M
R C
On the Move
fall 2004
W
Athletes
Shatter
Records
What a time it is to be an R-MWC athlete!
“How do you spell thrilled?” asks Athletic
Director Valerie Cushman of the College’s
current record-breaking run. From soccer to
basketball, our teams are scoring impressive
wins, and our individual athletes are being
recognized for their bravura performances.
Not to mention the fact that Swim Coach
Donna Hodgert is the reigning Old Dominion
Athletic Conference coach of the year.
During this past year alone, R-MWC athletes
have broken over 35 records, and five teams—
field hockey, soccer, riding, swimming, and
tennis—have distinguished themselves at the
ODAC championships. Other athletes have
commanded national attention.
Why are so many new records being set? “Our
strong showing reflects the fact that more
talented athletes are coming to R-MWC,”
says Cushman. “Our efforts over the past few
years to expand and strengthen our athletics
program—and our stepped-up recruiting
efforts—are all paying off.”
“How do you
spell
thrilled?”
Athletic Director Valerie Cushman
Among the recent stars of a program that just
keeps getting better are Lourdes Cuellar ’04
from Asuncion, Paraguay, who was named
2003–04 ODAC scholar-athlete of the year for
swimming, and her teammates Kim Edmonds
’07, Brittany Guthrie ’06, and Jessica Ware
’06. Together they set a total of eight individual
records and four relay records last year, and all
four were named to the first team all-ODAC
swimming squad. Lourdes was also named
an ODAC swimmer of the week. The team
as a whole finished its last season with a 10-2
record, placing third in the ODAC conference.
continued on page 2
The R-MWC Riding Team.
ATHLETES
continued from page 1
“Having an excellent
coach is a gift to any
athlete because when the
workouts get strenuous
and going a little farther
seems impossible, it
is that respect for the
coach who guides us that
makes us exceed our own
expectations.”
Champion swimmer
Lourdes Cuellar ’04
R-MWC basketball players also made their mark. In her first college season,
point guard Sara Rechnitzer ’07 had the top three-point shooting game in Division
III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Her 48.8% three-point field
goal shooting percentage through the WildCats’ games of January 11 ranked her
second nationwide in this category.
“I knew I wanted to play basketball in college, and R-MWC ended up being the
perfect choice for me,” says Sara. “I was able to step into the basketball program
and make an immediate impact as a first-year. I really attribute that to the fact
that everyone on campus, including President Bowman, my professors, the
coaching staff, the other players, and my peers, are so supportive of athletics.”
Her teammate, forward Jennifer Prewitt ’06, also caused a stir by creating 26
rebounds in a single game, thus breaking the ODAC record. Jennifer was named
an ODAC basketball player of the week and was ranked among the top 25
players in Division III for rebounding average for most of the season.
Both Sara and Jennifer were the subject of a front-page story in the Lynchburg
News & Advance.
Other athletes, like Amy Dameron ’04, excelled on two teams. In basketball,
Amy finished her career as the fifth all-time leading scorer in R-MWC basketball
history, and in soccer she scored 741 career saves, breaking the ODAC record.
2
Donna Hodgert, Old
Dominion Athletic
Conference coach of
the year.
“Both the basketball and soccer programs at R-MWC have great coaches,” says
Amy. “And both programs build women, not just athletes. I’ve been able to learn
more about life by playing sports here than I ever would have thought possible. The
College allowed me to have an equal balance between athletics and academics, and
it’s definitely helped me become the
best person I could be.”
Other outstanding performances
last year included those by WildCat
volleyball players, who broke
four individual records and four
team records. Their victories were
particularly notable since they
depended in part on the expertise
of two first-year students. Ashley
Wiseman ’07 set a new R-MWC
record for single-match assists (57),
and Kelly Chapman ’07 set a new
school record for single-match
service aces (14).
In field hockey, Jimena Blanco ’04,
from Quilmes, Argentina, was
named to the all-ODAC field hockey
squad for the fourth consecutive
year. Jimena is the current R-MWC
record holder for career goals and
career assists (having scored 15 in
each category). In softball, Carolan
Schroeder ’04 racked up 45 walks,
thus breaking the school record for
most walks in a career.
The riding team also distinguished
itself by placing second in the ODAC
conference (following its reign as
ODAC champion in 2002–03),
and Glenna Kassel ’06 qualified
to compete in the Intercollegiate
Horse Show Association’s national
championship. Riding Coach J.T.
Tallon, who was named 2002-03
ODAC coach of the year, was profiled
in an article in TheVirginia Horse
Journal.
As many of our athletes will tell you,
the success of the athletics program
stems not only from talent and
hard work but also from R-MWC’s
culture. Or as Amy puts it: “Our
basketball team developed some
great chemistry on and off the court
this year. We really started to play
together as a team—as one unit—
trusting each other and our coaches.
That made all the difference.”
Graduates Pursue Sports
Management Careers
Four of R-MWC’s recent graduates—Amy Dameron, Arielle Gabor,
Morgan Greene, and Carolan Schroeder—plan to enter the growing
field of sports management and business. All are former R-MWC
athletes.
“More of our students are pursuing postgraduate
degrees in sports-related fields,” says R-MWC
Athletic Director Valerie Cushman. “This
reflects both the growing interest of women
in working as sports professionals and the
increasing opportunities available to them.
And with millions of young women having good
experiences competing in sports throughout their
youth and college years, I think we can expect
to see even more of them looking for ways to
stay involved.”
R-MWC is nurturing this interest by offering
courses that examine sports from sociological,
psychological, and physiological perspectives.
An academic concentration in sport and exercise
studies is now available, and in the fall the
College will add an interdisciplinary physical
education major leading to a teaching licensure.
Students pursuing the major will be able to
choose among courses offered by the R-MWC
biology, chemistry, dance, education, math,
physical education, and psychology departments.
Amy, Arielle, and Morgan are now attending
Virginia Commonwealth University’s Sport
Leadership Program, which emphasizes handsTop to bottom: Arielle
on experience by placing graduate students in
Gabor, Amy Dameron,
Carolan Schroeder, and real-world sports environments. They chose VCU
in part because Nancy Landers ’03, who will
Morgan Greene.
complete the program this year, speaks highly
of her experience. Carolan, who plans to attend graduate school in
2005, is now an intern in the R-MWC Athletics Department.
Morgan, a past president of the R-MWC Student Athlete Advisory
Committee, explains her own interest in entering sports marketing:
“I want to continue my involvement in sports because being an
athlete has in many ways shaped who I am today. I know first-hand
the positive influence that athletics has on young people, and I’d
like to be a part of that in the future.”
3
Kakenya Ntaiya and Katherine Flansburg
Two Roommates —
Kakenya Ntaiya
A COMMENCEMENT LIKE NO OTHER
It usually isn’t news when a mother attends her daughter’s college graduation. But then the mother typically isn’t a woman
like Anna Ntaiya, who left the tending of her cattle in Enoosaen, Kenya to travel halfway around the world to Lynchburg.
Anna made the trip in May to celebrate the Commencement ceremony of her daughter Kakenya, the first Maasai
tribeswoman to earn an undergraduate U.S. college degree. The reunion of mother and daughter was duly chronicled on
campus by none other than The Washington Post, which had earlier produced a four-part, front-page series on Kakenya’s
R-MWC education. In fact it was that very series that prompted an unsolicited gift from a reader enabling Anna to make the
journey from her village.
The series also led to a CNN segment on a day in the life of Kakenya at R-MWC that aired as part of the network’s “Inside
Africa” program. And the Post team returned to Kenya to document’s Anna’s trip to Lynchburg.
continued on page 7
4
Two Stories
Katherine Flansburg at a Muslim cemetery in Salalah, Oman.
A FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR’S YEAR IN
THE MIDDLE EAST
Katherine Flansburg ’03 recently completed a year as a Fulbright Scholar in the United Arab Emirates. Following is an account of her
experiences (excerpted from an article Katherine wrote for the Sundial, R-MWC’s student newspaper).
It’s been more than six months since I first stumbled into the desert of the United Arab Emirates on a U.S. Department of
State Fulbright Grant. I wish I could tell you I’m fluent in Arabic and I have dined at a sheikh’s table, but I haven’t made it
quite that far.
I can tell you about wandering through ancient Omani forts, meeting impeccably educated Arab women, and going to
cocktail parties at the ambassador’s home in Abu Dhabi. I can tell you about sitting in a boat in the Gulf of Oman, surrounded by at least a thousand leaping dolphins, and visiting a 1,370-year-old graveyard of 10,000 soldiers from the Riddah wars.
5
continued on page 6
There is so much to see and do,
but there is even more to strive to
understand. This place is lively and
welcoming, but some things seem
wrong, especially after living in a
place as conscious of the importance
of equality as America.
I live in the town where Sheikh Zayed, ruler of the UAE, was born and
rounded by concrete walls that are
10 feet high, strung across the top
with three rows of barbed wire. I’m
still not quite certain if this is to keep
dangerous people out or the women
in. Dozens of guards are stationed at
different gates around the dormitories and academic buildings. Women
who live on the campus stay in dorms
that were built in the 1970s. One
room houses four women. R-MWC
is certainly a palace compared to
them.
«««
A Fulbright Scholar’s
Year in the Middle East
continued from page 5
Women can work anywhere, but they
don’t think of it as tasteful to work
in a shop. My friend Fatima, who
wants to go to graduate school in
the U.S., said that sitting in an office
somewhere is OK, but it’s not really
respectable to work where you might
be stared at by strangers all day.
Despite the drawbacks, this place is as
spicily exotic as I hoped it would be.
I’m not reminded of America very
often in the course of a normal day.
Going to get a haircut or manicure
“You never know where a Fulbright may lead you.”
raised. The town is an oasis called Al
Ain, which means “The Spring.” It’s
conservative, but the only changes I
felt obligated to make were shoving
my knee-length skirts in a drawer and
buying some long ones. The malls and
souqs are filled with covered women
wearing black from head to toe, men
wearing long white dishdash, and
every nationality (except Emirati)
selling goods in the stores.
Western people in Al Ain work as
doctors and nurses at the private
hospital and as English professors
at the university. I should really say
universities, because although they
share a name, the women’s campus
and the men’s campus share nothing
else. The campuses are miles apart,
the administration rarely overlaps,
and professors are hired to teach
exclusively one gender. There are
many men teaching on the women’s
campus, and some women teaching
on the men’s. Male professors may
smoke on the campus, but female
professors fear they will lose their
jobs if they light up.
The first visit to the women’s campus
is shocking, to say the least. Two
rulers’ faces are hung high above the
main gate. The entire campus is sur6
No one may leave the campus unless
her father or brother comes to the
gate to collect her. The first few times
I tried to leave the campus to go
home were very difficult. The woman
guarding the gate insisted that I fill
out a form with my father’s name,
license plate number, and occupation. She couldn’t understand that he
wasn’t coming for me.
I told her that I lived in Al Ain alone.
This didn’t matter. I tried to just walk
out the door after half an hour of
pleading and arguing, but the male
guard outside chased me and
begged me to come back and sort
everything out. They didn’t want
to get in trouble; they might lose
their jobs. Finally, after a dozen
phone calls, they agreed to let
me go.
The female students flock to science
and mathematics courses. Degrees in
chemistry, physics, computer science,
and English are very popular. UAEU
serves about 12,000 women, but only
3,000 men go to university here!
Some men go abroad to study and
many more stay in the emirates and
work in government positions from
the time they leave secondary school.
Above: Katherine Flansburg in Kenya with
Kakenya’s family.
is an event. Every salon I’ve been to
has had a “Saloon” sign outside and
the windows blacked out. There is
always a thick curtain over the door,
or a sealed-off entryway so that no
men can see inside. Inside everyone
has thrown off her shayla and abayah
“No dawn or sunset goes
unnoticed. A dozen calls to
prayer echo and overlap every
time the sun rises and sets.
From my window I can see ten
mosques. Every hotel room has
an arrow pointing toward Mecca.”
Katherine Flansburg ’03
[black head covering and black robe
that covers everything from neck to
ankle, respectively] crashed on a sofa
with tea or coffee, and is gossiping
up a storm. It’s so lively in there;
cultural immersion at its best!
There are small amazements everywhere. Western—particularly
British—influence is obvious, but
Islam has a stronger hold on this
country than anything else. No dawn
or sunset goes unnoticed. A dozen
calls to prayer echo and overlap every
time the sun rises and sets. From my
window I can see ten mosques. Every
hotel room has an arrow pointing
toward Mecca.
Every other phrase you hear is,
“Praise be to God” or “God willing”
or “By God.” Five calls to prayer happen each day. They are a reminder to
Muslims to declare there is only one
God and Muhammed is his prophet, a
reminder to foreigners how different
this is from home.
I knew when I decided to come here
for a year that this was the scariest thing I would probably ever do.
I didn’t know where I would live, I
didn’t know if I would be welcomed,
and I didn’t know if I could make myself understood. When I landed the
heat was awe-inspiring and the light
was blinding.
But would I recommend this path to
others? YES. It’s safe, it’s interesting,
and I believe that Dubai is growing to
be an attention-commanding tourism
and business capital. Knowledge of
this region is never going to hinder
you. Whether you are interested in
Arabic, Islam, economics, women’s
studies, business, marine biology, or
the sciences, a Fulbright in the UAE
will be an amazing and worthwhile
addition to your resume.
And, of course, building understanding between the West and the Middle
East is of paramount importance to
our generation. Fulbright grants are
available all over the world.You could
go to Kenya, Hungary, El Salvador—
the list is endless.
Applications are accepted each
October. And keep in mind that your
opportunities will continue after the
grant. I just heard that a UNESCO
internship in Paris is reserved for five
Fulbright students who complete
their grants this year.
You never know where a Fulbright
may lead you.
LIKE NO OTHER
continued from page 4
Said the Post of Anna’s visit: “She found
Kakenya’s campus very impressive—as
clean as she had expected and even
more beautiful, with dense gardens
and sun-kissed hills and centuryold buildings that looked as solid as
new ones. ‘If man could make this so
beautiful,’ she mused, ‘how much more
beautiful could heaven be?’ ”
The Post further noted of R-MWC’s
Commencement: “As a brass quintet
struck up ‘Pomp and Circumstance,’
two lines came shuffling into the
auditorium…by their side, the
person each [student] had chosen to
accompany her…[and] midway through
the lines, two Masai women, both of
them smiling. One with an intricate
headdress and pink and purple skirts
that jingled with every step. The other
in the traditional black robe—but
under the robe, a long red Masai dress,
with a pattern of beads on the body and
delicate filigree at the neck.
“Her mother had made it. And Kakenya
said it fit her well.”
Kakenya received a B.A. in international
studies and political science with a
concentration in economics. She will
spend this year as an intern at the World
Bank in Washington, D.C. prior to
attending law or graduate school.
The Washington Post series on Kakenya
appeared from December 28 to December 3l,
2003.The most recent article was published on
May 19, 2004.
L to R: Kakenya, a family friend from Kenya,
R-MWC President Kathleen Gill Bowman, and
Anna Ntaiya.
7
MAYA LIN TO
RECEIVE PEARL S.
BUCK AWARD
“I create places in which to think, without
trying to dictate what to think.”
—Maya Lin, Boundaries
MAYA LIN—acclaimed artist and architectural designer—has been chosen
to receive the Pearl S. Buck Award for 2004. Lin, perhaps best known as the
designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., will accept the
award on campus on November 6.
Lin is one of those rare individuals to achieve distinction in both art and
architecture. She is credited with creating works that resist genres or categories,
and her ability to blend architecture and sculpture has led to her being regarded
as one of the most innovative artists of our time.
Of the Vietnam memorial, which has deeply affected visitors from around the
world, Lin says: “It is a place where something happens within the viewer. It’s
like reading a book. I purposely had the names etched ragged right on each
panel to look like a page from a book.” While some observers wanted Lin to list
the names in alphabetical order, she insisted that they appear chronologically so
veterans could pinpoint their era within the panel. “It’s like a thread of life,”
she says.
8
Lin first catapulted to public attention
when, as a 21-year-old student at
Yale University, she won the national
design competition for the Vietnam
memorial. Her initially controversial
entry was chosen over 1,400 others,
and hers is now the nation’s mostvisited public monument.
To be sure, 45-year-old Lin has
redefined the idea of what a
monument is. In such works as the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial, The
Women’s Table on the campus of
Yale University, and the Civil Rights
Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama,
Lin says she sought to have a private
conversation with each viewer. She
also set out to create spaces of refuge
and contemplation within highly
public places.
Lin’s work grows out of a love for
the beauty of the natural world. Her
designs reflect geological phenomena
such as ice floes and solar eclipses
and have a strong sense of place. The
Vietnam memorial, for instance,
was inspired by a geode Lin had as
a child—and was designed not as a
monument inserted into a space but
as a work that would appear to be an
integral part of its surroundings.
Her concern for environmental issues
has further led Lin to use recycled
or natural materials and to focus on
sustainable and site-sensitive design
solutions. And in her book Boundaries,
she proposed a new memorial
that would focus on the extinction
of species and the relationship of
humans to their environment.
Lin’s architectural works include
the Sculpture Center in Long
Island City, New York; the Asian/
Pacific/American Studies Institute
for New York University; a chapel
for the Children’s Defense Fund in
Clinton, Tennessee; and a large-scale
“environmental installation” for Ohio
University in collaboration with her
brother, poet Tan Lin. Lin says the
latter is a unique “autobiographical
earthwork” that evokes their
childhood in Athens, Ohio.
Major exhibitions of her art have
included Between Art and Architecture at
the Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. Gallery
at the Cooper Union School of Art;
Maya Lin—Sketches and Models, at the
Wanas Foundation in Wanas, Sweden;
Maya Lin: RecentWork at the Gagosian
Gallery in Los Angeles; and Maya Lin
at the American Academy in Rome.
She is the recipient of numerous
awards, including the Presidential
Design Award and the American
Institute of Architects Honor Award,
both for the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial; the Award in Architecture
from the American Academy of
Arts and Letters; and the Industrial
Designers Excellence Awards from
the Industrial Designers Society of
America. In 1994, Time magazine
included her in its listing “Fifty for
the Future,” and the Utne Reader
named her as one of its “100
Visionaries.”
Pearl S. Buck’s most widely
recognized book, The Good
Earth, is the fall selection of
Oprah’s Book Club. The Pulitzer
Prize-winning novel, originally
published in 1931, has long
been regarded as the classic tale
of pre-Revolutionary China.
Lin is currently completing
several private residences
throughout the United
States and maintains her
professional practice,
Maya Lin Studio, in
New York City.
The Buck award honors
R-MWC’s remarkable
alumna Pearl
Sydenstricker Buck ’14, the
first American woman to receive the Nobel
Prize for literature, and it recognizes
women who embody her humanitarian
ideals. The public is invited to the award
ceremony at 2 P.M. on November 6. For
further information, please call the Office
of College Relations at 434-947-8142.
99
Confronting the Past
A JEWISH AMERICAN PROFESSOR’S
FULBRIGHT YEAR IN GERMANY
From her office window in Hamburg, Germany, Laura Katzman could clearly
see the former deportation site where thousands of the city’s Jews were sent
to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps. The first time she saw it, Katzman
says, she felt lucky to be born to a generation of Jews who could freely walk
Germany’s streets. But eventually the site’s presence wore on her. “I passed it
every day on my way to work, and in time it became overwhelming,” Katzman
says. “I had to block it out.”
Laura Katzman and her students pose before the
Monument to the German Infantry Regiment No. 76
(1936) in Hamburg.
Katzman, an R-MWC associate professor of art, spent the 2002-2003 academic
year as a senior Fulbright scholar and visiting professor of American studies
and art history at the University of Hamburg. There she taught, lectured,
and conducted research on American art and
culture, public art, museum
studies, and the history of
photography.
e
r
a
s
l
a
i
r
o
m
German me
“
Her experiences in teaching public art in particular were memorable, Katzman
says. Holocaust memorials were not only poignant to her personally but also
played a central role in her teaching and research. “I took my students to
Laura Katzman kneels before the Monument
to the Berlin Wall (1961-1989) in Berlin.
10
the streets of Hamburg, where
together we studied the public art
memorializing the crimes of the
Nazi regime and the events of World
War II,” Katzman says. “What we
discovered was that many of the
monuments are extremely subtle.”
The deportation site, for instance,
is marked by an unobtrusive granite
slab and small, inconspicuous plaques.
Another memorial was built on the
site of a former Jewish synagogue
destroyed in a Nazi pogrom, where,
to commemorate the 50th anniversary
of the destruction, artist Margrit
Kahl created a pattern on
often
War I, shows a broken swastika and
mangled bodies. “No one likes it
aesthetically, but everyone thinks it
needs to be there,” Katzman says.
Katzman and her students also
compared the ways in which
Americans and Germans have used
public art to commemorate their
histories. “In the states, our World
War II monuments are much more
overt, even bombastic,” she points
out. “But what my class came to
realize is that Germans can’t build
monuments in the same ways as
Americans
e
t
u
m
—
e
c
n
about abse
the ground replicating the
synagogue’s ceiling with mosaic tiles
and cobblestones. “The effect of
collapsing the ceiling to the ground
is profound once you grasp what the
pattern is,” Katzman says, “but most
of my students hadn’t realized what
they had been walking over for years
until we made a point of examining
the memorial. All of this stimulated
much classroom debate over the
many ways a nation can—and
should—confront its past through
public art.”
Katzman’s public art class also
addressed the current counter
memorial movement in Germany.
“Progressive young Germans today
strongly object to monuments that
glorify Germany’s fascist past,”
Katzman remarks. “But instead of
tearing them down, as the Iraqis did
with the statue of Saddam Hussein,
and as the Russians did with many
communist-era icons, the Germans
have chosen to create counter
memorials.” One of these, placed
near a 1936 monument depicting
proud German soldiers from the
Franco-Prussian War and World
“To work in Germany had been a
dream of mine for many years,”
Katzman notes. “German universities
have the best American studies
departments in Europe outside of
the United Kingdom, and interest in
American culture is strong. I wanted
to experience what it would be like
to live and teach there.
“As an art historian, I also wanted
to study and lecture in the country
where the formal discipline of
art history was born. The
”
.
t
s
a
p
e
h
t
o
t
testaments
since they are dealing with
actual sites where atrocities took
place. This gives rise to a different
impetus and emotion, which explains
why German memorials are often
about absence—mute testaments to
the past.”
“I was very humbled by my entire
experience in Germany,” Katzman
says. “To teach young Germans about
how they memorialize their own
history was initially quite daunting.
Although many have examined their
past in school, they have not really
considered how it has been given
visual form for future generations
to view. So for me to teach them
something new about such a
fraught subject was exciting and
unexpectedly rewarding.”
Teaching her public art class also
motivated Katzman to go to Hungary,
Poland, Lithuania, and other
former Nazi-occupied or Sovietbloc countries. “The travel really
opened up new areas of research and
comparative studies for me,” she says.
(Katzman’s specialty is American art
between the two world wars.)
University of Hamburg has a
distinguished art history department
led in the 1920s by Erwin Panofsky,
the father of modern art history,
who as a German Jewish intellectual
was forced into exile by the Nazis
and sought refuge in America (at
Princeton University’s Institute for
Advanced Studies).”
One example of public art
that especially moved Katzman
was sculptor Gunter Demnig’s
Stolpersteine, or stumbling blocks.
Demnig has installed more than
3,200 brass plaques on Germany’s
sidewalks—each inscribed with the
name, birth date, date of arrest, and
date of death of a Holocaust victim,
if known.
“The stumbling blocks are quietly
powerful and intensely personal,”
says Katzman. “Demnig has found a
way to evoke a community that is no
longer there. His plaques are placed
in neighborhoods in front of the
victims’ former homes, and—not
unlike tombstones—they ensure that
these individuals’ lives will not be
forgotten. It seemed that nearly every
street I walked on began to have these
plaques, and I walked a lot in order to
look back—and ahead.”
11
HONORS
Truman Scholar Atefeh Leavitt ’05.
12
TWO STUDENTS
WIN COVETED
FELLOWSHIPS
Two R-MWC students, Atefeh Leavitt ’05 and Naomi Hollifield ’06,
have won prestigious scholarships in national competition. Atefeh was
named a Truman Scholar—one of only 77 students nationwide to be so
honored—while Naomi was one of just 80 undergraduates chosen to be
a Udall Scholar.
Each year the Truman Fellowship is awarded to a select group of students who
are committed to careers in government or other public service and who have
outstanding leadership potential and communication skills. The award carries
a $30,000 grant for graduate study, leadership training, and public policy
internship opportunities.
Atefeh’s policy paper, submitted with
her fellowship application, proposed a
comprehensive educational program for
Muslim students in Iraq, Afghanistan, and
Pakistan to mitigate potential indoctrination
by extremists there.
“The award gives me an incredible
opportunity to truly make a difference in
the world,” says Atefeh. “I also view it as a
reaffirmation of my responsibility to serve
humanity through my work.” Atefeh, a
political science major who plans to pursue
an M.A. in public policy and administration,
is particularly interested in the education of
Muslim women both in the United States and
abroad.
After completing her graduate studies, she
hopes to work within a non-profit institution
to develop a leadership training center for
women in developing countries and the
Middle East. “I would like to give young
women from diverse economic strata and
cultural backgrounds the means to assume
leadership roles in their countries,” she says.
Professor
Honored by
France
Françoise Watts, R-MWC associate
professor of romance languages,
has been named a chevalier dans
l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques
for her contributions in the field of
French education. The title is one of
the highest honors awarded by the
French government and is the French
equivalent of a knighthood.
Udall Scholar Naomi Hollifield ’06.
Atefeh is well known on campus as a founder of UMMAH, a Muslim women’s
organization. In 2003, UMMAH sponsored a half-day conference, Pathways to
Understanding: Constructive Dialogue between Muslims and Non-Muslims,
which brought Islamic scholars and speakers to campus. More than 200 persons
from the R-MWC and Lynchburg communities attended.
Naomi, a biology major with an environmental studies concentration, was
selected as a Udall Scholar by the Morris K. Udall Foundation (named after
the late U.S. congressman from Arizona). The foundation honors students with
excellent academic records who are committed to careers in fields related to
the environment. Naomi attended a Udall Scholars conference in Arizona last
summer and will receive a $5,000 scholarship.
“This award means a great deal to me,” says Naomi. “I honestly wasn’t expecting
to receive it because I knew how many impressive students were competing
(over 500 this year). The fact that I was selected really tells me that coming to
R-MWC has opened up many opportunities for me. I feel confident now that
I’ll be able to compete for admission to the best graduate schools.”
“The application process was intense,” notes Naomi. “I had to be nominated by
the campus Udall advisor [Karin Warren, chair of the Environmental Studies
Department], obtain three faculty recommendations, and complete a 15page application. The entire process helped me to think critically about my
commitment to improving the state of the environment.”
As a member of the R-MWC Environmental Council, Naomi has already helped
to establish a campus recycling program and is now helping the council launch
an environmental education program for first-year students.
“We can all be very proud of Atefeh’s and Naomi’s achievements,” says R-MWC
President Kathleen Gill Bowman. “The Truman and Udall scholarships are
highly sought-after awards.”
The Order of the Academic Palms
was founded by Napoleon in 1808
to recognize individuals who actively
contribute to the expansion of French
culture around the world.
Anne Kimball, Charles A. Dana
professor of romance languages,
emerita, has also received this award.
Psychology
Majors Win
State Award
Two Class of 2004 psychology
majors were awarded the Virginia
Psychological Association’s Fred
Rowe Best Undergraduate Paper
Award (named after the College’s
professor of psychology, emeritus).
Natalie Stevens and Lauren Fulbright
received the award for their paper
“Balanced Power and Control in
Personal Relationships, Self-Esteem,
and the Experience of Premenstrual
Symptoms.”
All R-MWC psychology majors
present the results of their senior
research projects at the VPA’s
conference each year. Two awards are
given, and R-MWC students have won
one of those awards in eight of the past
eleven years.
13
College Publications
Win Awards
HONORS
Two of the College’s publications—the Where Is Pearl? Web site
and the Alumnae Bulletin—have won awards from the Council for
Advancement and Support of Education.
Where is Pearl?
14
Where Is Pearl?, which debuted last fall prior to the Pearl S.
Buck Award ceremony, won a Bronze Award in the special
purpose, worldwide Web site category. The site describes the
College’s international distribution of over 200 copies of The
Good Earth, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Pearl S. Buck ’14.
Copies of the book were left in train stations, airports, and other public spots
around the world accompanied by a note asking those who found the book
to read it and pass it on to others. Readers were also asked to visit our
Web site to discover where their copy originated and to post a
message about where they found it.
The project has attracted national media attention, including an
article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
To date, the site has welcomed more than 19,000 visitors, and books
have been tracked throughout the United States and in many foreign
locales—including those in Spain and Thailand. R-MWC has also been
contacted by persons who have read about the project and would like
to obtain a book and participate in the tracking. The site additionally
provides information about Pearl S. Buck and the Buck Award, which
honors women who embody Buck’s humanitarian ideals and commitments.
The Alumnae Bulletin, meanwhile, won a CASE Award of Excellence in the
category of alumni magazines. The publication, which is produced four
times annually and sent to all R-MWC alumnae, was cited in recognition
of its “outstanding achievement in concept and execution of programs for
institutional advancement.”
R-MWC submitted the spring and summer 2003 issues of the Alumnae
Bulletin for the award. Topics covered by these issues included federal equal
opportunity legislation, the value of a liberal arts education, the College’s
American Culture Program, and the Maier Museum of Art.
Please visit us at www.whereispearl.com.
R-MWC Women Attend
Prominent Graduate Schools
Members of the Class of 2004 were accepted to a number of prestigious graduate and professional schools.
Following is a sampling of the programs they are attending.
Aliya Gifford–The Ph.D. program
in physics at Virginia Tech.
Anurupa Shrestha–The Ph.D.
program in pharmaceutical chemistry
at the University of Kansas.
Kate Jenkins–The Ph.D. program
in sociology at the City University of
New York.
Naomi Ware–The medical school at
the University of Florida.
Nazia Huda–The graduate program
in economics at Northeastern
University.
Sarah Priester–The Ph.D. program
in physics at the University of
Delaware.
Eva Andrijcic–The graduate
program in systems engineering at
the University of Virginia.
Molly Browning–The graduate
program in international political
economy at the University of
Sheffield (United Kingdom).
Selina Konnick–The Ph.D.
program in art history at the City
University of New York.
Katrina Ray–The program in
veterinary medicine at Colorado
State University.
Holly Groover–The Ph.D. program
in philosophy at the University of
South Carolina.
Nilanjana Rahman–The graduate
program in mathematics at Clemson
University.
Christina Dayton–The school of
veterinary medicine at the University
of Georgia.
Arati Dahal–The Ph.D. program in
economics at North Carolina State
University.
Ayn Dietrich–The graduate
program in Asian studies/China at
George Washington University.
Bunny Goodjohn–The graduate
program in fine arts at the University
of Maine, Stonecoast.
Rachael Bradshaw–The graduate
program in creative writing at the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Andreka Johnson–The graduate
program in journalism at the
University of South Carolina,
Columbia.
Jacqueline Pinn–The graduate
teacher certification program at
Lynchburg College.
Allison Holt–The graduate
program in community health at
Brooklyn College.
Amy Dameron, Arielle Gabor,
and Morgan Greene–The graduate
program in sports administration at
Virginia Commonwealth University.
Hanne Pettersen–The graduate
program in museum studies at
Virginia Commonwealth University.
Stephanie Leonard–The graduate
program in history at the University
of New Hampshire.
Kie Yamada–The graduate program
in music therapy at the University of
Miami.
Cynthia Fahringer–The graduate
program in somatic psychology at
Naropa University.
Rana Wakim–The school of
osteopathic medicine at the
University of New England.
Kate Gerber–The graduate
program in college student personnel
at Miami University.
15
Let the Story Be Told
The response to The Washington Post’s series on Kakenya
Ntaiya (see page 4) has been nothing short of amazing.
The Post and the College have received phone calls,
e-mails, and letters from individuals who want to help
Kakenya and her village. The director of the Solar
Electric Light Fund, for instance, would like to bring
solar power to Enoosaen. Others have offered to
make donations to benefit Kakenya or to send books
and supplies to Enoosaen’s primary school. R-MWC
President Kathleen Gill Bowman has been contacted
by three university graduate schools interested in
having Kakenya as a student.
For the present, the College has established
an account called the “Enoosaen Fund” with
the overall purpose of assisting Kakenya and
other young women from her village with their
educations.
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