Category: Professional Notes

UMW’s Small Business Development Center will offer consulting and training sessions in King George County. The 90-minute consultations address finance, accounting, marketing and demographic analysis.

Offered in partnership with the King George Department of Economic Development, the sessions are free to the public. Appointments must be scheduled in advance and are conducted at the King George Office of Economic Development at 10459 Courthouse Drive.

The venture also includes King George County as a partner in the UMW SBDC regional Business Constellation Program, whose mission is to make business services more accessible by offering services at multiple offices throughout the region.

The UMW SBDC provides assistance to the small business community in 17 Virginia counties and cities through management training, research and consulting.

In 2010, the center received full reaccreditation by the Association of Small Business Development Centers, the national accrediting body for SBDCs under contract with the U.S. Small Business Administration. In addition, Brian J. Baker, executive director of the SBDC, was awarded the Virginia Small Business Development Centers State Star Award in recognition of his contributions to the state program and his commitment to small business.

For more information, contact the SBDC office at (540) 286-8060.

UMW has been selected as host of the 2011 Governor’s Foreign Language Academy in German by the Virginia Department of Education.

This summer, 45 Virginia high school students who have excelled in language study will reside on UMW’s Fredericksburg campus from June 25-July 17. The program provides students with a three-week foreign language immersion intensive environment.

Marcel Rotter, associate professor of German, said the university’s dedication to foreign language studies makes Mary Washington a fitting site of the program. Rotter, who developed the grant proposal for the German academy, will be the program coordinator.

“UMW has a strong commitment to liberal arts education, including foreign language education,” said Rotter. “We have a language requirement that provides all graduates at least an intermediate knowledge of one foreign language. The recent restructuring of the Office of International Academic Services is additional evidence.”

During the academy, use of the English language is forbidden. Participants agree to strictly speak German for the duration of the program.

Adjunct instructor Mark Scharf’s play Empires Fall has been produced by the Run of the Mill Theatre, Baltimore, Md. A monologue from his play, The Whispers of Saints will appear in the 2011 Volume 3, Young Women’s Monologues from Contemporary Plays, both published by Meriwether Publishing, Ltd., and his plays Keeping Faith, Lizards Brains and Get Stuffed, published by Original Works Publishing, are now available on Kindle on Amazon.com. Mark will appear on two Playwriting Workshop panels at the University of Baltimore at the UB Student Center for the Performing Arts on June 25th, 2011: The Craft of Playwriting and Marketing Your Plays. Also, The Baltimore City Historical Society has added copies of Mark’s plays Blue Mermaid, The Whispers of Saints, Scorpions, The Mean Reds and Last Night at the Owl Bar to their archives.

Mary Rigsby, professor of English, and Suzanne Sumner, professor of mathematics, gave an invited feature presentation at the Teaching Professor Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, held May 20-22, titled “BustingWalls and Overcoming Blahs:  Knotty Problems and Speed Dating.”  The Teaching Professor Conference is a premier international conference on teaching pedagogy at the college level, with 800 participants from 10 countries.

Rigsby and Sumner received this invitation because of their past participation in Teaching Professor conferences, and to share their

experiences as former directors of UMW’s Teaching Innovation Program.  In addition, Sumner is currently on the advisory board for the Teaching Professor Conference and reviewed  proposals for contributed sessions for the conference.

Dr. Sletten was a sociology professor at Mary Washington from 1958 to 1994. He passed away May 11. His obituary is listed at: http://www.nelsencares.com/_mgxroot/page_10741.php