One senior planning to 'hit the trail' after graduation
Some
time after graduation, Andrew
McCabe is planning to
hit the trail: the Appalachian Trail.
“I
used to hike a lot when I was younger, but I got away from it during college,”
he said. “When you're doing [Student] Forum and admissions and school work,
every weekend is taken up.”
McCabe,
who won the Daggett Prize presented to the senior of the best conduct and
character, has been busy indeed. After his class work for a major in computer
science and minors in math and economics and a full schedule as president of
Student Forum, a long walk in the woods may be just the break he needs, even if
it means carrying a heavy pack.
After
sophomore year, McCabe and Robyn Kurland '03 started Geisel House (a theme
house that promotes childhood literacy); he joined the Theme House Consortium and served as a theme house representative to Student Forum. Last year, he was
elected president of Student Forum. He also served on Student Affairs
Committee, Theme House Consortium, the selection committee for the House System
Implementation Committee and as an admissions interviewer and panelist.
The
Union Scholar also was a member of the winter and spring track teams, specializing
in the 400- and 800-meter.
“I've
enjoyed becoming very involved with the running of the College,” he said,
something he mentions often to prospective students and their families.
“At age 18 or 19, you can be on a committee or a group that affects the way
the College runs.” For example, Student Forum controls a budget of about
$500,000. “When I talk to parents and students, they listen when I say
that students plan the allocation of the activities funding,” he said.
“In Forum, you'll definitely get to know what's going on … whether you
like it or not.”
He
characterizes his time of leadership in the Forum as a quiet one without much
turmoil. Among his proudest achievements with Forum was the establishment of a
comprehensive web calendar of events.
As
for coming to Union, the choice was easy, he said. Besides a number of
relatives who attended (His sister, Gillian, is a sophomore.), he liked the
College's blend of disciplines. “Union offered
everything that I wanted,” he said. “I didn't want to be a computer
science student at a technical school. At Union,
you cannot escape the liberal arts. You'll have computer science in the morning
and ancient poetry in the evening.”
McCabe
said he plans to go to graduate school, perhaps to earn an MBA, but that he
would like to work for a while first. In the near future, however, he is
planning his adventure on the Appalachian
Trail. “I think it will
be fun to get outside and get a break while I can.”
Because
“through hikers” of the A.T. usually start the 2,160-mile trek from Georgia to Maine in March, McCabe will be looking for an eight-month
job in the computer field. “In a perfect world, I'll find a job that will
take me back after I'm done with the Trail [in the fall of 2004],” he
said.
Senior duo fights back
against cancer; raises $58,000
Seniors
Angela “Angie” DeSilva and Emily Sweeney shared a common bond in
shepherding the “Relay for Life” American Cancer Society fundraiser
for cancer research, which raised nearly $60,000 in the fight against cancer.
Both
experienced the disease's impact on their lives. Two years ago, DeSilva's
boyfriend, Ryan, died from cancer. Sweeney's mother is a cancer survivor.
Despite
her loss, DeSilva feels she is a better person for the experience. She said her
boyfriend's death changed her life. Her career path became clear: a dual major
(psychology and sociology), she plans on going to grad school to become a
counselor to terminally ill children and their parents.
Also
out of her grief grew a passion for her ACS fundraising, which she says may be
her most enduring tribute to Ryan's positive attitude and resilient spirit.
For
Sweeney, going through the fight has made her want to help others. “I
thank God that my mom is in remission and I know that she is where she is
because of all the people who have raised money for cancer research. So many
people will be touched by cancer, if not directly, somehow indirectly.
“I
think the participation of the Union campus speaks for itself,” Sweeney
said. “[It] indicates that a lot of the campus community (particularly the
students) have been touched by cancer or realize the threat that this disease
presents.
“Angie
and I are overwhelmed by the support we have received. We have surpassed any
goal that we set and are excited and enthusiastic about the upcoming
event.”
With
still more contributions coming in, the total raised represents the second
largest ever raised at this type of event. It eclipses by $10,000 the total
raised through a Relay at Syracuse University. Most college's raise about $15,000, according to the
ACS.
Between
7 p.m. on May 30, and 7 the next morning, teams walked the perimeter sidewalks around the Nott Memorial
and Library Field in the first Relay event at the College. The opening ceremony
drew hundreds who came to listen to cancer survivors and to cheer as they took
a lap around the walkways, which were marked with hundreds of candle luminaries
dedicated to cancer victims and survivors.
In Fiji project, student mixes technology
and culture
John Thompson went to Fiji last winter term for a wedding of sorts,
the unlikely marriage of high technology and Fijian village culture.
His project, an independent study titled, “A Digital
Ethnography of Rakiraki, Fiji,” used digital cameras and recording
equipment to create what he calls “a web-based interactive cultural
learning environment.”
The website – at http://fiji.union.edu/
— explores the cultural identity of Fiji through the perspective of both the local
Fijians and the Union students. The term abroad students and members of the
Rakiraki village were instructed in the use of digital cameras and camcorders
with the goal of recording their reactions and experiences. Through photos,
videos, audio interviews, and field notes, this site provides a unique
comparison between a native view and an American student view of Fijian
culture.
If, as the adage goes, “A picture is worth a thousand
words,” the question for Thompson was, “Who can best create those
pictures?”
So, on the three-month Fiji term, Thompson had Union's 10 student-ethnographers record Fijian
culture with photographs, videos, audio and field notes.
But he did something else: he empowered the research subjects to
portray their own culture. “I wanted to give them the means to show their
own culture, to show what is important to them, rather than just having our
students portray it with cultural relativism,” he said. “I wanted
[the Fijians] to establish a cultural identity through their own eyes.”
Under the direction of Professors Steve Leavitt and Karen Brison,
10 Union students live with Fijian families in a small village, learning
effective research methods and conducting their own individual research
projects. The professors and students set up “FijiNet” during a 1999
trip to the Pacific island. Thompson's project builds off that earlier effort.
'Just having fun,'
self-styled leader gets top service prize
Bailey
Prize winner Desirée Plata, a senior from Portland, Maine, says she didn't think she had the credentials for
the prize that recognizes the “greatest service to the College in any field.”
A
self-styled student leader who never sought campus-wide elected office, the
chemistry major says, “I've tried to add to the campus just by being myself.”
“Being
myself” includes secretary of U-MED, the student EMS organization; manager and
president of the Coffee House; general manager of WRUC; member of the U2K
steering committee; president of the Chemistry Club; chemistry tutor; and
teacher in Mad Science, an off-campus program that does science shows for
children.
Plata,
a research veteran who has presented at a number of conferences, says she can't
help noticing that when it comes to working in a lab or presenting research,
Union students seem to be more at ease than their counterparts at larger institutions.
“Because
we're a smaller school, we have access to the faculty and we get our hands on
all the equipment,” she said. “That doesn't happen at other schools.
They can put us in a lab and we know our way around. And we present our
research all the time.”
A
chemistry major with minors in math and biology, Plata will enroll this year in
MIT's Ph.D. program in chemical oceanography at Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institute. She did research last summer at Woods Hole on diesel fuel
contamination during a summer student fellowship from the National Science
Foundation.
Among
her other honors, the Union Scholar received the George Catlin Prize for high
scholastic standing and promise in graduate study and college teaching; and the
Robert Fuller Prize for the chemistry senior with outstanding research work.
Plata also received an honorable mention as a finalist for the NSF Graduate
Research Fellowship. She was recently elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Last
year (with Will Johnson '02), she was named a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar. The
prestigious award supports promising scientists, mathematicians and engineers
with a $7,500 stipend for each of their remaining years of undergraduate study.
Advised
by Prof. Mary Carroll, Plata is a member of the Aerogel Research Team, a research
collaboration of mechanical engineering and chemistry. She specialized in
developing aerogel oxygen sensors. She also did research on fresh water fish
communication and the effects of acid rain. She was co-author with Prof. James
Adrian and former Prof. Grant Brown of a paper on that project in the Journal
of Chemical Ecology & Behavior.
Plata did terms aboard in Panama and Kenya, experiences that she says are the envy of her
counterparts at other institutions.
A
frequent panelist at admissions open houses, Plata advises prospective students
to take advantage of all the intellectual and social opportunities that await.
“I tell them, 'Just do what you think is fun.'”
From tiny Maine town, she takes armful of prizes
Julia
Maher '03 is another one of those prodigious achievers with a small-town New England background. She hails from Owls Head, Maine – population 1,600. Maybe it's the benefits of
growing up breathing sea air or living where the pace is a bit slower – whatever
it is, Julia has certainly left her imprimatur on Union.
Maher,
an English major, minored in East Asian Studies and was a tutor at the Writing Center. She also performed with Idol Minds improv group. She
wrote a commentary on Allen Ginsberg's Tear Gas Rag during a
“Deadheads” seminar and is a contributing writer for the Concordiensis.
At
Prize Day, Maher walked away with an armful. She is the 2003 recipient of the
William F. Allen Essay Prize; William H. Bloom, M.D., and Jonathan R. Bloom
Poetry Prize; the David Brind Memorial Prize in English; and the Phi Beta Kappa
Award.
Maher
said the most enduring impact of her four years at Union
will be the relationships she cultivated with her professors. She said that
since Union is a small college, she had opportunities to work
closely with her professors and get the personal attention she desired, unlike
her friends who attended large universities. “They [the faculty] are
amazing people,” she said.
Her
immediate post-graduation plans are on hold due to SARS – she hoped to teach
English in China and attend Nanjing Normal University to study Chinese. Ultimately, she plans to earn a
doctorate so she can teach English and comparative literature on the college
level.
Maher's
love of literature is rivaled only by her love of writing – critical writing
for the intellectual stimulation and challenge; and poetry, an outlet for her
creative energies.
Perhaps
most telling is her senior honors thesis, “The Overpassing Marriage of
Speaking and Hearing within William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and Absalom!
Absalom!” In Faulkner's richly textured works, Maher explored dialect
and the basic need for communication – a concept she herself has mastered very
well indeed.
Following the circus, camera in hand
Nori Lupfer, a senior visual arts major from West Lebanon, N.H., has been selected as a Watson Fellow to receive a
one-year grant for travel and study outside the U.S.
Her topic, “Circuses and Stunts: Photography of Entertainment
in Motion,” will take her to Brazil, Switzerland, France, Slovenia, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic and Russia.
Lupfer, an accomplished freestyle aerial skier, last year
performed ski stunts with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
This time, it's her turn to do the watching … and photography.
Lupfer is one of 60 graduating seniors from 50 colleges and
universities who will receive $22,000 from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation for
a one-year wanderjahr outside of the U.S. She is the 45th Union student to earn a
Watson since the program began in 1969.
To read about Lupfer's experience, visit our news site at: http://www.union.edu/N/DS/s.php?s=2143
At intersection of
psychology and law, senior wins Cooke scholarship
For
as long as she can recall, Stephanie Block has been interested in the
intersection of psychology and law.
That
interest came into sharper focus last spring when she did an internship as a
victim's advocate for the Rensselaer County District Attorney's Office.
And
it helped the senior psychology major and French minor win a scholarship from
the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to support her senior year at Union.
The award is based on overall excellence in academics, leadership and service.
She is one of 79 students nationwide to receive up to $30,000 annually toward
the remainder of their undergraduate education.
Block,
from River Edge, N.J., said she is considering Ph.D. programs in psychology,
and eventually law school.
“Therapy
works toward improving the welfare of a single individual,” she said.
“But only through the law can we ultimately change society in ways that
benefit large numbers of our fellow human beings.”
Block
was a founder and coordinator of the College's chapter of ROAR (Reach Out and
Read, through the Hillel chapter), a Big Sister since freshman year to a local
9-year-old girl, and a counselor at a sleep-away camp for children with AIDS (Camp Compass in Highlands, N.Y.).
She
is president of Psi Chi, the psychology honor society; captain of the Union
College Dance Team; philanthropy chair for the Delta Delta Delta sorority;
student representative at Union's Leadership conference; and an Ambassador and former
Gatekeeper with the Admissions Office.
She
did a two-term independent study on eating disorders with Prof. Thomas Rieg,
and presented the results at the Steinmetz Symposium and a meeting of the
Eastern Psychological Association in Boston.
The
Jack Kent Cooke Foundation receives more than $500 million in assets from
the estate of Jack Kent Cooke, who built a media empire and also owned the Los
Angeles Lakers and Washington Redskins. Cooke, whose dream to go to college
ended when he had to leave school to find work during the Depression, died in
1997.