December 27, 2025

EagleEye

A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff

World Lessons Inspire Sophomore to Pen Children’s Book

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Sophomore Helen Dhue is about to publish a children’s book based on a story that she wrote as a child. Inspired by courses on immigration history and racism that she’s taken at UMW, Dhue hopes her book will help parents and educators have conversations with children about discrimination and inclusion.

Sophomore Helen Dhue is about to publish a children’s book based on a story that she wrote as a child. Inspired by courses on immigration history and racism that she’s taken at UMW, Dhue hopes her book will help parents and educators have conversations with children about discrimination and inclusion.

Home during quarantine, University of Mary Washington sophomore Helen Dhue found herself rifling through childhood belongings. Among old papers and artwork, she discovered a book she wrote as a kindergartner.

As she turned the pages, inspiration struck. Influenced by classes she’d taken at Mary Washington as part of her history major, Dhue put pen to paper. She’ll soon release her self-published children’s book, The Cats Who Like Bats, based on the story she dictated to her mother all those years ago. Dhue, who is also enrolled in UMW’s education program and aspires to teach high school history, hopes the tale will help parents and educators broach with young children complex topics like racism, discrimination, diversity and inclusion. Read more.

“I appreciated that classes I’ve taken at UMW have allowed us to have open discussions so we could better understand one another and be more sensitive to other people’s experiences,” said Dhue, who was influenced by history courses she took focusing on immigration and Latin America. Illustration by Julia Lopresti.


“I appreciated that classes I’ve taken at UMW have allowed us to have open discussions so we could better understand one another and be more sensitive to other people’s experiences,” said Dhue, who was influenced by history courses she took focusing on immigration and Latin America. Illustration by Julia Lopresti.

Honoring a Master

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Privately funded faculty award for English professors recognizes the value of extraordinary teaching.

Donald E. Glover as pictured in the 1971 edition of The Battlefield.

Donald E. Glover as pictured in the 1971 edition of The Battlefield.

In 1971, the average cost of a postage stamp was 8 cents; Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida; and Intel released its first microprocessor. In Fredericksburg, Virginia, a Mary Washington English professor made an indelible impression on a member of the Class of 1971.

Fifty years later, that alumna has fully funded a new faculty award to honor the memory of Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English Donald E. Glover. During his tenure, Dr. Glover was a widely respected and beloved member of the faculty. He began teaching at Mary Washington in 1961 and served as department chair from 1970-73. Glover retired in 1998 after 37 years of service; he passed away in August of 2020.

While the donor still wishes to remain anonymous, she first alerted the University in 2018 of her intentions as defined in her estate plans. She then requested that Glover be informed so he would know how important his teaching had been to her during those formative years at Mary Washington.

Dr. Gary Richards, professor and chair of the Department of English and Linguistics, met with Glover in 2018 to share news of this faculty award, as well as the future creation of a named endowed scholarship.

In 2018, Dr. Gary Richards (left) met Dr. Donald E. Glover (right) and shared news of two special gifts from a former English student.

In 2018, Dr. Gary Richards (left) met Dr. Donald E. Glover (right) and shared news of two special gifts from a former English student.

“Don was long retired when I became Chair,” says Richards, “but this award brought me in contact with him and his lovely wife, Alice. Even though he was already struggling with his health then, I got a glimpse of the professor who made such an impact on our donor. I am delighted that Don Glover is being honored in this way.”

The donor recalls that Glover was light on lectures, yet strategically led his students to understand and appreciate works of literature by asking questions to stimulate critical thinking and discussion. She says students learned for themselves as they came to realize the full meaning and importance of what they had read. She decided to go ahead and fund this award now in the hope that English faculty can follow in Glover’s footsteps, while having a positive and lasting impact on students’ lives.

Richards says the award’s focus on teaching acknowledges Glover’s long and distinguished career at Mary Washington. “This award documents the life-impacting teaching that professors in our department have been doing for decades,” says Richards. “It also documents the generosity of this alumna, who so carefully looked backwards to her experiences at UMW and forward to other students’ experiences.”

While the department is fine-tuning details for the application and evaluation process, Richards stresses the value of this new faculty award for an outstanding professor of English. “This is in perfect keeping with UMW’s focus on undergraduate teaching and stands to buoy faculty who are exerting such winning energies in this arena,” he says. “And, as I hope we all know, affirmed and energized professors carry that excitement into the classroom, which in turn energizes students.”

Details for applying for the new Donald E. Glover Faculty Award will be available soon.

For information about establishing estate gifts or funding endowed awards and scholarships, contact the Office of Advancement at advance@umw.edu or 540-846-0470. UMW honors requests for anonymity.

‘Great Lives’ Lecture Series Continues with Architect I.M. Pei

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Great Lives banner

The William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series continues on Thursday, Feb. 11 with iconic architect I.M. Pei, presented by Assistant Professor of Art History Suzie Kim. The JON Properties/Van Zandt Restorations Lecture.

Because of restrictions on public gatherings on campus, the entire series of 18 lectures will be pre-recorded and delivered electronically, through Zoom Webinars, with closed captioning available. Although the presentations will be taped in advance, there will still be a live Q&A session following the online debut of each lecture, in which the speaker will be available to answer questions submitted by audience members.

I.M. Pei

I.M. Pei

Chinese-born American architect I.M. Pei (Ieoh Ming Pei, 1917-2019) was one of the most acclaimed and world-famous architects of the 20th and 21st century. He was awarded the 1983 Pritzker Architecture Prize for his iconic design for the east building of the National Gallery of Art (1968-78) in Washington, D.C., and the underground reception area and the central glass pyramid of the Louvre in Paris, France (1983-93). After earning his B.A. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his M.A. at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, he became well-known for his use of structural concrete as a smooth, ‘men-made’ stone and contemporary interpretation of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) and the International Style. The National Gallery of Art east building is quintessential I.M. Pei with the walls clad with continuous and smooth Tennessee pink marble, the use of architectural concrete molded by skilled cabinetmakers, and the application of the isosceles triangle for all architectural forms and smaller details. Pei’s buildings cover a wide range of skyscrapers, university buildings, and art museums in and outside of the U.S., which have been built in refined geometrical forms and demonstrate harmonizing effects with the surrounding skylines, cityscapes and landscapes.

Other upcoming lectures include novelist Horatio Alger, given by UMW Reference and Humanities Librarian Emeritus Jack Bales on Feb. 16; General Douglas MacArthur, given by Professor of History and American Studies Porter Blakemore on Feb. 18; and authors and Black rights activists Anna Julia Cooper and W.E.B. DuBois by Professor of Sociology Kristin Marsh. To learn more about Great Lives and view past and upcoming lectures, please visit https://www.umw.edu/greatlives/.

Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar and Mathematician Ken Ono Virtual Visit

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Ken Ono posterThe Kappa of Virginia Chapter and the University of Mary Washington Mathematics Department are pleased to host a Virtual Visit by the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar, Mathematician Ken Ono, on February 18-19, 2021.

The visit will feature classroom visits and a Zoom Webinar Public Lecture on Thursday, February 18, 2021, 5:00 – 6:15 p.m., titled “Why does Ramanujan, ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity,’ matter?”

Dr. Ken Ono is the Thomas Jefferson Professor of Mathematics at the University of Virginia, the Vice President of the American Mathematical Society, and the Chair of Mathematics of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Ono was also an Associate Producer and the Mathematics Consultant for the movie “The Man Who Knew Infinity” about Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.

A showing of the film “The Man Who Knew Infinity” will be available to University of Mary Washington students on Tuesday, February 16, 2021, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m., at the Zoom link below.

For questions, please contact Dr. Suzanne Sumner at ssumner@umw.edu or call 540-654-1335.

 

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Here is the link for the attendees of the Public Lecture:
 
You are invited to a Zoom webinar.
When: Feb 18, 2021 05:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Topic: Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Ken Ono
 
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
Passcode: 812807
Or iPhone one-tap : 
    US: +16465588656,,86384500648#,,,,*812807#  or +13017158592,,86384500648#,,,,*812807#
Or Telephone:
    Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
        US: +1 646 558 8656  or +1 301 715 8592  or +1 312 626 6799  or +1 669 900 6833  or +1 253 215 8782  or +1 346 248 7799
Webinar ID: 863 8450 0648
Passcode: 812807
    International numbers available: https://umw-sso.zoom.us/u/kdqhBOFu7Y
 
 
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Here is the link for UMW Students to view the film “The Man Who Knew Infinity”:
 
You are invited to a Zoom webinar.
When: Feb 16, 2021 05:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Topic: “The Man Who Knew Infinity” Film
 
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
Passcode: 794548
Or iPhone one-tap : 
    US: +16465588656,,85052653111#,,,,*794548#  or +13017158592,,85052653111#,,,,*794548#
Or Telephone:
    Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
        US: +1 646 558 8656  or +1 301 715 8592  or +1 312 626 6799  or +1 669 900 6833  or +1 253 215 8782  or +1 346 248 7799
Webinar ID: 850 5265 3111
Passcode: 794548
    International numbers available: https://umw-sso.zoom.us/u/kiDeU4D0K

UMW Galleries Presents “Origin, Celebrating UMW Studio Art Alumna Tenee’ Hart”

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Tenee' Hart flyerUMW Galleries presents “Origin, Celebrating UMW Studio Art Alumna Tenee’ Hart.” In the duPont Gallery from February 11 through March 21. Open Tuesday through Friday, 10 to 4, and Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 4. Limited capacity: schedule your visit in advance at www.umwgalleries.org. A scheduled talk with the artist has been postponed due to

About the artist: Tenee’ Hart is an ‘unconventional’ fiber sculpture artist pursuing themes of feminism that delve into topics of beauty, anatomy, and injustices of women. Material usage throughout her practice is critical due to their innate history and meanings. Hart hails from Virginia, where she was born and raised. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Mary Washington in 2011. Later, Hart pursued and currently holds a Masters of Fine Arts degree from Florida State University, where she has been teaching, at the college level, since 2014. She enjoys dinosaurs, radical feminism, glitter, stickers, fur babies, and everything that is the 80’s!

Read THE VANISHING HALF with Mary Washington Book Club

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Mother of All Book

We are beginning the next round of reading in our online literary group–the Mother of All Book Clubs!

Our next selection is The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett. This book is a New York Times bestseller and was on the longlist for the National Book Award.

From Amazon: The Vanishing Half is “a stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white.

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age 16, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still…the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect?”

Pick up a copy of the book and start reading–we will begin posting discussion questions on Monday, February 22. You might have a small-business bookseller you like to support, or you might want to try your local library system, some of which even offer ebooks. But if you need the book shipped, below are some links to larger online providers.

We look forward to reading with you!

All the best,

The Alumni Relations Team

 

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Target

President Paino Gives Updates, Expresses Gratitude

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As the University of Mary Washington embarks upon yet another “unusual semester,” President Troy Paino yesterday offered via Zoom a message filled with hope and honesty. Channeling FDR’s “Fireside Chats,” he spoke from the heart, delivering his all-University address near the fireplace in Brompton.

UMW President Troy Paino
UMW President Troy Paino

UMW faculty and staff have shown a “willingness to adapt to changing circumstances,” Paino said, thanking those working from home as well as faculty teaching in the classroom and remotely. He expressed gratitude toward frontline workers in residence life, dining, housekeeping, maintenance and university police, who have made it possible for students to return to campus this weekend. He also singled out Mary Washington’s mental health community for supporting students, faculty and staff during these challenging times.

Surveys that went out last semester indicated students were proud of how the UMW community persevered and kept its coronavirus case numbers low through the fall, Paino said. Despite the January uptick in local COVID-19 cases, he remains confident that Mary Washington’s comprehensive plan and MMDC campaign – monitoring, masking, distancing and cleaning – will minimize risks for the campus and the community.

UMW is even more prepared this spring in terms of testing, he continued. The University plans to administer tests to all students – residential and commuting – upon their arrival on campus and to randomly test 500 students each week throughout the semester. With the need for additional tests and other COVID-related resources, Paino has requested more funding from the state legislature. Read more.

Mary Washington Classics Program Shines as No. 1 Among Student Rankings

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UMW senior Ruth Wilmot poses with the Primaporta Augustus statue, honoring the first emperor of the Roman Empire, during a study abroad trip to Rome prior to the pandemic. Mary Washington’s classics program just earned the top spot on a student-curated list in College Magazine.

UMW senior Ruth Wilmot poses with the Primaporta Augustus statue, honoring the first emperor of the Roman Empire, during a study abroad trip to Rome prior to the pandemic. Mary Washington’s classics program just earned the top spot on a student-curated list in College Magazine.

University of Mary Washington sophomore Brooke Prevedel considered dozens of schools in her quest to study ancient Greece and Rome in college. What she learned about the classics program at UMW catapulted it to the top of her list and convinced her to move 2,000 miles across the country from Colorado.

“Now that I’m attending UMW and have gotten to meet my professors and peers, I can honestly say that I would make the same choice again and again,” Prevedel said.

Other students agree. Mary Washington has earned the top spot on a student ranking of classics programs, besting schools like University of Chicago, New York University and Yale on a recent list by College Magazine. The online publication, written by students for students, features rankings of U.S. colleges, academic advice, student health information and career tips.

In an article this month titled “I Came, I Saw, I Crushed This Major: Top 10 Best Classics Schools,” reporter Danielle Falco, a St. John’s University student, sang the praises of UMW’s classics major and the Department of Classics, Philosophy and Religious Studies (CPR). “Among the University of Mary Washington’s 60-plus major options, its classical program shines like the Golden Fleece,” Falco wrote. Read more.

Blood Relative’s Injury Spurred Red Cross Club President

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Senior Cindy Ramirez plans to pursue a career in internal medicine, but the Mary Washington biology major is already putting her studies to work as an EMT and president of UMW’s Red Cross club.

Senior Cindy Ramirez plans to pursue a career in internal medicine, but the Mary Washington biology major is already putting her studies to work as an EMT and president of UMW’s Red Cross club.

Cindy Ramirez was 8 years old when her sister was injured in a sledding accident that broke her sacrum, a pelvic bone that supports the weight of the upper body.

“I was really nervous, but all I could think about in that moment was how I could help her,” said Ramirez, now a senior at the University of Mary Washington. “That was when I realized I wanted to pursue a career in medicine.”

This future physician is on her way to earning her white coat and stethoscope. An honors student majoring in biology, Ramirez has spent countless days and pulled all-nighters in the Jepson Science Center, memorizing organs, muscles and bones – like the one her sister broke – which will be essential when she attends medical school.

But Ramirez is already applying this critical knowledge. Her four-month training as an EMT wraps up in January, which happens to be National Blood Donor Month. Between rides with the Fredericksburg Rescue Squad, she heads UMW’s Red Cross club, an organization she’s been involved with since her early days at Mary Washington. Read more.

Pastor, King Scholar Delivers MLK Keynote

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Rev. Aaron Dobynes of Fredericksburg’s Shiloh (Old Site) Baptist Church, an expert on Martin Luther King Jr., presented UMW’s MLK Celebration keynote address on Tuesday.

Rev. Aaron Dobynes of Fredericksburg’s Shiloh (Old Site) Baptist Church, an expert on Martin Luther King Jr., presented UMW’s MLK Celebration keynote address on Tuesday.

Aaron Dobynes was 5 when word from a Memphis motel made it to his grandfather’s farm in Alabama. A family friend stopped by to relay the news of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, and as the young Dobynes looked on, the two men began to cry.

“I don’t know exactly how I was processing it, but it never left me,” he said.

Now a King scholar with double doctoral degrees, Dobynes delivered UMW’s Martin Luther King Jr. keynote address, presented by the James Farmer Multicultural Center, on Tuesday live via Zoom. A fourth-generation preacher who presides over Fredericksburg’s Shiloh (Old Site) Baptist Church, he wove his own personal civil rights story with words from the famous King speeches he’s studied for decades.

“King was shot and killed, but his spirit lay in all of us. We are the bearers of his dream,” Dobynes said. “We have to regularly and consistently, especially in this age in which we find ourselves, recognize what King said 40-some years ago. The work is never completed.” Read more.