News briefs

Staff Advisory Council officers elected
The University Staff Advisory Council has elected new officers for the 2008–10 term. Michele Whiteside, events and technology manager in University Services, and Doug West, director of telecommunications, media support and user services in Information Services, will be chair and vice chair, respectively. Their terms will begin in July.

Project for Peace winner
Mario Villalba Ferreira, ’10, of Paraguay, has been awarded a $10,000 Project for Peace grant from the Kathryn Wasserman Davis 100 Projects for Peace program. The program awarded $1 million to 100 students from 81 colleges and universities.

Ferreira’s project will create awareness and networks for participatory budgeting in South America. He will travel to Peru, Argentina and Brazil, creating a documentary and Web site featuring communities with established participatory budgeting and providing information for how other communities can use his model.
Davis Projects for Peace invited students from schools participating in the Davis United World College Scholars Program to submit plans for grassroots projects for peace to be completed during summer 2008. Davis is the mother of Shelby M.C. Davis, who funds the UWC Scholars Program.

Team swims in Dominican Republic
The synchronized swimming team trained in the Dominican Republic during spring break, thanks to team member Tatiana Nin, ’10, who arranged for the team to travel to her home country. The team trained for the U.S. Collegiate Nationals in Nin’s home pool with her former coach in Santo Domingo. Former team member and current head coach Asha Bandal traveled with the seven athletes and coached them for at least six hours a day.

Jepson-WILL series now online
If you missed programs in the Jepson-WILL Forum series, Rhetoric & Reality: Power & Politics, Race & Gender, you can catch up online. See news articles, speaker biographies and webcasts at jepson.richmond.edu/events/forum07.

Jepson Initiative on Leadership and the Liberal Arts to bring together scholars
The Jepson School of Leadership Studies will host a national session May 19–21 to showcase teaching and research at the intersections of leadership and the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. This is the second such institute. Session themes include character education, leadership across the curriculum, democratic leadership, international perspectives on leadership, personal religion and public leadership, philosophical foundations of leadership, women in leadership and diverse inclusive leadership. For more information see lla.richmond.edu/ SummerInstitute.

Weinstein Center named outstanding facility
The National Intramural Recreational Sports Association has named the Weinstein Center for Recreation and Wellness an “Outstanding Sports Facility.” Tom Roberts, director of recreation and wellness, and Ron Worley of Worley Associates architects received the award at the association’s annual meeting in Austin.

“John Hoogakker, Andrew McBride and Marc Duval all played an integral role in the design and development of the building and deserve much of the credit and recognition for this award,” said Roberts.

Richmond was one of five universities to receive the award. The other four winners employed nationally known architects, “therefore it was a significant honor for Worley Associates to receive this award,” added Roberts.

SCS offering master’s of education
Area teachers have a new option for furthering their education.

The University’s School of Continuing Studies now offers a master’s degree in education “to give classroom teachers the opportunity to continue to strengthen their instructional skills and strategies through scholarly thought and reflection about teaching and learning,” said Cathy Fisher, the program’s director. The degree will focus on curriculum and instruction, and students can specialize in elementary or secondary education.

Prospective students must have earned a baccalaureate degree and exceeded minimum requirements on their national and state exams. Applicants also must have a cumulative GPA of 3.3 or higher on all previous college work, submit excellent recommendations from three sources and participate in a successful interview.
Students will take a core of required courses, participate in a field experience, and complete a capstone project as part of the 30 credit-hour graduate program.

“The program is designed for teachers with classroom experience to examine the best practices through the lens of action research,” said Fisher.

A&S presents awards
The School of Arts & Sciences faculty announced winners of two awards at the annual honors convocation.

Winners of the David C. Evans Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Scholarship and the Creative Arts included Emily Jenchura, ’08, interdisciplinary studies major, dance minor and member of Phi Beta Kappa; Peter Manchev, ’08, physics and economics major, mathematics minor and member of Phi Beta Kappa; and Heather Stebbins, ’09, a music major. A cellist, she is a musician and composer, with six original compositions to her credit.

The John Rilling Award for Excellence in Writing went to Karin Eastby, ’11, who won for her essay, “Karl Marx Addresses M.K. Gandhi.”

Timoney receives summer research grant
Gabriela Timoney, ’11, has received an Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship from the American Physiological Society to conduct research with Linda Boland, associate professor of biology. Timoney received a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for summer work prior to her first year, in which she studied the structural basis of the dual effects of fatty acid on Kv4 channel function, something that may be critical to synaptic memory formation. Timoney was one of 24 Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship recipients. She intends to declare a major in biochemistry and molecular biology. She will receive $3,000 plus a travel allowance to support her work this summer.

Torkornoo will pursue Ph.D. with fellowship
Desmond Torkornoo, ’08, a mathematics major, has won an AT&T Labs Fellowship, which provides three years of funding to outstanding under-represented minority and women students pursuing or planning to pursue a Ph.D. in computer and communications-related fields. Winners are graduating seniors or first- and second-year graduate students in the field of computer science, mathematics, electrical engineering, systems engineering, industrial engineering, operations research or related fields. The fellowship provides all educational expenses during the academic year, educational expense for summer study or university research, a stipend for living expenses, support for attending scientific conferences, a summer internship during the student’s first summer in the program and a mentor who is a staff member at AT&T Labs. Torkornoo, who grew up in Koforidua, Ghana, received the fellowship to pursue a Ph.D. in operations research.