Posted on Mar 25, 2010

It’s an experience they’re not likely to forget.

Students in Professor Carol Weisse’s cognitive neuroscience class recently conducted a laboratory exercise by going into the community and conducting a “virtual dementia tour” for individuals who wanted to improve their understanding of cognitive decline. 

Obenzinger Scholar Leah Robison ’10 coordinated the event, which allowed participants, many of whom were volunteers for the Alzheimer’s Buddy Program, to learn more about what it’s like to live with dementia. The buddy program, which has a campus chapter, offers support to families and individuals in the community dealing with dementia.

Wearing specialized goggles and headphones presenting sounds meant to impair cognitive processing, participants were asked to complete some basic household tasks, many of which turned out to be an unexpected challenge.  

“This was a new lab course, and I tried to incorporate service learning. It ended up being a fun and interesting event,” said Weisse, director of Health Professions Program.

“Students were able to conduct a unique laboratory exercise while gaining a better understanding of dementia and offering a valuable service to the community.”

More than 4.5 million of the approximately 35 million Americans age 65 and older suffer from dementia, the overriding diagnosis for cognitive impairments.  Alzheimer’s disease is the largest category under dementia.

Posted on Mar 24, 2010

Their summer is for the birds – chickens to be precise – and sophomores Jonathan Chew and Mcolisi Dlamini couldn’t be happier about it. To fight famine and promote self-sustainability, the two mechanical engineering students will spend their vacation building a poultry farm in Kenya.

It’s an expensive proposition, what with the cost of travel, construction material, labor, training and chickens. But thanks to their recent Kathryn Wasserman Davis Projects for Peace award, Chew and Dlamini will have the funds to farm. With the $10,000 prize, they’ll build the operation at Koimbi Orphanage in Kenya’s Muranga District.

“The goal is to develop a source of food and income for the orphanage that will make it more independent and less reliant on donors,” Dlamini said.

He speaks from experience, with personal knowledge of their need for agricultural, financial and economic self-reliance. In July 2007, Dlamini visited Koimbi with Kumbuka Universal Learning Experience (KULE).

“Most the children at Koimbi have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS,” he said. “My own country, Swaziland, has the highest rate of HIV infection at about 26 percent, and also has a growing number of orphans. So hearing their stories was very moving.”

It was also galvanizing.

“When I visited Koimbi, KULE brought a few bags of corn and beans,” Dlamini said. “I can recall Grace, one of the caretakers, saying, ‘You saved us, we were just running out.’ We hope this project will improve the orphans’ health.”

Chew and Dlamini also hope it will serve as a model for the rest of the country, which still bears the scars of horrible violence that occurred after a fraudulent, Kenyan presidential election in 2007. The unprecedented turbulence resulted in hundreds of deaths and the internal displacement of a quarter-million people.

“The construction process and daily operation of this farm are chances to cultivate self-empowerment, financial independence and a spark for progress in children and adults,” said Chew, who is from Malaysia. “Our vision is for this community to be an example of a peaceful, stable, progressive and involved society – we want it to inspire the nation.”

The pair will be aided by KULE, which has a strong working relationship with the community and has successfully launched a similar poultry project for women.

Davis Projects for Peace, designed to encourage motivated youth to create and implement ideas that promote peace, is now in its fourth year. It’s also the fourth year Union students have been named recipients.

Last year’s scholars, Jared Iacolucci ‘09, Erin Schumaker ‘09 and Kaitlyn Evans ‘09, raised awareness of the plight of immigrants in the border town of Naco, Mexico. In 2008, Kara Lightman ‘09 strove to help Cambodian women escape lives of poverty through education, and in 2007, Karyn Amira ‘08 worked to curb landmines in the same country.

To learn more about the program, which supports 100 projects annually, click here.

Posted on Mar 22, 2010

Internationally known Islamic studies scholar Jane Dammen McAuliffe will give the Wold Lecture on Religion and Conflict Wednesday, March 31 in the Nott Memorial. Her talk, “What’s the Point? Interreligious Dialogue in a Time of Terrorism,” begins at 4:30 p.m. with a reception to follow.

McAuliffe, president of Bryn Mawr College, previously served as dean of Georgetown College at Georgetown University, where she taught history and Arabic and Islamic studies. She also chaired the department for Study of Religion at the University of Toronto.

She received her bachelor’s degree in philosophy and classics from Trinity College, Washington, D.C., and her master’s in religious studies and doctorate in Islamic studies from the University of Toronto.

McAuliffe’s numerous publications have focused primarily on the Qur’an and its interpretation, on early Islamic history and on the multiple relations between Islam and Christianity. She has also written or edited four books, and recently completed the six-volume “Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an,” the first such reference work in Western languages. 

In addition to her authorial and pedagogical efforts, McAuliffe’s been active in various forums of Muslim-Christian dialogue on national and international levels. She has served on the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims, and on the board of the American Academy of Religion.

The lecture is free and open to the public. For additional information, call 388-6056.

Posted on Mar 17, 2010

The College will host the second annual conference on the physical aspects of the Mohawk River watershed on Friday, March 19, in the F.W. Olin Center.

The daylong symposium features about 30 presentations on topics including flooding, ecosystem analysis, water quality, sediment yield, watershed management and the future of the watershed. More than 100 participants are expected, including scientists, engineers and other professionals and students. The conference is not open to the public.

The Mohawk River watershed is a unique and distinctive drainage basin which originates in the valley between the western Adirondacks and the Tug Hill Plateau and flows 140 miles to the east where it joins the Hudson River.

Among the highlights of the conference are two talks that will address ice jamming on the Mohawk, including an analysis of the January incident at Rotterdam Junction, and the first blueprint for watershed management in the basin. Another session focuses on landslides in Schenectady County by John Garver, Geology Department chair at Union.

The keynote address, “Watershed Wisdom: The Politics of Change,” will be given by Gail Schaffer, a former assemblywoman and secretary of state of New York.

The conference is organized by Garver and Jaclyn Cockburn, visiting assistant professor of Geology.

For more information, including a schedule of presentations, click here.

Posted on Mar 16, 2010

Frederick Franke ’10 and James Morton ’10 will follow their passions to explore, respectively, open-fire cooking methods and large format photography of the shipping industry.

The two are among 40 college seniors nationwide who have been awarded a prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship.

Considered “dream grants,” the Watson offers a one-year stipend of $25,000 to graduating students to study independently outside the United States. Watson Fellows are described as “passionate learners, creative thinkers and motivated self-starters who are encouraged to dream big but demonstrate feasible strategies for achieving their fellowship goals.”  

Franke (Rahde to his friends), an interdepartmental history and political science major from Annapolis, Md., will research the intimate connection between food and culture in “Out of the Kitchen and Into the Fire: Exploring the World’s Open-fire Cooking Methods.”

“I can’t get enough of what I call the society of food,” said Franke, a founder of Union’s Culinary House. Apprenticing himself to open-fire cooks around the world, he will study the hangi method of cooking in New Zealand, tandoor in India, braai in South Africa, doner kebap in Turkey and jerk in Jamaica.

“I’ll be visiting marketplaces, butchers, fishmongers, farmers and even tandoor-builders. I want to find out what food means to everyday people by experiencing it and learning to cook in all of these styles myself,” he said. 

Morton’s project, “Large Format Cargo: Photographing the Shipping Industry,” will take him to ports and shipyards in Australia, India and South Korea.

“The maritime shipping industry is perhaps the most essential industry in our modern world, yet it is one that operates on its own, with little regulation and out of sight and mind of most of the world,” he said.

A history and environmental science major from Orient Point, L.I., Morton grew up with a love of photography and the sea. His grandfather, a merchant mariner, regaled him with stories of the seas, and his mother, an art lover, set him on a creative course toward capturing images through a lens.

“We are so proud of our winners,” said History Professor Joyce Madancy, chair of the College’s Watson Fellowship Committee. “It’s especially thrilling to have two more Watson Fellows on campus.”

She noted the extraordinarily strong pool of nominees this year. The foundation reduced its roster of affiliated schools from 47 to 40, making the rigorous application process more selective and competitive.

The newest fellows, chosen from 150 finalists, come from 23 states and three foreign countries. For a complete list of winners and their project, click here.  

Past Watson winners from Union include Andy Krauss ’08, who researched the development of outrigger canoes and paddles in Tonga, the Cook Islands and the French Polynesia; Noah Eber-Schmid ’06, who investigated punk music and culture in Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway and Finland; Adam Grode ’05, who studied long-necked lutes in Central Asia; and Nori Lupfer ’03, who photographed circuses in motion on several continents.