Symposium To Honor Washington College Chemist

Chestertown, MD, April 1, 2003 — The Washington College Chapter of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, and the Women in Science Program present "COPPER IN THE BODY: YOU GOTTA HAVE IT - BUT NOT TOO MUCH", a symposium in celebration of the recent publication of Washington College Professor Rosette Roat-Malone's new text, Bioinorganic Chemistry: A Short Course. The symposium will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 8, in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Panelists for the event include Professor Valeria Culotta, Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University; Professor Amy Rosenzweig, Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology at Northwestern University; and Professor Rosette Roat-Malone. Alice Hogan, Director of the ADVANCE Program of the National Science Foundation will serve as moderator. ADVANCE is a federal program designed is to increase the participation of women in the scientific and engineering workforce through the increased representation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers.

Professor Rosenzweig's research is concerned with determining the three dimensional structures of proteins involved in delivering copper to distinct cellular locations and particular proteins. These proteins, called copper chaperones, are linked to human diseases, including Menkes syndrome, Wilson disease, and familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (FALS), and are potential targets for new therapeutics. Professor Culotta's work focuses on the role of metal ions in biology and in disease. Researchers in her group have cloned and characterized a number of yeast genes involved in metal trafficking and virtually all of these have human homologues. They have helped to establish a novel paradigm of copper trafficking in eukaryotic cells that involves the combined action of metal transporters and soluble copper carrier proteins. Their discovery of the CCS copper chaperone for the superoxide dismutase enzyme (SOD1) has facilitated studies addressing the mechanism by which mutations in human SOD1 lead to the fatal motor neuron disease, ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrigs disease.

Founded in 1886, Sigma Xi is a non-profit membership society of nearly 75,000 scientists and engineers who were elected to the Society because of their research achievements or potential. Sigma Xi has more than 500 chapters at universities and colleges, government laboratories and industry research centers.

One Land, Two Peoples: Washington College Hosts Symposium On Middle East Affairs October 24

Chestertown, MD, October 11, 2002 — Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs will present the symposium “One Land, Two Peoples: Conflict in the Middle East,” on Thursday, October 24, 2002, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is encouraged to attend this timely and important discussion.
To be moderated by Dr. Tahir Shad, Director of Washington College's International Studies Program, the symposium will feature four panelists immersed in the complexities of the political, strategic, economic, ethnic and religious issues that divide Israel and Palestine, as well as the entire Middle East region. The panel will comprise Nubar Hovsepian, Associate Director of the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania; Scott B. Lasensky, a Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Assistant Director of the Council's U.S./Middle East Project, and a foreign policy analyst specializing in international politics, American foreign policy, and the Middle East; Haim Malka, a research analyst specializing in Palestinian-Israeli issues at The Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy; and Janine Zacharia, Washington correspondent since November 1999 for The Jerusalem Post who has covered the Middle East from a U.S. perspective, including the Clinton Administration's efforts to broker peace deals between Israel and her Arab neighbors, and the Bush Administration's evolving policy toward the region.
The symposium is sponsored by Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, established in honor of the late Louis L. Goldstein, a 1935 alumnus and Maryland's longest serving elected official. The Goldstein Program sponsors lectures, symposia, visiting fellows, travel and other projects that bring students and faculty together with leaders in public policy and the media.

Need To Get A "Life After Liberal Arts"? Here's How

Chestertown, MD, September 3, 2002 — The Washington College Alumni Council will host its Fall LIFE AFTER LIBERAL ARTS (LALA) symposium on Saturday, September 14, 2002, at 2:00 p.m. in the Hodson Hall Study Lounge. LALA programs are designed to bring to current Washington College students and graduates a panel of successful alumni who share their experience and relate the factors that influenced their career paths and goals. This Fall's LALA panel will feature alumni in the fields of environmental education, lobbying, and estate and financial planning. The public is invited to this free event.

Erin O'Neal '91 is Director of Education for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Working from the Foundation's Philip Merrill Environmental Center in Annapolis, MD, O'Neal is responsible for training field staff educators and planning summer courses for teachers on the Chesapeake Bay. An American Studies major, O'Neal's first job after graduation was as assistant field hockey and lacrosse coach at Towson State University. She currently serves on the College's Visiting Committee.

Alumna Brigid Kolish '98 is a legislative assistant for Van Scoyoc Associates, Inc., where she supports clients in healthcare and biomedical research and their related funding issues. Before joining VSA, Kolish served as a legislative assistant for appropriations in the office of Representative Alan B. Mollohan, a senior Democratic member of the House Appropriations Committee from West Virginia. During her three years with Rep. Mollohan, Kolish managed his work on the Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary; and District of Columbia Subcommittees while tracking the Agriculture and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bills. Before joining Mollohan's staff, Kolish, a native of Baltimore, interned for Maryland State Senator Perry Sfikas during the 1998 Maryland General Assembly. She earned a bachelor's degree in business management from Washington College, where she served as president of the Student Government Association. She is currently a member of the College's Alumni Council.

Geoffrey M. Rogers '80 earned his bachelor's in political science and served as a class president and member of the SGA while at Washington College. He is currently executive vice president and director of Delaware operations for The Glenmede Trust Company, N.A., where he oversees the day-to-day operations of Glenmede's Delaware office, which he launched in June 1999. Rogers brings more than 18 years of estate planning and financial services experience to this position, and prior to joining Glenmede, he served as vice president for Scudder Private Investment Counsel, responsible for new business development. Rogers has also served as a vice president with the Wilmington Trust Company, and Delaware Trust Company. In addition to serving on a number of professional organizations, he is President of the Board of Trustees for Sanford School, Chairman of the National Foundation of Open Space and Facade Preservation, and Director of the Delaware Council on Economic Education. He and his wife, Sheryl, are the parents of freshman Geoffrey Rogers, a member of the Class of 2006.

Society Of Junior Fellows Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Society Supports Self-Directed Undergraduate Research and Scholarship

Chestertown, MD, March 20, 2002 — Washington College's Society of Junior Fellows (SJF) will celebrate its first decade with an Anniversary Symposium on Wednesday, March 27, 2002, from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the College's Casey Academic Center. The symposium will feature presentations of undergraduate research and scholarship sponsored and funded by the Society.

Founded in 1992 and modeled after Harvard University's Society of Fellows, Washington College's SJF gives undergraduates a taste of academic freedom through the opportunity to pursue their own self-designed and self-directed studies. Membership is open to all upperclassmen that have attained Dean's List status, have a cumulative GPA of 3.4, and have demonstrated leadership qualities through extra-curricular activities and community outreach.

"The Society extends a privilege and an obligation normally reserved for graduate students and faculty," says J. David Newell, chair of the philosophy department and curator of Washington College's SJF program. "Grants are given to SJF members who submit proposals to fund projects that will extend their learning beyond the classroom and the textbook into the realm of the experiential. In turn, these students return to campus and contribute to the intellectual life of the College. It gives undergraduates a taste of the 'real world' of academic research and scholarship."

The average size of a grant is about $3,300, says Newell, and the SJF gives out almost $95,000 per year in total grant money.

The ultimate object of the SJF is to motivate students beyond the classroom, with the goal to empower and to build self-confidence, personal maturity, and competency in undergraduates. Representing about 10 percent of the College's student body, the SJF has created a collegium of students dedicated to the exchange of ideas, motivated to enrich their educational experiences, and setting standards of excellence for the entire student body.

"I like to refer to these students in Platonic terms," says Newell. "They are 'the brightest and the best.'"

The SJF has admitted just over 200 students since its inception. Competition for grants is intense—only about one-third of SJF members receive them each year. It has funded hundreds of projects and internships since its inception and financed travel for students to conduct research in over 18 countries. Recent projects have taken students to Cuba, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Finland and South Africa.

For more information about Washington College's Society of Junior Fellows, visithttp://sjf.washcoll.edu.

Bohemian Rhapsody: Alumni to Discuss Careers in the Arts during Fall Family Day

Chestertown, MD, October 18, 2001 — Washington College's Alumni Council will host a Life After Liberal Arts Symposium to coincide with Fall Family Day on Saturday, October 27 from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. in the Norman James Theatre, William Smith Hall. Students, parents, alumni and the community are invited to this event to interact with and learn from alumni who have put their degrees to good and sometimes unusual use in the working world. This symposium will focus on "The Performance of a Lifetime: Careers in the Arts" and will feature alumni John Harris '94, Vicco Von Voss '91 and Michele Volansky '90 discussing the challenges, lessons, opportunities, and successes that they have encountered through careers in the arts. Drama Department Chairman Dale Daigle will moderate the event.

John Harris, a 1994 graduate in music, is a trombonist who decided to pursue a career in business, joining an Annapolis-based company manufacturing and marketing small wooden boat kits. He eventually bought the firm, Chesapeake Light Craft Company, and has made it one of the largest wooden boat kit companies in the nation, but he has not given up his love of music. John pursues a second career as a jazz musician and has created a small jazz ensemble that plays at music festivals, including Chestertown's Saturday Evening Concert series. John credits Washington College with fostering his love of the arts while helping him develop writing skills and business acumen.

Vicco Von Voss is a 1991 graduate who majored in art. During college, Vicco worked with a local furniture restorer and discovered his love of wood, bringing natural forms into functional existence. After college, Vicco began a three-year carpentry and furniture-making apprenticeship in Germany and returned to the Eastern Shore to pursue his dream as a master furnituremaker. Vicco credits the art department with encouraging his love of the visual arts and natural forms, an appreciation that inspires the function and unique aesthetics of his handmade furniture.

Michele Volansky is a 1990 graduate who currently works for the Philadelphia Theatre Company and lectures in drama at Washington College. An English major with a devotion to theatre, Michele pursued a masters in theatre and dramaturgy from Villanova University. She has been a guest dramaturg at the Atlantic Theatre Company, Victory Gardens and Next Theatre, in addition to serving on the staff of Actors Theatre of Louisville and as dramaturg/literary manager at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. Her play "Whispering City" was produced as part of the Steppenwolf Arts Exchange Program in 1999, and she is currently at work on a musical adaptation of Thulani Davis' novel "1959". Michelle serves on the advisory board of" Theatre Forum" magazine and is an artistic consultant for the Chicago-based Serendipity Theatre Company.

Life After Liberal Arts is sponsored by the Washington College Alumni Council.

College Hosts Symposium on National Missile Defense and Security in the 21st Century

Chestertown, MD, October 15, 2001 — Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs presents a "Symposium on National Missile Defense: Seeking Security in the 21st Century" on Wednesday, October 24, 2001 at 7 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

The symposium features panelists James Lindsey of the Brookings Institution and Jack Spencer of the Heritage Foundation, moderated by Colonel Andrew Fallon, U.S. Army (Ret.). James Lindsay is a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at Brookings, where he is conducting research on national missile defense and the shaping of American foreign policy over the next quarter century. Before joining Brookings, Lindsay was a professor of political science at the University of Iowa and served as Director for Global Issues and Multilateral Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council in 1996-1997. His areas of responsibility included peacekeeping, UN affairs, State Department reorganization, and funding for international affairs. Lindsay is the author of "Dynamics of Democracy" (1997), "Congress and the Politics of U.S. Foreign Policy" (1994), and "Congress and Nuclear Weapons" (1991).

Jack Spencer is a Policy Analyst for Defense and National Security at the Washington-based public policy research institute, the Heritage Foundation, and works primarily on issues involving military readiness, force structure, roles and missions, information warfare, homeland defense and missile defense. In 1999, Spencer authored "The Ballistic Missile Threat Handbook", a reference that describes the ballistic missile arsenals of nine nations whose strategic and commercial interests in ballistic missiles threaten U.S. security. Spencer has published numerous papers and articles on missile defense, modernization, readiness and other national security related issues, and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and BBC.

The panel's moderator, Colonel Andrew J. Fallon, is Director of System Engineering for the Washington Group of SRS Technologies and has been involved in system design for the National Missile Defense System for the past three years. Prior to joining SRS, Fallon spent 26 years in the military, specializing in air defense command, testing, research and development, as well as acquisition of electronic warfare and missile defense systems.

The symposium is sponsored by Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, established in honor of the late Louis L. Goldstein, a 1935 alumnus and Maryland's longest-serving elected official. The Goldstein Program sponsors lectures, symposia, visiting fellows, travel and other projects that bring students and faculty together with leaders in public policy.

Talk to Address New Era of U.S.-China Strategic Relations

Chestertown, MD, January 29, 2001 — The Washington College Goldstein Program in Public Affairs presents "Strategic Partners or Competitors? U.S. and China in the New Era" on Thursday, February 8, 2001 at 7:30 p.m. in the Casey Academic Center Forum.

The symposium will be conducted by Dr. Bates Gill, Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, and Dr. Minxin Pei, Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Deng Hongbo, First Secretary for Political Affairs at the Embassy of the People's Republic of China, will speak preceding the symposium. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Dr. Gill is a specialist in East Asian foreign policy and politics whose research focuses on Northeast Asian political, security and military-technical issues. Currently he is studying the divergence in strategic outlooks that characterizes contemporary U.S.-China relations and China's nuclear weapons development programs.

Dr. Pei's research focuses on the development of democratic political systems, economic reform and legal institutions throughout the world. He is the author of the book From Reform to Revolution: The Demise of Communism in China and the Soviet Union. His work frequently appears in the journals Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy and China Quarterly.

The Goldstein Program in Public Affairs was established in 1990 to promote programs bringing students, faculty and the College community into association with those having exemplary experience in public service, governmental affairs, business, journalism and communications. Named in honor of the late Louis L. Goldstein -- a 1935 alumnus and Maryland's longest-serving elected official -- the Goldstein Program sponsors lecture series, symposia, visiting fellows, travel and other projects that bring students and faculty together with leaders experienced in developing public policy.

Millennium Symposium Examines 21st Century Choices

Chestertown, MD — "Reflecting on the Past and Anticipating the Future: A Symposium on The Millennium," will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., Saturday Oct. 30, at the Norman James Theatre at Washington College, Chestertown, Md. The symposium features lectures and wide-ranging discussions reflecting on the past and the important issues that affect the future--scientific advances, demographic shifts, and increased demands upon the world's natural resources.

Speakers include Robert Fallaw, Everett E. Nuttle professor of history at Washington College, with an address on the last millennium; Allen Hammond, senior scientist at and director of Strategic Analysis for the World Resources Institute in Washington, D.C., speaking on private sector involvement in solving global environmental problems; Vivian Klaff, associate professor of sociology at the University of Delaware, who will talk about population issues; and Sir John Maddox, former editor of Nature and a physicist, who will speak on the future of science. The symposium will be moderated by Davy McCall, lecturer in economics emeritus at Washington College. A roundtable discussion moderated by David Newell, professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy, will follow the presentations.

The symposium is endorsed by the Maryland Commission for Celebration 2000 an is open to the public. Registration is $20; lunch is $8.50. For more information or to reserve a ticket, please call 410-778-7221.