Janet Cropp, assistant dean of advising services in the College of Business, is serving as a proposal reader for the Advising Adult Learners Commission of the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) Annual Conference to be held in October 2013 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mark Scharf’s Play Opens 3/18
Mark Scharf’s play “Keeping Faith” opens at the Laurel Mill Playhouse in Laurel, Md., on March 18. The show runs through March 24 with 8 p.m. performances on Fridays and Saturdays. Sunday matinees will be at 2 p.m. on March 17 and 24. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $12 for students 18 and under, active duty military and seniors. To make reservations, call 301-617-9906 and press 2, or contact Maureen Rogers at maureencrogers@gmail.com/301-452-2557.
Scharf is an adjunct instructor in the Department of Theatre & Dance.
John Broome to Address 2013 International Montessori Congress
John P. Broome, assistant professor and director of undergraduate secondary education and preK-12 education in the department of curriculum & instruction at the College of Education, has been invited to present his work on adolescent civic engagement in the Montessori secondary learning environment at the 2013 International Montessori Congress in Portland, Oregon in August 2013.
The presentation entitled, “Comparing U.S. and Montessori Adolescent Civic Engagement Opportunities” provides insights into how social and experiential-learning in the alternative environment can be used to inform civic engagement practices in U.S. public schools.
The International Montessori Congress was created in 1929 by Dr. Maria Montessori to raise the awareness and understanding of Montessori education. Since 1929, there have been 25 congress meetings around the world, approximately every four years. It has been almost 40 years since the United States has hosted the international event. The congress is hosted by the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI).
Eagle Dining Hosts Health Fair, 3/27
Come to our Health & Wellness Fair on Wednesday, March 27 for demonstrations, product samples, information and lots of great door prizes – including a $100 Visa gift card! You’ll find massage therapists, fitness consultants, reflexology practitioners, health care providers, and many other representatives of businesses and service groups that promote health and wellness of mind, body, and spirit. Please plan to join us at Seacobeck Hall between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. on March 27. For more information about the Fair, please contact Rose Benedict at rbenedic@umw.edu.
Cultivating Careers
Drew University Dean Named as UMW Provost
Jonathan Levin has been named to the position of provost of the University of Mary Washington. Levin has spent more than 20 years in higher education, including nearly a decade as an administrator. Currently, he serves as dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Drew University in Madison, N.J.
Levin will serve as the chief academic officer at UMW and will be responsible for oversight of all academic programs, academic planning and budgets and faculty matters. Working with the deans and the faculty, the provost provides leadership of major university initiatives in teaching, research and creative activities and has responsibility for all university educational and academic policies. He also will oversee enrollment management. Levin will begin work on June 25, 2013.
“I am extremely pleased that Dr. Levin has agreed to come to UMW,” said President Richard V. Hurley. “His background and experience will be a tremendous asset as we move the institution forward.”
Levin has served as dean and professor of English at Drew for five years, during which time he has coordinated all aspects of undergraduate curriculum development and assessment at the private liberal arts and sciences university in New Jersey. While at the institution, he oversaw development and implementation of several new programs, including the Baldwin Honors and Civic Scholars programs, as well as a new general education curriculum. During his tenure, Drew experienced substantial growth in underrepresented student populations and improved its academic profile.
Prior to Drew, Levin spent three years as dean of the School of Humanities at State University of New York at Purchase. During his time at Purchase, Levin led a redesign of the general education program and implemented collaborative campus-wide initiatives.
Levin also has served as chair of the Department of English, acting director of American studies and associate professor of English at Fordham University and as associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University.
The author of “The Poetics of Transition: Emerson, Pragmatism & American Literary Modernism,” Levin has published numerous articles in scholarly journals on 19th- and 20th-century American literature and culture.
Levin earned a bachelor of arts in English and French from the University of Michigan, a master of arts in English from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in English from Rutgers University.
Jim Groom Presents at SUNY’s Online Summit Conference
Jim Groom presented a talk titled “Open by Design: Open Educational Experiences” at SUNY’s 14th annual Learning Network Summit for Online Learning conference on February 28th, 2013. Below are the slides for the talk and you can see a video archive of the session here.
Educator and Author to Deliver 2013 Commencement Addresses, May 10-11
The University of Mary Washington has announced its graduate and undergraduate speakers for the 2013 commencement ceremonies to be held on Friday, May 10 and Saturday, May 11. Dr. William “Bill” Cleveland Bosher Jr., public policy expert and former Virginia superintendent of education, will be the guest speaker for the graduate address on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the William M. Anderson Center. Steve Pemberton,
business executive, motivational speaker and noted author, will deliver the undergraduate commencement address on Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m. on Ball Circle.
Bill Bosher
Bosher has been a teacher, principal, state director, local superintendent of two districts with more than 35,000 students and the superintendent of public instruction for the commonwealth of Virginia. He currently serves as distinguished professor of public policy and education at Virginia Commonwealth University and executive director of the Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute, a legislative entity focused on research, training and policy analysis.
Named the arts administrator of the year by the Kennedy Center, Bosher is the only superintendent in Virginia to be named twice as the Superintendent of the Year. He has served as a consultant in more than 35 states and a dozen foreign countries on topics related to educational law and finance, policy analysis, standards development, school evaluations and human relations.
The co-author of “Law and Education: Contemporary Issues and Court Decisions” and “The School Law Handbook, What Every Leader Needs to Know,” Bosher is the board chairman of Edvantia, a research and evaluation nonprofit, and is a fellow of SchoolNet and the Urban Health Initiative.
Steve Pemberton
Pemberton has served as divisional vice president and chief diversity officer at Walgreens since 2011, after more than five years in diversity and inclusion at Monster.com and a decade in admissions at Boston College.
His speeches are inspirational testament to the power of faith, fortitude, and forgiveness. A ward of the state for much of his childhood, Pemberton has made opportunity, access and equality pillars of his personal and professional life. He has served on the boards of Big Brothers, Big Sisters, the Citi Performing Arts Center, the Home for Little Wanderers and the National TRIO Alumni Association. His memoir, “A Chance in the World: an Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past and How He Found a Place Called Home,” chronicles his difficult path through foster care and determined search for his family.
In 2006, Fortune named him one of “the top 20 chief diversity officers in corporate America.” In 2007, Pemberton was called to Capitol Hill to provide testimony on best practices in diversity recruiting, and in 2008 he was named by Savoy as one of “the top 100 most influential African Americans in corporate America.” Pemberton, who lives in the Chicago area, presented UMW’s Martin Luther King Jr., keynote lecture in 2013.
Students Gain International Experience During Spring Break
For 10 University of Mary Washington students, Spring Break felt more like winter. The group traveled to Quebec, Canada – where the average high in March is zero degrees Celsius – as part of a weeklong faculty-led study abroad trip.
Students from various levels of French embarked on their journey on Friday, March 1, and reached Canadian French culture after a two-hour plane ride.
“It’s pretty incredible that French has been preserved in one province in Canada for hundreds of years,” said Sarah Lynch, a sophomore psychology major. Quebec, located in east-central Canada, is the only Canadian province with French as the single official language.
The trip to Quebec, led by Associate Professor of French Scott Powers, was one of five faculty-led study abroad opportunities during Spring Break, including Belize, Guatemala, Germany, Scotland and Ireland. The trips offer students experiences beyond the foreign language classroom – a complete linguistic, cultural and culinary immersion.
“Getting an opportunity to speak French in the real world let me see how much I really had learned,” said sophomore international affairs major Lauren Malecki. “If I mispronounced something many of the locals would correct me.”
Students practiced French while ordering food, interacting with locals and on tours of cultural and historic sites. They saw a theatre performance in RÉSO, one of the largest underground cities in the world, ate a four-course meal at the Parliament of Quebec, attended a class at the University of Montreal and spent an evening at winter festival.
“It’s surprising that right around the corner we can have a completely different cultural experience,” said Meredith Stone, a sophomore geography major.
The trip also allowed students to gain experiential learning credit, a graduation requirement at UMW designed to challenge students to go outside of the bounds of the typical classroom.
Powers hopes that he will be able to take another group of students to Quebec next spring.
“I think the trip made students feel more comfortable with speaking to people in French,” he said. “In a couple of days of being here your inhibitions melt away.”
Gari Melchers Home and Studio Hosts Beeping Egg Hunt
Gari Melchers Home and Studio at Belmont will host its second annual Beeping Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, March 23. The free event, held from 1-3 p.m. regardless of weather, will provide visually impaired and blind individuals and their families an opportunity to participate in a non-traditional Easter egg hunt.
The specially designed plastic Easter eggs, donated by Stafford County-based International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators, emit a beeping sound that allows visually impaired children to retrieve the eggs using their ears. The event also will include “touch tours” of Gari Melcher’s studio and home, which will allow visitors to explore various features of Belmont with their hands. Games, Wegman’s-sponsored healthy snacks, a visit with the Easter bunny and a “Touch a Tractor” station will round out the day’s activities.
Eligible families should RSVP by Monday, March 18 to Education and Communication Manager Michelle Crow-Dolby at mdolby@umw.edu or (540) 654-1851.
Gari Melchers Home and Studio is a 28-acre estate and former residence of the artist Gari Melchers and his wife Corinne. The property, which is operated by the University of Mary Washington, is both a Virginia Historic Landmark and a National Historic Landmark. Located at 224 Washington St. in Falmouth, Va., a quarter mile west of the intersection of U.S. 1 and U.S. 17, it is open daily with an admission charge. The museum also serves as the official Stafford County Visitor Center. For directions and other information, call (540) 654-1015 or visit the museum website at www.GariMelchers.org.
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News release prepared by: Michelle Crow-Dolby