Category: What’s New @ UMW

Visit http://adminfinance.umw.edu/hr/employee-relations/worklife/whats-new/ for the upcoming Events and Benefits information.

Volunteers are the heart of the Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign (CVC), which is why Mary Hatcher in Department of Human Resource Management developed a version of the CVC logo that features some CVC volunteers.  The appreciation logo is featured on this year’s volunteer certificates, which will be distributed to the following UMW CVC Ambassadors:  Lynne Richardson, Pamela Taggert, Richard Finkelstein, Connie Gallahan, Janet Cropp, Mark Sandor, Peggy Simpkins, Tammy Prailey, and Lori Izykowski, UMW’s CVC coordinator. President Hurley extends his sincere appreciation to these volunteers, and to all at UMW who participated in the 2012 CVC.  Your generosity helped UMW earn a Shining Star Award, given to those agencies whose overall giving exceeded the previous year’s total dollars raised. Congratulations, Eagles!

The CVC runs every year between October 1 and December 21.  As you make your charitable gifts in 2013, remember that many non-profit groups that you support participate in CVC, and your contributions can be counted towards the overall UMW CVC giving.  Plan to participate in a charitable run, walk, or other event?  Hang on to those receipts and turn them in during the next CVC campaign! If you have any questions, feel free to contact Lori Izykowski at 654-1105 or lizykows@umw.edu.

Join the James Monroe Museum to celebrate the 255th anniversary of Monroe’s birth this Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. in the museum garden (908 Charles Street). We’ll serve cake and punch, accompanied by eighteenth-century music by Doug Marshall and Lauren Smith.

The event is free and the museum will also be open free of charge all day. E-mail auphaus@umw.edu or call 540/654-1043 with questions.

Students majoring in English, linguistics and communication will present their work at the ninth annual William Kemp Symposium, held in Combs Hall on Thursday, April 25 and Friday, April 26. The more than 15 presentations range from “A College Students’ Guide to Social Media” to “Language and Gender” to “Tolkein and Four UMW Critics.”

On Thursday, April 25, the Department of English, Linguistics, and Communication will hold its induction ceremony for Lambda Iota Tau, a national literature honor society. The induction will include the Taddesse Adera Memorial Address by Assistant Professor of English Danny Tweedy entitled “The Importance of Literature.” The induction and lecture will be held in Combs Hall, Room 139 at 5 p.m.

The symposium will conclude on Friday with the department picnic from 4 to 6 p.m. at 1201 William St.

A full schedule, with times and locations for each presentation, is available in PDF format.

The second annual FredTech STEM 16 Summit brought together more than 350 educators, students, community members and business leaders at the University of Mary Washington on Saturday, April 20.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The day-long event featured seminars on STEM programming in school districts and women in technology, as well as a STEM career panel.  The summit also included more than 45 projects from UMW, regional elementary and secondary schools, Germanna Community College, and local and regional businesses and nonprofit organizations. Six UMW offices and academic departments were represented at the summit, including the Department of Biological Sciences, the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, the Department of Mathematics, the Office of Admissions and a 3D printing demonstration.

High school students measured their lung capacity at UMW’s Department of Biological Sciences booth.

UMW computer science student David Peworchik was honored with the “SWIFT Scholarship in Computer Science” Award for the 2013-2014 academic year, which provides a merit scholarship to a top computer science major in the region. The scholarship is funded by the Society for World Interbank Financial Telecommunications, Inc (SWIFT).

In addition, UMW students, Alex Gilley, Zach Goodwin, Jerome Mueller and Russell Ruud , were named as SWIFT Student Research Fellows for the 2013-2014 year.  They received funding from SWIFT and UMW to attend the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) conference  in San Diego in July.  The students will present their part of an interdisciplinary research project in the area of pharmaceutical discovery.  Their work with supercomputers and data analysis may lead to new treatments for diseases such as HIV and Tuberculosis, according to Associate Professor Karen Anewalt, chair of the Department of Computer Science.

UMW biology major Marco Montero (standing) explains a microscope at the Department of Biological Sciences booth.

In conjunction with the summit, UMW held a titration competition and its seventh annual calculus tournament. In the team competition of the calculus tournament, the team from Paul VI High School in Fairfax came in first place and the team from the Commonwealth Governor’s School came in second place. In the individual competition, Jack Sweeney of Paul VI High School won first place and Lina Hong of Paul VI High School won second place.

In the titration tournament, members of UMW’s honors general chemistry class won first place, followed by senior chemistry majors in second place.

The summit culminated with a keynote lecture by David Kerr, a program lead in the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Communications.