The Mental Health America (MHA) of Fredericksburg will hold its sixth annual Walk for Mental Wellness on Saturday, May 4. The one or three-mile walk, which begins at 10 a.m. at Hurkamp Park, will raise money for people with mental illnesses in the Fredericksburg community. The walk also will include music, a moon bounce, food, and a silent auction featuring art by local artists. For more information or to register, visit http://www.mhafred.org/ or call (540) 371-2704.
UMW Students Lead Global Microfinance Movement
More than 85 global microfinance partners have joined the University of Mary Washington in the Month of Microfinance. Throughout the month of April, students at UMW and other participating colleges, universities and high schools will host and participate in campus events related to providing financial services to low-income people who would otherwise be unable to get assistance.
A grassroots movement founded at UMW, the Month of Microfinance (MoMF) is in its second year. This year, dozens of international partners are supporting MoMF, including Kiva, Whole Foods Market’s Whole Planet Foundation and Accion. The program highlights local and global events with the goal of providing a value-driven and positive impact for clients. MoMF facilitates connections between students and the microfinance community through conversation and learning. Muhammad Yunus, recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, advocated for microfinance principles in a recent video.
“Many of the poor don’t have access to financial services and we’re really trying to change that,” said Laura Dick, a senior anthropology and economics major and member of the MoMF executive board.
As a part of MoMF, a group of UMW students will participate in the Two Dollar Challenge from April 8 through 13. The Two Dollar Challenge, founded by Associate Professor of Economics Shawn Humphrey in 2007, is designed to raise funds and awareness for poverty-related causes. The Two Dollar Challenge also will occur at other campus communities across the country. Funds raised during the Two Dollar Challenge will go towards La Ceiba, a UMW-based collegiate microfinance institution founded by Humphrey that provides financial, social and educational support to communities in El Progreso, Honduras.
“We’re passionate about what we’re doing” said Dick. “We really believe that it’s not just our intentions that matter, but the effects of our actions.”
For more information about MoMF and a full schedule of events, visit http://monthofmicrofinance.org/.
Debate Team Started National Tournament Ranked in Top Five
The University of Mary Washington Debate Team duo of juniors Colin McElhinny and Patrick MCleary rank fifth in the country going into the 2013 National Debate Tournament. The 67th annual National Debate Tournament, held through Monday, April 1 at Weber State University, brings together the top debate teams from across the country for five days of competition.
Colin McElhinny (left) and Patrick McCleary are ranked fifth going into the National Debate Tournament.
McElhinny and McCleary are in the top five alongside teams from Georgetown, Northwestern, Harvard and Wake Forest.
“Regardless of what happens over the next four days of competition, it is essential that we pause to acknowledge that their body of work this academic year has been deemed by their peers to be exemplary,” said Tim O’Donnell, professor of communication and director of debate at UMW.
Debate Coach Adrienne Brovero and Assistant Debate Coach Judd Kimball work closely with McElhinny, a political science and economics double major, and McCleary, a political science major.
During the opening ceremony of the tournament, O’Donnell received the Lucy M. Keele Award for his outstanding service to the debate community.
As the UMW director of debate, O’Donnell has coached the university’s nationally ranked intercollegiate policy debate team to win the American Debate Association National Championship in 2009 and four other times since 2001. He has received the association’s Robert Lambert Coach of the Year Award for Excellence and Service in Intercollegiate Debate. He was awarded the National Debate Tournament’s George Ziegelmueller Award in 2010.
To follow the team’s progress at the tournament, follow @UMWDebate on Twitter.
Applications for 3rd Online Learning Initiative (OLI) Cohort Due April 8th!
We are currently soliciting participation in the third cohort of the UMW Online Learning Initiative, beginning in August 2013. All full-time, continuing faculty members in any of the three UMW colleges are eligible for this program.
The Online Learning Initiative began in 2011-2012 with an initial cohort of seven faculty participants, who engaged in a faculty development project to develop quality online or blended1 courses in the liberal arts and sciences tradition. It continued in 2012-2013, with another six faculty members developing new online courses.
The Initiative is designed to be collaborative, with participants working together and learning from each other as the process unfolds. The project is led by the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies (DTLT), the Center for Teaching Excellence and Innovation (CTEI), and the Committee on Distance and Blended Learning. Project leaders from these three groups facilitate the process but do not prescribe outcomes, preferring to let course planning grow organically out of the conversations about liberal arts teaching and technology innovation.
The project will start with a series of summer workshops in August to explore what it means to teach a quality liberal arts and sciences course online. The workshops, which will be conducted like small seminars, will include conversation and response to selected readings, demonstration of various technology tools and approaches, and advice from former OLI faculty. Overall, what guides the workshops is a focus on teaching excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, and how technology can be used to explore disciplinary approaches, build creative and effective teaching environments, and offer learning opportunities that may not be possible in facetoface classes.
Upon completion of the workshops, participants will write a planning document to guide the development and implementation of their courses. These documents will then undergo a review process, providing faculty with useful feedback and advice for improvement.
Following the development of the course plan, faculty will work in conjunction with DTLT and CTEI to refine their plans and develop their courses, in time to teach either summer or fall 2014.
Schedule and Deadlines
April 8, 2013: Deadline for Proposals
April 22, 2013: OLI Awards Announced
Summer 2013: OLI Program Workshops.
Attendance at these workshops is mandatory. Currently, we plan to have 2-3 full-day workshops in mid-August. However, we are requesting information about summer availability during the proposal process so that we can adjust the schedule according to participants’ calendars.
Fall 2013-Spring 2014: Course Development
Throughout the 2013-2014 academic year, faculty participants will work with DTLT and the Center for Teaching Innovation & Excellence on developing their courses. This will be an ongoing process, enveloping (and informed by) the course plan reviews.
October 1, 2013*: Course Plans Due
November 15, 2013*: Course Plan Review Complete
Summer & Fall 2014: Courses Taught
* These dates are tentative and are subject to change.
Application Process
Please discuss your grant idea with your department chair/associate dean and college dean before applying. Your submission indicates that your chair or associate dean endorses your participation in this program and agrees to allow you to offer the course online no later than Fall 2014.
To apply, submit a letter of application with the following information:
- Your Name, Department/Discipline & College
- What course do you propose to modify for teaching online? Can you attach a recent syllabus, ideally modified for online teaching?
- When will this course be first offered online?
- How will offering the course online support the academic program of your department or college?
- Describe your current competency with instructional technologies (no experience necessary) and identify those technologies you are interested in learning as part of the project.
- Briefly outline your vision for the course:
- Will the course be fully online or blended (and if the latter, to what extent online)?
- To the extent that you can, describe the online environment that you imagine for the course. For example, can you identify any instructional resources, tools, technologies, or online Web spaces that you plan to use and briefly explain how you plan to use them?
Please limit your application to no more than five pages, double-spaced. Applications should be emailed to mkayler@umw.edu by 5:00 pm on April 8, 2013. Awards will be announced by April 22, 2013.
Preference will be given to proposals with any of the following characteristics: courses targeting UMW undergraduate students away from campus during the summer term, and/or courses with high demand and low time-slot availability.
Award Details
Each participant will receive a grant of $3,500 to develop and teach a course in a fully online or blended format. The grant award will be distributed in two payments; $2,000 upon completion of the orientation seminars and $1,500 upon teaching the course online. The grant recipient authorizes the university to use the course as a model with other faculty members subsequently developing other online courses. The grantee otherwise retains the intellectual property rights to all faculty-created instructional content.
In order to ensure that the course delivery meets the traditional standards of excellence for a model UMW course, the faculty member acknowledges that during the semester of offering, frequent, if not daily, interaction with students in the course is expected. Grant recipients will be asked to share their experience developing and teaching their online class by participating in a campus event no later than Fall 2014.
If you have questions, please contact Mary Kayler (mkayler@umw.edu).
Office Sustainability Tip of the Week
This week’s “Office Sustainability Tip of the Week” is a spotlight on GWRideConnect, a free ride-sharing service that assists commuters who are seeking daily transportation for the Fredericksburg, Stafford, Spotsylvania, Caroline and King George counties to employment locations in Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, Richmond, Dahlgren and other employment sites here in the Fredericksburg area. What is great about GWRideConnect is that it can assist with taking part in one of the most underrated ways to help the environment on a regular basis — carpooling to work.
Why consider carpooling? First and foremost, it reduces the amount of CO2 emissions generated by more vehicles being used. Secondly, it reduces your own personal transportation costs. Two great facets of sustainability! GWRideConnect’s database contains hundreds of carpools from Caroline county, Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George, Caroline and the City of Fredericksburg; if you’re interested in forming a car pool, the service will assist you with finding riders that work in your location. You can also form a van pool through GWRideConnect. The service also provides users with information about available commuter lots, as well as the Guaranteed Ride Home service in case something unexpected should happen. Check out their website for more information: http://www.gwrideconnect.org.
For those who have friends and relatives commuting to the DC area, slugging is always an option that reduces the emissions footprint and saves time and money. Check it out at: http://www.slug-lines.com/. Slugging is a term used to describe a unique form of commuting found in the Washington, DC area sometimes referred to as “Instant Carpooling” or “Casual Carpooling”. It’s unique because people commuting into the city stop to pick up other passengers even though they are total strangers! However, slugging is a very organized system with its own set of rules, proper etiquette, and specific pickup and drop off.
While GWRideConnect serves a valuable purpose, the topic of carpooling makes me wonder if UMW should consider forming its own transportation service for faculty and staff that may be interested in commuting to and from work together. Surely there are many people who take similar routes to work and would be interested in splitting transportation costs, reducing carbon emissions, and also maybe freeing up some parking on campus! Perhaps a bulletin board could be posted at main office buildings where folks can post information about ridesharing or carpooling. Maybe UMW needs to provide a small incentive to make this happen. Preferred parking anyone??? If anyone should have any other ideas as to how to get this idea off the ground, leave a comment to this article or reach out to the Staff Advisory Council (http://sac.umwblogs.org).
If you have any suggestions for things we can all do differently each day to create more sustainable environments, please feel free to leave a comment or email me the idea to be featured in a future Tip of the Week. The PCS Action Group members for the “Office Sustainability Tip of the Week” are Kevin Caffrey, Elizabeth Sanders, Robert Louzek, and Dre Anthes.
Last Week’s Tip: Spring Cleaning.
UMW-SBDC Helps Veterans with their Business Ambitions
Susan Ball, the early venture specialist for the University of Mary Washington Small Business Development Center (UMWSBDC), provides Boots to Business training for transitioning members of the Marines at the Quantico Marine Corps Base. Boots to Business is a program instituted by the SBA to provide an overview of business ownership to service members. Those preparing to transition out of the service are eligible to attend a Boots to Business workshop and learn more about the steps to take to determine whether entrepreneurship is a good option for them. For more information, contact the UMW-SBDC at 540-654-1383 or email sbdc@umw.edu .
Eagle StartUp Challenge
The UMW Entrepreneurs Club, EagleWorks, and the University of Mary Washington Small Business Development Center present…
Eagle StartUp Challenge
“Growing the World Through New Business Creation”
Draft Your Business Concept
Craft Your Pitch
Network with Other Entrepreneurs
Earn a Business Assistance Package
The goal of this competition is to encourage startups among the members of the University of Mary Washington student community.
Business Concept Deadline: April 4, 2013
Finalist Announcement: April 11, 2013
Oral Presentations and Awards Ceremony – April 24, 2013
For more information, please contact ced@umw.edu
UMW Kicks Off Civic Engagement Grant Initiative
On March 21st, representatives from UMW’s administration, faculty, staff and students came together for the initial meetings of the grant-funded civic seminar, “Civic Engagement: Recasting and Drawing Upon a Wider Net.” The purpose of the meetings is to bring together stakeholders from UMW and the local community to explore and strengthen the role of civic engagement within UMW and with the broader community.
Check out some of the progress: Video 
The last civic engagement meeting this semester will continue these discussions with UMW administration, faculty, staff, students, and also include Fredericksburg-area community leaders. It will be held on April 9, 2013 at Lee Hall, Room 412 from 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
About the UMW Civic Engagement Grant Initiative
UMW was awarded this 2012-2014 civic learning grant through the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) and the Bringing Theory to Practice Project.
The co-directors of the “Civic Engagement: Recasting and Drawing Upon a Wider Net” grant are Dr. Mary Kayler (Director, Center for Teaching Excellence and Innovation), Dr. John P. Broome (Assistant Professor, College of Education) and Christina Eggenberger (Director of Service, Center for Honor, Leadership, and Service).
Comments or Questions
Please contact Dr. Mary Kayler: mkayler@umw.edu
UMW Celebrates NCAA Division III Week in April
Faculty and staff:
Please join us at the Battleground Athletic Complex on Wednesday, April 10 from 4 to 6 p.m. for a Spring Jubilee celebrating National NCAA Division III Week. We will have simultaneous contests going on in men’s and women’s lacrosse, baseball and softball, as well as free food and prizes. We will share information about what it means to compete in Division III and how it personally impacts our student-athletes. In Division III, team members are students first and athletes second, and the support of our outstanding faculty is critical to their success. Thank you for all you do every day and we look forward to seeing you on April 10. It’s a great day to be an Eagle!
For more information, contact Ken Tyler, director of athletics, at (540) 654-1876 or Lynne Richardson, dean of the College of Business and faculty athletic representative, at (540) 654-1455.
Eagle Athletics Thanks Corporate Partners
First-year UMW Athletic Director Ken Tyler has been very busy since joining the university last summer. Among the many positive changes Tyler has brought has been the institution of a corporate partner program for the athletic department. So far, nine different local businesses have partnered with Eagle athletics. These partners represent a wide array of services, from pizza to retirement planning, and from Nike to the Homestead Resort. We invite all members of the UMW community to support our corporate partners and thank them for their support!
Myers Wagner Wealth Management – http://www.investdavenport.com/myerswagner/
Northwestern Mutual Financial – http://www.robert-billingsley.com
Vocelli Pizza – www.vocellipizza.com
Nike/BSN Sports – www.nike.com
Ultimate Automotive – http://www.driveultimatesubaru.com/index.htm
The Homestead Resort – http://www.thehomestead.com/
Home Team Grill – http://www.hometeamgrill.com/
Union First Market Bank – https://www.bankatunion.com/home/home
Academy Bus – http://www.academybus.com/
For more information, contact Clint Often, sports information director, at coften@umw.edu.