David Ward of TreeTop Solutions in Schenectady told more than than 70 members of the Chamber of Schenectady County Thursday that things are happening in Schenectady County.
The developer of the chamber's Web site, said a year ago the chamber's Web site only listed about 45 events being held by chamber members. That was for an entire year. This year, Ward said, 1,200 events have been listed.
“We have the most comprehensive calendar of events in Schenectady County.
Ward's comments were part of the chamber's breakfast workshop called “Connect with Schenectady” held at Union College. The event focused on how company leaders could make their businesses grow through use of the Internet and e-commerce.
Ward said the chamber was also in the process of unveiling a new rewards system that would give chamber members points for using various parts of the chamber's Web site. The points would go toward discounts for chamber events or membership.
In a month or so, we will have a unique section on the site for chamber members only, Ward added. The site will also include a new bartering system that will allow chamber members to barter services with one another.
Other scheduled speakers included local business leaders Brian Epstein, founder and owner of WiFiFee, a new wireless Internet service provider, and Clint Orsot, vice president of sales for Achaen Technologies.
Kimberly Morpeau of Waltham (Mass.) High School investigates a frame of honeycomb with Prof. James Hedrick during Summer Science Workshop 2003
Prof. Jim Hedrick is
admiring a frame of honeycomb in front of a class of 20 students in Summer
Science Workshop. “This is technology coming from our understanding of the way
nature works,” he says.
It was a 19th-century
beekeeper, L.L. Langstroth, who discovered the “bee space,” explains Hedrick,
himself a beekeeper. The discovery meant that bees could be kept in human-built
hives, and that the honey could be harvested without damaging the colony.
Not the kind of lecture you
might expect from a professor who specializes in computer technology. But
Summer Science Workshop is not a curriculum which focuses on a narrow field.
Rather, it takes a wide-ranging, cross-disciplinary route to bring college-level
work to students who show promise in the sciences.
Hedrick, like the other
instructors in SSW, emphasizes the cross-disciplinary nature of learning. When
a visitor enters the classroom, Hedrick stops the lecture and asks him to
describe for the class the importance of developing clear writing skills for
the sciences.
The College's Summer Science
Workshop each year gives high schoolers valuable exposure to college-level study.
And Union gets something valuable too: eager students,
24 and counting.
SSW students will be giving poster presentations on the workshop's theme — HIV/AIDS — on Friday, July 18, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Olin Atrium.
Besides exposing nearly two dozen
budding scientists to the rigors of scientific research, the two-week
residential program has been something of a boon to the College's minority recruitment
effort.
Since its inception in 1996, 24 students
from the program have enrolled as students at Union.
Several have become counselors for the summer program. Last year, three of the
four counselors were former campers. This year, three of the five counselors
are former campers.
Summer Science Workshop, which
targets minorities who are underrepresented in the health professions and
biological sciences, provides exposure to college-level classroom and
laboratory study, and career guidance for fields in health professions and
scientific research.
“We used to soft sell the
students on Union,” says program coordinator Karen
Williams of the first few years of the workshop. “Now we take them down to
the admissions office for interviews and invite them to a reunion in the
fall.”
The program has HIV/AIDS as its
overarching theme. The students research the scientific, social and political
aspects of AIDS, and give presentations on a variety of topics related to the
epidemic. Beyond classes and labs in immunology, computer technology and
cellular biology, the students attend lectures at Albany
Medical College
and meet HIV-positive people and their families.
Williams and Hedrick are joined by
colleagues including Peter Tobiessen,
director; Twitty Styles, who teaches immunology; and Quynh Chu-LaGraff,
molecular biology.
Now funded entirely by the
College, the program was launched with support from the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute.
The work of nearly 40
women printers from around the nation will be showcased beginning Thursday, Aug. 28 through Sunday, Dec. 7 at
Union College's Mandeville Gallery in
the Nott Memorial.
Girl Printers: Talented Women Strut Their Stuff is an invitational show highlighting a sampling of
women printers' ephemeral, printing, and book arts. Gallery hours are Monday to Thursday 9
a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday noon to 5
p.m.; and Sunday noon to 10
p.m. Summer hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
An
artists' reception and talk by the
curator, Carol J. Blinn, will be on Thursday,
Sept. 18, 4:30 to 6
p.m.in the Nott Memorial
Women have been working
with moveable type practically since its invention – a fact that may disabuse
the likely stereotyping of printing or typesetting as male-dominated fields.
The exhibit centers on interviews with women printers that were conducted by
Blinn. For nearly 20 years, she has been proprietor of the Warwick Press in Easthampton, Mass.
Blinn invites women printers
and exhibit visitors alike to “celebrate what we do best … make things by hand
and machine, needle and thread, computer and lead.”
The women discuss their
love for their art; their favorite tools; their individual methodology; the
mentors who have guided them; and their down-and-dirty,
ink-under-the-fingernails, ultimately triumphant mastery of often-recalcitrant
shop machinery.
Kevin Clemons of the Bronx, left, and Don Lansing of Troy participate in a skit as part of Camp College at Union College on Sunday. (Luanne M. Ferris / Times Union)
Sixteen-year-old Ayla Nur got a taste of college life over the weekend. She attended classes, workshops and, of course, parties. She even ate the food.
And after experiencing that bit of campus life, Nur is convinced more than ever that she wants to go to college.
“I want to go to college because it's a higher level of learning and what you want to do in life, they'll teach you how to do it,” said Nur, who wants to pursue a career in forensic medicine.
Nur, of Schenectady, was one of 60 ninth- and 10th-graders from the Capital Region and New York City who got a firsthand look at the higher learning experience during Union College's “Camp College,” designed for students of color who are first generation college bound or from lower economic backgrounds.
The students and their chaperones and mentors attended classes, learned about financial aid and admissions and slept in dorm rooms. The program ended Sunday. Other camps are scheduled for Aug. 1-3 at Niagara University and Aug. 15-17 at Manhattan College.
“There are so many high school students in the state who don't think college is an option for them,” said Kelly Herrington, associate dean of admissions at Union and organizer of the camp. “This program has a proven record of success in making college a reality for those who might not otherwise continue their education after high school.”
Tia Williams, a 2003 graduate of Schenectady High School who attended the camp two years ago, will be attending Union this fall. She is one of several camp alumni who are on their way to college.
Sixteen-year-old Shelvon Smith, from the Bronx, said the camp taught her that classes at college are nothing like the more structured classes in high school.
“The law class I took, I thought it was interesting because we got to discuss topics and get into debates,” said Smith, who plans to study law. “In high school they put the work on the board, talk to you but don't interact with you.”
Camp College is funded by a grant for the New York State Association of College Admissions Counselors and federal grants through the state's GEAR UP — Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs. Additional funding was provided by local businesses, including JAMZ 96.3, Hannaford Brothers, Subway, McDonald's, Bruegger's Bagels and Reality Check.
Besides attending classes and workshops, campers at Union were treated to pizza and beach parties, a cookout and a chance to participate in sports.
Seventeen-year-old Latisha Samuels from the Bronx said although she enjoyed the weekend, “I didn't get a real experience because we were the only ones on campus. It would have been better if (college) students were on campus, but I still want to live in the dorm.”
Samuels added that the English, law and American history classes she took were “not really boring. The teachers were nice because they took the time out on their Saturdays for us.”
Smith said despite the fact there were no college students on campus, “visiting classes and having to go across campus” gave her good a dose of college life.
Guest speakers Denny Farrell, D-Manhattan, and Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, both state assemblymen, said events such as camp college are important for minority students.
“You're encouraged to dream about college even if you're intimidated by it,” Tonko said.
Farrell added that a successful college experience is when a student can “go into a classroom and have a professor teach and be able to say 'Hey, I can do that.' ”
Joe Tweed of Trinity Pawling School, left, a counselor, talks with Alan Lightbourn of the Bronx about an issue raised during an “Ethics of Law” class Saturday at Union College during the 4 th annual Camp College. The 3-day program offers high school stude
Schenectady – Union College admissions counselor Genevieve Mbamalu was born in Nigeria and moved to New York City in June 1996, when she was 16 years old.
She is now a 22-year-old Union College graduate who plans to pursue a graduate degree in international health at Boston University this fall. On Saturday, Mbamalu was well into her duties as mentor at Camp College that began the day before by welcoming a group of four New York City high school students.
The students are part of a group of 60 who are on campus this weekend for a three-day camp to learn about the college experience.
The young college hopefuls were silent when they first arrived, Mbamalu said. But that changed when she told them she grad uate d fro m A. P hilip Randolph Campus High School in Harlem. The common experience in a New York City school jumpstarted the conversation, she said.
“I went to Union College and can provide an example that really clicks with those girls,” Mbamalu said.
Iris Callender was a part of the crew Mbamalu met at the bus station. She is a 15-year-old grade 10 student at Frederick Douglass Academy in New York. If she isn't admitted to Columbia University, Callender said she plans to come to Union in a few years.
“When I was like 5 or 6, my mother bugged me about understanding the world,” Callender said.
Since then, she has found an interest in studying law and music. And just before lunch on Saturday Callender walked into the classroom of Union College political science professor Richard Fox for a simulated course on constitutional law.
The course was one of several that Callender and her fellow campers attended throughout the day. Mbamalu said the goal of the weekend is to show students college life and provide them with tips on gaining acceptance into the college of their choice.
Half of the campers are from the Capital Region and the other half are from the New York City area. All are either minority students or from a poor school district, or are potentially the first college graduate in their family.
“Camp College lets students 'try on' college,” said Susan Nesbitt Perez, who works for the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities. “[College] graduates earn more, become active citizens and have a chance to build lifelong friendships.”
This is the fourth year the event has been held at Union College. Its success has spawned similar weekend camp programs at Niagara University and Manhattan College. The programs are funded though federal and state grants, as well as by donations from local corporations.
The students will hear from New York state Assembly members Denny Farrell, D-Manhattan, and Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, at 10:30 a.m. today at the Nott Memorial.
Dick Killeen '51 (photo by Clark Bell of The Saratogian)
SARATOGA SPRINGS – How many people have read the full unabridged version of the Declaration of Independence?
That question prompted Dick Killeen, 75, (a member of Union's Class of 1951) who lives on Emerald Lane, to honor Independence Day by delivering a rolled-up copy of the historical document to about 40 mailboxes in his neighborhood.
“I've done it in the past, but it's usually on a scroll,” he said. “I thought (the unabridged version) was well worth reading. Every year I get older, I learn how much I don't know.”
He also added a note to the document indicating that he would replace any of his neighbors' worn or torn American flags. In the fall and spring, in recognition of Veterans Day, Election Day and Memorial Day, Killeen passed out several dozen miniature American flags now decorating lawns and mailboxes in the neighborhood.
One neighbor went so far as to encase his front yard garden with a wall of them.
Since moving to the area from Long Island two years ago with his wife, Patricia, Killeen has dutifully kept his community abreast of seasonal patriotic holidays and events with personal letters and free copies of the Stars and Stripes.
“It feels good driving in the road and seeing flag after flag in front of mailboxes,” he said.
A native of Schenectady, Killeen served in the Pacific during World War II. In 1947, he enrolled at Union College. After graduation, he took a job with New York Telephone, which became NYNEX, where he crisscrossed the state, climbing the corporate ladder before retiring 40 years later as the corporate director for personnel and administration for the Northeast.
“I sometimes get saddened when you mention Armistice Day and a young clerk doesn't know what you're talking about,” he said. “Our national heritage and history is something that we can be proud of. I'm extremely proud to have served.”
Killeen said he has heard back from neighbors (usually via e-mail) who said they've enjoyed reading his latest gift.
A Canadian friend said she was happy to have read the full version of the declaration – something she'd never done before. A neighbor, who lost his father in World War II when he was 6 years old, said he simply appreciated the effort.
Throughout his professional career, Killeen wore another hat a home: fund-raising for the Red Cross, Salvation Army, YMCA, United Way, mental health organizations and Union College. Plaques from myriad organizations decorate the walls of his home office.
“I believe in civics, the community, education and health,” he said. “The need never stops. You have to keep after it, year after year.”
He readily acknowledges that he wouldn't be anywhere without the help of his wife of 52 years. He calls Patricia “the best thing that ever happened to me” and says she's his “technical staff,” who keeps the books and writes the letters.
The couple met after Killeen returned from the war and brushed up for college boards by tutoring students for upcoming final exams at his old high school.
“I tutored a beautiful young girl by the name of Patricia Morey, and we started to date – after the Regents,” he said.
The couple lived in the area for a couple of years at the beginning of Killeen's career when he worked with Mayor Addison Mallery to create the National Racing Museum.
The Killeens have three grown children: Jeffrey, 50, chairman and CEO of GlobalSpec in Troy; and 48-year-old twins Richard, a physical therapist, and Susan, now a full-time mother.
In addition to his love for a country he said is without equal, Killeen shares advice that served him well throughout his life: “Fall in love with your job and you'll never have to work again,” and “If you believe in something, you can never do too much.”
