Category: What’s New @ UMW

As part of national Act! Speak! Build! Week, UMW’s Community Outreach and Resources (COAR) will hold activities and events from Wednesday, April 10 through Tuesday, April 16. COAR encourages faculty, staff and students to participate:

Wednesday, April 10 — Hunger Banquet — Woodard Campus Center’s Great Hall from 6 to 7 p.m.

Thursday, April 11 — Picnic Table Build for Habitat for Humanity — outside Lee Hall — 3 to 6 p.m.

Monday, April 15 — Assembling Snack Packs — outside Lee Hall — 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Tuesday, April 16 — TOMS’ A Day Without Shoes — outside Lee Hall — 12:15 to 4:45 p.m.
experience what different types of terrain feel like for those without shoes
Tuesday, April 16 — Dance Walk — Fredericksburg campus — 5 p.m.

For more information, contact COAR at coarumw@gmail.com.

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.

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.

The Two Dollar Challenge, part of the Month of Microfinance, raises awareness and funds for poverty-related causes.

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/.

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.

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