The Daily Gazette did a feature on efforts by Mike Clarke '11 and other studentsbuild a music room, art center, school store and drinking water system for the Faith Hour Redemption Academy in Accra, Ghana.
Last year, Clarke and the students built a library in Ghana, collecting thousands of books.
To read the story, click here (registration may be required).
Read MoreRachel Seligman, director and curator, Mandeville Gallery, and curator, Union College Permanent Collection, recently attended “Core Matters: Students, Faculty, Collections” at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College. The symposium focused on the role of college and university art museums in their educational institutions, concentrating on the value and impact of direct experiences with works of art, and creating strategies for increased integration of museum/gallery programs with curriculum. Seligman attended a number of panel discussions and workshops that explored collection display, evaluation, student audiences and faculty outreach. Among these were “Object Lessons for Faculty Engagement Across the Curriculum,” “Learn by Doing: The Museum as Laboratory” and “The Challenge of the Student Viewer.”
Mechanical engineering professor Frank Wicks wrote an article entitled "The Oil Age" for last August’s issue of Mechanical Engineering, the monthly membership magazine received by all members of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The article traces how oil was discovered 150 years ago in Pennsylvania, how its initial use was primarily for lighting and thus how it helped save the whales that were being hunted to near extinction for lantern fuel. It describes how the development of oil using internal combustion engines revolutionized transportation on the land, sea and air, and the use of oil for plastics and other petrochemical products. It concludes by noting how the United States and the rest of the world have become overly dependent upon the oil that will be mostly depleted over the next century, and the resulting challenges of adapting to life after the oil age.
Union’s 2010 Edward Villella Fellowship Laureates, Krystle Gallo ’12 and Alyssa Simeone ’11, will attend dance classes and workshops in New York City this summer. Gallo will take part in the Pulse Dance Convention, which offers seminars, master classes and other dance events. Simeone will take classes in contemporary dance, ballet, jazz, hip-hop and ballroom at the Steps on Broadway and the Alvin Ailey Dance School. The recipient of the Hedda Hainebach Memorial Prize in Theatre, Bartosz Tomaszewski’10, plans to pursue his interest in video and filmmaking after graduation.
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More than 2,000 visitors are expected on campus for the annual celebration of Union’s graduates next weekend. Together, they’ll enjoy traditional favorites like the Alumni Parade, fireworks show and Gala Dinner.
There’ll also be presentations from notable alumni in a variety of fields and a celebration to honor the College’s service men and women. And on Saturday, from noon to 1 p.m., Blue House, one of the College’s seven Minervas, officially becomes Messa House. The dedication honors the unrestricted gift by Frank L. Messa ’73, a longtime benefactor to the College, and his wife, Colleen, who recently donated $2 million to Union.
Other ReUnion ’10 highlights:
– Minerva Fellows Program / Friday, May 28, 7:30-9 p.m. / Nott Memorial
– “Angina Monologues” with Dr. Kathy Magliato ’85 / Saturday, May 29, 1:30-2:30 p.m. / Beuth House
– “Up Close” with Marisa Silveri ’95 / Saturday, May 29, 2:30-3:30 p.m. / Golub House
– “Raising Children Who Soar” with Nancy Eppler-Wolff ’75 / Saturday, May 29, 3:30-4:30 p.m. / Sorum House
Read MoreMildred Dresselhaus, one of the country’s top experts in physics and a leading advocate for women in science and engineering, will be awarded an honorary doctorate of science at Union’s 216th commencement.
Dresselhaus was nominated for the honor by Palma Catravas and Helen Hanson, assistant professors in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Cherrice Traver, dean of engineering.
Once dubbed the “Queen of Carbon Science” for her widely recognized research on carbon science and carbon nanonstructures, Dresselhaus has spent more than 40 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she became the first woman to receive the title of Institute Professor, the highest faculty honor.
She also has been honored for her work in nanoscience and nanotechnology, and is credited as one of the researchers who caused the resurgence of the thermoelectrics field through her early work on low dimensional thermoelectricity in the early 1990s.
Along with her scientific contributions, Dresselhaus has been praised for pushing for a more prominent role for women in science, serving as a mentor for decades to countless students, including Catravas when she was a graduate student at MIT and later when she joined the faculty at Union.
“Palma, in turn, has inspired me in how she has combined classical music with an engineering career, combining science, engineering and the fine arts in a liberal education for enthusiastic students,” Dresselhaus wrote in accepting Union’s offer of an honorary degree.
Growing up poor in the Bronx, Dresselhaus managed to attend Hunter College in the city, where she began as a math major with the hope of becoming an elementary school teacher. While at Hunter, she met her mentor, Nobel Prize-winning nuclear physicist Rosalyn Yalow, who encouraged her to change her field of study to science.
Dresselhaus eventually received a Fulbright Fellowship to study at Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory. She earned her master’s degree at Radcliffe and her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago.
“Women didn’t have a lot of opportunities for careers in science when I was in school,” she recalled when she received Chicago’s top alumni award in 2008.
“When I was a student, I had hoped that in some way I would serve physics -my profession -and society through physics.”
The author or co-author of more than 1,300 publications including books, book chapters, invited review articles and peer reviewed journal articles, Dresselhaus is the co-inventor on five U.S. patents.
Dresselhaus has received numerous awards, including the National Medal of Science and 25 honorary doctorates worldwide. Last year, the National Science Board presented her with its Vannevar Bush Award “for her leadership through public service in science and engineering, her perseverance and advocacy in increasing opportunities for women in science, and for her extraordinary contributions in the field of condensed-matter physics and nanoscience.”
Approximately 500 students in the Class of 2010 will receive degrees during Commencement, scheduled for 10 a.m. Sunday, June 13, on Hull Plaza.
Alan Horn '64, president and chief operating officer of Warner Bros., is the featured speaker.
Read MoreWhile growing up in New Jersey, Jennifer Winkelried ’10 enjoyed the stories her grandfather, Irwin, shared about living in Newark, where he was part of a wave of Jewish families who settled in the state’s largest city.
Irwin would recall the bonds that were formed within the Jewish community and their impact on his life. A successful real estate appraiser, he, like many others, eventually moved out of the city. But his roots remained in Newark.
A history major with a passion for photography, Winkelried took her appreciation for the Jewish culture in Newark and created an exhibit, “A Glimpse of Jewish Newark: The Immigrant Experience 1844-1953.” The exhibit was recently on display for two weeks on the second floor of Social Sciences.
A reporter for the New Jersey Jewish News attended the exhibit's opening. To read the story, click here.
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