Elizabethtown College News 
Back to top 8/23/2007 Prof writes textbook on global social issues An Elizabethtown College professor has written a textbook to introduce students to the current global social problems they may face.  Susan Mapp’s “Human Rights and Social Justice in a Global Perspective: An Introduction to International Social Work” (Oxford University Press) addresses difficult topics such as healthcare, violence against women, war and conflict, forced labor and child soldiers. She analyzes problems in their cultural contexts to help readers understand how they developed, why they persist, and what the local and international responses, both governmental and nongovernmental, have been. Mapp also offers brief but vivid narratives of individuals suffering from these social problems, along with suggestions for what students can do to create change: both now and what they will be able to do as professionals. Her book encourages students to think critically about such problems, research the issues and get involved with organizations that are working on them. Mark Lusk, professor and director of social work at the University of Texas at El Paso, writes, “Susan Mapp has authored the definitive book on international social development. By incorporating human rights as the central organizing feature, she has brought a complex field into clear focus.” Mapp is an assistant professor of social work. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and religion from Trinity University, a master’s in social work from the University of Texas at Austin and a doctorate in social work from the University of Houston. Her areas of expertise include international social work as well as research and program evaluation. She has led Elizabethtown students on short-term study abroad trips to Ireland and Thailand as well as a service-learning trip to Vietnam this past summer. Back to top 8/22/2007 Elizabethtown in Princeton Review’s Best Northeastern Colleges Elizabethtown College is one of 222 outstanding colleges and universities in the Northeast that The Princeton Review recommends to  college applicants in the 2008 edition of its book “Best Northeastern Colleges.”“The schools in this book all have excellent academic programs,” said Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s vice president of publishing. “We chose them from several hundred Northeastern schools we considered based on institutional data we collect about the schools, our surveys of students attending them, and our visits to schools over the years.” “Best Northeastern Colleges” includes schools in the District of Columbia and 11 states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. The Princeton Review surveyed 62,000 students at the 222 colleges and asked them to rate their schools in several categories -- from the accessibility of their professors to quality of the campus food -- and answer questions about themselves, their fellow students and their campus life. Comments from surveyed students pepper the book’s narrative profiles of the colleges. Students surveyed love the “small, friendly and supportive atmosphere” of Elizabethtown and value its “service-oriented programs and the personal attention offered by the professors.” They describe the campus as “gorgeous” and say the College offers "plenty of activities” to keep them entertained. Back to top 8/17/2007 HACC curator to exhibit drawings Kim Banister, gallery curator and art instructor at Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC), will present an exhibit of her  drawings and paintings titled “Vessels of Life” at Elizabethtown College’s Lyet Gallery from Sept. 7 through Oct. 5.The exhibit is open to the public free of charge. Hours for Lyet Gallery, which is located in Leffler Chapel and Performance Center, are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. The dynamic, life-size human figures in Banister’s work are emotional and full of movement. Many of the drawings are pairs of figures intertwined; some are wrestling and some are embracing. The most unusual aspect of the work is the technique, according to Banister. “The drawings are made on paper that is drenched with linseed oil, and powdered pigment is blown onto the wet surface,” she said. “The color oozes and drips over charcoal outlines.” Banister has shown her work throughout the Eastern United States. She has a Master of Fine Arts in drawing from the University of Cincinnati. Back to top 8/15/2007 Wednesday-at-11 Series to continue on Nov. 14 with 'Canopy Meg' Meg Lowman, known as “Canopy Meg” for her expertise in forest canopy ecology, will Lowman’s expertise involves canopy ecology, particularly plant-insect relationships. Her research has taken her to Australia, Peru, Africa, the Americas, and the South Pacific. She has authored more than 95 peer-reviewed publications and three books. Her latest, “Life in the Treetops,” received a cover review in the New York Times Sunday Book Review. Lowman is the director of environmental initiatives at New College, the honors college for the state of Florida, where she serves as a professor in biology and environmental science. Previously, she served first as director of research and conservation and then chief executive officer of Selby Botanical Gardens, an institution that specializes in tropical plants. Prior to joining Selby, Lowman was a professor in biology and environmental studies at Williams College, Mass., where she pioneered temperate forest canopy research and built the first canopy walkway in North America. Working in Australia on forest ecology, Lowman was instrumental in determining the causes of the eucalypt dieback syndrome that destroyed millions of trees in rural Australia, assisted with conservation programs for tree regeneration, and ran a successful ecotourism business in the outback. For 20 years, she studied studying mechanisms of tropical diversity in Australian rain forests with Joseph Connell from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Lowman has developed an expertise for the use of different canopy access techniques, including ropes, walkways, hot air balloons, construction cranes, and combinations of these methods. She frequently speaks about her jungle adventures and about rain forest conservation to educational groups, ranging from elementary classes to corporate executives to international conferences. Among the honors Lowman’s received for her work are the Margaret Douglas Medal for Achievement in Conservation Education from the Garden Club of America, The Eugene Odum Prize for Excellence in Ecology Education and election to Leadership Florida by the Ecological Society of America. She serves on the board of directors for the Explorers Club, and is part of the senior management team of National Ecological Observatory Network for the National Science Foundation. She co-chaired the First and Second International Conferences on Forest Canopies and was for three years chief scientist for the Jason Project in Education. Back to top 8/10/2007 Orientation to include pilot service project There’s a new twist to orientation at Elizabethtown College this fall. The College’s 503 first-year students --  who arrive and move into their residence halls on Aug. 23 -- will be the first class to participate in a pilot service project.Students enrolled in four of the College’s First-Year Seminars will head into the community from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. on Aug. 25. They will undertake activities with seniors at Masonic Village, playground and classroom work at the Elizabethtown Child Care Center, work on herb gardens and the exhibit building at Winters Heritage House, and cleaning in downtown Elizabethtown. Each project will begin with a representative from the organization conducting an orientation that will discuss why Elizabethtown College campus participation is important to their program. Following the service projects, students will eat lunch and participate in a reflection session and evaluation of the day’s activities. The Class of 2011 was chosen from 3,370 applicants, which results in a 58.4% selectivity rate. This is the second consecutive year – and the only two years in the history of the College – that more than 3,000 applications were received. All first-year students will enjoy four days of orientation from Aug. 23 – Aug. 26. The College’s annual First-Year Walk is scheduled for 3 p.m., Aug. 24. This year’s Induction Ceremony – a campus tradition since the mid-1960s -- is scheduled for 8 p.m., Aug. 26 at The Dell, the site of the College’s commencement exercises. Classes begin for all Elizabethtown students at 8 a.m. on Aug. 27. The annual Convocation ceremony will be held at 4 p.m. on Aug. 28 and will be followed by an all-campus picnic. |
share her experiences in researching this area over the past 25 years at 11 a.m., Nov. 14, in Elizabethtown College’s Leffler Chapel and Performance Center. Her presentation, part of the Wednesday-at-11-series, is open to the public free of charge. Back to News Index
