Olivia DrakeAbove, Liz Demakos '09 of Amherst, N.Y. was named a New England Small College Athletic Conference All-Academic selection for Women's Squash. Below, Sean Watson '08, was named an All-Academic for Men's Indoor Track and Field. Posted 04/04/08 The New England Small College Athletic Conference announced its 2007-08 Winter All-Academic selections March 19 with 407 student-athletes that participated in a winter sport earning All-Academic recognition. To be honored, a student-athlete must have reached junior academic standing and be a varsity letter winner with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.35. A transfer student must have completed one year of…
Christine Pina '91 travels 100 times a year visiting Wesleyan alumni, friends and parents to secure gifts for the university. Posted 04/03/08 Christine Pina loves donors to give, and give big. As the director of major gifts in University Relations, Pina oversees solicitations of financial gifts of $50,000 and higher, and has responsibility for both the major gifts and development research teams. "Our teams work to raise large gifts for Wesleyans endowment and other capital needs such as buildings and programs," Pina explains. "We work with alumni, friends and parents to secure gifts that will be used to strengthen…
Fotini Xenidis '11 has already qualified provisionally for the NCAA Division III Championships. Posted 04/03/08 Q: Fotini, you just broke a 23-year-old outdoor track record at Wesleyan in the javelin by more than 13 feet in your first collegiate meet. Did you have any idea what Wesleyan's team record was before you began competing and if so, did you think you'd be able to break it so soon?A: I knew that the record was 130 because it was in the field house and we always practiced there so I would see it every day. My best throw in high…
Josh Hamilton, evening manager for the Usdan University Center, builds relationships with Wesleyan students through the Usdan Center Activities Board. Posted 04/03/08 Q: Josh, when does the evening begin at the Usdan University Center? What is your typical shift?A: Generally around 6 p.m. is when I begin. The evening continues until 2 a.m. when we do our final walk through before going home.Q: What are your primary duties as a manager?A: I am here to support the student staff that operates the building.Q: What typically goes on during your job?A: I do a fair amount of work on my…
BLOGS or WIKIS?: Kevin Wiliarty, academic technology coordinator, speaks on "Wesleyan Blogs and Wikis: What are they? How can I use them?" during the Academic Technology Roundtable March 3 in Olin Library. Wiliarty assists faculty and staff in the creation and maintenance of various professional webpages. He recommends users look into Web 2.0 technologies to collaborate on projects via the web. At left, Jamie Cohen-Cole, visiting assistant professor of history, speaks about his personal experience using Web 2.0 technologies. Faculty and staff can create their own accounts through Wesleyan's Electronic Portfolio. (Photos by Olivia Bartlett)
Santos Cayetano, associate director of the McNair Program, works with first-generation college students to prepare them for graduate school. The program is located inside Butterfield B. Posted 03/17/08 Santos Cayetano has supported Wesleyan for years. He mentored students through the Upward Bound program and taught classes at the Great Hollow Wilderness School, an experimental education center formerly overseen by Wesleyan. Now Cayetano is helping first generation college students from low-income families prepare for a successful post-graduate education experience through the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program. The McNair Program serves students who are first generation college students from low-income…
Laurel Appel, visiting associate professor of biology and director of the McNair program, teaches participants how to extract DNA from wheat germ during the Green Street Arts Center's Sunday Salon Series, hosted by David Beveridge, pictured in back. Posted 03/17/08 In the 18th century, educated people in the upper reaches of society would meet at a salon to discus their ideas and observations. Today, this tradition continues without the pretentious aristocratic trappings at the Green Street Art Centers Sunday Salon Series. During the two-hour sessions held on Sundays throughout the academic year, Wesleyan faculty and staff speak to a general…
Intisar Abioto 08, left, and her sisters, Amenta and Kalimah, traveled to Djibouti as part of their "People Could Fly Project." In Djibouti, they met men and camels returning from Lac Assal, the lowest point in Africa, with salt from the lakes shores. Posted 03/17/08 Intisar Abioto 08 had a recurring daydream where she traveled to all parts of the world, adventure-seeking, meeting new people and hearing their stories especially people her own age. Our positive stories arent always represented in books or movies or on TV, and what the repercussions of this are, is that young people dont…
Posted 03/17/08 Food: Power and Identity is the topic of the Wesleyans 2008 Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns. The event will take place April 4-6 on campus. Endowed by James Shasha 50, the annual Shasha Seminar supports lifelong learning and encourages participants to expand their knowledge and perspectives on significant issues. This year, seminar speakers will discuss how food shapes our identity, public and private discourse, politics and daily lives. Food: Power and Identity will tackle issues on food production, such as industrial agriculture, organic agriculture, genetic manipulation, local vs. global, sustainability; food and politics, for example unequal distribution of…
Posted 03/17/08 For the second year in a row, Wesleyan is participating in the nation-wide competition, RecycleMania, for college and university recycling programs. The 10-week program provides campus communities with a fun, proactive activity in waste reduction. More than 400 institutions are participating in different contests to see which institution can collect the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or have the highest recycling rate. "This is a fun way for the Wesleyan community to get excited about recycling, and possibly end up with national recognition, awards…
Professor of Astronomy Bill Herbst observed sand-like grains in space through the reflection of light from stars. These grains are the building blocks of an Earth-like planet. Posted 03/17/08 For the first time, astronomers have observed the initial phase in the formation of an earth-like planet.The discovery, highlighted in the March 13 issue of Nature, was documented by a team of astronomers led by William Herbst, the John Monroe Van Vleck Professor of Astronomy, chair of the Astronomy Department and director of the Van Vleck Observatory (pictured at right) and Catrina Hamilton, Ph.D 03, assistant professor of physics and astronomy…
In January, Hannah Hastings '08 and Andrea Pain '08 collected seagrass from the ocean floor to study nutrient content in a dinoflagellate-rich ecosystem off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico. The seniors returned to Wesleyan and analyzed their samples for carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus levels. They discovered a high ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus compared to the normal ratio in the ocean. "We discovered that high dinoflagellate concentrations are directly associated with elevated nitrogen to phosphorus ratios," Pain said during Part I of the Earth and Environmental Science Departments Senior Seminar Research Project colloquium March 6. Part II of the…