Elizabethtown College News 
Back to top 4/29/2008 Masters Mineral Gallery dedicated on May 1 Elizabethtown College dedicated its recently completed mineral gallery during a May 1 ceremony at the Masters  Center for Science, Mathematics and Engineering. The Masters Mineral Gallery, as well as the building in which it resides, is named for its lead benefactor and main collection contributor, Frank M. Masters Jr. of Harrisburg. The Gallery is open to the public from 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Photos and additional information is available here. Masters and partner Elizabeth Gault appreciate the beauty in nature and together wanted to share their love of minerals by donating his personal collection for all to see. The collection consists of numerous specimens from around the world, from quarries in Pennsylvania to the Andamooka Ranges of South Australia. The displays are grouped to accent Masters’ personal favorites within the collection such as fluorite, quartz and fluorescent minerals. Also exhibited are a variety of diverse minerals provided by alumnus Douglas T. Thudium, a 1976 Elizabethtown graduate from Harleysville, Pa. The Masters Mineral Gallery collection was cataloged and arranged for display by John S. White, assisted by Joe and Jeanne Dague. The former curator of minerals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, White is author of two books on mineralogy and is the founder of the journal Mineralogical Record. The specimens were mounted by David A. Graham, whose most recent efforts include the Los Tesoros Mexicanos del Smithsonian and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial: America Responds exhibitions in Washington, D.C. Back to top 4/21/2008 Woodrow Wilson Foundation president to deliver commencement address Art Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, will address Elizabethtown College’s Class of 2008 at this year’s  Commencement. The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m., May 17, in The Dell. Rain location is Thompson Gymnasium. Additional information on the day's events is available at the Commencement website. Graduates will number 517, with 27 students earning a master’s degree in occupational therapy. In addition, 31 members of the College’s Class of 1958 will mark the 50th anniversary of their graduation as they receive medallions during the ceremony. Levine will receive an honorary Doctor of Education. He is the sixth president of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. Before his appointment at the Foundation, he was president and professor of education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Levine also previously served as chair of the higher education program, chair of the Institute for Educational Management and senior lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Levine is the author of dozens of articles and reviews. His most recent book is “When Hope and Fear Collide: A Portrait of Today’s College Student” (with Jeanette S. Cureton). Among other volumes are “Beating the Odds: How the Poor Get to College” (with Jana Nidiffer), “Higher Learning in America,” “Shaping Higher Education’s Future” and “When Dreams and Heroes Died: A Portrait of Today’s College Students.” Much of Levine’s research and writing in recent years has focused on increasing access to higher education and improving equity in schools. His opinion editorials appear in such publications as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Levine has received numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Carnegie Fellowship, as well as the American Council on Education’s “Book of the Year” award (for “Reform of Undergraduate Education”), the Educational Press Association’s “Annual Award” for writing (three times) and 17 honorary degrees. In 1998 Change magazine listed him as “One of the Most Outstanding Leaders in the Academic Community.” He currently sits on the boards of Blackboard, Inc.; DePaul University; and All Kinds of Minds and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Back to top 4/17/2008 Team to compete at EPA National Sustainability Expo A team of Elizabethtown College physics and engineering students will travel to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)  National Sustainable Design Expo on April 20 to compete for $75,000 in funding to continue a project on alternative energy systems. The team, led by Assistant Professor of Physics and Engineering Troy McBride and Director of Engineering Programs Jean Fullerton along with Center for Global Citizenship Director Bill Ayres, has already received a $10,000 P3 (People, Prosperity, and the Planet) Award from the EPA. The P3 Program is a national competition that enables college students to research, develop and design scientific, technical and policy solutions to sustainability challenges. At the Expo, the Elizabethtown team will compete for Phase II funding. The long-term goal of Elizabethtown’s project — a multidisciplinary initiative called “Standalone Green-power for International Village Settings” — is to design and provide community-center buildings in rural areas with no or poor electrification. The power systems for the buildings would require little maintenance, have long lifetimes (more than 30 years) and be powered entirely by a renewable energy source. The buildings could act as schools, libraries, kitchens, clinics and/or workplaces, and the power could be used to draw water from wells or store food in refrigerators, heat food, or run medical devices or other electronic equipment. During the first phase of Elizabethtown’s three-phase project, the team of physics and engineering faculty and students constructed a “solar cabin” on campus to serve as a platform for student projects, as a research facility to test and demonstrate alternative energy storage systems, and as a prototype for installing community-center buildings. The second phase of the project — designing and implementing long-lifetime, low-maintenance energy storage systems — is ongoing through two concurrent projects: the development of a primary energy storage system that uses compressed air and of a secondary system that generates hydrogen, which can be used as a gasoline replacement. The hydrogen system would be used to harness excess solar power generation only when the primary system is full. This hydrogen system is the focus of the EPA P3 project and will be demonstrated by the Elizabethtown College team at the April expo. They will display the system as well as demonstrate converted equipment (lawnmower, four-cycle weed trimmer) and an outdoor grill operating off the generated hydrogen. This summer, members of the Elizabethtown College team will begin the construction of a prototype community-center building in a rural Zulu village in South Africa during the first stages of phase three of the project. If their research efforts prove successful and cost effective, they will seek to coordinate development and funding for such standalone green power systems in additional international villages. Back to top 4/15/2008 Student group holds Relay for Life April 18, 19 A student organization at Elizabethtown College is making huge strides in the fight against cancer. Last year, the newly formed  chapter of Colleges Against Cancer (CAC) raised more than $30,000 over a three-month period for the American Cancer Society through the College’s first Relay For Life.This year, the organization has taken a more extensive approach to supporting the Society’s mission. On Oct. 1, 2007, CAC announced the start of their yearlong campaign, “It’s More Than One Disease.” The goal of the campaign is to raise $45,000 by April 18, 2008, the start of their second Relay For Life. A number of fundraising events and activities took place throughout the school year. Beth Ann Patti, CAC president and junior allied health and physical therapy major notes, “Within the first few months, we had partnered with Web-based YSCards.com for a unique fundraiser, raised more than $2,000 from a t-shirt sale, and distributed more than 600 pink ribbons to the College community in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.” They went on to volunteer at the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge in Hershey and recruit Linda Espenshade, feature writer for the Intelligencer Journal, to speak at their Survivor Reception. For a grand finale, CAC will make their donation to the American Cancer Society at their second annual Relay For Life on April 18 and 19. The Disney-themed event includes games, activities, themed walks, music and prizes all night long. Community members are welcome to attend. Information on the event is available at www.events.cancer.org/rflpaetowncollege. Back to top 4/15/2008 Elizabethtown celebrates scholarship, creative arts Elizabethtown College’s first Scholarship and Creative Arts Day (SCAD) on April 22 featured presentations by students and a keynote address -- "Start on  Earth Day: Do More with Less" -- by Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author and inventor. SCAD is a day of no classes set aside to celebrate and promote the scholarship and art that is occurring on campus. It is intended to unite the Elizabethtown campus and community by supporting students across the disciplines. More than 200 students submitted abstracts for oral presentations, posters or performances. The entire day’s schedule of activities -- as well as profiles of student presenters -- is available at the website for the College’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (www.etown.edu/CETL). Back to top 4/12/2008 Music therapy prof travels to Bethlehem to work with children Elizabethtown College Associate Professor Gene Ann Behrens is passionate about her work as a music therapy clinician, and  she’s eager to help those who need it ... wherever they might be.That passion kept Behrens motivated as she worked through many details to prepare for a trip to Bethlehem, where she's using music therapy to work with the children who have been traumatized by the ongoing conflict. Behrens is spending two months working at The International Center of Bethlehem, an ecumenically oriented institution developed through the Lutheran Church that serves the entire Palestinian community. She’s working at the Center’s Dar Al-Kalima Health and Wellness Center, meeting with small groups of children and their parents to see how they are coping with the trauma of war, and developing music therapy protocol for working with the children. Behrens is collaborating with Assistant Professor of Social Work Susan Mapp (pictured left) on the project. “We represent two academic programs at the College and each bring an important perspective to the many unique needs of the Palestinian children traumatized by war,” Behrens said. “Music therapy can create the safe, nonverbal-verbal environment within which information can be collected. And given the importance of family and community in resolving children’s trauma, a social worker will provide the necessary multi-systematic perspective in designing the collection of information and data from the community.” While there’s a growing body of recent research on the influence of trauma caused by war, most of it has recently focused on the assessment of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder anxiety and depression, according to Behrens. “There’s little written about how to work with these children and how to assist them through culturally sensitive methods,” she said. “That’s the main goal of our project and the main focus of my work in Bethlehem.” When she returns to Elizabethtown, Behrens will bring with her lots of information and data collected during her trip. She will work this summer with Mapp as well as two students who are also key to the project – junior music therapy major Lore Herzer of Center Valley, Pa., and senior social work major Kerri Socha of Londonberry, N.H.-- to analyze that data. This summer work, as well as Behrens trip, is being underwritten by a Collaborative Interdisciplinary Scholarship Program (CISP) grant administered by the College’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. The CISP grant will also pay for Mapp to present findings at an international conference, while a faculty grant from Elizabethtown will assist Behrens in presenting at an international congress. The two also plan to present at national conferences, co-present with the students at local conferences, and publish articles in professional journals. “This project isn’t just about what’s going on in the Palestinian community and determining whether or not music therapy can help,” Behrens said. “It’s also about disseminating the information we gather so that others can learn from our research.” Learn more about Behrens' trip by reading her blog. Back to top 4/8/2008 Sculptor, visiting artist to discuss his work April 9 Sculptor and visiting artist Andy Yoder will discuss his work at 7 p.m., April 9, at Elizabethtown College. The event, to be  held in the Brinser Lecture Room of Steinman Center for Communications and Art, is open to the public free of charge.Yoder will lecture and critique, as well as produce his own work during his four-day visit at the College. He is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. His work has been featured in one-person exhibitions at Winkleman Gallery in New York City; the Queens Museum of Art at Bulova Corporate Center in Queens, New York; the Sculpture Center in New York City; Art Resources Transfer in New York City; and Schauraum in Eggenfelden, Germany. Group shows include exhibitions at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York, the Reykjavik Art Museum in Iceland, Emory University, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Among his permanent commissions are works for Progressive Corporation; the Peter B. Lewis Aquatic Center in Cleveland, Ohio; Continental Airlines; ESPN; and the Columbus Museum of Art. Yoder’s sculpture invites viewers to re-examine familiar objects that often trigger nostalgic memories – like the pair of 87-inch wing tips he created from licorice for an exhibit at Brooklyn’s Plus Ultra gallery. “As a child I remember exploring my father’s closet and thinking of his size 11 wing tips as foreign objects,” explained Yoder, who combined this memory with the crock of licorice his grandmother used to keep. Back to top 4/8/2008 Ephrata Cloister Chorus to perform April 13 The Ephrata Cloister Chorus will present hymns composed by Conrad Beissel and music from other German and American religious  and communal groups at 4 p.m., April 13, in Elizabethtown College’s Leffler Chapel and Performance Center. The event is open to the public free of charge. An offering will be taken to cover the costs of the concert.The concert will commemorate both the 275th anniversary of the founding of the Ephrata Community and the 300th anniversary of the Brethren, from whom Beissel separated to form the Community. The Chorus, under the direction of Daryl Hollinger, is a group of about 30 men and women who volunteer their time singing music from the Ephrata Cloister community, as well as music from early American religious and communal groups, early American hymns and Afro-American spirituals. Back to top 4/3/2008 Young Center gala to include Durnbaugh Lectures, hymnody concert On April 4 and 5, Elizabethtown College’s Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies will celebrate its 20th anniversary,  as well as the successful completion of a fundraising effort that earned the College a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Challenge Grant.Several free, public events have been planned during the gala, including the Center’s annual Durnbaugh Lectures, which will this year be delivered by Rebecca Slough of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS). She is academic dean, associate professor of worship and the arts, and director of the Spiritual Formation Program at AMBS. Before joining the faculty there, she taught at Bethany Theological Seminary, served as pastor of First Mennonite Church of San Francisco and was the managing editor of “Hymnal: A Worship Book.” Slough will present two lectures on the topic of faith and piety in Anabaptist and Pietist hymn traditions as expressed in “Hymnal: A Worship Book.” The first, scheduled for 7:30 p.m., April 4, will explore the images of Jesus found in “Hymnal.” The second talk, which will begin at 10:30 a.m., April 5, will focus on the character of the church found in “Hymnal” and the recent supplements completed by the Church of the Brethren and the Mennonite Church. Both talks, which will include singing, will be held in the Bucher Meetinghouse of the Young Center. The gala will also include a concert of hymnody of the Amish and Mennonite, Brethren, and Lutheran traditions, scheduled for 7 p.m., April 5, in Leffler Chapel and Performance Center. The concert will feature members of the Elizabethtown College Concert Choir, members of the College-Community Chorus and invited musicians from the local community singing hymns central in the development of these faith traditions’ use of congregational singing throughout their respective histories. The ensemble will be directed by Matthew P. Fritz, associate professor of music and director of choral activities at the College. The concert is held in conjunction with a hymnody exhibit that opens on March 26 at the Young Center. The exhibit interprets some of the significant changes over time in the Anabaptist, Pietist and Lutheran hymn traditions, and illustrates how each tradition borrowed hymns from other traditions. |
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