virginia. For instance, Shenandoah National Park holds the remains of one of the largest wineries in Virginia history: Belmont Vineyards. Over the past 4 years, ISAT professor Dr. Carole Nash, assisted by a host of students, the park, and advanced geospatial technologies, have helped uncover the vibrant wine industry that existed in Virginia over 150 years ago.
Belmont Vineyards was founded in the Blue Ridge Mountains in 1858 by Marcus Buck, whose wealthy family controlled a large amount of land in the Front Royal area. By the end of the 19th century, the winery had grown to over 120 acres of grapevines, which is large even by today's standards. Contrary to modern wines grown in Virginia, however, the Belmont Vineyards produced a very different kind of wine. While earlier vineyards like those owned by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson tried and largely failed to grow grapes from French and German stock, the Belmont Vineyards grew sweeter native grapes that are no longer the focus of viticulture in Virginia. Despite the popularity of Belmont's wines, the vineyard had been almost completely lost to history. That is until Shenandoah National Park wilderness ranger Steve Bair discovered a large growth of grapevines along Dickey Ridge within the park during his time there.
After talking to locals who mentioned an old winery located in that area, the ranger reached out to Nash, who has been the park's archeological expert since 1999 thanks to an agreement between the park and JMU. "We had to cut our way through grapevines with machetes just to make our way up the mountain," said Nash. "When we reached the top, though, we found the structures were all gone." Only after looking through the archives at the park did she realize that they had located Belmont.
Since that time, Nash and a number of Geographic Science and Anthropology student teams have discovered the ruins of two three-story underground wine cellars, the seven farmsteads associated with the vineyard, an extensive road system, and the over two miles of stone walls that once marked the fields. "We have worked on many projects in the Shenandoah National Park, but this is one of our largest because it incorporates many hundreds of acres of land," said Nash. "Because of this, the students have done a tremendous amount of research both in the archives and in the field with me."
Much of the work that has gone into this project has been mapping, without which the teams couldn't fully understand the vineyard. Some of the technologies that the teams have used for this purpose include highly accurate global positioning systems (GPS) and LiDAR, a sophisticated aerial image technology that sends and scans millions of photons of light from the belly of a plane. "Using LiDAR, we can see the patterns on the ground and the layout of Belmont, even though the place is fully overgrown with vegetation," Nash continued.
Even though most of the physical structures have been lost, the remains of Belmont are still inundated with what appear to be the original grapevines. "Typically grapevines are pretty thin, but when they aren't pruned, they will just keep growing and growing," explained Nash. "We found monstrous vines that are eight inches in diameter!" The fact that these vines are still producing grapes means the team may be able to pinpoint what varieties they are. "We've been talking with viticulture expert Dr. Tony Wolf from Virginia Tech about the possibility of gathering samples of these grapes for genetic testing," Nash continued. "There are a lot of people now who have learned about Belmont and are interested in knowing whether or not any of these old varieties might still be viable."
Once this extensive project is completed, Nash hopes that both the Shenandoah National Park and modern Virginia wineries will be able to use their findings. "We have the potential for learning techniques from Belmont that are relevant and could assist the wine industry today," said Nash. The Shenandoah National Park has also expressed interest in developing the area into an interpretive trail for visitors to learn about the Belmont Vineyards and the history of wine in Virginia. "It's been pretty wild to do this work," exclaimed Nash, "but nobody has done this kind of research on the history of Virginia wine, and it's a magnificent story."
Welcome back from spring break. I want to take a few moments to share news and achievements from a very busy semester to date.
It has been a challenging winter, and the staff members in Facilities Management, Dining Services, and Public Safety work tirelessly on snow days. We appreciate their dedication to keeping sidewalks and parking lots safe, and everyone on campus well fed. Please say "thanks" to everyone who has kept our campus safe during a challenging winter if you have a chance.
James Madison's birthday is this week, and there are events all across campus to commemorate the legacy of the man for whom we are named. Be proud of the Father of the U.S. Constitution by participating. You can find a schedule of events here.
The 2015 General Assembly concluded at the end of February. Among other things, actions that would have a direct impact on JMU and other institutions of higher education include the budget (including compensation), and several bills on sexual assault (see section below on Title IX and sexual assault). Legislation now goes to the Governor for review.
I am very pleased that salary increases for state employees were a top priority during the session and that the positive revenue outlook allowed for increased investments in higher education. JMU faculty and staff will receive raises this year, helping to assure we retain all the good people who deliver your Madison Experience.
The General Assembly passed several bills regarding sexual assault during its recent session. The JMU Title IX Task Force is currently reviewing all of these bills to determine future action, pending action by the Governor. Links to each bill can be found below.
There have been no new developments in the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights' ("OCR") Title IX investigation. Complaints have now been filed against 100+ institutions nationwide. The complainant recently filed a civil lawsuit against the university, involving the same allegations. While the university does not discuss the details of pending litigation, a brief statement has been released in response to the lawsuit (see the JMU statement).
A beta version of the new Madison magazine app is available now for Apple and Android tablets. The print edition of Madison will still publish on its regular schedule. But now, digital editions will publish to the app store with increased frequency. Visit the Madison magazine website to download.
Dr. Michael Signer delivered a superb lecture to a full house last month, sharing his thoughts on a young James Madison as outlined in his new book, Becoming Madison: The Extraordinary Origins of the Least Likely Founding Father. The spring 2015 lecture series continues with two more speakers scheduled to visit JMU.
On March 25 we welcome attorney Dr. Riane Eisler, President of the Center for Partnership Studies and internationally known as a systems scientist, attorney working for the human rights of women and children, and author of groundbreaking books such as The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future. http://www.jmu.edu/events/president/2015/03/MVS_Eisler.shtml
Lawrence Lessig, Professor at Harvard Law School and Director of the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard—a renowned expert on cyberspace and intellectual property—will join us on April 13. http://www.jmu.edu/events/president/2015/04/MVS-Lessig.shtml
James Madison University alumna Lindsay Czarniak ('00) will speak to the class of 2015 and their guests at the university's May undergraduate commencement ceremony. Czarniak, who graduated from JMU in 2000 with a major in journalism and a minor in studio art, currently works for ESPN as co-anchor with John Anderson of the 6 p.m. ET SportsCenter.
JMU will hold its inaugural Grad Fair—intended to Take the HASSLE out of the TASSLE— at which graduating students can get help with renting caps and gowns, confirm name pronunciations, get professional head shot photographs, and take advantage of a variety of other related services.
Check the commencement website for up-to-date schedules and ceremony locations.
Women's basketball (29-3) defeated Hofstra 62-56 last Sunday to win its second consecutive CAA championship, and the Dukes have tied the school record for victories in a season. Junior forward Jazmon Gwathmey scored 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the title game and was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player for the second year in a row. Junior guard Precious Hall was named CAA Player of the Year last week prior to the tournament, and senior center Lauren Okafor joined Hall on the All-CAA First Team. Junior guard Angela Mickens was named to the All-CAA Second Team and Gwathmey was selected to the third team. Okafor also received the CAA's prestigious Dean Ehlers Leadership Award and was named to the league's All-Academic Team. The Ehlers award, named for the former JMU athletic director, is particularly meaningful for a JMU player to receive. The Dukes play Ohio State in the first round of the NCAA tournament Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Chapel Hill, N.C., with the winner to face either North Carolina or Liberty on Monday, also in Chapel Hill.
Men's basketball (19-14) finished its season with a 73-72 loss last night at South Carolina Upstate in the Collegeinsider.com postseason tournament. JMU earned a share of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) regular-season title this year. This marks the first time since the 1999-2000 season that the Dukes finished the regular season in at least a tie for first place, and the seventh time that JMU has shared or won outright the regular season conference title. Several Dukes won all-conference honors: Junior point guard Ron Curry was named to the All-CAA Second Team, sophomore forward Yohanny Dalembert was named to the All-CAA Third Team and the All-Defensive Team, and sophomore forward Dimitrije Cabarkapa was named to the CAA All-Academic Team.
Women's lacrosse (7-1) now stands as the 12th-ranked team in the nation. Senior midfielder Alison Curwin and redshirt-senior defender Kaci Starkloff have been named Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Week and Defensive Player of the Week, respectively, after the Dukes extended their win streak to seven with a 13-12 victory over then-No. 9 Penn State on the road and a 19-14 win over Rutgers. The streak is the second-longest for the Dukes since 2007.
The spring championship sports are getting into full swing right now. I want to wish the best of luck to these teams in their pursuit of CAA Championships!
Here are just a few recent recognitions among many that reflect JMU's vision to be the national model of the engaged university:
I recently had the great honor of visiting Hose Company No. 4 to tour the facility and interact with firefighters. I was pleased to learn that approximately a third of the volunteer firefighters at the station are JMU students. These students receive hundreds of hours of training, and make time in their busy academic schedules to save lives and property. This is an extraordinary example of engagement between the university and the local community. We have many other students, faculty and staff who serve as volunteers in similar life-saving positions in the city and county, and we should all be extremely proud of, and grateful for, their public service.
JMU alumnus and acclaimed American drummer, composer, songwriter and producer, Ira Nathaniel "Nate" Smith will headline the Tri-State Jazz Festival on Saturday, March 21 @ 4 pm at the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts at James Madison University. The concert celebrates George "Doc" West, the late founder of the JMU Jazz Studies program. The Tri-State Jazz Festival will be renamed in his honor.
Playing in the concert is an alumni jazz ensemble comprised of professional musicians who were students of Doc's over the years. Smith, also a former student of Doc's, will perform with the JMU Jazz Ensemble.
Smith earned a B.S. in media arts and design from JMU in 1997. He recently made cameo appearances in the Oscar-winning film "Birdman," and has played or recorded with many jazz greats including Randy Brecker, Ravi Coltrane, Nicholas Payton, John Pattituci, Adam Rogers and the legendary jazz bassist and composer, Dave Holland. Smith joined Holland's Grammy Award-winning Quintet and Big Band in 2003, and later joined saxophonist Chris Potter and his group, Chris Potter Underground. As a record producer, Smith worked with Michael Jackson and Teddy Riley on the song "Heaven Can Wait" on Jackson's "Invincible" album.
Smith took the time to answer questions from JMU music graduate student, Danyel Reid (M'16).
How were you influenced by George "Doc" West? What does it mean to you to come back and headline the Tri-State Jazz Festival?
Doc was a great musician and a fantastic teacher. He made learning fun, and he taught me the value of humor as a part of the learning process. He also taught me the value of paying attention to all the details in the music, no matter how great or small. Returning to JMU is a huge deal to me, not only because I will have the chance to honor Doc and his impact on my career, but because I will be able to return to my alma mater as a guest artist and hopefully inspire someone to pursue their own dream of a life in the arts.
Why is jazz a significant part of your life?
My dad had a big record collection when I was a kid—mostly late 60s, 70s and early 80s—R&B/jazz artists like Joe Sample, Grover Washington and Bob James. This music was the entry point for me. I really wanted to learn more about what these musicians were doing and how they were doing it. From there, I went on to learn more about the history of the music, a pursuit that I am still following to this day. Jazz is the sound of freedom, and that is why it is so important to me.
How did your career take off after graduating from JMU?
While I was at JMU, I traveled to the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) convention in Atlanta with a small jazz group of JMU students. It was there that I met Betty Carter, and she heard me play. I was invited to participate in her Jazz Ahead program. Also, after JMU I participated in the Carpenter Fellowship Graduate Program at Virginia Commonwealth University, where I met the great bassist and bandleader Dave Holland. Holland saw something special in me, and he invited me to join his band a few years later.
If you could change one thing in your career, what would it be?
I wouldn't change anything. I just want to continue to do everything I can to the best of my ability … and hopefully use music to make people feel better.
How did you come to be a drummer, composer and producer?
My first instrument was piano, and I did not like taking lessons. So, I put that aside so I could bang on the drums! Eventually, though, I really got serious about learning about harmony, so I went back to the piano and learned a lot of tunes by ear. Composing/songwriting came naturally to me, as an extension of my desire to learn more about musical language.
What efforts have you made to educate people about jazz?
During 2013 and 2014, I was on the faculty of Betty Carter Jazz Ahead at the Kennedy Center, and I spent two weeks coaching and mentoring young artists. I also participated in the 2014 Thailand International Jazz Conference as an educator and adjudicator.
What has been your most memorable musical collaboration?
There are too many to mention. Each collaboration is an adventure.
How important is networking in the world of entertainment?
I think networking is important, but forming real relationships with people is most important. Networking can be done at a cocktail party for 90 minutes or a couple of hours. Forming real
lasting relationships with people takes time. There is a big difference.
What advice can you offer current music students at JMU?
Don't limit yourself. Be open to everything. Be a cool person who is easy to be around. Be patient and always do your homework.
What pieces will you be performing at the Festival?
The program is still in the works, but I know we will be performing two pieces, one called Prelude and Rhythm (composed by Jim McNeely) and Power and Water (composed by John Hollenbeck and
orchestrated by Chuck Dotas).
Madison Trust pairs JMU innovation with private investment from alumni and friends
How do you create meaningful change in times of severe budget constraints?
Enter: Madison Trust, an effort led by University Advancement and guided by two of JMU's most steadfast and visionary donors, Leslie Gilliam ('82) and Don Rainey ('82), designed to help fund innovation and entrepreneurship.
The initial call for proposals resulted in 55 submissions, which were then narrowed down to the 12 finalists noted below. The 12 teams of faculty, staff and students presented their ideas for innovation at the inaugural event of the Madison Trust Nov. 14. Presenters had 15 minutes to make their pitches, followed by five minutes of Q&A with potential investors.
Investors were so impressed with the expertise and innovation waiting to launch that they stepped up to fund more than $170,000 across the 12 proposals (listed below).
To date these projects have been fully funded: Culturally Anchored Eco-Games TM and the ERAMAT Project, exploring solutions to sustainability; Concrete Spit, providing a solution for oyster reef conservation and private aquaculture; Embracing the Need for New Energy Sources: ongoing student research on harnessing energy from infrared light; Evaluation of Polymer Applications that Affect the Stability of Highway Cut Slopes: studying ways to prevent rockfalls on rural highways; Traumatic Brain Injury/New Hearing Test, helping our military service members diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries; and Winning with Money TED Talk, preparing JMU students and young alumni to make wise financial decisions. Other projects have received partial funding. All the projects have the potential to create real change for a better future.
Follow developments in this groundbreaking JMU initiative in the spring print edition of Madison.
Building a Diverse Mathematical Theater: Establishing a performance venue to enhance STEM comprehension and literacy
Concrete Spit: An innovative solution for oyster reef conservation and private aquaculture
Culturally Anchored Eco-Games TM and the ERAMAT Project: Exploring solutions to sustainability through community-based games
Duke's Venture Fund: Growing JMU's entrepreneurial ecosystem by giving students access to the necessary mentors, seed funding and other resources to develop sustainable and successful businesses.
Embracing the Need for New Energy Sources: Support for ongoing student research and future workshops on the potential for harnessing energy from infrared light
Evaluation of Polymer Applications that Affect the Stability of Highway Cut Slopes: A feasibility study of liquid polymers that could be applied to cut slopes along rural highways to protect motorists from rockfalls
Innovation-Collaboration-Entrepreneurship Ecosystem: Strengthening JMU's entrepreneurial ecosystem by providing resources to help launch viable early-stage companies
Madison Connect HUB: A web-based platform for matching community partners' real-world challenges with JMU expertise, resulting in innovative solutions
The Riverside Initiative: Implementing placed-based learning at the JMU Farm, to include ecological and cultural studies as well as community outreach efforts
Starry Nights JMU:A campaign to make JMU a leader in energy-efficient campus lighting and help reduce light pollution in the Shenandoah Valley
Traumatic Brain Injury/New Hearing Test: Avoiding distractibility due to normal background sounds: Training our military service members diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and developing a new hearing test and training for central auditory processing disorders
Winning with Money TED Talk: Preparing JMU students and young alumni to make wise financial decisions
Counseling and Supervision doctoral student, Jamie Rice, "grew up coming to JMU and always loved the energy, the culture." Her love for JMU was confirmed during her time as an undergrad and, while she wanted a different experience for her Masters degree, she was happy to return to JMU for her doctoral studies.
Rice, who specializes in "interpersonal violence…[specifically,] assault on college campuses, working with domestic violence survivors and providing better education and training for counselors to deal with these types of traumas," was recently awarded a fellowship through National Board for Certified Counselors Foundation (NBCC) and their Minority Fellowship Program.
The fellowship, which gave its first grant in 2012, is funded by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and selects 23 doctoral-level fellows across the country each year.
Rice was inspired to apply for the fellowship by her professor, and former fellow, David Ford. She explains, "In terms of the education piece, he's living it. I would not have applied were it not for him. He had been co-teaching one of my classes in the fall and he told me that I should really apply for it."Ford encouraged her to apply because he saw the difference she was making in the underserved community.
Furthermore, she commends her JMU professors for "living what they are trying to practice in terms of really pushing their students to reach for options that are going to challenge them and broaden their horizons."
The $20,000 fellowship will help Rice with her living expenses, education and professional development costs to go to conferences, etc. However, Rice is most excited that "They also provide mentorship. So they are going to have us network with other people. Other like-minded people and [I will] see people around the country who I otherwise likely wouldn't get to meet. So that will help me meet people I could potentially do research with some day and, then in turn, get to be a mentor for the next group."
Besides her work at JMU, Rice has worked as a Student Mental Health Clinician at Shenandoah University in Winchester and as a Therapeutic Day Treatment Specialist at Crossroads Counseling Center in Harrisonburg.
When asked about her favorite experience, Rice can't decide: "I cant have a favorite- that's too hard. Everything has been incredibly impactful and important and life changing. The most dramatic was a couple things were when I worked with the day treatment program in Harrisonburg City Schools. And got to provide this very unique, intensive services to students who were otherwise at risk of being kicked out of school or being taken out of the home and seeing how just making that relationship and just using that to build from literally help kids turn around to being star students, role models academically etc. who people were admittedly ready to give up on. In in elementary school, they were already pegged as dropouts or going to jail or on drugs. To see them completely and even years later to see them doing really well."
What can be definitively said is that both in and outside of JMU, Jamie Rice exemplifies the JMU citizen leader.
She didn't know where it would take her, but Kimberlee (Kim) Robertella Glinka (2010) has no regrets about traveling to Malta to participate in a brand new JMU Graduate Program. Kim says she was the first applicant to the inaugural cohort of the Integrated Science and Technology (ISAT) program in Sustainable Environmental Resource Management taught in partnership with the University of Malta.
After earning her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management at Penn State, Kim held management, marketing and communications positions at companies that focused on renewable energy. Passionate about the intersection of business and environmental sustainability, she was seeking ways to advance her career.
The interdisciplinary nature of the ISAT master's program was appealing to her. She was interested in the problems addressed by the program. She also valued the opportunity to learn from professors and students from a wide range of fields, including the sciences, engineering, and mathematics, as well as the political and social sciences, international affairs, among others. The multidisciplinary nature of this program was one of the stand-out experiences for her. Throughout the program she learned how important it is to work on projects across disciplines.
During the program, as teams of students and faculty collaborated on projects, she saw how important it was to obtain stakeholder buy-in for a project to be successful. Individuals sometimes had diametrically opposite perspectives at the start of a project, so for the enterprise to be successful, it was critical that all stakeholders be engaged in continuous dialog.
When reflecting about her experience, Kim noted the significance of learning about sustainable resource management on a small island, where the boundaries of the island create a brilliant real-world laboratory for students. In an island ecosystem, soil, water and other resources are limited, and waste management is critical. It is far too easy to expend vital resources, and all too simple to contaminate what is available. The island of Malta is a wonderful learning laboratory.
Kimberlee Robertella Glinka currently serves as the Associate Director for the Center for Social Value Creation at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. The center works with students, faculty and business partners to help balance profits and the public good. They promote business models that leverage cross-disciplinary collaboration and encourage market-based problem solving to create economic prosperity and social and environmental well-being.
The JMU Malta Program is now being redeveloped. It has been renamed "Environmental Management and Sustainability." The fall 2015 program is being planned for 18 students. The program now enables students to choose electives, and can be completed in 12 months, running from September to August. According to Program Director, Dr. Maria Papadakis, the program is intensive. "It's a full time job." However, there is also time available for sightseeing and enjoying the surroundings. After all, the program is on a Mediterranean island, not far from Italy. Information about the program.
When asked if she had any advice to prospective students, Kim said that she advises individuals interested in environmental sustainability not be dissuaded if they don't have a deep scientific background. The program includes technical and scientific aspects, but she found faculty and fellow students to be very supportive, and the effort needed to develop necessary skills was quite worthwhile.
This event was designed to teach jumpers and coaches basic to advanced skills in single rope, partner tricks, Double Dutch, and other long rope exercises devised to promote the sport and engage jumpers and children in a fun and healthy lifestyle.
Natalie is a undergraduate student at James Madison University studying Sports and Recreation Management, Business, and Communications. She has been jumping with the Kangaroo Kids Precision Jump rope team of Howard County, Maryland since she was five years old. She began competing at eight years old at both the Junior Olympics and national level.
Since beginning her educational journey at JMU, she has assisted with jump rope teams in the county. She is in awe of how many kids are already involved in this sport in this area of Virginia and is extremely excited to give the children of this community the opportunity to learn from some of the best jumpers in the nation. She plans on donating any additional funds raised at this workshop to supporting the expansion of jump rope opportunities in the Harrisonburg area.
As we start Spring Break on campus after some challenging winter weather, I want to take a few moments to share news and achievements from a very busy semester to date. It is rewarding to be able to share some good news regarding compensation, and as always, I am proud to pass along JMU recognitions and progress on our strategic plan
Thanks to everyone who has kept our campus safe during a challenging winter. The staff members in Facilities Management, Dining Services, and Public Safety work tirelessly on snow days. We appreciate their dedication to keeping sidewalks and parking lots safe, and everyone on campus well fed.
The 2015 General Assembly concluded at the end of February. Among other things, actions that would have a direct impact on JMU and other institutions of higher education include the budget (including compensation), and several bills on sexual assault (see section below on Title IX and sexual assault). Legislation now goes to the Governor for review.
I am very pleased that salary increases for state employees were a top priority during the session and that the positive revenue outlook allowed for increased investments in higher education.
If state revenue estimates for Fiscal Year 2015 are met or exceeded, the Commonwealth's budget includes a 2 percent salary increase for classified staff effective August 10, 2015. In addition, classified staff members who have been continuously employed by the state for 5 years or more will receive an additional $65 per year of service up to a maximum of 30 years.
A 2 percent salary increase for instructional and Administrative and Professional (A&P) faculty effective August 10, 2015 (the full-year salary increase will be effective August 25 for 10-month faculty) is also currently included in the state budget. Note that any salary increases would be covered with the usual fund split — i.e., the University would provide 53% of the cost, while the state covers the remaining 47%. If possible within their own budgets, institutions would also be given flexibility to provide an additional 2.5% average increase for instructional faculty from institutional reallocations as a part of the 2015-2016 budget process. No such decisions would be made until completion of the 2015-16 budget process.
As previously communicated to affected employees, due to a variety of factors including effective budget management, operational efficiencies, strong enrollment and retention, as well as the prioritization of employee compensation, JMU will be providing a 3.5% bonus to all eligible full-time classified, wage and A&P faculty employees. The bonus will be reflected in pay advice dated April 16, 2015. This bonus is another reflection of JMU's continued commitment to improving compensation for its employees and thanks for a job well done. There is additional information as well as eligibility requirements which can be found at the Bonus FAQ site located here:
As we review the impact that legislative actions in the General Assembly may have on our work, it is important to note that we are constantly looking for ways to be more effective and efficient in all of our operations. Increased efficiencies in our administrative processes allow us to invest even more in our highest priorities.
James Madison University has expanded while simultaneously improving the quality of education for its students. To ensure that JMU is supporting these efforts as efficiently as possible, JMU has implemented a University-wide efficiency review by an independent third party, Censeo Consulting Group. All administrative functions will be included in the efficiency review.
During the efficiency review, Censeo will assess JMU's internal processes and operations through stakeholder interviews, data analysis and benchmarking against peer schools. The objectives are to document areas where JMU is performing at or above expectations, and to identify any opportunities to improve administrative efficiency and effectiveness.
The General Assembly passed several bills regarding sexual assault. The JMU Title IX Task Force is currently reviewing all of these bills to determine future action, pending action by the Governor. Links to each bill can be found below.
There have been no new developments in the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights' ("OCR") Title IX investigation. Complaints have now been filed against 100+ institutions nationwide. The complainant recently filed a civil lawsuit against the University, involving the same allegations. While the University does not discuss the details of pending litigation, it has released a brief statement in response to the lawsuit (see the JMU statement).
Dr. Michael Signer delivered a superb lecture to a full house last month, sharing his thoughts on a young James Madison as outlined in his new book, Becoming Madison: The Extraordinary Origins of the Least Likely Founding Father. The spring 2015 lecture series continues with two more speakers scheduled to visit JMU.
On March 25 we welcome Dr. Riane Eisler, President of the Center for Partnership Studies and internationally known as a systems scientist, attorney working for the human rights of women and children, and author of groundbreaking books such as The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future. http://www.jmu.edu/events/president/2015/03/MVS_Eisler.shtml
Lawrence Lessig, Professor at Harvard Law School and Director of the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard—a renowned expert on cyberspace and intellectual property—will join us on April 13. http://www.jmu.edu/events/president/2015/04/MVS-Lessig.shtml
James Madison University alumna Lindsay Czarniak ('00) will speak to the class of 2015 and their guests at the University's May undergraduate commencement ceremony. Czarniak, who graduated from JMU in 2000 with a major in journalism and a minor in studio art, currently works for ESPN as co-anchor with John Anderson of the 6 p.m. ET SportsCenter.
JMU will hold its inaugural Grad Fair—intended to Take the HASSLE out of the TASSLE— at which graduating students can get help with renting caps and gowns, confirm name pronunciations, get professional head shot photographs, and take advantage of a variety of other related services.
Check the commencement website for up-to-date schedules and ceremony locations.
Our vision is "to be the national model for the engaged university: engaged with ideas and the world." In support of that important ambition, the Engaged University Council and its three committees have been formed, one for each of JMU's primary pillars of engagement (engaged learning, civic engagement, and community engagement). Committee members are at work right now in support of our bold vision and, ultimately, the successful execution of The Madison Plan.
While the Plan's mission, vision, core qualities and goals are important as ideals for JMU's future, what's critical now is action directed at building momentum. And that's exactly what's happening. With over 800 objectives and accompanying action items documented in our new JMU-STAR Planning Tool, the first steps toward 2020 have already been taken. In addition, we have established 40 key performance measures being monitored by a task force of leaders designated by our divisional vice presidents. As we execute the plan, we will collect data and use these measures not only to track progress, but to adapt the plan so that it is always fine-tuned in pursuit of our mission.
The talented teams in Institutional Research and the Center for Assessment and Research Studies will support our processes to manage performance measures, analytics, metrics, and reporting.
Men's basketball (19-12, 12-6 CAA) earned a share of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) regular-season title with its recent win over Hofstra. This marks the first time since the 1999-2000 season that the Dukes finished the regular season in at least a tie for first place, and the seventh time that JMU has shared or won outright the regular season conference title. Several Dukes won all-conference honors: Junior point guard Ron Curry was named to the All-CAA Second Team, sophomore forward Yohanny Dalembert was named to the All-CAA Third Team and the All-Defensive Team, and sophomore forward Dimitrije Cabarkapa was named to the CAA All-Academic Team. Madison will open the CAA Men's Basketball Championship in Baltimore, Maryland as the No. 4 seed with a rematch on Saturday against Hofstra at 2:30 p.m.
Women's basketball (26-3, 17-1 CAA) captured the regular season CAA title for the second consecutive year, the sixth straight season the squad has won at least 25 games. The Dukes have continued to earn national recognition with their play. JMU has been receiving votes in the two major polls for a majority of the year, including reaching the top 25 in both polls during the season. Junior guard Precious Hall has been on the Naismith Watch List for the nation's top player, while junior guard Angela Mickens is on the list of the final 15 candidates for the Nancy Lieberman Award, presented to the nation's top point guard. Madison will look to defend its CAA Tournament title in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, playing in the quarterfinals as the No. 1 seed on Friday, March 13 at 12 p.m.
The women's swimming & diving team finished as the runner-up at the 2015 CAA Championships this past weekend. Sophomore Taryn McLaughlin won both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving and was named the CAA Diver of the Year, while Becky Benson picked up her sixth straight CAA Diving Coach of the Year award. Three JMU divers have qualified for the upcoming NCAA Zone Diving Championships, which will take place March 9-10.
The women's indoor track and field team is preparing for the ECAC Championships, with Dukes having qualified for 17 events so far.
The spring championship sports are getting into full swing right now. I want to wish the best of luck to the baseball, softball, lacrosse, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's golf and outdoor track and field teams in their pursuit of CAA Championships!
This year we have been searching for two leadership positions that cut across many of our academic programs and interface with numerous offices on campus—the Dean of the Graduate School and the Director of the Honors Program. These two searches are coming to what we feel will be very successful conclusions. The Provost is making an offer on the Dean of the Graduate School position, and Vice Provost Halpern will likely be making an offer within the next two weeks on the Director of the Honors Program position. In our strategic plan, we have a goal of moving our Honors Program from the program level to an Honors College, and the new Director will then become our inaugural dean. Also, after many years of dedicated and exceptional service to the University, Dr. Teresa Gonzalez will be retiring at the end of this year. An institution-only search has been initiated for the Vice Provost for Academic Development position and is expected to conclude prior to the end of the spring semester.
Here are just a few recent recognitions among many that reflect JMU's vision to be the national model of the engaged university:
A beta version of the new Madison magazine app is available now for Apple and Android tablets. The print edition of Madison will still publish on its regular schedule. But now, digital editions will publish to the app store with increased frequency. Visit the Madison magazine website to download.
I recently had the great honor to visit Hose Company No. 4 to tour the facility and interact with firefighters. I was pleased to learn that approximately a third of the volunteer firefighters at the station are JMU students. These students receive hundreds of hours of training, and make time in their busy academic schedules to save lives and property. This is an extraordinary example of engagement between the University and the Harrisonburg communities. We have many other students, faculty and staff who serve as volunteers in similar life-saving positions in the city and county, and we should all be extremely proud of, and grateful for, their public service.
I was recently appointed as Virginia's representative to the American Association of State Colleges and Universities' (AASCU) Council of State Representatives, a body which helps formulate AASCU's public policy agenda and interacts with federal policy-makers. This appointment will allow JMU to have a greater voice at the national level in federal higher education policy. www.aascu.org
JMU Writing Center tutors at MAWCA 2012 in Shippensburg, PA |
On April 10th and 11th, The University Writing Center will host the 2015 Mid-Atlantic Writing Center Association (MAWCA) Conference. MAWCA is a regional offshoot of the International Writing Center Association (IWCA), and its annual conference is an opportunity for 200–300 students and professionals from Washington D.C., New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia to come together for activities, workshops, and discussions on writing center scholarship.
"It's really difficult for an individual, isolated writing center to have a sense of how effective they are or if they are realizing their full potential," says Writing Center Associate Director Jared Featherstone of the importance of the MAWCA conference. "Being part of an organization like this puts you in touch with the current practices, research, and changes within the field."
This year, the theme of the conference is "Sharing Spaces," which addresses the concept that all writing centers share space, physically or theoretically, with other disciplines and activities in academic life. JMU's new Student Success Center will house most of the conference's activities and is evocative of the theme, as it serves as a shared space for an array of interconnected resources.
Registration for the conference is now open and because everyone can profit from the experience, attendance is not limited to writing center staff. According to Featherstone, "Faculty, students, and administrators interested in understanding writing more broadly are likely to benefit from seeing what writing centers are doing. Because writing centers see students outside the classroom, in the middle of the writing process, they can offer insight to anyone teaching or studying writing." No discipline exists independent of writing, so individuals from any academic background can discover something of value at a MAWCA conference to improve themselves or their students.
Members of the UWC community have fond memories of previous MAWCA conferences, and are looking forward to hosting the conference for the first time. Caroline Prendergast, a peer tutor and 2012 MAWCA presenter, says, "It was really amazing to see how folks from other universities go about the process of improving student writing."
Featherstone also recalls his first experience at a MAWCA conference, saying, "I remember thinking that everyone seemed so friendly and encouraging. They were all very accessible, and I left with a better sense of what writing center work is about." The MAWCA conference can provide similar insight to the JMU community by furthering the understanding of what goes on at the UWC along with aiding their own writing-related activities.
Interested parties should act quickly to become a part of JMU's first-ever hosting of one of the largest writing center conferences on the East coast."I'm excited about creating a learning event at this scale, one that is likely to have a ripple effect on writing centers and students throughout the region," says Featherstone.
For more information, or to register, visit the conference website
- Rudy Barrett, Peer Tutor
Although originally from Minneapolis, Professor Steve Bolstad moved to northwestern Pennsylvania in the first grade, where he went on to attend a high school that "had a really good band director." "From the time I was a sophomore in high school, I knew I was going into music."
Bolstad's path has led him "in one big loop around the country." He attended undergraduate school at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a B.S. in music education. He then returned to his hometown high school (St. Marys Area High School in Saint Marys, Pennsylavania) to teach music. Three years later, he moved to Ithaca, New York to pursue a M.M. degree from Ithaca College. After graduation, he taught at Livingston University (now University of West Alabama) and University of Montevallo (also in Alabama) before moving to Texas to obtain his doctorate in conducting from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation, he was offered a position as the Director of Bands at the University of Montana, where he stayed for 13 years.
Bolstad started as Director of Bands and Professor of Wind Conducting at JMU in 2007. He reveals he was drawn to the depth of student talent at JMU, the development of the D.M.A. program, and the fact that the Forbes Center "had been committed to and that ground was about to be broken."
Bolstad, who conducts the Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band, says he loves the ensembles and the repertoire. "It is possible to play great repertoire because of the talented students at JMU." This year's Wind Symphony has around 50 players, including seven graduate students, which is more than any other year. The Symphonic Band has 55 players.
In 2011, the Wind Symphony was invited to perform at the Virginia Music Educators Association (VMEA) Conference in Norfolk and played an "amazing concert," according to Bolstad. "Playing at conferences allows us to share what we do with a larger and more widespread population."
The Wind Symphony was selected to play its first national-level concert at the 2015 National Conference of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) in Nashville at the end of March. The convention represents the best university wind ensembles from around the country, and "is great exposure for JMU." "It is an honor that we were selected to perform," exclaims Bolstad. The Wind Symphony members will get a chance to practice their program at high schools in Lynchburg, Roanoke and Kingsport, Tennessee, before arriving in Nashville. Bolstad believes tours give students the opportunity to become more comfortable with what they're playing, helps to build camaraderie, and serves as a great recruiting tool.
When Bolstad is not conducting one of the two ensembles or teaching classes, he enjoys guest conducting and adjudicating. He recently conducted the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directions Association (VBODA) District 12 Honor Band in Fairfax; he adjudicated the Florida State Band Contest last fall, and will do it again this year.
Bolstad also enjoys attending concerts and student recitals. "I think it's important to support my colleagues, as well as to support the students," declares Bolstad. To achieve the best out of students, Bolstad says he tries to find ways to "help them become their own best teachers"—a teaching philosophy that encourages problem solving and critical thinking at JMU and beyond.
Marketing student Kunal Jain is planning on using the skills that he has gained while at the College of Business at his family's businesses in New Delhi, India.
After Jain graduates in May 2015, he will return home to India to work in his family's businesses. Jain's family businesses include Flora Exports, a company that exports home textile rugs and carpets; R.K. Dyeing Industries, a cloth dyeing plant; Elnova Pharma, a company that manufactures soft gelatin capsules; Sozin Flora Pharma, a company that manufactures hard gelatin capsules and tablets; and Sukam Jewellers, a jewelry store that will open in April 2015.
"I want to basically expand [the family business] comfortably and to just make my parents proud," said Jain.
During his time at the College of Business, Jain has learned how to communicate, present information effectively and increased his knowledge about the stock market.
"[The College of Business] has also given me a lot of confidence, which is apparent with how involved I am with different [College of Business] organizations and various competitions I've taken part in," said Jain.
Although Jain has spent his summers working at the family businesses, after he graduates he will focus on learning more about the products so he can market them appropriately.
Jain learned about James Madison University (JMU) through his college counselor at his American high school in India. His counselor, who lived in New York for many years, told him about JMU's business school and encouraged him to apply. Just a few months later, he traveled to the United States for the first time and settled into his dorm on campus. Now, Jain encourages his friends from India to apply to JMU.
"I have recommended JMU and I will recommend JMU again," said Jain, referring to his love of JMU and his desire to increase diversity at JMU.
While at JMU, Jain was a member of the Madison Investment Fund (MIF), which is "a student-led equity investment fund that manages a portion of the James Madison University endowment." Through MIF he heard about the CoB Student Advisory Council (SAC), which is a student organization that addresses issues that students in the CoB are facing and organizes events to help the students further their careers. As an SAC member, Jain positively impacts the College of Business and its students.
"[My friends] told me that you work for the College of Business and you try to improve it," said Jain. "You have to actually act on what you suggest for the school."
Jain attended an Honors Program Alternative Spring Break to Jamaica in 2014 where he prepared sixth graders for their first public exam. He also studied abroad in Florence, Italy, where his favorite class was English Literature. At JMU, Jain loved his Advanced Selling class, taught by Stephen Hertzenberg.
He enjoys going to local establishments, enjoying their vegetarian selections, at places like Dave's Taverna and Chipotle. Jain likes playing soccer and attending football games with his friends, even though he admits that he doesn't always understand football.
Jain says he will definitely return to JMU after he graduates, but now he is looking forward to working in his family's businesses.
By Jen Kulju (M'04)
Stephen Bolstad moved from Minneapolis to northwestern Pennsylvania when he was in the first grade, where he went on to attend a high school that "had a really good band director." "From the time I was a sophomore in high school, I knew I was going into music."
Bolstad's path has led him "in one big loop around the country." He attended undergraduate school at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a B.S. in music education. He then returned to his hometown high school (St. Marys Area High School in Saint Marys, Pennsylavania) to teach music. Three years later, he moved to Ithaca, New York to pursue a M.M. degree from Ithaca College. After graduation, he taught at Livingston University (now University of West Alabama) and University of Montevallo (also in Alabama) before moving to Texas to obtain his doctorate in conducting from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation, he was offered a position as the Director of Bands at the University of Montana, where he stayed for 13 years.
Bolstad started as Director of Bands and Professor of Wind Conducting at JMU in 2007. He reveals he was drawn to the depth of student talent at JMU, the development of the D.M.A. program, and the fact that the Forbes Center "had been committed to and that ground was about to be broken."
Bolstad, who conducts the Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band, says he loves the ensembles and the repertoire. "It is possible to play great repertoire because of the talented students at JMU." This year's Wind Symphony has around 50 players, including seven graduate students, which is more than any other year. The Symphonic Band has 55 players.
In 2011, the Wind Symphony was invited to perform at the Virginia Music Educators Association (VMEA) Conference in Norfolk and played an "amazing concert," according to Bolstad. "Playing at conferences allows us to share what we do with a larger and more widespread population."
The Wind Symphony was selected to play its first national-level concert at the 2015 National Conference of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) in Nashville at the end of March. The convention represents the best university wind ensembles from around the country, and "is great exposure for JMU." "It is an honor that we were selected to perform," exclaims Bolstad. The Wind Symphony members will get a chance to practice their program at high schools in Lynchburg, Roanoke and Kingsport, Tennessee, before arriving in Nashville. Bolstad believes tours give students the opportunity to become more comfortable with what they're playing, helps to build camaraderie, and serves as a great recruiting tool.
When Bolstad is not conducting one of the two ensembles or teaching classes, he enjoys guest conducting and adjudicating. He recently conducted the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association (VBODA) District 12 Honor Band in Fairfax; he adjudicated the Florida State Band Contest last fall, and will do it again this year.
Bolstad also enjoys attending concerts and student recitals. "I think it's important to support my colleagues, as well as to support the students," declares Bolstad. To achieve the best out of students, Bolstad says he tries to find ways to "help them become their own best teachers"—a teaching philosophy that encourages problem solving and critical thinking at JMU and beyond.
Photos by JMU Photgraphy Services and Bob Adamek.
Senior Katie Arthur grew up a ballerina, but decided to try theatre during her sophomore year of high school. Going to shows was a big part of Arthur's childhood in Sterling, Virginia, and being raised in an artistic family spurred her interest in the performing arts.
Arthur's grandmother is a singer and paid for voice lessons for her for a couple of years in high school. Arthur says both of her parents are "good singers," as are her younger brother and older sister, Maddie Arthur, who graduated from JMU in 2013 with a degree in Theatre and Dance and a concentration in musical theatre.
Arthur will graduate with the same degree in May. She added a minor in communication studies this past semester to broaden her career opportunities. Arthur recently interned with "The Sports Junkies" at 106.7 The Fan in Washington, D.C., where she got to "talk on-air and take calls from fans." "I want to do theatre really badly, but I know it is important to develop other skills as well," says Arthur.
In the event that theatre does work out, Arthur has built quite a resume at JMU. In addition to playing Charity in Sweet Charity, her first lead role in a musical, Arthur has performed in the Forbes Center main stage productions of Spring Awakening, ALL SHOOK UP and Boeing, Boeing. She was also featured in Gone Missing, the musical theatre revues of Six Degrees of Andrew Lloyd Webber and From Here … to Broadway … and Beyond, and the Studio Theatre productions of Cabaret, Assassins and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
When she is not involved in theatre, Arthur sings in the all-female a cappella group, The BluesTones. She also has an interest in dance movement therapy, which uses dance to heal "any kind of patient." As part of her senior seminar project, Arthur created an anti-bullying video with fellow theatre students incorporating dance movement therapy techniques. The video can be found on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl9MPSHhso8&feature=youtu.be.
Dr. Kristine Blair, Visiting Scholar from Bowling Green State University, presented on "Digital Scholarship and its Impact on the Humanities"
WRTC was pleased to welcome celebrated rhetoric scholar Kristine Blair to campus recently as she discussed digital scholarship and its impact on the humanities. Blair, is a professor and former department chair of English at Bowling Green State University and is the editor of the international journal Computers and Composition, a flagship publication in rhetoric. She is also the editor of the online journal, Computers and Composition Online and so brings with her a wealth of editorial experience.
More than 50 faculty and graduate and undergraduate students from several departments were on hand to enjoy Blair's presentation on "Digital Media and the Future of Humanities Scholarship" on Feb. 19. She also visited several classes, including theory and methods and editing course, and talked with the JMURJ and Lexia staffs about editing and publication in a digital age.
Though much of her visit centered around her position as an editor for two nationally known publications, she is also a prolific scholar in her own right. She is the co-author of three textbooks, editor of two edited collections and has written nearly 50 articles. She was the recipient of the Computers and Composition Distinguished Contributions to the Field award and the Conference on College Composition and Communication Technology Innovator Award. Her research interests include feminist research methodologies, digital composing practices and spaces, and assessment and scholarship practices in the academy.
Beyond the important contributions she has made to the scholarly conversation in rhetoric and composition, she is a dedicated teacher and advisor preparing countless doctoral candidates to take their place in the field. She also frequently engage in outreach work including directing the Digital Mirror Camp, a residential camp for tween girls interested in technology.
February 19th, 2015
Cohen Center for the Study of Technological Humanism, James Madison University
Written by: Yu Zhang
Dr. Langdon Winner is Thomas Phelan Chair of Humanities and Social Sciences in the Department of Science and Technological Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York. On February 19, 2015, Dr. Winner came to James Madison University (JMU) to give a lecture to JMU's faculty and graduate students. The lecture, "Planet of the Apps: the Myth of Innovation and the Eclipse of Progress," was sponsored by JMU's Cohen Center for the Study of Technological Humanism
During his lecture, Dr. Winner talked about his idea about what innovation really means to people and to society today. "It is impressive to see such ingenuity and devotion lavished upon products and apps. Yet one has to wonder, is this becoming the planet of apps?"
Dr. Winner compared the innovation processes nowadays with those decades ago, which are called Benign Innovation. "Graceful, largely beneficial changes within traditions of practice. They are respectful about what came before and what exists today. In contrast, today's favored style of innovation upholds 'creative destruction'." "INNOVATION OR DIE" is the slogan today.
Disruptive innovation is a theory and strategy promoted in many business school worldwide. The idea of being disruptive became too popular for innovators to remember the idea of making progress, which is in fact the core value of innovation. Unfortunately indeed, the obsession with innovation tends to deflect us from any committed solution to resolve the problem.
Dr. Winner said that we should ask deeper questions, "How does one evaluate change and its consequence?" "When is something good or not?" "Will we innovate ourselves out of the glaring gaps of inequality that now afflict many world societies?"
What we need is solution rather than the big word "Innovation". We need innovation facing the massive problem and humanity. We should be engaged in innovation but not evasion. Innovation should serve the world rather than be self-centered. And morality should be paid good attention by the world's innovators.
Dinner was held on the same day Dr. Winner gave his lecture. A brown bag lunch discussion on innovation, reflecting Winner's lecture, would be held on March 4th in Cohen Center (Wilson Hall 107)
Meet Ellie! Ellie has been working at the Communication Center for 3 years. Ellie is an avid traveler and recently spent an entire semester in Spain, which would classify as one of her most influential JMU experiences! Not only does she love traveling, she is a huge foodie.
Logically, if she could have any job in the world, she would be a traveling food critic. However, Ellie was a Communication Center girl first- and we're not letting her go! She loves working with a variety of students in all aspects of public speaking.
While she learns a lot from being a tutor, she learns even more in the classroom with her double major in Health Sciences and Espanol! Aye aye aye! Clearly Ellie has a full plate- but that's not all! She loves to read Harry Potter and watch Dirty Dancing in her free time. Ellie is also a huge fan of social gatherings (and we mentioned she's a foodie, right?) so, if she could be any piece of furniture she would be a dining room table.
A bucket list item of Ellie's is to travel to Peru and climb Machu Picchu. Come and see her at the Communication Center before she makes way to Peru!
The School of Strategic Leadership Studies held the 2015 Research Forum on Friday February 20th. The Research Forum is an annual event showcasing dissertation research from recent graduates. SSLS alumni, current students, and affiliates are invited to attend.
Dr. Mary Gowan, Dean of the College of Business and Kenneth R. Bartee Endowed Professor, began the program with opening remarks, offering wise words to those in the dissertation phase.
The presenters this year included Ken Newbold, Ph.D., Donovan D. Branche, Ph.D., Jody Condit Fagan, Ph.D., and Nicholas L. Langridge, Ph.D.
Ken Newbold, Ph.D. graduated from the program in May 2014 in the Postsecondary Analysis & Leadership track. Dr. Newbold presented his dissertation "Influence of Entrpreneurship Education on Entrepreneurship Development in Post-secondary Education." His dissertation was completed under the advisement and supervision of Dr. Dary Erwin. Dr. Newbold and Dr. Erwin recently collaborated on an article about Dr. Newbold's research for the fall 2014 issue of the Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship. Read more about Dr. Newbold's research in Eric Gorton's article, "The Measurement Man."
Donovan D. Branche, Ph.D. presented her dissertation research "Transformational Leadership and Resilience, African-American Female Nonprofit Leaders: A Mixed Methods Study." Dr. Branche completed her doctoral studies as a student of the Nonprofit & Community Leadership concentration. Professor & Director Karen A. Ford and Assistant Professor Margaret F. Sloan served on Dr. Branche's dissertation committee. Both faculty members supervised and advised Dr. Branche's research.
Jody Condit Fagan, Ph.D. presented her dissertation research "The Effects of Academic Libraries' Resource, Expenditure, and Service Decisions on Library Use: An Analysis of ACRL and NCES Data." Dr. Fagan's research was completed under Dr. Erwin's supervision in the Postsecondary Analysis & Leadership concentration.
Nicholas L. Langridge, Ph.D. presented his dissertation "Beyond Earnings: Meaning in Work and Meaning in Life as Byproducts of the Collegiate Experience." Dr. Langridge also completed his doctoral studies within the Postsecondary Analysis & Leadership under Dr. Erwin's advisement.
Branch, Fagan, and Langridge graduated from the School of Strategic Leadership Studies in December 2014.
Question and answer sessions followed the dissertation presentations. Dr. Karen A. Ford concluded the event thanking all of the attendees and recent graduates who presented their research. The School of Strategic Leadership Studies anticipates The 2016 Research Forum to showcase research from those graduating from the program in May and December of 2015.
Born in Australia, France, Czech Republic, Canada and the United States, the artists (Jaq Belcher, Béatrice Coron, Michelle Forsyth, Reni Gower, Lenka Konopasek, Lauren Scanlon, and Daniella Woolf) bring a broad range of international perspectives to the contemporary art of paper cutting. Using all manner of tools and paper, the artists create works that range from narrative commentaries to complex structural abstractions. Their works are bold contemporary statements that celebrate the subtle nuance of the artist's hand through a process that traces its origins to 6th century China. Light, shadow, and color play key roles, transforming this ancient technique into dynamic installations filled with delicate illusions.
Each artist contributes a unique sensibility within a complex (often installation based) construct that has hand cut paper at its core. Whether manifested as silhouettes, romanticized fictions, enigmatic reenactments, cryptic scripts or poetic abstractions, the artists address historical, cultural, and personal identity. By encrypting their content through arduous and obsessive processes (cutting, rolling, punching, folding, pinning) the meditative works are charged with narrative, metaphor, and beauty.
Australian born, Jaq Belcher currently lives and works in New York City. Through meticulous cutting and the subtle repositioning of small elliptical shapes, Belcher creates pristine contemplative works.
French artist Béatrice Coron lived in Egypt, Mexico, and China before relocating to New York City. Her papercuts are the most reminiscent of traditional Chinese and 17th c European decorative paper arts. Drawing with a blade, Coron creates eccentric environments that unfold through puzzling secretive narratives filled with quirky details.
Canadian artist Michelle Forsyth lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and is an Associate Professor at OCAD University. Pattern and illusion are combined in ironic whimsical works that depict contemporary ephemera photographed at historical disaster sites. Using a process that is part requiem and part cathartic obsession, she translates these images into thousands of intricately cut and stacked paper flowers. Delicate traces of mark and color imprint her presence while evoking ideas of memory, loss and grief.
Virginia based artist, Reni Gower is a Professor of Art in the Painting and Printmaking Department at Virginia Commonwealth University. For her papercuts, she creates unique stencils derived from historical Celtic knotwork designs. Using only a box cutter and large sheets of paper, the motifs are traced and hand cut into interlocking patterns. The intricate works seem both lacelike and architectural. By addressing issues of beauty and handicraft, her works are an intimate vehicle for reflection or reprieve.
Born in the Czech Republic, Lenka Konopasek currently lives in Salt Lake City and teaches at the University of Utah and Westminster College. By focusing on man-made and natural disasters, she creates thought-provoking works that belie her playful "pop-up" techniques. In much of her work, the tornado is a personal metaphor for the seductive beauty of violence.
Southern born and raised, Lauren Scanlon is an independent, interdisciplinary artist living in Los Angeles. Her background in cultural anthropology is revealed through her re- contextualization of romance novels and vintage bed sheets. Time worn and faded her works delicately pun incongruous meanings; such as trash as rubbish or smut versus treasure as sentiment or sentimentality.
California based textile artist / painter, Daniella Woolf re-creates private histories from remnants that are either fabricated or collected. Focusing on paper products that contain handwritten elements as well as industrial printing, she cuts and sews fragments into strips, which are coated with encaustic and hung in grid like patterns. The luminous effects of encaustic enhance the works' allusion to identity, privacy and memory.
Please join us for the exhibit, which runs from March 2, 2015 to April 10, 2015 in the Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art.
The artist lecture will take place in the Duke Hall Gallery on March 2 from 5:00-6:00pm and is immediately followed by the opening reception from 6:00-7:30pm.
by Elizabeth Hoover
In Hard Work, a performance combining dance and spoken word, artist Holly Bass recites: "I work hard. I work with my mind. I work with my mouth. I work with my whole body and soul. My calloused feet bear the marks of many years of flesh against wood."
A native of San Jose who now makes her home in Washington, D.C., Bass is a performer who indeed works hard. She uses her own body's endurance to explore how others have endured commodification and objectification throughout history.
In her 2012 performance Moneymaker, Bass danced for seven straight hours inside a vitrine in Corcoran Gallery's lobby to a soundtrack of pop music and speeches while wearing platform heels on her feet and "booty balls" strapped to her behind. The piece referenced two centuries worth of the commodification of black women's bodies from today's video vixens to Saartjie Baartman, an African woman sold into slavery who became a sideshow freak during the late 1700s because of British fascination with her buttocks.
With a bouncing gold prosthetic butt and a cummerbund emblazoned with $€X, the piece has elements of absurdity and humor; Bass's use of irony has inspired comparisons with artists including Kara Walker and Lorna Simpson. Other pieces by Bass explore the legacy of slavery, labor and privilege, and suicide in the black community.
Writing for Focus, Melanie Spears Harpers describes Bass's performance style: "Holly uses her body as a totem, absorbing and reflecting ideas through compelling actions and rituals."
An accomplished poet, Bass has published work in Callaloo, nocturnes (re)view, Beltway, and The Ringing Ear, an anthology of black southern poetry. She is an alum of Cave Canem and a journalist who writes for national publications.
Recently she choreographed Truck Touch Ballet, a performance by public works employees featuring dump trucks spilling trash, police twirling on Segways, and a pas de deux between two 65-foot cherry pickers.
In this three-part interview conducted by The Fight & the Fiddle editor Elizabeth Hoover, Bass discusses all aspects of her artistic practice, including performance, poetry, and activism.
At the Intersection of Activism and Humor | Bass explains the origins of her work focusing on the image of the booty in popular culture and how she uses humor to challenge her audience to consider different points of view.
Beyond Survival to Freedom | Bass describes how she makes herself vulnerable when she performs and how she seeks to respond to the way generations of African Americans have been taught to behave in public to cope with negative stereotypes and her own vulnerability as a performer.
Working on the Page | Bass answers the question of what it takes for a poem to work on the page and explains how poetry is the foundation of her artistic practice.
Lynn Eaton, Special Collections Librarian at JMU, shows students in Dr. Vanessa Rouillon's GWRTC 103 class an original text from an early literary society at Madison
Freshmen in Dr. Vanessa Rouillon's GWRTC 103 class are examining student life and culture at Madison over the years and making connections across generations using Special Collections at Carrier Library.
For their required semester research project, Rouillon's students visit the university archives, where they discover a treasure trove of old photographs, yearbooks, newspaper articles, course catalogs, student handbooks, correspondence, records of social events, and other historical items dating back to the founding of the school in 1908. In addition to writing a research paper on a topic of their choice, the students must produce a short video based on their findings.
For full story see JMU News article.
By: Kiara Mauro ('15), Student Affairs Technical Services
Do you have plans for starting your career after college? Are you looking for advice about internships or jobs? If so, Career and Academic Planning (CAP) can provide you with guidance and support on a variety of topics; from choosing a major and/or career path, to connecting with potential employers. For students preparing to enter the workforce, CAP's "Recruit-A-Duke" program offers a unique opportunity to participate in on-campus recruiting. This service provides students with information about companies, offers career advice, and facilitates the interview process by bringing job recruiters onto JMU's campus.
During the academic year many companies come to JMU to host information sessions, participate in career fairs, and interview with potential candidates. The companies represent a wide range of industries and are looking for students from a variety of majors. Denise Rudolph, CAP's Assistant Director of Employer Relations and Recruiting, believes these campus visits benefit both employers and students. She states, "From an employer's perspective, companies are trying to build relationships with students and create as many touch points as possible through interactions at recruiting events. These interactions help students make more informed decisions about potential employers while providing employers with the opportunity to get to know potential job candidates. They also provide a means for students to gather career advice and feedback from a variety of sources."
The convenience of meeting with potential employers without having to travel during the school year is a big benefit to JMU students looking for jobs or internships. Senior accounting major Connor Arnone had a positive experience interviewing with companies starting in his junior year. He reports, "CAP aided me in receiving an internship for the summer of 2014, which in turn, landed me a job offer." By taking advantage of the services offered through Recruit-A-Duke, Connor made a successful transition from college to the workforce without even stepping foot off of JMU's campus.
Austin Ford, senior WRTC major credits Recruit-A-Duke with helping him receive two job offers from reputable companies. In his experience, this service was an important starting point for his job search.
"Recruit-A-Duke and on-campus recruiting make students' lives so much easier," Ford says. "Don't get me wrong, a lot of work needs to be put forth in order to make a lasting impression on companies, but these two programs really help to get the process started. If you didn't know where to look for a job, now you do. Recruit-A-Duke has listings for companies recruiting specifically from James Madison University."
Career & Academic Planning is committed to helping students transition out of college and into a career. If you would like to participate in on-campus recruiting the first step is to get an account on Recruit-A-Duke. Sign up at www.jmu.edu/cap/recruitaduke to gain access to over 1,000 internship and job postings, and apply for positions online. Good luck in your search!
Graduate Program: Clinical Mental Health Counseling (M.A, Ed.S)
Interests: Traveling, trying new foods, yoga, fine quality television
Campus Affiliations: JMU Graduate Psychology, Chi Sigma Iota Honors Fraternity, JMU Alumni
Major: Communication Sciences & Disorders
Interests: DIY, movies, cooking/baking
Campus Affiliations: Honors program, SafeRides, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
Major: English and Spanish
Interests: Travel, photography, music, reading and crafting
Campus Affiliations: UPB, The Madison Society, Gamma Sigma Sigma
Major: Marketing
Minor: Human Resource Development
Interests: crafting, the beach, Disney World, country music, reading, hanging out on the quad
Hi! I'm Lauren, a senior marketing major from Newport News, VA. This is my second year as a part of the Madison Advising Peers team and I serve as the College of Business MAP. I can be found in the Academic Services Center on the second floor of Showker Hall. Around campus I stay busy with my involvement in Student Ambassadors and The Alternative Spring Break Program.
Come visit me on the second floor of Showker for questions about COB 300, COB pre-reqs and any other general advising questions. I can help map out plans, offer advice on how to succeed in COB pre-reqs and help students figure out what classes go well together. The Madison Advising Peer office is a great place to start to not only seek academic advising help but also hear from a fellow peer that has also been in the same position and taken the same classes.
Come visit me on the second floor of Showker in the ASC and visit our other general MAPs in Roop 201 with any academic questions!
Major: Justice Studies and Public Policy & Administration
Interests: Brunch buffets, The Office, traveling
Campus Affiliations: Honors Program
Hi! I'm Shelli Grogg, I'm a junior, and I'm lucky enough to count myself as part of the Madison Advising Peers team here at JMU. Helping students overcome scheduling challenges and feel confident in their ability to take control of their academic path is what I find most rewarding about being a MAP! Being a double major in the honors program has provided me with tons of scheduling hurdles that seemed daunting at the start. However, I've learned that with a little time, patience, and perseverance it's possible to develop an academic plan that allows you to get the most out of your education.
Come visit me and the other MAPS in Roop 201 for help feeling confident in your future academic career at JMU! Whether you have a scheduling worry, questions about MyMadison, or just need help accessing different JMU resources we're always here to help!
Major: Communication Studies
Concentration: Organizational Communication
Minor: Religion
Interests: Sports, Music, Movies
Campus Affiliation: Marching Royal Dukes, JMU Pep Band
Major: Biology, Pre-Med
Interests: Hiking, cooking, Law & Order SVU, volunteering
Campus Affiliations: Tri-Beta, honors program, Inter-Varsity
Major: Media Arts and Design major
Concentration: Journalism
Minor: Creative Writing
Interests: bargain hunting, lounging on the quad, pinterest fanatic
During the first Furious Flower Poetry Conference in 1994, Erica Cavanagh was a reporter for James Madison University's student paper, The Breeze. She shot in black and white and developed her own film in the campus darkroom to document the historic gathering of poets and academics.
Last fall, Cavanagh returned to the Furious Flower conference as a seasoned professor, a member of the JMU English faculty since 2007. (In the intervening years, she'd finished her bachelor's degree at JMU and earned a master's degree at the University of Chicago, where she focused on African American literature. She received an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Iowa.) She photographed the 2014 conference for her own enjoyment, using a digital camera to capture images of many of the same poets who'd inspired her 20 years ago, such as Rita Dove and Nikki Giovanni. She also found herself captivated by many of the writers she hadn't seen in person before and was particularly taken with Afaa Michael Weaver, Thomas Sayers Ellis, and Patricia Smith.
She may have the least number of photographs of those who commanded her attention the most. "It's hard to photograph and listen at the same time," Cavanagh admits. "There's a dance of being respectful of the space of the speakers and audience. It's definitely a negotiation: when to capture versus when to take in the words and be more present. … Documenting does separate me from the experience a bit." So she gave herself permission to put down the camera.
Cavanagh's interest in photography began many years ago, long before she arrived at JMU. "My mother took photos with a 35mm Minolta," she remembers. Recently, she discovered that her great-great-great aunt Sarah Jane Dudley practiced photography shortly after the camera was invented. Dudley's images appear in a couple books of collected photos, including one commemorating the growth of a textile company and the surrounding town in Whitinsville, Massachusetts. Cavanagh describes these turn-of-the-century photos as having "a still-life quality, whether of cyclists lined up before a race, Holstein cows, or river landscapes." She also has a few portraits of Dudley, one of them showing her "under a cloaky lens hood peering into her camera on a tripod."
Unconstrained by the long exposure times Dudley endured, Cavanagh was able to pursue more lively subjects. Even as a girl, she was "fascinated by how much expression could be in faces and gestures." She was also "obsessed by the idea of time passing too quickly" and saw photography as a way to halt it, if only for a moment. A native of Rochester, New York, she began photographing in seventh grade, and during high school when she got her first job at Wegmans her first few paychecks went to buy a Minolta x-700.
Her connection to African American culture began in childhood; she grew up as a member of a predominantly black Catholic congregation with "a huge black Jesus at the front of the church," banners in African colors, and stories of Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King, Jr. commingled with those of the Old and New Testament. Her father had decided to take the family there shortly after her baptism in a mostly white church, which he found cold and "too starched." By contrast, their new church family embraced one another, welcoming them into its midst.
Her interest in poetry was stoked by her roommate in college, Hilary Knause, who had books by Nikki Giovanni, Alice Walker, and Marge Piercy. "Our idea of a good time was to read poems … about being a woman and not taking any shit." In her junior year, she took Dr. Joanne Gabbin's class, African American Poetry, and the language felt familiar yet new and exciting. "I was learning the particularities of expression."
In her own forms of expression, both photography and writing (and teaching, too), Cavanagh continues to explore the theme of memory: "What is seen, experienced and heard, though fleeting, has tenacity in the mind and body." Images, poems, and essays all have a similar aim, she believes: to "document the persistence of memory or to make memories that otherwise may be lost to the busyness of life."
Erica Cavanagh teaches Survey of African American Literature and several creative nonfiction workshops at James Madison University. She shot the images featured in the slideshow at the top of this article with a Nikon D200. View more of her photos of the 2014 Furious Flower Poetry Conference on Flickr.
Major: Biology
Interests: Animals, yoga and running, traveling, coffee shops
Affiliations: Big Brother Big Sisters of Harrisonburg/Rockingham Counties, secretary of JMU Pre-Dental Society
More than 50 SLAM students in Sport & Recreation Management attended the Sport Industry Networking Conference (SINC) on February 20-21 in Washington, DC. The SINC Conference is a two-day event dedicated to educating students, young professionals and career changers on the business of sports. Students heard from panelists and keynote speakers from the industry, participated in networking lunches, and interviewed for various positions. JMU had the largest group of any college or university participating in the conference.
After the December 2013 commencement address, the executive chairman, chief executive officer and president of California Pizza Kitchen was back on campus. This time Mr. G.J. Hart was at JMU visiting students in an introduction to hospitality course where he spoke about his career. The students were fortunate to hear a very aspirational story of hard work, resilience, and one where preparation met opportunity and success.
Thirteen students from Hospitality Management program represented NSMH at the National Conference held on February 11-15, 2015 in Pittsburgh, PA. The Westin Convention Center hosted all NSMH chapters from across the nation for a four-day conference including various career development workshops, industry professional networking sessions, career fair & onsite- interview opportunities, and concluded with a very elegant Awards Gala Dinner. The event offered endless networking opportunities with employers and other hospitality students across the nation. This experience enriched the NSMH students knowledge of the hospitality industry.
The country James Madison built was one based on mastering the "passions," Michael Signer told a Madison Vision Series audience in the Madison Union Ballroom on Feb. 19. It was one rooted in reason, temperance, listening and, above all, achieving the common good.
"When you see extremism destroying debate in our country today…you're seeing the passions running amuck," Signer said, "And when you see leaders pandering to those extreme ideas and letting themselves be dragged and tossed around by them, you're [also] witnessing the passions."
Signer's lecture, "Statesmanship for Troubled Times: Leadership Lessons from James Madison," drew from his book, "Becoming Madison: The Extraordinary Origins of the Least Likely Founding Father," an extension of Signer's interest in democracy and an exploration of leadership.
Due to cultural issues within our parties and political systems—all-time low approval rates of Congress, the 24-hour news cycle, the cost of political campaigns—the "corrosive" power of cynicism can lead citizens away from civic engagement. But despite all this, Signer encouraged, we have individuals who are eager for more substance and who believe in civic duty.
Only the collective effort of individuals can save the republic from the crisis of leadership and make democracy what it should be, Signer emphasized. And, excited by President Jonathan Alger's leadership, Signer discussed how JMU's mission of engagement would have made James Madison proud.
"These pillars of engagement that are here are incredibly exciting…I think this is cause for celebration. For what does our country need the most right now? It needs people connected to civic affairs, to government, to collective enterprises, who are engaged with the deepest questions and who are using them to shape outcomes," Signer said. "We're definitely not going to solve these things with cynicism."
During the Virginia Federal Convention, Signer shared that Madison physically collapsed twice. And Signer's theory is that Madison collapsed in that room in Richmond not because he felt too little, but because he felt too much. While Madison has been known for his quietness and relentless rationality, Signer believes that he was more like lava underneath a rock that was ready to erupt and he understood intensely the stakes of what it is he was involved in.
"Madison's method" of debate, as Signer called it, was maddening and frustrating. He anticipated opponents' moves. He dragged audiences through limited choices. It involved precision, preparation, discipline and control. And most importantly, his method poked holes in credibility for those with selfish motives. Madison would burn with intensity, and this was why he'd collapsed.
Signer explained that there tend to be two frames in our politics today: politics as entertainment, due to our media landscape being fragmented into a less united national discussion, and politics as war, where the goal of the political process is to destroy the opponent. "I would suggest to you a vital third model," Signer said, explaining politics as an athletic contest, a frame that mirrors the one used in Madison's day. "It is a contest, where we are trying to win, definitely. We are competing, but there are rules to the game, and after the game is over, we are all neighbors and citizens together."
In this athletic contest, Madison was a quiet victor. He sided with reason and fought against exaggerated extremes and the passions. And, he convinced masses of people to do so as well.
"We need to hurl ourselves over these obstacles, just as Madison did," Signer said, encouraged by JMU's commitment to civic engagement, community engagement, and engaged learning. "And this is a vital, bold, important mission that has been laid out here at James Madison University."
Feb. 23, 2015
By Rosemary Girard ('15)
Last semester, assistant professor Dr. Chris Mayfield taught a Computer Science (CS) class with a somewhat unexpected goal: to have fun.
CS 280: Programming Challenges is a competitive computer programming class, which means students enter competitions to challenge their programming skills.
Asked what he hoped the students might achieve by taking the course, Dr. Mayfield thought for a second. "Have fun," he answered.
"The whole point is for students to have fun. Solving these puzzles is a friendly challenge. This is something we enjoy doing and enjoy getting better at."
Students form teams of three to compete. Generally, the fastest typist will write code—the solutions to the problems—and the other two members dictate what he or she should type. The team with the most correct answers wins. Getting any answers right is often difficult, said Dr. Mayfield.
If two teams solve the same number of problems, then the team with the lowest time is the winner. An incorrect answer results in a 20-minute penalty, but the team can continue to submit answers until it is solved.
"During the competition I always lose track of time since my thoughts are completely engrossed in the problems at hand," said junior CS major, Gaurav Kale. "Whether I win or lose, I only consider the competition good if I was able to solve at least half the problems and one of my friends was neck and neck with me the whole time."
Competitions are five hours long and typically have around eight questions. Students often wish the competitions were longer, said Kale, so there would be more time to finish the problems. In November, the students participated in the ACM-ICPC Mid-Atlantic Regional Contest at Radford University and CCSC Eastern Programming Competition at York College, Pennsylvania. One team, of which Kale was a member, placed 28th out of 189 teams at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Contest—in the top 15th percentile.
"[A competition] is really only as competitive as you want it to be," said Kale. "Some people just come in to see how they do solving problems in a timed environment and don't care about coming first or last. Others, like me, get very competitive with groups of friends."
Although the class aims to bring together like-minded individuals with a passion for puzzles and problem solving, it also helps students develop skills for their future careers.
According to Dr. Mayfield, giving students practice working under pressure is the best part of the class.
"It's a different type of pressure," he explained. At home, students can take their time solving problems. But when forced into a timed situation where someone is examining the student's work, such as a job interview, the pressure heightens. "What I want students to do is build the confidence to think and perform in that scenario. Competitive programming gives them a chance to practice that and see what it feels like."
Kale agreed that the class is helpful in developing the skills to efficiently solve problems in a timed environment. "I like how it really challenges me to work fast," he said.
The class was so well received that this semester Dr. Mayfield is starting a club where students can continue to advance their programming skills. Already, over 30 people have shown interest in becoming members.
The club will enable competitive programming students to continue pursuing their passion for problem solving.
There's a seasonal ebb and flow when it comes to student issues. Here are a few things your student may be experiencing this month:
Decisions your student may be facing
Your student will likely be in decision-making mode these next few months, as she seeks opportunities and determines intentional directions for her life. Here are some key decisions on her plate…
Choosing a Major. If your student is in her second year, she'll likely have to declare a major. This involves looking at her learning, her future goals, classes she has enjoyed and more. Remind her that her academic advisor, as well as other campus professionals, can help her make this type of decision.
Seeking Purposeful Summer Work. Finding work or an internship that allows your student to explore her major and interests is just smart. She'll need to make contacts, consult with folks in career services and beyond, create a resume and get her name out there. Making the most of the summer will help her be ahead of the pack.
Figuring Out Spring Break. How will your student spend her spring break? Being intentional with this chunk of time can definitely work to her benefit. Perhaps she'll go on a service trip, do informational interviews for summer jobs/internships, shadow someone in a profession that interests her… Planning can ensure that she doesn't waste this valuable time!
Conversations, loving challenges and support can give your student added strength during this decision-heavy time of year.
Ask Questions. They may include "What are you thinking about for the summer?" or "How can I help you weigh options for a major?"
Be a Sounding Board. Listen as your student bounces around possibilities.
Offer Support. Let your student know that you believe in her and are there to help.
We are right in the middle of heating season, as winter cocoons much of North America. That's why both on- and off-campus students need to be very aware of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Carbon monoxide (CO) is an odorless, colorless gas that is produced when any fuel such as gas, oil, kerosene, wood or charcoal is burned. If fuel-burning appliances are in good shape, the amount of CO is typically not hazardous.
Yet, if an appliance isn't working right or is being used incorrectly, CO can leak into living spaces and kill someone within minutes. Idling cars also produce CO that can kill. That's why accurate information is important to keep students safe.
Symptoms of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
The signs of carbon monoxide poisoning include:
What to Do
If someone suspects he may have carbon monoxide poisoning, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggests that he:
Help your student become more aware of carbon monoxide poisoning and what to do in case of emergency. Also, encourage her to talk with her landlord to ensure that preventive measures (see box) are present in her living space.
Sources: www.cdc.gov/co/faqs.htm; www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/coftsht.html
Does your off-campus student have a carbon monoxide detector in his apartment? Do you have one at home? They aren't very expensive and can certainly save lives
To prevent CO poisoning, the EPA suggests:
Here's a friendly reminder that the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — or the FAFSA — has deadlines for 2015-2016 that include…
Talk with campus financial aid professionals with any specific questions you may have. They're more than willing to speak with both students and their parents/families.
February is Relationship Wellness Month. Talk with your student this month about what a healthy relationship looks like. It doesn't really matter if you're talking about the love of your student's life or a good friend. The basic tenets of healthy relationships are the same, regardless! Consider using this acronym to get the conversation started:
Signs that a Relationship is Healthy…
Vitality. In a healthy relationship, both individuals have the opportunity to grow, explore areas of interest to them and live life to the fullest.
Acceptance. It's nearly impossible to change another person. In a healthy relationship, both partners accept one another as they are.
Love. This goes without saying! But, it's important to note that love is intimacy, friendship and respect — not possessiveness, obsession and manipulation.
Emotion. Relationships are emotional roller coasters, there's no doubt about it. If you didn't truly care about the person, the relationship wouldn't be hard work. Sometimes you'll face uphill battles and sometimes you'll feel like you're coasting downhill. This is all-important in building a strong, solid relationship.
Natural. In a healthy relationship, partners aren't pressured to do things they don't want to do. If something doesn't feel right, it's quite likely that it isn't. You should never feel intimidated or put down by the person who supposedly loves you.
Trust. It's much easier to be vulnerable when you trust someone wholeheartedly. And this vulnerability is so important in achieving an authentic relationship built on honesty and openness.
Interdependence. In a healthy relationship, partners live and work together. Neither is dependent or independent from the other and both have their own positive identity.
Nourishing. A relationship should make deposits in your emotional bank account, not withdrawals. Healthy relationships are those that make you feel good about yourself.
Effervescence. If you're not feeling excited about your relationship, something is wrong. Although relationships are hard work and take a great deal of compromise, if you've tried this and you're still not feeling excited, it might be time to evaluate why you're feeling the way you are. This is okay! Sometimes you just need to take stock to realize all that you have. But sometimes, it may be time to part ways. If this is the case, stay true to yourself and be as honest as you can.
Now's the time to get the conversation started. Show your student that you care about his emotional well being by encouraging him to take a close look at the health of his relationships.
The Chinese New Year for 2015 begins on February 19 and ends 15 days later with the Lantern Festival. The Chinese calendar is close to 5,000 years old. It is made up of 12-year cycles, with each year named after an animal. People supposedly possess characteristics of the animal in the year of their birth. So, as the Year of the Sheep races in, you can use the following chart to determine where you and your student fall in the grand scheme of things. You just might learn something about one another!
(Add or subtract 12 years from any of these dates when you don't see your birth date represented.)
Visit the Chinese Zodiac page at www.infoplease.com/calendar/chinese-zodiac.html to learn more about these 12 animals and the characteristics of each.
Sources: www.chinesenewyearday.com/ChineseNewYearDates.htm; www.infoplease.com/calendar/chinese-zodiac.html
The quest to be "perfect" is something that many students may be feeling, especially as they embark on a new semester, new classes and new student leader challenges. Some of the traits that perfectionists may exhibit include…
Setting unrealistic or unachievable goals. Often perfectionists set goals that are so high and unrealistic that it is almost impossible for them to be successful.
Fear of failure. Perfectionists often measure their own self-worth or personal value with their failure to achieve goals.
Fear of messing up or making mistakes. Because perfectionists equate their mistakes with failure, they organize their lives around avoiding mistakes and, thus, often miss opportunities for learning, growth and development.
All-or-none thinking. Perfectionists often believe that they are worthless EVEN if they have achieved small successes or met parts of their goals along the way.
Overemphasis on "shoulds." Perfectionists often live by rigid rules based upon what they believe they should do rather than considering their own needs and feelings.
Believing that others are easily successful. Most perfectionists believe that they are alone in daily struggles to meet expectations; they believe that others achieve success with minimal effort.
Imposing perfectionist ideals on others. Perfectionists tend to have high expectations of others and get frustrated when friends and colleagues are unable to meet those expectations. In typical perfectionist fashion, they believe that the things that are important to them should be just as important to everyone else.
These students are stressing themselves out, trying to meet the expectations of parents, families, friends, advisors… those whose opinions are important to them. Perfectionism is also about expecting a lot out of yourself – often, too much.
Sources: State University of New York at Potsdam, College Counseling Center, www.potsdam.edu/studentlife/counseling/selfhelp/upload/ perfectionism-1.pdf; Adapted from an article by Susan Spangler, Higher Education Consultant
"If you are a perfectionist, it is likely that you learned early in life that other people valued you because of how much you accomplished or achieved."
— SUNY Potsdam's online "Perfectionism" brochure
To help students overcome or at least work on their perfectionist tendencies, those who care about them can try the following…
Encourage students to set realistic, achievable goals. These should be based on students' own wants and needs, plus what has been accomplished in the past. This will allow them to achieve a greater sense of self-esteem.
Help students prioritize goals. Encourage them to prioritize activities and responsibilities that are most important, and help them recognize that perfection is not something they can achieve in one area (let alone four or five).
Ask students to experiment with their standards for success. SUNY Potsdam's "Perfectionism" brochure suggests that students choose an activity and, instead of aiming for 100% success, they try for 90%, 80% or even 60%. This activity helps students realize that the world doesn't end when they are not perfect.
Understand process vs. product. Perfectionists often miss the boat on relationships because they are so focused on the final outcome of a project or activity. Thus, it is important to teach students to enjoy the process of doing an activity rather than solely focusing on the end result.
Provide students with the opportunity to learn from mistakes. When students approach you, depressed or withdrawn because they feel they have failed, it's important to allow them to reflect on why they are feeling that way. Ask, "Have you set up impossible expectations of yourself in regard to this situation?" and "What can you do to prevent this from happening in the future?"
Help students understand that everyone has individual priorities. Perfectionists often expect others to buy into the perfectionist myth, too! Therefore, it is important to help students understand that each individual has their own priorities and goals.
Your care and concern go a long, long way when contending with perfectionism.
James Madison junior softball player, Jailyn Ford, was honored by the Colonial Athletic Association as CAA Pitcher of the Week.
Ford tossed two complete games, going 1-1 in the circle for the Dukes with a 0.47 ERA in her 15.0 innings pitched. After taking a 3-2 extra innings loss to Virginia Tech on Feb. 13, Ford came back the following day to shut out Jacksonville State 1-0. She gave up a total of three runs (one earned), eight hits and three walks while striking out 17 batters on opening weekend.
"(Ford) showed great leadership and poise this weekend," Head Coach Mickey Dean said. "In both of her games that she pitched, she was able to get us out of some jams that we got ourselves into defensively. The exciting thing about JJ is that she is already looking to improve after this first weekend."
Dr. Joshua Linder, biological anthropologist, has been a member of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology since 2009. His research and teaching focus is on primate ecology and conservation, but extends into three specific areas: the impact of bushmeat hunting on primate community structure, the expansion and ecological/socioeconomic impact of industrial agriculture in tropical Africa, and the biological and human dimensions of protected area management. Dr. Linder has received international attention for his efforts in demonstrating the deleterious effects of industrial agriculture on wildlife habitats.
A true teacher-scholar, he has taken students to Cameroon four times during the May semester of summer school, has been recognized as Professor of the Month by the Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners and has received the JMU Dolly Leadership Award. Dr. Linder has been a Board Member, Project Manager, and Scientific Advisor for SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund and a member of the World Conservation Union Species Survival Commission, Primate Specialist Group.
For his research, Dr. Linder is a part of a large, collaborative project (with Cornell, Oxford, WWF, and Cameroon government).The project received a $25,000 grant from the US Fish and Wildlife Service to install acoustic sensors in the Rumpi Hills forest region of Cameroon, West Africa. This builds on a project funded by the UK's Darwin Initiative that monitors primates, elephants, and illegal hunting in Cameroon's Korup National Park. By acoustically tracking the sound of gun shots in these forests, Josh and his colleagues can determine the degree to which Cameroon's anti-poaching efforts are successful. This kind of tracking through these sensors may revolutionize anti-poaching efforts in protected areas and help to safeguard threatened species throughout Africa.
Dr. Linder's efforts have been widely recognized as his research has been used by Greenpeace International and New Scientist magazine. He has even been interviewed by Al-Jazeera and the Daily Beast for his efforts. JMU is lucky to have Dr. Linder as a leading voice educating the community.
By: Daniel Vieth
"If I were to be a role model, my message would be to first don't give up, because your mistakes don't define you. And second, just be as stubborn as it takes to get what you need to get done."
- Gail Moruza
As one of the most challenging academic programs on campus, engineering may feel like its own obstacle course for students. This stress can be made worse for female engineers who often feel that they don't belong in a male dominated field. Thankfully at JMU, there are many female engineering students and faculty members who are breaking this stereotype and encouraging women to get involved in science and technology majors. One such student is Gail Moruza, a sixth year engineering major with minors in biology and mathematics. With the help of the programs she has been involved in, her internships, and the professors that have encouraged her along the way, Moruza has overcome many obstacles and become a role model for all STEM majors.
While in high school, Moruza didn't quite know what she wanted to study and pursue as a career. "I was looking at forensics and environmental science at different colleges, but when I visited JMU I immediately chose it because I loved the school," said Moruza. After exploring JMU's engineering program, Moruza began to see how she could use engineering to pursue other humanitarian work she was interested in. "Engineering was the perfect combination of stuff I liked to do, and the underlying theme was that I could use it to actually help people and as a form of service," Moruza continued. "I saw the curriculum, and the more I got into it, the more I started to appreciate it and understand what was involved."
Before coming to JMU, Moruza participated in the Bridging the Valley (BTV) program, where she attended science and math courses on campus a month before her freshman year. BTV was a five year partnership with other colleges and universities in the Shenandoah Valley that "introduced students to future classmates and professors, gave them an idea of the environment they would be going into, and encouraged people to stay in STEM fields," Moruza explained. "For me, the most valuable experience was getting to dip my toes into the college life before being thrown into it." Moruza then had the opportunity to work for BTV as a teaching assistant and mentor for a new group of young STEM majors. "It sounds cliché, but I wanted to give back to what had already given to me and try to improve upon an already good system," Moruza added.
Through her journey as an engineering student, Moruza has had to overcome a number of obstacles. After her graduation date was pushed back, Moruza nearly dropped out of the engineering program altogether. While in the process of switching her major to biology, however, many of Moruza's engineering professors encouraged her to finish the degree. "They were like 'seriously, you're giving up now, you of all people?' So that was the voice of sense that I listened to, thank goodness," said Moruza. After a year as a biology and engineering double major, Moruza also began to see engineering from a different perspective and realized that she wanted to use environmental biology within engineering to become an environmental engineer. Moruza later changed biology to a minor alongside mathematics.
"It's been a bit of a journey, and I've learned a lot about myself and what I am capable of," Moruza continued. "It's helped open my eyes to the fact that college isn't just to get a diploma, it's an education and it's supposed to change you." Moruza's persistence and work as a mentor to younger STEM majors all define her as a role model. "I think it's really important for women to see that it's okay to not be perfect in your academics because you are going to mess up. It just depends on what you do after you mess up that defines who you are," Moruza continued. "You're not going to get perfect grades, you're going to want to scream and break your pencil in the middle of exams. But if you don't give up, things will work out."
After graduation, Moruza plans to continue combining her interest in engineering and humanitarian work by pursuing a master's degree and PhD in environmental engineering and conducting research on stormwater management applications of materials science. She then intends to work in the field of water resources for areas in need across the world. "I believe that JMU's engineering program has done an excellent job of encouraging practicality in our designs and challenging us to think and work beyond our comfort zones," Moruza added. "With my education at JMU and what I hope to accomplish in graduate school, I can be a real help to those with urgent needs like access to sustainable clean water."
She didn't know where it would take her, but Kimberlee (Kim) Robertella Glinka (2010) has no regrets about traveling to Malta to participate in a brand new JMU Graduate Program. Kim says she was the first applicant to the inaugural cohort of the Integrated Science and Technology (ISAT) program in Sustainable Environmental Resource Management taught in partnership with the University of Malta.
After earning her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management at Penn State, Kim held management, marketing and communications positions at companies that focused on renewable energy. Passionate about the intersection of business and environmental sustainability, she was seeking ways to advance her career.
The interdisciplinary nature of the ISAT master's program was appealing to her. She was interested in the problems addressed by the program. She also valued the opportunity to learn from professors and students from a wide range of fields, including the sciences, engineering, and mathematics, as well as the political and social sciences, international affairs, among others. The multidisciplinary nature of this program was one of the stand-out experiences for her. Throughout the program she learned how important it is to work on projects across disciplines.
During the program, as teams of students and faculty collaborated on projects, she saw how important it was to obtain stakeholder buy-in for a project to be successful. Individuals sometimes had diametrically opposite perspectives at the start of a project, so for the enterprise to be successful, it was critical that all stakeholders be engaged in continuous dialog.
When reflecting about her experience, Kim noted the significance of learning about sustainable resource management on a small island, where the boundaries of the island create a brilliant real-world laboratory for students. In an island ecosystem, soil, water and other resources are limited, and waste management is critical. It is far too easy to expend vital resources, and all too simple to contaminate what is available. The island of Malta is a wonderful learning laboratory.
Kimberlee Robertella Glinka currently serves as the Associate Director for the Center for Social Value Creation at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. The center works with students, faculty and business partners to help balance profits and the public good. They promote business models that leverage cross-disciplinary collaboration and encourage market-based problem solving to create economic prosperity and social and environmental well-being.
The JMU Malta Program is now being redeveloped. It has been renamed "Environmental Management and Sustainability." The fall 2015 program is being planned for 18 students. The program now enables students to choose electives, and can be completed in 12 months, running from September to August. According to Program Director, Dr. Maria Papadakis, the program is intensive. "It's a full time job." However, there is also time available for sightseeing and enjoying the surroundings. After all, the program is on a Mediterranean island, not far from Italy. Information about the program.
When asked if she had any advice to prospective students, Kim said that she advises individuals interested in environmental sustainability not be dissuaded if they don't have a deep scientific background. The program includes technical and scientific aspects, but she found faculty and fellow students to be very supportive, and the effort needed to develop necessary skills was quite worthwhile.
By Megan Sibley ('16)
The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life held its annual Excellence Awards on January 25 to recognize the accomplishments of fraternities and sororities at James Madison University. One of these awards was the Ethical Reasoning in Action Award, based on the Madison Collaborative's Eight Key Questions and its mission to develop students' ethical reasoning skills. The selection was also based on the fraternity or sorority's continued embodiment of their own mission and vision statements. This year, that award was given to Delta Delta Delta, based on the outstanding efforts of its members to form an anti-hazing program, not only for their chapter, but for other Greek organizations at JMU as well.
"we...realized that we needed to be more empathetic with one another..." Gamma Tau, the chapter of Delta Delta Delta at JMU, found an opportunity to turn a negative incident into an inspiring opportunity. During Big-Little Week, new members, informally known as pledges, received presents and surprises from their Bigs before the Bigs' identities were revealed. However, reports of hazing during Big-Little Week caused the sorority's headquarters to take disciplinary action. It was decided that the chapter would go on probation in addition to receiving other sanctions. Instead of meeting the minimal requirements, Gamma Tau's executive board decided to execute an Internal Plan that would revise their New Member Education Program and discuss the consequences of hazing within their own chapter and with other sororities affiliated with James Madison University.
The plan was drafted by five sorority members: the president, vice president of administration, the member development chair, and two pledge moms who are in charge of the new member experience. The Bigs of the new member class completed community service hours and wrote formal letters of apology to their new members. Both the Hazing Policy and Sponsor Policy were refined based on the judgment of the Executive Office and advice from other chapters of Delta Delta Delta and other JMU sororities. The Internal Plan included an outline of what would be presented at other JMU sororities' chapter meetings: "Basic education on hazing, transition into what happened in our chapter, the process, and what Gamma Tau is working towards in order to change the situation."
The New Member Education Program changed the Big-Little Week activities to large group events, rather than just one-on-one exchanges. This new set-up holds every member accountable for her actions and makes it more of an organization-wide week, welcoming new members into the entire sorority instead of just receiving isolated gifts from their Bigs. The results were noticeable to Former Chapter President Jordyn Kennedy, who observed that the incoming new member class under this program was closer than those in previous years, and they felt more comfortable reaching out to other sisters in Delta Delta Delta.
"People appreciate honesty. Hazing used to be the elephant in the room, but we addressed it and realized that we needed to be more empathetic with one another and recognize that not everyone would be comfortable with the activities that took place during Big-Little Week. We loved these girls and were hurt that we hurt them," said Kennedy.
This outreach stretched beyond Greek Life to the entire JMU community. Another goal of the Internal Plan was to have the Delta Delta Delta sisters hand out anti-hazing accessories, such as buttons, bracelets and shirts on the Commons. By making themselves examples and advocates against hazing while being involved in events like "National Hazing Prevention Week," the sorority increased JMU's awareness of what hazing actually is in addition to illustrating the consequences for such behavior.
When asked how Delta Delta Delta's anti-hazing message had such a widespread impact, Associate Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Adam Lindberg explained that the sorority compiled a plan not just to better themselves, but to better the JMU campus: "The sorority already has a lot of respect in the community, so when they were intentional with their anti-hazing message, people listened." Jordyn Kennedy also believed that the friendships between Delta Delta Delta members and other sorority members had a big influence on the success of this campaign.
With regards to the Eight Key Questions, Delta Delta Delta's nomination essay connected to four of the questions. It touched on fairness because the sorority encouraged others to view new members as equals with the elimination of hazing. It addressed rights because the new members deserved the same rights and respect as anyone else in the organization. Their plan incorporated character by challenging their sisters to model the values of their organization (friendship, self-sacrifice, and truth). Finally, the essay elaborated on empathy because it is important to understand each person's point of view and how one's actions can affect the Greek life experience.
Dr. Mark Warner, Senior Vice President of Student Affairs and University Planning, was the presenter of the Ethical Reasoning in Action Award at Fraternity and Sorority Life's Excellence Awards. As a personal advocate of the Madison Collaborative, he shared his goal for the role of ethical reasoning at JMU: To make ethical reasoning as engrained in JMU culture as opening doors. Dr. Warner feels that Delta Delta Delta's outreach is an example of how to accomplish that goal. Students teaching students about difficult issues, like hazing, has the greatest impact on campus culture. The message is more powerful coming from a friend or group of peers than anyone else. With more examples like the women of Delta Delta Delta and their Internal Plan, students will learn how ethical reasoning can make a positive difference in their organizations and the entire university community.
Photo credit: Stephen Meyer ('17). Thanks also to University Unions Technology & Design and Erin Phillippi ('08M) for their contributions.
by Karen Risch Mott
C. B. Claiborne sums up his more than 40 years in photography as being about special moments, "creating visual cues to help us recall our experience in a time and place." This is what motivated him to suggest that someone document the 1994 Furious Flower Poetry Conference, which he helped plan. He volunteered himself and has been Furious Flower's event photographer for all three conferences.
In 1994, he shot 25 rolls of film, which were processed daily for a growing exhibit in Carrier Library. It was a laborious project that took many hours in a darkroom and the help of librarian Jody Hess, who mounted the images on foamcore and hung them in a pop-up gallery as they were developed. In 2004, he shot digitally and printed dozens of photos, this time showing them in the lobby of Wilson Hall. In 2014, everything went digital: the monitors in Carrier Library cycled through his images for the duration of the conference. (View more of Claiborne's images from the 2014 Furious Flower Poetry Conference on Flickr.)
Poetry festival organizer Dr. Joanne Gabbin has asked Claiborne to return each time because of his sensibilities with regard not only to the images he creates, but also to the subject matter of black writers. "I wanted to work with someone who would appreciate the catholicity of those who were attending the conference. Initially, it was his generosity that got him the 'job,' but in subsequent years, I invited him back because of the quality of the work he'd done, because of the particular intelligence he brought to these photographs."
A professor of marketing at Southern Texas University in Houston, Claiborne asserts that he teaches creativity and innovation. His interests span applied science, business, sports, photography, and more. He was the first black basketball player at Duke University, where he received his bachelor's in engineering. He went on to earn a master's in the same discipline from Dartmouth. His MBA is from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he earned his way through grad school by taking headshots and passport photos. He also has a PhD in marketing from Virginia Tech. In the years when Claiborne lived near Harrisonburg and taught in the business school at JMU, he often showed his landscapes and portraits at galleries around town, especially in Staunton.
In the poets who perform at Furious Flower, he sees a connection with the sixties, an echo of that time and particularly of the civil rights movement. He remembers listening to one of Nikki Giovanni's records in 1973 and hearing her commitment to black power, her revolutionary spirit, and her irreverent asides. Attending her reading more than 40 years later at Furious Flower, he remarked, "It feels like an anthem. Sure, the subjects have changed. The poet is now exploring a different stage of life, perhaps telling a different story, but she is still speaking with the same voice."
Part Two features photographer, poet, and professor of English Erica Cavanagh.
Visit Madisonmagazine online to download the Madison app and view this story and more features on your tablet device for an immersive, interactive experience!
By Eric Gorton ('86, '09M)
Research has shown that entrepreneurial skills can be taught and learned, but a new study by a JMU researcher quantifies the learning and could lead to changes in entrepreneurship education.
"This will give educators a framework that they may not have had before. This could potentially influence the way some people think about delivering entrepreneurship education," said Dr. T. Dary Erwin, who supervised the research conducted by Dr. Ken Newbold for his doctorate in JMU's School of Strategic Leadership Studies. Erwin, a professor of strategic leadership studies and psychology, also co-authored an article about the research with Newbold for the fall 2014 issue of the Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship.
As Ken Newbold continues his research, he has discussed expanding the pool of students to survey beyond JMU to Ferrum College.
Newbold, associate vice provost of research and scholarship, did the research during the fall 2013 semester by surveying current students, current entrepreneurs and JMU alumni. Each survey was designed to measure the respondents in four categories: entrepreneurship self-efficacy, entrepreneurial intent, entrepreneurship outcome expectations and goal directed activity. For the current student survey, Newbold compared management majors at JMU who were enrolled in entrepreneurship courses to management majors who were not enrolled in entrepreneurship courses. For the survey of current entrepreneurs, he asked if they took entrepreneurship courses and, if they did, what effect those courses had on their efforts to start a business. For the alumni study, Newbold surveyed former management majors and former applied science and computer science majors.
The students enrolled in the entrepreneurship courses scored higher than those not participating in the courses. Similarly, current entrepreneurs scored higher than non-entrepreneurs across the four categories measured. The alumni survey did not provide statistically significant data between the groups. Newbold said further research is needed with a larger sample of JMU graduates for that part of the study.
An important first step in the research, Newbold said, was coming up with a definition of an entrepreneur. After much literature review, he defined entrepreneurs as people who take actions to start a venture and build economic value in the market. That definition sets entrepreneurs apart from people who invest or manage startup companies.
Newbold also revised and improved existing surveys on entrepreneurship development to create his survey instrument, which he called the Entrepreneurial Development Questionnaire.
'This could potentially influence the way some people think about delivering entrepreneurship education.'—Dr. T. Dary Erwin, professor, School of Strategic Leadership Studies
Dr. T. Dary Erwin
"He sifted through a lot of the thick clouds to give it some definition," Erwin said. "He took the existing instruments that were out there and found them wanting. So he narrowed it down to the four particular constructs, such as intent, outcome, expectations, goal directed. It is easy to talk about this, but it's an additional contribution to then measure along those four constructs that we defined as entrepreneurship development. That's a big deal."
Newbold chose his research topic due to his interest in exploring ways higher education bolsters economic growth. Developing entrepreneurs is one of the ways, but there is much discussion about what impact education has on developing entrepreneurs. "In the research I was initially doing, a big question was, 'How do you measure?'" Newbold said. "There's no one path to, 'This is what an entrepreneur looks like. So you take these four classes and now you're an entrepreneur.' That's not really the case. And every college has its own approach to it."
Newbold plans to continue the research by expanding the pool of survey subjects and possibly looking at other dimensions of entrepreneurship education, such as extracurricular activities. "There is so much now about experiential learning, what happens outside the classroom influences education," he said.
As for expanding the pool of students to survey beyond JMU, Ferrum College could be one of the first. Newbold has already discussed the survey with Ferrum President Jennifer Braaten, who put him in touch with their business department.
"If I could do the EDQ at other institutions and then maybe do some comparisons and have more of a longitudinal sample over time, that would be pretty cool," Newbold said.
Erwin sees a lot of potential for the research to grow. "This is a niche Ken is going to be able to work in for some time," he said. "It gives institutions a tool beyond the rhetoric."
Erwin also said he would not be surprised if other researchers become interested in using the survey Newbold has crafted.
Researchers who may be interested in learning more about Newbold's work can contact him at email@example.com.
"If I were to be a role model, my message would be to first don't give up, because your mistakes don't define you. And second, just be as stubborn as it takes to get what you need to get done."
- Gail Moruza
As one of the most challenging academic programs on campus, engineering may feel like its own obstacle course for students. This stress can be made worse for female engineers who often feel that they don't belong in a field that is still male dominated. Thankfully at JMU, there are many female engineering students and faculty members who are breaking this stereotype and encouraging women to get involved in science and technology majors. One such student is Gail Moruza, a sixth year engineering major with minors in biology and mathematics. With the help of the programs she has been involved in, her internships, and the professors that have encouraged her along the way, Moruza has overcome many obstacles and become a role model for all STEM majors.
While in high school, Moruza didn't quite know what she wanted to study and pursue as a career. "I was looking at forensics and environmental science at different colleges, but when I visited JMU I immediately chose it because I loved the school," said Moruza. After exploring JMU's engineering program, Moruza began to see how she could use engineering to pursue other humanitarian work she was interested in. "Engineering was the perfect combination of stuff I liked to do, and the underlying theme was that I could use it to actually help people and as a form of service," Moruza continued. "I saw the curriculum, and the more I got into it, the more I started to appreciate it and understand what was involved."
Before coming to JMU, Moruza participated in the Bridging the Valley (BTV) program, where she attended science and math courses on campus a month before her freshman year. BTV was a five year partnership with other colleges and universities in the Shenandoah Valley that "introduced students to future classmates and professors, gave them an idea of the environment they would be going into, and encouraged people to stay in STEM fields," Moruza explained. "For me, the most valuable experience was getting to dip my toes into the college life before being thrown into it." Moruza then had the opportunity to work for BTV as a teaching assistant and mentor for a new group of young STEM majors. "It sounds cliché, but I wanted to give back to what had already given to me and try to improve upon an already good system," Moruza added.
Through her journey as an engineering student, Moruza has had to overcome a number of obstacles. After her graduation date was pushed back, Moruza nearly dropped out of the engineering program altogether. While in the process of switching her major to biology, however, many of Moruza's engineering professors encouraged her to finish the degree. "They were like 'seriously, you're giving up now, you of all people?' So that was the voice of sense that I listened to, thank goodness," said Moruza. After a year as a biology and engineering double major, Moruza also began to see engineering from a different perspective and realized that she wanted to use environmental biology within engineering to become an environmental engineer. Moruza later changed biology to a minor alongside mathematics.
"It's been a bit of a journey, and I've learned a lot about myself and what I am capable of," Moruza continued. "It's helped open my eyes to the fact that college isn't just to get a diploma, it's an education and it's supposed to change you." Moruza's persistence and work as a mentor to younger STEM majors all define her as a role model. "I think it's really important for women to see that it's okay to not be perfect in your academics because you are going to mess up. It just depends on what you do after you mess up that defines who you are," Moruza continued. "You're not going to get perfect grades, you're going to want to scream and break your pencil in the middle of exams. But if you don't give up, things will work out."
After graduation, Moruza plans to continue combining her interest in engineering and humanitarian work by pursuing a master's degree and PhD in environmental engineering and conducting research on stormwater management applications of materials science. She then intends to work in the field of water resources for areas in need across the world. "I believe that JMU's engineering program has done an excellent job of encouraging practicality in our designs and challenging us to think and work beyond our comfort zones," Moruza added. "With my education at JMU and what I hope to accomplish in graduate school, I can be a real help to those with urgent needs like access to sustainable clean water."
Though some may only treat it as the new buzzword, sustainability is a concept that has been growing in importance as science has found new ways to think about and analyze the connection between humans and the environment. Despite this recent focus, however, few have worked on developing college curricula that integrate sustainability into existing fields of science. Driven by the necessity for a holistic textbook that focused on sustainable design, engineering, and environmental impacts, Dr. Brad Striebig and Dr. Bayo A. Ogundipe from JMU's Department of Engineering and Dr. Maria Papadakis from JMU's Department of Integrated Science and Technology combined their expertise to fill this need. After three years of work, the team published their new textbook, Engineering Applications in Sustainable Design and Development, this past January.
Engineering Applications in Sustainable Design and Development is an innovative textbook that brings together multiple perspectives on sustainability, defines the concept for today's engineers, and quantifies sustainability across the many different aspects of human activity. As Papadakis described, the textbook blends the principles of engineering design, applied environmental science, and the social context of engineering with respect to culture, societal needs, and human centered design. "The book is really about how an engineer approaches sustainable design issues," further explained Ogundipe. "It's about the different considerations Engineers should have and what other techniques, methods and tools they should use when they're working on any project."
Though the authors had originally discussed the idea years ago, the writing of Engineering Applications in Sustainable Design and Development officially began in 2012 when Striebig reached out to Papadakis and Ogundipe with the idea of creating a textbook to compliment the Fundamentals of Sustainable Engineering and Design course being taught at JMU. "One of the reasons why we wanted to write this book was because we didn't have one to use. My joke is that I was waiting for many colleagues across the country to write this book for a long time, and eventually I gave up waiting and decided to just do it," laughed Striebig.
As the authors worked, the textbook evolved from its original concept of a simple textbook into a more holistic learning tool. "In the beginning we just wanted to get down on paper the stuff we knew we wanted to use in our classes, but the publisher's editorial staff got very excited about the book once they understood where it was going and what its market potential was," explained Papadakis. "Over time they upgraded the book into a full color text that's supported with a website, student learning tools, chapter problems, a solutions manual, and an international edition."
Although it's intended for junior and senior engineering students, the book was written in a way that nearly any anyone in a sustainable science curriculum could use it, such as environmental science, environmental policy, geology, or even economics. "It's not an introductory text for people with no science background, but even without the more quantitative chapters anyone can still take away quite a lot conceptually," said Papadakis. "It's a really comprehensive book," added Ogundipe. "Maybe not all of the chapters would work with all programs, but professors should be able to find a couple of chapters and sequences that would work well with them."
Another critical aspect of this book is the incorporation of national and international case studies from the author's and other JMU faculty's experiences. "We have case studies from nations like Benin, Malta, Kenya, and Rwanda that we were able to incorporate because of the many international experiences here at JMU. This international element is a big part of the textbook, as sustainability really is an international issue." said Striebig. "We got to share some of the things we're doing here at JMU, which is especially innovative for undergraduate course work. I think we are on the forefront of adopting this type of sustainability classes at JMU."
So far the book has received interest and excitement from the publishers, and the authors expect to see other teachers from around the nation and world incorporating the book into their curriculums this upcoming Fall semester. "The hope is that this is the beginning," added Ogundipe. "We're hoping that we can continue strengthening the book through our experiences and feedback, and that sustainability will be a standard class in every engineering program."
More than a buzzword, the concept of sustainability is offering us ways of protecting Earth's resources and understanding the dynamics that sustain the planet and the human community. "The goal of this textbook is to empower people through engineering and science to overcome the issues of sustainability and meet the needs of folks today and folks tomorrow," said Striebig.
If you would like to learn more about the textbook, please visit the publisher's website at CengageLearning.com
In October 2014, an Innovative Diversity Efforts Award (IDEA) grant funded the travel costs for Isabel Jimenez-Bush '15 and Kristen Castilleja '15 to attend the Society for Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in Science's (SACNAS) annual national conference. Jimenez-Bush won an undergraduate presenter award at the conference for her work on epigenetics and asthma. Both students are the first students to represent JMU, and if their efforts succeed, they will become the founders of the first SACNAS university chapter in Virginia.
The two were given the idea to start a chapter at JMU by assistant professors Dr. Kyle Gipson (engineering) and Dr. Elizabeth Berkeley (biology). Jimenez-Bush explains the organization is one-of-a kind: "There are cultural organizations [at JMU] like Latino Student Alliance and professional organizations like Pre-Physical Therapy Society, but nothing that both links culture and science." SACNAS is available to students in all disciplines with the intention of bringing culture into their collegiate studies and overall experience. The chapter the students are working to establish will involve all ethnicities. Castilleja adds, SACNAS is built on fostering the potential to create and discover amazing things in science when people from different backgrounds, cultures, and disciplines are involved.
Jimenez-Bush and Castilleja plan to encourage community outreach and professional development in the JMU chapter. They also hope the organization will encourage children and teenagers in the area to consider college. "Some students think, 'there is no place for me at JMU,' but there is. The Harrisonburg community is seventeen percent Hispanic, but JMU is four percent; the potential [to bridge the gap] is there." JMU SACNAS would aim to connect the two populations through community involvement, such as tutoring Harrisonburg students in science. Castilleja states the chapter will also have professional development opportunities for members. They will provide faculty advising on JMU programs, guest speakers, promotion of graduate school with networking opportunities, and resume and personal statement workshops.
Still, Jimenez-Bush and Castilleja are working to make SACNAS an official chapter at JMU. Jimenez-Bush says, they have applied to be an organization and are currently undergoing the club recognition process. If all goes well, JMU will have a SACNAS chapter in mid-February. As of now, they are attracting members through word of mouth and handing out flyers in the HHS building. Once the club is recognized, they will have access to send out bulk emails to the JMU population. "We don't have the necessary communication clubs usually get since we're so new… [but] we're not backing down, nothing is going to stop us. Not a matter of if, but when," Jimenez-Bush comments.
The two currently have ten students committed to joining SACNAS and have selected an executive board. Dr. Erika Collazo (health sciences) is set to be the main advisor for the chapter with Dr. Gipson and Captain Diana Cruz (military science) as co-advisors. Castilleja and Jimenez-Bush encourage students to join them in getting involved with SACNAS, not just for the professional opportunities, but their personal and cultural development as well.
For students and faculty interested in SACNAS, inquire by email (firstname.lastname@example.com) or through their Facebook page (Facebook.com/sacnasjmu).
Last month the Hart Research Associates' survey of 400 employeers who hire college graduates, 80% reported that they find a digital portfolio helpful (Read the full report.)
Are you ready to stand out in the job market? DigiComm peer tutors offers 45-minute one-on-one consultations for any JMU student who wants to create a professional online portfolio.
We're here to help with any stage of the process! We can help you:
Our peer tutors were trained in a semester long course and have worked with students across the university. Go to our scheduler and select the "Consultation--General" option, pick a time and tutor, then meet us at the Student Success Center, rm. 1155!
I'm a senior WRTC major with a Sport Communication minor. One day, I hope to work in the sports industry writing, communicating, and everything in between. My strengths in my major and minor are pretty straightforward; I write and talk about sports as often and as frequently as I can. When I learned about the Digital Communication class, I thought it was a great opportunity to expand my horizons and although I was a bit wary at first, it has given me so much more than I expected.
My first thought when I walked out of the DigiComm class last semester was "What did I just get myself into?" I had a moment where I wasn't sure if I was cut out for this. However, I realized that I had gone through an interview process and that it wouldn't be fair to my professor and my classmates to give up so quickly. Little did I know at the time, the decision to stick with it was one of the best decisions I've made since coming to JMU.
The DigiComm class consisted of students from WRTC, SMAD, and SCOM. I was excited about this new dynamic but also extremely intimidated about how my skills compared to others in different disciplines. It took me a couple weeks to really understand what we were doing with building professional portfolios but once I got it, I understood how important this class was to my future but also to all the students we hoped to reach the following year.
My first crack at tutoring web builders - Wix, Weebly, and WordPress - was comical at best. No, seriously, I think I stuttered through the entire session. Somehow throughout the stuttering, the student I was tutoring ended up with a pretty good start at a professional portfolio. If that's not a miracle, I don't know what is.
Anyways, the point is that I started out as a mess as both a student in the class and as a tutor but as I've learned and grown, I've come into my own with these web builders. I am now at the point where I can create a new portfolio from scratch in 20 minutes or less. Practice makes perfect; I've spent hours on each web builder trying to learn them inside and out and giving presentations to classrooms has helped me discover new things too. As it relates to creating your own professional portfolio, it won't just happen at the click of a button. It takes work, just like your resume or LinkedIn profile. Trust me, if I could figure it out and become a tutor and a media fellow for the Digital Communication Consulting center, then you can too!
You might be wondering, "why an online professional portfolio? Isn't it just like a resume?" No, it's so much better and more personalized compared to a resume! Although you may put a resume on your professional portfolio, you also put up major works or projects that showcase your skills and proficiency. For instance, I have been able to showcase my writing, sports knowledge and my proficiency with the Adobe suite by linking to an article I wrote for a class in InDesign. My professional portfolio can be found at http://mkmcweeney.weebly.com if you'd like to check it out!
Want to learn more? Come visit us! We're located in the new, beautiful, state-of-the-art Student Success Center! We would love visitors and we would love the opportunity to get to know you and help you create your own, unique portfolio! If you end up coming in and see me, I'll try my best not to stutter (but no promises).
- MK McWeeney
My journey as a Media Fellow began in the fall of my sophomore year at JMU. I recently declared a second major in Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication, so I was enrolled in two of the introductory courses. Sean McCarthy taught one of them (I seriously recommend that every JMU student take one of his classes before they graduate). On the first day he made it clear that we would be using various online platforms throughout the semester. He would of course introduce us to the basics, but we really had to dive right in and be ready to learn. We would have a class blog on WordPress (yikes!) to post our articles and give feedback to our peers. I remember sitting there that day completely overwhelmed by this digital world I was about to enter. My past experience in high school only included PowerPoint (clearly not impressive in this class) and Prezi. Little did I know though, this course would be one of my favorites. From that day forward I challenged myself to step beyond personal boundaries in order to leave with pieces I was proud of. Little did I know too, this course would be the beginning of my journey with Team DigiComm.
Toward the end of the semester I had become more familiar with WordPress and had projects on sites like Glogster, Popcorn and Storify. I was reading heavy academic articles and learning how to portray them in an online platform. Delving into this digital world left me feeling more accomplished. Then, one afternoon Paige pitched her course to our class. She talked about additional web builders that I was unfamiliar with, but shared experience with these was not required. Another opportunity to step out of my comfort zone, so why not? I set up an interview with Paige and my story with DigiComm began.
As most of the Media Fellows will say, the class was pretty intimidating the first few weeks. I questioned if this was the right fit for me, if I really thought about what I was getting myself into, but I remembered that these were similar feelings I had in the first day of Sean's class. Pushing beyond personal boundaries there led to various accomplishments and growth for me as a learner. I realized this was another opportunity, so I took advantage of all the course had to offer. Yes, it was a lot of work but I left learning more about the digital sphere than I had when I started. The fact that we were cultivating something new at JMU was motivating and I think you could sense that excitement within all of us on our final presentation day. After multiple 15-page documentations on various web builders, class discussions, brainstorming ideas for the center, weeks of working in classrooms with students and one-on one, DigiComm was finally ready to share its story with the university.
Currently I am a Media Fellow for a READ 366 course, working with students that plan on having a future career in education. They are assigned to create an E-Portfolio, one that they can use in job interviews to showcase their work. We start with them from the day they create an account on a web builder site, to the end when they publish their finished product online. I work with two other Media Fellows in this area on a course website and class presentations. We have bi-weekly meetings with Paige to discuss progression in the course and any areas in need of improvement.
My favorite part of this experience so far has definitely been working with the students. On the first day, I looked around the room to find them feeling overwhelmed or honestly just not interested. Some students did not understand the benefit behind having a professional portfolio, just as I did when starting Paige's class. By the end of the semester, my students were making their own logos, adding items to their site with no issues, and were proud to show me their finished product. Seeing this transformation has made my job the most worthwhile, because you see a bit of yourself in them too. I was in their shoes a year ago today, completely absent from the digital world in regards to professional portfolios or building your own website. Although we are there for guidance, I love to see the students offer the same challenge I did. They chose to step out of their comfort zones and delve into the experience ready to learn. During our bi-weekly workshop sessions, each student took advantage of our time together. They asked questions and sought my opinion because they truly wanted to make improvements. The digital world is in constant flux, so the unique aspect of this experience is that the students, other Media Fellows and I are learning together. However, DigiComm is just trying to be one step ahead in order to help.
On the last day of class, one student had design issues with her portfolio. She chose a light purple as her background, but it turned out black when it was published. We tried changing the colors or choosing a new theme. Nothing worked. I had a feeling this was a coding issue, something I am in the process of learning more about. Several Media Fellows and I turn to our coding guru Lauren whenever we have issues with a site. I figured I would run into her in the center later, so I told the student I would seek further help. Later that afternoon, Lauren was nowhere to be found. Fortunately, our other Media Fellow Alexa was. I told her I had a coding issue and she proceeded to give me the same look of fear that I did behind the student's shoulder earlier. We decided to give it a shot and sat down behind the computer. Staring at the page of endless codes for a few moments, we discovered a section for the background color and entered a new code with the one she wanted. Alexa and I returned to the student's site and screeched out of excitement. Paige came out of her office to see what was going on and found us yelling, "WE CODED!!!!!"
Moments like these remind me that stepping out of my comfort zone has given me some of the best experiences so far. They have allowed me to grow as a student, person, and member of the digital sphere. It has also introduced me to a group of people I can no longer imagine life without. They have taught me so much about myself, make me laugh until I cry, and push me to excel as a member of our community. My journey with Team DigiComm has been incredible thus far and I look forward to watch our center grow in the years to come.
- Marlena Luciano, Media Fellow
In 2014, Dr. Brenda Ryals, a professor of audiology in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, was awarded the Honors of the Association Award which is the highest honor given by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).
This wasn't the first time Dr. Ryals was recognized for her scholarship. She also received a Research Achievement Award from the American Academy of Audiology in 2003, and the Jerger Career Award for Research in Audiology from the American Academy of Audiology in 2012.
Now completing her 25th year at JMU, the university is lucky to have a scholar who is so dedicated to advancing the knowledgebase of her profession. But Dr. Ryals has not only been a scholar, she is also well known for her local, national and international service. She was the recipient of Distinguished Service Award from the College of Health and Behavioral Studies in 2014.
But beyond her scholarship, Dr. Ryals also shines in her professorial duties as seen in her work with her graduate students. She was instrumental in designing the proposal that brought the Ph.D. program in Communication Sciences and Disorders to JMU in 2002. This was JMU's first Ph.D. program.
Since that time Dr. Ryals has supervised more than 13 doctoral students. Dr. Ryals says that her "students have always provided such wonderful support." "Good students lift you up and make you better than you are." Dr. Ryals has mentored numerous students as they conducted independent research projects.
With minimal prompting, Dr. Ryals presents many examples of how her students have motivated and contributed to her work. She proudly lists their collaborative publications, presentations, and awards on her vita.
She is particularly proud to have mentored and chaired the dissertation work of the only Ph.D./Au.D. graduate from the CSD program, Kate Belzner Fernandez (2010). As a doctoral student, Kate was awarded two travel awards from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) to present her research. Because of her scholarship, Kate was selected for a post-doctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Ryals is so proud of the accomplishments of her students; she was troubled by the request to identify individuals, for fear of leaving some out. However, she mentions the work of Ashleigh McCombs Dewell who collaborated with her to set up the Virginia Healthy Hearing program in 2003 before it became the national humanitarian effort for the Student Academy of Audiology. Ashleigh wrote and was awarded two research grants which were funded by the Special Olympics International to organize and improve their Healthy Hearing Program.
One of her other doctoral students, Kara Gray Wright (2008) was funded by the Special Olympics for her doctoral dissertation on improving otoscopic screening with Special Olympics athletes. Upon graduation Kara was selected to be one of the first audiologists hired to serve at the new Audiology Clinic at the Quantico Marine Corps Base. Katie Roper Demirel (2004), now at Georgetown Medical Center after working in New Zealand and Colorado; and Kristin Weyman Seawall (2004), recently selected as a Distinguished Alumni, and now a Clinical Audiologist in Harrisonburg.
In addition to working with her doctoral students, Ryals also enjoys being the faculty advisor to the Student Academy of Audiology, a professional organization within the American Academy of Audiology. She particularly enjoys supporting them in their humanitarian effort with the Special Olympics.
Dr. Ryals received the "Mentor of the Year Award" in 2007 from the National Association of Future Doctors of Audiology. Since that time, and through today, Dr. Ryals continues her research, service and graduate student mentorship. She is a model faculty member and we are proud to tout her accomplishments as a member of our community.
There's a seasonal ebb and flow when it comes to student issues. Here are a few things your student may be experiencing this month:
In today's fast-paced and product-valued society, it's easy to get caught up in the frenzy of doing as much as we can in as little time possible. Many folks associate quantity with success, rather than quality. But who says your student has to be one of those individuals?
It's a new year. Now's the time for your student to take stock of all he has on his plate and make resolutions to add some balance to his life. This certainly is easier said than done. Especially since it is mid-year and it is tough to abandon responsibilities. But now is the time for your student to assess all he is involved with — and whether those engagements are truly worth the associated time and stress. It's time for him to determine what is most important to him, so he can start making small changes now that will help him reach his goals.
Encourage your student to start by asking himself the following questions:
Give your student some time to really think about these questions. If he is happy with his answers, great! If he is not happy with his answers, encourage him to consider trying some of these strategies:
Talk with his advisor/coach and/or supervisor about his commitments. They can offer him valuable advice on how to manage his time effectively, what activities will help him with his personal and professional goals, and more!
Think about the things that seem to stress him out most. Ask him what he does to take care of himself when he is really stressed. Suggest he pick three ways he can commit to "de-stressing" during these times. Perhaps he likes to run, watch movies and jam on his guitar. The next time he is stressed, encourage him to take five minutes or a half-hour to relax with one of these pastimes and clear his head.
Start thinking about next year. Now is the time when your student has to start thinking about running for leadership positions and applying for summer jobs. Encourage him to determine what is most important to him, what he enjoys most and then do his best to stick with commitments that match these terms. Remember, quality, not quantity, is what's important.
It's time we start equating success with those who take good care of themselves, lead balanced lives, and spend quality time with family and friends. Help your student become a more balanced individual today!
Now that grades have been distributed and your student is preparing for a new term ahead, there may be some academic concerns to face.
Reconsidering a Major/Minor. As your student rethinks her major or minor, some questions may arise. Talk through the pros and cons with her, while also suggesting that she discuss it with her academic advisor or another trusted faculty/staff member before making a decision.
Failing a Class. Does your student need to retake a course? If so, encourage him to be attentive from day one and to engage the professor should he need assistance.
Shaken Confidence. Not doing particularly well academically can shake students' confidence. Hard work and smart work will help her get back on track. The learning center and campus counselors can help with a confidence crisis, too.
Needing More Study Time. Lower grades often mean that students need to study more – and to learn how to maximize their study time. Folks in the learning center can provide tips. Help your student reconsider where he studies, too. If he sits on his bed, the temptation to nap can be great. If he studies in a noisy lounge, the distractions can be great. Brainstorm other options.
Focusing Too Much on Grades. If your student is only focusing on grades, rather than what she is learning, she's not getting the most out of her academics. So, ask her about classes from a "What are you learning?" perspective now and then. Sometimes having to verbalize it can help students really take a look at what they're getting out of a particular class.
Not Approaching Professors. Most faculty members have office hours and stick around after class because they want to be available to students. Encourage your student to seek clarification in person if he has questions. Face-to-face encounters are often much more valuable than emailing professors because students become known that way.
Help your student examine her current approach to academics, from the perspective of both what's working and what's not. With your assistance, she can dig into a more positive academic year.
Many of us tend to set goals as a fresh year spreads before us. It's easy to "go big" with renewed enthusiasm, yet successful goals aren't necessarily the broad sweeping kind. Instead, they tend to have the following traits, which can be good to share with your student…
They're Achievable. Set goals that are realistic within the context of your life. Too often the reason any of us fail is that we set unachievable goals.
They're Measurable. Use quantifiable words in your goal lingo rather than fluffing them up with concepts that are too general.
They're Short. Keep your goals to short paragraphs. That way, they're easier to commit to memory and always keep in mind.
They're Positive. State those goals in a positive manner that makes them appealing. It's a good way to motivate yourself mentally
They Begin and End. Determine when you will start working on each goal and when it should be achieved. This will help you focus…and succeed!
By discussing goal setting now, you're helping your student create a guide for himself. Here's to 2015 and a fresh start!
Commuter students are juggling a lot, including making a place for themselves academically, socially and involvement-wise on campus. Campus life is not just for those students living in the residence halls! It's for commuters and their families, too.
You can help your student find his place and get the most out of college life by trying the following…
Encourage involvement. Studies show that students who are more engaged on campus tend to stay and finish their degrees while those who feel on the fringes may not. So, encourage your student to attend that rally during his lunch break or to attend an interest meeting for the school newspaper. Or maybe going to a car care workshop put on by the engineering department is more his speed. Trying things outside the classroom can help your student feel more a part of campus life.
Don't expect to see a lot of your student. Chances are that your student has a full plate with school, work and other involvements. So, if she doesn't come home for dinner, maybe it's because a classmate invited her to the dining hall that night. Or perhaps she's working on a campus play, attending a meeting or cheering on the volleyball team. You may miss her, yet it's important that she's making these campus connections, too.
Suggest that your student connect with another adult on campus. If your student can find an adult mentor, whether it's a coach, advisor, professor or some other campus administrator, he'll feel much more connected to campus. This person can challenge him, support him and show him the ropes.
Support your student's efforts. If she's presenting a paper at an academic symposium, try to attend. If she's playing in the school orchestra, go to the concerts. Attend athletic events, programs she helped to coordinate, conferences she worked on… your support can mean a great deal, even if your student doesn't always let you know it.
Stay involved. Get to know more about the campus where your student is spending a good deal of his time. Maybe meet him for lunch one day to check out different nooks and crannies, and to see the buildings where your student has classes and other activities. Read the literature that comes from campus and get on the website regularly, if possible, to check out the latest news. Consider joining the parent association or volunteering to help with another campus group, too. You are welcomed!
Commuter students are such a vital, vibrant component of campus life — and so are their families. This campus belongs to everyone.
College studies require much more time and effort than high school studies ever did. So, your student may be spending several hours of study time for every hour that he is in class — that's what most professors suggest. He'll need time and space to study effectively, without interruptions.
Countless numbers of people have a tough time asking for help — even the most seasoned professionals. For some reason, asking for help makes many people feel weak or vulnerable. Yet, help-seeking is actually a true sign of strength.
It takes courage to say, "I'm not sure how to handle this" and to reach out. By helping students understand this, they're more likely to take advantage of the wealth of services available to them, right here on campus.
So, how does a student who isn't the most comfortable asking for help go about doing so? Consider sharing these thoughts with your student as she considers seeking assistance in the new year…
Remember that even the best leaders have help. Even the president of the United States surrounds himself with the best staff he can. We don't view this as a weakness, do we? If he can ask for help, you most certainly can too.
Recognize your strengths and your limitations. Nobody is perfect. What do you do really well? In what areas do you typically struggle? Take stock of what you do well and let those around you know. This may help them feel more comfortable asking you for help when they need it. And find out what they do well so you can tap into their strengths, too. Remember, no one needs to go it alone. Teamwork is encouraged.
Be honest when you are in over your head. There will be times when you can't do everything alone. When this happens, be honest with yourself and others. Nobody can do it all and there will be times when you have to prioritize. When you communicate this to others, they are more likely to be supportive and understanding.
Take stock of the resources on hand. Campus communities are chock full of great resources! More often than not — no matter what the issue at hand — an expert can be found right in front of you who can offer assistance. Why not take advantage of this? It's a win-win for all involved.
Let others know when you've asked for help. Why hide it? When you let others see that you are willing to get help when you need it, you role model healthy behavior. Some folks really do have difficulty reaching out to others and admitting they need assistance. By being honest when you reach out, you are setting a great example for those around you.
Remind your student: When you help yourself, you are in the best position to help others. This simple mantra is a life lesson and as you well know, the earlier learned, the better.
Will your student turn 21 this year? If so, consider having some proactive conversations about birthday celebrations…
21 Shots. Many 21st birthdays include "21 shots" of alcohol. This is extremely dangerous and has lead to alcohol poisoning — and death — in quite a few instances. Warn your student about this dangerous temptation.
What YOU Want to Do. Friends and acquaintances may have ideas about how they think your student "should" spend a 21st birthday (i.e. going out, getting drunk, etc.). However, he knows himself best and it's all about what he wants to do! Encourage him not to be swayed into doing something that's uncomfortable.
Make Memories. A 21st birthday is a great opportunity to do something memorable! Being compromised by too much alcohol or other drugs takes away those memories.
Trustworthy Folks. No matter how your student chooses to celebrate, encourage her to be with people that she really trusts. This, along with making responsible choices, is the key to safety and having a good time.
A non-judgmental conversation that begins with "So, what are you thinking about for your 21st birthday?" can lead to some positive, thought-provoking planning. As a result, your student is less likely to fall into the dangerous "I'm going to go drink myself silly" cliché and to really think about a memorable way to mark this milestone.
By: Kiara Mauro ('15), Student Affairs Technical Services
One of the most influential and unforgettable experiences at JMU is 1787 August Orientation. Think back to your first week at college; it was probably a blur of exciting events, ice breakers and games, and making lifelong friendships. For many students, any feelings of anxiety or nervousness disappear on the first day of orientation because of the impact the FROGs (First yeaR Orientation Guides) have on creating a positive transition to college life. Becoming a FROG has many benefits, including mentoring incoming students and providing them with an exceptional experience at JMU, creating new connections, and gaining valuable leadership skills. The Orientation office is currently accepting applications to be a 2015 FROG!
One of the most rewarding aspects of the position is the chance to learn and grow from a diverse group of people. Allyson Ponn, a senior and former FROG states, "Not only is being a FROG a self-fulfilling experience, the people you meet and spend the week with is what makes it exceedingly worthwhile. Everyone who works in Orientation is genuine and down to earth. The friendships that are created between the Orientation team and first-years involved are ones that you don't forget about during your time here at JMU." The students who work in Orientation are bonded by their passion for JMU and giving back to the student community. Becoming a FROG is a great way to immerse yourself in the college experience.
If you are considering applying, here is what you need to know. As a FROG, you would have the opportunity to serve as a role model and lead a group of first-year students through a variety of events and activities during 1787 August Orientation,.. Logan Reed, who previously served as a FROG, has this to say about the interview process: "My advice is to be yourself. It's a common myth that Orientation is only looking for highly energized extroverts. Orientation is looking for a well-rounded team each year. You do have to be prepared to stretch yourself and try new things. A common saying in Orientation is that you should be ready to make yourself uncomfortable to make others comfortable."
Working as a FROG is an all-encompassing experience that is important to a first-year student's transition to JMU. Orientation's mission centers on preparing students to be active and authentic members of the university community. Students often refer to JMU as their "home away from home" because of the JMU culture and close-knit community. Helping students become acclimated to JMU paves the way for a successful college journey.
FROG applications are due this Friday, February 13 at 5pm. All applicants must also attend an information session. For more details on how to apply, visit the Orientation's office website: https://www.jmu.edu/orientation/FROG.shtml
The beginning of this school year marked the beginning of an end for me. Not only me, but everyone else planning to graduate in May.
As classes picked up speed and I started running into friends and acquaintances on campus, I found myself engaging in more important conversations. It was becoming more common to talk about plans for the future, summer jobs and internships and new goals and expectations for adult life.
"Important" doesn't have a negative connotation here. I really do think that these conversations have been clear indicators of the preparation process for growing up and moving on.
As scary as it is for many of us, our time in college is temporary. There comes a point where we have to leave JMU, leave Harrisonburg, in all its memorable glory, and take on the world that exists outside our bubble.
This fact used to bother me a lot more than it does today. But my change of heart came fairly recently, during spring semester of my junior year. I was enrolled in the first-ever Digital Communication Consulting course (fondly referred to as DigiComm) when I started trying to put together a list of accomplishments to showcase in a professional portfolio.
It wasn't easy at first, mostly because I realized I hadn't actually done anything worthwhile in the past two-and-a-half years. My "mark on Madison" thus far was a bunch of SMAD projects I had been assigned to complete. There was nothing I had that was fully complete because my enthusiasm had been short-lived. I wasn't proud enough to attach my name to my work and put it on display.
I was terrified and intimidated by this, and understandably so. Realizing that I didn't feel confident enough in my work while on track to graduate with a degree in a field that requires you to publicly display your writing and receive feedback is frightening. But at the same time, it's inspiring. I was unable to ignore the fact that something needed to change.
Over the course of that semester, I joined The Breeze's editorial staff as a copy editor and started gaining valuable, real-world experience. I began seeking out stories and assignments that I actually cared about for my journalism classes. After putting serious time and effort into these projects I also started making an effort to get them published. All the mundane work I had been doing over the years became a thing of the past as I started taking initiative. It was empowering -- where had this motivation been at the beginning of my college experience? Understanding that my efforts in the classroom SHOULD go hand-in-hand with my goals for the future made all the difference for me. I found myself willing to engage with my classes and put my name on my final products and disperse them throughout the online landscape for potential employers to see.
I was starting to find my focus. Working with digital communication helped me deepen my fascination with the emerging digital world and figure out ways to connect my online presence in order to make me a competitive candidate while navigating through a job market that now calls for a cohesive online presence. All of these things were connected and it was hitting me very quickly in a very short period of time.
I'm very proud of the professional strides I made that semester, but this year the journey continues. I began working as a Media Fellow with DigiComm in the Student Success Center and have been given the opportunity to put my new interests and skills to work. I'm currently embedded in a GCOM 121 course, guiding teams of freshmen as they try their hand at digital storytelling. There's a significant overlap with this job and my new journalism classes, as I continue to learn more about new ways to tell stories in the digital landscape.
One of the most memorable conversations I had at the beginning of this year was with a senior friend of mine who just finished her experience as a FrOG. She made a comment that really stuck with me: "I feel like I can leave here now, I feel fulfilled. I did my part."
This quote continues to echo in my mind as the year goes on. My DigiComm experience has helped me define and develop my interests, resulting in two jobs that have encouraged me to engage with my studies and think more about my long-term goals. The thought of the future isn't as scary anymore because I know more about what I want and I feel confident enough to navigate the fast-approaching adult world. My only regret is that this wake-up call didn't come sooner.
It hasn't even been a year since my big "revelation," but for the remainder of my time at JMU I want to pass this message on to as many people as possible. I want other students to be able to relate to this experience as they start to think about their own futures. Reassuring my peers that they ARE capable of producing work they are proud of and making them confident enough to show it off will be enough fulfillment for me. I consider myself very lucky to be able to say that the work I'm doing during my senior year makes me feel like I am truly doing my part before I leave.
- Marta Vucci, Media Fellow
On Friday, November 13th, four undergraduate students took center stage to speak out about health. The four speakers were the finalists in the Fall 2014 Public Advocacy Contest, hosted by the JMU Communication Center and co-sponsored by the JMU Health Center. Students who entered the contest had to answer the question "What is the most pressing health issue for college students?" and the top four entries were chosen to give their speeches in the Festival Ballroom to an audience of more than 220 students to compete for cash prizes.
The speakers each identified different health topics of concern, and all four made strong arguments as to why those topics matter to colleges. First place went to Hunter Sjogren for his speech about slacktivism, second place to Aimme Chen for her speech on eating disorders, third place went to Diante' Ryals who spoke about stress and axiety, and Sarah Wheeler took fourth place for her presentation on mental health.
Students used statistics, stories, and personal experiences as the foundations of their speeches, making it clear to the audience just how pressing these issues are for college campuses. Speeches were informative, explaining eating disorders, mental illness, stress, and other concepts, but students took their presentations a step farther, advocating for students to take action to address the topics they presented.
For Aimme Chen, this came down to a need for self-care, and she gave students the eloquent advice to "nourish you body, your mind, and your spirit, and your future self will thank you." Hunter Sjogren, the contest winner, made taking action to prevent slacktivism easy by giving students what he called "the two-week rule." In order to decide whether a social media cause is worth supporting, he advised students to ask the question, "two weeks from now, will you remember to give and support that issue?"
After the speeches, the audience had the chance to ask questions of the speakers, creating an engaging discussion space where the students, staff, and faculty members present had the chance to deliberate the merits of different responses to health issues. The discussion included consideration of whether universities should request that students with considerable mental illness withdraw from the university in order to seek treatment, what the role of the university should be when supporting students with health issues, and when health-related interventions should occur.
The contest was truly interdisciplinary, with speakers from several different majors including Spanish, chemistry, dietetics, and communication, and judges that represented several disciplines and departments with an interest in the contest theme. The judges were Cindy Allen, from the School of Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication, Pete Bsumek, Associate Professor in the School of Communication Studies, Randy Mitchell, Associate Vice President in Student Success, and Stephen Rodgers, the University Health Center Medical Director.
After such a successful Public Advocacy Contest this semester, the Communication Center looks forward to the Public Advocacy Contest in Spring 2015, and encourages all students to stand up and speak out.
Meet Lauren Holder! Lauren is a senior Math and Communication Studies double major, and has worked at the Communication Center for three semesters now. Currently, in addition to her work as a tutor, she is working on her Honors Program thesis, and serving as president of the Student Government Association class of 2015. In between all her commitments, she still finds time to relax and have fun. We asked Lauren a few questions so that you can get to know her better.
Want to know more? Come visit the Communication Center and get to know Lauren and our other tutors!
What do you like most about working at the Communication Center?
Being around so many creative people and giving workshop presentations in classes across campus.
What is your favorite movie/book/TV show?
My favorite TV show is Scandal, my favorite movie is Pride and Prejudice (2007), and I read so much I don't really have a favorite, I just love to read. The last book I read was Silver Linings Playbook and I loved it. I was one of the only people in the theater [when the movie came out] that thought "what? They changed so much!" so while everyone else was obsessed with it, I couldn't believe how different the movie was. I thought the book was much better.
What does your ideal Saturday morning look like?
Making waffles with my roommates, drinking coffee on the back porch, and crafting.
What has been most influential on your college experience thus far?
Being a FROG my sophomore year. It was great to collaborate with such amazing people and being a resource to first-years— shout out to Weaver! I'm still really close with my first-years, and it's been great to see them grow through their college experience.
What is your favorite quote or piece of life advice?
I have a few. I love Robert Frost's poem The Path Not Taken, and my other is "No one can make you feel inferior without your permission." And the poem The Man in the Glass.
What hobbies or interests do you have outside of classes?
Crocheting, reading, Netflixing, visiting the local wineries and breweries, hiking, traveling, and anything outdoors.
What's your dream job?
I think my dream job would be to run a Make-A-Wish center. How fun would it be to just give kids their dreams?
If you could be any piece of furniture, what would you be?
I would be an end table because it's supportive to the room, and you put your most valuable things on it, it's dependable and always there when you need it, and you can dress it up or dress it down.
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James Madison University is collaborating with school districts around the Shenandoah Valley to identify middle-school students with academic potential who come from first-generation and socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Through Valley Scholars, a new community engagement program, the university will then work with these students to help prepare them for college and provide full scholarships to JMU if they are admitted.
'We are going to open some doors.' — JMU President Jonathan R. Alger
The Valley Scholars participate in carefully crafted activities held at JMU that foster a desire to learn and build skills that will help the students achieve academic success. On Nov. 4, during a visit to the Harrisonburg Farmers' Market the budding scholars experienced entrepreneurship up close. The event presented the students with the obstacles and problems associated with business ownership and gave them the opportunity to come up with creative solutions to those problems. In experiencing entrepreneurship, the students honed effective problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Valley Scholars paired with JMU student-mentors during the visit to the Farmers' Market.
Below, some photos of the day's activities.
Each scholar had a list of questions to pose to vendors to elicit information on the business, its customers and its challenges. Why did you choose to sell these products? What is your best-selling item? Does your product solve a problem for customers? What is your greatest challenge?"
Director of the Valley Scholars Program Shaun Mooney (below, center) shared the benefits of owning your own business. "One purpose of entrepreneurship is doing what you love," he said.
After visiting the Farmers' Market, students spent time analyzing their experiences. JMU Director of Technology Innovation Mary Lou Bourne (below, right) directed the teams to use the NABC Model to brainstorm business solutions—Need, Approach, Benefit, Competition. "What is the need or problem to be solved?" she asked.
Acting as "consultants," Valley Scholars wrote letters to vendors explaining their analyses and proposing solutions to vendor problems.
Teams presented their findings and shared their problem-solving strategies with the group.
Valley Scholars agreed: "The day was all about communicating, doing and building."
The School of Theatre and Dance is pleased to welcome playwright, dramaturg, scholar, and arts advocate Jacqueline Lawton to campus. Ms. Lawton will be at JMU from 2/9-2/14 as the Theatre Area's 2014-2015 Cultural Connections Guest Artist. Her residency is titled "Beginning and Sustaining Diverse Dialogues." It is our sincere hope that her work will initiate engaged discussions about identity, community, and collaboration (both onstage and off) in the School of Theatre and Dance, throughout the College of Visual and Performing Arts, and across JMU's campus.
Events include:
Devised Performance: Friday, 2/13, 8pm, Studio Theatre
(This event is free, but seats are limited, so please arrive early…)
Staged Reading, The Hampton Years by Jacqueline Lawton: Saturday, 2/14, 8pm, Studio Theatre
(This event is free, but seats are limited, so please arrive early…)
Brown Bag Sessions:
You can find out more about Jacqueline on her website: http://www.jacquelinelawton.com/
For questions, please contact Dr. Zachary Dorsey: email@example.com
Jacqueline E. Lawton was named one of 30 of the nation's leading black playwrights by Arena Stage's American Voices New Play Institute. Her plays include: Anna K; Blood-bound and Tongue-tied; Deep Belly Beautiful; The Devil's Sweet Water; The Hampton Years; Ira Aldridge: the African Roscius; Lions of Industry, Mothers of Invention; Love Brothers Serenade (2013 semi-finalist for the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's national Playwrights Conference); Mad Breed; and Our Man Beverly Snow. Ms. Lawton received her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow. She is a 2012 TCG Young Leaders of Color award recipient and a National New Play Network (NNPN) Playwright Alumna. A member of Arena Stage's Playwrights' Arena and the Dramatist Guild of America, Ms. Lawton currently is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Kristin Miller, who graduated with a B.F.A. from JMU in 2007, is guest curator for A Perspective: Roy Lichtenstein In His Studio exhibition at New Image Gallery. The exhibition, which runs through February 27, displays the work of Laurie Lambrecht from her time spent taking photographs of the American pop artist in his studio during the early '90s. Miller shared her work on the project, as well as her educational and professional experiences in the art world, in an interview with Jen Kulju (M'04).
What is unique about A Perspective: Roy Lichtenstein In His Studio exhibition?
The book, Roy Lichtenstein In His Studio, is a compilation of images selected from three years worth of photographs taken by Laurie Lambrecht of Lichtenstein in his New York City and Southampton studios. Lichtenstein was in the midst of preparing for his 1993 solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, and allowed Lambrecht in-depth access to his oeuvre. She observed the studio through her lens and explored the source materials, the shards of colorful paper, the stacks of Ben-Day dots, and the carefully sorted comic clippings.
In this exhibition, the viewer will see a selection of contact sheets hung alongside a draft of the book before it was finalized for publication. This exhibition is the only one that exists of this work, to date, that shows the photographs in a raw, unfinished format along with the book in process. Each contact sheet contains several images that depict Roy Lichtenstein at work, many of which have never been shown to the public. It is a fantastic opportunity to see how the photographer, Laurie Lambrecht, really viewed the studio, all the different images, all the different angles and compositions, all in sequence.
How did you get involved with the project?
I met Laurie Lambrecht while working at The Drawing Room gallery in East Hampton, New York. The gallery represents her work on this project as well as many of her other series. We developed a professional relationship and with the onset of the Roy Lichtenstein In His Studio book project, she asked me to help her in the studio. I was able delve into the process of making a book, see how contracts work, hear stories that accompanied each photograph. It was such an incredible learning experience. Each image is a cherished moment for Laurie; you can tell it was a special time for her, being around all the great energy, creativity, and action in Lichtenstein's studio. Being able to share this photographic document was and is so important to her, so I still feel honored to have been a part of the book's release into the world.
What has been your role as guest curator?
Quite a bit goes into putting an exhibition together: creating a concept, making sure the artist is happy with and willing to participate in the show, budgetary issues, generating a press release and gathering press images. Then there is hanging the show; you have to design it so the viewer sees the work and understands what you are trying to convey. My favorite part is opening night, seeing people take in the exhibition and discussing the works.
What are the rewards and challenges of (guest) curating an exhibition?
I think the biggest challenge is always creating a solid concept that will be engaging, interesting, and thought provoking. You want all parties—the artist, school, and yourself, to feel good about the final product.
The most rewarding part of this exhibition was talking to the students about the show and what I do professionally. Sometimes I get caught up in the day-to-day, and verbally sharing my knowledge really put things into perspective. It felt good to realize how much I have learned since graduating. It was so satisfying to be able to share my experience with students who are on the cusp of embarking into the working world.
What has been your career path since graduating with a B.F.A. from JMU in 2007?
The term "path" may not describe my trajectory very well. I'm more of a trial and error type; I like to try it all and give it my all. My first job out of school was at the Parrish Art Museum, where I was in special events and development. The job was amazing. I loved the institution and my co-workers, but I really wanted to work more closely with art and artists. It was then that I started working part-time at The Drawing Room gallery nearby. I worked alongside gallery owners Emily Goldstein and Victoria Munroe. Both are sophisticated and intelligent women who have such passion for what they do. I think it was seeing how their passion allowed them to accomplish so much that made me keep pushing for more. I eventually worked at PACE gallery (my dream job) in New York City and started my own company, KCMprojects. Just last year, I started managing an artist's studio—that of Toni Ross. It's a fantastic role that allows me to continue independently curating and consulting. Toni Ross is an artist, a collector, a pastry chef, and an entrepreneur whose talents and vast knowledge I can only hope will rub off on me a little bit.
What about your education at JMU has prepared you for what you do today?
JMU really satisfied my personal learning needs. I concentrated in metals, but was able to do an independent study in painting, minor in art history and serve as the President of the Art History Club. I have always been interested in business, so I was able to squeeze in quite a bit of that. I even obtained my real estate license while at JMU. Being able to gain knowledge in all of these areas gave me the freedom and confidence to pursue my career ambitions, whether in a museum, gallery, or art studio.
Talk about your own artistic endeavors in painting, drawing and metal work.
Since graduating, despite pursing more "desk" type jobs, I have always made an effort to keep making art. I have mostly focused on drawing and painting, and have been included in several exhibitions over the years. Neoteric Fine Art represents my work. One of my more exciting moments was being included in an art fair during Art Basel Miami.
What do you enjoy most about the arts?
I think the most interesting, enjoyable, and exciting aspect about the arts is that there is never a shortage of newness. I am always discovering new artists, new ideas, and new artworks, and they are always changing the way I see the world around me. Art can change you, make you think more, make you question things. Just the other day I went to the David Zwirner Gallery and discovered Jan Schoonhoven; his work is stark and minimal, but so powerful. It made me notice the subtleties around me, the quiet intensities.
What are your career aspirations?
At this point, I really love what I do; my only hope it to keep expanding on it. I would like to curate more, collaborate with creative and talented people, and continue to be a part of interesting projects—and, of course, one day take over the art world.
What other ways are you involved with SADAH as an alum?
I recently began talking with Kathy Schwartz, the director of the School of Art, Design and Art History, about setting up an art trip to New York City for JMU students. It is my sincere hope that this trip comes to fruition. New York has so much to offer for those in the arts, particularly visual artists.
Every Thursday evening, there are countless gallery openings in Chelsea where artists, collectors, gallerists and countless people from all over the world, meander in and out of exhibitions. Being a part of the energy is such a wonderful experience for aspiring artists and art historians. Beyond the goings-on in Chelsea, students really need to be exposed to the incredible museums. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, and Guggenheim are among my favorites.
Photo by Laurie Lambrecht, Roy in Yellow Interior, 1991.
Graphic Design, Architectural Design and Industrial Design students in the School of Art, Design and Art History (SADAH) at James Madison University can now work under one roof thanks to a $1.5 million dollar upgrade. Renovations to JMU's Studio Design Center began in August 2014. Classes for the three areas are being held in the 30,700-square-foot facility this semester.
The graphic design area had moved three times in the last three years before landing a permanent home in the Studio Design Center, a home that would double its number of rooms, according to Dawn McCusker, professor of graphic design and associate director of SADAH. "It is impressive to have so many spaces for graphic design," says McCusker.
Those spaces include a high-tech seminar room, two classrooms, a production room, a 1,000-square-foot senior studio with brand new workstations, an interactive media lab, and the Madison Book Lab featuring new bookmaking and letterpress equipment purchased with grant money awarded to McCusker. The first 200-level Book Arts class is being taught this semester as part of a new Book Arts minor at JMU. McCusker will teach the first Letterpress class in May.
Architectural Design doubled its amount of studio space to 2,800 square feet and added new workstations, allowing second, third and fourth year students to work together in the same room, according to Jack Fanning, digital design and fabrications manager.
Industrial Design has its own 1600-square-foot studio and shares with Architectural Design a computer lab, a concrete lab, a dedicated casting space, a self-contained booth for spray painting, a woodshop for traditional design making processes, and two digital fabrication rooms featuring a 5x10 CNC Router, laser cutters and 3D printers.
The Studio Design Center features 3,000 square feet of shared pin-up space for critiquing and hanging student work, contributing to "a perfect setting for inspiration and collaboration between the design areas," says Fanning.
The building is also equipped with a new general-use computer lab and a state-of-the-art ventilation system.
Photos by Bob Adamek.
Kathleen Gardner grew up "singing every Sunday" with her two sisters and three brothers while their mother and father played music. Her mother, who "could sit at the piano and hear a tune," also played the ukulele and mandolin; her father played the violin and harmonica. Gardner jokes that the family came together once a week in the spirit of music "whether they wanted to or not."
Gardner's parents, Roy and Cornelia Carroll Lutz, were teachers (both taught in Mount Jackson in Shenandoah County and then in Harrisonburg City Schools), so valued the importance of an education. Gardner says it was her father's mission to send all of his children to college—his three sons attended Bridgewater College and his three daughters went to Madison College. The youngest of the three sisters, Gardner graduated in 1959 with a B.S. in Education with a concentration in science.
While at Madison, Gardner sang in the Concert Choir, which practiced in the dining room of Harrison Hall. Performances were held in Wilson Hall and across the state. After graduation, Gardner taught fourth and sixth grades in Fairfax and Henrico. She taught "everything," including music.
Over the years, Gardner has found listening to music "peaceful." She likes coming to performances at the Forbes Center, and especially enjoys the Marimba Orchestra & Friends concert and "most of the plays." Prior to the opening of the Forbes Center, Gardner wanted to honor her family by endowing a scholarship for music. In 2009, she created the Kathleen Lutz Gardner Music Scholarship Endowment, which provides funding to a student studying music. So far, two students have benefitted from the scholarship: Dana Scruggs and Dan Holland.
Scruggs, who graduates in the spring, says Gardner's support has helped her to fulfill her "dream of being a violin performance major." Holland, a 2014 graduate, was a music education major from Spotsylvania, Virginia who was the principal oboist in the Chamber Orchestra and Symphonic Band and the tenor saxophone in the Marching Royal Dukes. Gardner attended some of Holland's concerts, which she says was "pretty neat." "It's nice to help him out."
Undergraduates Curtis Kapsak and Jesmine Roberts-Torres sequencing DNA using the MinION nanopore sequencer
A new university genomics research center – the Center for Genome and Metagenome Studies (CGEMS) -- at James Madison University will increase research opportunities for undergraduates and expose them to cutting edge technology.
"We already have genomics and bioinformatics courses, we have a viral discovery and genomics course, we talk about genomics a lot and we do some genomics research at JMU, but this will help us to get more students hands-on and actually doing research in the classroom and the lab," said Dr. James Herrick, an associate professor of biology who announced the center is a go.
Gene sequencing, or DNA sequencing, is used in a number of fields, from biological research to forensics to health research. Herrick's research focuses on antibiotic resistance genes in bacteria. Other researchers at JMU carry out genomics and metagenomics research in virology, bacterial pathogenesis, aquatic microbiology, amphibian conservation, copepod evolution and eukaryotic gene expression.
The Oxford Nanopore MinION DNA sequencer
Advances in gene sequencing make headlines almost daily and JMU already has some of the latest gene sequencing technology. Herrick and a couple of his students have even been testing a "next-next-generation" sequencer — developed by Nanopore Technologies in Oxford, England — that is not yet on the market.
"Until fairly recently, even the next-generation sequencers were really mainly functioning in larger sequencing centers that were devoted to that," Herrick said. "They only in the past few years started to get the technology in smaller individual labs."
One of JMU's latest equipment additions for gene sequencing is the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine, one of those next-generation sequencers. "The first generation of DNA sequencers were revolutionary in biology and led to the sequencing of the human genome and the sequencing of the first genomes of many different organisms," Herrick said. "Next generation sequencers allow us to sequence massive amounts of DNA."
And there are more 'omics' than just geneomics for JMU students to study. "There are metagenomics and proteomics and what's called transcriptomics, which is gene expression, and then there's metabolomics and various other '-omics'. And we will be working in some of those fields, especially metagenomics and transcriptomics," Herrick said.
The center also will boost a collaboration Herrick has with a University of Virginia researcher and JMU alum, Dr. Steven Turner. Turner is director of bioinformatics at U.Va. Bioinformatics is the process of analyzing the massive amounts of data produced by the sequencing technology.
By Eric Cecchett
Matt Ferramosca with his dog, Moose. Photo by Stephen Meyer for JMU Technology and Design.
Once a freshman with aspirations of being in a fraternity and perhaps even attending law school after graduation, FSL coordinator Matt Ferramosca has seen many twists and turns in his career here at JMU.
Ferramosca's other responsibilities include overseeing Excellence Awards among FSL members and also advising the Allied Greeks and Athletes program. This unique program takes an athletic team and fraternity or sorority and pairs them up for the year. The two clubs attend each others functions and generally act as a means of support through all their events. Ferramoscas role in FSL entails a number of different responsibilities, including the advising of the President's Counsel, advising G.A.M.M.A (Greeks Advocating the Mature Management of Alcohol), as well as coordinating various events around campus. Most recently, Ferramosca was put in charge of organizing national hazing prevention week at JMU.
"Working with the Hazing Prevention Week was a great experience for me," said Ferramosca. "As a student that has seen the negative effects of hazing in the past, I really enjoyed having the opportunity to help with this cause."
After rushing for and being accepted into a fraternity his first semester, Matt's hopes of becoming a part of Greek life were quickly extinguished. Due to allegations of hazing and non-compliance with administration, the chapter was removed from campus.
"It was a really disappointing experience for me," said Ferramosca. "I felt like my fraternity experience wasn't everything it could have been, and this played a big role in my desire to get involved after graduation."
By his Junior year, Matt was looking for a new way to become involved while also making money to help feed his new Pit Bull/German Shepard mix puppy, Annabel. What he finally discovered was the Office of Student Accountability and Restorative Practices (known as the Office of Judicial Affairs at the time). During his involvement with the organization, he spent his time interacting with students, hearing their disciplinary cases, and ultimately helping them.
Although his major was in political science, and his sights were set on law school, Matt was eventually convinced by Dr. Josh Bacon, Director of Judicial Affairs at JMU, to change his direction and consider the College Student Personnel Administration (CSPA) graduate program.
"Dr. Bacon helped me realize that I didn't want to sit in an office all day," said Ferramosca. "He showed me that the CSPA program could give me the opportunity to do what I love and interact directly with the student population every day."
After enrolling in the CSPA program, Ferramosca knew he wanted to fulfill his required assistantship with the FSL department. He is now finishing up his first semester as a graduate assistant.
Though his schedule between Greek life and classes is busy, Matt Ferramosca is right where he wants to be. After missing out on the fraternity experience that he had hoped for during his undergrad, Ferramosca is able to be involved in a way he would never have imagined as a freshman.
Looking to get involved in the Greek community? Find out more by visiting the FSL website at www.jmu.edu/fsl!
In 2014, Dr. Brenda Ryals, a professor of audiology in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, was awarded the Honors of the Association Award which is the highest honor given by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).
This wasn't the first time Dr. Ryals was recognized for her scholarship. She also received a Research Achievement Award from the American Academy of Audiology in 2003, and the Jerger Career Award for Research in Audiology from the American Academy of Audiology in 2012.
Now completing her 25th year at JMU, the university is lucky to have a scholar who is so dedicated to advancing the knowledgebase of her profession. But Dr. Ryals has not only been a scholar, she is also well known for her local, national and international service. She was the recipient of Distinguished Service Award from the College of Health and Behavioral Studies in 2014.
But beyond her scholarship, Dr. Ryals also shines in her professorial duties as seen in her work with her graduate students. She was instrumental in designing the proposal that brought the Ph.D. program in Communication Sciences and Disorders to JMU in 2002. This was JMU's first Ph.D. program.
Since that time Dr. Ryals has supervised more than 13 doctoral students. Dr. Ryals says that her "students have always provided such wonderful support." "Good students lift you up and make you better than you are." Dr. Ryals has mentored numerous students as they conducted independent research projects.
With minimal prompting, Dr. Ryals presents many examples of how her students have motivated and contributed to her work. She proudly lists their collaborative publications, presentations, and awards on her vita.
She is particularly proud to have mentored and chaired the dissertation work of the only Ph.D./Au.D. graduate from the CSD program, Kate Belzner Fernandez (2010). As a doctoral student, Kate was awarded two travel awards from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) to present her research. Because of her scholarship, Kate was selected for a post-doctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Ryals is so proud of the accomplishments of her students; she was troubled by the request to identify individuals, for fear of leaving some out. However, she mentions the work of Ashleigh McCombs Dewell who collaborated with her to set up the Virginia Healthy Hearing program in 2003 before it became the national humanitarian effort for the Student Academy of Audiology. Ashleigh wrote and was awarded two research grants which were funded by the Special Olympics International to organize and improve their Healthy Hearing Program.
One of her other doctoral students, Kara Gray Wright (2008) was funded by the Special Olympics for her doctoral dissertation on improving otoscopic screening with Special Olympics athletes. Upon graduation Kara was selected to be one of the first audiologists hired to serve at the new Audiology Clinic at the Quantico Marine Corps Base. Katie Roper Demirel (2004), now at Georgetown Medical Center after working in New Zealand and Colorado; and Kristin Weyman Seawall (2004), recently selected as a Distinguished Alumni, and now a Clinical Audiologist in Harrisonburg.
In addition to working with her doctoral students, Ryals also enjoys being the faculty advisor to the Student Academy of Audiology, a professional organization within the American Academy of Audiology. She particularly enjoys supporting them in their humanitarian effort with the Special Olympics.
Dr. Ryals received the "Mentor of the Year Award" in 2007 from the National Association of Future Doctors of Audiology. Since that time, and through today, Dr. Ryals continues her research, service and graduate student mentorship. She is a model faculty member and we are proud to tout her accomplishments as a member of our community.
By: Lori News '15
Every year the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) holds a meeting for social work educators and students. During the annual meeting, the Women's Council hosts a networking breakfast to honor members for mentoring a colleague in the social work field. This October, two of the 39 honored were JMU professors Dr. B.J. Bryson and Dr. Lisa McGuire.
Bryson was nominated by her mentee, Dr. Victoria Anyikwa, an associate professor from the School of Education and Social Services at Saint Leo University. Before coming to JMU, Bryson taught Anyikwa at Barry University in Miami Shores.
Bryson was asked by Anyikwa to serve on her dissertation committee because of Bryson's extensive knowledge of intimate partner violence. Anyikwa's dissertation focused on intimate partner violence and the relationship to communities of color and diversity. Bryson explained that they had a lot of "conversations about how some people take things for granted in majority cultures and how to capture that (things taken for granted) in her research."
In her mentor nomination, Anyikwa described Bryson as a "tireless feminist scholar, always engaging in ways to push the envelope in lifting women's voices, with a particular focus on the intersections of race and gender. Whether it's in the classroom or out, her message is the same: women's voices must be heard."
After the completion of her dissertation, Anyikwa graduated and began working as a social work professor, but still relied on Bryson for help with the next steps in her career.
"I respect her wisdom to the point where I continue to seek it on my journey in academia. She is a true feminist leader and scholar who should be recognized for her work in feminist thought," Anyikwa said.
Dr. Lisa McGuire also was nominated by her mentee, Dr. Kathy Lay, an associate professor from the School of Social Work at Indiana University (IUSSW). McGuire had been an associate professor at IUSSW for many years when she first met Lay.
In the beginning of the mentoring relationship, McGuire helped Lay become more familiar with the culture of the social work program and the university. IUSSW has an emphasis on research and publication, and as McGuire explains, "We needed to make sure we were researching and publishing our teaching."
Through their mutual interest in the teaching process they were "assigned to team-teach a course that grew into a productive collaboration, eventually resulting in a curricular innovation, multiple publications and development of innovative pedagogy around reflection," explained McGuire.
They worked on a focus group analysis of reflection papers to determine what students are getting out of their teaching and how to enhance their learning. Their collaboration resulted in publications in the Journal of Professional Development in Social Work and the Journal of Addiction Studies.
"The mentoring she provided, early in my tenure at IUSSW, influenced the development of my teaching philosophy, research, and service," Lay explained.
Currently, McGuire and Lay are working on another conceptual idea about the pedagogy of reflection and are in the process of determining where to publish their findings.
JMU's short-term study abroad programs have increased dramatically in the last few years, and Ireland and Northern Ireland have been in the forefront of this expansion. Last summer, the Office of International Programs offered five opportunities in that region, and for 2015, the number increases to six. Students have a wide choice of disciplines, as the program names indicate: Exploring Communication, Conflict and Culture in Ireland; Earth and Environmental Science in Ireland; Ireland in Text, Image and New Media; Ireland and America: a Cross-Cultural Study of Identity; Teaching Practicum in Northern Ireland; and Geology Field Course in Ireland.
Danielle Gallagher (Class of 2015, mathematics major, secondary education and history minor), who participated in the Teaching Practicum last year, says of her summer: "Through the OIP I had one of the most memorable experiences of my college career, as I was able to immerse myself fully into the culture of Northern Ireland and learn much more about a history that I knew only from text books."
The OIP, in collaboration with the Madison Art Collection, invited students and faculty involved in the 2014 Ireland/Northern Ireland programs to submit photos for an exhibit in conjunction with The Yeats Family: Life in Ireland. In selecting and submitting her shots, Danielle took time to reflect on their significance. Of Dublin's Kilmainham Gaol, she wrote, "The jail dates back to 1796 and has been home to many well-known members of the rebellions that formed Ireland's history. This jail-turned-museum helps visitors understand Northern Ireland's eerie story." Her shot of Dunluce Castle with a beach town in the background brought this comment: "I love the contrast between the beach town and the castle. I was struck by the fact that it was so normal for the locals to drive by and see such a beautiful landmark during everyday life."
In her own everyday life in Northern Ireland, walking to her school placement in Newry, Danielle passed two flags: the Irish tri-color and the Union Jack. She noted: "Between the two flags is a river that marks the boundary between the Catholic (tri-color) and the Protestant (Union Jack) sides of town. This is a clear example of the division that is so present in Northern Ireland." Her view of Derry/Londonderry from the west bank, the Protestant side of town, included the Peace Bridge, "built to make contact between the Protestant side and the Catholic side easier in hopes of mending the divisions that are still present. "
Danielle's reflection on her photo of the Giant's Causeway photo, "one of Northern Ireland's biggest tourist destinations," also referred to the country's troubles: "Tourism is one of the biggest industries in the Irish Republic, and . . . the people of Northern Ireland are trying to catch up . . . as they are recovering from their tense past."
Make plans to join Danielle at the photo exhibit reception at 3 pm on Friday, February 13, in Prism Gallery at the Festival Conference and Student Center. Following at 4:30 pm, in Conference Room 8 (just down the hall) is a talk by noted Irish scholar Luke Gibbons, who will speak on "End of the Line: The Politics of Expressionism in Jack B. Yeats." Both of these events complement the Lisanby Museum's current exhibit featuring the wood block prints of Jack B. Yeats, brother of poet W. B. Yeats.
When Sebastian Haboczki ran into JMU voice professor Kevin McMillan while getting an oil change in London, Ontario, it was a conversation he could not ignore. Haboczki knew McMillan from his time at the University of Western Ontario (Western University), where he had recently earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in music.
In talking with McMillan, Haboczki brought up the idea of pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) degree. The interaction with McMillan sparked Haboczki to learn more about JMU online. "I saw the performing arts center and knew this was something I wanted to be a part of," says Haboczki. This inspired Haboczki to audition for the JMU D.M.A. program.
Now a D.M.A. student studying with McMillan, Haboczki is preparing to sing in the Forbes Center's production of Opera Spotlight. The show features songs and scenes from the world's greatest operas, including Gilbert & Sullivan's Patience, which takes place in the Forbes Concert Hall in April. Haboczki is also planning for an hour-long, spring recital. The "All-Liszt" program consists of songs in French, Italian, German, and Hungarian, Haboczki's native language.
Fortunately, Haboczki's parents—his mom, a conductor, his dad, a cellist—"forced him to read in all the main languages" growing up. Such exposure has proved especially helpful to Haboczki's musical endeavors, which began when he was "a little boy."
Haboczki grew up playing the piano and served as Music Director at a church, where he played the organ, starting at age 14. He taught himself guitar in high school and played in "a lot of bands." He earned a scholarship in vocal performance to Western University, and made the decision to "study singing seriously" during his third year—a decision that would force him to give up his other major, astrophysics. "I wanted to do astrophysics because I loved space, but figured math would always be there."
That decision has sent Haboczki on a path he could not have orchestrated himself. He sang the lead role (Rodolfo) in La Bohème at the Forbes Center in the fall, which he called "a really big sing, but a lot of fun." Haboczki has also performed in Rita (Pepe), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Lyzander), The Elixir of Love (Nemorino), Béatrice et Bénédict (Bénédict), The Marriage of Figaro (Basilio), Falstaff (Bardolfo), Die Fledermaus (Alfred) and La Traviata (Alfredo).
He has sung in summer festivals in Italy—and in Amsterdam, where he made his debut at the Concertgebouw. The "crazy and cool" experience gave Haboczki the chance to perform in an "absolutely stunning" venue while continuing to build his operatic resume.
Haboczki has been offered the opportunity to perform this summer as Rinuccio in Puccino's Gianni Schicchi through Dr. Dorothy Maddison's program, the JMU German Opera Experience. Haboczki says he "has been to a lot of places in Europe before, but never Germany."
Haboczki is still deciding on the direction of his D.M.A. and is open to all of the possibilities a budding career in singing can provide.
By Jen Kulju (M'04)
When Sebastian Haboczki ran into JMU voice professor Kevin McMillan while getting an oil change in London, Ontario, it was a conversation he could not ignore. Haboczki knew McMillan from his time at the University of Western Ontario (Western University), where he had recently earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in music.
In talking with McMillan, Haboczki brought up the idea of pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) degree—and learned when auditions were at JMU. The interaction with McMillan sparked Haboczki to learn more about JMU online. "I saw the performing arts center and knew this was something I wanted to be a part of," says Haboczki.
Now a D.M.A. student studying with McMillan, Haboczki is preparing to sing in the Forbes Center's production of Opera Spotlight. The show features songs and scenes from the world's greatest operas, including Gilbert & Sullivan's Patience, which takes place in the Forbes Concert Hall in April. Haboczki is also planning for an hour-long, spring recital. The "All-Liszt" program consists of songs in French, Italian, German, and Hungarian, Haboczki's native language.
Fortunately, Haboczki's parents—his mom, a conductor, his dad, a cellist—"forced him to read in all the main languages" growing up. Such exposure has proved especially helpful to Haboczki's musical endeavors, which began when he was "a little boy."
Haboczki grew up playing the piano and served as Music Director at a church, where he played the organ, starting at age 14. He taught himself guitar in high school and played in "a lot of bands." He earned a scholarship in vocal performance to Western University, and made the decision to "study singing seriously" during his third year—a decision that would force him to give up his other major, astrophysics. "I wanted to do astrophysics because I loved space, but figured math would always be there."
That decision has sent Haboczki on a path he could not have orchestrated himself. He sang the lead role (Rodolfo) in La Bohème at the Forbes Center in the fall, which he called "a really big sing, but a lot of fun." Haboczki has also performed in Rita (Pepe), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Lyzander), The Elixir of Love (Nemorino), Béatrice et Bénédict (Bénédict), The Marriage of Figaro (Basilio), Falstaff (Bardolfo), Die Fledermaus (Alfred) and La Traviata (Alfredo).
Haboczki has been offered the opportunity to perform this summer as Rinuccio in Puccino's Gianni Schicchi through Dr. Dorothy Maddison's program, the JMU German Opera Experience. Haboczki says he "has been to a lot of places in Europe before, but never Germany."
He has sung in summer festivals in Italy—and in Amsterdam, where he made his debut at the Concertgebouw. The "crazy and cool" experience gave Haboczki the chance to perform in an "absolutely stunning" venue while continuing to build his operatic resume.
Haboczki is still deciding on the direction of his D.M.A. and is open to all of the possibilities a budding career in singing could provide.
By: Daniel Vieth
Though we sometimes forget it, creativity and learning can and should go hand in hand. This simple idea is what drives the KidWind Challenges, a national engineering and design competition that encourages middle and high school students to learn about sustainable energy in a way that is fun and educational. These challenges have become a big deal in Virginia, thanks in large part to JMU's Center for Wind Energy, who has hosted KidWind challenges for the past three years. With the help of the generous donations from Dominion Virginia Power and a number of student volunteers, JMU will host the KidWind Eastern Finals later this year.
KidWind is a Minnesota company that makes hands-on educational equipment for classrooms to teach wind and solar energy. Since KidWind hosted their first challenge back in 2009, these competitions have grown in popularity and spread across the nation. Though the events in each state may vary, the basic premise is for small teams of middle and high school students to learn about sustainable energy and have fun while engaging in science and technology. "It's very creative, and it's definitely working through the engineering design process," explained Remy Pangle, Associate Director and Education & Outreach Coordinator for JMU's Center for Wind Energy. Other than the stock electrical generator given to each team, the students have to build and design their own wind turbines from scratch that are then evaluated by a team of judges at their local competition. They're judged on how their turbine works, and asked to explain why wind energy is important, why we build turbines, and how it helps our environment," Pangle added.
JMU's Center for Wind Energy has been involved with KidWind for the past three years, helping host a competition in 2012 at the science museum in Richmond, a competition in 2013 at Thomas Harrison Middle School in Harrisonburg, and qualifying rounds in Virginia Beach and Northern Virginia in 2014. "The Center for Wind Energy brings all this renewable energy education to the classroom, so it was just a natural flow to work with the KidWind Challenge once their structure was finalized," said Pangle.
This year, the Center for Wind Energy will be putting together qualifying challenges at four public Virginia universities and hosting KidWind's Eastern Finals at JMU on April 25th. "These events are really the culmination of the year. These students have spent all year learning about wind energy, but this gives them that application, the reason why they're learning all this," said Pangle. "I think that this challenge at JMU is just a great way to bring young learners on campus, show them how awesome JMU is, and for us to show what the Center for Wind Energy can do for students and teachers."
Along with KidWind, JMU has partnered with a number of other organizations to help put these challenges together. This includes Wind For Schools, the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, and this year's sole sponsor Dominion Power, who donated $20,000 to fund the five competitions at Virginia's universities. "Unlike similar competitions where teams pay a ton of money to register, KidWind only costs $10 to register, so the KidWind Challenges have to run on sponsors in every state," Pangle explained. "Dominion Power was one that I reached out to, and they were very excited and gave us a substantial amount!"
More than the funds to put the events together, these challenges couldn't happen without the help of the volunteers and judges who give their time. For this reason, the Center for Wind Energy has created an interdisciplinary course this spring semester for students to earn credit while helping put together the Eastern Finals this year. "We were hoping to get students from disciplines like engineering, ISAT, education, hospitality, psychology, and art to join the class and help plan activities, volunteer at the events, and critique it so it can be better for next year," explained Pangle. "This class is going to come up with some age-appropriate, interesting, and educational things for the students to do here at JMU apart from the challenges."
KidWind Challenges are a wonderful way for students to have fun while learning about science, technology, and sustainable energy outside of the classroom. By hosting these events, JMU and the Center for Wind Energy also gain the opportunity to engage with the community.
"KidWind Challenges are very much about promoting education rather than competition." -Remy PangleWe want it to be exciting and get kids thinking and designing," said Pangle. "If they win, that's great, but if they don't win they'll still walk away thinking they had fun and learned something, and that's what really matters."
Whitten Maher "was a student, writer, and artist with a prescient understanding of the power of communication…. His outstanding work sought to build connections and bring light." This remembrance from author and former JMU professor Eleanor Henderson is one of many on a new JMU scholarship website commemorating the life of alum Whitten Maher, who died on December 20, 2012, at the age of 25, prematurely ending a promising future in writing and design.
While a student at JMU, Maher double-majored in Political Science and Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication. He also worked as Design Editor and as a Senior Writer/Columnist for The Breeze. He won awards from the Virginia Press Association for his design and writing, including praise for an opinion column he penned called "Gadfly" admired for "putting a local face on topics with national importance."
After graduating from JMU, Maher joined Demos, a public policy organization based in New York City, which advocates political and economic equality for all Americans. A colleague at Demos recalls that "Whitten possessed a focused energy and a clear-headed optimism. He truly believed in structural change, both in the fabric of our society, and in the processes and systems of communication that move forward the work of an organization such as Demos."
Brad Jenkins, general manager of The Breeze, also remembers the communicative power of Maher's design work: "The point of design is not necessarily to make something look pretty; it's to communicate something…. Whitten had a strong ability to communicate his ideas through his words and through design. He understood that the two work together to tell a story."
"When Whitten wrote," former professor Erin Lambert-Hartman recalls, "he was able to voice ideas that humanized those who, for whatever reasons, are not fully represented"—even those who expressed ideas that Maher found deeply offensive. "As tragic as Whitten's death will always be," she says, "he has given us an opportunity to create something that honors the great potential he had, a potential that lives in others."
Thanks to the generosity of the Maher family, the Whitten Maher Memorial Scholarship for Writing and Design was established to honor the memory of its namesake. Now in its second year, this competitive $1000 scholarship applied to tuition is open to all JMU undergraduates across academic disciplines. The scholarship acknowledges and supports academic and nonacademic writing or design that conveys the kind of compassion, intensity, and well-informed reasoning that were so much a part of Whitten Maher's character.
Eligible written- or design-based works should: 1) engage and educate audiences through a civic purpose, 2) promote empathy rather than derision, or 3) encourage populations who feel unrecognized or misunderstood.
The scholarship selection committee has just announced a call for submissions. For more information, please go to http://www.jmu.edu/wrtc/scholarships/whitten-maher-memorial-scholarship.shtml.
By: Julie Stern
As it celebrates its tenth year of partnership with local high schools, the Geospatial Semester program at James Madison University (JMU) has earned another award.
In January, the Virginia Mathematics and Science Coalition selected the Geospatial Semester as one of the 2015 Programs That Work awardees. The Geospatial Semester is a program in which Virginia high schools partner with the Integrated Science and Technology Department at JMU to introduce geospatial technology to high school seniors.
Dr. Bob Kolvoord, dean of the College of Integrated Science and Engineering at JMU, founded the program in 2005 with the help of Northern Virginia high school teacher Kathryn Keranen. Geospatial Semester is designed to give students an opportunity to learn new technologies and apply them to a local issue. The program focuses on helping students build spatial thinking and project management skills as they transition to higher education or the workplace.
"The close relationship between the Geospatial Semester students and the JMU staff helps create a very real college experience," said Luray High School teacher, Tara Meadows. The program helps the seniors remain focused during their last semester of high school, and provides opportunities for them to work with professionals.
The Geospatial Semester has seen positive results. "It's led to an increased interest in geography and brought a new group of geographic science majors to JMU," said Dr. Kolvoord. "We've seen students engage in summer internships and support their communities with geospatial technology. Some students who had little engagement in school have found a passion in geospatial technologies and dramatically changed their attitude towards school and higher education."
Through the program, seniors take geospatial technology classes in their home schools and earn credit from JMU. Classes focus on interactive projects, such as creating evacuation plans and maps for government agencies and businesses.
Most students seem to enjoy the interactive format, said Meadows, because it is a "welcome change" to the traditional classroom setting.
"[Students] begin to understand that real learning occurs when they are actively involved in the task," she said. "Involvement in a project from its inception all the way to the analysis and conclusion provides students an opportunity to think critically about a topic of their choosing. This experience is really invaluable."
In its 10 years, the program has partnered with 34 schools in 16 school districts and worked with nearly 3,000 students. The Geospatial Semester continues to grow and expand into additional high schools.
"We've taken a 'slow growth' approach and focused on schools with the components in place to be successful," explained Dr. Kolvoord.
The Mathematics and Science Coalition Programs That Work awards recognize effective educational programs that create a positive learning impact. Awardees are selected on the basis that they represent innovative, exemplary programs that have proven effective; demonstrate important science concepts, skills, or processes; and document the impact on teaching and learning.
When I had heard about the DigiComm class as a sophomore in WRTC 201: Theories and Methods of Writing, I was looking to get more involved on campus. Little did I know, DigiComm would give me much more than that. I showed up to the interview only having experience tutoring first grade and being fairly new to web builders, but I had a passion to help students learn. Applying to become a Media Fellow was one of the best chances I took. As a Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication major with a double minor in Art and Humanitarian Affairs and a concentration in Leadership, I love working with design and I have a passion to help others.
What I realized is that DigiComm and its members work to help students short-term and long-term. We assist students in developing a professional image in the digital sphere while working with them to better understand web builders and the purpose of digital portfolios. Not only that, but by creating these portfolios, we help students envision themselves in the professional world.
DigiComm and its Media Fellows work outside the Digital Communication Center as well. We have formed relationships with departments all across campus. By working with professors, we facilitate learning methods of digital communication. We break down all the components of professional portfolios and website creation so that everyone can better understand what makes a good website. I am currently a Media Fellow for the WRTC Capstone course where students create a well-designed digital portfolio to display their work to future employers.
Digital portfolios are definitely an up-and-coming component of interviews. Everyone gets nervous at job interviews, and what better way to show off your skills than to show an employer your portfolio? You have all of your skills summarized in a well-planned portfolio right in front of you. Not only are you giving employers something to look at during your interview, but now they have something to reference and explore after your interview. DigiComm works to help students become more confident in professional situations, in the digital world, and beyond.
The unique set up of the Digital Communication Center allows me to work one-on-one with peers and professors, in groups with classes and my fellow Media Fellows, and on my own in developing creative ways to inform others about digital communication. My experience with DigiComm has made me a better student, a better communicator, and a better person. I find it very rewarding whenever someone asks me a question and I help them find the answer. An amazing part of DigiComm is that as I help others grow and learn, I am learning as well. Every day as a Media Fellow is different and the students, professors, and Media Fellows I work with make my job even more enjoyable.
- by Alexa Senio
As the clock nears 12:20, students slowly trickle into physics classroom 2212. Behind a green table at the front of the classroom, professors Brian Utter and Thomas O'Neill consult problems in a workbook.
Against one wall, three students hold a very similar conversation, pointing to problems in the workbook and talking in quiet voices. They are the Learning Assistants for the class, responsible for supporting and teaching their fellow students during class time.
After the normal announcements concerning a test on Wednesday and important material to study, Utter calls the class to order. He and O'Neill instruct the class to turn to a set of problems in their workbooks.
"Can I have that piece of expensive physics equipment there?" O'Neill asks a student in the first row. The student smirks and hands over a cardboard ramp, a ruler and a plastic ball. O'Neill grins and tells the class that they will be using this equipment to conduct one of the experiments described in the workbook.
He then turns to the three students lined up against the wall. "Assist learning!" he commands.
The room breaks out into a frenzy of noise and movement. Students split off into groups of three or four, clustering around tables with workbooks, dry-erase boards and calculators.
There is not a hint of lecture or sight of PowerPoint. The whiteboard remains conspicuously blank. Professors and Learning Assistants wander amongst the tables giving advice or checking in on the work of various groups.
This odd classroom format is pretty common to the Physics 240 students and is known as a flipped classroom.
"A flipped classroom is where, in class, the students solve problems," Tyler Stephens, a sophomore in the Learning Assistant program, explains. He notes that students learn what is commonly thought of as lecture material in videos outside of class, while doing problems in the workbook in class. He and other students who have already taken classes like Physics 240 work with current students to explain difficult physics principles. In this format, students watch videos outside of class to learn the concepts, then put them into practice inside the classroom.
But there's more going on behind the scenes of this physics classroom. Tyler and other Learning Assistants are part of a larger program at JMU known as the Physics Teacher Education Coalition, or PhysTEC.
Utter, an associate professor of physics and astronomy and the PhysTEC Site Leader explains, "[The program is] funded by a couple big professional organizations in physics: The American Physical Society, which is the main organization in physics, and the American Association of Physics Teachers, which is the main high school and college physics teaching organization. Basically, it's a joint program between them to support the production of highly trained, highly qualified physics teachers."
And these teachers are sorely needed across the nation. According to the PhysTEC website, high school students have a less than 40 percent chance of being taught physics by someone with a degree in physics. Those who majored in physics are stretched so thin they may be the only physics teacher at their entire school or are asked to teach across multiple science disciplines.
"My whole science department could fit around one table," O'Neill remembers of his time as a high school physics teacher. "I was the physics teacher, the chemistry teacher and the computer science teacher all at one time."
Crafting resources for physics education
The challenge is often reaching out and getting information to potential physics majors. Education departments tend to reach out to liberal arts majors, and many physics majors are unaware of the requirements to graduate with a degree in physics in secondary education. "It brings the idea of a teaching career to people in the physics, chemistry and engineering department who would not normally think of that right off the top of their skull," O'Neill says of the PhysTEC program.
Utter notes that if a student wants to do research in physics, the department has professors and labs for the student to get that kind of experience. But if a student wanted to become a teacher, the department used to have fewer options for giving them experience. Due to PhysTEC, resources like a physics pedagogy course and a teacher in residence are now available to students interested in teaching physics.
This year, O'Neill works as JMU's Teacher in Residence, a position that goes to a current or former high school physics teacher and acts as a source of information for physics majors wishing to go into education.
"A lot of the stories he has to tell, a lot of his methods, are very, very useful. I'm trying to learn by example from him on a lot," Tyler says.
"The Teacher in Residence is the biggest piece," Utter says of the PhysTEC program here at JMU. The program relies heavily on the ability of current teachers to inspire future physics teachers.
"My high school physics teacher really inspired me to do physics," Tyler recalls. His teacher focused heavily on projects and even hosted a cardboard boat-building contest every year, in which students would strive to build boats out of only cardboard, duct tape and trash bags that could support a person. "I didn't think it was very rare until I came to college and heard about some other people's experiences," Tyler continues, "and hearing that made me want to try and make a difference."
"Most people who come in excited about teaching basically had a really good physics teacher," Utter says, "so we want to take those and put those people back into the community."
Undertaking PhysTEC
In August 2012, Utter, along with Drs. David B. Daniel, Mark E. Mattson, Scott A. Paulson and David A. Slykhuis, received a grant from the Physics Teacher Education Coalition to establish a program for training high school physics teachers at JMU.
To become a supported site of the program, JMU had to meet a number of key components, including a Teacher in Residence, a Learning Assistant program, collaboration between the physics and education departments, active recruitment of undergraduates into the program and a physics pedagogy course that focuses on the theories of teaching physics.
The grant-supported program is currently in its second year and has already seen promising results. "As a university, we hadn't produced any physics teachers since I had been here. And suddenly, last year, we had two come out of our master's program," Utter recalls.
This may seem like a small number, but Utter is quick to point out that when he applied for the grant, the number of physics teachers with degrees in the field in the entire state was about ten. "Coming from zero to two when compared with eight or ten is pretty substantial," he says.
This is especially important, as the PhysTEC website notes that approximately five out of every six PhysTEC graduates will go on to teach within 200 miles of their university.
For the Learning Assistants, many of whom will go on to teach physics after graduation, the program provides a number of benefits. They receive training and real-world teaching experiences, a salary for their time assisting physics classes, and invaluable physics knowledge.
"It's sort of a fallout that we didn't count on," O'Neill says. "The fact of the matter is that if you're a Learning Assistant, you learn a lot of physics as you teach other people physics and it strengthens your physics."
Of course, being a Learning Assistant does come with its own challenges. Senior Learning Assistant Kerlin Doss says, "I think the hardest has been not giving them the answer directly. Because one thing we want to do is that if they're on the wrong track, let them figure it out themselves, that way it really sticks."
These challenges eventually prepare the students for teaching jobs in the real world. Devon Collins, a graduate of the program who currently teaches in Henrico County near Richmond, uses much of what he was taught every day. "Everything that I learned … I regularly apply in my classes."
Utter hopes that, over time, JMU will be able to develop a community of high school physics teachers who have graduated from the program. "For instance, there's a Virginia Academy of Science Teachers meeting. My hope is that someday I go to that meeting, and I see a whole bunch of physics teachers that came through our program that all have connections not just to us but with each other on different levels."
Returning to the classroom
In the last ten minutes of class, O'Neill calls the students back to order. For a brief period, the class resembles the normal expectations of a physics lesson. O'Neill writes equations on the board, explaining why and how they work.
But the students aren't taking notes. They've already done the work that proves these equations correct, and this bit of lecture is merely an overview.
O'Neill turns away from the board and back to the class, capping the dry-erase marker with a snap. He confidently declares, "Since we have achieved maximum entropy, I think we can declare victory and go home."
January 29, 2015
By Jessica Bur ('15) JMU Public AffairsHi, my name is Christina Dean and I am a Hospitality Management major at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. At JMU, I am involved in different clubs and organizations across campus including my position as Secretary for PCMA's JMU chapter. I am so happy that I decided to attend this year's Convening Leaders. I honestly wish that I didn't wait till my senior year to make the decision to go!
In the past I thought that I was too young to get enough out of the conference, which is far from the truth. At any age, a trip to Convening Leaders is a positive experience. I would recommend any student who has the means to go to Convening Leaders to take a chance and go for it. I walked away from the conference with a vast amount of knowledge about the industry, new contacts, and a fresh outlook on what I can do with my degree.
From day one the 2015 Convening Leaders theme "Make No Little Plans" was evident in everything from the session topics, the General Session speakers, the parties, and more! As a student, I enjoyed the PCMA U focused sessions on Sunday and throughout the week. I valued the specific focus on topics that affect students while also enjoying the fact that I could interact and mingle with other professionals at non-student focused breakout sessions. One of the highlights of Convening Leaders for me was the knowledge I received. I learned how to add design in everything that I do in order to make an emotional connection with my audience from Emily Oberman, I learned to never, ever give up from Diana Nyad, I learned how to become a better decision maker from George Wu, I learned to look at challenges as opportunities not problems from Heather Thomas and David Rich, and I could go on and on about the many lessons I took with me as I left Convening Leaders.
Looking back one of my favorite quotes I learned while at Convening Leaders was a quote by John Wheeler, "We shape the world by the questions we ask." This has already affected my daily life in the way that I ask questions of my peers and teachers. In addition, I have a notebook full of notes that I know I will look back at throughout my last semester at college and once I start a full-time position in the future. As a student I feel that the benefits of attending Convening Leaders are endless. I had an amazing experience, and I hope to make a trip to Convening Leaders for years to come.
Jefferson Pinder Exhibits ACTION at James Madison University
January 12, 2015 - February 20, 2015
Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art in the School of Art, Design & Art History at James Madison University is pleased to announce the solo exhibition ACTION by Chicago based artist Jefferson Pinder. The exhibition is on view from January 12, 2015 through February 20, 2015.
Jefferson Pinder, a nationally acclaimed video/performance artist, seeks to find black identity through the most dynamic circumstances. His experimental videos and films feature minimal performances that reference music videos and physical theatre. Pinder's work provides personal and social commentary in accessible and familiar format. Inspired by soundtracks, Pinder utilizes hypnotic popular music and surreal performances to underscore themes dealing with Afro-Futurism, physical endurance and blackness.
His work has been featured in numerous group shows including exhibitions at The Studio Museum in Harlem; the Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut; The High Museum in Atlanta and the Zacheta National Gallery in Warsaw, Poland.
Although he considers his work to have a regional style and flavor, he stresses the universality of his themes and travels around the globe to seek inspiration. Pinder has spent time in Dakar, Mexico City, Khartoum and Hanoi working on projects that deal with race, identity and social mobility. Pinder's work was featured at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery exhibition Recognize. In the spring of 2012 his performance piece Ben-Hur was featured at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Pinder is represented by Curator's Office in Washington, DC and Patricia Sweetow Gallery in San Francisco, CA.
Jefferson Pinder earned a BA in Theatre from the University of Maryland and studied at the Asolo Theatre Conservatory in Sarasota, FL. He has a MFA in Mixed Media from the University of Maryland and is an Associate Professor in the Contemporary Practices department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Jefferson Pinder's exhibition ACTION is featured in the Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art from January 12 through February 20, 2015. The artist will be giving a lecture on Tuesday January 13, 2015 at 5pm in the Duke Hall Atrium and a reception will follow.
Exhibition Dates: January 12, 2015-February 20, 2015
Artist Lecture: Tuesday January 13, 2015 from 5:00-6:00 pm
Reception: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 from 6:00-7:30 pm
The Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art is located at 820 South Main Street, Harrisonburg, VA. It is open Monday-Friday from 10am-5pm.
You can contact the gallery directly at 540-568-6918. Parking passes are available at the gallery's front desk. Admission and programs and events are free and open to the public.
For additional information and scheduling group/class tours please contact: Gary Freeburg, Gallery Director at firstname.lastname@example.com
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With a 74-57 victory over UNCW on Tuesday night at the JMU Convocation Center, the James Madison women's basketball team became the third program in the country to reach the 1,000 wins mark. JMU joins Tennessee and Louisiana Tech as the only programs to reach the elite plateau.
In addition to the 1,000 wins, senior forward Toia Giggetts (Norfolk, Va./Lake Taylor) became the 28th player in program history to score 1,000 points in her career for the purple and gold. She accomplished the feat just minutes into the contest, scoring the game's first bucket. She finished the night with eight points and seven rebounds in 28 minutes of action.
Finley's honorable mention nod comes one year after she won CAA Co-Player of the Year, scoring a team-high 44 goals while tallying 15 assists for 59 points. On the way to the Co-Player of the Year award, she set the single-season record for draw controls with 69 in 2014. The First Team All-CAA performer also earned CAA All-Tournament honors while being named a second-team member of the IWLCA All-South Region team. Finley notched ECAC Division I Women's Lacrosse All-Star Second Team honors while pulling in First Team All-State University Division recognition.
Bennett has worked for The Walt Disney Company for 16 years. She started her career in sports sales. Bennett currently recruits for ESPN's Production, Production Operations, Stats and Information and Social Media internship positions.
What makes ESPN's internship program unlike any other? "To be able to come into ESPN and have multiple Speaker Series with the level of executives that we do is a differentiator. Also, the level of the work you're doing. Our interns will come in and put together highlights that are running on SportsCenter and may have the opportunity to work in Master Control." Click on ESPN Symposium to see and learn more about ESPN and the event.
By: Julie Stern
Posted: January 20, 2015
In December, thirteen freshman-engineering students presented video games designed for second-graders as part of a semester-long project. The students all belong to the engineering Residential Learning Community (RLC).
The video games were designed in order to provide a solution to a learning issue prevalent for second-graders in Rockingham County and Harrisonburg. The engineering students were divided into three groups to develop working prototypes of their games. The only requirements were that the games use MaKey MaKey (an interface system that makes everyday objects operate on the computer) and that they mimic a biological system found within the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum ecosystem."The more we practice the process, the more efficient we will be in the future," said Wyatt Jamkauskas. "I think it will really benefit us for the long-term."
"Making the video game wasn't that difficult once we had the right software," said Destiny Foley.
Foley's team designed a video game that corresponded with a board game. The premise of the game is to help an ant that accidentally fell out of a tree in the arboretum, reunite with his parents. As players move the ant along the board game, which connects to the computer, various questions appear on the computer screen for the players to answer.
The two other groups developed games that worked solely on the Internet, using MaKey MaKey to connect handmade controllers to the computer. One controller was made out of a candy box and covered with paper; another, wired through Styrofoam and wrapped in electrical tape. Each game was designed to challenge second-graders with math, science, or reading questions, while educating the children about the ecosystem.
Dr. Kyle Gipson co-taught the class along with Dr. Jacquelyn Nagel. He first introduced the students, all belonging to the engineering Residential Learning Community (RLC), to the project during a Bio-Inspired Design Quest in August. During the quest, geographic science assistant professor Dr. Amy Goodall led the students on a tour of the arboretum to learn more about the biological ecosystems at work. After the tour, students were introduced to the project.
"The principal purpose of the project is to get students in RLC to work together and build a community of support," said Dr. Nagel. "The project is disguising what they're really learning, such as how to use hardware and design software, and understand the needs of the second-graders. The students begin to incorporate what they learn from other classes and develop meaningful connections."
The students followed a process: discover, ideate, prototype, implement. Throughout this process, they talked to local second-grade teachers to cultivate a better understanding of the need for interactive games, before creating ideas and building a prototype.
"The more we practice the process, the more efficient we will be in the future," said Wyatt Jamkauskas. "I think it will really benefit us for the long-term."
After the presentation, guests—including a second-grader—had the opportunity to test the games. Thinking in retrospect, a few students said they might do things a little differently a second time around.
"We might have made our game easier for second-graders to understand," said Kassy Baltazar. "We didn't interact very much with students that age, which I think may have made a difference."
"The program we used was somewhat limited in terms of what we could do, and that was challenging," added Bailey Swayne.
Other groups said they would have improved their group communication and time management; unexpected challenges occurred while developing the games and students had to make adjustments. But overall, the students agreed, designing the games was a valuable, hands-on introduction to engineering.
This is the first year of the engineering RLC, and the first time the video game project has been implemented. In time, Dr. Nagel hopes, the project will continue to inspire a community of students and help them build lasting connections.
Inspired by recent COE discussions about transformational learning, Dr. Noorie Brantmeier, wanted to deepen her connection to the students in her classes. Dr. Brantmeier suggested working side by side with CoE students in the community, laying important groundwork for transformational learning. Her idea inspired Dr. Tim Thomas and Dr. Theresa Harris to launch a partnership with CoE students through the JMU Kappa Delta Pi chapter that would have the group work together to complete items on teachers' to do lists at Waterman Elementary School.
The group gathered on Friday, October 17th, with the main goal of fostering a stronger learning community by working alongside students to support their future colleagues in education.
Their service projects included:
More Photos: http://bit.ly/adayoutinservice
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What faculty and students had to say:
"Alison O'Brien and I connected educationally while we cut-out Native American vests for Ms. Yoder's kindergarten children. We talked about what we were observing in this kindergarten classroom, our previous and current educational experiences, and also our personal backgrounds. I believe that Alison and I both benefited from this REAL time together. "
"I think going in to the schools and seeing what teachers are dealing with is a great way to remind ourselves what a difficult job they do. It's not ALL about imparting knowledge to the next generation. Sometimes it's about finding the time to cut out 25 Native American vests or being able to find the set of books you need in a community book room.
"I am a strong believer that every second is a learning second. You do not have to be confined by the walls of a classroom in order to learn, but rather, given the opportunity to do so. Today was an opportunity for all of us, both the CoE faculty and CoE students, to do just that and I think that we did. We were able to look at texts that haven't be used in years and recognize the value in them; sort letters of the alphabet to realize the complexity of learning new languages and the differences between various languages; and most importantly, we were able to work as a team in order to accomplish these tasks with ease."
The James Madison University Marching Royal Dukes (MRDs) have performed in some of the world's most prestigious parades, including the Macy's Day Thanksgiving Parade® in 2013, 2008 and 2001. Every three or four years, the MRDs travel internationally, where they often march in a New Year's Day parade, shares Scott Rikkers, director of the MRDs and assistant director of bands at JMU.
"We have marched in the London New Year's Day Parade and the Dublin New Year's Parade twice. Rome's New Year's Day Parade is pretty well known, and Italy has always been an interest to us," exclaims Rikkers. So, three years ago, after applying and being invited to march, Rikkers began planning for Rome.
Planning is no small undertaking, and the students play a major role. "It's a student-centered program, so students help with the packing of the instruments and uniforms, as well as managing flights and busses," says Rikkers.
As for the staff's part in the planning process, Rikkers reveals, "When we plan, it's two-fold." "There's the performance and acting as ambassadors to JMU and to the USA, as well as making sure students have the opportunity to explore the culture."
Two-hundred fifty of the 465 MRDs, plus 100 parents, family, friends and alumni, made the trip overseas, which included a couple of days in Florence, a day in Siena, and a few days in Rome. The two days in Florence included guided tours of the City Center, cultural highlights like the Basilica and the statue of David, as well as time to explore the numerous shops and eateries.
On the way to Rome, the MRDs, traveling on seven different busses, stopped in Siena, a "nice, little town with a famous town square, great shopping and two beautiful cathedrals," claims Rikkers. Despite above-average temperatures the rest of the trip, the MRDs experienced the coldest day in Siena in 60 years! Rikkers says the weather didn't stop them from enjoying some excellent gelato, however!
Upon their arrival to Rome on New Year's Eve, the MRDs were treated to a six-course Italian dinner that would serve as fuel for their marching bodies the next day.
The traditional, European-style parade (a focal point of the World Day of Peace) began at Castle St. Angelo for the MRDs, where they were met by 5-10 thousand people on the streets. Unlike American-style parades, the crowd traveled with the MRDs to St. Peter's Square in Vatican City to hear the Pope's New Year's Day address and blessing.
Students and Rikkers were incredibly moved by the place and experience. According to junior Leonard Grasso, "One of the biggest highlights was definitely the Vatican. As a Catholic, I was very grateful for the opportunity to visit such a sacred place." Recent grad Lindsey Martin admits that she "had very little idea as to what Pope Francis was saying (it was in Italian), but 'still felt his blessing.'"
Following the blessing, the MRDs played a concert to a crowd as large as 80-thousand people, performing Italian-themed music including Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome and Billy Joel's "Themes from an Italian Restaurant." Rikkers noted that the MRDs playing Pines of Rome while standing under the Pines of Rome was a special moment. The MRDs then marched out of the Vatican while Italians took pictures and "selfies" with band members.
In short, Rikkers is proud of his MRDs. "We connected with the Italian public in a way that what we did could almost be considered an exchange. We engaged in the culture, said 'Happy New Year' in Italian—which showed me that students really understood the ambassador part of what we were doing."
Photos courtesy of the MRDs.
Over this past summer, Dr. Diane Wilcox and Dr. Noorie Brantmeier, professors in the Learning, Technology, and Leadership Education (LTLE) Department attended the International Conference on Human Resource Development and Practice Across Europe held in Edinburgh, Scotland. Human resource development researchers across the globe came together discuss innovative approaches and promising practices in the field to include: Training and Development, Human Resource Management, Instructional Design, Diversity and Global Competence, and explored the future of the Human Resource Development field.
At the conference, Dr. Brantmeier co-presented the results of an action research project with former LTLE Graduate Assistant and AHRD graduate program alumna Shana Ryman on Safe Zone training workshops. The Safe Zone program offers workshops on JMU's campus for faculty members interested in learning how to be effective allies and how to address social justice issues for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) students in the classroom and in the campus community. By completing Safe Zone training, it is believed that faculty members will become more successful in helping to create an inclusive campus environment for LGBT individuals on JMU's campus. Ryman and Brantmeier's presentation focused on the results of Ryman's graduate Reading and Research project that addressed the question, "What motivates JMU faculty members to attend Safe Zone training workshops?" In light of recent events globally focused on LGBT rights, this topic stimulated a lot of meaningful discussion and reflection given the conference's international attendees.
In addition the conference presentation itself, conducting an action research project offered the opportunity to involve Safe Zone program staff in the project's development and for the graduate researcher to give useful data back to program. Ryman also gained valuable experience through mentorship in the academic conference proposal, submission and paper development process. Dr. Brantmeier stated, "I'm very invested in collaborating with undergraduate and graduate students on research that is personally meaningful, makes a difference in the lives of at-risk communities, and works toward social justice ends. I engaged in mentored research as an undergraduate and throughout my graduate career. Those research experiences with faculty led me to complete a Ph.D. My former professors took the time to mentor me and now it's my turn." Having the opportunity to attend and present at an international conference is a unique opportunity for a graduate student, one made possible with support from the College of Education, the Office of International Programs, and the Graduate School.
Along with Ryman's and Dr. Brantmeier's presentation, Dr. Wilcox delivered a research presentation on Visual Literacy in Technology. As an Instructional Design subject-matter expert with extensive academic background and field experience, Dr. Wilcox is interested in creating an assessment instrument to evaluate visual literacy competencies among international students and students here at JMU. The research study she proposed aims to compare and contrast the way these international and JMU students interpret images within instruction.
"These days, it is common to find instruction being placed on digital devices that has not been optimized for learning," admitted Dr. Wilcox. "By understanding cultural differences in the interpretation of instructional visuals, instructional designers will be able to make necessary adjustments to enhance learning, retention, and transfer."
Dr. Wilcox became interested in exploring this field of research after teaching Visual Literacy courses in Salamanca, Spain in May 2012.
"Based on my experience abroad in Spain, it became clear to me that there were two different schools of thought on the cultural dimensions of visuals," stated Dr. Wilcox. "The first is that visual language is universal – individuals across all cultures share a similar interpretation of what these images mean. The second is that visual language is culture-specific."
Dr. Wilcox's presentation was extremely well received by conference attendees – many offered to provide their assistance and subject-matter expertise when she begins designing the assessment instrument with Dr. Brantmeier and Dr. Thall. By presenting at this prestigious conference, Dr. Wilcox was able to gain the support to move forward with the design of her instrument, while also gathering critical feedback to improve the study's overall design.
In the future, Dr. Wilcox hopes that this study will change the direction of the content delivered in her Instructional Design courses. By providing her students with the most recent research findings, students entering the field will be better equipped to apply instructional design best practices when designing training for international learners.
Social media and teaching are finding a nice balance in the College of Business, thanks to the efforts of innovative professors such as Dr. Andre Neveu, who is an Assistant Professor of Economics. Neveu is focused on breathing new life into a staid subject.
While teaching hundreds of undergraduates over the years, Neveu noticed that his students are constantly bombarded with information (and misinformation), ideas, opinions and facts. To help students wade through the torrent of words, Neveu introduced a Twitter feed, in which he curates articles to make them more palatable and relevant for his students. His feed (http://twitter.com/aneveu) is embedded on his website and blog, as well as on Canvas, making it readily available to his class.
Neveu also developed a system to engage students with the art of blogging. Primarily for his upper level economics classes, Neveu posts a series of news stories relating to topics that the students are covering. Articles may touch on financial literacy, international monetary policy or Federal Reserve policy; it all depends on the class theme at that time. He gives them guidance on forming opinions based on facts rather than on conjecture.
One of the primary takeaways from this exercise is the realization by students that what they post can be seen by anyone. They read through other blog posts and review comments. By understanding the visible nature of their writing, students form more cogent thoughts, take more time with their writing and, consequently, tend to write more carefully.
Neveu asks his students to comment on the blogs stating their opinions, and backing them up with facts in approximately 300 words. He says, "Students need to learn how to contribute to discussions in a meaningful way, and to ignore bad commentary. They need to understand which comments are valuable. It makes them think about their contribution, and how it is viewed." He notes, "This helps to encourage my students to not believe everything they read on the Internet." The young scholars can note what people agree or disagree with, and try to fathom the truth, which enhances their critical thinking skills.
He adds, "Blogging seems to engage students, especially at an upper level." It also gives students exposure to a new, different type of writing.
Students in Neveu's classes also work on a Wiki; they contribute information over the course of the semester and become more engaged with the material. He's been using Wikis for about four years. Students curate individual webpages; they are graded on the information itself as well updates to it.
The Wikis encourage student to create note sheets that they can print out and bring to quizzes in Neveu's class. He thinks the students see value in creating the content themselves. It's a living document that can updated.
Also in his arsenal of social media tools, Neveu includes seven to ten minute videos on specific topics. The students can view these videos as complements to subject matter presented in the classroom. This is an excellent example of a flipped classroom approach; students come to class eager and ready to contribute.
Neveu says, "I think it does engage students more; I think they are far more engaged with regard to the material and their everyday lives. They become aware of news they might not otherwise notice. I try to make my social media outreach both approachable and rigorous."
His website includes a wealth of resource information and live data. Plans for the fall include creating interactive audio podcasts with colleagues on research that relates to material covered in Neveu's class. Students seem to be interested in finance, the stock market and fiscal policy. Perhaps by addressing those issues using different formats, students may become even more engaged.
He says, "Students get a lot out of class; they like the videos, and seem to enjoy the blogs. Reading current events and putting news into context makes it more meaningful. Many economics courses tend to be more theoretical; this approach focuses on the real world application and interpretation."
Neveu's innovative approach to teaching through the use of social media is working; his students give him rave reviews each semester.
Josh Humphries exemplifies the spirit of civic engagement that suffuses JMU. The junior from Roanoke, VA, came here to major in political science, but his involvement in the world of politics and public policy is already well underway. "I want to make it my life's work to better the United States of America," he boldly says.
So far, Josh's contributions stem from his involvement in the Student Government Association. As chair of the SGA's Legislative Action subcommittee, he is responsible for keeping track of new laws at the local, state, and national level that relate to higher education and may impact undergraduates. He and other members of the committee monitor delegates' votes, lobby for or against laws on behalf of JMU, and travel to Richmond to talk with lawmakers face to face. In 2014, financial aid, hazing and out-of-state enrollments were among the important topics discussed.
Josh has recently taken a leadership role in DukesVote, a nonpartisan, student-led initiative focused on getting JMU students voting to include informing students about the candidates, registering the students to vote and finally getting the students to the polls. Established several years ago, DukesVote uses a combination of analog and digital methods, ranging from clipboards on the Commons to TurboVote, a cloud-based program that prompts you to enter basic information and mails you the completed registration form to sign and return. As the SGA's representative to DukesVote, he worked closely with his counterparts in College Democrats, College Republicans, Madison Liberty (Libertarians), the campus chapter of VA2, and other student organizations and groups, including Social Work students and members of the Campus Election Engagement Project or CEEP. Despite the diverse political opinions, Josh always maintains and models respectful civil discourse.
As the November 2014 elections neared, Josh helped organize an on-campus debate between candidates for the open VA senate seat, including candidates Ed Gillespie and Mark Warner. That event, moderated by Dr. Valerie Sulfaro, Professor of Political Science, and held in Festival Ballroom was a big success, drawing a mixed crowd of students, faculty, and community members. Dr. Sulfaro says, "Josh has consistently demonstrated a concern for the rights and interests of his fellow students, and has devoted a great deal of his personal time to student voter education and voter registration. He has campaigned tirelessly to protect student voting rights during his time at JMU."
Finally, Josh has become a regular presence at Harrisonburg City Council meetings, where he strives to improve town-gown relations. Last year, once again representing the SGA and his fellow Dukes, he presented the Friendly Neighbor Resolution to our local officials, who accepted it with appreciation. In addition, he has been appointed to the Harrisonburg Transportation Safety and Advisory Committee as an At-Large member. In this way, he will have a direct role in serving the community.
When he isn't canvassing the campus or the greater Harrisonburg community, Josh can usually be found with the Marching Royal Dukes. As Trombone Section Drill Instructor, he keeps the brass section in line. March on, Mr. Humphries!
Outstanding student and volunteer Kristen Gratton was the recipient of the Rick Casey Annual Scholarship Award. Along with the $1,000 scholarship, Gratton was named the Junior Representative for Le Gourmet, the School of Hospitality, Sports and Recreation Management's fundraising gala that is held every fall. During Gratton's senior year, she became the Senior Representative for Le Gourmet and worked closely with Professor Theresa Lind and Dr. Michael O'Fallon.
Gratton describes her responsibilities as being a "second hand man" to Lind, which included creating and printing the menus, tickets, and name tags, as well as outfitting the wait staff. Le Gourmet was held on November 14 and "was a huge success."
As a Hospitality Management major and a Business minor, Gratton has spent the majority of the fall semester going on job interviews. She interviewed for her dream job at Marriott International in Tampa, Fla., and was recently offered a position in Marriott's Manager Training Program called the Voyage Program. Gratton will likely be working in Operations as a Front Desk Manager; her internships at Marriott International over the past four years has prepared her for this.
"I like being able to have an experience with the guest [and] meeting people from all over the place," said Gratton.
While hospitality has landed Gratton her dream job, she also has a passion for travelling and volunteering. She has been able to do both due to her participation in the Alternative Spring Break Program at JMU for all four of the years that she has attended. Gratton has gone on three Alternative Break trips and is leading her first trip this spring to New Orleans, La. Acknowledging her love for travel, she informed Marriott International that she is more than willing to relocate for her career.
"I always say that I love to travel. But, the best thing about hospitality is that they come to you," Gratton said referring again to the variety of people she looks forward to meeting while working at Marriott International.
Gratton also volunteers at Hope Distributed Food Bank and Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). She was also a member of the rowing team and is a Student Manager for Aramark. Gratton attributes her success to working hard and moving up the ranks on the job. She begins most of her jobs and volunteer opportunities in lower-level positions and slowly, but surely becomes a leader in the organization.
"I like to work myself into things. I like to see how things progress," said Gratton.
Gratton has risen to success in every opportunity that she has been presented with and will likely continue to.
- See more at: http://www.jmu.edu/news/cob/2015/01/12-kristen-gratton-le-gourmet-representative.shtml#sthash.I6J4hV5q.dpufBy: Kiara Mauro ('15), Student Affairs Technical Services
Do you have plans for starting your career after college? Are you looking for advice about internships or jobs? If so, Career and Academic Planning (CAP) can provide you with guidance and support on a variety of topics; from choosing a major and/or career path, to connecting with potential employers. For students preparing to enter the workforce, CAP's "Recruit-A-Duke" program offers a unique opportunity to participate in on-campus recruiting. This service provides students with information about companies, offers career advice, and facilitates the interview process by bringing job recruiters onto JMU's campus.
During the academic year many companies come to JMU to host information sessions, participate in career fairs, and interview with potential candidates. The companies represent a wide range of industries and are looking for students from a variety of majors. Denise Rudolph, CAP's Assistant Director of Employer Relations and Recruiting, believes these campus visits benefit both employers and students. She states, "From an employer's perspective, companies are trying to build relationships with students and create as many touch points as possible through interactions at recruiting events. These interactions help students make more informed decisions about potential employers while providing employers with the opportunity to get to know potential job candidates. They also provide a means for students to gather career advice and feedback from a variety of sources."
The convenience of meeting with potential employers without having to travel during the school year is a big benefit to JMU students looking for jobs or internships. Senior accounting major Connor Arnone had a positive experience interviewing with companies starting in his junior year. He reports, "CAP aided me in receiving an internship for the summer of 2014, which in turn, landed me a job offer." By taking advantage of the services offered through Recruit-A-Duke, Connor made a successful transition from college to the workforce without even stepping foot off of JMU's campus.
Austin Ford, senior WRTC major credits Recruit-A-Duke with helping him receive two job offers from reputable companies. In his experience, this service was an important starting point for his job search.
"Recruit-A-Duke and on-campus recruiting make students' lives so much easier," Ford says. "Don't get me wrong, a lot of work needs to be put forth in order to make a lasting impression on companies, but these two programs really help to get the process started. If you didn't know where to look for a job, now you do. Recruit-A-Duke has listings for companies recruiting specifically from James Madison University."
Career & Academic Planning is committed to helping students transition out of college and into a career. If you would like to participate in on-campus recruiting the first step is to get an account on Recruit-A-Duke. Sign up at www.jmu.edu/cap/recruitaduke to gain access to over 1,000 internship and job postings, and apply for positions online. Good luck in your search!
James Madison women's basketball used an opening 10-0 run and led the entire game as the Dukes defeated Davidson 73-57 on the road at John M. Belk Arena on Sunday afternoon.
Junior guard Precious Hall (Tallahassee, Fla./Maclay School) eclipsed the 1,000-point plateau with her second 3-pointer of the game, becoming just the 27th player in JMU history to hit the mark. She is the fourth-fastest to the mark, scoring 1,000 points in just 79 games for the purple and gold.
She finished with 20 points on the day (1,013 career points) and extended her streak of consecutive double-digit scoring performances to 17 games, which is tied for the 13th longest in JMU history.
By: Julie Stern
Posted: November 18, 2014
The engineering department on October 26 celebrated five years of designing, testing, and building human-powered vehicles for clients in need. Last year's client, Lena Campbell, received her vehicle at the celebration.
Campbell has ataxic cerebral palsy, making muscle coordination in her legs a challenge. Synthesizing the best design ideas contributed from the program's 120 sophomores, junior engineering majors Ryan Taylor and Andy Perry built Campbell's human-powered vehicle, a bicycle powered by a leg press, to help her be more physically active."Our goals were to give Lena the opportunity for more independence, exercise, and the personal freedom of transportation," said Perry."I see myself continuing to create prototypes and focusing on sustainable designs. Wherever I go or whatever I do, I just want to make the world a better and safer place. I definitely think that's what being a Madison Engineer entails." - Ryan Taylor
Each year, the engineering department works with Overcoming Barriers, a mentoring program that partners JMU students with community members who have disabilities, to identify potential clients who could benefit from having a human-powered vehicle. Sophomore engineering students spend fall semester getting to know the client and working through conceptual design. In the spring semester, they build beta prototypes.
Last year, assistant professor and project director Dr. Robert Nagel selected Taylor and Perry to consider all of the beta prototypes and build a final prototype customized to fit Campbell. The students worked through the summer and finished their design this fall.
"The biggest challenge we faced was redesigning and testing a system that would work for Lena," said Perry. "We determined that she had too much difficulty spinning regular bicycle pedals in a circle and leg-press style prototypes worked better for her."
Campbell tried out her new bike at the October 26 celebration, riding along with previous clients and their human-powered vehicles.
"I feel like we helped give Lena independence," said Taylor, "and being able to do something on her own gives her a sense of accomplishment."
The human-powered vehicle project started when assistant professor Dr. Tom Moran, founder of Overcoming Barriers, approached associate professors Dr. Eric Pappas and Dr. Olga Pierrakos with the idea. Dr. Moran wanted a human-powered vehicle to help him with his cerebral palsy. Dr. Pappas and Dr. Pierrakos decided to incorporate the project in their sophomore design course classes, and have continued the project each year since.
Campbell continues working to improve her fitness and training on her new bike at Godwin Hall as a new set of students begins to design prototypes for the next client. For Taylor and Perry, this is just a new beginning.
"I see myself continuing to create prototypes and focusing on sustainable designs," said Taylor. "Wherever I go or whatever I do, I just want to make the world a better and safer place. I definitely think that's what being a Madison Engineer entails."
By: Daniel Vieth
Posted: November 7, 2014
After 20 years of promoting innovative and agile thinking, it is no surprise that so many JMU alumni credit their success to what they learned during their time in the Department of Integrated Science and Technology. In particular, the ISAT major is known for providing students with a broad base of knowledge in technology and for teaching students to approach problems holistically. One company that has embraced the skill set taught in the ISAT major is energy efficiency consulting firm Sustainable Building Partners (SBP), who has developed a firm trust of its ISAT graduates. SBP currently employs 10 alumni across their energy modeling, commissioning, and LEED certification teams. "ISAT teaches you to look at the big picture, work with others, and have patience for uncertainty. ISAT also encourages a number of intangible skills, such as hard work, thinking outside of the box, and a natural curiosity to discover why things work the way they do." - Erica Mulford
SBP specializes in advancing the science of high-performance building, which they achieve through working with architects, engineers, developers, builders and government agencies. "We work with the client to best meet their needs, while also making suggestions for energy improvements," explained Jake Rasmussen ('12). "We provide comprehensive building design and operation consulting, with a focus on a reduction of environmental impact, economic cost, and energy usage." This includes creating computer-based building models that evaluate energy performance and help businesses achieve LEED Certification through green building criteria. "LEED creates buildings that are environmentally responsible [and] directly benefit building operators as a result of the energy savings," said Jacob Torok ('09).
According to alumni Erica Mulford ('13), ISAT graduates have developed a great reputation within SBP, making up almost half of the staff at the company. "The ISAT network is very powerful," Mulford continued. "You feel immediate kinship when you meet previous ISAT majors and that bond helps develop initial relationships." In fact, many of the ISAT alumni employed at SBP were recommended by fellow ISAT graduates working there. "SBP likes to hire people within the network of their current employees," explained Rasmussen. "In the specific case of ISAT, the management has so many students from the program that have succeeded that they are almost always willing to bring in fellow alumni to interview when a position becomes available." ISAT also develops a strong sense of community that encourages long-lasting friendships to form. "I have gained a great many friends through ISAT that I am still close to," added Rasmussen. "This sense of community embodies the ISAT program."
Though many of the students were never specifically trained to work with energy modeling while in the ISAT program, the major taught them adaptability, willingness to collaborate, and the ability to look at problems and solutions on a holistic level. "ISAT teaches you to look at the big picture, work with others, and have patience for uncertainty," said Mulford. ISAT also encourages a number of intangible skills, such as hard work, thinking outside of the box, and a natural curiosity to discover why things work the way they do. "ISAT has helped me look at the interactive effects of different entities rather than each individually," added Torok.
As Rasmussen put it, ISAT "gives students the tools to go for what appeals to them most." ISAT's mission has always been to empower students to analyze and solve problems through a broad base of knowledge in science, technology and teamwork. These skillsets are just a few of the factors that make ISAT alumni so valuable to modern companies like SBP.
On Feb. 9, Mar. 19, and Apr. 1, 2015 Furious Flower presents three poets on the JMU campus. For more than 20 years, this academic center has been bringing established and emerging poets to Harrisonburg to provide students and the local community with opportunities to experience live readings. All of the readings are free and open to the public.
Who should attend a poetry reading? If you care about contemporary issues and culture, meaning, language, art, history, live performance … or if you want to spend an hour doing something extraordinary, poetry readings are for you. In his article "Poetry Makes You Weird" writer Eric G. Wilson explains that poetry "estranges us from our normal habits of thought and perception, nullifies old conceptual maps, and so propels us into uncharted regions, outlandish and bracing …".
What will happen at the reading? When read aloud, poetry can become more accessible and immediate. Furious Flower invites accomplished poets to read their work; some will present only recent poems, and they may even include pieces they're still working out or have yet to publish. Others will read their "greatest hits." During our spring reading series, a poet reads for 45 minutes, and then we host a Q&A session for the final 15 minutes.
When and where are the readings? Join us at the following dates and times:
Feb. 9 at 4pm in Festival's Highlands Room | A Pushcart Prize winner, Kamilah Aisha Moon will feature poems from She Has a Name (2013), which tells the story of a young woman with autism from multiple points of view. The speakers in these poems—sisters, mother, father, teacher—pursue answers to questions science can't yet answer: "Autism, the one-drop rule for minds / we strain to understand, the catch-all…" While seeking to understand, the speakers yearn to protect the young woman—"The last thing / I ever wanted was to let her / down," says the Father. Whether protector or questioner, each voice strives to understand their own feelings of love, awe, and guilt toward this remarkable young woman with autism. - See more at http://www.jmu.edu/events/furiousflower/2015/02/09-kamilah-aisha-moon.shtml.
Mar. 19 at 4pm at the Duke Hall Gallery | Rachel Eliza Griffiths' full-length collection, Mule & Pear (2011), was selected for the 2012 Inaugural Poetry Award by the Black Caucus American Library Association. In it, the speakers echo and respond to some of the most important black women characters in the literature of the past 100 years. Both a poet and photographer, Griffiths teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Fittingly, her reading takes place in the Duke Hall Gallery and will help launch her latest book, Lighting the Shadow (2015) and showcase some of her images in the gallery. - See more at http://www.jmu.edu/events/furiousflower/2015/03/19-rachel-eliza-griffiths.shtml.
Apr. 1 at 4pm in Taylor 405 | As a founding board member of the Community Orchard of Bloomington, IN, Ross Gay is deeply dedicated to sustainability—something that comes through in his abundant and ecstatic poetry. His third collection of poetry A Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude (2015) focuses on the themes of planting and gardening. "This is a book that studies the wisdom of the garden and orchard," he says, "those places where all—death, sorrow, loss—is converted into what might, with patience, nourish us." - See more at http://www.jmu.edu/events/furiousflower/2015/04/01-ross-gay.shtml.
And don't forget this annual community event:
Apr. 21 at 4pm in the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum | Celebrate National Poetry Month with this outdoor reading. Bring your own or someone else's nature poem to share, read it by the Poet-Tree, then leave it in the basket on the weeping willow. - See more at http://www.jmu.edu/events/furiousflower/2015/04/21-poet-tree.shtml.
For updates on these events and all we do at Furious Flower, follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
In the College of Education (COE), faculty members have made it a collective mission to extend the college's international presence while creating lasting educational partnerships with universities and study abroad programs around the globe. When Dr. Oris Griffin, a professor in the Adult Education/Human Resource Development (AHRD) graduate program, was invited by former AHRD student Yuanjie Dai to visit her home in China this summer, she jumped at the opportunity.
While enrolled in the AHRD program, Dai was interested in observing the differences across cultures in employee perceptions of privacy issues in the workplace. After collecting and analyzing the data from her study examining JMU employees, Dai planned to replicate her experiment back home in Wuhan, China, at Wuhan University, where she and her parents work. Dr. Griffin, Dai's graduate research advisor, agreed to make the trip and provide assistance due to her familiarity with the study. Although they were unable carry out the experiment at Wuhan University, connections were made that will continue to deepen Dr. Griffin and Dai's relationship. In addition to meeting with Dai and her family, Dr. Griffin also had the opportunity to meet with Hong "Helen" Embree, another former AHRD graduate and instructor in the Foreign Language department at JMU, at her home in Chengdu, China. During their time spent together here at JMU, Embree and Dr. Griffin have been working on designing a summer program for high school students in China to have an opportunity to study abroad while also being able to visit colleges and universities within this region.
"I want these students to have the opportunity to experience what its like to navigate a foreign environment," stated Dr. Griffin. "It's important for them to be able to gain new academic and cultural perspectives through their studies and travel."
By establishing this partnership, Embree and Dr. Griffin are confident that JMU will become more competitive in the selection process when these international students begin submitting college applications.
"By providing these students with this learning opportunity, we are giving them a platform," stated Dr. Griffin. "A platform that allows them to understand our culture, while allowing us to conceptualize their academic values and customs. By doing this, we can help them make a smoother transition across-cultures."
Since returning from her trip, Dr. Griffin has incorporated new topics into her Leadership and Diversity course curriculum. By creating assignments and facilitating discussions centered around the different ways cultures conduct business, students within the AHRD program will become more well-rounded, culturally competent HRD professionals.
Contact Oris to learn more about her work.
Check out her BE THE CHANGE profile
By: Daniel Vieth
Posted: December 7, 2015
On October 1st, 2013, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Clinton Presidential Library made history by releasing more than 300 previously classified documents "It was just all the stars coming into alignment, with the CIA releasing the documents and being interested in having scholars take a look at them," said Walton. "It's just a match made in heaven for the engaged university." related to America's involvement in the 1992-1995 Bosnian War - the earliest any collection of CIA documents had ever been released. One of the key factors in releasing these documents was for scholars to study America's successful use of intelligence to help end the war. To encourage universities like JMU to become involved, the CIA reached out to Intelligence Analysis (IA) professor and former CIA analyst Dr. Timothy Walton six months prior to the release. "It was just all the stars coming into alignment, with the CIA releasing the documents and being interested in having scholars take a look at them," said Walton. "It's just a match made in heaven for the engaged university." With Walton's planning, JMU hosted an international academic conference, published a compilation of the scholarly research from the conference, and started a connection with the Scholarship Fund for Gifted Students at the American University in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The conference, entitled 'Intelligence and the Transition from War to Peace,' was hosted at JMU on March 19-20, 2014. "The conference was a multidisciplinary examination of the role of intelligence in ending the fighting and genocide of the crisis in Bosnia," explained JMU President Jonathan Alger, who gave the opening remarks at the ceremony. "We brought together scholars from around the United States to look at the newly released documents from the CIA archives and the Clinton Presidential Library to help us understand this process." Some other attendees at the conference included former Clinton Administration principal deputy Jan Lodal, who gave the keynote address, JMU professors Dr. Mark Piper and Dr. Pia Antolic-Piper, former naval intelligence officer Dr. Jonathan Smith, and a team of intelligence officers from the Netherlands. "I was delighted at the people we were able to get," Walton exclaimed. "We had people who really had some good and interesting stories to tell."
Following the conference, Walton edited and compiled the scholars' research into a book, 'The Role of Intelligence in Ending the War in Bosnia in 1995,' which was published on September 26, 2014. "The idea behind this book was to have people from different academic backgrounds look at the exact same documents to provide an overall integrated picture of the Bosnian War," explained Walton. "We had experts on religion, political science, linguistics, a military analyst, an intelligence officer and more, so we had all of these angles and got a really well-rounded view." For example, a group of JMU professors including the Pipers wrote 'Beyond Bosnia: Ethical Reasoning in Political Deliberations about Humanitarian Intervention,' which argues that larger ethical reasoning should have been involved in the deliberations following the war. "The conference and book were an excellent example of JMU scholars making novel contributions on a timely, important topic with a variety of experts," said Dr. Mark Piper. "The editing work done by Dr. Walton was also remarkably efficient and very high quality."
Early on in the process of putting the conference and book together, the scholars began discussing what to do with the royalties of the book. "Typically professors and scholars don't do it for the money," Walton explained. "We started talking and decided it wouldn't make a difference with the money for us as individuals, but if we put it all together we could give it to some charitable organization." After looking at a number of charities around Harrisonburg, the group realized that even a modest sum could make a much larger difference for individuals in Bosnia. With a little research, Walton found the Scholarship Fund for Gifted Students at the American University in Bosnia and Herzegovina. "Students in Bosnia are like students everywhere," said Walton. "They want to get a good job, have a family, and career. But Bosnia is one of the hardest places to make that happen." This scholarship intends to give Bosnian students a greater education and help them escape from poverty and crime in their country. "There's some good and smart kids in Bosnia, and what they need is an education," Walton added.
"This conference exemplified each of the three pillars of engagement: engaged learning, community engagement, and civic engagement," President Alger explained. "It was a model for what JMU should be: a place of convening and learning where serious people, sometimes from far beyond Harrisonburg, can come together to discuss and debate complex and challenging issues." Thanks to the careful planning of Walton and the contributions of scholars from JMU and beyond, the conference and book on intelligence's role in the Bosnian War have been a success, with the book's proceeds going directly to helping students in Bosnia achieve their goals.
Encouraging partnerships within and outside of the university has always been one of the goals of JMU's College of Integrated Science and Engineering. JMU as a whole also promotes environmental sustainability and energy efficiency throughout the community. That is why it was a perfect match when MillerCoors reached out to JMU for ways to further reduce their energy consumption and environmental impact. Since then, the ISAT and Engineering Departments have worked with MillerCoors through student internships and capstone projects that promote energy savings, while giving students invaluable experience with a real-world client.
The local MillerCoors production plant is the largest company in the Shenandoah Valley, as well as one of the most energy efficient breweries in the world. Before the current projects, MillerCoors had already spent millions installing a cutting-edge waste water treatment system that reduces potential nutrients to the Chesapeake Bay, a brewery biogas generator which converts waste methane back into electricity, and an elaborate automation system that maximizes efficiency while monitoring data on the system's operations. "The MillerCoors facility is one of the most technologically advanced breweries in the world," explained ISAT professor Dr. Chris Bachmann. "There's so much [ISAT and Engineering students] can learn about this facility that's applicable to a lot of other business and industries."
While the two had worked on similar programs in the past, the current collaboration began in 2008 when JMU faculty was invited by MillerCoors to look at energy efficiency options. In December of 2012, a team of ISAT and Engineering faculty went to tour the facility and begin a conversation about possible projects. "We were asked to propose one or two projects that JMU could engage in with MillerCoors related to energy or material efficiency," said Engineering professor and project advisor Dr. Jacquelyn Nagel. "We talked about what are MillerCoors' needs or issues around different efficiencies with their brewing process."
The first project chosen was an energy audit of their brewhouse, evaluating the feasibility of adding more insulation to brewhouse pipes. The first student to tackle this project was Matt Wisniewski ('13), a JMU engineering student who began gathering data and determining how best to approach the question during the summer of 2013. "Matt started taking baseline data, looking at the current temperatures of all these different pipes related to two parts of the brewing process," Nagel explained.
This initial step was followed by the first ISAT capstone project, with students Matthew Hess ('14) and Lindsay Nguyen ('14) continuing Wisniewski's work determining MillerCoors pipe insulation needs. After the two collected and analyzed more data, they determined that the idea was not cost effective, which resulted in saving MillerCoors a large sum of money. "These students took ownership of the project, and by the second semester they knew the ins and outs more than anyone," said ISAT professor and project advisor Dr. Karim Altaii. "That's when my job is done, when they're on their own making the connections and having the confidence."
The success of these projects resulted in the two current capstone projects, with two teams of ISAT and Engineering students working together to explore energy Since its inception, the collaboration has been mutually beneficial for both MillerCoors and JMU. "The students get to be in a professional setting, where they work with professionals and begin to understand the dynamics of an enterprise," - Kyle Gipsonoptions at MillerCoors' administration building. "This time instead of energy efficiency for the brewhouse, we're looking at efficiencies related to HVAC, or heating, ventilating, and air conditioning, for their business building," said Nagel. The independent teams of ISAT and Engineering students bring their own expertise in tackling how best MillerCoors can save energy and money. "I think that it is awesome to have two student teams working together, because that's really what's going to happen when they get into the workplace," Nagel continued. "You're going to be a part of a group that works with other units, so we're providing them that real experience."
MillerCoors has been supportive in the collaboration from the start, with employees like Mike Ouderkirk, Walter Heeb, and Nyeshu Street helping put the projects together, providing information, and supervising the students. Today the relationship has expanded to include employees Josh Mason and Derek Hafley. "The employees at MillerCoors have been open and gracious with their time, as well as the time of the [students] who are working on this project with them," said engineering professor and project advisor Dr. Kyle Gipson. "They have made it a point to be a part of these projects, and they are fully engaged in being a part of the process."
Since its inception, the collaboration has been mutually beneficial for both MillerCoors and JMU. "The students get to be in a professional setting, where they work with professionals and begin to understand the dynamics of an enterprise," explained Gipson. "The capstone as a whole is an integrative piece of the curriculum, but having a corporate sponsor gives students a methodology to see that the theory they're learning in class has practical applications." For MillerCoors, the employees get access to hard working and bright students, as well as fresh perspectives. "Interacting with the talent pool at JMU is very beneficial to MillerCoors. It engages the expertise of the faculty and brings the youthful energy of the students to their facility," Bachmann added. "The JMU partnership inspires them."
The current ISAT capstone project will be completed in the spring of 2015, followed by the engineering capstone in the spring of 2016.
In 2011, a group of eight female engineering students gathered to discuss the possibility of forming an organization that would promote engineering among women and support female engineering students.
"This award means that we are successfully carrying out the mission and strategic plan of SWE in what we do, and also serves as validation for the hard work and effort the members have put in," — Dr. Jacquelyn Nagel
Just three years later, the group that became a chartered section of the Society of Women Engineers was recognized at the national level as the "Outstanding New Collegiate Section" of 2014. The award was announced at SWE's annual conference in October.
"JMU SWE wouldn't be where they are without the dedication and commitment the members have, and it shows by the sustainability and growth of the section over the years," said Paulina Hoang, JMU SWE counselor and alumna.
SWE works to empower women to succeed and advance in their engineering aspirations. "This award means that we are successfully carrying out the mission and strategic plan of SWE in what we do, and also serves as validation for the hard work and effort the members have put in," said Dr. Jacquelyn Nagel, the section's faculty advisor.
This semester, the JMU section focused on supporting members in their leadership development, increasing awareness of SWE in the engineering department and JMU community, and positively impacting the JMU and Harrisonburg communities by advocating for women in engineering.
The JMU section hosted a variety of professional development events including networking with professionals and engineering companies, hosting industry dinners, attending regional and national conferences, and hosting a professional dress event.
The organization also participated in outreach events designed to introduce young wom